Achievements and Challenges in the Development of a Nurse-Led Respectful Delivery Care Model Provided by Partners in Health in Rural Mexico.

Background: The model of obstetric care predominant in Mexico in most public and private healthcare institutions is particularly focused on a physiological perspective of the female body that does not respond to women's need for emotional comfort and satisfaction. In the last decade, however, various initiatives that provide obstetric care centered on women's rights have emerged.

Objective: To analyze the implementation of a model of humanized/respectful delivery care supervised by nursing and midwifery undergraduate interns in a birthing center in the state of Chiapas, in order to identify achievements and future challenges.

Exploring how non-clinical factors in childbirth care shape users' experiences in public health facilities in rural Chiapas, Mexico: a qualitative study using the WHO health systems responsiveness framework.

Introduction: Many Mexicans face barriers to receive delivery care from qualified professionals, especially indigenous and poor sectors of the population, which represent most of the population in the state of Chiapas. When access to institutional delivery care is an option, experiences with childbirth care are often poor. This underscores the need for evidence to improve the quality of services from the user's perspective.

Evaluation of the implementation of a community health worker-led COVID-19 contact tracing intervention in Chiapas, Mexico, from March 2020 to December 2021.

Background: Mexico is one of the countries with the greatest excess death due to COVID-19. Chiapas, the poorest state in the country, has been particularly affected. Faced with an exacerbated shortage of health professionals, medical supplies, and infrastructure to respond to the pandemic, the non-governmental organization Compañeros En Salud (CES) implemented a COVID-19 infection prevention and control program to limit the impact of the pandemic in the region.

Labour conditions in dual-cadre community health worker programmes: a systematic review.

Background: Health care delivered by community health workers reduces morbidity and mortality while providing a considerable return on investment. Despite growing consensus that community health workers, a predominantly female workforce, should receive a salary, many community health worker programmes take the form of dual-cadre systems, where a salaried cadre of community health workers works alongside a cadre of unsalaried community health workers. We aimed to determine the presence, prevalence, and magnitude of exploitation in national dual-cadre programmes.

Promoting Patient-Centered Health Care and Health Equity through Health Professionals' Education in Rural Chiapas.

Since 2011, the nongovernmental organization Compañeros En Salud, as Partners In Health is known in Mexico, has worked in collaboration with the Mexican Ministry of Health to strengthen the health care system in the Fraylesca and Sierra Mariscal regions of Chiapas, Mexico. In response to the high proportion of abandoned and understaffed clinics in the area, Compañeros En Salud has developed a program to entice medical students from some of the top medical schools in Mexico to spend their "social service year" in these facilities, where they receive financial support, on-site clinical mentoring, supplies, clinical support tools, and training in global health and social medicine using a structural competency framework. The idea is to provide high-quality health care to a historically underserved population through a lens of health as a human right.

Transforming care for patients living with diabetes in rural Mexico: a qualitative study of patient and provider experiences and perceptions of shared medical appointments.

Background: Global prevalence of diabetes is increasing, causing widespread morbidity, mortality and increased healthcare costs. Providing quality care in a timely fashion to people with diabetes in low-resource settings can be challenging. In the underserved state of Chiapas, Mexico, which has some of the lowest diabetes detection and control rates in the country, there is a need to implement strategies that improve care for patients with diabetes.

A comprehensive and healthcare equity promoting response by a civil society-public partnership to COVID-19 in Chiapas, Mexico.

Following the first COVID-19 case in Chiapas, Mexico in March 2020, the non-governmental organisation Compañeros En Salud (CES) and the state's Ministry of Health (MOH) decided to join forces to respond to the global pandemic. The collaboration was built over 8 years of partnership to bring healthcare to underserved populations in the Sierra Madre region. The response consisted of a comprehensive SARS-CoV-2 infection prevention and control programme, which included prevention through communication campaigns to combat misinformation and stigma related to COVID-19, contact tracing of suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases and their contacts, outpatient and inpatient care for patients with respiratory symptoms, and CES-MOH collaboration on anti-COVID-19 immunisation campaigns.

The impact of COVID-19 and national pandemic responses on health service utilisation in seven low- and middle-income countries.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted health services worldwide, which may have led to increased mortality and secondary disease outbreaks. Disruptions vary by patient population, geographic area, and service. While many reasons have been put forward to explain disruptions, few studies have empirically investigated their causes.

How inequity threatens the lives of pregnant women: barriers to accessing health services during an incomplete miscarriage in rural southern Mexico.

Globally, obstetric emergencies majorly account for maternal morbidity and mortality. Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas accounted for more than 13% of maternal deaths in the country in 2021. Obstetric haemorrhage was the leading cause of maternal death after COVID-19 infection and hypertensive disorders.

Disruptions in maternal health service use during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020: experiences from 37 health facilities in low-income and middle-income countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic has heterogeneously affected use of basic health services worldwide, with disruptions in some countries beginning in the early stages of the emergency in March 2020. These disruptions have occurred on both the supply and demand sides of healthcare, and have often been related to resource shortages to provide care and lower patient turnout associated with mobility restrictions and fear of contracting COVID-19 at facilities. In this paper, we assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the use of maternal health services using a time series modelling approach developed to monitor health service use during the pandemic using routinely collected health information systems data.

Protecting vulnerable communities and health professionals from COVID-19 associated mental health distress: a comprehensive approach led by a public-civil partnership in rural Chiapas, Mexico.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has stricken mental health worldwide. Marginalized populations in low- and middle-income countries have been the most affected, as they were already experiencing barriers to accessing mental health care prior to the pandemic and are unequally exposed to the stressors associated with the health emergency, such as economic ravages or increased risk of complicated disease outcomes.

Objective: The aim of this paper is to describe a comprehensive initiative resulting from a public-civil partnership to address the increased burden of mental health illness associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in rural Chiapas, Mexico.

Health system challenges for improved childhood pneumonia case management in Lagos and Jigawa, Nigeria.

Background: Case fatality rates for childhood pneumonia in Nigeria remain high. There is a clear need for improved case management of pneumonia, through the sustainable implementation of the Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI) diagnostic and treatment algorithms. We explored barriers and opportunities for improved case management of childhood pneumonia in Lagos and Jigawa states, Nigeria.

Community and caregivers' perceptions of pneumonia and care-seeking experiences in Nigeria: A qualitative study.

Background: Appropriate and timely care seeking can reduce pneumonia deaths, but are influenced by caregivers and community norms of health and illness. We explore caregiver and community perceptions, and care-seeking experience, of childhood pneumonia, to understand contexts that drive pediatric service uptake in Nigeria.

Methods: Community group discussions and qualitative interviews with caregivers in Lagos and Jigawa states were completed between 1 November 2018 and 31 May 2019.

The burden and risks of pediatric pneumonia in Nigeria: A desk-based review of existing literature and data.

Background: Pneumonia is a leading killer of children under-5 years, with a high burden in Nigeria. We aimed to quantify the regional burden and risks of pediatric pneumonia in Nigeria, and specifically the states of Lagos and Jigawa.

Methods: We conducted a scoping literature search for studies of pneumonia morbidity and mortality in under-5 children in Nigeria from 10th December 2018 to 26th April 2019, searching: Cochrane, PubMed, and Web of Science.

A mixed-methods evaluation of stakeholder perspectives on pediatric pneumonia in Nigeria-priorities, challenges, and champions.

Background: Interventions to reduce pneumonia mortality exist; however, stakeholder engagement is needed to prioritize these. We explored diverse stakeholder opinions on current policy challenges and priorities for pediatric pneumonia in Nigeria.

Methods: We conducted a mixed-methods study, with a web-survey and semi-structured interviews, to explore stakeholder roles, policy barriers, opportunities, and priorities.

Targeting CAG repeat RNAs reduces Huntington's disease phenotype independently of huntingtin levels.

Huntington's disease (HD) is a polyglutamine disorder caused by a CAG expansion in the Huntingtin (HTT) gene exon 1. This expansion encodes a mutant protein whose abnormal function is traditionally associated with HD pathogenesis; however, recent evidence has also linked HD pathogenesis to RNA stable hairpins formed by the mutant HTT expansion. Here, we have shown that a locked nucleic acid-modified antisense oligonucleotide complementary to the CAG repeat (LNA-CTG) preferentially binds to mutant HTT without affecting HTT mRNA or protein levels.