Under-diagnosis of asthma in ‘under-fives’ may be alleviated by improved inquiry into disease history. We assessed a questionnaire-based screening tool for asthma among 614 ‘under-fives’ with severe respiratory illness in Uganda. The questionnaire responses were compared to post hoc consensu...s diagnoses by three pediatricians who were guided by study definitions that were based on medical history, physical examination findings, laboratory and radiological tests, and response to bronchodilators. Children with asthma or bronchiolitis were categorized as “asthma syndrome”. Using this approach, 253 (41.2%) had asthma syndrome. History of and present breathing difficulties and present cough and wheezing was the best performing combination of four questionnaire items [sensitivity 80.8% (95% CI 77.6–84.0); specificity 84.7% (95% CI 81.8–87.6)]. The screening tool for asthma syndrome in ‘under-fives’ may provide a simple, cheap and quick method of identifying children with possible asthma. The validity and reliability of this tool in primary care settings should be tested.
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Int J Health Policy Manag 2017, 6(10), 587–600
Low-income countries face many contextual challenges to manage healthcare technologies effectively, as the majority are imported and resources are constrained to a greater extent. Previous healthcare technology management (HTM) policies in Benin ha...ve failed to produce better quality of care for the population and cost-effectiveness for the government. This study aims to identify and assess the main problems facing HTM in Benin’s public health sector, as well as the ability of key actors within the sector to address these problems.
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The main objective of the health systems is to meet the health needs of the population in general, but for this the system must have adequate financing and supply support to cover the entire population in question and check quality, efficiency, equity services, safety and sustainability. However, co...nsidering the segmented Peruvian health system, this makes it more deficient in comprehensive care for the population due to the duplication of functions, misuse of its resources, absence of complementary services. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this deficiency in the Peruvian health system became more evident owing to the high number of
deaths and its state of collapse, combining these factors this scope review aims to map the current state of the Peruvian health system, its structure, synthesize data on the performance of the health system (in terms of access, coverage and quality of health services) and identify the main public health policies available
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One in three people globally suffers from at least one form of malnutrition, leading to poor health outcomes and low productivity in the workplace. The workplace offers an important, relatively unexploited opportunity to address malnutrition in all its forms. This narrative literature review aims to... understand the impact of workforce nutrition programmes on nutrition, health, and business outcomes, based on high-strength-of-evidence studies. We used PubMed as our primary research database, complemented by Google Scholar, to identify systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and randomised controlled trials published between January 2010 and October 2021. In total, 26 records were included. We found that comprehensive workforce nutrition programmes, including a variety of intervention areas, and/or programmes targeting high-risk categories of workers (overweight/obese or (pre-)diabetic) were more likely to be effective on nutrition, health, and business outcomes. Within comprehensive and targeted programmes, individualised counselling and worksite environmental modifications were often mentioned as the most effective components. However, a high degree of heterogeneity in outcome measures and programme designs made it difficult to draw strong conclusions on the impact of workforce nutrition interventions. Limited evidence was found on business outcomes, longer-term effects of interventions, and programme implementation in LMICs. Therefore, further research is needed to address these evidence gaps.
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The strategy recommends that AU Member States should enhance, where feasible, existing COVID-19 surveillance to include:
Community-based surveillance to detect symptomatic cases early for treatment and to avert viral transmission;
Sentinel surveillance in high-risk populations to detect ...and track both presymptomatic and asymptomatic cases; and
Wastewater surveillance to monitor early environmental signs of virus transmission and identify communities where targeted interventions can be implemented to decrease transmission.
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Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will require the international community to mobilize significant additional financing over the next decade. Tracking and analyzing this funding is central to measuring progress and making more informed choices to direct financial flows where they wi...ll have the greatest impact. This brief highlights AidData’s updated methodology to track financing to the SDGs, providing a baseline of funding for the years immediately before and after their launch. To track SDG-related financing, we build on our 2017 pilot methodology. Using data from the OECD CRS database on all official development assistance between 2010 and 2016, we identify individual projects that are linked to specific SDG goals or targets and then quantify total financing by SDG. This brief highlights four countries that represent different development contexts and trajectories, exploring how a country’s individual context impacts its SDG-related donor funding by examining the composition of funding and financing trends. We also look at SDG financing from the perspective of donors to see how their own interests are reflected in development portfolios across different countries.
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In order to help Member States understand what commercial foods for infants and young children are currently on the market, and to support implementation of the Guidance on ending inappropriate promotion of foods for infants and young children at the European level, the WHO Regional Office for Europ...e developed a methodology for identifying commercial baby foods available in retail settings and collecting data on their nutritional content, as well as various aspects of their packaging, labelling and promotion.
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The guidelines begin with an overview of the determinants of mental health among children and adolescents before reviewing related South African policies and legislation. The document then discusses strategies to build skills among caregivers, teachers and other frontline providers of mental health ...interventions as well as those for counselling professionals. The guidelines conclude by identifying priority areas for mental health services among children and adolescents, including the prevention of child and substance abuse as well as services for those living with intellectual disabilities
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A Focus on the Journey to Self-Reliance for Preventing Child and Maternal Deaths . June 2018
The 2018 Acting on the Call report focuses on 25 countries’ journeys to self-reliance for preventing child and maternal deaths. Self-reliance is a country’s ability to finance and implement solution...s to its own development challenges. Understanding where countries lie on this effort - known as the journey to self-reliance - helps USAID to best partner with countries and support their efforts.
The report looks at the health status of 25 priority countries as well as the current capacity of the health system to meet the needs of women and children. In the report, we recount progress since the 2012 Call to Action as well as identify gaps in order to inform future programming and areas that need strengthening during the journey to self-reliance. For the first time ever, we’ve calculated the return on our investment to eliminate bottlenecks to improving health services.
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A focus on Cambodia and Ethiopia
o date, little evidence is available on how such integration occurs at country level. To address this knowledge gap, WHO has conducted several in-depth situational analysis in countries that are undertaking actions to improve WASH in Health Care Facilities as part o...f their quality of care improvement efforts. The purpose of the situation analyses was to capture mechanisms that “jointly support” WASH in HCF and quality of care improvements and also identify barriers and challenges to implementing and sustaining these improvements.
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Background: The human helminth infections include ascariasis, trichuriasis, hookworm infections, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis (LF) and onchocerciasis. It is estimated that almost 2 billion people worldwide are infected with helminths. Whilst the WHO treatment guidelines for helminth infecti...ons are mostly aimed at controlling morbidity, there has been a recent shift with some countries moving towards goals of disease elimination through mass drug administration, especially for LF and onchocerciasis. However, as prevalence is driven lower, treating entire populations may no longer be the most efficient or cost-effective strategy. Instead, it may be beneficial to identify individuals or demographic groups who are persistently infected, often termed as being “predisposed” to infection, and target treatment at them.
Methods: The authors searched Embase, MEDLINE, Global Health, and Web of Science for all English language, humanbased papers investigating predisposition to helminth infections published up to October 31st, 2017. The varying definitions used to describe predisposition, and the statistical tests used to determine its presence, are summarised. Evidence for predisposition is presented, stratified by helminth species, and risk factors for predisposition to infection are identified and discussed.
Results: In total, 43 papers were identified, summarising results from 34 different studies in 23 countries. Consistent evidence of predisposition to infection with certain species of human helminth was identified. Children were regularly found to experience greater predisposition to Ascaris lumbricoides, Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium than adults. Females were found to be more predisposed to A. lumbricoides infection than were males. Household clustering of infection was identified for A. lumbricoides, T. trichiura and S. japonicum. Ascaris lumbricoides and T. trichiura also showed evidence of familial predisposition. Whilst strong evidence for predisposition to hookworm infection was identified, findings with regards to which groups were affected were considerably more varied than for other helminth species.
Conclusion: This review has found consistent evidence of predisposition to heavy (and light) infection for certain human helminth species. However, further research is needed to identify reasons for the reported differences between demographic groups. Molecular epidemiological methods associated with whole genome sequencing to determine ‘who infects whom’ may shed more light on the factors generating predisposition.
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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shown that public financial management (PFM) should be an integral part of the response. Effectiveness in financing the health response depends not only on the level of funding but also on the way public funds are allocated and spent, this is determined by the PFM r...ules, and how money flows to health service providers. So far, early assessments have shown that PFM systems ranged from being a fundamental enabler to acting as a roadblock in the COVID-19 health response. While service delivery mechanisms have been extensively documented throughout the pandemic, the underlying PFM mechanisms of the response also merit attention. To highlight the importance of PFM in health emergency contexts, this rapid review analyses various country PFM experiences and identifies early lessons emerging from the financing of the health response to COVID-19. The assessment is done by stages of the budget cycle: budget allocation, budget execution, and budget oversight. Identifying lessons from the varying PFM modalities used to finance the response to COVID-19 is fundamental both for health policy-makers and for finance authorities to prepare for future health emergencies.
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COVID-19 Vaccine Introduction Readiness Assessment Tool (VIRAT2), developed by WHO-PAHO, UNICEF, World Bank, Gavi, and other partners is a tool to help prepare countries for the introduction a COVID-19 vaccine.
It provides a roadmap for introduction and a structured framework for countries to self-...monitor their readiness progress against key milestones. It includes an excel template for Ministries of Health to complete with support from partners and PAHO Country Offices.
The VIRAT dashboard helps countries highlight the critical activities and technical areas that should be initiated, continued, or strengthened. Also, it allows PAHO and partners to identify areas where support may be needed and identify alternative forms to mobilize resources.
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Climate change, increasing population densities, and intensified globalisation in trade, travel and migration are among the most important factors shaping the 21st century. Each impacts upon population health and the risk of infectious disease, particularly those originating at the human-animal-envi...ronmental interface. The recognition that many risk drivers of infectious disease fall outside of the typical domain of the health sector creates the challenge of identifying and pursuing priorities for cross-sectoral action aimed at strengthening global health security. In response, the One Health concept has emerged, as have related initiatives addressing Planetary Health and Biodiversity and Human Health. From a public health perspective and operationally speaking, the One Health approach offers great potential, emphasising as it does cooperation and coordination between multiple sectors. Yet despite having been a focal point for discussion for over a decade, numerous challenges facing the implementation of One Health preparedness strategies remain. While some are technical, related to the requirement for innovative early warning systems or new vaccines, for example, others are institutional and cultural in nature, given the transdisciplinary nature of the topic. There have thus been calls to address One Health from multiple perspectives, from ecology to the social sciences. In order to further explore this issue and to identify priority areas for action for strengthening One Health preparedness in Europe, ECDC convened an expert consultation on 11–12 December 2017.
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A lot of research articles concerning SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 are published every day. Many of them, so-called pre-prints, are not reviewed in a professional reviewing process at the time of publication. Others are already reviewed and published in well-known journals. Collabovid helps researchers to id...entify the most relevant information by using Natural Language Processing. You can search for any topic you want below. Visit search to review all articles or browse a list of predefined categories. For additional help visit the frequently asked questions.
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The purpose of cancer screening tests is to detect pre-cancer or early-stage cancer in asymptomatic individuals so that timely diagnosis and early treatment can be offered, where this treatment can lead to better outcomes for some people.
The aim of a cancer screening programme is either to reduc...e mortality and morbidity in a population by early detection and early treatment of a cancer (for example, breast screening) or to reduce the incidence of a cancer by identifying and treating its precursors (such as cervical and colorectal screening).
This short guide is designed to be a quick reference that contains the important ideas about cancer screening. Readers should refer to other publications for comprehensive discussion and detailed guidance on cancer screening programmes.
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Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease 2017, 2(4), 50
This is a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data in a longitudinal study on asymptomatic, LF antigen-positive and -negative young people in Myanmar. Rapid field screening was used to identify antigen-positive cases and a group of antige...n-negative controls of similar age and gender were invited to continue in the study. ... Results demonstrate that sub-clinical changes associated with infection can be detected in asymptomatic cases. Further exploration of these low-cost devices in clinical and research settings on filariasis-related lymphedema are warranted.
https://doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed2040050
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Immunizations are an essential health service that protect susceptible individuals from vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD).2 By providing timely immunizations, individuals and communities remain protected and the likelihood of a VPD outbreak decreases, Preventing a VPD ...outbreak not only saves lives but requires fewer resources than responding to the outbreak and helps reduce burden on a health system already strained by the COVID-19 pandemic, While committing to sustaining immunization systems, countries should use approaches that respect the principle of do-no-harm and limit transmission of COVID-19 while providing immunization activities, Immunization visits can also be used as opportunities to disseminate messages to encourage behaviours to reduce transmission risk of the COVID-19 virus, to identify signs and symptoms of COVID-19 disease, and to provide guidance on what to do if symptoms emerge
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Insufficient funding is hindering the achievement of malaria elimination targets in Africa, despite the pressing need for increased investment in malaria control. While Western donors attribute their inaction to financial constraints, the global health community has limited knowledge of China’s ex...panding role in malaria prevention. This knowledge gap arises from the fact that China does not consistently report its foreign development assistance activities to established aid transparency initiatives. Our work focuses on identifying Chinese-funded malaria control projects throughout Africa and linking them to official data on malaria prevalence. By doing so, we aim to shed light on China’s contributions to malaria control efforts, analysing their investments and assessing their impact. This would provide valuable insights into the development of effective financing mechanisms for future malaria control in Africa.
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Most foreign aid comes in one of two forms: either we pay a person or an institution today in exchange for delivering some beneficial activity in the future, or we observe something bad happen to them and then give them support to recover from it. This kind of aid is simple to design and deliver,
b...ut in the former case has limits in how sharply it incentivizes success and effort from a range of actors and in the latter case leads to the inefficient and undignified “begging bowl” approach to humanitarian financing. In what follows, I identify a broad family of alternative approaches, which
can loosely be grouped together as “contractually contingent financing,” and explain why they are still relatively underused.
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