This Volume
Priorities in Health is a companion volume to DCP2. It was written to facilitate access to the substantial content of DCP2, to synthesize some of DCP2's major themes and findings, and to help readers identify which chapters will be of greatest significance and relevance to them. Via this companion volume, policy makers, practitioners, academics, and the interested public can learn about DCP2's main messages, gain an understanding of its principal methods of analysis, appreciate the scope of diseases and issues covered, and be alerted to chapters of immediate interest. The companion volume will enable access to the massive amount of information and analysis contained in DCP2 and facilitate discussion about disease control among colleagues, with constituents, and in the wider community.
". . . despite the high burden of disease in developing countries, success is possible and has been achieved even against great odds . . ."
The next chapter demonstrates that success is not only possible, but has been realized throughout the developing world. It relates a series of public health successes that have been documented as part of the Disease Control Priorities Project. Chapter 2 demonstrates that despite the high burden of disease in developing countries, success is possible and has been achieved even against great odds, and also that no single recipe for success exists.
Chapter 3 describes the cost-effectiveness methodology employed in DCP2 and explains its uses, interpretation, and limitations.
Chapters 4 and 5 provide an update on selected diseases, highlighting some of the significant discoveries and sound strategies that emerged from DCP2's comprehensive review of the global disease burden and the range of health interventions currently available. Chapter 4 reviews diseases such as diarrhea, maternal ill health, HIV/AIDS, and malaria, which account for much of the difference in health status between people living in the developing and the industrialized world. By contrast, chapter 5 addresses diseases for which the burden is shared and the challenges to improving health may be similar, as in the cases of CVD, diabetes, tobacco addiction, and neurological disorders.
Chapters 6 and 7 address issues related to implementing interventions and delivering care. Chapter 6 looks specifically at DCP2's findings regarding different levels of health care services and how they relate to one another; particular health service functions, such as surgery and drug supplies, that are important throughout the health care system; and ways that health care services can be integrated around the needs of particular subgroups, such as schoolchildren and adolescents. Chapter 7 then takes a more in-depth look at four dimensions of the health care system that are key to making it effective: generating and using information, managing services to assure good quality, training and deploying qualified health care personnel, and mobilizing and allocating financial resources.
". . . the challenges to improving health may be similar, as in the cases of CVD, diabetes, tobacco addiction, and neurological disorders."
Chapter 8 urges the global community to adopt the strategies and priorities identified in DCP2 so that progress in health for all can continue.
Notes
1 For historical perspectives on health and health care, see DCP2 chapter 1.
2 Specifically accounting for the different pace of technical progress has also demonstrated that the effect of health on income is significantly stronger than the effect of income on health. For further discussion of the economic benefits of health, see DCP2, chapter 1.
3 The issue of equity is addressed in virtually every chapter of DCP2. The most explicit discussion is contained in chapter 3, but see also chapters 9, 10, 59, and 63.
