INTRODUCTION Kenya adopted the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) strategy in 1998 to strengthen disease surveillance and epidemic response. However, the goal of weekly surveillance reporting among health facilities has not been achieved. We conducted a cross-sectional study to determine the prevalence of adequate reporting and factors associated with IDSR reporting among healt...

Abstract Introduction: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India is constantly Functioning to provide optimum health care to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by updating health infrastructure. Objective:  To study the readiness and challenges of peripheral health facilities regarding skilled health workforce to provide Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC). Materials and Me...

BACKGROUND Shortages of health workers are obstacles to utilising global health initiative (GHI) funds effectively in Africa. This paper reports and analyses two countries' health workforce responses during a period of large increases in GHI funds. METHODS Health facility record reviews were conducted in 52 facilities in Malawi and 39 facilities in Zambia in 2006/07 and 2008; quarterly totals...

BACKGROUND World Health Organisation recommends that pregnant women with no complications should visit a healthcare provider at least four times to receive sufficient antenatal care services. In Pakistan only 37% of women reported to have had four or more antenatal care visits during their last pregnancy. This study aimed to explore facilitators and barriers to use of antenatal care services in...

A cross-sectional study was conducted at 33 randomly selected health facilities in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to assess health facilities' performance and health workers' knowledge of surveillance activities for childhood vaccine-preventable diseases. The WHO surveillance assessment questionnaire and a specially designed knowledge questionnaire were used. There were deficiencies in some surveillance...

BACKGROUND Access to adequate health services that is of acceptable quality is important in the move towards universal health coverage. However, previous studies have revealed inequities in health care utilisation in the favour of the rich. Further, those with the greatest need for health services are not getting a fair share. In Zambia, though equity in access is extolled in government documen...

BACKGROUND The presence of a large informal healthcare sector in many low- and middle-income countries poses both challenges and opportunities for achieving a people-centered health system. However, few studies have considered how informal providers may fit into a people-centered health systems approach. We examine the self-described roles and motivations of informal medicine vendors and public...

Tanzania is currently implementing the antiretroviral treatment programme, and has a target of putting about 400,000 eligible HIV infected individuals on treatment by 2008. This will involve screening a large number of people, which will require non-laboratory personnel to be involved in doing HIV testing. In order to guarantee reliable and quality HIV test results, there is a need to ensure th...

Historically, the Israeli health care system has been considered a high-performance system, providing universal, affordable, high-quality care to all residents. However, a decline in the ratio of physicians to population that reached a modern low in 2006, an approximate ten-percentage-point decline in the share of publicly financed health care between 1995 and 2009, and legislative mandates tha...