[Chronic malnutrition among children under five years of age in the northern part of Côte d'Ivoire].

The malnutrition of children under five years of age constitutes a major public health problem in most developing countries. A cross-section study was carried in 2003 in the northern part of Côte d'Ivoire to determine the prevalence of chronic malnutrition and to identify risk factors among children under five years of age living in urban and rural areas of the northern part of Côte d'Ivoire. A total of 292 and 268 children under five years of age residing respectively in urban and rural areas were included in the study.

Monitoring and evaluation of health sector reforms in the WHO African Region.

Objectives: To describe a comprehensive analytical framework for assessing health sector reforms and demonstrates use of the analysis framework using cost-recovery mechanisms as a case study in the WHO African Region.

Data Sources: Health sector reforms published literature review.

Study Selection: No selection involved.

Status of health sector strategic plans in five countries of the WHO African Region.

Objectives: To assess the adequacy of the existing strategic plans and compare the format and content of health sector strategic plans with the guidelines in selected countries of the African region.

Data Source: The health strategic plans for Gambia, Liberia, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda, which are kept at the WHO/AFRO, were reviewed.

Data Extraction: All health strategic plans among the Anglophone countries (Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) that were developed after the year 2000 were eligible for inclusion.

A review of national health policies in seven countries in the WHO African Region.

Objectives: This paper proposes an analytical framework for assessing compliance of national health policies with WHO/AFRO guidelines.

Data Sources: Data for this study was obtained from the national health policies of Botswana, Eritrea, Liberia, Namibia, Swaziland, Gambia, and Uganda.

Study Selections: National health policies of seven of the 19 Anglophone countries of the WHO African region were selected for review using simple random sampling method.

Can countries of the WHO African Region wean themselves off donor funding for health?

More than 20% of total health expenditure in 48% of the 46 countries in the WHO African Region is provided by external sources. Issues surrounding aid effectiveness suggest that these countries ought to implement strategies for weaning off aid dependency. This paper broaches the following question: what are some of the strategies that countries of the region can employ to wean off donor funding for health? Five strategies are discussed: reduction in economic inefficiencies; reprioritizing public expenditures; raising additional tax revenues; increased private sector involvement in health development; and fighting corruption.

An overview of health financing patterns and the way forward in the WHO African Region.

Background: The way a health system is financed affects the performance of its other functions of stewardship, input (or resource) creation and services provision, and ultimately, the achievement of health system goals of health improvement (or maintenance), responsiveness to people's non-medical expectations and fair financial contributions.

Objectives: To analyse the changes between 1998 and 2002,in health financing from various sources; and to propose ways of improving the performance of health financing function in the WHO African Region.

Design: A retrospective analysis of data obtained from the World Health Report, 2005.

[Identification of malfunctioning in the treatment and quality of care of maternal morbidity in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire].

A study was carried out using a clinical audit aimed at identifying the dysfunctions in the care of female patients with serious morbidity. The study was done at the University Hospital of Cocody (CHU de Codody) and in the health training unit in the southern part of Abobo (Abidjan) from January to May 2000. The study allowed us to track and record the frequency of women who nearly died (40.

Responsiveness to life-threatening obstetric emergencies in two hospitals in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.

Objectives: To document the frequency of severe obstetric illness, and the intervals between admission or decision and life-saving surgery and the factors contributing to delays, which were reported during case reviews in two hospitals in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.

Methods: The study was conducted in the teaching hospital in Cocody (CHUC) and the district hospital in Abobo (FSAS) in 2000-01. All severe obstetric cases were inventoried over a period of 1 year, and a subset of cases selected for in-depth review.

[Assessment of iodine content of dietary salt in Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire)].

Côte d'Ivoire is one of the countries engaged in the strategy of universal salt iodization set up to prevent and control iodine deficiency disorders. However, no systematic monitoring of iodine content of salt has been performed up to now. Therefore, a survey was conducted on a random sample of 400 households in the Marcory district of Abidjan in order to study consumers' behaviour regarding the purchase and storage of salt, and to determine the iodine content of dietary salt.

[Morbidity and mortality related to obstetrical transfers in the Bouafle health district of Ivory Coast].

During one year of observation, the reference hospital of the sanitary district Bouaflé received 112 women evacuated by peripheral structures. 90.2% of the average women who were 25.