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Understanding information needs

Informal rural healthcare providers in North and South India

'More than two-thirds of informal rural healthcare providers knew how to manage common conditions, but they still prescribed/dispensed more drugs than necessary'. This is one of the key messages of a new paper in Health Policy and Planning. It would be interesting to hear more from the authors about this very important group of healthcare providers.
 

Unravelling the quality of HIV counselling and testing services in the private and public sectors in Zambia

ABSTRACT
 
Background: Despite the substantial investment for providing HIV counselling and testing (VCT) services in Zambia, there has been little effort to systematically evaluate the quality of VCT services provided by various types of health providers. This study, conducted in 2009, examines VCT in the public and private sectors including private for-profit and NGO/faith-based sectors in Copperbelt and Luapula.
 

African-UK Young Leaders Fellowship Programme 2016 (2)

We work with Rehabilitation doctors in Madagascar and they have now got their mid-level diplomas in Rehabilitation Medicine so that each can run a Regional Rehabilitation Centre and begin to improve the rehab available to the population. We are hoping they will have trained colleagues (Physios and OTs) so they can run multidisciplinary teams which are proven effective and that they can start spinal injury rehab. This has been available in the UK since 1944, developed By Guttmann who started sports for the disabled, the forerunner of the Para -Olympic movement.

Case Management of Severe Malaria - A Forgotten Practice: Experiences from Health Facilities in Uganda

Abstract
 
Introduction: Severe malaria is a life-threatening medical emergency and requires prompt and effective treatment to prevent death. There is paucity of published information on current practices of severe malaria case management in sub-Saharan Africa; we evaluated the management practices for severe malaria in Ugandan health facilities
 

Addressing health needs of pregnant women and their babies (2) Sex education in Africa

information and communication technologies (especially cable TV, access to pornography) coupled to "new sort of peer pressure" seem to create a need for early sexual initiation of youths. Some colleagues of mine have conducted studies on sexual reproductive health and the results are revealing of a more and more early involvement of girls in sexual activities. It is amazing that even today profound ignorance reings in some african familes  with respect to sexuality. It seems not to be necessarily a matter of social class or education... 
 

"We have become doctors for ourselves": motives for malaria self-care among adults in southeastern Tanzania.

Abstract
Background: Prompt and appropriate treatment of malaria with effective medicines remains necessary if malaria control goals are to be achieved. The theoretical concepts from self-care and the health belief model were used to examine the motivations for malaria self-care among the adult population.
 

An exploratory study of community factors relevant for participatory malaria control on Rusinga Island, western Kenya

Malaria imposes a huge burden upon the health and economic development of tropical nations and has been identified as a major obstacle towards achieving several of the health-related Millennium Development Goals. This document outlines a study in western Kenya which examined knowledge and belief about Malaria, socioeconomic status and treatment and practices for Malaria prevention. The study also measured the community willingness to implement and prepare vector based control.
 

Scaling up Evidence-Informed HIV Prevention for Adolescent Girls and Young Women

'Adolescents are a critical priority in HIV prevention programming. Today's adolescents have never known a world without AIDS. People born with HIV and those becoming sexually active in an era of HIV and AIDS face complicated risks and challenges that were unknown to previous generations.

Challenges of finding practical healthcare information on the internet (7)

Rakesh Biswas said: "I feel it is time all the 7000 professionals in HIFA contributed their searching and processing skills to an online information service for anyone querying them on any health related information through the HIFA portal itself. Any query sent to the HIFA portal could be sent by you to the member with the appropriate searching and processing skill to answer that question?"

Whenever one contemplates any new health information initiative, I think it is always useful to explore some basic questions:

1. Whose information needs are we trying to meet?

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