Comprehensive versus selective primary health care: lessons for global health policy.
Primary health care was declared the model for global health policy at a 1978 meeting of health ministers and experts from around the world. Primary health care requires a change in socioeconomic status, distribution of resources, a focus on health system development, and emphasis on basic health services. Considered too idealistic and expensive, it was replaced with a disease-focused, selective model. After several years of investment in vertical interventions, preventable diseases remain a major challenge for developing countries. The selective model has not responded adequately to the interrelationship between health and socioeconomic development, and a rethinking of global health policy is urgently needed.
Magnussen
Lesley
L
Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA.
Ehiri
John
J
Jolly
Pauline
P
D014943:Global Health; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000193:education; D006291:Health Policy; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D011057:Politics; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012923:Social Class