Tackling the global post-code lottery: new research explores how law can help tackle health epidemics

Research from the University of Warwick is set to improve global health by helping lawyers to think more strategically about the ways in which the law can be used to improve access to life-saving medicines.

In a new book launched this week, Dr Sharifah Sekalala from the School of Law evaluates the different legal approaches that have been taken to improve global access to essential medicines.

Using compelling case studies including the campaign for antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, and the fight against malaria and tuberculosis, Soft Law and Global Health Problems explores lawmaking on global and analyses the viability of current financing trends within new and traditional organisations such as the United Nations, the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, UNITAID and The Global Fund.

Dr Sekalala said: "I wrote this book for the millions of people for whom essential AIDS medicines came too late to save them. We need to act faster in the case of future epidemics and I hope that this book helps lawyers to think more strategically about the actions we can take."

"Almost two billion people still lack access to essential medicines, I was interested in thinking about how we can use law in order to close this gap. I looked at how what lawyers call 'Soft Law' can be easier, quicker and more responsive in enabling countries to reach agreement during health crises."

"I was struck by the fact that there was a global post code lottery. If you had AIDS in the developed world you got to live a normal life. If you were born in a poor country like Uganda, you died because essential medicines for diseases such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis are too expensive for millions of people in the developing world."

Dr Sekalala's book will be launched at Warwick Law School on 24 November 2017.

More information: Soft Law and Global Health Problems: Lessons from Responses to HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis is published by Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 9781107049529

Citation: Tackling the global post-code lottery: new research explores how law can help tackle health epidemics (2017, November 23) retrieved 28 March 2024 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-11-tackling-global-post-code-lottery-explores.html
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