Surgical site infection and antimicrobial use following caesarean section at QECH in Blantyre, Malawi: a prospective cohort study.

Background: Surgical site infections (SSIs) are one of the most common healthcare-associated infections and preventable complication of surgical procedure; continue to threaten public health with significant effects on the patients and health care human and financial resources. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the incidence of SSIs, risk factors and common microorganisms associated with SSI and assess the practice of antimicrobial use in women following Caesarean Section (CS) at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH).

Methods: This was a hospital-based quantitative prospective study design involving pregnant women who underwent a CS between February, 2023 and July, 2023 at QECH with 30 day-follow-ups.

Provision and utilization of maternal health services during the COVID-19 pandemic in 16 hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa.

Objective: Maintaining provision and utilization of maternal healthcare services is susceptible to external influences. This study describes how maternity care was provided during the COVID-19 pandemic and assesses patterns of service utilization and perinatal health outcomes in 16 referral hospitals (four each) in Benin, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda.

Methods: We used an embedded case-study design and two data sources.

Methodological reflections on health system-oriented assessment of maternity care in 16 hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa: an embedded case study.

Health facility assessments (HFAs) assessing facilities' readiness to provide services are well-established. However, HFA questionnaires are typically quantitative and lack depth to understand systems in which health facilities operate-crucial to designing context-oriented interventions. We report lessons from a multiple embedded case study exploring the experiences of HFA data collectors in implementing a novel HFA tool developed using systems thinking approach.

Strengthening capacity in hospitals to reduce perinatal morbidity and mortality through a codesigned intervention package: protocol for a realist evaluation as part of a stepped-wedge trial of the Action Leveraging Evidence to Reduce perinatal morTality and morbidity (ALERT) in sub-Saharan Africa project.

Introduction: Despite a strong evidence base for developing interventions to reduce child mortality and morbidity related to pregnancy and delivery, major knowledge-implementation gaps remain. The Action Leveraging Evidence to Reduce perinatal morTality and morbidity (ALERT) in sub-Saharan Africa project aims to overcome these gaps through strengthening the capacity of multidisciplinary teams that provide maternity care. The intervention includes competency-based midwife training, community engagement for study design, mentoring and quality improvement cycles.

Cervical cancer in southern Malawi: A prospective analysis of presentation, management, and outcomes.

Background: Malawi has the highest age standardised rate of cervical cancer in the world. This study describes the presentation, management and short-term outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed cervical cancer at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH), in Southern Malawi.

Methods: All patients with a new diagnosis of cervical cancer presenting to QECH between 1st January-1st July 2015 had demographic data, referral pathway, stage, histology and management prospectively recorded at presentation, and at two months after initial presentation.