Global Health:
Science and Practice
March 2013 – Volume 1 – Issue 1
Available online at: http://bit.ly/14ihUlw
GHSP is supported by the
U.S. Agency for International Development and published by the Knowledge for
Health project at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center
for Communication Programs in collaboration with the George Washington
University School of Public Health and Health Services.
Editorials
Open-source
collaboration for Global
Health: Science and Practice
Ariel Pablos-Méndez, Michael Klag,
Lynn Goldman
USAID
and the Schools of Public Health at JHU and GWU welcome you to the inaugural
issue of GHSP—an open-access, peer-reviewed journal for the global health
community, particularly program implementers, to contribute to and benefit from
a dialogue based on science and practical programmatic experience.
A journal for
global health programming
James D
Shelton, Ronald J Waldman
GHSP
aims to improve how programs function at scale, targeting implementers who actually
support and carry out programs across all of global health. Thus, we emphasize
specific implementation details, using a crisp, accessible, interactive style.
Commentaries
Chlorhexidine for umbilical cord care: game-changer for newborn
survival?
Steve
Hodgins, YV Pradhan, Leela Khanal, Shyam Upretti, Naresh Pratap KC
A simple technology with potential to prevent 500,000 global
neonatal deaths annually.
Contraceptive implants: providing better choice to meet
growing family planning demand
Roy
Jacobstein, Harriet Stanley
Contraceptive implants are extremely effective, long acting,
and suitable for nearly all women—to delay, space, or limit
pregnancies—and they are increasingly popular. Now, markedly reduced
prices and innovative service delivery models using dedicated non-physician
service providers offer a historic opportunity to help satisfy women's growing
need for family planning.
GeneXpert for TB diagnosis: planned and purposeful
implementation
Amy S
Piatek, Maarten Van Cleeff, Heather Alexander, William L Coggin, Manuela Rehr,
Sanne Van Kampen, Thomas M Shinnick, YaDiul Mukadi
Xpert
MTB/RIF is a major advance for TB diagnostics, especially for
multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB and HIV-associated TB. But implementation concerns
including cost, technical support requirements, and challenging demands of
providing second-line TB drugs for diagnosed MDR-TB cases call for gradual,
careful introduction based on country circumstances.
Global health diplomacy: advancing foreign policy and global
health interests
Josh
Michaud, Jennifer Kates
Attention to global health diplomacy has
been rising but the future holds challenges, including a difficult budgetary
environment. Going forward, both global health and foreign policy practitioners
would benefit from working more closely together to achieve greater mutual
understanding and to advance respective mutual goals.
Can we stop AIDS with antiretroviral-based treatment as
prevention?
Edward J
Mills, Jean B Nachega, Nathan Ford
Challenges to scaling up treatment as
prevention (TasP) of HIV transmission are considerable in the developing-world
context and include accessing at-risk populations, human resource shortages,
adherence and retention in care, access to newer treatments, measurement of
treatment effects, and long-term sustainable funding. Optimism about ending
AIDS needs to be tempered by the realities of the logistic challenges of
strengthening health systems in countries most affected and by balancing TasP
with overall combination prevention approaches.
Original Articles
Reducing child global
undernutrition at scale in
Sofala
Province, Mozambique, using Care Group Volunteers to communicate health
messages to mothers
Thomas
P Davis, Jr, Carolyn Wetzel, Emma Hernandez Avilan, Cecilia De Mendoza Lopes,
Rachel P Chase, Peter J Winch, Henry B Perry
Care Group peer-to-peer behavior change communication improved child
undernutrition at scale in rural Mozambique and has the potential to
substantially reduce under-5 mortality in priority countries at very low cost.
Effectiveness of a community-based positive prevention
intervention for people living with HIV
who are
not receiving antiretroviral treatment: a prospective cohort study
Avina
Sarna, Stanley Luchters, Eustasius Musenge, Jerry Okal, Matthew Chersich,
Waimar Tun, Sabine Mall, Nzioki Kingola, Sam Kalibala
In
Mombasa, Kenya, a community-based HIV risk-reduction intervention effectively
reached people living with HIV who were not receiving antiretroviral treatment
(ART)—a difficult-to-reach population because they often fall outside the
ambit of health care services—and succeeded in reducing reported risky
sex behavior and increasing ART uptake.
Successful polio eradication in Uttar Pradesh, India:
the
pivotal contribution of the Social Mobilization Network, an NGO/UNICEF
collaboration
Ellen A Coates, Silvio Waisbord, Jitendra Awale, Roma Solomon,
Rina Dey
Innovative
approaches to eradicate polio in hard-to-reach areas included: (1) cadres of trusted
community mobilizers who track children's immunization status, (2)
responsiveness to people's concerns about immunization, (3) outreach to
religious and other local leaders, (4) focus on both individual- and
community-level behavioral approaches, and (5) continuous data collection and
use.
Meeting the community halfway to reduce maternal deaths?
Evidence
from a community-based maternal death review in Uttar Pradesh, India
Sunil
Saksena Raj, Deborah Maine, Pratap Kumar Sahoo, Suneedh Manthri, Kavita Chauhan
Even
in the face of vigorous commitment to improving maternal health services in
India, inadequate staffing, supplies, and equipment at health facilities, as
well as transportation costs and delays in referral, appear to contribute to a substantial
proportion of maternal deaths in a representative district in Uttar Pradesh.
Women's growing desire to limit births in sub-Saharan Africa: meeting the challenge
Lynn M
Van Lith, Melanie Yahner, Lynn Bakamjian
Contrary
to conventional wisdom, many sub-Saharan African women—often at young
ages—have an unmet need for family planning to limit future births, and
many current limiters do not use the most effective contraceptive methods.
Family planning programs must improve access to a wide range of modern
contraceptive methods and address attitudinal and knowledge barriers if they
are to meet women's needs.
“Man, what took you so long?”
Social
and individual factors affecting adult attendance at voluntary medical male
circumcision services in Tanzania
Marya
Plotkin, Delivette Castor, Hawa Mziray, Jan Küver, Ezekiel Mpuya, Paul James
Luvanda, Augustino Hellar, Kelly Curran, Mainza Lukobo-Durell, Tigistu Adamu
Ashengo, Hally Mahler
In a
study in Tanzania, men and women generally supported male circumcision;
however, cultural values that the procedure is most appropriate before
adolescence, shame associated with being circumcised at an older age, and
concerns about the post-surgical abstinence period have led to low uptake among
older men.
Lessons learned from scaling up a community-based health
program in the Upper East Region of northern Ghana
John
Koku Awoonor-Williams, Elias Kavinah Sory, Frank K Nyonator, James F Phillips,
Chen Wang, Margaret L Schmitt
The
original CHPS model deployed nurses to the community and engaged local leaders,
reducing child mortality and fertility substantially. Key scaling-up lessons:
(1) place nurses in home districts but not home villages, (2) adapt uniquely to
each district, (3) mobilize local resources, (4) develop a shared project
vision, and (5) conduct “exchanges” so that staff who are
initiating operations can observe the model working in another setting, pilot
the approach locally, and expand based on lessons learned.
Stories From the Field
From housewife to health worker: touching other lives and
changing my own
Interview
conducted by Tahir Tarar, Translated by Duaa Khalid
CoPEH-Can Blog 