Lancet Glob Health 2020; 8: e341–51
Francophone Africa still carries a high burden of communicable and neonatal diseases, probably due to the weakness of health-care systems and services, as evidenced by the almost complete attribution of DALYs to YLLs. To cope with this burden of disease, franco...phone Africa should define its priorities and invest more resources in health-system strengthening and in the quality and quantity of health-care services, especially in rural and remote areas. The region could also be prioritised in terms of technical and financial assistance focused on achieving these goals, as much as on demographic investments including education and family planning
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Regional Network for Equity in Health in east and southern Africa (EQUINET): Disussion Paper 111
The health services delivery system in Zambia is pyramid in structure, with primary healthcare (PHC) services at community level, at the base, followed by first and second level hospitals at distric...t and provincial levels, respectively, and third level (tertiary) services at national level. Notably, primary health services are free in Zambia and health service providers are either governmentowned or not-for-profit facilities.
Over the years, resource constraints have affected the quality and extent of healthcare services at all levels, requiring the mobilisation of additional resources for the sector. In doing so, prioritisation was high on the agenda of health sector reform. The EHB, therefore, prioritises interventions with the highest impact on the population, enabling policy makers to revisit priority diseases and conditions and to cost the services provided at each level of facility. Other key issues in developing the EHB in Zambia have included the need to have cost-effective services and cost per capita of services for more systematic budgeting, to rank interventions and to validate and cost the health benefit package as a whole.
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Protecting Patients, Supporting Practitioners in Tandem.
HRI Global is an independent health consultancy which specialises in Whole Health System Strengthening in the public and private sector by implementing the 12-Pillar Clinical Governance Programme (12-PCGP) in primary, secondary and tertiary h...ealth facilities/institutions; by working with the management and staff of the institutions and with local and national government. The programme protects patients and supports practitioners in tandem, enabling the facilities to become clinically governed to deliver quality and patient-centered care.
HRI Global is the founder and lead implementer of the 12-Pillar Clinical Governance Programme, which was designed and piloted in Cross River State, Nigeria, in 2004. HRI Global’s home-grown version of Clinical Governance is suitable for low and middle income countries (LMICs) in both government and privately-owned health facilities.
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Ethiopia has seen high economic growth over the last decade, but remains a poor country with a high burden of disease. It has made considerable health gains in recent years, mainly by having health policies that focus on extending primary healthcare, using health extension workers. It... has made good use of existing resources,but has a low health expenditure (of around US$21 per capita, and totalling 4per centof GDP). It has a federal system with devolved healthcare financing, whereby block grants are allocated to sectors at regional and woreda(district) level. The challenge now,with the epidemiological transition (and a sense that the ‘low-hanging fruits’have already been gathered in relation to public health), is how Ethiopia, still poor, continuesto invest in health improvements?Human resources for health (HRH) are a critical pillar within any health system –the health staff combine inputs to provide the services, thus affecting how all other resources are used, and they make frontline (and back-office) decisions thatare importantdeterminants of servicequality,effectiveness and equity. HRH is usually the most resource-intensive element within the health system –commonly absorbing 50–70per centof public expenditure onhealth, although the proportions are very varied by individual countries and across regions. As they are commonly part of the public administration, reforms to HRH are also part of a complex political economy in most countries.Assessing value for money (VfM) in relation to HRH is correspondingly complex;across the value chain, manyfactors influence the conversion of inputs into outputs and outcomes (see Figure 1).A more detailed description of the HRH value chain can be found in Annex1.
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asthma is a chronic inflammatory and a heterogeneous condition of respiratory system whose pathogenesis is linked with variable structural changes. The clinical manifestation of asthma includes attacks of breathlessness, cough, chest tightness and wheezing. Provision of basic equipment and test for ...asthma diagnosis and access to essential medicines by asthmatic patients reduces morbidity and mortality rates. Significant progress has been made in the diagnosis and management of asthma in other countries but not in the health care delivery system in Zimbabwe. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop algorithm for asthma diagnosis and management for Zimbabwe.
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The Planetary Health Report Card is a student-driven, metric-based initiative to inspire planetary health and sustainable healthcare education engagement in medical schools. In addition to inspiring expansion of medical school curricula, we hope to inspire medical schools to expand research efforts,... engage with communities most affected by climate change and environmental injustice, support passionate medical students who are trying to organize around planetary health at the institutional level, and implement sustainable practices. A set of metrics in these five category areas allows students and faculty to conduct a needs assessment at their medical school.
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Given an increase in outbreaks caused by resistant microorganisms associated with medical tourism, the Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) encourages Member States to strengthen their capacity to detect and manage infections caused by resis...tant microorganismsin patients who traveled outside of their country of residence to receive healthcare. Furthermore, PAHO/WHO stresses the importance to implement preventive measures to reduce healthcare-associated infections at all levels of the health system.
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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).
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In the wake of the Covid‑19 Pandemic, parts of the public health system at increased risk of reduced efficiency include healthcare services for women and children. This in turn could reverse all the progress achieved over the years in reducing maternal and child mortality. In th...is study, an attempt has been made to assess the indirect effect of the pandemic on maternal and child health services in public health facilities.
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In recent decades, there have been concerted efforts to improve mental health services for youths alongside the challenges of rising healthcare costs and increasing demand for mental health needs. One important phenomenon is the shift from traditional clinic-based care to community based mental heal...th services to improve accessibility to services and provide patient-centred care. In this article, we discuss the child and adolescent community mental health efforts within the Asia-Pacific region.
Brain Sci.2017,7, 126; doi:10.3390/brainsci7100126
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According to the World Health Organization (WHO), sub-Saharan Africa has only 3% of the world’s health workers to cater for 11% of the world population, bearing over 25% of the global disease burden (WHO, 2014). With a steady increase in reported cases on the African Continent, the current COVID-1...9 pandemic threatens to overwhelm our already taxed health infrastructure. It is, therefore, imperative to take serious and urgent measures towards disease management and monitoring especially as the need for self-quarantine and contact surveillance rises.
In view of the infrastructural and resource gaps, technology should be considered for remote management of healthcare deliver to patients during this period. As it is abundantly clear, even countries with more advanced healthcare infrastructure and resources have struggled to treat COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients during this pandemic.
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Accessed Dec.5, 2018.
The latest instalment of our special report from inside Venezuela exposes a healthcare system where drugs and doctors are harder and harder to come by, and shortages of water and electricity help disease and death thrive.
Accessed on 29.11.2021
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Insights from international food system experts, edited by Zoe Craig
Food and Climate
Food and Culture
Food and Environment
Food and Health
Food and Healthcare
The document "Global Report on Diabetes" by the World Health Organization (WHO) provides an in-depth analysis of diabetes as a global health challenge. It covers the rising prevalence of the disease, the associated risk factors, and the increasing burden on healthcare systems, particularly in low- a...nd middle-income countries. The report discusses strategies for preventing Type 2 diabetes, managing diabetes effectively, and reducing complications through integrated healthcare approaches. It emphasizes the need for global action, national policies, and collaboration across sectors to address diabetes and improve health outcomes worldwide.
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China is one of the major countries for the production and use of antibacterial agents. Antibacterial agents are widely used in healthcare and animal husbandry. It plays a significant role in treating infections and saving patient lives, preventing and treating animal diseases, improving farming ef...ficiency, and guaranteeing public health security. However, antimicrobial resistance has become increasingly prominent due to insufficient research and development capacity of new antimicrobials, sales of antimicrobials without prescriptions in pharmacies, irrational use of antibacterial agents in medical and food animal sectors, non-compliant waste emissions of pharmaceutical enterprises, as well as lack of public awareness toward rational use of antimicrobials. Bacterial resistance ultimately affects human health, but the cause of bacterial resistance and consequences are beyond the health sector. Antimicrobial resistance brings increasing biosecurity threats, worsens environmental pollution, constrains economic development and other adverse effects to human society, thus, there is an urgent need to strengthen multi-sectoral and multi-domain collaborative planning to jointly cope with this issue.
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The World Heart Federation (WHF) commenced a Roadmap initiative in 2015 to reduce the global burden of cardiovascular disease and resultant burgeoning of healthcare costs. Roadmaps provide a blueprint for implementation of priority solutions for the principal cardiovascular diseases leading to death... and disability. Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of these conditions and is an increasing problem due to ageing of the world’s population and an increase in cardiovascular risk factors that predispose to AF. The goal of the AF roadmap was to provide guidance on priority interventions that are feasible in multiple countries, and to identify roadblocks and potential strategies to overcome them.
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Background:Neonatal mortality accounts for 43% of global under-five deaths and is decreasing more slowly than maternal or child mortality. Donor funding has increased for maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH), but no analysis to date has disaggregated aid for newborns. We evaluated if and how a...id flows for newborn care can be tracked, examined changes in the last decade, and considered methodological implications for tracking funding for specific population groups or diseases. MethodsandFindings:We critically reviewed and categorised previous analyses of aid to specific populations, diseases, or types of activities. We then developed and refined key terms related to newborn survival in seven languages and searched titles and descriptions of donor disbursement records in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Creditor Reporting System database, 2002–2010. We compared results with the Countdown to 2015 database of aid for MNCH (2003–2008) and the search strategy used by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Prior to 2005, key terms related to newborns were rare in disbursement records but their frequency increased markedly thereafter. Only two mentions were found of ‘‘stillbirth’’ and only nine references were found to ‘‘fetus’’ in any spelling variant or language
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Some of the key findings of the report include:
Almost 80% of the general public are concerned about developing dementia at some point and 1 in 4 people think that there is nothing we can do to prevent dementia
35% of carers across the world said that they have hidden the diagnosis of de...mentia of a family member
Over 50% of carers globally say their health has suffered as a result of their caring responsibilities even whilst expressing positive sentiments about their role
Almost 62% of healthcare providers worldwide think that dementia is part of normal ageing
40% of the general public think doctors and nurses ignore people with dementia
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It is now well known that there is a pandemic of Type 2 Diabetes in the world particularly in developing countries. This fact has several implications for the health care system in the developing countries because this condition is associated with metabolic and vascular complications which in turn i...ncreases the mortality and health care costs and compromises the quality and life expectancy of the society.
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The Indigenous tribe called the Wiwa lives retracted in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. Little is known about their health status and whether the health care system in place covers their needs.