Publications

	Table of Contents
p. 20 of 27 BACK | NEXT Executive summary Introduction Regional health context The Bank’s involvementin the health sector Issues and options The health of the poor, women, and indigenous peoples Setting clear priorities Mobilizing resources for the public health sector Building managerial capacity Testing innovative approaches Introducing effective, new, and affordable technologies Focusing on functions which constitute public goods Increasing collaboration between public and private sectors The Bank’s health policy

Policy for the Health Sector : Issues and options

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Introducing effective, new, and affordable technologies

The application of effective, new, and affordable technologies provides the DMCs with many opportunities to leapfrog problems that plagued rich countries during their development. Unfortunately in the past, these technological advances, especially in public health, were usually adopted very slowly. For example, measles vaccine was licensed in the early 1960s, yet it took almost 30 years before children in the region routinely benefited from this safe, inexpensive, and costeffective vaccine. This story looks ready to be repeated with two relatively new vaccines, hepatitis B and Hemophilus influenza B (Hib). Both are proven effective and are in widespread use in developed countries but have barely been introduced in the Bank’s DMCs. Hepatitis B vaccine, for example, prevents a disease that is widespread in the region, is low cost, and is easy to include in ongoing immunization activities but is available to less than 20 percent of the infants. With advances in biotechnology there will be many new technologies available in the next ten years that will be of huge benefit to the populations of the DMCs. Seizing the opportunities that these technologies provide will require political support and adequate financing. The Bank can play a leadership role by helping its DMCs make timely investments in deploying these technologies.

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