[afro-nets] Saving lives in Ghana: Can public-private partnershipshelp?

["Marcy Bloom" <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

Saving lives in Ghana: Can public-private partnerships help?
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The Population Council teams up with pharmaceutical companies and the Ghanaian government to give remote villagers access to life-saving drugs 

NEW YORK, NY and ACCRA, GHANA (16 November 2006)--In Ghana, many children under the age of five still die from acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, malaria, and other diseases that are preventable or treatable with low-cost drugs.  A decade ago, the Ministry of Health responded to the challenge of drug access with a policy that provides essential medicines free of charge to Ghana's most vulnerable citizens: children under five, pregnant women, the elderly, and people living in poverty. But this policy has never worked well, as pharmaceutical stocks have often run short.

This problem has been exacerbated in recent years by two new government-implemented public health policies aimed at delivering health care to Ghanaians. A national health insurance plan and the success of the Community-based Health Planning and Services Initiative (CHPS) have each increased demand for essential drugs without generating sufficient revenues to provide them. To ensure affordability, the insurance plan charges an $8 annual fee to the portion of the population that is not designated "exempt."

The government of Ghana is responding to the problem of drug shortages by forming a partnership with U.S.-based pharmaceutical companies?Wyeth Pharmaceuticals among them--and an international nonprofit research organization, the Population Council.  The Ghana Essential Medicines Initiative--or GEMI--will evaluate ways to ensure that all households have access to basic drugs.

GEMI is the latest development in the Ministry of Health's decade-long strategy to improve the quality of health-care services nationwide.  GEMI aims to make CHPS fully sustainable by ensuring that community nurses have the pharmaceutical supplies they require for patient care.  To achieve this goal, GEMI will conduct research to determine what can be done to prevent pharmaceutical shortages and to guide the government of Ghana's actions to solve the pharmaceutical access problem nationwide.  The study will take place in the Nkwanta District, a remote area of Ghana on its eastern border with Togo.  Nkwanta's pioneering role in implementing CHPS makes it an appropriate setting for the GEMI trial.

The Ghana Health Service will supply GEMI with trained nurses, supervisors, and a public health physician, along with transportation costs. The pharmaceutical companies have agreed to contribute individual doses of the 19 medicines and vitamins deemed "essential" by the Ministry of Health for a three-year program of research.  The Mascotte Family Fund of the Aspen Community Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development have contributed equipment for communications so that remotely located nurses can stay in touch with the doctor in Nkwanta. Oak Foundation has provided financial support for operations research. The Population Council has agreed to provide the time and skills of its staff in both Ghana and the United States to oversee this project and develop systems to monitor the progress of those who participate in this initiative, as well as those who will benefit from it in the future.

The GEMI team will develop and implement its experimental strategy based on the realities of Ghana's health system. The questions that the researchers will try to answer first are: "How much will effective implementation of the exemption policy and health insurance plan actually cost?"  and "What are practical ways of building sustainable access to essential pharmaceuticals?"


Another focus will be whether it is feasible to expand the reproductive health and family planning options of village residents. Currently, at-home pregnancy tests, emergency contraception, reproductive tract infection kits, and the full choice of modern family planning methods are not widely available in rural villages of Ghana.

For three decades, Ghana has embraced the policy of extending primary health care to all of its citizens.  With the inputs of government, business, and researchers, GEMI will support Ghana's effort toward its declared goal of "Health for All."

The Population Council is an international, nonprofit, nongovernmental research organization that seeks to improve the well-being and reproductive health of current and future generations around the world and to help achieve a humane, equitable, and sustainable balance between people and resources. The Council conducts biomedical, social science, and public health research and helps build research capacities in developing countries. Established in 1952, the Council is governed by an international board of trustees. Its New York headquarters supports a global network of offices, including a regional office in Accra, Ghana.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.popcouncil.org/projects/SS_GhanaGEMI.html

And contact:
Melissa May, APR
Director, Public Information
Population Council
mailto:mmay@popcouncil.org
http://www.popcouncil.org