Nutritional status of children in Alexandra township

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Perceptions of the usefulness of external support to immunization coverage in Chad: an analysis of the GAVI-Alliance cash-based support

Introduction: Chad is one of the countries supported by the GAVI-Alliance that remains with unsatisfactory vaccination coverage. This paper tries to  understand the main barriers to better coverage. Methods: These barriers were categorised as up or downstream against the health system building blocks as proposed by WHO and compared with barriers and activities identified by the country in its health system's strengthening grant proposal as approved by the GAVI Alliance in 2007. Data were collected using a modified Delphi system and by analysis of grant and annual report documents. Results: Most of the activities anticipated under the GAVI health system's strengthening proposal are activities targeting downstream barriers (the neglect of upstream issues is of major importance in a decentralised state like Chad) and aligned with, not complementary to, immunization services strengthening activities. Further, both set of cash grants are blind to important recommendations such as the need to address barriers at the level of leadership and governance and at the level of the financing system and also about initiatives to promote community demand of vaccination services. Conclusion: In Chad slow vaccination progress is aggravated by several contextual barriers: the size of the country, the low population density, the nomadic nature of a significant part of its peoples, the recent civil war, associated with civil unrest and political instability and its geographical localization. In this situation it would be important to sustain downstream operations (the major focus of the ISS grant) while taking a long term view of the needs of the health system. The GAVI effectively supports downstream operations, but neglects the long term view.Key words: Africa, Chad, global health initiatives, immunization, vaccination coverag

some remarks on the experiences of health researchers from Mozambique and Angola

This paper analyzes capacity building in practice, addressing the expectations, imaginaries and experiences of health researchers from Mozambique and Angola. The empirical data stems from the Erasmus+ funded project "University Development and Innovation - Africa (UDI-A)", a consortium established between European and African institutions to promote the mobility and empowerment of African academics, the establishment of North/South research partnerships and the strengthening of African institutions. Through qualitative research methods - semi-structured interviews and a focus group with African participants, and participant observation - this article analyzes the experiences of African academics working in the health field, their perceptions of capacity building and aspirations during their stay in Portugal in 2018. By addressing some of their concerns and achievements, this paper reflects on the performativity of capacity building methodologies, exploring a wide range of issues that emerge within the framework of North/South partnerships, inquiring whether it would be possible to decolonize capacity-building methodologies.publishersversionpublishe

Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on life of NOVA-IHMT students

O artigo tem como objetivo apresentar a contribuição modesta do NOVA-IHMT para o mais abrangente estudo realizado até hoje sobre a perceção dos estudantes dos impactos da pandemia de COVID-19 em diferentes aspetos das suas vidas: um estudo com uma amostra de 30.383 alunos de 62 países.A nossa sub-amostra de 23 estudantes a fazerem doutoramento ou mestrado no IHMT, como o estudo global, mostra que os alunos estão satisfeitos com o apoio do corpo docente e das universidades. Os alunos mostram-se preocupados com sua futura carreira profissional e com questões relacionadas com os estudos, e sentiam tédio, ansiedade e frustração. A pandemia estimulou alguns comportamentos higiénicos (uso de máscaras, lavagem das mãos) e desencorajou certos hábitos diários (sair de casa desnecessariamente, apertar as mãos). The paper aims to present the NOVA-IHMT modest contribution to the most comprehensive and large-scale study to date of students’ perceived impacts of COVID-19 crisis on different aspects of their lives on a global level. Our master and PhD students were mostly satisfied with the support of teaching staff and the university. Students were mainly concerned about their future professional career and educational issues, and were feeling boredom, anxiety and frustration. The pandemic encouraged some hygienic behaviors (i.e. wearing masks, washing hands) and discouraged certain daily habits (i.e. leaving home, shaking hands).publishersversionpublishe

Opening ceremony of the 5th Tropical Medicine National Congress

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Profile and professional expectations of medical students in Mozambique: a longitudinal study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>This paper compares the socioeconomic profile of medical students registered at the Faculty of Medicine of Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (FM-UEM), Maputo, for the years 1998/99 and 2007/08.</p> <p>Case study</p> <p>The objective is to describe the medical students' social and geographical origins, expectations and perceived difficulties regarding their education and professional future. Data were collected through questionnaires administered to all medical students.</p> <p>Discussion and evaluation</p> <p>The response rate in 1998/99 was 51% (227/441) and 50% in 2007/08 (484/968).</p> <p>The main results reflect a doubling of the number of students enrolled for medical studies at the FM-UEM, associated with improved student performance (as reflected by failure rates). Nevertheless, satisfaction with the training received remains low and, now as before, students still identify lack of access to books or learning technology and inadequate teacher preparedness as major problems.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>There is a high level of commitment to public sector service. However, students, as future doctors, have very high salary expectations that will not be met by current public sector salary scales. This is reflected in an increasing degree of orientation to double sector employment after graduation.</p

cohort study with 6 months of Treatment follow-up

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Cooperation, investigation and health equity

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The new automated daily mortality surveillance system

The experience reported in an earlier Eurosurveillance issue on a fast method to evaluate the impact of the 2003 heatwave on mortality in Portugal, generated a daily mortality surveillance system (VDM) that has been operating ever since jointly with the Portuguese Heat Health Watch Warning System. This work describes the VDM system and how it evolved to become an automated system operating year-round, and shows briefly its potential using mortality data from January 2006 to June 2009 collected by the system itself. The new system has important advantages such as: rapid information acquisition, completeness (the entire population is included), lightness (very little information is exchanged, date of death, age, sex, place of death registration). It allows rapid detection of impacts (within five days) and allows a quick preliminary quantification of impacts that usually took several years to be done. These characteristics make this system a powerful tool for public health action. The VDM system also represents an example of inter-institutional cooperation, bringing together organisations from two different ministries, Health and Justice, aiming at improving knowledge about the mortality in the population

Health systems governance

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