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The non-governmental but not-for-profit sector seems to bridge the gap apparent in a shortage of government resources and unaffordable for-profit services in the healthcare market of India. Based on a background study about the non-governmental organisation for official health accounts, it was found to be imperative, especially in providing preventive and promotive healthcare services. To the current health expenditure of the country, this sector contributes around 2.1%, with funds generated largely as grants from governments and foreign sources. Indeed, financial contribution is not as imperative as the ability to reach grassroots for providing healthcare, which should be considered as an opportunity to augment the capacity of the health system, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the physicians' perspective regarding the potential of computerized cognitive behavioral therapies (cCBTs) to overcome inequalities in the context of mental health care provision. The main benefits were related to the ability of cCBTs to provide care in a convenient and efficient manner, enhancing its accessibility. These aspects were perceived more important than cost-effectivity of treatment, which is often claimed to be the key benefit of cCBTs. Age and general acceptance of CBT were the most significant individual-level separators of perceptions, while the sector in which the physician works was seen as the main structural-level separator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critiques of biomedical research in low-resource settings typically centre on clinical trials and the ‘dissymmetries of power’ between the researched and those benefiting from the products of research. It is important to extend this critical lens to other forms of global health research. We conducted a qualitative study in Tanzania to explore meaning and experiences of participating in a clinical observational study evaluating the safety and efficacy of current practice for treating HIV and malaria co-infection. Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were undertaken with 124 study participants, study staff and health workers. Participants' understanding of the study's research aims was limited, but the practice of participation – engaging with research staff and materials – appeared to facilitate interpretations of the study's value, conceptualised as a ‘service’. For those peripheral to the study, however, interpretations of it reflected existing suspicions of experimental research. Our findings indicate the importance of considering the expectations, roles and responsibilities constructed through the practice of participation in different types of research, and how they relate to legacies of research. Understanding how networks of research practice intersect local social and historical contexts can extend discussions of collaboration and engagement with research in low-resource settings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

International and national campaigns to prevent HIV/AIDS and efforts to promote reproductive health remain separate in terms of conceptualisation and implementation. Local negotiations around reproductive health issues similarly seem to lack explicit attention to HIV/AIDS. This paper argues that even in reproductive health clinics a gap exists between the extent of knowledge of HIV/AIDS and AIDS talk. There also appears to be a mismatch between collective knowledge of the behavioural and biomedical context of HIV/AIDS and the socio-economic context of AIDS as a lived experience. Using an ethnographic account, I explore how one woman's lived experience and her knowledge of AIDS can teach us to take HIV/AIDS into account when theorising, promoting or providing services for improving African women's reproductive health. The background for this ethnography comes from data collected during 25 months of fieldwork at 10 maternal and child health/family planning (MCH/FP) clinic sites in the Morogoro, Ruvuma and Kilimanjaro regions of Tanzania. Rehema's story shows that AIDS, like other diseases, is significantly linked to host-susceptibility and economic vulnerability. Separate and competing vertical programmes on AIDS and MCH/FP, as commonly encountered throughout Africa, cannot meet the needs of women in countries like Tanzania. Yet, we still hear most often of abstinence, anti-retrovirals and condom use as the primary focus of HIV/AIDS prevention and intervention in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]