Converging global health agendas and universal health coverage: financing whole-of-government action through UHC.

UN member states have committed to universal health coverage (UHC) to ensure all individuals and communities receive the health services they need without suffering financial hardship. Although the pursuit of UHC should unify disparate global health challenges, it is too commonly seen as another standalone initiative with a singular focus on the health sector. Despite constituting the cornerstone of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals, UHC-related commitments, actions, and metrics do not engage with the major drivers and determinants of health, such as poverty, gender inequality, discriminatory laws and policies, environment, housing, education, sanitation, and employment.

Mental health interventions for persons living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.

Introduction: Addressing the intersection between mental health and HIV is critical for the wellbeing of persons living with HIV (PLWH). This systematic review synthesized the literature on mental health interventions for PLWH in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to determine intervention components and explore their relationship with intervention effectiveness.

Methods: We included only controlled clinical trials of interventions aiming to improve the mental health of PLWH.

The most severe HIV epidemic in Europe: Ukraine's national HIV prevalence estimates for 2007.

Objective: To revise the national HIV estimates and quantify the magnitude of the HIV epidemic in Ukraine at the end of 2007.

Design: Internationally recommended methods-the Workbook and Spectrum-were employed to generate the estimates. This enables comparison of results with other countries using the same methodology.

Assessment of the routine, occupation-based gonorrhea and syphilis screening program in Moscow, Russia: an analysis of sexually transmitted infection prevalence and cost-effectiveness.

Objectives: In the Russian Federation, large sectors of the population regularly undergo mandatory occupational screening for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Objectives of our study were to determine the prevalence of syphilis and gonorrhea in the screened occupational groups in Moscow and to conduct a cost-effectiveness evaluation of the occupational screening program.

Study Design: Serum samples from 4 main occupational groups (food handlers and other food industry workers, market salespersons, education and health care providers, and hotel and other public utility workers) were tested for syphilis and gonorrhea.

Barriers to prenatal care and poor pregnancy outcomes among women with syphilis in the Russian Federation.

We studied predictors of no prenatal care (PNC) and influence of no PNC on pregnancy outcome in a multisite study of 1071 women with syphilis in Russia. We assessed PNC utilization, HIV testing, syphilis treatment, and pregnancy outcome. We found that 37% of women with syphilis received no PNC, and 1% was HIV infected.