Table of Contents
EDITORIALS
- Context Matters: Strategies to Improve Maternal and Newborn Health Services in Sub-Saharan Africa
Identifying context-appropriate features to maximize the effectiveness of maternal and newborn health interventions in sub-Saharan Africa is a prerequisite to successful programs.
- Addressing the Global Influence of Unethical Formula Marketing
Projects that seek to address Code implementation need to understand the current landscape of corporate marketing activities in the government and health care settings and mobilize stakeholders from the government to the community when implementing these projects.
VIEWPOINTS
- Strategies to Promote Health System Strengthening and Global Health Security at the Subnational Level in a World Changed by COVID-19
Structural weaknesses in national health systems have led to huge variations in responses to COVID-19. This calls for a unified approach to health security and essential health services as public health threats and the expectation for health care systems to provide improved access and services at affordable cost increases.
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
- Cost of Delivering Tetanus Toxoid and Tetanus-Diphtheria Vaccination in Vietnam and the Budget Impact of Proposed Changes to the Schedule
This study shows that replacing tetanus toxoid vaccination in Vietnam for girls aged 15–16 years in high-risk areas with routine tetanus-diphtheria vaccination for children aged 7 years mainly through a school-based delivery strategy will likely result in immunization cost savings.
- Scaling Up Improved Inpatient Treatment of Severe Malnutrition: Key Factors and Experiences From South Africa, Bolivia, Malawi, and Ghana
We report lessons learned in 4 countries from scaling up the implementation of World Health Organization guidelines on inpatient management of severe acute malnutrition within routine health services. We provide evidence that implementation is achievable at scale within different contexts and health systems.
- Sustainability of Funding for HIV Treatment Services: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Patients' Willingness to Pay for Treatment Services in Nigeria
Many Nigerian patients are willing to pay for HIV treatment, but several socioeconomic factors play significant roles in willingness and capacity to pay for treatment and the maximum amounts patients are willing to pay.
- Matching Intent With Intensity: Implementation Research on the Intensity of Health and Nutrition Programs With Women's Self-Help Groups in India
Adding health interventions to women's groups primarily formed for financial purposes, such as self-help groups, is a widely used strategy to reach low-income women. An analysis of implementation intensity highlights the importance of ensuring that women's groups have sufficient time and population coverage to address health issues.
- Uganda Public Health Fellowship Program's Contributions to the National HIV and TB Programs, 2015–2020
The Uganda Public Health Fellowship Program has built the capacity of its fellows to address multiple gaps in the Uganda health system as well as to contribute to improving Uganda's ability to prevent, prepare for, and respond to public health emergencies such as HIV and TB.
- Let's Talk About Sex: Improving Measurement of Contraceptive Use in Cross-Sectional Surveys by Accounting for Sexual Activity Recency
Findings suggest that the contraceptive use of unmarried women and those who were not recently sexually active are less likely to be captured in standard measures of current contraceptive use. Incorporating information from questions about contraceptive use at last sex may better capture coital-dependent method use and provide a more accurate assessment of who is protected against an unintended pregnancy at next sex.
- HIV Care Continuum Services for People Who Inject Drugs in Kazakhstan During COVID-19: A Qualitative Study of Service Provider Perspectives
Needle and syringe programs (NSPs) in Kazakhstan have been crucial in providing care for people who inject drugs (PWID) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional supports and investments are needed to ensure that NSPs can continue to reach these marginalized populations while traditional medical systems are under strain.
- The Equity Tool for Valuing Global Health Partnerships
There is a need to more comprehensively identify and respond to equity in global health partnerships. The Equity Tool can support dialogue at any stage of a partnership, by individuals at any level. This assists partnerships to embrace ways of recognizing, understanding, and advancing equity in all their processes.
- Human-Centered Design for Public Health Innovation: Codesigning a Multicomponent Intervention to Support Youth Across the HIV Care Continuum in Mozambique
Using a human-centered design approach, we codesigned CombinADO, an intervention to improve antiretroviral therapy adherence and retention in care among adolescents and young people living with HIV (AYAHIV) in Nampula, Mozambique. CombinADO aims to foster peer connectedness and belonging, provide accessible medical knowledge, demystify and destigmatize HIV, and cultivate a sense of hope among AYAHIV.
- Casting a Wide Net: HIV Drug Resistance Monitoring in Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Seroconverters in the Global Evaluation of Microbicide Sensitivity Project
Global Evaluation of Microbicide Sensitivity projects in 4 countries demonstrated the feasibility of establishing an HIV drug resistance monitoring program for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). These projects will provide valuable information on seroconversions in the context of PrEP use and will serve to inform Ministries of Health and policy makers on the need for long-term surveillance approaches.
- Improving Maternal and Reproductive Health in Kigoma, Tanzania: A 13-Year Initiative
The 13-year Program to Reduce Maternal Deaths in Tanzania employed multifaceted maternal, newborn, and reproductive health interventions that contributed to increasing the availability and utilization of high-quality obstetric and family planning services and reducing maternal and perinatal mortality in Kigoma.
- A Comprehensive Approach to Improving Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care in Kigoma, Tanzania
Efforts to increase the availability and utilization of high-quality emergency obstetric and newborn care and routine delivery care services in Kigoma were successful and subsequently contributed to significant reductions in maternal and perinatal mortality in the region.
- Baseline Assessment of Evidence-Based Intrapartum Care Practices in Medical Schools in 3 States in India: A Mixed-Methods Study
The study findings have identified significant gaps between current intrapartum care practices and recommended national and international guidelines in the medical schools of 3 states in India.
FIELD ACTION REPORTS
- Implementation of Refugees' Inclusion in National Viral Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C Screening Campaign in Mahama Refugee Camp, Rwanda
Conducting a high-quality mass screening campaign for Hepatitis B virus and Hepatitis C virus was a feasible, effective, and low-cost strategy to integrate refugees into Rwanda's national hepatitis prevention and management program.
- Using a Rapid Knowledge Translation Approach for Better Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Bangladesh, Burundi, Indonesia, and Jordan
There is a growing need for approaches to support rapid knowledge translation processes that can create changes in policy and practice and that can apply to different country contexts. The collaborative rapid improvement model for knowledge translation in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) implemented in 4 countries improved SRHR practice and policies.
COMMENTARIES
To “reach the unreached” with preventive and curative malaria services, we must know which individuals and communities remain unreached and then bring tailored services from the clinic to the community and home.
Systems established for active drug safety monitoring and management of drug-resistant TB should be leveraged to ensure comprehensive surveillance for active toxicity monitoring during scale-up of newer antiretroviral regimens.
We identify and discuss 7 approaches for funders to contemplate when considering support for implementation research in low- and middle-income countries.
Community health workers have long played a critical role in preventing, detecting, and responding to pandemics across the globe. To expand, improve, and institutionalize these services, changes in the approach to bi/multilateral aid and private philanthropic investments in low- and middle-income countries are required.