Countries in Asia and the Pacific have reached unprecedented levels of prosperity, but millions of people are still mired in poverty and poor health, with no sign of their being able to breach the barrier to better medical care. Despite irrefutable evidence of this troubling gap between rich and poor, few governments and health specialists have access to the data they need to address the problem.

Jointly produced by WHO’s Regional Offices for South-East Asia and the Western Pacific, Health in Asia and the Pacific provides information resource covering the entire Asia Pacific Region and containing up-to-date reports on health trends and health systems. The book is aimed at providing the countries with the truly pan-regional information they need to provide better health for all comes at a crucial time when global economic downturn threatens to dry up public funds and crimp governments’ spending power.

The book highlights differences and similarities across the Asia Pacific Region and clarifies obstacles to achieving good health. The challenges in many areas of public health, such as equity, human resources, health promotion, health service delivery and the social determinants of health, cannot be adequately described by numbers alone. It sets out to evaluate, address and monitor progress in health, and provides a narrative of many aspects of the current health situation in the Region, supported by the statistical data. This publication is aimed at a wide audience with the belief that national health authorities, policy-makers, scholars, researchers, health workers and others dedicated to the advancement of public health in the Asia Pacific Region will find it to be an invaluable resource, which provides evidence crucial for sound policies and decisions.

• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Acronymns
• Executive summary
• Chapter 1: Introduction

Section A: Determinants of Health

• Chapter 2: Social determinants of health
• Chapter 3: Demographic trends
• Chapter 4: Environmental trends

Section B: The Regional Health Situation

• Chapter 5: Mortality
• Chapter 6: Burden of disease
• Chapter 7: Priority communicable diseases
• Chapter 8: Priority noncommunicable diseases and conditions
• Chapter 9: Reproductive health, child and adolescent health,
                   nutrition, and health for older persons

Section C:  Health Systems Development

• Chapter 10: Health systems
• Chapter 11: Health resources
• Chapter 12: Public health functions

Chapter 13: Key health challenges in the Asia Pacific Region

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