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Archives for Health

The Ability to Plan Your Family Is a Game Changer

Posted by  on Friday, December 10th 2010     

By: Ryan Cherlin

Having seven children would be a challenge for any woman. In a developing nation like Mali, where the average number of children per woman is 6.6, calling it a challenge may be an understatement. Because they fall pregnant at an early age, young mothers don’t have the opportunity to finish their education, they aren’t able to work outside the home, and they face an increased risk of pregnancy-related health complications that could be fatal. Without contraceptives to plan how many children to have and when to have them, this scenario becomes reality for billions of women in the developing world and feeds the cycle of poverty.

Causes of Maternal Death Pie ChartThere are an estimated 215 million women who wish they had the ability to plan their family but don’t have access to contraceptives.  In some developing nations where health care systems are grossly inadequate, or in rural areas where they may be non-existent, the availability of something as simple as contraceptives can be a matter of life and death.  Women understand the grave risk that comes with pregnancy when there are no trained health professionals or doctors to consult and provide care.  The ability to mitigate that risk is a right that should be afforded to every woman.

A World Health Organization report in 2005 stated that 1 in 75 women in developing countries risk facing maternal death in their lifetime versus 1 in 7,300 in developed countries. At the extreme, in Niger a women’s lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy-related complications is 1 in 7 versus 1 in 48,000 in Ireland. Behind each of these statistics is a story of a mother who died giving life. Behind each statistic there are heart wrenching stories of broken families that lost a loved one. The stories are all the more tragic when the woman had hoped to avoid the pregnancy, but didn’t have access to contraceptives.

The 16 Days Campaign to End Violence Against Women: From 25 November to 10 December, USAID will post a blog each day that aims to prove a single point: The human race cannot progress when half of the world population lives without the same rights and respect afforded to its male counterpart. If you are moved by what you read and want to share, we’ve made it easy for you. Click here to find out how.

Digital Birth Control On Your iPhone

Posted by  on Thursday, December 9th 2010     

By: Ryan Cherlin

Just when you thought there was an application for everything, now you can download birth control to your smart phones. The ability to plan or prevent pregnancy is something most couples in developed nations take for granted. In poor countries where health systems are often weak and individuals can’t afford to see a health professional this luxury is wanted and needed, but not easily attained.

iCycleBeadsIconAn estimated 200 million women wish they could plan for or prevent pregnancy because having more children poses a health risk to the woman or an economic challenge for the family.

The product, iCycleBeads, is now available at the iTunes store. It’s a natural birth control method that enables a woman to track her menstrual cycle and know if she is on a day when pregnancy is likely or not. Many women and couples prefer this method because it is:

  • More than 95% Effective
  • Side-Effect Free
  • Easy to Use
  • Inexpensive
  • Educational & Empowering

Since 1985 USAID has supported the use and development of natural family planning methods that give couples the tools they need to plan for the future health and stability of their families. It was a USAID-funded study that originally developed the science and methodology behind Cyclebeads which has helped couples in developing countries plan their families for decades.

This new trend towards digitizing birth control through smart phone applications or similar services offered on regular cell phones means more couples will have access to the family planning services they want.

CycleBeads is a color-coded string of beads that represents the days of a woman’s cycle and helps her use a natural family planning method called the Standard Days Method®. To use CycleBeads, a woman simply moves a ring over the beads to track each day of her cycle. The color of the beads lets her know whether she is on a day when pregnancy is likely or not and whether her cycle length is in the appropriate range for using this natural family planning method.

One Man Can

Posted by  on Wednesday, December 8th 2010     

Submitted by Ryan Cherlin

There may be one major factor overlooked in the struggle for women’s rights: men. Skeptics are being won over by the preponderance of evidence proving that unless men are actively engaged in supporting the empowerment of women, progress will remain painfully slow and women will remain vulnerable to health threats, including gender-based violence.  While this may seem obvious, the findings demonstrate a need to incorporate educating males as a key function of women’s rights organizations and programs.

Years ago, women’s health activists fighting for limited resources believed involving men would take away from the women. Today, studies clearly show that is not the case, and activists now see men as playing a central role in achieving their goal.

Programs like USAID’s “One Man Can” focuses efforts on changing the attitudes of men to create an equitable balance of power, privilege, responsibilities and resources that men and women possess. These programs are proven more effective when men see the advantages for themselves, their partners, and children.

Traditionally, men are prone to take more risks with their health, are less likely to seek professional healthcare services, and often choose to remain emotionally distant from women and children.  These norms are detrimental for both men and women, and provide a poor example to children who then perpetuate this cycle.

Reaching boys and young men in their formative years helps to shape their view of women as equals. This approach at the community level must be reinforced by policies that establish this equality as a social norm. By educating men about the consequences of their actions, and enforcing policies that favor equality, traditional ways of thinking can be challenged and changed.

The 16 Days Campaign to End Violence Against Women: From 25 November to 10 December, USAID will post a blog each day that aims to prove a single point: The human race cannot progress when half of the world population lives without the same rights and respect afforded to its male counterpart. If you are moved by what you read and want to share, we’ve made it easy for you. Click here to find out how.

Recognizing Community Health Workers in Afghanistan

Posted by  on Monday, December 6th 2010     

As featured in Dipnote

Submitted by Robert Sauers

In support of the United Nations designated International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health celebrated its annual Community Health Worker Day on December 5, 2010. Acting Minister of Public Health Dr. Suraya Dalil, USAID Senior Deputy Mission Director Robert Hellyer, other government officials, and international donors joined in recognizing the critical contribution of community health workers in Afghanistan and encouraging them to continue their voluntary support to their communities.

USAID Senior Deputy Director Robert Hellyer commends one of 22,000 community health workers in the annual celebration of Community Health Worker Day. Photo credit: USAID/ Afghanistan, Robert Sauers

The event praised the contributions of the more than 22,000 volunteers throughout the country who deliver community level health-education, counseling, and services out of village health posts located in private homes. The Ministry of Public Health envisioned that community-based healthcare programs will actively encourage communities and families to adopt healthy lifestyles and behaviors, and provide families access to high quality and socially acceptable preventative medicine and life-saving services.

“We have 22,000 community health workers in Afghanistan that are able to implement the basic and standard medicines. They all have been trained through a job description,” said Minister Dalil. Addressing the health workers, she added, “I am proud…that I have people like you.”

USAID-funded health projects collaborate closely with the Ministry of Public Health to improve the health and nutritional status of Afghans, provide quality primary healthcare, and promote healthy behaviors at the community and household-levels. USAID supported the training of more than 9,000 of the volunteer community health workers currently working in Afghanistan.

“On behalf of the American people, I congratulate the community health workers for their diligence to gain the skills and knowledge necessary to serve their communities in this important role,” said USAID Senior Deputy Mission Director Hellyer. “USAID strongly supports community based health care and believes that quality community-based health services are essential to reaching Afghanistan’s Millennium Development Goals.”

USAID assisted in developing the community health worker training manual, helped train community health worker supervisors and master-trainers, facilitated in-service training, and produced and developed reporting tools, job aids, and education materials.

Taking a Stand Against Violence Now

Posted by  on Monday, December 6th 2010     

Submitted by Jessica DiRocco

“Girls have been made to believe that they need someone to survive.”

These powerful words came from one of the commentators in the short documentary, SASA!, a film about women, violence and HIV/AIDS.

Sasa is Kiswahili for “now.” As in now is the time to take a stand against women’s violence. And we need to make this change now.

SASA! tells the powerful story of Josephine and Mama Joyce, two women from different countries, but in similar situations. Beaten, abused, pushed down, and left HIV positive by the men they married.

As young women, they were made to feel powerless and told they wouldn’t be happy unless they were with a man—even a man who abuses them.

Their situations are not isolated cases; globally, at least one out of every four women is beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused during her lifetime.

One out of four.

Gender based violence (GBV), is a pervasive public health and human rights issue throughout the world. GBV consists of sexual, physical, emotional and/or financial abuse and is manifested throughout the life cycle.

Furthermore, this type of violence against another human being has negative health consequences.

In Mama Joyce and Josephine’s situations, they were both left HIV positive. Josephine’s husband slept with other women, and when she brought up the use of a condom, he beat her. And even though she protested, he forced sex on her. Adding salt to the wound, her in-laws blamed their son’s death on her. Mama Joyce’s husband left her and his second wife, leaving Mama Joyce to take care of her ailing “co-wife.”

But these women remained strong. They became leaders in their communities, hold support groups, and encourage other women who are in similar situations.End Violence Against Women Graphic

USAID, through the Global Health Initiative, is fully committed to preventing and responding to gender-based violence. Interventions work with both men and women to address the multiple factors at various levels that fuel the issue, and we are looking to help make a change in these women’s lives now.

Listening to Patients: How one Facility Made it easier for Patients on ART to Remain in Care

Posted by  on Friday, December 3rd 2010     

By: Mabel Namwabira Kamoga, USAID Health Care Improvement Project

Mabel is a Quality Improvement Advisor working with USAID’s Health Care Improvement Project (HCI). HCI is a five-year task order contract issued by USAID to support countries in improving the quality and impact of health services.

During a site visit with the USAID Health Care Improvement (HCI) Project in Uganda the Quality Improvement team at the Bwera Hospital in the Kasese District showed me data they collected on patients retained from August 2009 to November 2009. They found that only 54 percent of the patients ever started on treatment were still in care. The team leader told me “This is surprising; I thought everybody was here because the clinic is always busy.”

We then discussed ways to improve the situation, and it was decided the health care workers will begin asking patients why they had missed their visits and, more importantly, what they wanted from the clinic so that they wouldn’t miss visits in the future.

My work with the HCI Project supports the Uganda Ministry of Health to implement the Quality of Care Initiative, which aims to improve the quality of HIV services. Over the past ten months, I worked with 14 facilities to ensure that everyone who receives antiretroviral (ARV) medicine remains in care. This entails visiting facilities, such as the one in Kasese, to help them form quality improvement teams, identify areas for improvement, plan improvement projects and measure their performance.

When I returned two months after my initial visit to Bwera Hospital, the team told me that the most common reason for missed appointments was because monthly appointments were hard to keep due to transport problems.  The patients asked for two months worth of ARVs to be dispensed so they could come less often.  The staff listened to their clients and began distributing  a two month supply of ARVs.  They were proud to show me that more patients were now keeping their appointments.

Graph showing increase in number of patients who pick up thier drugs

Said one patient:

“Traveling to the hospital for drugs every month was very difficult.  I would lose 2 days of business every month to travel which also affected my health. When I discussed my problem and suggestions with the health workers, they accepted to give me treatment of more than one month. Now I have an obligation to remain adherent to treatment and keep my appointments to continue enjoying this.  My business is not affected anymore and I am able to save money to cater for other things.”

From this experience, I learned that listening to the perspective of patients in health care gives them a sense of relief and satisfaction with care. Health care workers also find the management of patients more fulfilling when the clients are directly involved. Thanks to the American People for making this happen.

Helping Women Avoid HIV Infection and Transmission

Posted by  on Thursday, December 2nd 2010     

Submitted by Jessica DiRocco, USAID Bureau for Global Health

Grace Abalo and her two children with staff and members of the family support group.

Grace Abalo and her two children with staff and members of the family support group. Photo Credit/JSI

HIV-positive and pregnant with her second child, Grace Abalo was like many other women in the developing world- in need of services to prevent her child from contracting HIV. Determined to have her baby born healthy, Grace and her husband joined a USAID-funded family support group at the health center near their home in Uganda.

There Grace learned how to access prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programs and other services that support their health in the long term, as well as strategies for positive living, safe infant feeding, and healthy child care.

“I learned why and how to adhere to cotrimoxazole prophylaxis, what antiretroviral therapy is, and which breastfeeding options would not put my children at risk of being infected,” said Grace.

Armed with knowledge and support, Grace was able to ensure her child stayed HIV negative. She and her husband continued to receive ongoing support through the network of people living with HIV/AIDS, and she has even begun to help other HIV-positive mothers take their children for testing and educates them on breastfeeding options.

With women of childbearing age accounting for more than half of the people living with HIV/AIDS, PMTCT programs are vital to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic. And while these interventions are aimed at women, it is just as important to gain support and participation from their male partners. Like Grace, the support of the men in the life of an HIV-positive woman can make a tremendous difference. With education of men, comes the understanding of the disease, how it’s spread, and how to treat it. This then can result in positive changes in gender, social and cultural norms.

Across the world women just like Grace deserve a chance to have healthy babies. Through the Global Health Initiative, USAID will continue to work to provide every woman with the opportunity to have a healthy child.

Fighting HIV With Circumcision

Posted by  on Wednesday, December 1st 2010     

Part Six of Zeke Emanuel’s Africa Diaries.

Dr. Emanuel, from the White House Office of Management and Budget, blogged extensively during a recent two-week trip through Africa.  In this installment he discusses the potential for using male circumcision to prevent HIV transmission.

Three separate randomized trials have shown that male circumcision is among the most effective interventions against HIV/AIDS, reducing transmission by about 60 percent. This is a huge impact. As one AIDS researcher has said to me, if we had a vaccine that effective, we would be sparing no effort to distribute and administer it.  But widespread deployment of male circumcision has not yet occurred.

He goes on to address issues of manpower, facilities, cost, and cultural barriers. Learn more and read the complete post at The New Republic.

USAID at Forefront of HIV Prevention

Posted by  on Wednesday, December 1st 2010     

On Monday, I convened a meeting to determine the next steps following the success of the CAPRISA trial, which showed the world that a microbicide could help prevent HIV transmission in women.  Together with both public and private sector colleagues, we defined a way forward over the next two years to expedite licensure and prepare for the introductory phase of the gel or other ARV-based microbicides. I will  also  convene  an additional meeting  of technical experts in the field to  discuss how to aggressively roll out microbicide treatments to those most in need.  We have a shared responsibility to build on the successes achieved to date by making smart investments that will ultimately save more lives in the future.

Pic of the Week: Commemorating 2010 World AIDS Day

Posted by  on Wednesday, December 1st 2010     

Life Giving - Eighty percent of Mozambique's people live in villages and must walk on an average 12 kilometers to reach a health clinic. Here, a woman and her daughter hold the anti-AIDS medicine that keeps them alive. They worried that neighbors would see the medicine and know they had the disease. Photo Credit: Ben Barber/USAID

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