Health in South Asia: Research cannot be funded when health itself has low priority

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7454.1497-b

BMJ 2004;328:1497 (19 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7454.1497-b

Letter

Health in South Asia

Research cannot be funded when health itself has low priority

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—In the theme issue on health in South Asia Sadanaet al analysed the lack of health research in South Asian countries.¹Health is given the least priority in annual budgets. In a countrysuch as India, which has a population of over 1 billion, thehealth budget is less than 2% of the total budget. This obviouslyaffects the delivery of primary care, so where would be thefunding for research?

The health system in South Asian countries is run mainly bythe private sector. The private sector is driven by economics,so funds for research are again low. Vast numbers of patientsgo through the private health sector. Only proper collectionof data would provide the clinical data that could then be usedto devise protocols for managing different illnesses. Thus inthe long run a healthier population would result. This wouldalso decrease the burden . . . [Full text of this article]

Ali Asgar A Behranwala, specialist registrar, cardiothoracic surgery

Alder Hey Hospital, Liverpool L12 2AP abehranwala@hotmail.com

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