The Right to Health in Practice

Joseph Robert Fitchett (1)

1 Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases

In the current era of globalization, the world is diversifying as never before. Inequalities in economic, social, spiritual, political and civil matters characterise daily life. Estimates consider 80% of global disease burden lies in "developing" or low-income countries, based on crude calculations by disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) [1]. And measures do not seem to be in place to redress these inequalities. For instance, the Commission on Health Research Development estimated, albeit several years ago, that 90% of all global research and development expenditure is dedicated to 10% of the world's disease burden, primarily concentrated in wealthier countries [2]. Today, there may be a new climate of awareness maturing. Governments representing "developed" or high-income countries often discuss the urgent need to help the world's poorest or rescue the "bottom billion" from devastating illness [3-4]. However the optimistic rhetoric is not always matched by foreign policy and international trade agreements (consider TRIPS [5], the World Trade Organization's Trade-Related Aspects of International Property Rights Agreement consolidating strict patent rules worldwide with significant impact on access to essential medicines). The following perspective provides a comprehensive overview of the right to health and proposes a human rights-based approach to health as a sustainable framework that transcends borders for justice in healthcare.

Mots clés: Medicine

Joseph Robert Fitchett. The Right to Health in Practice. International Journal of Clinical Practice, 2011, 65 (3), pp.245. ⟨10.1111/j.1742-1241.2010.02550.x⟩. ⟨hal-00614650⟩