Technical Demoralization

2021 ◽  
pp. 117-119
Author(s):  
Samuel Cohn

This chapter explains why officials in poor countries are more likely to be corrupt than officials in rich countries. One reason is that even if these officials played things straight, they simply lack the resources to do their jobs. The condition of being unable to do one's job through no fault of one's own can be called technical demoralization. When trying to do one's job is a joke, it no longer really matters whether one follows norms of professionalism or not. The salary of a police officer in Latin America or Afghanistan is generally modest. And one police officer is not going to be able to take out a cartel. So when the drug lord's men come over and offer to help the cop out financially, the officer would be hard-pressed to refuse the offer. The same thing can occur in any branch of government. Public health officials who will never be able to lower the amount of disease in their districts sign off on big, white elephant hospital projects where they can get generous side fees for “consulting.” Engineers who will never be able to build enough roads to accommodate the traffic needs of overpopulated cities throw their projects to shabby, politically connected contractors who stint on materials.

Author(s):  
J. C. Sharman

This chapter elaborates on the concept of kleptocracy by providing a portrait of one of the most publicized and influential early examples of grand corruption: that of Mobutu Sese Seko in the Congo. Sketching out the corruption of Mobutu and his clique shows how the global anti-kleptocracy norm and the resulting regime came into being. For different reasons, a wide variety of intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, and governments from Africa, Asia, and Latin America argue that corruption implicates rich countries as well as poor, because funds looted from poor countries tended to end up in rich ones. The story of intertwined normative and policy change at the global level in this chapter provides context for the following analysis of how well these rules work at a national level.


2016 ◽  
pp. 5301-5303
Author(s):  
Salim Mattar V ◽  
Marco González Tous

In the Latin American tropics, we have witnessed the emergence of several pathogenic arboviruses in the last decade. These include Yellow Fever, West Nile virus, St. Louis encephalitis, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Mayaro, Oropouche, Ilheus, and most recently, Chikungunya and Zika. Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), microcephaly and all the encephalitides, have been of concern to public health officials in Latin America since the arrival of emerging arboviruses. ¡Don‘t forget about dengue! Between 2014 and 2015 we received two unexpected and uninvited viruses: Chikungunya and Zika. Chikungunya, an alphavirus, appeared abruptly in developing countries of the Americas, revealing that we were not prepared to face it. While we were still recovering from Chikungunya, Zika virus arrived, only compounding the insult. One cannot imagine the potential impact of the introduction of a hemorrhagic virus of the likes of Marburg or Ebola in Latin America. This scenario would be catastrophic.


2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven B. Pokorny ◽  
Peter Y. Ji ◽  
Jospeh L. Sherk ◽  
P. Jacob Rebus ◽  
Olga Rabin-Belyaev ◽  
...  

Coronaviruses ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 01 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvana Mirella Aliberti ◽  
Francesco De Caro ◽  
Giovanni Boccia ◽  
Rosario Caruso ◽  
Mario Capunzo

: Italy was the first western nation affected by the pandemic and was observed as a pilot case in the management of the new coronavirus epidemic. The outbreak of COVID-19 disease has been very difficult in Italy, on June 25, 2020 there are 239,821 total cases of which 33,592 deaths nationwide. Three lessons emerged from this experience that can serve as a blueprint to improve future plans for the outbreak of viruses. First, early reports on the spread of COVID-19 can help inform public health officials and medical practitioners in effort to combat its progression; second, inadequate risk assessment related to the urgency of the situation and limited reporting to the virus has led the rapid spread of COVID-19; third, an effective response to the virus had to be undertaken with coherent system of actions and simultaneously.


Author(s):  
Joshua M. Sharfstein

An effective communications approach starts with a basic dictum set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “Be first, be right, be credible.” Agencies must establish themselves as vital sources of accurate information to maintain the public’s trust. At the same time, public health officials must recognize that communications play out in the context of ideological debates, electoral rivalries, and other political considerations. During a public health crisis, this means that health officials often need to constructively engage political leaders in communications and management. Navigating these waters in the middle of a crisis can be treacherous. Figuring out the best way to engage elected leaders is a core aspect of political judgment.


Author(s):  
Jan Abel Olsen

Chapter 1 provides a contextual frame for the book. An inquiry into the key concepts of health and healthcare is followed by an illustration of the general health production function, that is, the association between increasing healthcare inputs and resulting health outcomes. The important message is the pattern of positive but diminishing effects of healthcare on health: more healthcare improves health, but at a diminishing rate. The production function is also illustrated at the macro level: when considering the poor countries of the world, a strong association is observed between increased healthcare spending and the country’s life expectancy. However, among rich countries we observe a strongly diminishing effect of increased healthcare spending. Some further international comparisons are included to show that the richer a country gets, the higher the proportion of wealth it spends on healthcare.


2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 150-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louisa E. Chapman ◽  
Ernest E. Sullivent ◽  
Lisa A. Grohskopf ◽  
Elise M. Beltrami ◽  
Joseph F. Perz ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTPeople wounded during bombings or other events resulting in mass casualties or in conjunction with the resulting emergency response may be exposed to blood, body fluids, or tissue from other injured people and thus be at risk for bloodborne infections such as hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, human immunodeficiency virus, or tetanus. This report adapts existing general recommendations on the use of immunization and postexposure prophylaxis for tetanus and for occupational and nonoccupational exposures to bloodborne pathogens to the specific situation of a mass casualty event. Decisions regarding the implementation of prophylaxis are complex, and drawing parallels from existing guidelines is difficult. For any prophylactic intervention to be implemented effectively, guidance must be simple, straightforward, and logistically undemanding. Critical review during development of this guidance was provided by representatives of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, and representatives of the acute injury care, trauma, and emergency response medical communities participating in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Terrorism Injuries: Information, Dissemination and Exchange project. The recommendations contained in this report represent the consensus of US federal public health officials and reflect the experience and input of public health officials at all levels of government and the acute injury response community. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2008;2:150–165)


2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 252-264
Author(s):  
Navreet Kaur ◽  
Lhoukhokai Sitlhou

Good governance emphasises upon efficient and effective institutional mechanism, greater transparency, people’s participation, citizen-centric services and accountability. These reforms are not only limited to national governance practices but also applicable to distribution, disbursement and effectiveness of development assistance. The objective of development assistance is to provide opportunities to needy, deprived and disadvantageous sections of the society. The available data on development assistance clearly demonstrate that rich countries, Development Assistance Countries (DACs) provide financial assistance to poor countries and it has reached US$100 billion in recent years. Non-DAC bilateral assistance (NDBA) is more than US$8 billion in Office of Disaster Assistance (ODA) and US$5 billion annually in country programmable aid (CPA). Private aid (PrA) from DAC members contribute between US$58 billion and 68 billion per year. Total aid flows to developing countries currently amount to around US$180 billion annually. Multilateral aid agencies (around 230) outnumber donors and recipients combined. But the harsh reality is high percentage of illiteracy, high child mortality, gender inequality, prevalence of corruption and exclusion of needy people from the development process. The examination of the process and procedures involved in development process revealed that there are many challenges in the process adopted for allocation, methodological limitations, evaluation limitation, lack of coordination among multiple agencies, political compulsions of donor and recipient countries, transparency, accountability and multidimensional global financial markets compulsions. Certain measures can make development more inclusive and sustainable. Collective efforts of all agencies are the need of the hour to achieve the targets of sustainable development. Coordination among multiple agencies, capacity building of target population and involvement of private agencies in the development process will pave the way for sustainable development.


1996 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-536
Author(s):  
Guido S. Weber

Tuberculosis (TB), “the world’s most neglected health crisis,” has returned after decades of decline, but has only gradually caught the attention of governments as a formidable threat to public health. By 1984, when TB cases hit an all-time low, federal and state governments stopped supporting the medical infrastructure that once served to contain the disease. State officials around the nation began dismantling laboratory research programs and closing TB clinics and sanitoria. Since 1985, however, TB rates have steadily increased to 26,673 reported cases in 1992, and some have estimated that by the year 2000, there could be a twenty percent increase. By 1993, Congress, realizing that TB could pose a major public health threat, allocated over $100 million to the Department of Health and Human Services for TB prevention and treatment programs. Those funds, however, were sorely needed years before and amounted to only a fraction of what public health officials believe necessary to control TB today.


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