Improving health outcomes by optimizing allocation of health workers
The provision of health services requires a sufficient number of well-trained health workers, but many countries currently face severe health workforce shortages. In the face of these gaps, it is important for governments to be able to allocate the health workers that they do employ to the areas where they are needed most. Beginning in...
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Giving stable HIV treatment patients a 3-month prescription refill of ARV drugs at one time reduces the need for frequent trips to the clinic
Arriving early in the morning to receive their HIV medications and beat the crowds, patients visiting resource-limited health facilities are often greeted by long lines. This was a problem experienced in some of the busiest health centers in Lusaka, Zambia, in 2014. While Zambia’s rate of HIV/AIDS prevalence is declining (12.9% in 2015 compared to...
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Using Community Health Workers to Help Combat Malaria in Panama
Panama, along with other countries in Central America, has set an ambitious goal to eliminate malaria by 2020. It has made substantial progress toward this goal with the number of malaria cases dropping from 1281 in 2007 to 811 in 2016 (a 36 percent decrease). However, important challenges remain to reach elimination. The remaining areas...
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Strategic Planning for Malaria Elimination: The Crucial First Step
Bill and Melinda Gates’ call in 2007 for a global commitment to eradicate malaria increased enthusiasm and political will in countries throughout Latin America, southern Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region to help achieve this important goal. Many countries, including those with a high malaria burden, have in turn declared national goals of eliminating the disease...
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Improving the impact of indoor residual spraying in southern Africa through data-driven approaches
Six countries in southern Africa – Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe – are on the path towards malaria elimination, having declared their goal to achieve zero locally acquired malaria cases by 2020. The population at risk of the devastating illness in these countries has declined dramatically in recent years, with cases in...
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Saving lives through scaling up severe malaria treatment in Uganda
On World Malaria Day, when the ambitious goal of eliminating malaria is within reach for several countries, it is important to remember that in many nations malaria continues to be a daily threat and one of the biggest killers of children. In Uganda, malaria accounts for 43 percent of hospital-based under-five deaths, and the entire...
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Accelerating polio eradication efforts in Cameroon
As we celebrate World Immunization Week, it is time to reflect on the powerful success of the polio vaccine and the importance of ensuring that all children have access to lifesaving vaccinations around the globe. Poliomyelitis (also known as polio) is a highly infectious viral disease, which mainly affects children under 5 years of age....
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Increasing adherence to ART prescription policy at HIV treatment clinics through a quality improvement intervention
In urban areas, crowded HIV treatment facilities with long patient wait times can deter patients from attending their clinical appointments and picking up their medications, ultimately disrupting patient care and compromising patient retention and adherence. Since 2013, Zambia’s national antiretroviral treatment (ART) guidelines have recommended that stable patients be provided with prescriptions for up to...
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Preventing HIV/AIDS in Swaziland
Hhukwini Clinic in the Hhohho region of Swaziland is a busy health center in the mountainous central-western part of the country. The clinic is visited by about 850 people per month and provides comprehensive primary health care services including diagnosis and treatment for many of the common ailments in Swaziland. It is also one of...
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A government-led approach to dramatically and sustainably reduce maternal and neonatal mortality
After Zainab Abubakar unexpectedly gave birth at 28 weeks during her first pregnancy, her child survived for just four short hours. Today Zainab describes how fearful she was when, living in an isolated, rural village in Kaduna State in Northern Nigeria, she again went into premature labor at a similar stage during her second pregnancy....
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