Health Systems Strengthening Accelerator’s Post

One thing we have learnt from the Covid pandemic is the importance of early detection and prevention of diseases. Among the many tasks undertaken by the CDC are those for surveillance and prevention of viral pathogens like those causing Covid-19, Influenza, MERs, Ebola, HIV and hepatitis, and also a whole range of infectious diseases ranging from syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and trichomoniasis. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention is the nation’s premier institution tasked with saving the health, safety and security of Americans and spends majority of its budget funding public health activities throughout the country and around the world. Such major budget cuts for such an important institution will have negative repercussions not only across the country but throughout the world (#publichealth, #CDC, #surveillance, #infections, #diseases)

Facilitators and barriers to accessing hepatitis B care in the postpartum period among foreign-born New Yorkers: a qualitative analysis of case notes - BMC Public Health Approximately 241,000 people are living with hepatitis B in New York City. Among those, pregnant people are particularly at risk for elevated viral load due to changes in immune response and require prompt linkage to health care. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Viral Hepatitis Program implemented a telephone-based patient navigation intervention for people living with hepatitis B in the postpartum period to connect them with hepatitis B care. This study suggests that while there are numerous barriers at the personal and systemic levels, this patient navigation intervention, along with the identified facilitators, supported people in accessing hepatitis B care. Read more ➡️ https://lnkd.in/gaFMs_vW

Newborns continue to die unnecessarily in Africa. In this essay, Yewande Alimi and I argue that one under-addressed reason is they are infected during or after childbirth from pathogens acquired in the hospital. Governments & donors must invest more in healthcare safety to protect babies - with the added bonus that it will protect healthcare workers and communities as well. https://lnkd.in/e9uRutuv

Cuts to public health funding can result in severe implications to the health of our population. Some of the areas where funding is being cut are childhood immunizations, HIV, and STI/STD services.

NEWS 📰 Facilitators and barriers to accessing hepatitis B care in the postpartum period among foreign-born New Yorkers: a qualitative analysis of case notes - [BMC Public Health] 🔊Approximately 241,000 people are living with hepatitis B in New York City. Among those, pregnant people are particularly at risk for elevated viral load due to changes in immune response and require prompt linkage to health care. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Viral Hepatitis Program implemented a telephone-based patient navigation intervention for people living with hepatitis B in the postpartum period to connect them with hepatitis B care. This study suggests that while there are numerous barriers at the personal and systemic levels, this patient navigation intervention, along with the identified facilitators, supported people in accessing hepatitis B care. 🗞️https://ow.ly/zg0s50R8x4n

Syphilis rates are rising dramatically in the US. While syphilis and other bacterial sexually transmitted infections are also increasing in the UK and Europe, the US has an additional obstacle compared with countries that have national health insurance systems. For syphilis and other STIs, access to high quality, free sexual health services is the pathway to prevention. Without widespread availability of testing and treatment, the US was (and remains) particularly susceptible to STI epidemics, one of the reasons the 2022 #Mpox epidemic was so explosive. As the NYT writes: "Syphilis has been increasing even in countries with national health care, because 'sexual health services remain inadequate relative to the need pretty much everywhere,' said Dr. Jay Varma, chief medical officer at Siga Technologies and a former deputy commissioner of health for New York City. “But it’s particularly a problem here in the United States,” Dr. Varma said. “When you miss one case, you then end up with two more cases, and if you miss two cases, you then end up with four,” he added. “That’s how epidemics grow.” Sexual health services benefit individual health and protect all of our communities. The most devastating consequence of rising syphilis in adults has been the rise in congenital syphilis. Per the NYT article, "In November, the C.D.C. said more than 3,700 cases of congenital syphilis were reported in 2022, roughly 11 times the number recorded a decade ago. The disease caused 231 stillbirths and 51 infant deaths in 2022." https://lnkd.in/evFDRFtP

Staggering failure to provide long term public health infrastructure...‼️ "The number of babies born with syphilis in Mississippi has increased more than tenfold since 2016, amid US-wide growth in cases of the potentially fatal but entirely preventable disease. Rates of congenital syphilis, which occurs when a mother transmits the infection to the fetus, have more than doubled over the past five years, with the largest spikes in southern and western states, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Mississippi, the number of newborns hospitalized with congenital syphilis surged between 2016 and 2022, from 10 to 110, according to a study by public health researchers from the John D Bower School of Population Health at the University of Mississippi medical center. Premature birth and very low birth weight were significantly higher among infants with syphilis, and at least six babies died, half of them in 2022. Nine out of 10 of the infected infants were insured by Medicaid, not private health insurance. More than 70% of the babies hospitalized were Black. A complex mix of poverty, institutional racism, inadequate public health services and untreated addictions are contributing to the troubling spike, the study authors said..."

New Royal Society of Canada report says it’s time to restore trust in long-term care Transforming long-term care after COVID-19 requires federal and provincial action and leadership The Royal Society of Canada (RSC) has released its latest report, Repair and Recovery in Long-Term Care: Restoring Trust in the Aftermath of COVID-19 (2020-2023) under the guidance of an expert Working Group and as part of the RSC Task Force on COVID-19. Three and a half years after the World Health Organization (WHO) first declared COVID-19 a global pandemic and the disease first appeared in a Canadian long-term care (LTC) home, older adults in LTC still die every week from COVID-19. The LTC workforce emergency continues, and remaining staff work short-handed, some without benefits. Despite new cash injections, LTC homes remain deeply under-resourced; newly crafted major and robust LTC standards remain voluntary; and the promised Safe Long-term Care Act has yet to be tabled in Parliament. The report states that the need for federal and provincial action and leadership on long-term care (LTC) is urgent and provides eight concrete recommendations that could be implemented now, based on a comprehensive deliberation and review of the most recent evidence. Read more: Carole Estabrooks