Health extension workers in Ethiopia have had a measurable impact on interconnected challenges such as child marriage, teenage pregnancy, and school dropout.
As diabetes progresses, insulin injections become the only treatment option. But the transition from oral medication to injectable insulin is often a bumpy one.
People receiving medical treatment at the entrance hall of Ayder Referral Hospital in Mekele, the capital of Tigray region, Ethiopia.
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Unless special attention is given to conflict and HIV the war will undermine the achievement of the 2030 goals to end AIDS, discrimination, and new infections.
Maternal mortality is still major concern in sub-Saharan Africa.
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There is growing evidence that when poor-quality oxytocin is used, it fails to prevent post-partum haemorrhage.
A woman with her baby collects her household goods in front of her newly built shack in Khayelitsha, outside Cape Town.
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Pregnant women and mothers of infants are at a higher risk of experiencing depression because of increased pressures they face economically, in their relationships, with their families, and socially.
Health workers wearing protective suits lower the body of a COVID-19 victim for burial at a graveyard in Gulu, northern Uganda.
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Relying on donor funding means that the funder ultimately determines the health priorities. This is one reason why many programmes in Africa focus on a single disease such as HIV.
A refugee receives his first dose of coronavirus vaccine in Kigali, Rwanda.
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Men can practically help their partners access care by assisting with the costs of attending clinical appointments such as transportation, health insurance, and meals while on route to the clinic.
“We saw patients dying for avoidable reasons. They were dying because masks that came loose were not being replaced,” says MSF COVID-19 intervention nursing activities manager, Caroline Masunda.
Chris Allan
Where there are not enough health workers to deliver medical care, one solution is to move certain tasks to less specialised health workers, a process called task-shifting.
Child mortality rates in the country are high.
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Health surveillance assistants provide services in village clinics, mainly by assessing signs and symptoms in sick children. An electronic community case management app could make their job easier.
Farmworkers are essential workers who must decide every morning whether they will leave their home to work the fields to provide for their families and the nation.
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In the wake of COVID-19, researchers can become trusted figures of authority who can re-appropriate their networks, skills and knowledge to better the lives of vulnerable populations.
Health workers go door-to-door to screen for COVID-19 in Pretoria, South Africa.
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South Africa’s disaster management plan targets the most vulnerable. But it needs to respond in a more deliberate way when it comes to people with disabilities.
A community health worker carries a box of protection masks in Dakar on April 16, 2020.
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To contain COVID-19, African countries cannot rely just on doctors and nurses, who are already in short supply and at high risk of infection in the workplace.
Only one third of women in Madagascar get prenatal care in the first trimester.
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Professor and PhD programme convenor, Division of Disability Studies, and co-lead of Inclusive Practices Africa, Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town