News and Resources - Aug 2011
News and Resources
In this issue these are listed under:
- South Sudan in the Lancet
- HIV and other infections
- Non-Communicable Diseases
- Maternal, neonatal and child health
- Surgery
- Health services and Job Aids
South Sudan in The Lancet
There have been three recent articles on South Sudan in this journal. These are:
- Infectious diseases burden in South Sudan by Talha Burki in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Volume 11, Issue 4, Pages 266 - 267, April 2011
- South Sudan faces grim health and humanitarian situation by Wairagala Wakabi in Original Text
- The Lancet, Volume 377, Issue 9784, Pages 2167 - 2168, 25 June 2011
- Lul Riek: helping to improve public health in South Sudan Original Text
- by Wairagala Wakabi in Original Text
- The Lancet, Volume 377, Issue 9784, Page 2171, 25 June 2011
Note that free registration for The Lancet at http://www.thelancet.com/user/register allows you to view many full articles free of charge, set up email alerts of tables of contents and subscribe to free email newsletters from The Lancet in your specialty.
HIV and other infections
HIV treatment as prevention
An international study shows that antiretroviral treatment can prevent the sexual transmission of HIV among heterosexual couples in whom one partner is HIV-infected and the other is not. The study showed a 96% reduction in risk of HIV transmission.
Reference: Editorial The Lancet, Volume 377, Issue 9779, Page 1719, 21 May 2011.
6-month versus 36-month isoniazid preventive treatment for tuberculosis in adults with HIV infection in Botswana: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial
In a tuberculosis-endemic setting, 36 months' isoniazid prophylaxis was more effective for prevention of tuberculosis than was 6-month prophylaxis in individuals with HIV infection, and chiefly benefited those who were tuberculin skin test positive.
Referecne: The Lancet, Volume 377, Issue 9777, Pages 1588 - 1598, 7 May 2011
Non-Communicable Diseases
Online textbook of Cardiology
Cardiopedia.net (http://www.cardiopedia.net/) is a free online textbook of Cardiology. Any medical professional can contribute to the website and changes are supervised by physicians and cardiologists. The Cardiopedia Project is a worldwide collaborative project to develop a comprehensive, best researched resource for cardiology community and to evolve a new model for sharing and advancing cardiology knowledge. By registering you can contribute to this collaborative cardiology encyclopedia. Cardiopedia aims to become a repository of up-to-date unbiased cardiology related information, contributed and maintained by medical professionals around the world, and freely available to everyone.
[From Procor http://www.procor.org]
Cardiology news
CardiologyNews.org is a one stop website for cardiology news worldwide. It is a single web page which wraps up the latest headlines from the trusted cardiology news sources worldwide. It gives you a quick glance on what's happening in the cardiology world. CardiologyNews.org is the starting point for doctors to navigate the world of Cardiology. Visit http://www.cardiologynews.org/
[From procor 28June2011 http://www.procor.org]
Maternal, neonatal and child health
Pocket Book of Obstetric, Neonatal and Paediatric Emergencies including Major Trauma
This is a pocket book that Maternal and Childhealth Advocacy International (MCAI) and The Advanced Life Support Group (ALSG) provide to all midwives, nurses and doctors trained in the emergency healthcare of pregnant mothers, babies and children. It can be downloaded [6.9 Mb-286 pages] from http://www.mcai.org.uk/resources/manualsbooks.aspx .
Also available from the same site is Pictorial Manual for village health workers [4.28 MB 15 pages]
http://www.mcai.org.uk/assets/content/documents/vhw_manual.pdf. For other MCAI resources see http://www.mcai.org.uk/resources.aspx
[From CHILD2015]
Healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy
This K4 Health eToolkit provides resources for advocacy, training, or health systems strengthening. The goal of the toolkit is to provide wide-ranging information so that any woman in any community, region, or country can safely delay, space, or limit her pregnancies. To download this toolkit, go to http://www.k4health.org/toolkits/HTSP and click the horizontal tabs.
K4Health eToolkits are electronic libraries of resources on a particular health topic that are selected by technical experts and designed for health program managers, service providers, and policy makers. Toolkits are available under the following topics: Environmental Health, Family Planning Methods, Family Planning/ Reproductive Health Programs and Services, HIV/AIDS, Maternal and Child Health, Nutrition. Go to http://www.k4health.org/toolkits for full details
More skilled midwives needed to save women's and newborns' lives
The first State of the World's Midwifery report (from UNFPA) confirms the critical role midwives play in improving maternal and newborn health and survival. It highlights the shortage of skilled midwives in many low-income countries, stressing the need to train and deploy more midwives especially remote and rural areas.
The report surveyed 58 countries, which together represent just under 60% of all births worldwide, but 91% of all maternal deaths. The report estimates that countries require a minimum of six skilled birth attendants per 1000 births if they are to achieve the aim of 95% coverage. Sudan was one of the nine countries needing to scale up midwifery by a factor of between 6 and 15.
To see the report and video go to http://www.unfpa.org/sowmy/report/home.html
Two materials from the Infant & Young
Child Nutrition (IYCN) Project in Zambia
Video: Connecting with the community: Kabwe’s story documents IYCN’s experiences with strengthening linkages between nutritional support activities in Zambian communities and health facilities. See http://www.iycn.org/zambia#kabwe.
Our approach: Improving nutrition counseling across the continuum of care in Zambia summarizes a demonstration project implemented in two of Zambia’s health facilities, which showed that efforts to improve nutrition assessment, counselling, and support across the continuum of care achieve greater success when activities at the community and facility levels are linked.
See http://www.iycn.org/files/iycn_case_study_zambia-v6-lo-res.pdf.
Hydroxycarbamide in very young children with sickle-cell anaemia: a multicentre, randomised, controlled trial (BABY HUG)
The safety and efficacy data from this trial showed that hydroxycarbamide can now be considered for all very young children with sickle-cell anaemia. See a summary of the article at http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(11)60355-3/abstract.
Reference: Wang WC etal.The Lancet, Volume 377, Issue 9778, Pages 1663 - 1672, 14 May 2011
Surgery
Surgery in Africa Monthly Reviews
These reviews are available free at www.ptolemy.ca/members
Examples of recent ones in 2011 are:
- March: Treatment of Neglected Clubfoot
- May: Musculoskeletal tuberculosis in children
- June: Blood Transfusion in Surgery--update 2011
Also at this site are archives of reviews since 2005 and a resource library.
[from HIFA2015 2 June, 2011]
Health services and Job Aids
USAID Health Care Improvement (HCI) Project
The USAID Health Care Improvement (HCI) Project (http://www.hciproject.org ) assists national and local programs to scale up evidence-based interventions and improve outcomes in child health, maternal and newborn care, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and reproductive health. The project also helps countries expand coverage of essential services; make services better meet the needs of underserved populations, especially women; improve efficiency and reduce the costs of poor quality; and improve health worker capacity, motivation, and retention.
Under this project is a Website about Community Health Workers - CHW Central (www.chwcentral.org) which is an interactive platform that facilitates information-sharing and dialogue about how to support CHWs who work in communities around the world providing health education and care. The website provides links to topics and tools relevant to CHWs.
[HIFA2015 June 16, 2011]
Adolescent Job Aid. A Handy Desk Reference Tool for Primary
Level Health Workers
This job aid is for any health worker who provides services to children, adolescents and adults. It aims to help them to respond to their adolescent patients more effectively and with greater sensitivity and covers: Part 1: The clinical interaction between the adolescent and the health worker; Part 2: algorithms, communication tips and frequently asked questions related to developmental conditions, pregnancy-related conditions and genital conditions including STI and HIV. Part 3: Information for adolescents and their parents or other accompanying adults on health and development issues. Download from http://www.who.int/child_adolescent_health/documents/9789241599962/en/
