Infectious Diseases

The objective of this research was to study prescribing practices of private practitioners in the treatment of tuberculosis, two decades after a similar study conducted in the same geographical area revealed dismal results. [from abstract]

Hospital-based providers’ willingness to report to work during an influenza pandemic is a critical yet under-studied phenomenon. Witte’s Extended Parallel Process Model has been shown to be useful for understanding adaptive behavior of public health workers to an unknown risk, and thus offers a framework for examining scenario-specific willingness to respond among hospital staff. [from abstract]

The objective of this article is to compare the processes and outcomes of four pulic-private mix project on DOTS implementation for tuberculosis control in New Delhi, India; Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam; Nairobi, Keny; and Pune, India. [from abstract]

This study evaluated the effect of malaria rapid diagnostic tests on health workers anti-malarial drug prescriptions among outpatients at low level health care facilities within different malaria epidemiological settings in Uganda. [from abstract]

This study assessed community acceptability of the use of rapid diagnostic tests by Ugandan community health workers, locally referred to as community medicine distributors. [from abstract]

Ethiopia’s health extension workers (HEW) deliver preventive interventions and treat childhood diarrhea and malaria, but not pneumonia. Most of Ethiopia’s annual estimated 4 million childhood pneumonia cases go untreated. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of volunteers in providing community case management for diarrhea, fever and pneumonia in a pre-HEW setting in Ethipia. [adapted from abstract]

India has the highest incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in the world. The Government’s TB programme uses Directly Observed Treatment Short course to supervise patients’ treatment. However an estimated 40-50 per cent of TB treatment is accessed through private pharmacists. A challenge is to engage these pharmacists in TB control. [from author]

Working in a hospital during an extraordinary infectious disease outbreak can cause significant stress and contribute to healthcare workers choosing to reduce patient contact. Psychological training of healthcare workers prior to an influenza pandemic may reduce stress-related absenteeism, however, established training methods that change behavior and attitudes are too resource-intensive for widespread use.

Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is the leading cause of liver disease and liver cancer and a major source of health-related discrimination in China. To better target HBV detection and prevention programs, it is necessary to assess existing HBV knowledge, educational resources, reporting, and preventive practices, particularly among those health professionals who would be responsible for implementing such programs. [from abstract]

Information on health expenditure suggests that most poor countries have a large and growing private medical sector. Surveys indicate that the private sector is an important source of care, even for poor people and even where public services are widely available. Experts believe that private practitioners manage a large proportion of the unreported majority of tuberculosis cases. [adapted from author]

In this study, we aimed to determine the cost and cost-effectiveness of involving health extension workers in tuberculosis treatment in Southern Ethiopia. This paper presents an ancillary cost-effectiveness analysis of data from a randomized control trial. [adapted from introduction]

This study presents evaluation findings of two different programs targeting private medicine retailers for malaria control in Kenya. Key components of this evaluation were measurement of program performance, including coverage, knowledge, practices, and utilization based on spatial analysis. [from abstract]

Documentation of test results for latent tuberculosis infection is important for health care workers and students before they begin work. A negative result provides a baseline for comparison with future tests. A positive result affords a potential opportunity for treatment of latent infection when appropriate. This study sought to evaluate the yield of the referral process for positive baseline tuberculin tests, among persons beginning health care work or studies. [from abstract]

This handbook provides background information on the current workforce situation in the health sector and summarizes the issues and challenges; introduces the HRH Action Framework and the Stop TB (tuberculosis) Strategy; applies the Framework to human resource development (HRD) for comprehensive TB control; describes how to prepare a strategic plan for HRD in support of comprehensive TB control; and gives a step-by-step guide on how to develop HRD plans based on the structures and processes described. [adapted from introduction]

The objective of this study was to assess the skills of community health volunteers in diagnosing active trachoma, the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness, and distributing azithromycin treatment in the Northern Region of Ghana. [adapted from author]

This article describes a systematic process to develop and implement two strategic action plans focussing on competence development based on specific job descriptions. The approach was a change from only focussing on training, to a broader, long term approach to human resource development for comprehensive TB control. [adapted from abstract]

The Integrated Management of Childhood Illness strategy can improve the quality of care for pneumonia and other common illnesses in developing countries, but adherence to these guidelines could be improved. We evaluated an intervention in Benin to support health worker adherence to the guidelines after training, focusing on pneumonia case management. [from abstract]

We conducted a survey among nurses and midwives working at district level in Sudan and Zambia to determine their roles and functions in polio eradication and measles elimination programs. [from abstract]

This article reports on the obstacles to care and the outcome of treatment for patients presenting with tuberculosis to four hospitals in the rural South African region of Sekhukhuneland. [adapted from article]

This study involves the development and evaluation of training materials for provider-initiated HIV counseling and testing, HIV prevention and integrated primary HIV care and support for use by health care workers involved in the care of patients with TB at the primary health care clinic level in the Democratic Republic of Congo. [adapted from abstract]

The study assessed knowledge and practice of health care providers on current concepts on malaria prophylaxis in pregnancy. [from abstract]

There is a general consensus that another influenza pandemic is inevitable. Although health care workers (HCWs) are essential to the health system response, there are few studies exploring HCW attitudes to pandemic influenza. The aim of this study was to explore HCWs knowledge, attitudes and intended behaviour towards pandemic influenza. [from abstract]

The UK healthcare system's ability to cope during an influenza pandemic will largely depend on the number of healthcare workers (HCWs) who are able and willing to work through the crisis. This paper includes the results of a qualitative study exploring the views of UK HCWs on working during an influenza pandemic in order to identify factors that might influence their willingness and ability to work. [from abstract]

Increased immunization coverage is an important step towards fulfilling the Millennium Development Goal of reducing childhood mortality. Recent cross-sectional and cross-national research has indicated that physician, nurse and midwife densities may positively influence immunization coverage. However, little is known about relationships between densities of HRH and vaccination coverage within developing countries and over time. This study examines HRH densities and coverage of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) in Turkey from 2000 to 2006. [from abstract]

The purpose of this survey was to identify nurses' perceived challenges in implementing a community-based TB program in the Omaheke region of Namibia. The HIV pandemic has increased the number of TB patients and increased nurses' workloads, aggravating the burden of TB as a resurgent disease in this region. In order to implement a successful community-based TB program, the patient-related, access-related and knowledge-related challenges, perceived by the nurses, need to be addressed effectively. [from abstract]

The current global tuberculosis (TB) epidemic has pressured health care managers, particularly in developing countries, to seek for alternative, innovative ways of delivering effective treatment to the large number of TB patients diagnosed annually. One strategy employed is direct observation of treatment for all patients. In high-burden settings innovation with this strategy has resulted into the use of lay community members to supervise TB patients during the duration of anti-TB treatment.

Irrational drug use is contributed by many factors including care providers giving wrong drug information to patients. Dispensing staff in private pharmacy shops play a significant role in pharmaceutical management and provision of relevant information to clinicians and patients, enhancing the improvement of rational medicine use. This report offers an evaluation/staff assessment of pharmacist knowledge in a situation where they function as health workers in dispensing and prescribing medications. [adapted from introduction]

Increased interest in parasite-based malaria diagnosis has led to increased use of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs), particularly in rural settings. The scarcity of health facilities and trained personnel in many sub-Saharan African countries means that limiting RDT use to such facilities would exclude a significant proportion of febrile cases. Use of RDTs by volunteer community health workers (CHWs) is one alternative, but most sub-Saharan African countries prohibit CHWs from handling blood, and little is known about CHW ability to use RDTs safely and effectively. [adapted from introduction]

This article compares the quality, quantity and distribution of tuberculosis physicians, laboratory staff, community health workers and nurses in Nigeria and Kyrgyzstan, and highlights implications for (re)training tuberculosis workers in developing countries. [from abstract]

Improving the capacity of developing countries to respond to emerging diseases and especially influenza pandemics is essential to reduce both transmission around the globe and the human toll of outbreaks in the developing world. Investing in this capacity in developing countries is thus increasingly seen as a shared concern within the global community. [from introduction]