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Economic Empowerment
Environmental Sustainability
Food Security and Healthcare
Learning Opportunities
Violence and Conflict Resolution
3E Project: Healthcare
The objective for this Programme area is to “Ensure women and girls have food security and access to the highest attainable standard of health care”. (See the full list of Programme Objectives).
For further information about the Assistant Programme Director for Food Security and Healthcare, see the Programme Team Page.
SI Garstang , marking International Women’s Day and Ovarian Cancer Awareness Week
March was ovarian cancer awareness month and many clubs have made a start on supporting the proposal passed at the last SIGBI conference relating to the disease – don’t forget to submit a Programme Focus Report Form! We were asked in the first year to carry out research in our areas to find out what information is an available as well as researching referral pathways in our respective areas.
Awareness of ovarian cancer is low and it is generally agreed that there is a need to increase awareness of current knowledge about ovarian cancer symptoms amongst women and primary healthcare professionals.
However information about ovarian cancer symptoms currently provided to the public is often inconsistent. The symptoms listed on some websites are common to many, non cancerous diseases, such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), and we must be careful not to cause unnecessary anxiety to women who have some of the symptoms listed, whilst making them aware of potential problems
Preliminary evidence currently available shows that the following symptoms are frequent in patients who go on to be diagnosed with ovarian cancer
A proportion of healthy women will also have these symptoms and this could lead to investigations, including surgery that may be of no benefit to the woman and could potentially be of physical and/or psychological harm. Currently, some healthy women are already subjected to unnecessary investigations.
Evidence also shows that it is the frequency, persistency, severity and new onset of these symptoms that may help to differentiate between those who are experiencing symptoms related to ovarian cancer and those who are not.
Raising awareness of symptoms, checking availability of appropriate literature and websites is paramount. For more information see the following websites:
Barbara Dixon, SIGBI Assistant Programme Director: Food Security & Healthcare
Women in Bangladesh
More than 350,000 women die each year around the globe from complications of childbirth, and 3 million children die in the first month of life. In the face of such dire numbers, development experts will focus on what is working around the world to improve the situation next week during the Millennium Development Goals assessment at the U.N. General Assembly.
A new report from the U.N.’s Every Woman, Every Child Innovation Working Group, out in the Lancet Monday, looks at some of the promising and innovative projects that could help change those statistics. Learn about five interesting approaches that could be models for other countries struggling with high maternal and infant mortality:
Have you ever travelled to a rural part of a developing country and been astounded to find that bottles of Coke also managed to find their way there? ColaLife is piggy-backing on Coca-Cola’s extensive supply chain to provide isolated communities with much-needed medical supplies.
Self-contained “aid pods” filled with supplies can fit into any unused crate space and are delivered to local contacts when beverage supplies are distributed.
The group is currently working on an anti-diarrhoeal kit that would carry rehydration salts, soap, water treatment tools and educational materials. Diarrhoeal disease is one of the leading causes of death for children under five in the developing world, but is preventable and treatable.
Reaching women where they work is the strategy at HERproject (Health Enables Returns), which now operates in more than 70 factories in seven countries. The group trains female employees at factories manufacturing everything from Levis to Microsoft to teach their peers about reproductive health, nutrition, infectious disease and other health issues. The project also links women up to health services, either by improving in-factory clinics or directing women to outside government services.
Pregnant women who are HIV-positive can prevent their babies from contracting the disease with medication, but only if they take it correctly. In South Africa , 40 percent of children under five still die from AIDS-related illnesses, in part because many mothers don’t complete the mother-to-child prevention programs. Cell-Life developed a 10-week program of text message reminders designed to help mothers remember when to attend appointments, give medication and tell them how to safely feed their babies. A randomized trial is ongoing, but so far results suggest that mothers using the SMS program are more likely to get their babies tested for HIV.
Low-income women in India usually have two choices for maternal care and child birth: wait in long lines at overcrowded government facilities or risk breaking the bank by paying for private care. Seeking to provide a middle-ground alternative, LifeSpring developed a chain of hospitals for women who earn about between $3 to $6 a day that provides an all-inclusive maternal care package for about half or one-third what other private facilities might offer.
The facilities cut costs by using a no-frills environment, and by breaking down complex processes into different tasks, some of which can be done by less-skilled professionals.
When a grocery store is sold out of milk, it’s an inconvenience for customers. When a clinic in Sub-saharan Africa runs out of malaria medication, it’s a life-and-death supply issue for patients. A public-private partnership in Tanzania between several groups, including Novartis and the ministry of health, produced the SMS for Life system in an attempt to end such stock-outs. SMS messages on stock levels, along with a data system used to map distribution helped cut the proportion of health facilities reporting malaria shortages from 78 percent to 26 percent in 21 weeks.
Misleading serology tests for tuberculosis could be worsening the epidemic in some high burden countries. WHO will be issuing policy advice against their use early in 2011.
Although no international guideline recommends their use, scores of commercial for tuberculosis are being sold in high burden countries. Some are laboratory based tests while others are rapid dip-stick tests, which could fill a vital niche for a point-of-care tuberculosis diagnostic test. Madhukar Pai, co-chair of Stop-TB Partnership’s new diagnostic’s working group comments ‘ If they worked, the problem of a gap in the pipeline for a point of care assay would have been solved decades ago. The pity is they don’t work, in fact they are inaccurate and useless.’
The problem is probably greatest in India where sero-diagnostic kits are used on 1.5 million people with suspected TB each year. Such testing is not done through the Revised National TB Control Programme but through the unregulated private sector. India has more than 2 million new cases each year, on-going transmission will not be reduced without early detection which relies on accurate diagnosis.
The control and eradication of TB is further complicated by the emergence of Multidrug-resistant [MDR] and Extensively Drug resistant [XDR] tuberculosis during the past decade. A commitment to tuberculosis control including improvements in national policies and health systems is needed. The susceptibility of HIV positive individuals to TB and the importance of contact tracing of infected persons must be recognised and pursued vigorously.
Genital mutilation – The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says three million girls are still at the risk of genital mutilation each year. In a message to mark International Day against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), the UNFPA called for change of perception on the practice.
The practice is still widespread in spite of a global commitment in 2002 to end FGM by 2010.
The UN agency also blamed the continued practice on social and cultural perceptions.
It estimates that 120 to 140 million women have been subjected to this harmful and dangerous practice.
The UNFPA said: ‘Girls and their families will face shame, social exclusion and diminished marriage prospects if they forego cutting.
‘FGM poses immediate and long-term consequences for the health of women and girls, and violates their human rights.’
The agency noted that decline in the number of FGM had been recorded in some communities, which had chosen to make public declarations against the practice.
It cited Senegal, where genital mutilation had declined by up to 65 per cent.
‘Success in reducing the incidence in several countries where it was once highly prevalent has occurred as a result of culturally sensitive engagement with local communities and encouraging change from within,’ the agency said.
6 February of every year has been designated by the UN as International Day against Female Genital Mutilation.
The day has been set aside to raise awareness among the general public about this traditional but harmful practice.
The UN insists that FGM ’severely violates the human rights of women and girls’.
Its report estimates that in the 28 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East where female genital mutilation/cutting is performed, some 130 million women and girls have been affected.
In addition to causing severe pain, FGM can result in prolonged bleeding, infection, infertility and death.
The 63rd Annual United Nations DPI/NGO Conference, held in Melbourne, Australia from 30 August to 1 September, concluded with the NGO Declaration “Advance Global Health: Achieve the MDGs.” The Declaration, supported by 1,600 participants representing over 350 NGOs from more than 70 countries, underlines that “it is unacceptable that so many children and adults in low income countries continue to suffer preventable illness, disability and premature deaths each year.”
The Declaration recognizes the relationship between the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), health challenges and human rights. It notes that billions of people around the world still lack access to adequate and appropriate food; to improved sanitation; and to safe drinking water. It underscores that almost 9 million children die before the age of five; while several hundred thousands of women continue to die each year of pregnancy-related causes. These are just a few examples in the Declaration, which also notes that many more people (i) die of insufficient access to health care, health care professionals, and medicines or of non-communicable diseases; or (ii) face discrimination and poverty as a result of their disabilities.
Therefore, the Declaration calls upon governments, UN agencies, corporations and individuals to deliver on their human rights obligations, and to provide adequate financial resources and political will to achieve the MDGs. They should ensure that national health and nutrition plans prioritize integrated and evidence-based health promotion, illness prevention and treatment services for all people; and actively support, encourage and resource community voices – representing women and men, children, youth and older persons, indigenous peoples, the disabled and marginalized groups – in programme planning, implementation and evaluation.
Further, the formation and strengthening of national health systems should be prioritized in order to deliver sustainable and equitable health improvements and governments should respect and implement existing international covenants and agreements that advance global health. Also more efforts should be directed towards ensuring gender equality, empowering women and ending violence against women.
To overcame the brain drain in the health sector in developing countries, the Declaration calls for changing existing international financial and trade systems in order to create more equal opportunities for health workers in resource poor countries. It also recommends the donor community to cut military expenditures, which will free up resources that can be used for the training and retraining health workers, teachers, and infrastructure.
The following news items have been released following the Conference:
Malaria is an infectious blood disease caused by a parasite that is transmitted from one human to another by the bite of infected Anopheles mosquitoes. Malaria symptoms, which often appear about 9 to 14 days after the infectious mosquito bite, include fever, headache, vomiting and other flu-like symptoms. If drugs are not available or the parasites are resistant to them, the infection can lead to coma, life-threatening anemia, and death.
Malaria kills between one and three million people each year. Ninety percent of malaria-related deaths occur in Africa, the majority of whom are young children.
Long-lasting insecticide treated bed nets (LLINs) are the fastest way to prevent malaria infection because they create a protective barrier against mosquitoes at night, when the vast majority of transmissions occur. Most mosquito nets can accommodate more than one person. An insecticide treated net can offer about twice the protection of an untreated net, and can even protect other people in the room outside the net. Entire communities can be made safer through high percentages of LLIN penetration.
