One of the Human Development Reports, possibly 2004, had an interesting section describing "missing men", somewhat parallel to "missing women" but for very different reasons. For the Russians it was cutbacks in healthcare, exacerbated with alcoholism that increased mortality rates for men.
Cheers, Anthony On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 5:34 PM, Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The New York Times / July 22, 2008 > > Rise in TB Is Linked to Loans From I.M.F. > By NICHOLAS BAKALAR > > The rapid rise in tuberculosis cases in Eastern Europe and the former > Soviet Union is strongly associated with the receipt of loans from the > International Monetary Fund, a new study has found. > > Critics of the fund have suggested that its financial requirements > lead governments to reduce spending on health care to qualify for > loans. This, the authors say, helps explain the connection. > > The fund strongly disputes the finding, saying the former communist > countries would be much worse 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 of tuberculosis deaths. > > The study, being published online Tuesday in the journal PLoS > Medicine, statistically controlled for numerous other factors that > affect tuberculosis rates, including the prevalence of AIDS, inflation > rates, urbanization, unemployment rates, the age of the population and > improved surveillance. > > 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 than the 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 program, mortality rates dropped by an average of 31 > percent. > > "When you have one correlation, you raise an eyebrow," Mr. Stuckler > said. "But when you have more than 20 correlations pointing in the > same direction, you start building a strong case for causality." > > Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company > -- > Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own > way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Anthony P. D'Costa Professor of Indian Studies Asia Research Centre Copenhagen Business School Porcelaenshaven 24, 3 DK-2000 Frederiksberg Denmark Email:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Ph: +45 3815 2572 Fax: +45 3815 2500 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
