Comparison of key unit costs and outcomes for mobile and fixed site screening/testing programs in Namibia

This repository item contains a single issue of the Health and Development Discussion Papers, an informal working paper series that began publishing in 2002 by the Boston University Center for Global Health and Development. It is intended to help the Center and individual authors to disseminate work that is being prepared for journal publication or that is not appropriate for journal publication but might still have value to readers

INFECTIOUS DISEASES: A CHALLENGE TO DEVELOPMENT

ABSTRACT: The 20th Anniversary of the Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI) was commemorated by a symposium co-organized by AHRI, the Faculty of Medicine, Addis Ababa University and The Ethiopian Medical Doctors' Association. It was held on October 4 and 5, 1990 at the Tikur Anbessa (Black Lion) Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The twoday symposium was divided into six sessions which dealt with leprosy in general, control and prevention of leprosy and other communicable diseases, community health, malaria, leishmaniasis and schistosomiasis. The symposium invited scientists from Africa, Europe, Asia, the Americas and Australia who presented and discussed papers on various aspects of the above topics. This report will attempt to highlight the central theme of the symposium as seen by three young scientists from different countries connected to AHRI. Dr.Genene Mengistu (Ethiopia) - formerly Counterpart at AHRI - is a lecturer in the Department of Microbiology & Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, and a Research scientist at the Institute of Pathobiology, Addis Ababa University, Dr.Yahya Ipuge (Tanzania) a lecturer in the Department of Microbiology/Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Dar es Salaam is a holder of the AHRI African Fellowship and Dr.Tobias Rinke de Wit (Netherlands) is a Senior scientist at AHRI

Perspectives of frontline health workers on Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme before and after community engagement interventions

BackgroundBarely a decade after introduction of Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), significant successes have been recorded in universal access to basic healthcare services. However, sustainability of the scheme is increasingly threatened by concerns on quality of health service delivery in NHIS-accredited health facilities coupled with stakeholders’ discontentment with the operational and administrative challenges confronting the NHIS. The study sought to ascertain whether or not Systematic Community Engagement (SCE) interventions have a significant effect on frontline health workers’ perspectives on the NHIS and its impact on quality health service delivery.MethodsThe study is a randomized cluster trial involving clinical and non-clinical frontline health workers (n = 234) interviewed at baseline and follow-up in the Greater Accra and Western regions of Ghana. Individual respondents were chosen from within each intervention and control groupings. Difference-in-difference estimations and propensity score matching were performed to determine impact of SCE on staff perceptions of the NHIS. The main outcome measure of interest was staff perception of the NHIS based on eight (8) factor-analyzed quality service parameters.ResultsStaff interviewed in intervention facilities appeared to perceive the NHIS more positively in terms of its impact on “availability and quality of drugs (p < 0.05)” and “workload on health staff/infrastructure” than those interviewed in control facilities (p < 0.1). Delayed reimbursement of service providers remained a key concern to over 70 % of respondents in control and intervention health facilities.ConclusionCommunity engagement in quality service assessment is a potential useful strategy towards empowering communities while promoting frontline health workers’ interest, goodwill and active participation in Ghana’s NHIS

Perspectives of frontline health workers on Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme before and after community engagement interventions

BackgroundBarely a decade after introduction of Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), significant successes have been recorded in universal access to basic healthcare services. However, sustainability of the scheme is increasingly threatened by concerns on quality of health service delivery in NHIS-accredited health facilities coupled with stakeholders’ discontentment with the operational and administrative challenges confronting the NHIS. The study sought to ascertain whether or not Systematic Community Engagement (SCE) interventions have a significant effect on frontline health workers’ perspectives on the NHIS and its impact on quality health service delivery.MethodsThe study is a randomized cluster trial involving clinical and non-clinical frontline health workers (n = 234) interviewed at baseline and follow-up in the Greater Accra and Western regions of Ghana. Individual respondents were chosen from within each intervention and control groupings. Difference-in-difference estimations and propensity score matching were performed to determine impact of SCE on staff perceptions of the NHIS. The main outcome measure of interest was staff perception of the NHIS based on eight (8) factor-analyzed quality service parameters.ResultsStaff interviewed in intervention facilities appeared to perceive the NHIS more positively in terms of its impact on “availability and quality of drugs (p < 0.05)” and “workload on health staff/infrastructure” than those interviewed in control facilities (p < 0.1). Delayed reimbursement of service providers remained a key concern to over 70 % of respondents in control and intervention health facilities.ConclusionCommunity engagement in quality service assessment is a potential useful strategy towards empowering communities while promoting frontline health workers’ interest, goodwill and active participation in Ghana’s NHIS

University students and HIV in Namibia: an HIV prevalence survey and a knowledge and attitude survey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>With an overall adult HIV prevalence of 15.3%, Namibia is facing one of the largest HIV epidemics in Africa. Young people aged 20 to 34 years constitute one of the groups at highest risk of HIV infection in Namibia. However, little is known about the impact of HIV on this group and its access to healthcare. The purpose of this study was to estimate HIV prevalence, to assess the knowledge of and attitudes towards HIV/AIDS, and to assess access to healthcare among university students in Namibia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We assessed HIV/AIDS knowledge and attitudes, HIV prevalence and access to healthcare among students at the Polytechnic of Namibia and the University of Namibia. HIV prevalence was tested through anonymous oral fluid-based tests.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Half (n = 2790/5568) of the university students and 45% (n = 2807/6302) of the Polytechnic students participated in the knowledge and attitudes surveys. HIV/AIDS knowledge was reasonable, except for misperceptions about transmission. Awareness of one's own HIV status and risks was low. In all, 55% (n = 3055/5568) of university students and 58% (n = 3680/6302) of Polytechnic students participated in the HIV prevalence survey; 54 (1.8%) university students and 103 (2.8%) Polytechnic students tested HIV positive. Campus clinics were not the major providers of healthcare to the students.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Meaningful strategies addressing the gap between knowledge, attitude and young people's perception of risk of HIV acquisition should be implemented. HIV prevalence among Namibian university students appears relatively low. Voluntary counselling and testing should be stimulated. Efforts should be made to increase access to healthcare through the campus clinics.</p

Efficiency of private and public primary health facilities accredited by the National Health Insurance Authority in Ghana

Background: Despite improvements in a number of health outcome indicators partly due to the National HealthInsurance Scheme (NHIS), Ghana is unlikely to attain all its health-related millennium development goals before theend of 2015. Inefficient use of available limited resources has been cited as a contributory factor for this predicament.This study sought to explore efficiency levels of NHIS-accredited private and public health facilities; ascertain factorsthat account for differences in efficiency and determine the association between quality care and efficiency levels.Methods: The study is a cross-sectional survey of NHIS-accredited primary health facilities (n = 64) in two regionsin southern Ghana. Data Envelopment Analysis was used to estimate technical efficiency of sampled health facilitieswhile Tobit regression was employed to predict factors associated with efficiency levels. Spearman correlation testwas performed to determine the association between quality care and efficiency.Results: Overall, 20 out of the 64 health facilities (31 %) were optimally efficient relative to their peers. Out of the20 efficient facilities, 10 (50 %) were Public/government owned facilities; 8 (40 %) were Private-for-profit facilitiesand 2 (10 %) were Private-not-for-profit/Mission facilities. Mission (Coef. = 52.1; p = 0.000) and Public (Coef. = 42.9;p = 0.002) facilities located in the Western region (predominantly rural) had higher odds of attaining the 100 % tech‑nical efficiency benchmark than those located in the Greater Accra region (largely urban). No significant associationwas found between technical efficiency scores of health facilities and many technical quality care proxies, except inoverall quality score per the NHIS accreditation data (Coef. = −0.3158; p &lt; 0.05) and SafeCare Essentials quality scoreon environmental safety for staff and patients (Coef. = −0.2764; p &lt; 0.05) where the association was negative.Conclusions: The findings suggest some level of wastage of health resources in many healthcare facilities, especiallythose located in urban areas. The Ministry of Health and relevant stakeholders should undertake more effective needanalysis to inform resource allocation, distribution and capacity building to promote efficient utilization of limitedresources without compromising quality care standards

Diabetes, HIV and other health determinants associated with absenteeism among formal sector workers in Namibia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>As countries in sub-Saharan Africa develop their economies, it is important to understand the health of employees and its impact on productivity and absenteeism. While previous studies have assessed the impact of single conditions on absenteeism, the current study evaluates multiple health factors associated with absenteeism in a large worker population across several sectors in Namibia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>From March 2009 to June 2010, PharmAccess Namibia conducted a series of cross-sectional surveys of 7,666 employees in 7 sectors of industry in Namibia. These included a self-reported health questionnaire and biomedical screenings for certain infectious diseases and non-communicable disease (NCD) risk factors. Data were collected on demographics, absenteeism over a 90-day period, smoking behavior, alcohol use, hemoglobin, blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol, waist circumference, body mass index (BMI), HIV status, and presence of hepatitis B antigens and syphilis antibodies. The associations of these factors to absenteeism were ascertained using negative binomial regression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Controlling for demographic and job-related factors, high blood glucose and diabetes had the largest effect on absenteeism (IRR: 3.67, 95%CI: 2.06-6.55). This was followed by anemia (IRR: 1.59, 95%CI: 1.17-2.18) and being HIV positive (IRR: 1.47; 95%CI: 1.12-1.95). In addition, working in the fishing or services sectors was associated with an increased incidence of sick days (IRR: 1.53, 95%CI: 1.23-1.90; and IRR: 1.70, 95%CI: 1.32-2.20 respectively). The highest prevalence of diabetes was in the services sector (3.6%, 95%CI:-2.5-4.7). The highest prevalence of HIV was found in the fishing sector (14.3%, 95%CI: 10.1-18.5).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Both NCD risk factors and infectious diseases are associated with increased rates of short-term absenteeism of formal sector employees in Namibia. Programs to manage these conditions could help employers avoid costs associated with absenteeism. These programs could include basic health care insurance including regular wellness screenings.</p

Effect of Community Engagement Interventions on Patient Safety and Risk Reduction Efforts in Primary Health Facilities:Evidence from Ghana

BackgroundPatient safety and quality care remain major challenges to Ghana’s healthcare system. Like many health systems in Africa, this is largely because demand for healthcare is outstripping available human and material resource capacity of healthcare facilities and new investment is insufficient. In the light of these demand and supply constraints, systematic community engagement (SCE) in healthcare quality assessment can be a feasible and cost effective option to augment existing quality improvement interventions. SCE entails structured use of existing community groups to assess healthcare quality in health facilities. Identified quality gaps are discussed with healthcare providers, improvements identified and rewards provided if the quality gaps are closed.PurposeThis paper evaluates whether or not SCE, through the assessment of health service quality, improves patient safety and risk reduction efforts by staff in healthcare facilities.MethodsA randomized control trail was conducted in 64 primary healthcare facilities in the Greater Accra and Western regions of Ghana. Patient risk assessments were conducted in 32 randomly assigned intervention and control facilities. Multivariate multiple regression test was used to determine effect of the SCE interventions on staff efforts towards reducing patient risk. Spearman correlation test was used to ascertain associations between types of community groups engaged and risk assessment scores of healthcare facilities.FindingsClinic staff efforts towards increasing patient safety and reducing risk improved significantly in intervention facilities especially in the areas of leadership/accountability (Coef. = 10.4, p&lt;0.05) and staff competencies (Coef. = 7.1, p&lt;0.05). Improvement in service utilization and health resources could not be attributed to the interventions because these were outside the control of the study and might have been influenced by institutional or national level developments between the baseline and follow-up period. Community groups that were gender balanced, religious/faith-based, and had structured leadership appeared to be better options for effective SCE in healthcare quality assessment.ConclusionCommunity engagement in healthcare quality assessment is a feasible client-centered quality improvement option that should be discussed for possible scale-up in Ghana and other resource poor countries in Africa

HIV-1 Phenotypic Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor Drug Resistance Test Interpretation Is Not Dependent on the Subtype of the Virus Backbone

To date, the majority of HIV-1 phenotypic resistance testing has been performed with subtype B virus backbones (e.g. HXB2). However, the relevance of using this backbone to determine resistance in non-subtype B HIV-1 viruses still needs to be assessed. From 114 HIV-1 subtype C clinical samples (36 ARV-naïve, 78 ARV-exposed), pol amplicons were produced and analyzed for phenotypic resistance using both a subtype B- and C-backbone in which the pol fragment was deleted. Phenotypic resistance was assessed in resulting recombinant virus stocks (RVS) for a series of antiretroviral drugs (ARV's) and expressed as fold change (FC), yielding 1660 FC comparisons. These Antivirogram® derived FC values were categorized as having resistant or sensitive susceptibility based on biological cut-off values (BCOs). The concordance between resistance calls obtained for the same clinical sample but derived from two different backbones (i.e. B and C) accounted for 86.1% (1429/1660) of the FC comparisons. However, when taking the assay variability into account, 95.8% (1590/1660) of the phenotypic data could be considered as being concordant with respect to their resistance call. No difference in the capacity to detect resistance associated with M184V, K103N and V106M mutations was noted between the two backbones. The following was concluded: (i) A high level of concordance was shown between the two backbone phenotypic resistance profiles; (ii) Assay variability is largely responsible for discordant results (i.e. for FC values close to BCO); (iii) Confidence intervals should be given around the BCO's, when assessing resistance in HIV-1 subtype C; (iv) No systematic resistance under- or overcalling of subtype C amplicons in the B-backbone was observed; (v) Virus backbone subtype sequence variability outside the pol region does not contribute to phenotypic FC values. In conclusion the HXB2 virus backbone remains an acceptable vector for phenotyping HIV-1 subtype C pol amplicons