the aid library

The Therapeutic Potential of Ivermectin for COVID-19: a systematic review of mechanism and evidence

Kalafs.S.; et al (2021) CC

doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.30.20236570 Pre-Print Article

A living WHO guideline on drugs for covid-19
recommended

Rochweg, B.; et al. (2021) CC

BMJ 2020; 370 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3379 Rapid Recommendation and visual graph. This is the fifth version (update 4) of the living guideline (BMJ 2020;370:m3379). When citing this article, please consider adding the update number and date of access for clarity. The publication of the RE ... more

A Checklist for Implementing Rural Pathways to Train, Develop and Support Health Workers in Low and Middle-Income Countries

O'Sullivan, B.; et al. (2020) CC

Front. Med., 27 November 2020 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2020.594728. The Checklist included eight actions for implementing rural pathways in LMICs: establishing community needs; policies and partners; exploring existing workers and scope; selecting health workers; education and training; workin ... more

Is enough attention given to climate change in health service planning? An Australian perspective

Burton, A.; Bambrick, H.; Friel, S. (2014) CC

Within an Australian context, the medium to long-term health impacts of climate change are likely to be wide, varied and amplify many existing disorders and health inequities. How the health system responds to these challenges will be best considered in the context of existing health facilities and ... more

Government policy interventions to reduce human antimicrobial use: A systematic review and evidence map

Van Katwyk, S. R.; Grimshaw, J. M.; et al (2019) C2

BACKGROUND: Growing political attention to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) offers a rare opportunity for achieving meaningful action. Many governments have developed national AMR action plans, but most have not yet implemented policy interventions to reduce antimicrobial overuse. A systematic evidenc ... e map can support governments in making evidence-informed decisions about implementing programs to reduce AMR, by identifying, describing, and assessing the full range of evaluated government policy options to reduce antimicrobial use in humans. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Seven databases were searched from inception to January 28, 2019, (MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, PAIS Index, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, and PubMed). We identified studies that (1) clearly described a government policy intervention aimed at reducing human antimicrobial use, and (2) applied a quantitative design to measure the impact. We found 69 unique evaluations of government policy interventions carried out across 4 of the 6 WHO regions. These evaluations included randomized controlled trials (n = 4), non-randomized controlled trials (n = 3), controlled before-and-after designs (n = 7), interrupted time series designs (n = 25), uncontrolled before-and-after designs (n = 18), descriptive designs (n = 10), and cohort designs (n = 2). From these we identified 17 unique policy options for governments to reduce the human use of antimicrobials. Many studies evaluated public awareness campaigns (n = 17) and antimicrobial guidelines (n = 13); however, others offered different policy options such as professional regulation, restricted reimbursement, pay for performance, and prescription requirements. Identifying these policies can inform the development of future policies and evaluations in different contexts and health systems. Limitations of our study include the possible omission of unpublished initiatives, and that policies not evaluated with respect to antimicrobial use have not been captured in this review. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge this is the first study to provide policy makers with synthesized evidence on specific government policy interventions addressing AMR. In the future, governments should ensure that AMR policy interventions are evaluated using rigorous study designs and that study results are published. more

Burden of disease from inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene for selected adverse health outcomes: An updated analysis with a focus on low- and middle-income countries

Prüss-Ustün A., Wolf J., Bartram J., et al. (2019) CC

Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2019 Jun; 222(5): 765–777. doi: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2019.05.004; To develop updated estimates in response to new exposure and exposure-response data of the burden of diarrhoea, respiratory infections, malnutrition, schistosomiasis, malaria, soil-transmitted helminth infec ... more

Global priorities for climate change and mental health research

Fiona Charlson, Suhailah Ali, Jura Augustinavicius et al. Environment International (2022) CC

Compared with other health areas, the mental health impacts of climate change have received less research attention. The literature on climate change and mental health is growing rapidly but is characterised by several limitations and research gaps. In a field where the need for designing evidence-b ... more

Spatiotemporal distribution of antimicrobial resistant organisms in different water environments in urban and rural settings of Bangladesh

Asaduzzaman, M. et al. (2022) CC

The authors conduct an integrated survey of Antimicrobial Resistant Organisms (AMR) in drinking water, wastewater and surface water in three settings in Bangladesh: rural households, rural poultry farms, and urban food markets. Results show that untreated water discharged from rural households, poul ... more

The Berlin principles on one health – Bridging global health and conservation

Gruetzmacher, K.; et al. (2021) CC

Science of The Total Environment Volume 764, 10 April 2021, 142919

A Is tuberculosis elimination a feasible goal in Colombia by 2050?

López, L.; Y. Keynan, D. Marin et al. (2019) CC

Health Policy and Planning, Volume 35, Issue 1, February 2020, Pages 47–57, https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czz122 Colombia has an underreporting of 30% of the total cases, according to World Health Organization (WHO) estimations. In 2016, successful tuberculosis (TB) treatment rate was 70%, and t ... more

Strategy for a globally coordinated response to a priority neglected tropical disease: Snakebite envenoming

Williams, D.; Faiz, M.; Abela-Ridder, B. et al. PLoS Neglected Tropical diseases (2019) CC

In one of his final essays, statesman and former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan said, ‘Snakebite is the most important tropical disease you’ve never heard of’. Mr. Annan firmly believed that victims of snakebite envenoming should be recognised and afforded greater efforts at impro ... more

A systematic examination of international funding flows for Ebola virus and Zika virus outbreaks 2014-2019: donors, recipients and funding purposes

Quirk, E.J.; A. Gheorghe; K. Hauck BMJ Global Health (2021) C1

There has been no systematic comparison of how the policy response to past infectious disease outbreaks and epidemics was funded. This study aims to collate and analyse funding for the Ebola epidemic and Zika outbreak between 2014 and 2019 in order to understand the shortcomings in funding reporting ... more

Resource Effective Strategies to Prevent and Treat Cardiovascular Disease

Schwalm, J.; McKee, M.; Huffman, M. et al. Circulation (2016) CC

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of global deaths, with the majority occurring in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). The primary and secondary prevention of CVD is suboptimal throughout the world, but the evidence-practice gaps are much more pronounced in LMIC. Barriers at the ... more

2020 Heart Failure Society of South Africa perspective on the 2016 European Society of Cardiology Chronic Heart Failure Guidelines

Hitzeroth, J.; Mpe, M.; Klug, E. et al. The South African Medical Journal (2020) CC

Heart failure with a reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is a condition frequently encountered by healthcare professionals and, in order to achieve the best outcomes for patients, needs to be managed optimally. This guideline document is based on the European Society of Cardiology Guidelines for the t ... more

World Heart Federation Roadmap on Atrial Fibrillation – A 2020 Update

Freedman, B.; Hindricks, G.; Banerjee, A. Global Heart (2021) CC

The World Heart Federation (WHF) commenced a Roadmap initiative in 2015 to reduce the global burden of cardiovascular disease and resultant burgeoning of healthcare costs. Roadmaps provide a blueprint for implementation of priority solutions for the principal cardiovascular diseases leading to death ... more

Selection of essential medicines for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases in low and middle income countries

Bazargani, Y.T.; Ugurlu, M.; Leufkens, H.G.M. et al. BMC Cardiovascular Disorders (2018) CC

The incidence and mortality of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in low and middle income countries (LMICs) have been increasing, while access to CVDs medicines is suboptimal. We assessed selection of essential medicines for the prevention and treatment of CVDs on national essential medicines lists (NE ... more