INTRODUCTION Counselling services are recommended by the World Health Organization and have been partially adopted by national HIV guidelines. In settings with a high HIV burden, patient education and counselling is often performed by lay workers, mainly supported with international funding. There are few examples where ministries of health have been able to absorb lay counsellors into their he...

BACKGROUND "Option B+" is a World Health Organization-recommended approach to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission whereby all HIV-positive pregnant and lactating women initiate lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART). This review of early Option B+ implementation experience is intended to inform Ministries of Health and others involved in implementing Option B+. METHODS This implementation...

Background: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is one of the greatest social health problems in many communities in the twenty-first century. Methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) could decrease HIV infection among injection drug users (IDU). The main aim of this paper was to determine the cost-effectiveness of the governmental MMT program to prevent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) i...

background: acquired immune deficiency syndrome (aids) is a fatal viral disease which can affect the patient’s immune system and render the patient susceptible to opportunistic infections. in recent years, the number of women with hiv acquired through sexual transmission has increased. therefore, due to the importance of quality of life (qol) among these women and the impact of violence and soc...

background : the aim of this study was to investigate the association between the two most commonly used generic and disease specific health-related quality of life (hrqol) measures in patients with chronic lung disease due to sm: medical outcomes study short form 36-item (sf-36) and st george's respiratory questionnaire (sgrq). methods : this is a secondary analysis of iranian chemical warfare...

background : in order to support cancer patients, nurses need to identify different physio-psycho- social needs of patients using a holistic approach. focusing on quality of life (qol) is congruent with the philosophy of a holistic approach in nursing. the main aim of this research study thus was to identify the level of agreement between cancer patients and nurses about cancer patients' qol. m...

BACKGROUND The World Health Organization (WHO) Department of HIV/AIDS led the development of public health guidelines for delivering an evidence-based, essential package of interventions for the prevention and treatment of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people in the health sector in low- and middle-income countries. Th...

In responding to the goal of rapidly increasing access to antiretroviral treatment (ART), the government of Botswana undertook a major review of its health systems options to increase access to human resources, one of the major bottlenecks preventing people from receiving treatment. In mid-2004, a team of government and World Health Organization (WHO) staff reviewed the situation and identified...