African health sciences
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African health sciences · May 2021
Safe birth matters: facilitators and barriers to uptake of the WHO safe childbirth checklist tool in a Tanzania Regional Hospital.
The World Health Organization (WHO) developed the Safe Birth Checklist (SCC) to facilitate best practices in safe birthing practices. The SCC is utilizing existing evidence-based WHO guidelines and recommendations which has combined those into a single and practical bedside tool. The SCC is the first checklist-based intervention to target the prevention of maternal and neonatal deaths. ⋯ This project was able to identify facilitators and potential barriers to the successful uptake of the Safe Childbirth Checklist in Shinyanga Regional Hospital. Based on these findings, the MOH have opportunities to utilize those findings in the scale-up of the implementation of the checklist and future evaluation activities.
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African health sciences · May 2021
Antiretroviral therapy outcomes among adolescents and young adults in a Tertiary hospital in Kenya.
Limited data is available on the treatment outcomes of HIV infected adolescents and young adults (AYA) in sub-Saharan Africa. HIV-infected adolescents and young adults (AYA) are at high risk of developing antiretroviral treatment failure. ⋯ The overall virologic suppression in this cohort of AYA was sub-optimal. Both immunological and virologic outcomes were worse among late adolescents (18-19 years) and young adults (20-24 years).
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African health sciences · May 2021
Evaluation of quality of life and associated factors among HIV patients on antiretroviral therapy in North West region of Cameroon.
There is evidence that Quality of Life (QoL) of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) has a significant role in ART retention, treatment adherence, and survival. As a result, QoL is becoming increasingly important for policymakers, program implementers, and researchers. However, factors associated with QoL, in a culturally diverse country like Cameroon are unknown. ⋯ PLHIV fairly agreed to have good QoL. The QoL was driven by mainly psychological and physical factors and not level of independence. However, the mean score perceptions for the investigated domains were low. Mental health services should consider these predictors when designing strategies to improve the QoL of PLHIV. While this study provides useful insights, other possible drivers of QoL among PLHIV should be investigated.
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African health sciences · May 2021
Retention of pediatric patients in care: a study of the Kibera Community Health Center HIV/AIDS Program.
In 2011, 3.4 million children were living with HIV worldwide1. ⋯ The disclosure of the HIV status by parent/guardian to the child was associated with better retention of the children in the program.
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African health sciences · May 2021
Uptake and outcomes of early infant male circumcision services in four counties in Western Kenya.
Early Infant Male Circumcision (EIMC) is part of sustainable HIV prevention strategies in Kenya. The goals of the national EIMC program are to circumcise at least 40% of all newborn male infants delivered at hospitals offering the service and keep the rate of moderate and adverse events below 2%. ⋯ EIMC uptake remains low in this region of Kenya due to small number of health facilities offering the service. The proportion of circumcised early male infants born at the target health facilities is below the national target of 40% even though the rate of adverse events among those circumcised is acceptable.