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Question 1: What actions should be taken, in your view, to increase availability of basic newborn resuscitation in low-resource communities?
As with any fight against neonatal mortality, investment and cultural buy in is an important place to start. It would be interesting to see if you could start an educational program like AHA basic life saving for healthcare providers or community health workers except for basic newborn resuscitation for low-resource communities. Something standardized (and culturally appropriate) that could be easily taught. With these types of programs, there needs to be buy in from organizational bodies and considerable organization/funding.Question 2: What is the mechanism, in your opinion, through which WASH and promotion of nutrition complement one another?
They work synergistically. WASH encourages hygiene which allows for the good nutrition practices to be helpful and not harmful. Together they can enhance linear growth (although not in every cultural context). They depend on the cultural context (if they are successful or not) which is also an important consideration when measuring the successfulness of the intervention.Elijah, you bring up an interesting point. Screening is only as good as the intervention after. I do agree though with you that screenings are necessary and there would be no treatment available without some screening. Perhaps, aggressive screening could allow for earlier interventions that are also less invasive and more easily done with fewer resources.
1. What do you believe are the most direct impacts of conflict upon the health of pregnant women?
I think the most direct impact relating to poor health is the lack of institutional deliveries. While a completely normal birth and post partum period does not require a full facility, in the event of an emergency women do not have access to electricity, water, or medical supplies. In this environment it is difficult to control for infection, hemorrhage, or pre/eclampsia. They will also not have the opportunity for neonatal immunizations or interventions for baby.2. In your opinion, how should maternal healthcare be best expanded to protect women throughout their lives?
There are a lot of avenues to expand maternal healthcare to protect women throughout their lives. Education and infrastructure are two important ones. Providing education from a young age and also when women most frequently cross through the healthcare system (obstetric care), can offer a chance to educate them about their bodies and health for their whole lives. Setting up a robust infrastructure for obstetric care and neonatal care can also be an avenue to allow for other women’s health visits and address issues that are similar, but not the same (a table/clinic for an OB exam can be a table for a pap smear.) Policy is another platform to expand access. For instance, in Texas rural hospitals are shutting down L&Ds because of lack of funding. Through policy, the Texas Medical Association is trying to expand Medicaid and allow for more rural L&Ds to stay open. This will directly lead to an decrease in infant mortality and maternal mortality (a big problem in Texas even compared to other states).Jennifer, I agree with your assessment of the problem of stigma to HIV. In the US, people with HIV suffered for many years without the government or many independent researchers investing in researching treatment and prevention of HIV. This is a continued problem all around the world. Not only is stigma an issue for as patients receive counseling for prevention and treatment, but also to access to care is an issue depending on class, culture, social capital, financial capital, etc.
Question #1: From the healthcare side, a big barrier to HIV control is lack of implementation of pre-exposure prophylaxis has led to reductions. Prophylaxis is under used and has been shown to lead to reductions in the contraction of HIV. A large barrier to HIV control on the side of the patient is difficulty with drug adherence and lack of condom use.
Question #2: There are a few reasons why pediatric HIV control is lagging behind including the fact that many pregnant women are not tested and subsequently are not treated. Often infants are also not tested and subsequently are not treated. Children and pregnant women are a particularly neglected part of society. There are the resources to address these problems, but lack of commitment to diagnosis and treatment of HIV.
Hi Kimberly,
I appreciate your take on how you can use different professions other than healthcare providers to implement interventions, especially from a preventative standpoint. The use of engineers and researchers could be an important first step intervention.
From your perspective, why are people living in poverty most likely to suffer from TB, and how should this fact influence efforts to control the disease?
TB is most often found in spaces that lack the resources to implement isolation and sanitation (amongst other reasons). One of the most effective longterm ways to improve the prevalence of TB is to improve the living conditions and provide economic relief to the community.It can be factored into control of TB by understanding that TB is a multifactorial disease process and not simply an issue of providing treatment (although expensive treatment is also a limiting factor).What, in your opinion, are two interventions that would be most effective against neglected tropical diseases?
The introduction of multi-system approach (if we are doing a drug administration campaign, understand that a combination of vaccine administration would be more effective). Also, in regions where it may be applicable use systems of intervention that do not rely on infrastructure built by potentially unstable governments.Hello everyone, my name is Tori Pierce. I am a third year medical student. Most of my medical experience has been through medical school and as a scribe in the ER. I am taking this course to better understand the unique challenges in international and public health. I will graduate May 2022 and while I am not sure which specialty I will pursue, I plan to be involved with international medicine throughout my career.