Towards the Peoples Health Assembly Book -2
A healthcare worker manual. 2nd edition
The development of this National Manual for the Management of HIV-related Opportunistic Infections and Conditions for use by health care workers at the frontline of our fight against HIV/AIDS is intended to improve their understanding of the causes, preventio...n and appropriate management of opportunistic infections and conditions in adults and adolescents (OIs in children is covered effectively in the Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses – IMCI – materials). It is also intended to be a practical guide at the clinic level, so as to improve quality of life, treatment outcomes and survival of PLHA. Crucially, this manual uses a “symptom-based” approach to support health care workers at the most basic primary level to be able to effectively initiate the care of PLHA with OIs and refer patients as appropriate (effective triage of patients at the primary care level). The result of this will be to move the management of OIs closer to the patient while ensuring that referral links with higher-level facilities and care is cultivated.
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To survive and thrive, children and adolescents need good health, adequate nutrition, security, safety and a supportive clean environment, opportunities for early learning and education, responsive relationships and connectedness, and opportunities for personal autonomy and self-realization. To prom...ote their health and wellbeing, children and adolescents need support from parents, families, communities, surrounding institutions, and an enabling environment. Scheduled well care visits provide a critical opportunity for support of individual children, adolescents, parents, caregivers and families promote health and wellbeing. This guidance on scheduled child and adolescent well-care visits is the first in a series of publications to support the operationalization of the comprehensive agenda for child and adolescent health and wellbeing. It provides guidance on what is required to strengthen health systems and services to ensure healthy growth and development of all children and adolescents, and to support their parents and caregivers.
The guidance focuses on scheduled routine contacts with providers to support children and adolescents in their growth and developmental trajectory, as well as their primary caregivers and families. It outlines the rationale and objectives of well care visits and proposes a minimum 17 scheduled visits; describes the expected tasks during a contact; provides age-specific content to be address during each contact; and proposes actions to build on and maximize existing opportunities and resources.
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World Health Organization. (2022). Toolkit for developing a multisectoral action plan for noncommunicable diseases: module 4: developing an implementation plan.
The coronavirus outbreak that began in 2019 (COVID-19) threatens to reverse years of hard-won gains in preventing and treating HIV. Fragile health systems are further stressed as health workers navigate an increased client load and demands at work while also being concerned for their own health and ...that of their families. Health facilities have been redesigned to care for patients with COVID-19, posing challenges to other services. Governments and civil society organizations have redirected scarce resources and shifted programming priorities to respond to the pandemic. Several countries have reported intermittent declines in HIV testing and diagnosis, antenatal care visits, collection of antiretroviral medicines (ARVs) by people living with HIV, and attendance at clinic appointments. Community-based education and support programmes have had to rapidly adapt to restrictions on movement and public gatherings. Children, adolescents, and women have experienced multiple deprivations due to the adverse impact of the pandemic.
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PEPFAR Malawi’s Country Operational Plan 2022 (COP22) embodies joint priorities from national and subnational dialogues building on the 2020-2025 National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS. The interagency team has developed a person-centered, district-tailored and Malawi Population-Based HIV Impact Ass...essment (MPHIA)-informed strategy through extensive engagement with Government of Malawi (GoM) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to sustain HIV epidemic control. At the end of COP21, PEPFAR Malawi was commended for contributing to reaching epidemic control in strong collaboration with GoM and stakeholders including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund). This includes enrollment of 88% of recipients of care on three or more months of antiretroviral treatment (ART), better outcomes for Malawian children through remarkable efforts in Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) programming and progress made towards reaching men with more intentional and focused programming.
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Malawi is a landlocked country with a surface area of 118,484 km2. Administratively, the country is divided into three regions, namely the Northern, Central and Southern regions. The country has 28 districts, which are further divided into traditional authorities (TA) ruled by chiefs. The TAs are su...b-divided into villages, which form the smallest administrative units. The Village Development Committees (VDCs) under the TAs are responsible for development activities. Politically, each district is divided into constituencies that are represented by Members of Parliament (MPs) in the National Assembly for purposes of legislations. Constituencies are further divided into wards which are represented by a ward councillor at district assembly.
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Time has seen management for Cystic Fibrosis (CF) advance drastically, most recently in the development of the disease-modifying triple combination therapy ivacaftor/tezacaftor/elexacaftor. There is currently limited evidence regarding both the global epidemiology of CF and access to this transforma...tive therapy - and therefore where needs are not being met. Therefore, this study aims to define gaps in access to CF treatment. The results show that a significant CF patient burden exists in countries where disease-modifying drugs are unavailable, and final figures are likely underestimates. This analysis shows the potential to improve rates of diagnosis and treatment for CF, so a higher percentage of patients receive the most effective triple combination treatment.
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