The WHO policy brief on COVID-19 infodemic management outlines key actions for countries to consider when developing infodemic management policies, focusing on opportunities for strengthening and supporting such a network of actors.
The policy brief on infodemic management can be used by health authorities to support the development of a comprehensive infodemic management strategy, adapted to their country that leverages these activities efficiently. The brief highlights the importance of equipping health workers with skills to address health misinformation and the need for designated infodemic management teams to generate rapid actionable insights for health systems.
The policy brief is available in all official WHO languages.
The key points in the policy brief: 1. Train health workers, who are often the most trusted source of health information, to better identify and address health misinformation. 2. Tailor health, information and digital literacy initiatives to specific populations, and seek to debunk misinformation before it is widely disseminated through digital media and other channels. 3. Strive to develop high-quality, accessible health information in different digital formats designed for reuse, remixing and sharing and for rapid digital spread through social networks. 4. Establish an infodemic workforce for rapid infodemic insights generation and response, if necessary, by training staff to fulfil these functions; and ensure this function is clearly linked to and aligned with risk communications and community engagement efforts…more
#LongCOVID (prolonged symptoms following covid-19 infection) is common. The mainstay of management is supportive, holistic care, symptom control, and detection of treatable complications. Many patients can be supported effectively in #primaryhealthcare by a GP with a special interest…more
Background Evidence has been accumulating that community health workers (CHWs) providing evidence–based interventions as part of community–based primary health care (CBPHC) can lead to reductions in maternal, neonatal and child mortality. However, investments to strengthen and scale–up CHW programs still remain modest.
Methods We used the Lives Saved Tool (LiST) to estimate the number of maternal, neonatal and child deaths and stillbirths that could be prevented if 73 countries effectively scaled up the population coverage of 30 evidence–based interventions that CHWs can deliver in these high–burden countries. We set population coverage targets at 50%, 70%, and 90% and summed the country–level results by region and by all high–burden countries combined. We also estimated which specific interventions would save the most lives.
Findings LiST estimates that a total of 3.0 (sensitivity bounds 1.8–4.0), 4.9 (3.1–6.3) and 6.9 (3.7–8.7) million deaths would be prevented between 2016 and 2020 if CBPHC is gradually scaled up during this period and if coverage of key interventions reaches 50%, 70%, and 90% respectively. There would be 14%, 23%, and 32% fewer deaths in the final year compared to a scenario assuming no intervention coverage scale up. The Africa Region would receive the most benefit by far: 58% of the lives saved at 90% coverage would be in this region. The interventions contributing the greatest impact are nutritional interventions during pregnancy, treatment of malaria with artemisinin compounds, oral rehydration solution for childhood diarrhea, hand washing with soap, and oral antibiotics for pneumonia.
Conclusions Scaling up CHW programming to increase population–level coverage of life–saving interventions represents a very promising strategy to achieve universal health coverage and end preventable maternal and child deaths by 2030. Numerous practical challenges must be overcome, but there is no better alternative at present. Expanding the coverage of key interventions for maternal nutrition and treatment of childhood illnesses, in particular, may produce the greatest gains. Recognizing the millions of lives of mothers and their young offspring that could
be achieved by expanding coverage of evidence–based interventions provided by CHWs and strengthening the CBPHC systems that support them underscores the pressing need for commitment from governments and donors over the next 15 years to prioritize funding, so that robust CHW platforms can be refined, strengthened, and expanded... more
The World Health Organization (WHO) has published its first guideline for Ebola virus disease therapeutics, with new strong recommendations for the use of two monoclonal antibodies. WHO calls on the global community to increase access to these lifesaving medicines.
Ebola is a severe and too often fatal illness caused by the Ebola virus. Previous Ebola outbreaks and responses have shown that early diagnosis and treatment with optimized supportive care —with fluid and electrolyte repletion and treatment of symptoms—significantly improve survival. Now, following a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials of therapeutics for the disease, WHO has made strong recommendations for two monoclonal antibody treatments: mAb114 (Ansuvimab; Ebanga) and REGN-EB3 (Inmazeb)…
The new guidance complements clinical care guidance that outlines the optimized supportive care Ebola patients should receive, from the relevant tests to administer, to managing pain, nutrition and co-infections, and other approaches that put the patient on the best path to recovery.
Dr Richard Kojan, co-chair of the Guideline Development Group… “As with other infectious diseases, timeliness is key, and people should not hesitate to consult health workers as quickly as possible to ensure they receive the best care possible.”…
There is also a recommendation on therapeutics that should not be used to treat patients: these include ZMapp and remdesivir...more
It is our pleasure to send you our Year in Review Report for the year 2021. The idea of the Besrour Centre for Global Family Medicine was born out of the tragedies of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur Sudan that began in 2003, the Banda Aceh tsunami in Indonesia in 2004 and the Haitian earthquake of 2010.
Since the official opening of the Besrour Centre in 2015, we have matured both as a discipline and as a centre. Today, not only do we advocate for family medicine and its role in improving patient care, but also for the models of care throughout the health system that are based on family medicine principles. Over the last six years, our focus has shifted from building family medicine capacity in low- and middle-income countries to studying and promoting family medicine-led models around the world.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the importance of our work. It continues to highlight that global problems require global solutions—it is not just an urgent moral issue, it’s a global public health issue. The pandemic also highlighted gaps in and between health systems around the world. Capacity has been stretched everywhere, revealing areas where access remains problematic, and where integration at the system level is still lacking. At the same time, it revealed incredible innovation and perseverance.
As the pandemic continues to vacillate between infectious and chronic impacts, improved integration and the adaptability of family medicine will be key in all health system contexts, including Canada. All of Besrour Centre’s initiatives are exploring or demonstrating how family doctors are leading at this time. Our collective journey highlights that capacity building takes time and determination. To continue this work, we need your ongoing engagement, partnership, and help. We are deeply appreciative of the funding provided by the Foundation for Advancing Family Medicine (FAFM) and all our partners that helps fuel our work. As always, we are indebted to Dr. Sadok Besrour for his vision and perennial support to build the Centre.
Together, we are a vibrant network of community-based leaders and partners that continue to learn from one another. Our collective effortsare strengthening family medicine-led models that are at the heart of health systems around the world and, in turn, improve equitable access to care.
Warm regards,
David Ponka, MD CM, CCFP(EM), FCFP, MSc Director | Directeur The Besrour Centre for Global Family Medicine | Le Centre Besrour pour la médecine familiale mondiale The College of Family Physicians of Canada | Le Collège des médecins de famille du Canada 1(905) 629-0900 ext | poste 398 dponka@cfpc.cahttps://www.cfpc.ca/The_Besrour_Centre/
PURPOSE: Although the global burden of cancer falls increasingly on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), much of the evidence for cancer prevention and control comes from high-income countries and may not be directly applicable to LMIC settings. In this paper, we focus on the following question: When the majority of the evidence supporting an evidence-based intervention or implementation strategy comes from high-income countries, what local, contextual evidence is needed when transferring and adapting an intervention or strategy to a specific LMIC setting?
METHODS: We draw on an existing framework (the Population, Intervention, Environment, Transfer-T process model) for assessing transferability of interventions between distinct settings and apply the model to two case studies as learning examples involving implementation of tobacco use treatment guidelines and self sampling for human papillomavirus DNA in cervical cancer screening.
RESULTS: These two case studies illustrate how researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and consumers may approach the need for local evidence from different perspectives and with different priorities. As uses and expectations around local evidence may be different for different groups, aligning these priorities through multistakeholder engagement in which all parties participate in defining the questions and cocreating the solutions is critical, along with promoting standardized reporting of contextual factors.
CONCLUSION: Local, contextual evidence can be important for both researchers and practitioners, and its absence may hinder translation of research and implementation efforts across different settings. However, it is essential for researchers, practitioners, and other stakeholders to be able to clearly articulate the type of data needed and why it is important. In particular, where resources are limited, evidence generation should be prioritized to address real needs and gaps in knowledge…more
We are sharing the second issue of Mooki newsletter of the Lesotho Nurses Association. For the success of our newsletter, please feel free to share your stories, articles, events, interviews, and any developments in Lesotho Nursing and Midwifery with the editor (contacts provided in this issue). The editorial team will highly appreciate feedback on how to improve the Newsletter…!!!
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE THE NEWSLETTER ON YOUR NETWORKS.
Learning, Acting and Building for Rehabilitation in Health Systems (ReLAB-HS) is continuing its efforts to strengthen health systems that are responsive to the growing needs for rehabilitation across the lifespan by targeting its efforts in Burma, Pakistan, Uganda and Ukraine – and in this newsletter you can read of how ReLAB-HS is making a difference in those countries.
Read about ReLAB-HS’s official launch in Pakistan, its advocacy work at the World Health Assembly, and connect with several learning resources created by the consortium. This newsletter also contains information on how to register for an upcoming Massive Online Open Course, “Understanding the Rehabilitation Needs of Displaced Persons.” And be sure to save the date (Sept. 26, 9 a.m. EDT) for a ReLAB-HS webinar “Leadership for Rehabilitation: Addressing the needs in fragile and conflict-affected settings.” …more
Wolters Kluwer are providing FREE access to the latest evidence-based content in UpToDate and Ovid relating to the Monkeypox outbreak to all clinicians and organisations, including those that do not currently subscribe to UpToDate. As with all UpToDate clinical topics, the content is being constantly reviewed by our team of clinical experts, clinical researchers and editors and is updated as new information becomes available.
Get FREE access to the related clinical topics as well as FREE access the information below here: http://gag.gl/rQQeJj
– European and UK Society guidelines including the British HIV association and UK Health Security Agency.
– Patient education informmation relating to risk, symptoms and treatments in a printable, understandable format.
– Understanding the neurollogical effects of the monkeypox virus on patients.
– A primer on Monkeypox foor obstetricians and gynaecologists.
The guidelines outline a public health response to HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) for 5 key populations (men who have sex with men, trans and gender diverse people, sex workers, people who inject drugs and people in prisons and other closed settings)…
“The new data from UNAIDS show that around 70% of new HIV infections occur among key populations and their partners…” said Meg Doherty, Director of WHO’s Global HIV, Hepatitis and STI Programmes…
These guidelines also acknowledge that behavioural interventions aimed at changing behaviours – which tend to be prioritized in many settings – have no impact on incidence of HIV, viral hepatitis and STIs or on behaviour change…more
It has been an arduous task to prepare the next draft of the AfroPHC Policy Framework, after extensive discussions at the AfroPHC e-Conference 17-18th May. Sorry that we did not share anything in June and July! We have now fashioned a “Health care worker call for Africa to build effective PHC teams for PHC and UHC in Africa” It is now available for public comment after the Executive and Advisory Boards have engaged with it.
This second draft of the AfroPHC policy framework is still an argument from healthcare workers for policymakers to prioritise PHC teamwork for holistic care of empanelled populations in decentralised units of community practice. We see the definition of PHC services and modelling of teams in the light of country resources, emerging blended capitation payment systems in UHC reforms across Africa, the inclusion of private providers and the use of complexity theory in bottom-up organisation of PHC in Africa as critical supports that are needed to build PHC teams for UHC in Africa. See the document here and please feel free to comment on it [https://afrophc.org/2022/08/07/afrophc-draft-policy-framework-released-for-stakeholder-comment/].
We have been fortunate in winning a PHC Performance Initiative Micro-Grant of $40 000 to take the policy framework further. It was an incredibly strong pool of 200 applicants and our proposal rose to the top. The goal in our grant-seeking project is to deepen the draft AfroPHC Policy Framework on “Building PHC teams for UHC in Africa” by focusing on EFFECTIVENESS. The target participants and audiences will be AfroPHC members, PHC team members and other stakeholders as well as young health professionals and students at regional and country levels. Activities will be mostly online across African countries, with hybrid Final Workshop of the AfroPHC Executive and Advisory Board in Johannesburg, South Africa 25th-26th October 2022 and a virtual Launch Event on 12th December 2022. See more about the overall grant activities here [https://afrophc.org/2022/08/07/phc-performance-initiative-micro-grant/].
Our process starts in earnest as we have until end October to use the funds. We have a list of regions and stakeholder groups we would like to engage: Central, Southern, Western, Eastern, Arabic and Portuguese Africa. See the detailed list of countries and key stakeholders with dates of consultations and join the WhatsApp group for these regions. See more here [https://afrophc.org/chapters/]. We are very keen that as many local stakeholders participate. These include professional associations, ministries of health, accreditation / certification bodies, academics, patient advocacy groups etc. Please feel free to share this email to any key stakeholders you think should be there and ask them to join us to discuss AfroPHC and the Policy Framework.
We keen to collect cases on ““Building effective multidisciplinary primary health care teams for universal health coverage in Africa” and have set aside prizes worth $1000 for this purpose. We are looking for short, real-life stories about an initiative, project or advocacy campaign that highlight interdisciplinary and interprofessional teamwork being implemented within the African context, demonstrating person and family centered care and helping communities and societies transition to healthy populations. Sharing experiences of less successful case studies and lessons learned is also welcome. The deadline for submitting the case studies is 11th September. Winners will be announced by 31st October. The case studies can be submitted in text format (1200 words max), following the guiding questions, by email to info@afrophc.org. Complementing the case studies with visual materials, such as photos from the field, would be most welcome. See details here https://afrophc.org/2022/08/07/call-for-submissions-of-short-cases/
The AfroPHC Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Thursday 19th May agreed to some few changes. A key change is that we will have associate membership having full access to all the current benefits of AfroPHC. We have created full membership at a fee of $20 for individual members and $40 for institutional members with the additional benefit of having vote/s at the Annual General Meeting and being able to stand for election to the Executive Board (EB). We will begin this process from November 2022. Speaking of elections we welcome our three new EB members: Dr Umar Ibrahim (CHEW, Nurse with PhD from Nigeria) (https://afrophc.org/conference-agm/agm-2022/umar-ibrahim-2/), Mr Innocent Somboi (Clinical Officer from Tanzania) (https://afrophc.org/about/innocent-somboi/) and Dr Mercy Wanjala (Family Physician from Kenya) (https://afrophc.org/conference-agm/agm-2022/mercy-wanjala-2/) [who has since resigned to become the Deputy Executive Coordinator].
We always have wonderful AfroPHC Policy Workshops. Mercy has organised several: “Point of Care Testing in African PHC” 21st June [https://afrophc.org/2022/06/20/afrophc-workshop-21st-june-labs-poct-in-african-phc/], “Onehealth n African PHC” July [https://afrophc.org/2022/07/18/afrophc-workshop-19-july-onehealth-in-african-phc/], and now plans one on “Workers Health in African PHC” 16th August [https://afrophc.org/2022/08/07/afrophc-workshop-16-aug-workers-health-in-african-phc/]. Do join us at the next one.
AfroPHC also provides great value for members at no cost: management course, research support, CPD and the development of a family medicine postgraduate diploma for doctors, nurse clinicians and clinical officers.
See below a sample of useful posts on the AfroPHC blog and keep tabs on it.
Blood Exposure Accidents among Health Care Personnel Are Africa’s health resources overly focused on HIV/AIDS? WHO publication “Implication of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Patient Safety: A Rapid Review”, Tuesday, 09 August 2022 Monkeypox declared global health emergency by WHO as cases surge LeBoHA’s June Newsletter Don’t forget to engage with us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and keep in touch!
Globally, only half of children living with HIV are on life-saving treatment. UNAIDS, UNICEF, and WHO have brought together a new alliance to fix one of the most glaring disparities in the AIDS response…more
The health and lives of people in the greater Horn of Africa are threatened as the region faces an unprecedented food crisis. In order to carry out urgent, life-saving work, WHO is launching a funding appeal for US$ 123.7 million…more
… Africa’s double burden of infectious and chronic disease is at the center of this debate on whether Africa is overspending health resources on … For starters, according to the World Health Organization, Africa has the highest incidence of HIV…more
Background High quality primary care is associated with person-centeredness and effective communication that also supports continuity and coordination of care. In Kenya, there is little knowledge about the quality of communication in consultations by general practitioners (GPs).
Aim To evaluate the quality of communication by GPs.
Design & setting Descriptive, observational study of 23 GPs consultations in 13 private sector primary care facilities in Nairobi, Kenya.
Method One consultation with a randomly selected adult patient was recorded per GP, and 16 communication skills evaluated with the Stellenbosch University Observation Tool. A total percentage score was calculated per consultation, and compared with the GPs’ demographics, consultations’ complexity and duration using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences.
Results The GPs’ median age was 30.0 years (IQR: 29–32) and median consultation time was 7.0 minutes (IQR =3–9). Median overall score was 64.3% (IQR: 48.4–75.7). They demonstrated skills in gathering information, making and explaining the diagnosis and suggesting appropriate management. They did not make an appropriate introduction, explore the context or patient’s perspective, allow shared decision making or provide adequate safety netting. There was a positive correlation between the scores and duration of the consultations (r=0.680, P=0.001). The score was higher in consultations of moderate complexity (78.1; IQR =57.1–86.7) versus low complexity (52.2; IQR =45.1–66.6) (P=0.012).
Conclusion Consultations were brief and biomedical by young and inexperienced GPs. GPs needed further training in communication skills, particularly with regard to person-centredness. Deploying family physicians to the primary care setting would also improve the overall quality of service delivery.
