November 2010

November 02, 2010

HIV’s Deleterious Effect on Global Trends in Maternal Mortality [2]

[5]A team of experts from WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, and World Bank recently published a report on maternal mortality entitled “Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2008 [6]" (PDF).

The document reports some fantastic news about a public health indicator that has until recently refused to budge. That indicator is the maternal mortality ratio, the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. The improvement between 1990 and 2008 is significant and promising.

The part of the report that received much less coverage relates to HIV and its strong, adverse effect on maternal mortality. The authors estimate that in 2008 there were 42,000 deaths due to HIV & AIDS among pregnant women and approximately half of those were maternal deaths. In absence of HIV we would have had 337,000 maternal deaths in 2008 instead of 358,000.

Supporting Haiti's Response to the Cholera Epidemic with Medicine Delivery [8]

Antoine Fadoul [9]

Fragile States [10]

The SCMS team in Port-au-Prince unload medicines from the SCMS delivery last week.

In late October 2010, the USAID Supply Chain Management System project (SCMS) distributed close to 50,000 lbs of essential products including oral rehydration salts, antibiotics, lab supplies, water treatment and ringer lactate to support Haiti's response to the cholera epidemic. The commodities came from existing stock in the SCMS warehouse as well as products available on the local market. SCMS also provided international procurements of 60,000 IV solution units and 20,000 IV sets.

Antoine Fadoul is the Supply Chain Management System Country Director in Haiti.

As Hurricane Tomas Approaches in Haiti [12]

A Durand [13]

Fragile States [10]

With Hurricane Tomas approaching and the cholera outbreak not yet contained, the Santé pour le Développement et la Stabilité d’Haíïti (SDSH) project, led by MSH and funded by USAID, is working to simultaneously provide health facilities with necessary supplies for the cholera response and also work with local and international partners to prepare for the storm.

Over 100 more deaths from cholera have been reported in the past week, raising the total to 442 deaths and 6,742 hospitalizations. Potential flooding caused by Tomas could exacerbate the outbreak. In the coming weeks, SDSH will train 300 auxiliary nurses, 2,500 traditional birth attendants, and 2,000 community health workers across 147 sites in community-based prevention of cholera.

International and local agencies are working together to secure water, sanitation, and hygiene commodities and shelter, and create communication centers to prepare for the hurricane response.

Improving the Quality of Health Services in a Challenging Environment: Lessons from the Fellowship Program in Nigeria [15]

Chioma Ogbozor [16]

Health Systems Strengthening [17]

HIV & AIDS [3]

Women & Gender [4]

Blog post also appeared on Global Health Magazine. [18]

As the country with the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world, outranked only by India, Nigeria loses one in every 18 women during child-birth. The country also has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world, one of the lowest life expectancy rates---estimated at 47 years---and the second largest population of people living with HIV & AIDS, with only 30% of people eligible for anti-retroviral treatment able to access these life-saving drugs.

USAID is Cutting Edge When It Comes to mHealth. Really? Really. [20]

P Bocock [21]

Health Systems Strengthening [17]

HIV & AIDS [3]

Last year, the mHealth Alliance [22] and the National Institute of Health (NIH) sponsored their first mobile health (mHealth) “Summit,” at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, DC. The location was telling: it is the home of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). This year’s mHealth Summit [23] has nearly doubled in size, moved its location to the Convention Center, and is being keynoted by Bill Gates and Ted Turner. It is safe to say that mHealth is certainly a topic de jour. The problem is that the big names---the global mobile phone network providers, manufacturers, pharma companies, and global consulting firms---are all jumping on the bandwagon, but they are late to the game. And the conversations in the plenary sessions highlight the fact that there’s a huge disconnect between the global companies and the on-the-ground implementers.

Social Welfare Workforce Strengthening Conference [25]

Management Sciences for Health [26]

HIV & AIDS [3]

MSH is attending the Social Welfare Workforce Strengthening Conference in Cape Town this week. AIDSTAR-Two [27], a USAID-funded MSH led project, is a key organizer of the conference.

Ghazal Keshavarzian, Better Care Network Senior Coordinator, provides an update from the Social Welfare Workforce Strengthening Conference in Cape Town, South Africa. This post originally appeared on OVCsupportnet.org [28].

Over 150 government, academic, and civil society representatives from across Africa, Vietnam, Haiti and the United States are gathering this week in Cape Town, South Africa to share lessons learned and plans for future efforts to strengthen the social welfare workforce that cares for vulnerable children and families. Funded by USAID and PEPFAR, the Social Welfare Workforce Strengthening Conference is raising the profile of this very important but neglected issue.

Despite Challenging Conditions, Work Goes on in Haiti [30]

D Brown [31]

Fragile States [10]

Danielle Brown is the Program Coordinator of the Leadership, Management and Sustainability (LMS) project in Haiti. She worked with our teams in Haiti from October 24 – November 14.

First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research: Highlights from a Session Linking Research to Policy-making [33]

Sara Wilhelmsen [34]

Health Systems Strengthening [17]

At this First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research [35] there have been a number of concurrent sessions on how best to make the link between research and decision-making. How do we make research relevant and timely so that it can inform policy-making?

MSH served as a panelist on the panel “Health systems and national policy-making: Strengthening the Connection,” which provided good examples of studies from Nigeria and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region that provided insight into this gap.

In Nigeria, a study focused on how the gap between policy makers and researchers could be bridged. How can research be made attractive so policy makers desire it? Through a cross-sectional survey, they set out to improve the skills of policy makers in evidence-informed policy making. A platform was created where the two met on neutral ground to develop the research agenda. What came out of this collaboration were five skill building workshops where pre/post data was collected. There was much participation and enthusiasm by both parties which culminated in six policy briefs to improve health systems operation in Nigeria.

Study Finds Daily Pill Helps Prevent HIV in Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Subjects [37]

HIV & AIDS [3]

The results from the first Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) clinical trial, the iPrEx Study, were just made public and published in today’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine [38]. In short, the trial showed an overall 44% efficacy in preventing HIV infection in gay, bisexual and transgender subjects who took the daily fixed dose combination antiretroviral pill Truvada (tenofovir [TDF] and emtracitabine [FTC]), compared with participants receiving a placebo. This is the first evidence that oral antiretroviral medications, taken by HIV-negative people before exposure to HIV can reduce the risk of HIV infection. iPrEx is also the first trial showing effectiveness of a new biomedical prevention tool in gay men and other men who have sex with men.

The iPrEx trial enrolled 2,499 participants across 11 sites in six countries---Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, South Africa, Thailand and the United States. It is the first PrEP effectiveness trial to report results. This trial was one of a suite of PrEP trials currently ongoing in a range of populations around the world.

Innovative Approaches to Providing HIV Services for Most-at-Risk-Populations [40]

Jonathan D. Quick, MD, MPH [41]

HIV & AIDS [3]

Over 33 million people are currently living with HIV & AIDS throughout the world. Despite great strides in slowing the epidemic, there remains a stunning gap in prevention, care, and treatment efforts. This is especially true for most-at-risk-populations, which include commercial sex workers (CSWs) and their clients, injecting drug users (IDUs), men who have sex with men (MSM), and prisoners. People in these risk groups are so stigmatized and discriminated against in many countries that it becomes extremely difficult – sometimes impossible – to provide them with much-needed HIV prevention, care and treatment services. Even more, MARP behaviors often are illegal, which then compromises needed action and support from government authorities.

Denial of such basic human rights as access to prevention, care, and treatment for the most-at-risk-populations is unacceptable. It leaves those most in need underserved and severely marginalized. As World AIDS Day 2010 [42]approaches with this year’s message of “Universal access and human rights,” I am reflecting on the specialized HIV interventions that MSH helps provide to most-at-risk populations.

Read more [40]

Links
[1] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/02/hiv%E2%80%99s-deleterious-effect-on-global-trends-in-maternal-mortality#comments
[2] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/02/hiv%E2%80%99s-deleterious-effect-on-global-trends-in-maternal-mortality
[3] https://msh.org/blog-categories/hiv-aids
[4] https://msh.org/blog-categories/women-gender
[5] https://msh.org/sites/msh.org/files/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/image_mini.jpg
[6] http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2010/9789241500265_eng.pdf
[7] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/05/supporting-haitis-response-to-the-cholera-epidemic-with-medicine-delivery#comments
[8] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/05/supporting-haitis-response-to-the-cholera-epidemic-with-medicine-delivery
[9] https://msh.org/users/antoine-fadoul
[10] https://msh.org/blog-categories/fragile-states
[11] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/05/as-hurricane-tomas-approaches-in-haiti#comments
[12] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/05/as-hurricane-tomas-approaches-in-haiti
[13] https://msh.org/users/adurand
[14] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/08/improving-the-quality-of-health-services-in-a-challenging-environment-lessons-from#comments
[15] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/08/improving-the-quality-of-health-services-in-a-challenging-environment-lessons-from
[16] https://msh.org/users/chioma-ogbozor
[17] https://msh.org/blog-categories/health-systems-strengthening
[18] http://www.globalhealthmagazine.com/guest_blog/health_services_environment/
[19] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/09/usaid-is-cutting-edge-when-it-comes-to-mhealth-really-really#comments
[20] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/09/usaid-is-cutting-edge-when-it-comes-to-mhealth-really-really
[21] https://msh.org/users/pbocock
[22] http://www.mhealthalliance.org/
[23] http://www.mhealthalliance.org/media_center/mhealthsummit
[24] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/18/social-welfare-workforce-strengthening-conference#comments
[25] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/18/social-welfare-workforce-strengthening-conference
[26] https://msh.org/users/management-sciences-for-health
[27] http://www.msh.org/global-presence/aidstar-two.cfm
[28] http://www.ovcsupport.net/s/index.php?i=684
[29] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/18/despite-challenging-conditions-work-goes-on-in-haiti#comments
[30] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/18/despite-challenging-conditions-work-goes-on-in-haiti
[31] https://msh.org/users/dbrown
[32] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/19/first-global-symposium-on-health-systems-research-highlights-from-a-session-linking#comments
[33] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/19/first-global-symposium-on-health-systems-research-highlights-from-a-session-linking
[34] https://msh.org/users/sara-wilhelmsen
[35] http://www.hsr-symposium.org/
[36] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/23/study-finds-daily-pill-helps-prevent-hiv-in-gay-bisexual-and-transgender-subjects#comments
[37] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/23/study-finds-daily-pill-helps-prevent-hiv-in-gay-bisexual-and-transgender-subjects
[38] http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1011205
[39] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/30/innovative-approaches-to-providing-hiv-services-for-most-at-risk-populations#comments
[40] https://msh.org/blog/2010/11/30/innovative-approaches-to-providing-hiv-services-for-most-at-risk-populations
[41] https://msh.org/users/jonathan-d-quick-md-mph
[42] http://www.worldaidscampaign.org/en/World-AIDS-Day