Eritrean Refugees' and Asylum-Seekers' Attitude towards and Access to Oral Healthcare in Heidelberg, Germany: A Qualitative Study.

Oral health concerns in Eritrean refugees have been an overlooked subject. This qualitative study explored the access of Eritrean refugees and asylum-seekers (ERNRAS) to oral health care services in Heidelberg, Germany, as well as their perceptions and attitudes towards oral health care. It involved 25 participants. We employed online semi-structured interviews (n = 15) and focus group discussions (n = 2). The data was recorded, transcribed, and analysed, using thematic analysis. The study found out that most of the participants have a relatively realistic perception and understanding of oral health. However, they have poor dental care practices, whilst a few have certain misconceptions of the conventional oral hygiene tools. Along with the majority's concerns regarding psychosocial attributes of poor oral health, some participants are routinely consuming Berbere (a traditional spice-blended pepper) to prevent bad breath. Structural or supply-side barriers to oral healthcare services included: communication hurdles; difficulty in identifying and navigating the German health system; gaps in transculturally, professionally, and communicationally competent oral health professionals; cost of dental treatment; entitlement issues (asylum-seekers); and appointment mechanisms. Individual or demand-side barriers comprised: lack of self-sufficiency; issue related to dental care beliefs, trust, and expectation from dentists; negligence and lack of adherence to dental treatment follow-up; and fear or apprehension of dental treatment. To address the oral health burdens of ERNRAS, it is advised to consider oral health education, language-specific, inclusive, and culturally and professionally appropriate healthcare services.

Role of community health volunteers in identifying people with elevated blood pressure for diagnosis and monitoring of hypertension in Malawi: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, there has been greater recognition of the important role of community health volunteers in many countries and their important role informs many health programs. This include health education, provision of services such as screening, monitoring and referral to health facilities. Their roles are better understood in the areas of communicable diseases like HIV infection, Tuberculosis and Malaria however little is known about their role in non-communicable diseases. This study seeks to explore perception of CHVs' functions, tasks, and their fulfilment in identifying people with elevated blood pressure for diagnosis and monitoring of hypertension in Lilongwe, Malawi. METHODS: This was a qualitative naturalistic research design utilizing observation and semi-structured interviews with community health volunteers working in Lilongwe, Malawi. Interviews were carried out with the researcher. Participants were recruited from the ZaMaC project. An interview guide was developed with a category-guided deductive approach. The interviews were recorded through note taking. Data analysis was performed using content analysis approach. RESULTS: Community health volunteers have multiple roles in prevention and monitoring of hypertension. They act as health educators and provide lifestyle counselling. They screened for hypertension and monitored blood pressure and assisted community members to navigate the health system such as linkage to health facilities. These roles were shaped in response to community needs. CONCLUSION: This study indicates the complexities of the roles of community health volunteer in identifying people with elevated BP for diagnosis and monitoring of hypertension. Understanding community health volunteers' roles provides insight into their required competencies in provision of their daily activities as well as required training to fill in their knowledge gaps.

Assessment of electronic disease early warning system for improved disease surveillance and outbreak response in Yemen.

BACKGROUND: Diseases Surveillance is a continuous process of data collection, analysis interpretation and dissemination of information for swift public health action. Recent advances in health informatics have led to the implementation of electronic tools to facilitate such critical disease surveillance processes. This study aimed to assess the performance of the national electronic Disease Early Warning System in Yemen (eDEWS) using system attributes: data quality, timeliness, stability, simplicity, predictive value positive, sensitivity, acceptability, flexibility, and representativeness, based on the Centres for Disease Control & Prevention (US CDC) standard indicators. METHODS: We performed a mixed methods study that occurred in two stages: first, the quantitative data was collected from weekly epidemiological bulletins from 2013 to 2017, all alerts of 2016, and annual eDEWS reports, and then the qualitative method using in-depth interviews was carried out in a convergent strategy. The CDC guideline used to describe the following system attributes: data quality (reporting, and completeness), timeliness, stability, simplicity, predictive value positive, sensitivity, acceptability, flexibility and representativeness. RESULTS: The finding of this assessment showed that eDEWS is a resilient and reliable system, and despite the conflict in Yemen, the system is still functioning and expanding. The response timeliness remains a challenge, since only 21% of all eDEWS alerts were verified within the first 24 h of detection in 2016. However, identified gaps did not affect the system's ability to identify outbreaks in the current fragile situation. Findings show that eDEWS data is representative, since it covers the entire country. Although, eDEWS covers only 37% of all health facilities, this represents 83% of all functional health facilities in all 23 governorates and all 333 districts. CONCLUSION: The quality and timeliness of responses are major challenges to eDEWS' functionality, the eDEWS remains the only system that provides regular data on communicable diseases in Yemen. In particular, public health response timeliness needs improvement.

Kenya's Health in All Policies strategy: a policy analysis using Kingdon's multiple streams.

BACKGROUND: Health in All Policies (HiAP) is an intersectoral approach that facilitates decision-making among policy-makers to maximise positive health impacts of other public policies. Kenya, as a member of WHO, has committed to adopting HiAP, which has been included in the Kenya Health Policy for the period 2014-2030. This study aims to assess the extent to which this commitment is being translated into the process of governmental policy-making and supported by international development partners as well as non-state actors. METHODS: To examine HiAP in Kenya, a qualitative case study was performed, including a review of relevant policy documents. Furthermore, 40 key informants with diverse backgrounds (government, UN agencies, development agencies, civil society) were interviewed. Analysis was carried out using the main dimensions of Kingdon's Multiple Streams Approach (problems, policy, politics). RESULTS: Kenya is facing major health challenges that are influenced by various social determinants, but the implementation of intersectoral action focusing on health promotion is still arbitrary. On the policy level, little is known about HiAP in other government ministries. Many health-related collaborations exist under the concept of intersectoral collaboration, which is prominent in the country's development framework - Vision 2030 - but with no specific reference to HiAP. Under the political stream, the study highlights that political commitment from the highest office would facilitate mainstreaming the HiAP strategy, e.g. by setting up a department under the President's Office. The budgeting process and planning for the Sustainable Development Goals were found to be potential windows of opportunity. CONCLUSION: While HiAP is being adopted as policy in Kenya, it is still perceived by many stakeholders as the business of the health sector, rather than a policy for the whole government and beyond. Kenya's Vision 2030 should use HiAP to foster progress in all sectors with health promotion as an explicit goal.

Using information communication technology to identify deficits in rural health care: a mixed-methods evaluation from Guatemala.

BACKGROUND: In August 2014, the Centre for the Studies of Equity and Governance in Health Systems (CEGSS) in Guatemala launched an online platform, which facilitates complaints about health services via text messages. The aim is to collect, systemise and forward such complaints to relevant institutions, and to create a data pool on perceived deficits of health care in rural Guatemala. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate if the online platform is an accepted, user-friendly and efficient medium to engage citizens in the reporting of health care deficiencies in Guatemala. METHODS: The general study design of this research was a mixed-method approach including a quantitative analysis of complaints received and a qualitative exploration of the attitude of community leaders towards the platform. RESULTS: User statistics showed that a total of N = 228 messages were sent to the platform in the period August 2014-March 2015. The majority of complaints (n = 162, 71%) fell under the 'lack of drugs, equipment or supplies' category. The community leaders welcomed the platform, describing it as modern and progressive. Despite feedback mechanisms and methods to respond to complaints not yet being fully developed, many users showed a high intrinsic motivation to use the new tool. Others, however, were restrained by fear of personal consequences and distrust of the state's judicial system. Access to mobile phones, reception, and phone credit or battery life did not pose major obstacles, but the producing and sending of correctly formatted messages was observed to be difficult. CONCLUSION: The online platform paired with SMS technology appears to be a viable approach to collect citizens' complaints in health care and connect citizens with relevant institutions. Further studies should be conducted to quantify follow-up activities and the impact on local health care provision.

Assessment of renal function in routine care of people living with HIV on ART in a resource-limited setting in urban Zambia.

INTRODUCTION: Data on renal impairment in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains scarce, determination of renal function is not part of routine assessments. We evaluated renal function and blood pressure in a cohort of people living with HIV (PLWH) on antiretroviral treatment (ART) in the Renal Care Zambia project (ReCaZa). METHODS: Using routine data from an HIV outpatient clinic from 2011-2013, we retrospectively estimated the glomerular filtration rate (eGFR, CKD-Epi formula) of PLWH on ART in Lusaka, Zambia. Data were included if adults had had at least one serum creatinine recorded and had been on ART for a minimum of three months. We investigated the differences in eGFR between ART subgroups with and without tenofovir disproxil fumarate (TDF), and applied multivariable linear models to associate ART and eGFR, adjusted for eGFR before ART initiation. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Among 1118 PLWH (63,3% female, mean age 41.8 years, 83% ever on TDF; median duration 1461 [range 98 to 4342] days) on ART, 28.3% had an eGFR <90 ml/min, and 5.5% <60 ml/min at their last measurement. Information on other conditions associated with renal impairment was not systematically documented. Fourteen per cent of the PLWH who later switched to TDF-free ART had an initial eGFR lower 60ml/min. Nineteen percent had first-time hypertensive readings at their last visit. The multivariable models suggest that physicians acted according to guidelines and replaced TDF-containing ART if patients developed moderate/severe renal impairment. CONCLUSIONS: Assessment of renal function in SSA remains a challenge. The vast majority of PLWH benefit from long-term ART, including improved renal function. However, approximately 5% of PLWH on ART may have clinically relevant decreased eGFR, and 27% hypertension. While a routine renal assessment might not be feasible, strategies to identify patients at risk are warranted. Targeted monitoring prior and during ART is recommended, however, should not delay ART access.

What Do Core Obligations under the Right to Health Bring to Universal Health Coverage?

Can the right to health, and particularly the core obligations of states specified under this right, assist in formulating and implementing universal health coverage (UHC), now included in the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals? In this paper, we examine how core obligations under the right to health could lead to a version of UHC that is likely to advance equity and rights. We first address the affinity between the right to health and UHC as evinced through changing definitions of UHC and the health domains that UHC explicitly covers. We then engage with relevant interpretations of the right to health, including core obligations. We turn to analyze what core obligations might bring to UHC, particularly in defining what and who is covered. Finally, we acknowledge some of the risks associated with both UHC and core obligations and consider potential avenues for mitigating these risks.

Universal Health Coverage and the Right to Health: From Legal Principle to Post-2015 Indicators.

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is widely considered one of the key components for the post-2015 health goal. The idea of UHC is rooted in the right to health, set out in the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Based on the Covenant and the General Comment of the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, which is responsible for interpreting and monitoring the Covenant, we identify 6 key legal principles that should underpin UHC based on the right to health: minimum core obligation, progressive realization, cost-effectiveness, shared responsibility, participatory decision making, and prioritizing vulnerable or marginalized groups. Yet, although these principles are widely accepted, they are criticized for not being specific enough to operationalize as post-2015 indicators for reaching the target of UHC. In this article, we propose measurable and achievable indicators for UHC based on the right to health that can be used to inform the ongoing negotiations on Sustainable Development Goals. However, we identify 3 major challenges that face any exercise in setting indicators post-2015: data availability as an essential criterion, the universality of targets, and the adaptation of global goals to local populations.

Community participation in formulating the post-2015 health and development goal agenda: reflections of a multi-country research collaboration.

Global discussion on the post-2015 development goals, to replace the Millennium Development Goals when they expire on 31 December 2015, is well underway. While the Millennium Development Goals focused on redressing extreme poverty and its antecedents for people living in developing countries, the post-2015 agenda seeks to redress inequity worldwide, regardless of a country's development status. Furthermore, to rectify the UN's top-down approach toward the Millennium Development Goals' formulation, widespread negotiations are underway that seek to include the voices of people and communities from around the globe to ground each post-2015 development goal. This reflexive commentary, therefore, reports on the early methodological challenges the Go4Health research project experienced in its engagement with communities in nine countries in 2013. Led by four research hubs in Uganda, Bangladesh, Australia and Guatemala, the purpose of this engagement has been to ascertain a 'snapshot' of the health needs and priorities of socially excluded populations particularly from the Global South. This is to inform Go4Health's advice to the European Commission on the post-2015 global goals for health and new governance frameworks. Five methodological challenges were subsequently identified from reflecting on the multidisciplinary, multiregional team's research practices so far: meanings and parameters around qualitative participatory research; representation of marginalization; generalizability of research findings; ethical research in project time frames; and issues related to informed consent. Strategies to overcome these methodological hurdles are also examined. The findings from the consultations represent the extraordinary diversity of marginal human experience requiring contextual analysis for universal framing of the post-2015 agenda. Unsurprisingly, methodological challenges will, and did, arise. We conclude by advocating for a discourse to emerge not only critically examining how and whose voices are being obtained at the community-level to inform the post-2015 health and development goal agenda, but also how these voices are being translated and integrated into post-2015 decision-making at national and global levels.

Access to malaria treatment in young children of rural Burkina Faso.

BACKGROUND: Effective and timely treatment is an essential aspect of malaria control, but remains a challenge in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The objective of this study was to describe young children's access to malaria treatment in Nouna Health District, Burkina Faso. METHODS: In February/March 2006, a survey was conducted in a representative sample of 1,052 households. RESULTS: Overall 149/1052 (14%) households reported the current possession of anti-malarial medicine, which was significantly associated with urban area, literacy of household head, having young children, and high socio-economic status. Out of a total of 802 children under five years, at least one malaria episode was reported for 239 (30%) within the last month. Overall 95% of children received treatment, either modern (72%), traditional (18%) or mixed (5%). Most of the medicines were provided as home treatment by the caregiver and half of children received some type of modern treatment within 24 hours of the occurrence of first symptoms. Despite a recent policy change to artemisinin-based combination therapy, modern anti-malarials consisted mainly of chloroquine (93%). Modern drugs were obtained more often from a health facility in localities with a health facility compared to those without (60% vs. 25.6%, p < 0.001). In contrast, beside informal providers, volunteer community health workers (CHW) were the main source of modern medicine in localities without a health centre (28% vs. 3%, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Access to modern health services providing quality controlled effective combination therapies against malaria needs to be strengthened in rural Africa, which should include a re-investigation of the role of CHW 30 years after Alma Ata.