Articles

Hypertension Education Intervention with Ugandan Nurses Working in Hospital Out Patient Clinic: A Pilot Study

Conclusion: After 3 months of implementing the nurses’ hypertension management educative interventions program, knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding prevention, detection, risk assessment, patient education, and HBP management increased significantly. The pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of implementing a multimodal evidence-based educational intervention in a low resource environment.

Global, regional, and national causes of child mortality in 2000–13, with projections to inform post-2015 priorities: an updated systematic analysis

Trend data for causes of child death are crucial to inform priorities for improving child survival by and beyond 2015. We report child mortality by cause estimates in 2000–13, and cause-specific mortality scenarios to 2030 and 2035. The authors in this study estimated the distributions of causes of child mortality separately for neonates and children aged 1–59 months      

100 days, 100% hospital acquired pressure ulcer-free campaign at a Saudi Arabian rehabilitation facility

The success of reducing the incidence of HAPU does not rely merely on nurses checking the skin and turning the patient, but needs an interdisciplinary approach with a positive attitude to prevention by maintaining both the patients' and health care professionals' awareness of cause and prevention.

Association between Respiratory Syncytial Virus Activity and Pneumococcal Disease in Infants: A Time Series Analysis of US Hospitalization Data

The importance of bacterial infections following respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) remains unclear. The authors in this study evaluated whether variations in RSV epidemic timing and magnitude are associated with variations in pneumococcal disease epidemics and whether changes in pneumococcal disease following the introduction of seven-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) were associated with changes in the rate of hospitalizations coded as RSV. These analyses provide evidence for an interaction between RSV and pneumococcal pneumonia. Future work should evaluate whether treatment for secondary bacterial infections could be considered for pneumonia cases even if a child tests positive for RSV.        

Smoking has a bigger impact on the prognosis of HIV-positive patients than HIV-related factors

Smoking doubles the risk of death for people with HIV. Read more here.

The association between breastfeeding and childhood obesity: a meta-analysis

The increase in childhood obesity is a serious public health concern. Several studies have indicated that breastfed children have a lower risk of childhood obesity than those who were not breastfed, while other studies have provided conflicting evidence. The objective of this meta-analysis was to investigate the association between breastfeeding and the risk of childhood obesity. Results of our meta-analysis suggest that breastfeeding is a significant protective factor against obesity in children.    

Protective efficacy of prolonged co-trimoxazole prophylaxis in HIV-exposed children up to age 4 years for the prevention of malaria in Uganda: a randomised controlled open-label trial

WHO recommends daily co-trimoxazole for children born to HIV-infected mothers from 6 weeks of age until breastfeeding cessation and exclusion of HIV infection. We have previously reported on the effectiveness of continuation of co-trimoxazole prophylaxis up to age 2 years in these children. We assessed the protective efficacy and safety of prolonging co-trimoxazole prophylaxis until age 4 years in HIV-exposed children.

Association between Recruitment Methods and Attrition in Internet-Based Studies

Internet-based systems for epidemiological studies have advantages overtraditional approaches as they can potentially recruit and monitor a wider range of individuals in a relatively inexpensive fashion. We studied the association between communication strategies used for recruitment (offline, online, face-to-face) and follow-up participation in nine Internet-based cohorts: the Influenzanet network of platforms for influenza surveillance which includes seven cohorts in seven different European countries, the Italian birth cohort Ninfea and the New Zealand birth cohortELF. Follow-up participation varied from 43% to 89% depending on the ohort.Although there were heterogeneities among studies, participants who became aware of the study through an online communication campaign compared with those through traditional offline media seemed to have a lower follow-up participation in 8 out of 9 cohorts. There were no clear differences in participation between participants enrolled face-to-face and those enrolled through other offline strategies. An Internet-based campaign for Internet-based epidemiological studies seems to be less effective than an offline one in enrolling volunteers who keepparticipating in follow-up questionnaires. This suggests that even for Internet-based epidemiological studies an offline enrollment campaign would be helpful in order to achieve a higher participation proportion and limit the cohort attrition.

Bridging the policy - implementation gap in federal health systems: lessons from the Nigerian experience

Published in Journal of Public Health in Africa. Vol 5 No 2 (2014)

Maternal and perinatal health research priorities beyond 2015: an international survey and prioritization exercise

Maternal mortality has declined by nearly half since 1990, but over a quarter million women still die every year of causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Maternal-health related targets are falling short of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals and a post-2015 Development Agenda is emerging. In connection with this, setting global research priorities for the next decade is now required. The authors in this paper adapted the methods of the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) to identify and set global research priorities for maternal and perinatal health for the period 2015 to 2025.    

Workshop report: 'Recent Trends and Career Development in Clinical Research in India' - 19 Nov 2014

A workshop on “Recent Trends and Career Development in Clinical Research –INDIA”, was organized at Bhaskara Auditorium on 19th November 2014 by SAMSKARA, a Non Profit Organization based at Hyderabad and The Global Health Network for the first time in Telangana.   

Contribution of respiratory tract infections to child deaths: a data linkage study

Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are an important cause of death in children, and often contribute to the terminal decline in children with chronic conditions. RTIs are often underrecorded as the underlying cause of death; therefore the overall contribution of RTIs to child deaths and the potential preventability of RTI-related deaths have not been adequately quantified. The authors in this study conclude that RTI-related deaths have not declined in the last decade among children in England, except in infants. Targeted strategies to prevent the winter excess of RTIs and to treat RTIs in children, particularly children with chronic conditions, may reduce RTI-related deaths.    

Hepatitis B vaccination status and Needle-stick and Sharps-related Injuries among medical school students in Nepal: a cross-sectional study

Background Hepatitis B is a dreadful infectious disease and a major global health problem. Health-care workers including clinical students are more vulnerable to such infections and non-sterile occupational exposures as their daily activities are closely related to patient's blood and body fluids.  

Maternal Clinical Diagnoses and Hospital Variation in the Risk of Cesarean Delivery: Analyses of a National US Hospital Discharge Database

The authors in this study used hospital discharge records to examine the extent to which variability in the likelihood of cesarean section across US hospitals was attributable to individual women's clinical diagnoses. Findings suggest that variability across hospitals in the individual risk of cesarean section is not decreased by accounting for differences in maternal diagnoses.    

Prof Peter Piot on Ebola

Professor Peter Piot, LSHTM, talks about Ebola and implications for Africa and understanding future epidemics at the Martin School, University of Oxford, 16th October 2014.

Treatment of Infections in Young Infants in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Frontline Health Worker Diagnosis and Antibiotic Access

Inadequate illness recognition and access to antibiotics contribute to high case fatality from infections in young infants (<2 months) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study aimed to address three questions regarding access to treatment for young infant infections in LMICs: (1) Can frontline health workers accurately diagnose possible bacterial infection (pBI)?; (2) How available and affordable are antibiotics?; (3) How often are antibiotics procured without a prescription?  

Ebola PPE guidelines

Ebola PPE guidelines - urgent need to revise WHO and CDC guidelines. This video shows an excerpt from keynote address 'The fuss about face masks', Professor Raina MacIntyre from the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW Australia.

Savar Building Collapsed Tragedy: A case Study on Nurses’ Roles in Bangladesh, 2013.

ConclusionThe study findings and discussion show that savar building collapsed disaster is a terrible incident in the history of Bangladesh. Almost all the participants had played some key roles during the disaster in the area of first aid treatment, preparation and training for dealing with the disaster, participation in rescue operation team, psychological support, coordinated response between the medical team and other agencies, disaster policy planning and decision making.Some of them suggested that government should ensure disaster training, research capacity building, the availability of resources especially financial support and other facilities like accommodation, food, safety and security for the nurses who will serve the affected people during any disaster period.

Development of a Regional Nursing Research Partnership for Academic and Practice Collaborations

Collaborative nursing research across academic and practice settings is imperative to generate knowledge to improve patient care. Models of academic/practice partnerships for nursing research are lacking. This paper reports data collected before and during a one-day retreat for nurse researchers and administrators from local universities and health care organizations designed to establish a regional nursing research partnership. Read the article here.

Intermittent Preventive Treatment of Malaria in Pregnancy with Mefloquine in HIV-Negative Women: A Multicentre Randomized Controlled Trial

Intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) is  recommended by WHO to prevent malaria in African pregnant women. The spread of SP parasite resistance has raised concerns regarding long-term use for IPT. Mefloquine (MQ) is the most promising of available alternatives to SP based on safety profile, long half-life, and high efficacy in Africa. This study evaluated the safety and efficacy of MQ for IPTp compared to those of SP in HIV-negative women. Women taking MQ IPTp (15 mg/kg) in the context of long lasting insecticide treated nets had similar prevalence rates of low birth weight as those taking SP IPTp. MQ recipients had less clinical malaria than SP recipients, and the pregnancy outcomes and safety profile were similar. MQ had poorer tolerability even when splitting the dose over two days. These results do not support a change in the current IPTp policy.