Don't wait for the perfect moment: The national training program in family medicine in Angola.

Like many Sub-Saharan countries, Angola struggles with a shortage of trained health professionals, especially for primary care. In 2021, the Angolan Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Angolan Medical Council launched the National Program for the Expansion of Family Medicine as a long-term strategy for the provision, fixation and training of family physicians in community health centres. Of the 425 residents 411 (96.7%) who entered the programme in 2021 will get their diplomas in the following months and will be certified as family physicians. Three main aspects make this National Programme unique in the Angolan context: (1) the common effort and engagement of the Ministry of Health with the Angolan Medical Council and local health authorities in designing and implementing this programme; (2) decentralisation of the training sites, with residents in all 18 provinces, including in rural areas and (3) using community health centres as the main site of practice and training. Despite this undeniable success, many educational improvements must be made, such as expanding the use of new educational resources, methodologies and assessment tools, so that aspects related to knowledge, practical skills and professional attitudes can be better assessed. Moreover, the programme must invest in faculty development courses aiming to create the next generation of preceptors, so that all residents can have in every rotation one preceptor or tutor responsible for the supervision of their clinical activities, case discussions and sharing their clinical duties, both at community health centres and municipal hospitals.

Vaccine effectiveness of CoronaVac against COVID-19 among children in Brazil during the Omicron period.

Although severe COVID-19 in children is rare, they may develop multisystem inflammatory syndrome, long-COVID and downstream effects of COVID-19, including social isolation and disruption of education. Data on the effectiveness of the CoronaVac vaccine is scarce during the Omicron period. In Brazil, children between 6 to 11 years are eligible to receive the CoronaVac vaccine. We conducted a test-negative design to estimate vaccine effectiveness using 197,958 tests from January 21, 2022, to April 15, 2022, during the Omicron dominant period in Brazil among children aged 6 to 11 years. The estimated vaccine effectiveness for symptomatic infection was 39.8% (95% CI 33.7-45.4) at ≥14 days post-second dose. For hospital admission vaccine effectiveness was 59.2% (95% CI 11.3-84.5) at ≥14 days. Two doses of CoronaVac in children during the Omicron period showed low levels of protection against symptomatic infection, and modest levels against severe illness.

One swallow does not a summer make: Twenty years of challenges and achievements of family medicine in Mozambique.

After 20 years of hard work, family medicine (FM) is flourishing in Mozambique, but the challenges are immense in a context of multiple health needs. This study aimed to describe strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats of the current scenario that can influence the development of FM and primary health care (PHC) in Mozambique. Case study of a series of virtual world-café meetings using the World Health Organization's Operational Framework for primary health care as a theoretical model. There is a young generation of Family Physicians (FPs) eager to improve PHC in Mozambique - a result of the reactivation of the Maputo Residency Programme and the creation of the Mozambican College of FP in 2010. The current Ministry of Health has taken this agenda forward, inviting medical societies (including FM) to jointly design plans to expand training of human resources for healthcare. This plan aims to create new training sites in five different provinces hoping that it will increase the number of FP in remote areas, fixing the unequal distribution of specialists in the country. The small number of FP practicing today and the limited financial resources of the National Government are important threats to this plan. We have many strengths already conquered and the current situation opens an opportunity for the expansion of FM in Mozambique. Hopefully, it will help PHC in our country move from verticalised and selective health programmes towards a more comprehensive, efficient and person-centred care.