Supportive public health leadership for COVID-19 response in Jordan.

Background: The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean and the United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC) implemented a leadership programme on epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response, specific to the COVID-19 pandemic, during the second half of 2021.

Aims: To highlight the leadership role played by the WHO Jordan Country Office during the COVID-19 pandemic in collaboration with UNSSC.

Programme: The WHO Jordan country office successfully leveraged the expertise of UNSSC to implement a leadership training to prepare key stakeholders in Jordan for the response to COVID-19 and similar pandemics or outbreaks.

Factors contributing to the uptake of childhood vaccination in Galkayo District, Puntland, Somalia.

Background: As in many Sub-Saharan African countries, the health system in Somalia is not operating at the capacity needed to lift childhood vaccination coverage to ninety percent or above, as recommended by United Nations Children's Fund. Current national estimates of coverage for the six major vaccine preventable childhood diseases range from thirty to sixty percent. Infectious disease outbreaks continue to pose significant challenges for the country's health authorities.

The evidence of mother to child transmission of hepatitis B virus infection in Pakistan and the need for hepatitis B immunization policy change.

Objective: To establish the hepatitis B surface antigen and hepatitis B 'e' antigen seroprevalence of mothers and their children aged 6-36 months and to assess the risk of hepatitis B transmission occurring in infants born to hepatitis B surface antigen positive mothers in Pakistan.

Methods: Mothers and their children were selected from eight districts of three provinces that have been identified as high hepatitis B prevalence areas between May 2010 to February 2011. Ages of the children and their vaccination status were obtained from the lady health workers' registers and also verified from the mothers.

Strengthening human resources for health through information, coordination and accountability mechanisms: the case of the Sudan.

Problem: Human resources for health (HRH) in the Sudan were limited by shortages and the maldistribution of health workers, poor management, service fragmentation, poor retention of health workers in rural areas, and a weak health information system.

Approach: A "country coordination and facilitation" process was implemented to strengthen the national HRH observatory, provide a coordination platform for key stakeholders, catalyse policy support and HRH planning, harmonize the mobilization of resources, strengthen HRH managerial structures, establish new training institutions and scale up the training of community health workers.

Local Setting: The national government of the Sudan sanctioned state-level governance of the health system but many states lacked coherent HRH plans and policies.

A proposed new international convention supporting the rights of pregnant women and girls and their newborn infants.

For a multitude of eminently modifiable reasons, death rates for pregnant women and girls and their newborn infants in poorly resourced countries remain unacceptably high. The concomitant high morbidity rates compound the situation. The rights of these vulnerable individuals are incompletely protected by existing United Nations human rights conventions, which many countries have failed to implement.

A review of hepatitis viral infections in Pakistan.

A review of published literature on viral hepatitis infections in Pakistan is presented. A total of 220 abstracts available in the Pakmedinet and Medline have been searched. All relevant articles were reviewed to determine the prevalence of hepatitis viral infections in Pakistan.

Emergency maternal and child health training courses and advocacy to achieve millennium development goals in a poorly resourced country; challenges and opportunities.

Our three years' experience of Essential Surgical Skills-Emergency Maternal and Child Health (ESS-EMCH) Programme in Pakistan suggests that despite a compromised healthcare delivery system, a tangible improvement in the management of emergencies in pregnancy, the neonate and children can be achieved by adopting a novel but robust mechanism of effective advocacy along with provision of innovative, evidence based and high quality training for healthcare staff.

Framework for assessing governance of the health system in developing countries: gateway to good governance.

Governance is thought to be a key determinant of economic growth, social advancement and overall development, as well as for the attainment of the MDGs in low- and middle-income countries. Governance of the health system is the least well-understood aspect of health systems. A framework for assessing health system governance (HSG) at national and sub-national levels is presented, which has been applied in countries of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Integrated population-based surveillance of noncommunicable diseases: the Pakistan model.

The escalating burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) worldwide warrants an urgent public health response. Resource constraints and other factors necessitate an integrated and concerted approach to the range of NCDs. A necessary prerequisite for effective planning, implementation, and evaluation of NCD prevention programs is access to reliable and timely information on mortality, morbidity, risk factors, and their socioeconomic determinants.

Process, rationale, and interventions of Pakistan's National Action Plan on Chronic Diseases.

Most developing countries do not comprehensively address chronic diseases as part of their health agendas because of lack of resources, limited capacity within the health system, and the threat that the institution of national-level programs will weaken local health systems and compete with other health issues. An integrated partnership-based approach, however, could obviate some of these obstacles. In Pakistan, a tripartite public-private partnership was developed among the Ministry of Health, the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Heartfile, and World Health Organization.