The News Review:
- Federal Health Plan for Children Still Leaves Needs Unmet
- Ghana: Child Health Promotion Week Begins Nationwide Today
- Liberia: 24 Receive Certificates in Child Health Training
- Over 200 Million Children Lack Basic Health Care, Report Finds
- Health warning in China as fears grow over child virus
Federal Health Plan for Children Still Leaves Needs Unmet
Washington Post – May 5, 2008
in fact, only 7 percent do,” study author Laura Shone, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center, said in a prepared statement. “Second, those who do switch have the same unmet health-care needs as those who didn’t have insurance when they enrolled,” Shone concluded. Her team’s findings are based on research done on New York’s Child Health Plus SCHIP plan. Child Health Plus has never instituted a waiting period, giving researchers an opportunity to study the patients who switch from private insurance. The study was scheduled to be presented Monday at the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Honolulu. Shone said this study shows that families are not “saving up” health problems to address after enrollment in SCHIP. About 57 percent of children, both with and without prior insurance, had unmet health-care needs when enrolling in the program, she said.
Ghana: Child Health Promotion Week Begins Nationwide Today
AllAfrica.com – May 5, 2008
He said the celebration will highlight good nutritional habits to address malnutrition and its related conditions. "As we aim at a middle-level income country the people must be healthy. The Child Health Week is therefore to educate the citizenry on the need to work together to ensure that our children who are the backbone to development are safe," he stated. Speaking at a forum in Accra, Dr. Antwi Agyei, Programme Manager, EPI, reiterated the need to give the child only breast milk from birth to six months and afterwards continue with breastfeeding along with a variety of foods. "Breastfeeding for two years or longer helps children develop and grow strong and healthy. Complete child’s immunization before one year and ensure that children sleep under insecticide treated bed net every night," he urged.
Liberia: 24 Receive Certificates in Child Health Training
AllAfrica.com – May 5, 2008
Emmanuel JohnsonMonroviaThe Ministry of Health and Social Welfare over the weekend awarded certificates to 24 health workers from Margibi County at the end of an eleven-day training in Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses. The health practitioners were trained to reduce the high mortality and morbidity rate among children under the age of five years in the county. GA_googleFillSlot(“AllAfrica_Story_Inset”);Speaking at the end of the program held at the Baptist Seminary in Paynesville, Assistant Health Minister For Curative Services, Dr. Moses Pewu urged the participants to exemplify the knowledge acquired by adequately discharging their duties to save the lives of children who are vulnerable due to the lack of adequate health facilities across Liberia. He admonished them to always refer serious cases to hospitals instead of wasting the patients’ time when they know that they cannot cope with the severity of the case… Emmanuel JohnsonMonroviaThe Ministry of Health and Social Welfare over the weekend awarded certificates to 24 health workers from Margibi County at the end of an eleven-day training in Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses. The health practitioners were trained to reduce the high mortality and morbidity rate among children under the age of five years in the county. GA_googleFillSlot(“AllAfrica_Story_Inset”);Speaking at the end of the program held at the Baptist Seminary in Paynesville, Assistant Health Minister For Curative Services, Dr. Moses Pewu urged the participants to exemplify the knowledge acquired by adequately discharging their duties to save the lives of children who are vulnerable due to the lack of adequate health facilities across Liberia. He admonished them to always refer serious cases to hospitals instead of wasting the patients’ time when they know that they cannot cope with the severity of the case. He said the lack of well trained doctors has been one of the impediments in the enhancement of the country’s health delivery program, and hoped the training would be extended to other parts of the country.
Over 200 Million Children Lack Basic Health Care, Report Finds
Reuters AlertNet – May 5, 2008
-based global independenthumanitarian organization. The report includes the first-ever Basic Health Care Report Card of 55 developing countries that shows which countries are doing the best andthe worst at reaching children with basic health care. Together these countriesaccount for nearly 60 percent of the world's under-5 population and 83 percentof all child deaths worldwide. Basic health care is defined as a package oflifesaving interventions that includes prenatal care, skilled care atchildbirth, immunizations and treatment for diarrhea and pneumonia. Eight of the 55 countries in the Basic Health Care Report Card reach 60 percent or more childrenunder age 5 with basic health care. The Philippines comes out on top of theReport Card. In 30 of the 55 countries,less than half of all young children receive health care, includingbottom-ranked Ethiopia,where more than 80 percent of children under age 5 do not receive basiclifesaving care.
Health warning in China as fears grow over child virus
Guardian – May 5, 2008
Enterovirus 71 (EV-71), which causes a severe strain of hand, foot and mouth disease, normally peaks in June and July. Experts fear that infections could increase as the weather becomes warmer. With hundreds more cases emerging every day, China’s health ministry has stepped up efforts to contain its spread, closing nurseries at the centre of the outbreak in Fuyang, eastern Anhui province, where 22 of the deaths occurred. State television showed workers spraying disinfectant around houses in rural areas. This weekend it issued a nationwide alert, calling for heightened efforts to control the spread of infectious diseases – including hepatitis A and measles as well as hand, foot and mouth. It warned that the drive was needed “to guarantee the smooth staging of the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics and to practically preserve social stability”. But WHO China representative, Hans Troedsson, told a press conference: “I don’t see it at all as a threat to the Olympics or any upcoming events… He said the cause of deaths had been difficult to diagnose, as the children had died from respiratory complications and did not show the normal symptoms, causing a delay in diagnosis. WHO was told within 24 hours of the correct identification. But Troedsson said it was important for the health ministry to brief the public about such outbreaks early on, even if officials are unclear about the cause. Last week, the Chinese media attacked the authorities in Anhui for not reporting the outbreak until April 15 – even though the first deaths occurred in March. They compared the situation to the handling of the Sars epidemic in 2003, where an initial cover-up led to the sacking of the health minister. WHO said that cases increased sharply from April 17. But it credited a rapid response from the government for cutting the “extraordinarily high” fatality rate of 11% in March to about 0.
