MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep
December 2022
In 2019, India, along with other countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Region,* adopted the goal of measles and rubella elimination by 2023, a revision of the previous goal of measles elimination and control of rubella and congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) by 2020 (1-3). During 2017-2021, India adopted a national strategic plan for measles and rubella elimination (4), introduced rubella-containing vaccine (RCV) into the routine immunization program, launched a nationwide measles-rubella supplementary immunization activity (SIA) catch-up campaign, transitioned from outbreak-based surveillance to case-based acute fever and rash surveillance, and more than doubled the number of laboratories in the measles-rubella network, from 13 to 27. Strategies included 1) achieving and maintaining high population immunity with at least 95% vaccination coverage by providing 2 doses of measles- and rubella-containing vaccines; 2) ensuring a sensitive and timely case-based measles, rubella and CRS surveillance system; 3) maintaining an accredited measles and rubella laboratory network; 4) ensuring adequate outbreak preparedness and rapid response to measles and rubella outbreaks; and 5) strengthening support and linkages to achieve these strategies, including planning and progress monitoring, advocacy, social mobilization and communication, identification and utilization of synergistic linkages of integrated program efforts, research, and development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To expand the measles and rubella laboratory network of India by integrating new laboratories.
Methods: In collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Indian government developed a 10-step scheme to systematically expand the number of laboratories performing serological and molecular testing for measles and rubella. The Indian Council of Medical Research and WHO identified suitable laboratories based on their geographical location, willingness, preparedness, past performance and adherence to national quality control and quality assurance mechanisms.
Background: After global oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) cessation, the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) currently recommends a two-dose schedule of inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) beginning ≥14-weeks of age to achieve at least 90% immune response. We aimed to compare the immunogenicity of three different two-dose IPV schedules started before or at 14-weeks of age.
Methods: We conducted a randomized, controlled, open-label, inequality trial at two sites in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Background: Cervical cancer is a leading cause of cancer-associated mortality among women in India, with 96,922 new cases and 60,078 deaths each year, almost one-fifth of the global burden. In 2018, Sikkim state in India introduced human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine for 9-13-year-old girls, primarily through school-based vaccination, targeting approximately 25,000 girls. We documented the program's decision-making and implementation processes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Sensitive surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) allows for rapid detection of polio outbreaks and provides essential evidence to support certification of the eradication of polio. However, accurately assessing the sensitivity of surveillance systems can be difficult due to limitations in the reliability of available performance indicators, including the rate of detection of non-polio AFP and the proportion of adequate stool sample collection. Recent field reviews have found evidence of surveillance gaps despite indicators meeting expected targets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEndorsed by the World Health Assembly in 2012, the Global Vaccine Action Plan 2011-2020 (GVAP) (1) calls on all countries to reach ≥90% national coverage with all vaccines in the country's national immunization schedule by 2020. This report updates previous reports (2,3) and presents global, regional, and national vaccination coverage estimates and trends as of 2017. It also describes the number of infants surviving to age 1 year (surviving infants) who did not receive the third dose of diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and pertussis-containing vaccine (DTP3), a key indicator of immunization program performance (4,5), with a focus on the countries with the highest number of children who did not receive DTP3 in 2017.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdverse childhood experiences (ACEs) exhibit a dose-response association with poor health outcomes in adulthood, including HIV. In this analysis, we explored the relationship between ACEs and HIV sexual risk-taking behaviors among young adults in Malawi. We analyzed responses from sexually active 19- to 24-year-old males and females ( n = 610) participating in the Malawi Violence Against Children Survey.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To examine the association between exposures to violence in childhood, including exposure to multiple forms of violence, with young men's perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Malawi.
Methods: We analyzed data from 450 ever-partnered 18- to 24-year-old men interviewed in the Malawi Violence Against Children and Young Woman Survey, a nationally representative, multistage cluster survey conducted in 2013. We estimated the weighted prevalence for perpetration of physical and/or sexual IPV and retrospective reporting of experiences of violence in childhood and examined the associations between childhood experiences of violence and perpetration of IPV using logistic regression.
Research shows a positive relationship between women's empowerment and reproductive health. Yet we know little about the quantitative relationship between women's agency and contraceptive use. We conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature assessing the link between women's decision-making and freedom of movement with their contraceptive use in lower- and middle-income countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAccording to World Health Organization (WHO) data, the Ebola virus disease (Ebola) outbreak that began in West Africa in 2014 has resulted in 28,603 cases and 11,301 deaths (1). In March 2015, epidemiologic investigation and genetic sequencing in Liberia implicated sexual transmission from a male Ebola survivor, with Ebola virus detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) 199 days after symptom onset (2,3), far exceeding the 101 days reported from an earlier Ebola outbreak (4). In response, WHO released interim guidelines recommending that all male survivors, in addition to receiving condoms and sexual risk reduction counseling at discharge from an Ebola treatment unit (ETU), be offered semen testing for Ebola virus RNA by RT-PCR 3 months after disease onset, and every month thereafter until two consecutive semen specimens collected at least 1 week apart test negative for Ebola virus RNA (5).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite widespread assumptions about women's empowerment and agency in the Arab Middle East, psychometric research of these constructs is limited. Using national data from 6214 married women ages 16-49 who took part in the 2006 Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey, we applied factor analysis to explore and then to test the factor structure of women's agency. We then used multiple indicator multiple cause structural equations models to test for differential item functioning (DIF) by women's age at first marriage, a potential resource for women's agency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Ebola virus has been detected in semen of Ebola virus disease survivors after recovery. Liberia's Men's Health Screening Program (MHSP) offers Ebola virus disease survivors semen testing for Ebola virus. We present preliminary results and behavioural outcomes from the first national semen testing programme for Ebola virus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEarly - or child - marriage (before age 18) may diminish women's ability to exercise agency, or their capacity to act upon their goals. Using a propensity score adjustment approach, we analyzed data from 2394 married women ages 35-49 years who participated in the 2006 Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS). We examined whether women's first marriage at age 18 or older was associated with their post-marital agency, measured in terms of their influence in family decisions, freedom of movement in public spaces, and unfavorable views about intimate partner violence against wives.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: An estimated 1.5 million children under five die annually from vaccine preventable diseases, and 17% of these deaths can be averted with vaccination. Predictors of immunization coverage, such as maternal schooling, are well documented; yet, preventable under-five mortality persists.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFrom mid-January to mid-February 2015, all confirmed Ebola virus disease (Ebola) cases that occurred in Liberia were epidemiologically linked to a single index patient from the St. Paul Bridge area of Montserrado County. Of the 22 confirmed patients in this cluster, eight (36%) sought and received care from at least one of 10 non-Ebola health care facilities (HCFs), including clinics and hospitals in Montserrado and Margibi counties, before admission to an Ebola treatment unit.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntimate partner violence (IPV) harms the health of women and their children. In Vietnam, 31% of women report lifetime exposure to physical IPV, and surprisingly, women justify physical IPV against wives more often than do men. We compare men's and women's rates of finding good reason for wife hitting and assess whether differences in childhood experiences and resources and constraints in adulthood account for observed differences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Interpers Violence
December 2016
Economic coercion refers to behaviors that control an intimate partner's ability to acquire, use, and maintain economic resources. Little is known about economic coercion in Vietnam. Using survey responses from 533 married women ages 18 to 50 years, we estimated multinomial logistic regression models to compare the determinants of exposure to economic coercion only, co-occurring economic coercion, and any psychological, physical, or sexual intimate partner violence (IPV), and any IPV only, relative to no exposure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this research, we used a multi-level contextual-effects analysis to disentangle the household- and community-level associations between income and intimate partner violence (IPV) against women in Bangladesh. Our analyses of data from 2,668 women interviewed as part of the World Health Organization (WHO) multi-country study on women's health and domestic violence against women showed that household income was negatively associated with women's risk of experiencing IPV. Controlling for residence in a low-income household, living in a low-income community was not associated with women's risk of experiencing IPV.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntrapartum-related complications (previously called 'birth asphyxia') are a significant contributor to deaths of newborns in Bangladesh. This study describes some of the perceived signs, causes, and treatments for this condition as described by new mothers, female relatives, traditional birth attendants, and village doctors in three sites in Bangladesh. Informants were asked to name characteristics of a healthy newborn and a newborn with difficulty in breathing at birth and about the perceived causes, consequences, and treatments for breathing difficulties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: While the majority of research in Bangladesh has focused on intimate partner violence (IPV) against women, less is known about the correlates of physical violence against unmarried female adolescents, particularly community-level characteristics that may increase their risk of experiencing violence.
Methods: We used multilevel logistic regression analysis to assess the variability in physical violence against unmarried female adolescents at the community level and to explore the role of community-level characteristics in explaining this variability. The data for this analysis were taken from a 2005 nationally representative survey of 20,000 adolescents aged 10 to 24 living in Bangladesh.
African American women in the United States report intimate partner violence (IPV) more often than the general population of women. Overall, women underreport IPV because of shame, embarrassment, fear of retribution, or low expectation of legal support. African American women may be especially unlikely to report IPV because of poverty, low social support, and past experiences of discrimination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn lower-income settings, women more often than men justify intimate partner violence (IPV). Yet, the role of measurement invariance across gender is unstudied. We developed the ATT-IPV scale to measure attitudes about physical violence against wives in 1,055 married men and women ages 18-50 in My Hao district, Vietnam.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: We assess the association of men's exposure to violence in childhood-witnessing physical violence against one's mother and being hit or beaten by a parent or adult relative-with their attitudes about intimate partner violence (IPV) against women. We explore whether men's perpetration of IPV mediates this relationship and whether men's attitudes about IPV mediate any relationship of exposure to violence in childhood with perpetration of IPV.
Methods: Five hundred twenty-two married men 18-51 years in Vietnam were interviewed.
Attitudes about intimate partner violence (IPV) against women are widely surveyed, but attitudes about women's recourse after exposure to IPV are understudied, despite their importance for intervention. Designed through qualitative research and administered in a probability sample of 1,054 married men and women 18 to 50 years in My Hao District, Vietnam, the ATT-RECOURSE scale measures men's and women's attitudes about a wife's recourse after exposure to physical IPV. Data were initially collected for nine items.
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