transfer service, exploded onto the scene in 2007. In just three years, it has attracted over 9.5 million customers, in a country with only 8.4 million bank accounts. Every month, more than US$320 million flows through M-PESA in person-to-person transfers, and the numbers keep rising. By nearly all accounts, M-PESA has been an admirable success and has expanded access to basic financial service...

BACKGROUND Staff shortages could harm the provision and quality of health care in Uganda, so staff retention and motivation are crucial. Understanding the impact of HIV/AIDS on staff contributes to designing appropriate retention and motivation strategies. This research aimed 'to identify the influence of HIV/AIDS on staff working in general hospitals at district level in rural areas and to exp...

We reviewed evidence of any apparently significant 'rural-urban' health status differentials in developed countries, to determine whether such differentials are generic or nation-specific, and to explore the nature and policy implications of determinants underpinning rural-urban health variations. A comprehensive literature review of rural-urban health status differentials within Australia, New...

Rural populations rely on physicians trained in primary care to provide emergency services. Less is known about primary care’s contribution to emergency services in urban and suburban settings. Two-thirds of family medicine and three-fourths of general internal medicine Medicare claims for emergency care are generated in urban settings, demonstrating primary care’s significant contribution to t...

BACKGROUND The population of Ghana is increasingly becoming urbanized with about 70 % of the estimated 26.9 million people living in urban and peri-urban areas. Nonetheless, eight out of the ten regions in Ghana remain predominantly rural where only 32.1 % of the national health sector workforce works. Doctor-patient ratio in a predominantly rural region is about 1:18,257 compared to 1:4,099 in...

BACKGROUND Rural areas in all countries suffer from a shortage of health care professionals. In South Africa, the shortage is particularly marked; some rural areas have a doctor-to-population ratio of 5.5:100 000. Similar patterns apply to other health professionals. Increasing the proportion of rural-origin students in faculties of health sciences has been shown to be one way of addressing suc...

INTRODUCTION Malawi has one of the highest HIV prevalences in Sub-Saharan Africa. The rate of eligible HIV-infected people being initiated on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and retained in HIV-care is currently far from adequate. Consequently, many people continue present with advanced immunosuppression at public health facilities, often with undiagnosed opportunistic infections (OIs). METHODS ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the seroprevalence of syphilis in pregnant women attending antenatal care clinics in a rural hospital in Ethiopia and describe their characteristics so that timely and effective care can be offered. SUBJECTS Pregnant women attending antenatal care clinics at a rural hospital. METHODS A cross sectional study was conducted at a rural hospital in north west Ethiopia in S...

Telerehabilitation (TR) is getting ever more popular because it is effective in bringing rehabilitation services to rural populations by means of audiovisual systems and its initial implementation studies presented encouraging results. TR is proven to be helpful, with benefits in terms of reduced travel time, cost, and availability of specialists' support in local communities. However, TR syste...

PRINCIPAL FINDING rural hospitals with fewer than 50 beds were most in need of assistance and resources to prepare for HIPAA indicating that the Small Hospital Improvement Program chose well in making HIPAA readiness one of three purposes for grants to those hospitals.