The World Health Organization has produced a new publication titled Improving access to medicines for neurological disorders, addressing the multifaceted barriers to accessing neurological medications and proposing strategic initiatives to overcome these obstacles.
Neurological disorders are the leading cause of disability globally and access to essential medicines for neurological disorders remains a critical global health challenge.
The Improving access to medicines for neurological disorders report comprehensively describes the status of access to medicines for neurological disorders worldwide. Using epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease as tracer conditions, it highlights the wide unavailability and unaffordability of these medicines, explores the different health system barriers affecting access, and showcases special scenarios where some of the challenges can be exacerbated. The report offers a framework for multi-level, multi-sectoral actions, and serves as a call to action for all stakeholders to commit to tangible, sustainable improvements in the accessibility of medicines for neurological disorders.
The report is intended for use by policy-makers, public health professionals, health programme managers and planners, healthcare insurance authorities, health-care providers, researchers, the pharmaceutical industry, and prescribers working in national health ministries, in subnational health offices, or at the district level, as well as health initiatives led by nongovernmental organisations.
Download a PDF of the publication via the WHO website, here.
