In 2015, WHO proposed the use of the Robson classification (also known as the 10-group classification) as a global standard for assessing, monitoring and comparing caesarean section rates both within healthcare facilities and between them. The system classifies all women into one of 10 categories t...hat are mutually exclusive and, as a set, totally comprehensive. The categories are based on 5 basic obstetric characteristics that are routinely collected in all maternities (parity, number of foetuses, previous caesarean section, onset of labour, gestational age, and fetal presentation).
more
Updated Guideline.
The Emergency Triage Assessment and Treatment (ETAT) guidelines provide guidance on the most common emergency conditions in children presenting at the health facility. These include but are not limited to airway obstruction and other breathing problems; circulatory impairment or ...shock; severely altered CNS function (coma or convulsive seizures); and severe dehydration which require urgent appropriate care to prevent death.
more
Integrated community case management (ICCM) – an approach where community-based health workers are trained to identify, treat and refer children under-five with pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria – is increasingly being used across sub-Saharan Africa to supplement the gaps in basic healthcare prov...ision. ICCM programmes have been endorsed by major international organisations and donors, and many African Ministries of Health as a key strategy for reducing child mortality.
This learning paper describes Malaria Consortium’s approach to and experience of engaging local communities in integrated community case management (ICCM) in Uganda, Zambia and Mozambique.
more
For the Fiscal Year 2014-2015, the Health Sector continued to implement interventions and strategies meant to improve the availability, accessibility and utilization of quality healthcare services across public and private health facilities; and to ensure the reduction of the burden of communicable ...and non-communicable diseases in Rwanda. This annual report highlights key achievements registered by the health sector during the Fiscal Year 2014-2015. Achievements are highlighted under three big components: Health Programs, Health Systems Support and Budget Execution.
more
Nigeria is committed to end preventable newborn deaths, making life-saving interventions available to all mothers and babies who need them.
A practical approach for developing policy and strategy to improve quality of care
The handbook outlines an approach for the development of national policies and strategies to improve the quality of care. Such policy and strategy can help clarify the structures, roles and responsibilities within n...ational quality efforts, support the institutionalization of a culture of quality, and secure buy-in from health system leaders and stakeholders
more
Policy brief, 24 July 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected older people disproportionately, especially those living in long-term care facilities. In many countries, evidence shows that more than 40% of COVID-19 related deaths have been linked to long-term care facilities, with figures being as h...igh as 80% in some high-income countries. Concerted action is needed to mitigate the impact across all aspects of long-term care, including home- and community-based care, given that most users and providers of care are those who are vulnerable to severe COVID-19.
This policy brief provides 11 policy objectives and key action points to prevent and manage COVID-19 across long-term care. Its intended audience is policy makers and authorities (national, subnational and local) involved in the COVID-19 pandemic. The brief builds on currently available evidence on the measures taken to prevent, prepare for and respond to the COVID‑19 pandemic across long-term care services including care providers
more
For the primary health worker in a low/middle-income country (LMIC) setting, delivering quality primary care is challenging. This is often complicated by clinical guidance that is out of date, inconsistent and informed by evidence from high-income countries that ignores LMIC resource constraints and... burden of disease. The Knowledge Translation Unit (KTU) of the University of Cape Town Lung Institute has developed, implemented and evaluated a health systems intervention in South Africa, and localised it to Botswana, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Brazil, that simplifies and standardises the care delivered by primary health workers while strengthening the system in which they work. At the core of this intervention, called Practical Approach to Care Kit (PACK), is a clinical decision support tool, the PACK guide. This paper describes the development of the guide over an 18-year period and explains the design features that have addressed what the patient, the clinician and the health system need from clinical guidance, and have made it, in the words of a South African primary care nurse, ‘A tool for every day for every patient’. It describes the lessons learnt during the development process that the KTU now applies to further development, maintenance and in-country localisation of the guide: develop clinical decision support in context first, involve local stakeholders in all stages, leverage others’ evidence databases to remain up to date and ensure content development, updating and localisation articulate with implementation.
more
Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) remain disproportionately affected by HIV in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA), with 26 per cent of new infections attributed to this population. AGYW face many personal, social and structural barriers to access, uptake and use of traditional HIV prevention me...thods. Oral Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is proven to be highly effective as an additional prevention choice for reducing the risk of HIV acquisition, including for AGYW. Successful uptake and adherence to PrEP is critical in its effectiveness as an HIV prevention method, however, the current demand for PrEP by AGYW is low with suboptimal adherence.
Within the ESA region, there is currently great impetus to address these challenges and scale up PrEP for AGYW. A critical aspect of this is to leverage the learnings and evidence from implementation of how to improve the demand and quality of PrEP programming for this population. Improving the Quality of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Implementation for Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Eastern and Southern Africa examines the current efforts in the region to accelerate and scale up evidence-based PrEP delivery platforms. The implementation brief provides current knowledge and builds on WHO guidance to provide key considerations for implementation, including driving demand and improving quality, as well as focus on wider combination prevention and integration agendas.
more
Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) is an integrated approach to child health that focuses on the holistic well-being of the child. IMCI aims to reduce death, illness and disability, and to promote improved growth and development among children under five years of age. IMCI includes bo...th preventive and curative elements that are implemented by families and communities as well as by health facilities.
This booklet contains useful information on childhood sickness and offers practical guidance on diagnosis and treatment of said illnesses. it is divided into 2 parts, one for infants (new born until 2 months) and from 2 months to 5 years. It also includes:
Antiretroviral Therapy ART) treatment for children
Skin problems
Counselling the mother or caregiver on infant and you child feeding
more
This recommendation is an update of one of the 49 recommendations that were published in the WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience. The recommendation was developed initially using the standardized operating procedures described in the WHO handbook for guideline d...evelopment.
In summary, the process included: (i) identification of priority question and outcomes; (ii) retrieval of evidence; (iii) assessment and synthesis of the evidence; (iv) formulation of recommendation; and (v) planning for the implementation, dissemination, impact evaluation and updating of the recommendation. This recommendation was identified by the Executive Guideline Steering Group (GSG) as a high priority for updating in response to new evidence on this question.
more
The GFF needs an additional US$2.5 billion from 2021 to 2025 to enable countries to protect health gains and accelerate progress toward the 2030 Goals. Of this amount, the GFF urgently needs to secure new pledges of US$1.2 billion by the end of 2021 to help its current 36 partner countries protect ...and maintain essential health services and implement time-sensitive service delivery and health system improvements to enable a sharp bend of the curve back to a positive trajectory to close the gap to the SDGs.
more