BMJ  2007;335 (27 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.39377.555324.47

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Make health inequality history

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

James Tumwine, professor of paediatrics in Kampala, reckons most people would agree on the need for urgent action to reduce mortality in children in resource constrained countries. We have good evidence to underpin that action, he urges, and yet "expenditure on health has not improved substantially, and the hospital wards in many of these countries are best described as pathetic" (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39371.586076.80).

Three years ago 1 in 8 children with malaria in the national hospital in Guinea-Bissau were dying as inpatients. The introduction of special drug kits for children with severe and complicated malaria had not cut mortality, and it became clear that something else had to be done. So Sidu Biai and colleagues tested in a randomised trial whether strict monitoring of patients, removal of prescription charges for families, and small financial incentives for the staff could reduce mortality on the paediatric ward. It worked. Mortality from malaria . . . [Full text of this article]

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