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Alliance News Digest

Week of 30 July 2010

NEWS FROM WHO AND PARTNERS

• African First Ladies’ Organization agrees to take on Maternal, Child Health – UNFPA. (7/28)
  Women want to have their total health care needs met in one place
• Preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV is critical to achieving Millennium Development Goals in Africa – UNAIDS – (7/27)
  Investing in the health of women and children was the focus of the high-level Summit of the African Union held 25-27 July in Kampala, Uganda
• UNFPA Leader Appeals for Africa’s Renewal With Better Health, Rights for Women – UNFPA. (7/28)
  African leaders need to invest resources on training doctors, nurses and midwives to tackle the gap of 2.4 million health workers needed in Africa
• Delivering hope to Liberia's mothers: The role of the midwife – Merlin, UK. (7/19)
  Merlin is training and supporting midwives in Liberia, to ensure long-term reductions in maternal deaths
• AMREF Welcomes AU Commitment on Maternal Health; Urges Leaders to Move from Declarations to Action – AMREF. (7/28)
  AMREF urges African governments to deliver on promises to ensure no more mothers and newborns die needlessly

AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST

• Millions spent to find Aids vaccine – Cape Argus, SA. (7/25)
  a study published showed that nurses weren't inferior to doctors when it came to delivering anti-retroviral treatment
• Africa: Better Prevention Needed for HIV-Exposed Babies - IRIN PlusNews. (7/21)
  The study recommended better and more counselling for younger, HIV-positive pregnant women
• Funding for Aids fight drops -United Nations – Daily Monitor, Uganda. (7/27)
  There is a real link between Aids and maternal and infant mortality - the theme of the AU meeting
• Huge number leave province – Dispatch Online, SA. (7/23)
  The brain drain is due to working conditions, especially in the remote areas.
• Favoriser la santé en Afrique grâce au téléphonie portable – Afrique Actu.Net. (7/26)
  Le Corps de la paix se sert de téléphones mobiles pour atteindre, former et informer des membres du personnel soignant en Afrique
• Civil servants prepare for nationwide strike – Dispatch Online, SA. (7/24)
  The threat of strike action comes after negotiations between the unions and the State deadlocked.
• Lack of resources blamed for maternal deaths – The Standard, Kenya. (7/27)
  Tanzania’s president Jakaya Kikwete blamed the deaths on lack of proper health facilities and medical personnel in most Third World countries
• Maternal Health Should Make It Beyond AU Agenda (OpEd) – New Vision, Uganda. (7/21)
  Strengthening and optimising the continuum of care between maternal and child health is vital to reducing unnecessary deaths
• Zimbabwe: Rural Children with HIV a 'Lost Cause' - Inter Press Service. (7/28)
  Country's health care systems to treat children and pregnant women remain weak.

ASIA AND PACIFIC

• Health workers take out protest rally – Times of India. (7/27)
  State government has deprived the rural people of medical facilities by closing down some additional primary health centres
• A peon does it all as health workers opt to stay away from district – The Himalayan Times, Nepal. (7/29)
  The health post in Chhapre VDC has a peon as the servant and the master; as the doctor and as the nurse
• No health workers in rural areas in Parbat – The Himalayan Times, Nepal. (7/24)
  The patients have to walk for hours to the district headquarters or to Pokhara and Kathmandu for treatment
• Politicians brush off health in bush – Canberra Times, Australia. (7/27)
  Productivity Commission estimated 17,000 more rural health professionals were needed
• Ten steps to successful breastfeeding are pathway for health services – Solomon Star (7727)
  Health workers at the National Referral Hospital have undergneo breastfeeding training in efforts to achieve ‘Baby Friendly’ status for their hospital
• Concern over receptionists being trained as medical staff – TV New Zealand. (7/27)
  Receptionists at medical centres being trained to do health checks, is a concern to New Zealand Nurses' Organisation
• Guidelines needed for unregulated health workers – Scoop Independent News, N. Zealand. (7/28)
  Any clinical work involving unregulated health care assistants (HCA) must be very carefully managed to protect public safety
• Nurses revolutionising primary health care – Scoop Independent News, New Zealand. (7/24)
  The NZNO has risen to the Ministry of Health’s challenge to establish a single organisation for primary health care nurses
• Do physician assistants have a future in Australia? Yes, says the Minister… - Crikey Health Blog. (7/23)
  Could PAs help fill the workforce gaps in rural, remote and Indigenous health for under-served communities?

NORTH AMERICA

• Improving Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV Care and Related Services in Eastern Rwanda – PLoS Medicine. (7/20)
  Quality improvement methods can be effective tools for engaging local health workers
• 5 Afghan health workers kidnapped in Afghanistan – Atlanta Journal-Constitution. (7/15)
  Two doctors, a pharmacist, a nurse and their driver were abducted by gunmen outside Maiwand
• Advocates: Caregivers on frontlines of AIDS pandemic need support – Catholic News Service. (7/27)
  More attention needs to be focused on those who quietly care for people living with HIV
• SOUTH AFRICA: Child deaths stubbornly high – IRIN PlusNews. (7/27)
  A report by Countdown to 2015 has singled out South Africa as one of the countries that has made almost no progress in bringing down deaths among children under five.
• African Leaders Pledge Action on Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health: Save the Children Urges Follow-Through that Could Save Millions – Save the Children.org. (7/27)
  There is an estimated shortage of 800,000 health workers across the continent
• Iraqi Militants Stealing Blood for the Injured – New York Times. (7/26)
  Hospital near Syrian border was closed for some days to protect workers after doctors had received death threats for refusing to cooperate with demands for blood and other aid.
• PEPFAR to Train Thousands of African Healthcare Workers – Voice of America News. (7/21)
  The success of PEPFAR depends in large part on healthcare workers in African countries.
• MOMS For The 21st Century – RH Reality Check. (7/28)
  An increasing push for a more focused and intense effort to address maternal and newborn health in this country has led to the introduction of the MOMS for the 21st Century Act last week
• $2M grant to help UA train hundreds in better senior care – Arizona Daily Star. (7/26)
  Health-care workers will be aware of geriatric syndromes.
• AIDS treatment must include more than drugs – Edmonton Journal. (7/25)
  There is a natural convergence between addressing the AIDS pandemic and improving maternal and child health

EUROPE

• Moving Australia's health-care system into the 21st century – The Lancet, UK. (7/24)
  The health of the nation in the years to come will be central in this election campaign
• Doctors in eastern Europe prepare to walk out over pay – The Lancet, UK. (7/24)
  Medical staff are striking, doctors are leaving for western Europe and North America
• Government committed to solve nurse shortage – Malta Independent. (7/23)
  Every individual nurse, whether Maltese or foreign who applied for the post is being scrutinised by a selection board
• ZIMBABWE: 'Free' Maternal Health Care Too Costly For Most – IPS Terra Viva-Europe. (7/26)
  Fees for services are opening a growing gap between policy and implementation in maternal health care
• KENYA: Jury Still Out on Traditional Birth Attendants – IPS Terra Viva-Europe. (7/26)
  The 2009 demographic health survey shows less than half of women deliver under the care of a skilled attendant in Kenya
• Africa must spend more to end maternal deaths crisis - aid agencies – Reuters AlertNet. – (7/26)
  African countries’ health systems have dire shortages of doctors, nurses, midwives and medical supplies affecting women and children the most.
• University denies closing nursing applications – Times of Malta. (7/27)
  This year, 81 nurses are expected to graduate
• SIERRA LEONE: Defining New Role for Traditional Birth Attendants – IPS Terra Viva-Europe. (7/29)
  Previously, TBAs worked in the country’s hospitals and clinics, received some clinical medical training and were paid out of fees charged to patients
• Familiar Pledges on Child and Maternal Health in Africa – IPS Terra Viva-Europe. (7/29)
  The 15th summit of the African Union ended with a commitment to pay greater attention to maternal, newborn and child health
• La demanda de estudios de Medicina no deja de crecer – El Periódico, Spain. (7/21)
  4.648 estudiantes optan a las 964 plazas de primer año de los estudios de médico

LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN

• Nurses in Guyana urged to end HIV stigma – Staborek News, Guyana. (7/27)
  Health minister addressed nurses who graduated from a ‘HIV Basics for Nurses’ training programme
• URUGUAY: Millennium Goal on Maternal Health in Sight – IPS News.Net. (7/26)
  This country has been successful in lowering maternal mortality and is on track to meet the fifth of the eight MDGs
• Reclaman por la falta insumos y guardias médicas en Malargüe – Los Andes, Argentina. (7/29)
  Se pide que haya tres médicos de guardia, uno de los cuales sea pediatra, y mayor cantidad de enfermeras de guardia
• Trabajadores del Hospital Militar protestan por falta de pago – El Universal, Venezuela. (7/28)
  está situación esta afectando a los 1.500 trabajadores de este hospital, así lo informó una enfermera

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