Tag: frontline health workers

Blog, Frontline Health Workers, midwives, World Health Assembly, World Health Organization

2020 Marks The International Year of The Nurse and The Midwife #SupportNursesAndMidwives

It is no surprise that the world needs more health workers. In fact, even though there are currently 22 million nurses and 2 million midwives globally there is an urgent need for 18 million more health workers in order to reach universal health care coverage by 2030 according to the World Health Organization.

There is a particular need for 9 million nurses and midwives as they are critical components to a robust health system and are often on the front lines of general and critical care including:

  • Prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and other communicable diseases
  • Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of noncommunicable diseases
  • Sexual and reproductive health services, including family planning, and maternal and newborn health care, including immunization and breastfeeding support.
Continue reading “2020 Marks The International Year of The Nurse and The Midwife #SupportNursesAndMidwives”
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Africa, Blog, Communicable Disease, Frontline Health Workers, HIV / AIDS, Infectious Diseases, Maternal Health

HIV ‘Test and Treat’ Strategy Can Save Lives

By Sydney Rosen, Boston University

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continues to take a tremendous toll on human health, with 37 million people infected and 1.2 million deaths worldwide in 2014. In sub-Saharan Africa, where the HIV epidemic has been most devastating, more than 25 million people are HIV-infected, about 70 percent of the global total.

But as of 2014, only about 11 million people infected with the virus in Africa were receiving treatment with antiretroviral therapy (ART) medications, which can stop the progression of disease and reduce the risk of HIV transmission.

That leaves 14 million people with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa untreated. This is partly because, until recently, most countries have provided ART only for patients who reached a specific threshold in HIV disease progression. And starting ART can be a lengthy and complicated process, leading many patients to drop out of care before they even begin treatment.

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Blog, Ebola, Frontline Health Workers, Maternal Health, newborn health, Women and Girls

Maternal Mortality Will Rise Due to Ebola-Caused Health Worker Deaths

In January I wrote that I would be looking closely at the effect of Ebola on maternal health and mortality in the Ebola-affected countries – Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. Today unfortunate news was released by the World Bank and The Lancet.

According to the new report, Health-care worker mortality and the legacy of the Ebola epidemic and New Wave of Deaths From Ebola?: The Impact of Health Care Worker Mortality (PDF), it is estimated that 4,022 more women will die during childbirth in these countries on top of their already high maternal mortality rate due to the deaths of 240 health workers (doctors, nurses, and midwives) collectively across all three countries. Liberia lost the most health workers at 83. Guinea lost 78 and Sierra Leone lost 79 health workers. That translates to an increase of maternal deaths by 38% in Guinea, 74% in Sierra Leone, and 111% in Liberia. Due to the nature of health work a disproportionate rate of health workers died during the Ebola epidemic as opposed to the general population. Those health workers, of course, were critical to the health systems in all three countries whose systems were already on troubled ground before Ebola ravaged west Africa.

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Children, Haiti, Haiti Reporting Trip, Vaccines

Health Agent Junior Exantus on Why He Became a Health Worker

Junior Exantus
Junior Exantus prepares the pentavalent vaccine.

Junior Exantus is a health agent for Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti. He has been a health agent for three years.

“I wanted to enter the field to help the community,” said Exantus through translation. “I saw a lot of illnesses in the community.”

Continue reading “Health Agent Junior Exantus on Why He Became a Health Worker”

Jennifer James2 Comments
Africa, Asia, Blog, Children, Frontline Health Workers, Malaria/ Tuberculosis, Maternal Health, newborn health, Women and Girls

Kicking Off World Health Worker Week Through Photos and Stories #WHWWeek

To kick off World Health Worker Week (April 5 – 11) we are sharing photos and stories of some of the health workers we’ve met around the world over the years who work tirelessly to keep women, children, and families healthy and most importantly alive.

In the sub-Saharan and Asian countries where we have met these health workers, many of the ailments they treat every day can cause severe illness in their patients and even death. That is why it is important to not only provide the much-needed resources and support health workers need to do their jobs effectively and train many more health workers, it’s also important to thank them for the work they do. That is why World Health Worker Week was started — to celebrate health workers, but also to acknowledge the challenges they face every day and help rally the world’s global health community, civil society, and governments to fix those health worker challenges.

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Africa, HIV / AIDS, Malaria/ Tuberculosis, Maternal Health, Women and Girls

Zambians Head to the Polls: Candidates’ Stance on Health Care

This morning as most Americans were asleep Zambians headed to the polls to elect either the candidate of the ruling party, Edgar Lungu of the Patriotic Front founded in 1991 by the late President Michael Sata, or the leading opposition candidate representing the United Party for National Development, Hakainde Hichilema. Political observers say the race is close and there is no definitive leader at this point. Polls close at 6 … Continue reading Zambians Head to the Polls: Candidates’ Stance on Health Care

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Africa, Blog, Frontline Health Workers, Reporting

Meet Dismus Mwalukwanda, a Community Health Worker in Zambia #WHWWeek

I walked quickly beside Dismus Mwalukwanda on a sandy path bordered by overgrown shrubbery leading through the bush to rural homes outside of Lusaka, Zambia’s capital. Mwalukwanda, 43, is a frontline health worker for the Njovo Village and took me to visit a family whose young children he has treated often for malaria. Mwalukwand is in charge of helping families in his area make steps … Continue reading Meet Dismus Mwalukwanda, a Community Health Worker in Zambia #WHWWeek

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Asia, Blog, Insight Trips, Maternal Health, Reporting

Meeting Frontline Health Workers in Delhi

We met them in a perfect spot under a shade tree on a blazing hot morning with temperatures reaching well above 100 degrees even before most headed out for the day. When we arrived at the Okhla community courtyard the ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activists) and Anganwadi health workers had already patiently waited for us with purses on laps and hands crossed talking quietly amongst … Continue reading Meeting Frontline Health Workers in Delhi

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Blog, Communicable Disease, Family Planning, Poverty, Vaccines

Bill Gates On the Importance of Measurement in Global Health #BillsLetter

Every year Bill Gates, the Co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, writes an annual letter laying out his vision for the future of global health and poverty eradication. This year’s letter, which can be read at billsletter.com, espouses the critical importance of measurement in saving more lives. In fact, Gates uses measurement in business as an example of its parallel importance in global … Continue reading Bill Gates On the Importance of Measurement in Global Health #BillsLetter

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