Models of cervical cancer prevention

This panel explores various studies and interventions to explore and address the burden of cervical cancer from the community-based to the national level. Presentations include: an integrated Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control program in Mozambique; a study assessing the feasibility of developing effective cervical cancer prevention programs for women in remote coffee-farming communities by improving access to services through community-based outreach and facilitation, and the development of Single Visit Approach (SVA) services in local clinics; a feasibility study of the integration of cervical cancer screening consultations into the practice of primary care physicians that also explores if consultation is associated with increased patient knowledge/favorable attitudes about screening; an initiative to foster regional Training Excellence Centers (TECs) in Latin America where carefully selected service providers are trained in visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) and cryotherapy using validated training materials and then serve as master trainers and support implementation of services.

Speakers:

Moderator: TBD

Carla Silva Matos, Ministry of Health, Mozambique; Establishment of a cervical cancer prevention program as a component of comprehensive reproductive health services: the experience of Mozambique
Jose Jeronimo, PATH; Implementation of training excellence centers for cervical cancer prevention in Peru
August Burns, Grounds for Health; The single visit approach to cervical cancer prevention: a demonstration model for effective, sustainable implementation in rural communities
Meenu Anand, American Cancer Society; Cervical cancer in India: partnering with primary care physicians in a community‐based demonstration project to address a public health problem

View available presentations:
August Burns | presentation
Carla Silva Matos | presentation
Jose Jeronimo | presentation
Meenu Anand | presentation

The changing face of malaria in maternal health

WHO's three-pronged approach says that pregnant women in stable malaria transmission areas should receive: an insecticide-treated net, intermittent preventive treatment, and prompt and appropriate treatment for malaria. Malaria incidence has dropped precipitously in some African countries. As countries consider changing strategies, the question remains whether capabilities are in place to detect and treat MIP, especially asymptomatic placental infections. This panel addresses four key issues for malaria in maternal health as efforts increase toward malaria elimination and the epidemiology of malaria changes.

Speakers:

Moderator: William Brieger, Jhpiego
Enobong Ndekhedehe, Community Partners for Development; Community involvement to increase IPTp & ITN coverage in a highly endemic area
Corine Karema, Ministry of Health, National Malaria Control Program; Feasibility of determining the prevalence of MIP during ANC
Theonest Mutabingwa, Hubert Kairuki Memorial University, Tanzania; The future MIP research agenda in the context of malaria elimination
John Eric Tongren, President's Malaria Initiative, USAID; PMI’s perspective on MIP programming in countries with changing malaria epidemiology

View available presentations:
Aimee Dickerson | presentation
Corine Karema | presentation
Theonest Mutabingwa | presentation
William Brieger-2 | presentation
William Brieger | presentation

Global Health Council

Global Health Council opens 38th annual international conference in Washington

2,000 participants from 70 countries expected to attend the world's largest global health conference not focused on a single issue and discuss securing a healthier future in a changing world read more…

Quality Assurance of Malaria Microscopy in Mali

The Improving Malaria Diagnostics (IMaD) project assessed the sensitivity, specificity and agreement of microscopists and their supervisors against Mali’s national referral laboratory, INRSP as gold standard. Low agreement between microscopists and gold standard was mainly due to low specificity, the former may be reporting stain precipitate and other artifacts as malaria parasites. Supervisors help identify what improvements they can introduce (i.e. filtering Giemsa stain) to reduce false positives. As a group, laboratory supervisors need to improve their sensitivity, while as a group microscopists must improve both their specificity and sensitivity. In the Venn diagram, the black square represents at scale the total number of slides used for external quality assurance, the blue circle represents slides reported as positive by INRSP, the red circle represents slides reported as positive by laboratory supervisors re-reading slides, and the green circle corresponds to slides reported as positive by microscopists. Eighty percent of false positives for supervisors overlapped the lab staff’s false positives, suggestive that some supervisors may not have been blind to staff results, which influenced their reports.