Health worker perceptions of integrating mobile phones into community case management of malaria in Saraya, Senegal
Conclusions
By documenting widespread use of mobile phones and health worker perceptions of their most useful applications, this paper provides a framework for their integration into the community case management of malaria programme in Saraya, Senegal. (Source: International Health)
Source: International Health - May 11, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Blanas, D. A., Ndiaye, Y., MacFarlane, M., Manga, I., Siddiqui, A., Velez, O., Kanter, A. S., Nichols, K., Hennig, N. Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLES Source Type: research
Patients struggle to access effective health care due to ongoing violence, distance, costs and health service performance in Afghanistan
Conclusions
Violence continues to affect daily life and access to healthcare in Afghanistan. Moreover, healthcare provision is not adequately geared to meet medical and emergency needs. Impartial healthcare tailored to the context will be vital to increase access to basic and life-saving healthcare. (Source: International Health)
Source: International Health - May 11, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Nic Carthaigh, N., De Gryse, B., Esmati, A. S., Nizar, B., Van Overloop, C., Fricke, R., Bseiso, J., Baker, C., Decroo, T., Philips, M. Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLES Source Type: research
Enteric fever and its impact on returning travellers
Enteric fever, a systemic illness, is caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi or S. enterica serovar Paratyphi A, B or C. The organism is transmitted to humans by the faecal oral route and is endemic in countries with poor sanitation and lacking clean drinking water. There are around 27 million individuals infected with S. Typhi worldwide annually. Enteric fever is a particular problem in travellers to endemic areas, especially those visiting friends and relatives. Currently, the two main vaccines recommended for travellers are the Vi polysaccharide vaccine and the oral Ty21a vaccine. These internationally licensed vac...
Source: International Health - May 11, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Dave, J., Sefton, A. Tags: REVIEWS Source Type: research
Emerging themes for sensitivity training modules of African healthcare workers attending to men who have sex with men: a systematic review
Sensitivity training of front-line African health care workers (HCWs) attending to men who have sex with men (MSM) is actively promoted through national HIV prevention programming in Kenya. Over 970 Kenyan-based HCWs have completed an eight-modular online training free of charge (http://www.marps-africa.org) since its creation in 2011. Before updating these modules, we performed a systematic review of published literature of MSM studies conducted in sub-Saharan Africa (sSA) in the period 2011–2014, to investigate if recent studies provided: important new knowledge currently not addressed in existing online modules; c...
Source: International Health - May 11, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Dijkstra, M., van der Elst, E. M., Micheni, M., Gichuru, E., Musyoki, H., Duby, Z., Lange, J. M. A., Graham, S. M., Sanders, E. J. Tags: REVIEWS Source Type: research
Noma: neglected, forgotten and a human rights issue
Noma, an orofacial gangrene and opportunistic infection, affects primarily malnourished children living in extreme poverty. Neglected, forgotten, unknown by most health workers, noma results in death, disfigurement and disability of some of the world's most vulnerable children. Noma is a biological indicator of multiple human rights violations, including the right to food. International support and national attention in countries with noma are lacking. The end of neglect of noma can lead to the elimination of this horrific childhood disease. (Source: International Health)
Source: International Health - May 11, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Leila Srour, M., Marck, K. W., Baratti-Mayer, D. Tags: COMMENTARY Source Type: research
Controversies in medical aid to developing countries: balancing help and harm
(Source: International Health)
Source: International Health - May 11, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Van Tilburg, C. Tags: EDITORIAL Source Type: research
Discovering dynamic patterns from infectious disease data using dynamic mode decomposition
Conclusions
We demonstrate how DMD can aid in the analysis of spatial-temporal disease data. DMD is poised to be an effective and efficient computational analysis tool for the study of infectious disease. (Source: International Health)
Source: International Health - March 2, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Proctor, J. L., Eckhoff, P. A. Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLES Source Type: research
Extracting transmission networks from phylogeographic data for epidemic and endemic diseases: Ebola virus in Sierra Leone, 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza and polio in Nigeria
Conclusions
POTN is complementary to available tools on densely-sampled data, fails gracefully on under-sampled data and is scalable to accommodate larger datasets. We provide further evidence for the utility of phylogeography for understanding transmission networks of rapidly evolving epidemics. We propose simple heuristic criteria to identify how sampling rates and disease dynamics interact to determine fundamental limitations of phylogeographic inference. (Source: International Health)
Source: International Health - March 2, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Famulare, M., Hu, H. Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLES Source Type: research
Adult vector control, mosquito ecology and malaria transmission
Conclusions
These results emphasise more strongly than ever the sensitivity of transmission to adult mosquito mortality, but also suggest the high potential of combinations of interventions including larval source management. This must be done with caution, however, as policy requires a more careful consideration of costs, operational difficulties and policy goals in relation to baseline transmission. (Source: International Health)
Source: International Health - March 2, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Brady, O. J., Godfray, H. C. J., Tatem, A. J., Gething, P. W., Cohen, J. M., McKenzie, F. E., Alex Perkins, T., Reiner, R. C., Tusting, L. S., Scott, T. W., Lindsay, S. W., Hay, S. I., Smith, D. L. Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLES Source Type: research
Transmission modeling and health systems: the case of TB in India
Conclusions
For mathematical models addressing strategic priorities for TB control, it is important to adequately quantify the dynamics of careseeking. We outline ways in which these data gaps may be addressed, and questions for future work. (Source: International Health)
Source: International Health - March 2, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Mandal, S., Arinaminpathy, N. Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLES Source Type: research
Targeting HIV services to male migrant workers in southern Africa would not reverse generalized HIV epidemics in their home communities: a mathematical modeling analysis
Conclusions
Though cost-effective, targeting migrants cannot collapse generalized epidemics in their home communities. Such a strategy would only have been possible prior to the early 1990s. However, migrant-targeted interventions synergize with general-population expansion of HIV services. (Source: International Health)
Source: International Health - March 2, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Klein, D. J., Eckhoff, P. A., Bershteyn, A. Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLES Source Type: research
Poverty, health and satellite-derived vegetation indices: their inter-spatial relationship in West Africa
Conclusions
These results highlight the utility of satellite-based metrics for poverty models including health and ecological components and, in general for large scale analysis, estimation and optimisation of multidimensional poverty metrics. However, it also stresses the need for further studies on the causes of the association between NDVI, health and poverty. Once these relationships are confirmed and better understood, the presence of this ecological component in poverty metrics has the potential to facilitate the analysis of the impacts of climate change on the rural populations afflicted by poverty and child mortali...
Source: International Health - March 2, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Sedda, L., Tatem, A. J., Morley, D. W., Atkinson, P. M., Wardrop, N. A., Pezzulo, C., Sorichetta, A., Kuleszo, J., Rogers, D. J. Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLES Source Type: research
Remotely measuring populations during a crisis by overlaying two data sources
Conclusions
Using complementary, remote data sources to measure movement shows promise for future use in humanitarian crises. We conclude with challenges of remotely measuring movement and provide suggestions for future research and methodological developments. (Source: International Health)
Source: International Health - March 2, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Bharti, N., Lu, X., Bengtsson, L., Wetter, E., Tatem, A. J. Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLES Source Type: research
The promise of reverse vaccinology
Reverse vaccinology (RV) is a computational approach that aims to identify putative vaccine candidates in the protein coding genome (proteome) of pathogens. RV has primarily been applied to bacterial pathogens to identify proteins that can be formulated into subunit vaccines, which consist of one or more protein antigens. An RV approach based on a filtering method has already been used to construct a subunit vaccine against Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B that is now registered in several countries (Bexsero). Recently, machine learning methods have been used to improve the ability of RV approaches to identify vaccine ca...
Source: International Health - March 2, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Heinson, A. I., Woelk, C. H., Newell, M.-L. Tags: REVIEW Source Type: research
Malaria genomics: tracking a diverse and evolving parasite population
Malaria parasites are continually evolving to evade the immune system and human attempts to control the disease. To eliminate malaria from regions where it is deeply entrenched we need ways of monitoring what is going on in the parasite population, detecting problematic changes as soon as they arise, and executing a prompt and effective response based on a deep understanding of this natural evolutionary process. Powerful new tools to address this problem are emerging from the fast-growing field of genomic epidemiology, driven by new sequencing technologies and computational methods that allow parasite genome variation to b...
Source: International Health - March 2, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Kwiatkowski, D. Tags: COMMENTARIES Source Type: research
