Jens Byskov

The impact of a school health programme on the prevalence and morbidity of urinary schistosomiasis in Mwera Division, Pangani District, Tanzania

The prevalence of urinary schistosomiasis among schoolchildren in Pangani District (Tanzania) was assessed rapidly by a questionnaire approach. Based on the results, a strategy of selective treatment with praziquantel was adopted. Eleven primary schools in Mwera Division, Pangani District, with about 2500 schoolchildren were included in a control programme for urinary schistosomiasis. Macro- and microscopic haematuria diagnosed visually and with urine reagent strips was used as an indirect indicator of Schistosoma haematobium infection. Intensity of infection among children was monitored in class 5 (median age 14 years, range 11-17) by urine filtration techniques. Treatment was administered as 40 mg/kg praziquantel in a single dose at the beginning of the school year. The programme was implemented by schoolteachers and coordinated by the District Health Management Team in collaboration with the District Education Office. Teachers were responsible for carrying out all programme activities. Community participation was through collaboration with Teachers-Parents Associations and Village Health Committees. Coverage at yearly (1995-99) examination varied from 67.7% to 80.3%. Prevalence of haematuria decreased from 51.2% (range 22.2-89.5%) at baseline to 23.4% (range 5.8-56.7%) in 1999, a reduction of 54.3%. Macrohaematuria was 21.2% at baseline and 7.2% in 1999, a reduction of 66.0%. Prevalence of infection in class 5 was reduced by 71.4% and geometric mean intensity of positives reduced from 71 eggs/10 mL (95% confidence interval [CI] 52.5-97.7) to 28 eggs/10 mL (95% CI 25.7-55.0), a reduction of 60.6%. Teachers were highly committed, and secured community participation and a smooth implementation of the programme. The community accepted the introduction of a cost-recovery system, whereby parents pay for the treatment of children with episodes of visible haematuria during the school year. Communities also participated in the improvement of sanitary installations at the schools.

Prospects, achievements, challenges and opportunities for scaling-up malaria chemoprevention in pregnancy in Tanzania: the perspective of national level officers

ObjectivesTo describe the prospects, achievements, challenges and opportunities for implementing intermittent preventive treatment for malaria in pregnancy (IPTp) in Tanzania in light of national antenatal care (ANC) guidelines and ability of service providers to comply with them.MethodsIn-depth interviews were made with national level malaria control officers in 2006 and 2007. Data was analysed manually using a qualitative content analysis approach.ResultsIPTp has been under implementation countrywide since 2001 and the 2005 evaluation report showed increased coverage of women taking two doses of IPTp from 29% to 65% between 2001 and 2007. This achievement was acknowledged, however, several challenges were noted including (i) the national antenatal care (ANC) guidelines emphasizing two IPTp doses during a womans pregnancy, while other agencies operating at district level were recommending three doses, this confuses frontline health workers (HWs); (ii) focused ANC guidelines have been revised, but printing and distribution to districts has often been delayed; (iii) reports from district management teams demonstrate constraints related to womens late booking, understaffing, inadequate skills of most HWs and their poor motivation. Other problems were unreliable supply of free SP at private clinics, clean and safe water shortage at many government ANC clinics limiting direct observation treatment and occasionally pregnant women asked to pay for ANC services. Finally, supervision of peripheral health facilities has been inadequate and national guidelines on district budgeting for health services have been inflexible. IPTp coverage is generally low partly because IPTp is not systematically enforced like programmes on immunization, tuberculosis, leprosy and other infectious diseases. Necessary concerted efforts towards fostering uptake and coverage of two IPTp doses were emphasized by the national level officers, who called for further action including operational health systems research to understand challenges and suggest ways forward for effective implementation and high coverage of IPTp.ConclusionThe benefit of IPTp is appreciated by national level officers who are encouraged by trends in the coverage of IPTp doses. However, their appeal for concerted efforts towards IPTp scaling-up through rectifying the systemic constraints and operational research is important and supported by suggestions by other authors.

Decentralization and health care prioritization process in Tanzania: from national rhetoric to local reality.

During the 1990s, Tanzania like many other developing countries adopted health sector reforms. The most common policy change under the health sector reforms has been decentralization, which involves the transfer of power and authority from the central level to local authorities. Based on the case study of Mbarali district in Tanzania, this paper uses a policy analysis approach to analyse the implementation of decentralized health care priority setting. Specifically, the paper examines the process, actors and contextual factors shaping decentralized health care priority setting processes. The analysis and conclusion are based on a review of documents, key informant interviews, focus group discussion, and notes from non-participant observation. The findings of the study indicate that local institutional contexts and power asymmetries among actors have a greater influence on the prioritization process at the local level than expected and intended. The paper underlines the essentially political character of the decentralization process and reiterates the need for policy analysts to pay attention to processes, institutional contexts, and the role of policy actors in shaping the implementation of the decentralization process at the district level.

Malaria diagnosis and treatment administered by teachers in primary schools in Tanzania

A school health programme in Mwera Division, Pangani District included treatment of malaria attacks occurring in children during school time. A combination of symptoms (headache, muscle/joint pains, feeling feverish) and oral temperature ≥ 37.5 °C was used for the diagnosis of malaria. Chloroquine (25 mg/kg given over 3 days) was used for treatment. Malariometric surveys on children aged 7–15 years (mean 10 years) were conducted once a year (1995–1997). Plasmodium falciparum accounted for 100% of infections and the parasite prevalence varied between 32.7 and 35.3% from 1995 to 1997. The number of malaria cases (cases/1000 registered school children) diagnosed and treated by school teachers was 159 (67) in 1995, 324 (124) in 1996, 348 (128) in 1997 and 339 (108) in 1998. Children in grades 1–4 (age 7–13) accounted for 64.6% of cases. Symptoms and oral temperature were recorded for 1258 children. Of those, 992 (78.9%) complained of fever and at least one other symptom when presenting to teachers, 98 (7.8%) had fever as their only complaint and 168 (13.5%) presented without a perception of fever, but with other symptoms. Of these children, 36 (21.4%) had a temperature ≥37.5 °C. The sensitivity of ‘feeling feverish’ was 96.5% with a specificity of 54.5%. The positive predictive value of feeling feverish was 89.9% and the negative predictive value 78.6%. Blood slides were prepared from 55.3 and 37.2% of children diagnosed by teachers during 1995 and 1996, respectively, and 71.4% were found positive. Among children who fulfilled the algorithm criteria 75.0% had a positive blood slide. With little training and regular supervision it was feasible for school teachers to make a presumptive diagnosis of malaria. We conclude that teachers can play a major role in school health programmes and are willing to be involved in health matters as long as they are supported by health and educational authorities.

The burden of disease in Zimbabwe in 1997 as measured by disability-adjusted life years lost

Objective  To rank health problems contributing most to the burden of disease in Zimbabwe using disability‐adjusted life years as the population health measure.

Existence and functionality of emergency obstetric care services at district level in Kenya: theoretical coverage versus reality

BackgroundThe knowledge on emergency obstetric care (EmOC) is limited in Kenya, where only partial data from sub-national studies exist. The EmOC process indicators have also not been integrated into routine health management information system to monitor progress in safe motherhood interventions both at national and lower levels of the health system. In a country with a high maternal mortality burden, the implication is that decision makers are unaware of the extent of need for life-saving care and, therefore, where to intervene. The objective of the study was to assess the actual existence and functionality of EmOC services at district level.MethodsThis was a facility-based cross-sectional study. Data were collected from 40 health facilities offering delivery services in Malindi District, Kenya. Data presented are part of the “Response to accountable priority setting for trust in health systems” (REACT) study, in which EmOC was one of the service areas selected to assess fairness and legitimacy of priority setting in health care. The main outcome measures in this study were the number of facilities providing EmOC, their geographical distribution, and caesarean section rates in relation to World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations.ResultsAmong the 40 facilities assessed, 29 were government owned, seven were private and four were voluntary organisations. The ratio of EmOC facilities to population size was met (6.2/500,000), compared to the recommended 5/500,000. However, using the strict WHO definition, none of the facilities met the EmOC requirements, since assisted delivery, by vacuum or forceps was not provided in any facility. Rural–urban inequities in geographical distribution of facilities were observed. The facilities were not providing sufficient life-saving care as measured by caesarean section rates, which were below recommended levels (3.7% in 2008 and 4.5% in 2009). The rates were lower in the rural than in urban areas (2.1% vs. 6.8%; p < 0.001 ) in 2008 and (2.7% vs. 7.7%; p < 0.001) in 2009.ConclusionsThe gaps in existence and functionality of EmOC services revealed in this study may point to the health system conditions contributing to lack of improvements in maternal survival in Kenya. As such, the findings bear considerable implications for policy and local priority setting.

Improving district level health planning and priority setting in Tanzania through implementing accountability for reasonableness framework: Perceptions of stakeholders.

BackgroundIn 2006, researchers and decision-makers launched a five-year project - Response to Accountable Priority Setting for Trust in Health Systems (REACT) - to improve planning and priority-setting through implementing the Accountability for Reasonableness framework in Mbarali District, Tanzania. The objective of this paper is to explore the acceptability of Accountability for Reasonableness from the perspectives of the Council Health Management Team, local government officials, health workforce and members of user boards and committees.MethodsIndividual interviews were carried out with different categories of actors and stakeholders in the district. The interview guide consisted of a series of questions, asking respondents to describe their perceptions regarding each condition of the Accountability for Reasonableness framework in terms of priority setting. Interviews were analysed using thematic framework analysis. Documentary data were used to support, verify and highlight the key issues that emerged.ResultsAlmost all stakeholders viewed Accountability for Reasonableness as an important and feasible approach for improving priority-setting and health service delivery in their context. However, a few aspects of Accountability for Reasonableness were seen as too difficult to implement given the socio-political conditions and traditions in Tanzania. Respondents mentioned: budget ceilings and guidelines, low level of public awareness, unreliable and untimely funding, as well as the limited capacity of the district to generate local resources as the major contextual factors that hampered the full implementation of the framework in their context.ConclusionThis study was one of the first assessments of the applicability of Accountability for Reasonableness in health care priority-setting in Tanzania. The analysis, overall, suggests that the Accountability for Reasonableness framework could be an important tool for improving priority-setting processes in the contexts of resource-poor settings. However, the full implementation of Accountability for Reasonableness would require a proper capacity-building plan, involving all relevant stakeholders, particularly members of the community since public accountability is the ultimate aim, and it is the community that will live with the consequences of priority-setting decisions.

Balancing efficiency, equity and feasibility of HIV treatment in South Africa – development of programmatic guidance

South Africa, the country with the largest HIV epidemic worldwide, has been scaling up treatment since 2003 and is rapidly expanding its eligibility criteria. The HIV treatment programme has achieved significant results, and had 1.8 million people on treatment per 2011. Despite these achievements, it is now facing major concerns regarding (i) efficiency: alternative treatment policies may save more lives for the same budget; (ii) equity: there are large inequalities in who receives treatment; (iii) feasibility: still only 52% of the eligible population receives treatment.Hence, decisions on the design of the present HIV treatment programme in South Africa can be considered suboptimal. We argue there are two fundamental reasons to this. First, while there is a rapidly growing evidence-base to guide priority setting decisions on HIV treatment, its included studies typically consider only one criterion at a time and thus fail to capture the broad range of values that stakeholders have. Second, priority setting on HIV treatment is a highly political process but it seems no adequate participatory processes are in place to incorporate stakeholders’ views and evidences of all sorts.We propose an alternative approach that provides a better evidence base and outlines a fair policy process to improve priority setting in HIV treatment. The approach integrates two increasingly important frameworks on health care priority setting: accountability for reasonableness (A4R) to foster procedural fairness, and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to construct an evidence-base on the feasibility, efficiency, and equity of programme options including trade-offs. The approach provides programmatic guidance on the choice of treatment strategies at various decisions levels based on a sound conceptual framework, and holds large potential to improve HIV priority setting in South Africa.

Implementing Intermittent Preventive Treatment for Malaria in Pregnancy: Review of Prospects, Achievements, Challenges and Agenda for Research

INTRODUCTION: Implementing Intermittent Preventive Treatment for malaria in Pregnancy (IPTp) with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) through antenatal care (ANC) clinics is recommended for malaria endemic countries. Vast biomedical literature on malaria prevention focuses more on the epidemiological and cost-effectiveness analyses of the randomised controlled trials carried out in selected geographical settings. Such studies fail to elucidate the economic, psychosocial, managerial, organization and other contextual systemic factors influencing the operational effectiveness, compliance and coverage of the recommended interventions. OBJECTIVE: To review literature on policy advances, achievements, constraints and challenges to malaria IPTp implementation, emphasising on its operational feasibility in the context of health-care financing, provision and uptake, resource constraints and psychosocial factors in Africa. RESULTS: The importance of IPTp in preventing unnecessary anaemia, morbidity and mortality in pregnancy and improving childbirth outcomes is highly acknowledged, although the following factors appear to be the main constraints to IPTp service delivery and uptake: cost of accessing ANC; myths and other discriminatory socio-cultural values on pregnancy; target users, perceptions and attitudes towards SP, malaria, and quality of ANC; supply and cost of SP at health facilities; understaffing and demoralised staff; ambiguity and impracticability of user-fee exemption policy guidelines on essential ANC services; implementing IPTp, bednets, HIV and syphilis screening programmes in the same clinic settings; and reports on increasing parasite resistant to SP. However, the noted increase in the coverage of the delivery of IPTp doses in several countries justify that IPTp implementation is possible and better than not. CONCLUSION: IPTp for malaria is implemented in constrained conditions in Africa. This is a challenge for higher coverage of at least two doses and attainment of the Abuja targets. Yet, there are opportunities for addressing the existing challenges, and one of the useful options is the evaluation of the acceptability and viability of the existing intervention guidelines.

Factors associated with health facility childbirth in districts of Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia: a population based survey

BackgroundMaternal mortality continues to be a heavy burden in low and middle income countries where half of all deliveries take place in homes without skilled attendance. The study aimed to investigate the underlying and proximate determinants of health facility childbirth in rural and urban areas of three districts in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia.MethodsA population-based survey was conducted in 2007 as part of the ‘REsponse to ACcountable priority setting for Trust in health systems’ (REACT) project. Stratified random cluster sampling was used and the data included information on place of delivery and factors that might influence health care seeking behaviour. A total of 1800 women who had childbirth in the previous five years were analysed. The distal and proximate conceptual framework for analysing determinants of maternal mortality was modified for studying factors associated with place of delivery. Socioeconomic position was measured by employing a construct of educational attainment and wealth index. All analyses were stratified by district and urban–rural residence.ResultsThere were substantial inter-district differences in proportion of health facility childbirth. Facility childbirth was 15, 70 and 37% in the rural areas of Malindi, Mbarali and Kapiri Mposhi respectively, and 57, 75 and 77% in the urban areas of the districts respectively. However, striking socio-economic inequities were revealed regardless of district. Furthermore, there were indications that repeated exposure to ANC services and HIV related counselling and testing were positively associated with health facility deliveries. Perceived distance was negatively associated with facility childbirth in rural areas of Malindi and urban areas of Kapiri Mposhi.ConclusionStrong socio-economic inequities in the likelihood of facility childbirths were revealed in all the districts added to geographic inequities in two of the three districts. This strongly suggests an urgent need to strengthen services targeting disadvantaged and remote populations. The finding of a positive association between HIV counselling/testing and odds in favor of giving birth at a health facility suggests potential positive effects can be achieved by strengthening integrated approaches in maternal health service delivery.