K4Health

Picture a scenario where infections become totally untreatable because none of the available antimicrobial agents work. This is not imaginary, but is likely to happen very soon if we don’t act urgently, intensely, and consistently to tackle the rising tide of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

This week, the global health and development community is commemorating the first World Antibiotic Awareness Week. Spearheaded by the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise global awareness on the magnitude, reach, and severity of antibiotic resistance; the event comes at a time when resistance to many antimicrobials, not just antibiotics, has now escalated to pandemic proportions and is a serious global health risk that requires urgent attention. In fact, the WHO has labeled AMR one of the biggest global public health threats.

Natalie Campbell and Elizabeth McLean of MSH and colleagues co-authored a new journal article, "Taking knowledge for health the extra mile: participatory evaluation of a mobile phone intervention for community health workers in Malawi," in the latest issue of Global Health: Science and Practice.

This post originally appeared on the K4Health blog.

Cross-posted with permission from the K4Health blog. K4Health is a USAID project, led by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Communication Programs (JHU-CCP), with partners FHI-360 and Management Sciences for Health (MSH).

Cross-posted with permission from the K4Health blog. 

With social media being a relatively new channel in the world of global health and development as a tool to share information, to advocate, as a marketing mechanism, or as a public health intervention tool, measurement is always a struggle when the path has not been set ahead of you. Many in the field of global health and development have trouble knowing where to start when measuring their project or organization’s social media presence.

Cross-posted from the K4Health blog. 

No matter which health system building block you are trying to improve, you need specific data, information, and knowledge to inform your decision-making process—this is where good knowledge management comes in handy.

“The Intersection of Knowledge Management and Health Systems Strengthening: Implications from the Malawi Knowledge for Health Demonstration Project” provides an interesting case study of the connection between improved knowledge management and health systems strengthening.

Cross-posted on the K4Health blog. K4Health is a USAID project, led by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Communication Programs (JHU-CCP), with partners FHI-360 and Management Sciences for Health (MSH).

Worldwide 222 million women have an unmet need for modern contraceptives. That means of those women wanting to delay or prevent pregnancy, 222 million are not using contraceptives.

This number is burned into my brain: 222 million. Let’s put this in perspective.

Currently in the US, there are roughly 156 million women, so the number of women worldwide without access to contraceptives is greater than the entire population of women in the US.

Cross-posted from the K4Health Blog.

The overhead lights dim and in the dark, the high-spirited rhythm and melodic line of a Malawian song rises and overtakes the quiet buzz of conversation. We are seated in a large auditorium at the International Conference on Family Planning in Dakar, Senegal and watching the first film focused on the K4Health Malawi project in a festival hosted by Population Services International (PSI).

The film festival is a rich visual and audio break in an intense day filled with technical presentations and serious conversations about what works in programs that promote reproductive health and family planning.

Cross-posted from the K4Health Blog.

As the mHealth Summit gets underway this week in the Washington D.C. area amid thousands of mHealth projects taking shape around the world, one particular mobile activity is saving lives by helping to ensure that the contents of medicines match their labels.

The Problem:

According to a  2010 World Health Organization Fact Sheet, it is difficult to estimate the percentage of counterfeit medicines in circulation—WHO cites estimates in industrialized countries at about 1%, and adds that “many African countries, and in parts of Asia, Latin America, and countries in transition, a much higher percentage” of the medicines on sale may be falsely labeled or counterfeit.

This post originally appeared on K4Health's blog.