Erschienen in:
01.02.2015 | Editorial Perspective
The Global Paediatric Surgery Network: A Model of Subspecialty Collaboration Within Global Surgery
verfasst von:
Marilyn W. Butler, Doruk Ozgediz, Dan Poenaru, Emmanuel Ameh, Safwat Andrawes, Georges Azzie, Eric Borgstein, Daniel A. DeUgarte, Essam Elhalaby, Michael E. Ganey, J. Ted Gerstle, Erik N. Hansen, Afua Hesse, Kokila Lakhoo, Sanjay Krishnaswami, Monica Langer, Marc Levitt, Don Meier, Ashish Minocha, Benedict C. Nwomeh, Lukman O. Abdur-Rahman, David Rothstein, John Sekabira
Erschienen in:
World Journal of Surgery
|
Ausgabe 2/2015
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Excerpt
Attention to surgical conditions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has increased in recent years. Because half of the population in the world’s poorest countries are children [
1], paediatric surgical conditions compose a significant proportion of the global burden of disease (BoD), and there are critical shortages in workforce and skills to treat these diseases in LMICs. Several population-based studies have highlighted the magnitude of the need for paediatric surgery and the limited capacity, both in human resources and in infrastructure, to tackle the problem [
2,
3]. Africa, in particular, has a grave shortage of paediatric surgeons. The number of fully trained paediatric surgeons ranges from 1 in Malawi (population 13 million) to 120 in Egypt (population of 80 million). In more than half of African countries, no full-time paediatric surgeon is available [
4,
5]. LMICs in other world regions have a similar challenge. The problem is not only limited to a poor ratio of qualified health professionals to the population, but also a significant shortage of healthcare assistants, poor primary care, delayed referral to specialists, and extensive access challenges [
6]. Children in areas of conflict and disaster face exceptional challenges in having their surgical needs met [
7,
8]. Despite this burden of paediatric surgical disease in LMICs, child health programs and donor funding have not prioritized surgical services, focusing instead on communicable diseases. …
