Scaling up newborn care in Afghanistan: opportunities and challenges for the health sector.

Newborn health in Afghanistan is receiving increased attention, but reduction in newborn deaths there has not kept pace with declines in maternal and child mortality. Using the continuum of care and health systems building block frameworks, this article identifies, organizes and provides a synthesis of the available evidence on and gaps in coverage of care and health systems, programmes, policies and practices related to newborn health in Afghanistan. Newborn mortality in Afghanistan is related to the nation's weak health system, itself associated with decades of conflict, low and uneven coverage of essential interventions, demand-side and cultural specificities, and compromised quality.

A landscape analysis of universal health coverage for mothers and children in South Asia.

The United Nations made universal health coverage (UHC) a key health goal in 2012 and it is one of the Sustainable Development Goals' targets. This analysis focuses on UHC for mothers and children in the 8 countries of South Asia. A high level overview of coverage of selected maternal, newborn and child health services, equity, quality of care and financial risk protection is presented.

Improving immunization in Afghanistan: results from a cross-sectional community-based survey to assess routine immunization coverage.

Background: Despite progress in recent years, Afghanistan is lagging behind in realizing the full potential of immunization. The country is still endemic for polio transmission and measles outbreaks continue to occur. In spite of significant reductions over the past decade, the mortality rate of children under 5 years of age continues to remain high at 91 per 1000 live births.

Ending Preventable Child Deaths from Pneumonia and Diarrhoea in Afghanistan: An Analysis of Intervention Coverage Scenarios Using the Lives Saved Tool.

. Despite improvements in child health, Afghanistan still has a heavy burden of deaths due to preventable causes: 17% of under-5 deaths are due to pneumonia and 12% are due to diarrhoea. .

Quality of child healthcare at primary healthcare facilities: a national assessment of the Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses in Afghanistan.

Objective: To assess quality of the national Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) program services provided for sick children at primary health facilities in Afghanistan.

Design: Mixed methods including cross-sectional study.

Setting: Thirteen (of thirty-four) provinces in Afghanistan.

Responding to measles outbreak: closing the immunity gap in children of Timor-Leste.

Background: An outbreak of measles was reported in Timor-Leste during 2011. A concerted response at national level utilized this opportunity to improve measles immunization coverage rates.

Methods: Health Management Information System and Surveillance System data were utilized to describe the outbreak.

Expanding and improving urban outreach immunization in Patna, India.

Objectives: We conducted a case study of an urban immunization outreach strategy to determine the feasibility of the intervention and to measure administrative immunization coverage outcomes.

Methods: A multipronged strategy for improving immunization coverage in Urban Patna, India, was implemented for 1 year (2009/2010). The strategy was designed to increase immunization sites, shift human resources, plan logistics, improve community mobilization, provide supervision, strengthen data flow and implement special vaccination drives.

Effectiveness of Muskaan Ek Abhiyan (the smile campaign) for strengthening routine immunization in bihar, India.

Background: In Bihar State, proportion of fully immunized children was only 19% ;in Coverage Evaluation Survey of 2005. In October 2007, a special campaign called Muskaan Ek Abhiyan (The Smile Campaign) was launched under National Rural Health Mission to give a fillip to the immunization program.

Objectives: To evaluate improvement in the performance and coverage of the Routine Immunization Program consequent to the launch of Muskaan Ek Abhiyan

Intervention: The main strategies of the Muskaan campaign were reviewing and strengthening immunization micro-plans, enhanced inter-sectoral coordination between the Departments of Health, and Women and Child Development, increased involvement of women groups in awareness generation, enhanced political commitment and budgetary support, strengthening of monitoring and supervision mechanisms, and provision of performance based incentive to service providers.

Measles vaccination response during Kosi floods, Bihar, India 2008.

The Kosi floods of Bihar in 2008 led to initial rapid displacement followed by rehabilitation of the affected population. Strategically planned phase-wise activity of supplementary as well as primary measles vaccination combined with a variety of other interventions proved to be successful in preventing outbreaks and deaths due to measles. While 70% supplementary measles vaccination coverage was achieved in relief camps, the coverage of primary measles doses in the latter phases was dependant on accessibility of villages and previous vaccination status of eligible beneficiaries.