Striving for Equity Healthcare in Sri Lanka from Independence to the Millennium, 1948-2000

Focusing on the period from independence in 1948 to the millennium this book is an historical analysis of the process by which Sri Lanka became a model of how a nation with limited resources could nevertheless achieve health indicators on a par with the developed world through the development of a p...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Jones, Margaret (auth)
Format: Electronic Book Chapter
Language:English
Published: Orient Blackswan 2020
Series:New Perspectives in South Asian History
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Online Access:OAPEN Library: download the publication
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Summary:Focusing on the period from independence in 1948 to the millennium this book is an historical analysis of the process by which Sri Lanka became a model of how a nation with limited resources could nevertheless achieve health indicators on a par with the developed world through the development of a primary healthcare system. In so doing it had to interact and negotiate with global health actors such as the World Health Organization while maintaining its own agency. Based on a close reading of original archival sources it is an in-depth exploration of these questions viewed through a series of case studies which highlight both the successes which contributed to this outcome and the inadequacies of those efforts when seen at the micro level. A primary health care infrastructure is an essential prerequisite for the delivery of preventive health care; how this was developed and delivered to the entire population forms the first substantive chapter. Since the incidence of tuberculosis in a community serves as a marker of a country's achievement in meeting basic needs and establishing social justice there follows an examination of policies to control TB. The most vulnerable group in a nation are its children and they are also the source of a nation's future human capital. Two chapters discuss children's health; firstly the problem of childhood malnutrition and secondly the implementation of the successful immunization programme. Demographic change means a double disease burden of non-communicable diseases alongside communicable diseases and how this considerable challenge is met is the subject of the last chapter. Furthermore these topics enable a discussion of the significance and problems of an international policy transfer to less well-resourced environments.
Physical Description:1 electronic resource (156 p.)
Access:Open Access