Nutrition Sensitive

Public and Private Sector Dynamics in Scaling Up Rice Fortification: The Colombian Experience and its Lessons. BACKGROUND: Fortification of cereal grains with at least iron or folic acid is legislated in 85 countries worldwide. Relative to wheat and maize flour, rice fortification is relatively new and provides an opportunity to deliver essential micronutrients to populations that […]

Improving newborn care practices through home visits: lessons from Malawi, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Uganda. BACKGROUND: Nearly all newborn deaths occur in low- or middle-income countries. Many of these deaths could be prevented through promotion and provision of newborn care practices such as thermal care, early and exclusive breastfeeding, and hygienic cord care. Home visit programmes promoting […]

A protocol for engaging unlicensed private drug shops in Rural Eastern Uganda for Integrated Community Case Management (ICCM) of malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea in children under 5 years of age. INTRODUCTION: Malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea are leading causes of death in young children in Uganda. In 2010, Integrated Community Case Management (ICCM) was adopted in Uganda for […]

Design, content and financing of an essential national package of health services. A minimum package of public health and clinical interventions, which are highly cost-effective and deal with major sources of disease burden, could be provided in low-income countries for about US$ 12 per person per year, and in middle-income countries for about $22. Properly […]

‘Sometimes they fail to keep their faith in us’: community health worker perceptions of structural barriers to quality of care and community utilisation of services in Bangladesh Community health workers (CHWs) have strong potential to extend health and nutrition services to underserved populations. However, CHWs face complex challenges when working within weak health systems and […]

National food-fortification program with folic acid in Chile. The Chilean Ministry of Health legislated to add folic acid (2.2 mg/100 g) to wheat flour to reduce the risk of neural tube defects (NTD), beginning in January 2000. This policy resulted in a significant increase in serum and red blood cell folate in women of childbearing […]

DEWORMING DELUSIONS? MASS DRUG ADMINISTRATION IN EAST AFRICAN SCHOOLS. Recent debates about deworming school-aged children in East Africa have been described as the ‘Worm Wars’. The stakes are high. Deworming has become one of the top priorities in the fight against infectious diseases. Staff at the World Health Organization, the Gates Foundation and the World […]

Lessons learned from implementation of a demonstration program to reduce the burden of anemia and hookworm in women in Yen Bai Province, Viet Nam. BACKGROUND: Iron deficiency, anemia and hookworm disease are important public health problems for women of reproductive age living in developing countries and affect the health of newborns and infants. Iron supplementation and […]

Appreciation of school deworming program by parents in Ha Giang Province (Vietnam). School-based deworming programs are one of the most cost-effective public health strategies to reach children with anthelminthics and health education. However, despite their low cost and high health impact, they are not implemented on a large scale. The present survey investigated a school-based […]

Sustainability of a nutrition education programme to prevent night-blindness in Bangladesh. Cross-sectional surveys were conducted to assess prevalence of night-blindness and dietary habits prior to intervention (in 1986), after 3 years of intervention (in 1989) and 3 years after the termination of active intervention (in 1992), in the northern part of Bangladesh. The prevalence of […]