Surgical Services Should Be A Global Public Health Priority, Say PLoS Editors

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Main Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Primary Care / General Practice;  Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 26 Aug 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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Five major reasons why universal surgical services should be considered a public health priority were published by the editors of PLoS Medicine in a piece released on August 25, 2008.

They define surgical conditions as any situations that require suture, incision, excision, manipulation, or any invasive procedures, usually with the influence of anesthesia. The editors put forth the following reasons for these conditions' importance in the public health spectrum:

• The world's burden of disease is significantly composed of surgical conditions. According to one estimate, this is as high as 11%. 
• While developing areas suffer from more surgical problems than the rest of the world, it still suffers from a shortage of surgeons and surgical procedures. 
• When compared with other  major global public health interventions, such as childhood vaccination, surgical conditions can be enormously cost effective. 
• The infrastructure, supplies, and human resources that are necessary for surgery will contribute to the abilities of primary care as it helps strengthen health systems. 
• Surgical services are possible even in settings with highly constrained resources, despite considerable hurdles. In one example, they discuss the crisis in sub-Saharan Africa.

Today, the editors say, surgeons and globacl public health professionals are coming together in a movement to promote surgery as one of the important tools in global public health.

The editors are conscious of the funding restraints of such a task: "How can this movement now bring donors on board given that they have so far shown little willingness to fund programs outside the traditional purview of public health?" They suggest that surgery has enormous relevance to the 2015 United Nations Millennium Development Goals, the plan of development agreed to by all countries and leading institutions of development. 

For instance, Goal 4, which focuses on reducing child mortality, and Goal 5, which aims to improve maternal health, will both be improved by surgical services through trauma care, obstetric surgery, and general surgical services. Even Goal 6, targeting infectious diseases, can be address through procedures such as male circumcision, which has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV transmission.

For more information about the Millenium Development goals, please visit: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/.

A crucial role for surgery in reaching the UN Millennium Development Goals.
The PLoS Medicine Editors
PLoS Med 5(8): e182.
doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050182
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Written by Anna Sophia McKenney
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