Coker R, Atun R, McKee M (editors). Health Systems and the Challenge of Communicable Diseases; Experiences from Europe and Latin America.

Abstract

Coker R, Atun R, McKee M (editors). Health Systems and the Challenge of Communicable Diseases; Experiences from Europe and Latin America. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press, 2008. ISBN13: 9780335233656, 266 pp, £70.00 (hardcover) . The break-up of the Soviet Union and the change of regimes in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe around 1990 had significant consequences for health and health services in these parts of the world. This in turn let to a rise in research in these areas. Initially this research was centred around the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in collaboration with scientists from the countries involved and was primarily financed by grants from NGO foundations, such as The Soros Foundation. Eventually, this work became an integral part of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, which is now behind the production of the present book. Just one on a long list of highly relevant publications on health services. The editors start the first chapter of this magnificent book by the following sentence: ‘This book is about countries undergoing rapid political, economic and social transition.’ True, many of the well-presented examples in subsequent chapters deal …