Do the poor benefit from infectious disease programmes?
Citation: Thiede MH, Castillo-Riquelme M (2010). How pro-poor are infectious disease programmes? TropIKA Reviews; 1(1). Background Infectious diseases and poverty are closely linked in a vicious circle; the poor are more likely to become sick and when they are ill their poverty worsens. When a programme is introduced to improve prevention or treatment of an infection, it is assumed that this will help everyone in the community – particularly the poor, who are at greatest risk of acquiring the disease. However, studies have found that deprived groups may benefit less from these interventions than the general population. This has led to much discussion about the need for infectious disease and other health care interventions to be specifically “pro-poor”. This term is often used very loosely and has never been precisely defined, but it is clear that it is not enough for an intervention to be of some help to low-income groups; the level of benefit to the poor should be assessed in the con
