South Africa has a long history of community health workers (CHWs). It has been a journey that has required balancing constrained resources and competing priorities. CHWs form a bridge between communities and healthcare service provision within health facilities and act as the cornerstone of South A...frica’s Ward-Based Primary Healthcare Outreach Teams. This study aimed to document the CHW policy implementation landscape across six provinces in South Africa and explore the reasons for local adaptation of CHW models and to identify potential barriers and facilitators to implementation of the revised framework to help guide and inform future planning.
more
This publication provides a practical tool to support countries in strengthening surveillance of WASH in schools. The findings will inform the development of supportive regulations and improvement planning to safeguard children’s health, well-being, dignity and cognitive performance. The tool also... enables countries to use the data collected to facilitate policy dialogue and inform international reporting, including on progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal targets related to WASH in schools.
more
Supplement Article
www.jaids.com J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr Volume 78, Supplement 1, August 15, 2018
Original research article
Contraception 97 (2018) 439–444
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2018.01.003
0010-7824/© 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.
High quality of care in family planning (FP) services has been found to be associated with increased and continued use of contraceptive methods. The interpersonal skills and technical competence of the provider is one of the main components of quality of care. To study the process component of quali...ty of care, the distribution of the FP counseling topics was examined by client, provider and facility characteristics. To assess the outcomes of quality of care, client satisfaction and their knowledge of their method’s protection from STIs were used. This study examined the factors associated with these outcomes with a focus on provider counseling and training.
more
Thirty-three years after its discovery, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), responsible for the AIDS pandemic, remains a major public health problem despite advanced researches providing better diagnostic and therapeutic tools. The virus targets especially CD4+ T cells, leading to deficiency of ...the immune system and altering therefore defense against infections and cancer cells. Antiretroviral
more
Objective: To review research on associations of trauma type with PTSD in the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) surveys, a series of epidemiological surveys that obtained representative data on trauma-specific PTSD.
Follow up to the Maseru Declaration. ZIMBABWE COUNTRY REPORT
Reporting Period: January 2013 - December 2013
The Kabeho Mwana project (2006–2011) supported the Rwanda Ministry of Health (MOH) in scaling up integrated community case management (iCCM) of childhood illness in 6 of Rwanda’s 30 districts. The project trained and equipped community health workers (CHWs) according to national guidelines. In p...roject districts, Kabeho Mwana staff also trained CHWs to conduct household-level health promotion and established supervision and reporting mechanisms through CHW peer support groups (PSGs) and quality improvement systems. The iCCM model implemented by Kabeho Mwana resulted in greater improvements in care-seeking than those seen in the rest of the country. Intensive monitoring, collaborative supervision, community mobilization, and CHW PSGs contributed to this success. The PSGs were a unique contribution of the project, playing a critical role in improving care-seeking in project districts. Effective implementation of iCCM should therefore include CHW management and social support mechanisms. Finally, re-analysis of national survey data improved evaluation findings by providing impact estimates.
more
Background. Children and adolescents can develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after exposure to a range of traumatic events, including domestic, political or community violence, violent crime, physical and sexual abuse, hijacking, witnessing a violent crime and motor vehicle accidents. This... is particularly critical given the substantial challenge that PTSD poses to the healthy physical, cognitive and emotional development of children and adolescents.
more
Global cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden is high and rising, especially in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Focussing on 45 LMICs, we aimed to determine (1) the adult population’s median 10-year predicted CVD risk, including its variation within countries by socio-demographic char...acteristics, and (2) the prevalence of self-reported blood pressure (BP) medication use among those with and without an indication for such medication as per World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.
more
Supplement article
The Journal of Infectious Diseases® 2017;216(S7):S675–8
DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jix368
Finding the Missing Tuberculosis Patients • JID 2017:216 (Suppl 7) • S675
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jid/article-abstract/216/suppl_7/S675/4595547
by guest on 13 Nove...mber 2017
more
Research Article
BMC Infectious Diseases 2014, 14:91/1471-2334/14/91
Leishmaniases are a group of diseases of zoonotic importance caused by over 20 species of protozoa of the genus Leishmania, in which domestic dogs are considered to be the main reservoir for the disease. However, the involvement of other vertebrates as reservoirs for these parasites has also been in...vestigated. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to carry out a systematic review with meta-analysis on occurrences of leishmaniasis in equids. The case reports described animals with cutaneous symptoms of leishmaniasis (papules, nodules, ulcers or crusts) that regressed spontaneously, located mainly on the head and limbs, from which three species of protozoa were identified in the lesions: Leishmania braziliensis, Leishmania infantum and Leishmania siamensis. In turn, the meta-analysis showed a combined prevalence of 25%, although with high heterogeneity among the studies, which was attributed to the use of different methods for diagnosing the disease. Leishmaniasis in equids is a benign disease but it should be included in the differential diagnosis of cutaneous diseases among these species. Seroepidemiological studies are important in investigating and monitoring suspected exposure of these hosts to the parasite, especially in endemic areas. However, there is also a need to standardize diagnostic methods.
more
COVID-19 infection affects all age groups including newborns, however, literature is scarce on the fetal and neonatal outcomes of babies exposed in-utero, especially in Africa. The objectiveof this study was to document the perinatal outcomes of COVID-19 pregnancies and del...iveries that occurredduring the pandemic in Nigeria.
more
Volume 2019, Article ID 4157574, 7 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/4157574
PlosOne https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161576; Zoonotic diseases have varying public health burden and socio-economic impact across time and geographical settings making their prioritization for prevention and control important at the national level. We conducted systematic prioritization of ...zoonotic diseases and developed a ranked list of these diseases that would guide allocation of resources to enhance their surveillance, prevention, and control.
more
PlosOne December 10, 2014 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111913
Plastic pollution is ubiquitous throughout the marine environment, yet estimates of the global abundance and weight of floating plastics have lacked data, particularly from the Southern Hemisphere and remote regions. Here we re...port an estimate of the total number of plastic particles and their weight floating in the world's oceans from 24 expeditions (2007–2013) across all five sub-tropical gyres, costal Australia, Bay of Bengal and the Mediterranean Sea conducting surface net tows (N = 680) and visual survey transects of large plastic debris (N = 891). Using an oceanographic model of floating debris dispersal calibrated by our data, and correcting for wind-driven vertical mixing, we estimate a minimum of 5.25 trillion particles weighing 268,940 tons. When comparing between four size classes, two microplastic <4.75 mm and meso- and macroplastic >4.75 mm, a tremendous loss of microplastics is observed from the sea surface compared to expected rates of fragmentation, suggesting there are mechanisms at play that remove <4.75 mm plastic particles from the ocean surface.
more
Published: 5 January 2010 Received: 30 January 2009
BMC Neurology 2010, 10:1 doi:10.1186/1471-2377-10-1
This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2377/10/1
Lymphatic filariasis (LF) infection if untreated results in fluid accumulation in the limbs or breasts (lymphedema) or genitalia (hydrocele) that is painful and causes great discomfort. Morbidity management and disability prevention (MMDP) strategies such as surgery for hydrocele, treatment of acute... attacks and management of lymphedema are necessary for the management of the advanced stages of LF. However, very few countries including Zambia, have adequate information on the health beliefs and health seeking behavior of communities living in endemic areas towards MMDP services for LF. This study sought to explore community and health provider perspectives towards MMDP services for LF in a highly endemic region, Luangwa District, Zambia, between February and April 2019.
more