...WESTERN DRUG COMPANIES AND THE AIDS EPIDEMIC IN SOUTH AFRICA | | | | | | | | INTRODUCTION The AIDS epidemic in South Africa is at an extreme where 4.2 million of the country’s 43 million citizens are afflicted. This translates into one in every ten citizens being infected with the virus. Additionally 34 million Sub Saharan African citizens have been afflicted and 11.5 million have died and that total accounts for 83% of the world’s AIDS related deaths. Treatment is available in the form of an anti-retroviral, but it is very costly and as such unaffordable for the already impoverished nations in Africa. The AIDS crisis and the expensive treatment have caused the government of South Africa to pass laws authorising the practice of parallel importing and compulsory licensing. Parallel importing allows importers to purchase the medication from the cheapest source whether or not the patent holders gave approval and compulsory licensing allows the government to license local companies to produce cheaper versions of the drug patented by foreign companies with or without their consent. The passing of the law by the South African government caused a legal dispute with the US drug companies regarding intellectual property rights, compulsory licensing and parallel importing. The dispute caused a debate among public health officials, activists, law makers and the drug companies over the importance of public health versus corporate profits and the bad public relations...
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...power exercised and maintained? Direct power in the most obvious way of exercising and maintaining power. Exercise of direct power • British imperialism – wholesale conquest of countries. Insurgency put down by force. • Military power – US navy has 12 aircraft carriers and 70 submarines. It is the most powerful military machine on Earth. It established a ring of bases to surround the USSR in the Cold War era, as part of its policy of containment. The Iraq war saw the USA effectively “go it alone.” • Some economic power is direct. The USA plays a major role in world trade, much of which is conducted in $. The US $ is the world’s reserve currency. • A key area of US international prestige since the 1960s has been the exploration of space. 1969 saw men on the moon. The USA aims to build a moon base by 2020 and visit Mars by 2037. Exercise of indirect power • Neo-colonialism (term coined by Kwame Nkrumah, first president of Ghana) is a form of indirect control over developing counties, most of them former colonies. Has neo-colonialism prevented any real development progress in the 40 years since colonies gained their independence? Africa could lead us to say yes. India could lead us to say no. • Some people say the IGOs were set up by superpowers for superpowers. The IMF was set up in 1944. It has its headquarters in Washington. Counties wishing to have their debt relieved have to apply Western economic policies devised by...
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...version used in health behaviour and health promotion; however, it is still often referred to as Social Learning Theory. The impetus for this special issue on HIV came from a discussion a few years ago during which we established a shared interest in a revival of the sort of scholarly innovation that characterized the early years of the HIV epidemic. As far back as the early 1980s, social theorists, cultural, critics, artists and others created a vibrant body of work on HIV/AIDS. Working from various theoretical and disciplinary sites they steadfastly emphasized the ‘social’ for understanding the significance of AIDS and opened up new avenues for critiquing and re-imagining scientific, cultural and social responses to infectious disease. At its best, this work served also as an impetus for queer theory, various feminist critiques and a range of research under the rubric of science, medicine and technology studies. The contributions made by this early work and its effects on public discourse on HIV/AIDS were multiple. Among the more groundbreaking contributions worth underscoring here were analyses that destabilized the neutrality of scientific knowledge and practice, emphasizing the malleability and culture-bound nature of its disease definitions (Martin, 1994) as well as...
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.... By F. William Engdahl | Global Research, May 20, 2007 | To paraphrase the famous quip during the 1992 US Presidential debates, when an unknown William Jefferson Clinton told then-President George Herbert Walker Bush, “It’s the economy, stupid,” the present concern of the current Washington Administration over Darfur in southern Sudan is not, if we were to look closely, genuine concern over genocide against the peoples in that poorest of poor part of a forsaken section of Africa.No. “It’s the oil, stupid.” Hereby hangs a tale of cynical dimension appropriate to a Washington Administration that has shown no regard for its own genocide in Iraq, when its control over major oil reserves is involved. What’s at stake in the battle for Darfur? Control over oil, lots and lots of oil. The case of Darfur, a forbidding piece of sun-parched real estate in the southern part of Sudan, illustrates the new Cold War over oil, where the dramatic rise in China’s oil demand to fuel its booming growth has led Beijing to embark on an aggressive policy of—ironically-- dollar diplomacy. With its more than $1.3 trillion in mainly US dollar reserves at the Peoples’ National Bank of China, Beijing is engaging in active petroleum geopolitics. Africa is a major focus, and in Africa, the central region between Sudan and Chad is priority. This is defining a major new front in what, since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, is a new Cold War between Washington and Beijing over control of major oil sources...
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...rIssues & Studie s© 45, no. 4 (December 2009): 159-188. Status for Sale: Taiwan and the Competition for Diplomatic Recognition TIMOTHY S. RICH Diplomatic recognition is generally seen as fundamental to the modern state system. The traditional views of recognition however focus almost exclusively on political or ideological rationales, ignoring other foundations on which other countries base establishing diplomatic recognition. Focusing on the Republic of China (Taiwan) suggests a more complicated view where economic self-interest on one side and national pride on the other may undermine traditional conceptions of recognition. Using the ROC-PRC diplomatic battle as a case study, this paper hopes to shed light on two questions: why, despite the PRC's rise as a global power, a country would continue to formally recognize the ROC and secondly what does the ROC receive in exchange for such high-cost endeavors to maintain recognition. In this case mutual ideological rationales have greatly diminished while I contend that economic factors have predominantly maintained this diplomatic battle. In addition, previous research often focuses on major world powers granting or withholding formal recognition to smaller states. In this situation, poor countries with typically little political influence are the major players, suggesting different rationales behind recognition. Methodologically, this paper blends qualitative and quantitative analysis to uncover factors affecting recogni- ...
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...effort. Sources and quotes used in this stud are indicated and acknowledged. ______________ ______________ Sibuyi J Date ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements Declaration Dedication Table of contents Abbreviations Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Background on HIV/AIDS 1.1.1 HIV/AIDS in South Africa 1.1.2 HIV/AIDS in tertiary institutions 1.2 Backgrounds on university of Limpopo 1.3 Aim of the study 1.4 Objective of the study 1.5 Significance of the study...
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...high levels of negative health outcomes, how well they are being addressed, and what social, political, and economic factors contribute to such health disparities. South Africa is a nation that has complex health care needs and shortcomings even though it is the second wealthiest nation in Africa. Similar to the United States, with a health care system favoring those of certain ethnicities and social status, many others are left with healthcare that is inaccessible and unaffordable. However, the divide in South America is unlike any other nation. 2011 census data shows the majority of South African’s are African, at 79.2% of the population, colored and white, which make up 8.9%, and Indian and Asian races make up the remaining population at 2.5%. ("South Africa's population," 2014) South Africa is a nation that is infamous for the Apartheid movement that is one of the greatest examples of racial segregation in history. Poverty and inequality created by racial and gender segregation were meant to dismantle the divided social structures with the election of Nelson Mandela’s in 1994. Though the movement made progression relative the state of the affairs prior to his election, enormous gaps in wealth have remained among the black and rural communities relative to the white, urban population. South Africa is considered a middle-income nation, but health outcomes are worse than those of low-income nations in the region. The...
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...knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself for developed life. Poverty and inequality- it refers to a social phenomenon under which the standard of living of individuals and households in a community or country is persistently below a certain level required physically for sustaining human life according to some accepted social norms (Bhalla & Qui, 2006). Inequality is the gap between the rich and the poor. GDP per capita- this is a core indicator of economic performance and commonly used as a broad measure of average living standards or economic well-being despite some recognised shortcoming (OECD, 2011). Low income economy (Mozambique) Mozambique is a low income country in southern Africa, the country is bordered by the Indian Ocean, and it was involved in a civil war lasting from 1977 to 1992. About 54% of the population are living below the poverty line (WHO, 2009). Health- the civil war had a huge contribution to the down fall of the...
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... known as the cold war, which dominated world politics between 1945 - 1989. Evaluate the extent to which the principal nations involved fought proxy wars as a substitute for armed conflict with each other. In this essay I will discuss the extent to which the principal nations, mainly the USA and the Soviet Union fought proxy wars as a substitute for armed conflict with each other during the Cold War between 1945 – 1989. As the Second World War ended in 1945 with the victory of the allies, a new war was launched. It was a battle predominantly between the USA and the Soviet Union, between two conflicting ideologies: America’s capitalism versus and the Soviet Union’s communism. Ranging from two of the most devastating wars; the Korean War (1950) and the Vietnam war in the 60s, to the smaller conflicts in the Middle East and Africa in terms of the scale of the battle, every corner of the globe was involved in the Cold War. (Dunbabin 1994) The USA and the Soviet Union were the sole super powers at the end of the Second World War. There are a number of views regarding why the Cold war was unavoidable, and one of the reasons is that both countries were expansionist. The USA in particular was afraid of the Soviet sphere of influence over Europe in particular, believing that it needed to be contained. (Mowry, 1962) But on the part of the Soviet Union, it was also afraid of the USA’s power and its ideology which it believed to be evil and imperialist. This triggered ambitions...
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...Demographic and Health Research Division, 11785 Beltsville Drive, Suite 300, Calverton, MD 20705 (telephone: 301-572-0200; fax: 301-572-0999; e-mail: reports@macrointernational.com; internet: www.measuredhs.com). Utilization of HIV-Related Services from the Private Health Sector: A Multi-Country Analysis Wenjuan Wang1 Sara Sulzbach2 Susna De3 February 2010 Corresponding authors: Wenjuan Wang, International Health and Development Division, ICF Macro, 11785 Beltsville Drive, Calverton, Maryland 20705, USA; Phone: 301-572-0398; Fax: 301-572-0983; Email: wenjuan.wang@macrointernational.com. 1 2 International Health and Development Division, ICF Macro International Health Division, Abt Associates Inc. 3 Office of Health and HIV/AIDS, USAID/Namibia ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Funding for this...
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...MERCK AND RIVER BLINDNESS 1. Think about the definition of stakeholders — any parties with a stake in the organization’s actions or performance. Who are the stakeholders in this situation? How many can you list? On what basis would you rank them in importance? People suffering from the disease or those who potentially may be infected – would directly benefit from the cure Merck employees at all levels – profitability and the economic health of the company affects current employees Merck shareholders – inability to profit from the drug might have a negative effect on shareholder’s value, but taking the stand on “doing the right thing” might have a favorable effect on company’s reputation and increase the value of the stock Various healthcare organizations – Merck is one of the leaders in the industry whose actions or inactions may affect the state of the industry as a whole One way to rank stakeholders in importance is by their level of benefit from the drug putting people suffering from the disease in the first place as they would benefit the most from the invent of the cure. Then, employees and shareholders would share the second place, provided that the company would most likely not be able to recover funds invested in the long and expensive process of developing the drug which in turn would affect company’s profitability. Finally, various healthcare organizations would rank third; the effect on them would depend on the level of their involvement in the process...
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...population (2012 est.) | Urbanization | urban population: 60% of total population (2010) rate of urbanization: 0.6% annual rate of change (2010-15 est.) | Sex ratio | at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.51 male(s)/female total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2011 est.) | Infant mortality rate | total: 26.21 deaths/1,000 live births male: 29.05 deaths/1,000 live births female: 23.24 deaths/1,000 live births (2012 est.) | Life expectancy at birth | total population: 69.2 years male: 65.34 years female: 73.24 years (2012 est.) | Total fertility rate | 2.01 children born/woman (2012 est.) | HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate | NA | HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS | NA | HIV/AIDS - deaths | NA | Sanitation facility access | improved: urban: 58% of population rural: 60% of population total: 59% of population unimproved: urban: 42% of population rural: 40% of population total: 41% of population | Nationality | noun: Korean(s) adjective: Korean | Ethnic groups | racially homogeneous; there is a small...
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...countries where it expanded with very few exceptions. To reinforce its global expansion process Walmart acquired 51% of Massmart, South Africa second biggest retailer. Although the merger of this two large firms unfolds Walmart’s way into one of the world’s biggest potential market it won’t be simple. Poor legal system and weak securities, cultural and infrastructure barriers, financials, rivals criticism, resistance from local group and government will hinder the merger process. Walmart needs to be prepared to face these challenges and develop a strategy. In order to deal with the challenges Walmart should: 1. Learn from previous mistakes in North Korea and Germany. 2. Make use of high GDP growth in Africa and rising middle class. 3. Use Massmart successful network. 4. Create a positive Brand and company name. 5. Do what it is best at “dominate retail market” * Section 2: External environment: Walmart and Massmart are a big part of global discount retail industry. Walmart is one of the world’s biggest retail industry operating in 14 different nations apart from United States with yearly revenue more than $400 billion. Similarly, Massmart sells in 14 African countries with majority of its operations are in South Africa (265 retail stores in South Africa versus 25 in the other 13 countries). The retailing industry ($3.8 trillion annually) is second largest industry in the world in regards to...
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...GSK Gary Benillouche Sylvain Descazeaud Stéphane Nooroya Yousra Zaghdoud Bernichi Case C : GSK 1 - Derive three opportunities and three threats for GSK by first making the PESTEL analysis of the macro-environment surrounding the pharmaceutical industry. |Political |Economic |Social | |Governments are looking for reduce healthcare|The current economic crisis. |Population is getting older. | |costs. | | | | |Cost structure at ethical pharmaceutical |Increasing awareness of people thanks to the | |There is no convergence of healthcare system |companies: manufacturing of goods (25%), R&D |Internet : new demand and changing | |: people don't get always reimbursed their |(12 to 21%), administration (10%), sales and |expectation. | |health costs around the world. |marketing (25%). | | | | |Rise in the number of obese people. | | |New kind of competition with generics drugs. | ...
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...fastest-growing sectors in the world, and international trade in health services has created economic and diplomatic opportunities for both medical personnel and countries especially those that are low- or middle-income. The Infectious Disease Threat and Implications for the United States, health threats and issues have continued to have significant impacts on the world stage. Highly publicized virulent infectious diseases---- including HIV/AIDS, a potential influenza pandemic, and “mystery” illnesses such as the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) –remain the most direct health-related threats to the United States, but are not the only health indicators with strategic significance. Chronic, non-communicable diseases; neglected tropical diseases; maternal and child mortality; malnutrition; sanitation and access to clean water; and availability of basic healthcare also affect the US national interest through their impacts on the economies, governments, and militaries of key countries and regions. The greatest infectious disease challenge for the US since the beginning of the decade has been the potential emergence of a severe influenza pandemic. Although the H5N1 avian influenza virus remains primarily a threat to poultry, it and other such viruses continue to evolve and expand their geographic range. The timing and magnitude of the next influenza pandemic is difficult to predict. Given the increase in worldwide travel and commerce over the last several decades, however...
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