Village Health Workers (VHWs) in Bhutan provide cost-fee healthcare support that has enabled the country to achieve 95% immunization coverage and nearly eliminate several diseases, including malaria and neonatal tetanus. Sacha Hauc and colleagues evaluated the impacts of VHWs on health-related cost savings and hospital admission rates. Addition of a single VHW to a local health … [Read more...] about Evaluating the effect of village health workers on hospital admission rates and their economic impact in the Kingdom of Bhutan
Asia
Beyond the Rhetoric of Equity: Will the Frontline Healthcare Workers Who Serve the Poor Be Prioritized for the COVID Vaccine?
An international coalition of organizations representing 80 countries set an aggressive goal of making 2 billion Covid-19 vaccinations available by the end of 2021. Populations prioritized to receive vaccination include high risk and vulnerable persons and frontline healthcare workers. The definition of “frontline healthcare worker”, however, remains ambiguous and is likely to … [Read more...] about Beyond the Rhetoric of Equity: Will the Frontline Healthcare Workers Who Serve the Poor Be Prioritized for the COVID Vaccine?
Community level interventions for pre-eclampsia (CLIP) in Pakistan: A cluster randomised controlled trial
Karnataka, India experiences exceptionally high rates of maternal, fetal, and infant deaths. Hypertension during pregnancy increases risk for both eclampsia and maternal death. Rahat Qureshi and colleagues assessed the effectiveness of a CHW-led community-based intervention designed to reduce pregnancy hypertension. Compared to a control group, the community-level intervention … [Read more...] about Community level interventions for pre-eclampsia (CLIP) in Pakistan: A cluster randomised controlled trial
Feasibility and acceptability of a video library tool to support community health worker counseling in rural Afghan districts: a cross-sectional assessment
Afghanistan experiences high maternal, infant, and child mortality compared to neighboring countries. Lack of access to facility-based health services and mass media health communications prevents timely access to preventative health information. Leila Dal Santo and colleagues provided CHWs with a tablet-based health video library (HVL) to assess the feasibility of the device … [Read more...] about Feasibility and acceptability of a video library tool to support community health worker counseling in rural Afghan districts: a cross-sectional assessment
Autonomous Continuation of Community Health Workers’ Activities in Thegon Township, Bago Region, Myanmar
CHW programs in low- and middle-income countries experience sustainability challenges related to the availability of resources and funding. When faced with limited resources, some CHWs in these countries adopt creative task modifications to continue performing their role. Taeko Oguma and colleagues followed unsupervised CHWs for 40 months after the completion of a child … [Read more...] about Autonomous Continuation of Community Health Workers’ Activities in Thegon Township, Bago Region, Myanmar