Publications by authors named "Godfrey Banda"
Article Synopsis
- In 2020, Malawi faced a significant malaria crisis with 6.9 million cases and 2,551 deaths, primarily affecting children under five; despite efforts to promote insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) through free distribution, Chikwawa District suffers from low consistent usage among caregivers.
- The research employed a mixed methods approach, with quantitative data from 96 caregivers in Chikwawa and qualitative insights from interviews and focus groups conducted from December 2023 to April 2024.
- Findings indicated that while 91.67% of households owned ITNs and 87.50% used them daily, challenges like heat discomfort, quality issues, and misconceptions hindered broader usage; the perceived effectiveness of nets was strongly
Article Synopsis
- Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) linked to COVID-19 can cause serious heart issues, and Anakinra might help by reducing inflammation and improving heart function.
- A systematic review analyzed studies on Anakinra's effects on cardiac outcomes in MIS-C patients, finding significant improvements in heart metrics and inflammation in several studies, although some results were mixed.
- Despite promising findings on Anakinra's potential benefits, the data mainly come from observational studies, highlighting the need for more rigorous randomized controlled trials to confirm its effectiveness and refine treatment strategies.
Introduction: Pregnant women living with HIV can achieve viral suppression and prevent HIV mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) with timely HIV testing and early ART initiation and maintenance. Although it is recommended that pregnant women undergo HIV testing early in antenatal care in Malawi, many women test positive during breastfeeding because they did not have their HIV status ascertained during pregnancy, or they tested negative during pregnancy but seroconverted postpartum. We sought to estimate the association between the timing of last positive HIV test (during pregnancy vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Correct knowledge about transmission of tuberculosis (TB) can influence better health-seeking behaviors, and in turn, it can aid TB prevention in society. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the prevalence and predictors of self-reported correct knowledge about TB transmission among adults in Malawi.
Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of the data obtained from the Malawi Demographic and Health Survey, 2015/16 (MDHS 2015/16).
Background: In the era of Option B+ and 'treat all' policies for HIV, challenges to retention in care are well documented. In Malawi, several large community-facility linkage (CFL) models have emerged to address these challenges, training lay health workers (LHW) to support the national prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programme. This qualitative study sought to examine how PMTCT LHW deployed by Malawi's three most prevalent CFL models respond to known barriers to access and retention to antiretroviral therapy (ART) and PMTCT.
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