The third meeting of the African Reproductive Health Task Force was opened in Harare, Zimbabwe, with a call on African countries and the international community at large to allocate more resources to reproductive health programmes with a view to stemming the tide of maternal and child deaths. "African health policies, including global health policies, have for a long time overlooked the need to allocate adequate resources to reproductive health programmes…and this has contributed to the massive numbers of maternal and newborn deaths", Zimbabwe's Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr David Parirenyatwa, told the meeting.
Equity in Health
Countries urged to allocate more resources to reproductive health
Countries with emerging economies discuss rural transformations at international conference
International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) and United Nations Development Programme: 6 May 2010
The International Conference on Dynamics of Rural Transformation in Emerging Economies was held from 14 to 16 April 2010 in New Delhi, India. Up to 300 participants with over 70% from emerging economy countries and 30% from other developing countries, including those in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, joined the discussions. Debates during the conference suggested that food security policies could be further explored as an important field for South-South knowledge sharing. The Conference offered an opportunity for stakeholders to discuss concepts and policies concerning rural development . The discussions raised areas that participants agreed would be explored in further dialogue, such as the increase in urban-rural disparities, the expansion of rural non-farm income-generation options, migration and environmental concerns, as well as persisting issues of food insecurity, land tenure and rural poverty.
Covid-19 deaths in Africa: prospective systematic postmortem surveillance study
Mwananyanda L; Gill C; MacLeod W et al., :BMJ 372 :n334, 2021
The authors measured the fatalities from Covid-19 in Lusaka. PCR tests were done post mortem on 372 deceased people of all ages at the University Teaching Hospital morgue in Lusaka, Zambia, enrolled within 48 hours of death between June and September 2020; PCR results were available for 364 (97.8%). SARS-CoV-2 was detected in 58/364 (15.9%). Most deaths in people positive for covid-19 (51/70; 73%) occurred in the community and none had been tested for Covid-19 before death. Among the 19/70 people who died in hospital, six were tested before death, while for the 52/70 people with data on Covid-19 related symptoms, only five were tested before death. Covid-19 was identified in seven children, only one of whom had been tested before death. While the proportion of deaths with covid-19 increased with age, 76% were aged under 60 years. The authors conclude that deaths with covid-19 were more common in Lusaka than indicated in official reports, with most occurring in the community, where testing capacity is lacking, but also due to lower levels of testing in facilities and in those presenting with typical symptoms of covid-19.
creative routes used to supply arv's
Not-for-profit groups and some individuals are using "creative routes" to provide antiretroviral drugs to HIV-positive people in developing countries, the New York Times reports. Some organisations channel unused medications from U.S. patients who have changed medications, taken a break from treatment or died to patients in developing countries, and other organisations purchase low-cost generic versions of the drugs in other countries and import them, sometimes illegally, into neighbouring countries.
Curbing the Epidemic:
Governments and the Economics of Tobacco Control
A World Bank study on tobacco in developing countries. "Developing countries can prevent millions of premature deaths and much disability if they adopt measures to reduce the demand for tobacco" according to the study. "To effectively reduce demand, governments can raise cigarette taxes, ban the advertising and promotion of tobacco products, and provide information on the health risks smoking causes directly or through research."
Data collection an effective weapon in anti-HIV/AIDS arsenal in Swaziland
A new information gathering programme will soon provide an essential database of medical and other humanitarian needs in the agricultural heart of Swaziland to fill gaps in the national records and bring much needed insight into how to best counter the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Dealing with Terrorism: A Public Health Agenda
For the public health community, the terrorism wreaked on the United States is stunning, but not necessarily surprising. It was a shrieking reminder to us all that desperate and hopeless peoples will follow extremist minorities, that poverty and insecurity, compounded by smoldering pockets of war and the cautious engagement, if any, by the rich world breeds the destruction of September 11. That horror spread its message in nanoseconds across the world, evoking cries of alarm and sorrow, life-sacrificing rescues, and loud calls for vengeance and a "crusade" to counter the "jihad", expending more material and human resources for more death, disability, and damage to the lives and futures of thousands, perhaps millions.
Deaths Ascribed to Non-Communicable Diseases among Rural Kenyan Adults Are Proportionately Increasing: Evidence from a Health and Demographic Surveillance System, 2003–2010
Phillips-Howard PA, Laserson KF, Amek N, Beynon CM, Angell SY, Khagayi S, Byass P, Hamel MJ, van Eijk AM, Zielinski-Gutierrez E, Slutsker L, De Cock KM, Vulule J, Odhiambo FO: PLoS ONE 9(11), November 2014
Monitoring systems require strengthening to attribute the Non communicable disease (NCD) burden and deaths in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Data from health and demographic surveillance systems (HDSS) can contribute towards this goal. Between 2003 and 2010, 15,228 deaths in adults aged 15 years (y) and older were identified retrospectively using the HDSS census and verbal autopsy in rural western Kenya. 37% were ascribed to NCDs, 60% to communicable diseases (CDs), 3% to injuries, and <1% maternal causes. Median age at death for NCDs was 66y and 71y for females and males, respectively, with 43% of NCD deaths occurring prematurely among adults aged below 65y. NCD deaths were mainly attributed to cancers (35%) and cardio-vascular diseases (CVDs; 29%). The proportionate mortality from NCDs rose from 35% in 2003 to 45% in 2010. While overall annual mortality rates (MRs) for NCDs fell, cancer-specific MRs rose from 200 to 262 per 100,000 population, mainly due to increasing deaths in adults aged 65y and older, and to respiratory neoplasms in all age groups. NCDs constitute a significant proportion of deaths in rural western Kenya. Evidence of the increasing contribution of NCDs to overall mortality supports international recommendations to introduce or enhance prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment programmes in LMICs.
Declaration - International Conference of People Living with AIDS
"We demand that the international community and our governments take all necessary steps to immediately and urgently ensure the following: That donor countries contribute 10 Billion dollars annually to fight HIV/AIDS in poor countries and fully fund the Global fund; That all governments and international agencies immediately collaborate with us to ensure the rapid expansion of access to ARV in line with the WHO goal of 3 million people in less economically developed countries by 2005."
Further details: /newsletter/id/30104
Declaration for a Framework for Action:
Improving Access to HIV/AIDS
This declaration is the product of a year-long consultative process involving 155 experts from 27 countries and 57 national and international organizations. It is the consensus of the participants who convened in Paris at the invitation of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the support of UNAIDS secretariat and WHO on 29 November to 1st December 2001.
Further details: /newsletter/id/28933