The fateful year of 2020 will go down the annals of history as the year during which global pandemic COVID-19 spread across the globe causing widespread confusion, panic, chaos and mayhem. As this respiratory disease - which primarily affects lungs and, in case of complications, many other organs of body - spread rapidly across the world, scientists and biologists began their hectic efforts to develop protocols for treatment and prevention of this disease. As is the case with all other viral diseases, the best tool that can save humanity from this ongoing pandemic is a potent vaccine. Realizing the urgency of the matter at hand and the enormous potential of revenue generation, a number of companies started this race of developing vaccine at an accelerated rate. From securing funding from research to gaining approval of regulatory authorities after clinical trials, it normally takes a long time to develop a vaccine. However, owing to the great global demand and willingness of governments to pro-vide generous funding, vaccines for COVID-19 have been developed at a much faster pace than ever before.
The fateful year of 2020 will go down the annals of history as the year during which global pandemic COVID-19 spread across the globe causing widespread confusion, panic, chaos and mayhem. As this respiratory disease-which primarily affects lungs and, in case of complications, many other organs of body-spread rapidly across the world, scientists and biologists began their hectic efforts to develop proto-cols for treatment and prevention of this disease. As is the case with all other viral diseases, the best tool that can save humanity from this ongoing pandemic is a potent vaccine. Realizing the urgency of the matter at hand and the enormous potential of revenue generation, a number of companies started this race of developing vaccine at an accelerated rate. From securing funding from research to gaining approval of regulatory authorities after clinical trials, it norm-ally takes a long time to develop a vaccine. However, owing to the great global demand and willingness of governments to provide generous funding, vaccines for COVID-19 have been developed at a much faster pace than ever before.
Throughout the human history, multiple disease outbreaks have affected millions of people around the globe. Such pandemics with high morbidity and mortality rates affected the countries in the worst possible ways1. The first deadly virus pandemic was reported in 1918 known as Spanish flue involving H1N1 influenza virus affecting 500 million people around the globe and death toll raised from 17 million to 50 million. In 2009 the world again faced another H1N1 Swine flu pandemic during 2009-2010 with 6.8 billion people under effect and almost 5 million deaths. Similarly world is facing another problem of COVID-19 since December 2019.It started as an epidemic in the city of Wuhan , China and considered as the one of the greatest threat to the human health and health economics. The virus has crossed multiple geographical boundaries and declared pandemic by World Health Organization, affecting almost every country in the world. There is a need to take urgent and forceful actions to change the course of the disease. The countries like China, Japan, South Korea, Iraq, and other European countries2,3 have demonstrated that the virus can be suppressed and controlled. But this picture has another side. COVID-19 is just like any other flu disease. The mortality rate is still low and if every country steps up its preventive strategies and implement the action plans to control the disease, soon this pandemic will be over. World Health Organization calling COVID-19 a pandemic is not a huge surprise as more than 100 countries are involved and its spread is multiplied on daily basis. However, it is a preventable contagious disease. Due to exaggeration by the media, panic among the public and myths about the disease has affected economic status of many countries. Pakistan's southern Sindh province is the worst-affected with the virus and 15 people have been tested positive till Feburary 2020. Most countries are using 'Containment strategies'. Pakistan has also increased health screening on airports and boarders. As cases are being reported on daily basis, Pakistan Government needs to step up the game and design proper control strategies for COVID. More work should be done on Pandemic preparedness, outbreak detection and response. Proper allocation of Resources must be done to control the current situation. WHO has warned countries to get ready for the accelerated phase during which rapid increase in the COVID-19 cases will occur. In Pakistan, significant steps have been taken for surveillance, social distancing, isolation and quarantine and every effort has been made by public health and preventive medicine experts for early diagnosis and prompt treatment.
The rapid spread of COVID-19 renewed the focus on how health systems across the globe are financed, especially during public health emergencies. Development assistance is an important source of health financing in many low-income countries, yet little is known about how much of this funding was disbursed for COVID-19. We aimed to put development assistance for health for COVID-19 in the context of broader trends in global health financing, and to estimate total health spending from 1995 to 2050 and development assistance for COVID-19 in 2020.
In: Micah , A E , Cogswell , I E , Cunningham , B , Ezoe , S , Harle , A C , Maddison , E R , McCracken , D , Nomura , S , Simpson , K E , Stutzman , H N , Tsakalos , G , Wallace , L E , Zhao , Y , Zende , R R , Abbafati , C , Abdelmasseh , M , Abedi , A , Abegaz , K H , Abhilash , E S , Abolhassani , H , Abrigo , M R M , Adhikari , T B , Afzal , S , Ahinkorah , B O , Ahmadi , S , Ahmed , H , Ahmed , M B , Rashid , T A , Ajami , M , Aji , B , Akalu , Y , Akunna , C J , Al Hamad , H , Alam , K , Alanezi , F M , Alanzi , T M , Alemayehu , Y , Alhassan , R K , Alinia , C , Aljunid , S M , Almustanyir , S A , Alvis-Guzman , N , Alvis-Zakzuk , N J , Amini , S , Amini-Rarani , M , Amu , H , Ancuceanu , R , Andrei , C L , Andrei , T , Angell , B & Global Burden Dis Hlth Financing 2021 , ' Tracking development assistance for health and for COVID-19 : a review of development assistance, government, out-of-pocket, and other private spending on health for 204 countries and territories, 1990-2050 ' , Lancet , vol. 398 , no. 10308 , pp. 1317-1343 . https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01258-7
Background: The rapid spread of COVID-19 renewed the focus on how health systems across the globe are financed, especially during public health emergencies. Development assistance is an important source of health financing in many low-income countries, yet little is known about how much of this funding was disbursed for COVID-19. We aimed to put development assistance for health for COVID-19 in the context of broader trends in global health financing, and to estimate total health spending from 1995 to 2050 and development assistance for COVID-19 in 2020. Methods: We estimated domestic health spending and development assistance for health to generate total health-sector spending estimates for 204 countries and territories. We leveraged data from the WHO Global Health Expenditure Database to produce estimates of domestic health spending. To generate estimates for development assistance for health, we relied on project-level disbursement data from the major international development agencies' online databases and annual financial statements and reports for information on income sources. To adjust our estimates for 2020 to include disbursements related to COVID-19, we extracted project data on commitments and disbursements from a broader set of databases (because not all of the data sources used to estimate the historical series extend to 2020), including the UN Office of Humanitarian Assistance Financial Tracking Service and the International Aid Transparency Initiative. We reported all the historic and future spending estimates in inflation-adjusted 2020 US$, 2020 US$ per capita, purchasing-power parity-adjusted US$ per capita, and as a proportion of gross domestic product. We used various models to generate future health spending to 2050. Findings: In 2019, health spending globally reached $8·8 trillion (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 8·7–8·8) or $1132 (1119–1143) per person. Spending on health varied within and across income groups and geographical regions. Of this total, $40·4 billion (0·5%, 95% UI 0·5–0·5) was ...
Background The rapid spread of COVID-19 renewed the focus on how health systems across the globe are financed, especially during public health emergencies. Development assistance is an important source of health financing in many low-income countries, yet little is known about how much of this funding was disbursed for COVID-19. We aimed to put development assistance for health for COVID-19 in the context of broader trends in global health financing, and to estimate total health spending from 1995 to 2050 and development assistance for COVID-19 in 2020.