ID :
13501
Wed, 07/23/2008 - 11:51
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/13501
The shortlink copeid
Rise in T.B. linked to loans from I.M.F: study
New York, Jul 22 (PTI) The surge in cases of tuberculosis (T.B.) in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union is closely associated with loans from the InternationalMonetary Fund, a new study has found.
Critics of I.M.F. suggest that its financial requirements lead governments to reduce spending on health care to qualify for loans. This, the authors say, helpsexplain the connection.
The leading funding body, strongly disputed the finding, saying the former communist countries would be muchworse off without the loans.
"Tuberculosis is a disease that takes time to develop," said William Murray, a spokesman for the fund, "so presumably the increase in mortality rates must be linked to something that happened earlier than I.M.F. funding. This is just phony science." The researchers studied health records in 21 countries and found that obtaining an I.M.F. loan was associated with a 13.9 percent increase in new cases of tuberculosis each year, a 13.3 percent increase in the number of people living with the disease and a 16.6 percent increase in the number oftuberculosis deaths, the New York Times reported.
The study, being published online Tuesday in the journal P.LoS. Medicine, statistically controlled for numerous other factors that affect tuberculosis rates, including the prevalence of A.I.D.S., inflation rates, urbanisation, unemployment rates, the age of the population and improvedsurveillance.
The lead author, David Stuckler, a research associate at Cambridge University, defended the study against the fund's criticisms, noting that the researchers considered whether increased mortality might have led to more loans rather thanthe other way around.
Instead, they found that the increase in tuberculosis mortality followed the lending; each 1 percent increase in credit was associated with a 0.9 percent increase in mortality. And when a country left an I.M.F. loan programme,mortality rates dropped by an average of 31 percent.
"When you have one correlation, you raise an eyebrow," Stuckler said. "But when you have more than 20 correlations pointing in the same direction, you start building a strong case for causality," he was quoted as saying by the New York Times. PTI RAP
Critics of I.M.F. suggest that its financial requirements lead governments to reduce spending on health care to qualify for loans. This, the authors say, helpsexplain the connection.
The leading funding body, strongly disputed the finding, saying the former communist countries would be muchworse off without the loans.
"Tuberculosis is a disease that takes time to develop," said William Murray, a spokesman for the fund, "so presumably the increase in mortality rates must be linked to something that happened earlier than I.M.F. funding. This is just phony science." The researchers studied health records in 21 countries and found that obtaining an I.M.F. loan was associated with a 13.9 percent increase in new cases of tuberculosis each year, a 13.3 percent increase in the number of people living with the disease and a 16.6 percent increase in the number oftuberculosis deaths, the New York Times reported.
The study, being published online Tuesday in the journal P.LoS. Medicine, statistically controlled for numerous other factors that affect tuberculosis rates, including the prevalence of A.I.D.S., inflation rates, urbanisation, unemployment rates, the age of the population and improvedsurveillance.
The lead author, David Stuckler, a research associate at Cambridge University, defended the study against the fund's criticisms, noting that the researchers considered whether increased mortality might have led to more loans rather thanthe other way around.
Instead, they found that the increase in tuberculosis mortality followed the lending; each 1 percent increase in credit was associated with a 0.9 percent increase in mortality. And when a country left an I.M.F. loan programme,mortality rates dropped by an average of 31 percent.
"When you have one correlation, you raise an eyebrow," Stuckler said. "But when you have more than 20 correlations pointing in the same direction, you start building a strong case for causality," he was quoted as saying by the New York Times. PTI RAP
