IDEAS at The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

In our latest newsletter we are taking a closer look at all the work done by the team on better understanding and measuring quality of care provided to mothers and newborns.

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Confused about all the news and information out there on ? The LSHTM director Prof Peter Piot answers 100 questions about viruses, staying safe by washing hands regularly & when a vaccine might be available.

100 Questions of Peter Piot, LSHTM Director | LSHTM 1. TEDMED: Let’s start with the basics. What is a virus? A virus is a very tiny particle of RNA or DNA genetic code protected by an outer protein wrapper. 2. TEDMED: How common are viruses? Viruses are everywhere. It’s amazing to realize that if you add them all up, all the viruses in the world ...

Maternal and newborn health in rural Ethiopia, Nigeria and India have improved, but gaps still remain. “Our findings have a both optimistic and pessimistic interpretation, in that families from all socioeconomic status groups benefited, but inequities have also persisted,” writes Dr. Tanya Marchant with coauthors. Underlying inequities in these rural settings mean that more work is needed to reach the poorest families who bear the greatest burden of maternal and newborn mortality. Read the latest publication from IDEAS researchers recently published in CMAJ https://bit.ly/332ldyw
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Stay tuned! ‼️The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is co-sponsor for a Maternal, Newborn, Child Health, Adolescent and Nutrition Conference taking place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on the 19th and 20th of August.
As part of this conference IDEAS will be presenting findings from the final evaluation of the Community Based Newborn Care (CBNC) programme. This programme, launched in 2013 by the Ethiopian Government, has nine components, including the innovative step of antibiotics provision by community health workers for young infants with very severe diseases.
Dr Bilal Avan, Dr Della Berhanu and Professor Joanna Schellenberg will be part of a panel to discuss findings and recommendations for the future of the programme in Ethiopia.

Health Extension Workers in are the first port of call for sick children an are tasked with diagnosing the illness a child might be suffering from. Little is know however of how accurate this cadre assess and classify common diseases. This paper published by Theodros Getachew et al in Acta Paediatrica reveals findings from a study which included a survey and observations of the work of Health Extension Workers (HEW) to better understand their capacity to correctly diagnose common childhood illnesses.

Results show that a significant number of sick children were not correctly diagnosed, which could lead to absent or incorrect treatment.

Efforts are needed to improve the quality of HEWs’ diagnostic ability for childhood illnesses and their adherence to the guidelines for the examination, classification and treatment of childhood illnesses. Gates Foundation
https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/centres-projects-groups/dagu --publications

Village Health Worker Elizabeth Gidado speaks to new mother Yarima about important care for herself and her baby. Our work at IDEAS includes research into the sustainability of the Village Health Worker scheme in Gombe State, Nigeria. https://bit.ly/2LvIuET

The IDEAS team has been looking at the sustainability of the Village Health Worker Scheme in Gombe state, and our latest brief summarizes key recommendations for current and potential future implementers. These include key areas such as: selection, supervision and stipend, but also operational concerns, community involvement and strategic matters. Read more at https://bit.ly/2LvIuET Gates Foundation Society for Family Health, Nigeria Pact West Africa Mamaye Nigeria

Quality routine health data provide useful information for projects and programmes to identify gaps and take action to make sure the best possible care is provided to women and newborns. Under the leadership of the Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency and in collaboration with their implementing partners IDEAS supported learning workshops with local government area actors to improve the quality of facility-based routine data. Take a look at this report to find out more. https://bit.ly/2Fen9uu Society for Family Health, Nigeria Pact West Africa Mamaye Nigeria

Strengthening the quality of routine MNCH data through learning workshops Report Strengthening the quality of routine MNCH data through learning workshops by Antoinette Bhattacharya published 6 March 2019

At IDEAS we have partnered with the Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Society for Family Health, Nigeria, Pact West Africa, Mamaye Nigeria and Champions for Change over the past three years to run data-driven learning workshops. Want to know more how these workshops worked to support interventions in the State and led to better collaboration among all partners? Check out our latest blog series https://ideas.lshtm.ac.uk/blog/