AFRO-NETS> RFI: Indicators for STDs control...(2)

[Peter Burgess <Profitinafrica@aol.com>]

RFI: Indicators for STDs control...(2)
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Dear Julia and colleagues,

I am prompted to write this message after reading Julia Valderrama's 
request for information about indicators for STDs control to prevent 
HIV transmission.

Having this information and information like it seems to me to be 
pretty basic in any serious scientific or medical work. I have been 
involved with consultancy in development and emergency situations for 
more than 25 years, and it is clear to me that there is an enormous 
amount of data available. The problem is that the data are: 
* difficult to obtain or access when needed to support research or
  decision making;
* not always consistently collected;
* sometimes just numbers, absolutely unrelated to any clinical facts;
* sometimes kept "secret" and confidential even from medical and sci-
  ence researchers.

The problem is that the data are not part of a systemic process for 
information management, neither for the health sector specifically 
nor the development and emergency response community.

Our organization is setting the stage to address this issue in a 
meaningful way. The modern power of information and communications 
technology (ICT) can be mobilized to make data easily accessible and 
available to users easily when needed. The model for our work is the 
"open source" model used quite widely for software development and 
made well known as a result of the success of the Linux phenomenon... 
and a model equally applicable to all sorts of data about develop-
ment.... health data, energy data, environmental data, financial and 
economic data, etc.

Though I do not know what is important in the field of health 
data..... our colleagues who are experts in the medical sciences 
do..... so the job is simply to make sure that what is best practice 
for data in the medical sciences is incorporated into the data model 
that we are designing to collect and store medical data.

After many years of exposure to Africa, I know something about the 
logistical and infrastructure difficulties.... and we are taking some 
steps to start the process of solving this problem. I will not go 
into the details here and now..... but ICT technology can help enor-
mously in making Internet access universally available everywhere on 
the planet. But while we are waiting on the deployment of Internet 
access for broadband connectivity, we can start with email communica-
tions and paper and pencil and classic "data entry" approaches.

I am asking that everyone working in the health field consider help-
ing these initiatives by becoming engaged in a process to systemi-
cally improve data for health, and data for development and emergency 
decision making. Please contact us to let us know of your inter-
est..... and make suggestions as to how this process can be acceler-
ated and made successful.

We all are aware that the main fund flows into development assistance 
are "project based".... and that will not change quickly. We would 
suggest as a starting point that data that is collected in the "pro-
ject" mode is put into the public domain in a manner that makes it 
easy to access later on. My impression is that a tremendous amount of 
the data collection that is done today has already been done some-
where else by someone else. Repeating the data collection is not a 
bad thing..... because it enables either time series analysis to be 
started.... or spatial analysis to be started. One point of data has 
some value.... multiple points of data, in my view, start to have 
even more value..... but only if they are use in a comparative and 
analytical manner.

Now back to Julia's inquiry..... please help to find the information 
she is looking for, and also let us know how this can be put in a 
systemic framework of medical information that is easily accessible 
to those that need to use it.

And I would also like to add that there is another challenge, and 
that is to get data from places we never go to. I was shocked almost 
20 years ago to find out that in a lot of clinics STDs were at the 
top of the list of diseases..... in part because basic (to the NORTH) 
medical treatments were not available (basic antibiotic treatments, 
for example) and therefore just a modest amount of recreational sex 
resulted in enormous damage to the health status of the community. 
The financial crisis in the African health sector is far worse today 
than it was 20 years ago..... and STDs sound to me like a prime can-
didate for creating vulnerability to transmission of the HIV virus.

And may I also add that in the AIDS work...... that is now being done 
for "high risk" groups like commercial sex workers, truck drivers, 
hostel residents, soldiers, etc...... cannot work without other in-
terventions. Commercial sex workers have clients. Clients and all the 
other high risk groups go home..... if home does not know what is go-
ing on in the HIV-AIDS crisis...... home is in trouble. At this point 
EVERYONE is high risk, especially those that are IGNORANT of the cri-
sis. 

We keep reminding ourselves that probably as much as 80% of the Afri-
can population still lives in non-urban settings. Remote communities 
absolutely have to be included in the solution in order for success 
to be achieved.

Enough, thanks

T. Peter Burgess
VP and CFO ATCnet
New York USA
Tel: +1-212-772-6918
Fax: +1-707-371-7805
mailto:profitinafrica@aol.com
mailto:hivaidsstories@aol.com
http://www.atcnet.org

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