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In the following sections, information is given and links provided to sites where you should be able to find further information in an understandable form on the following topics: • RH & MCH • EPI • Nutrition • Malaria
• HIV/AIDS • Other STDs • Diarrhoea • TB • Leprosy
• Water, Sanitation & Waste • Health Education • Alternatives For any reader who wants more, there are a huge number of sites on the Web offering quality information – but with language aimed at people with higher education. If you are happy with that level of language then a good starting point is Eldis – go to www.eldis.org/health and check the list of topics at the right of the page. To consider activities at different levels of care, download "Principles and Practice of PHC" from this site; look at Part Two 5.2. Reproductive Health (RH) and Mother & Child Health (MCH)  For an outline of actvities plus a discussion, download "Principles and Practice of PHC" from this site and read 1.3. & 2.2.
"A Book for Midwives: Care for pregnancy, birth, and women's health" by Susan Klein, Suellen Miller, and Fiona Thomson There are a number of informative pages on www.engenderhealth.org, including contraceptive methods and an online/downloadable course on Sexuality. Resources available from the UNHCR library include "Reproductive Health in Refugee Situations: an Inter Agency Field Manual" (143 page PDF). The Population Council's mission is to improve the well-being and reproductive health of current and future generations. Read more at www.popcouncil.org If you want to know more about female genital circumcision go to the WHO home page and type FGM or female genital mutilation into the search slot. A paper on prevention of obstetric fistula in South Asia especially Pakistan - an overview of possible measures and prevention: click here www.healthlink.org.uk has a number of newsletters that you might want including "Child Health dialogue". Go to the site and type "newsletters" into the Search slot. Do you want to know more about your body, the facts of life and sexual health? A good short book is the BBC’s Sexwise — 22 pages, available in 22 languages. However it does not discuss homosexuality much and it does not have illustrations… So the next stop could be Chapter 4 of “Where Women Have No Doctor” (PDF) – it covers the reproductive system of both men and women, with pictures both of the insides and outsides of our bodies. A Zimbabwean website with an 'Agony Aunt': www.tarsc.org/auntstella At www.fhi.org there is downloadable stuff on RH and young adults. Go to the site and type "RH adolescents" into the search slot— look for "Key Issues in Adolescent Health" There is an excellent manual at at www.path.org. called "Reaching the Hardly reached". It has articles looking at needs and approaches with homosexuals, trafficked women, female genital mutilation etc.
Ipas have developed a gender and reproductive health resource pack for training adolescents and professionals who serve youth, which you can download as a pdf (now available directly from our own server).
Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI) Nutrition Download "Principles & Practice of PHC" from this site and look at Part Two, Section 3: "Interventions to Improve Nutritional Status - 3.1. Protein-Calorie malnutrition and 3.2. Micro-Nutrients". The text refers to the relative failure of PHC to deal effectively with malnutrition in children under five. There are papers on community nutrition initiatives including the 3-page PDF, "The essential nutrition actions" at www.basics.org
Malaria For activities at the different levels of care, download "Principles & Practice in PHC" from this site and look at Part Two, Section 5.1. You can keep your knowledge up-to-date at WHO's malaria section The Royal Perth Hospital, Australia offers information on Malaria in English, French and Spanish: diagnosis, prophylaxis and treatment as well as "an innovative interactive Test & Teach self assessment module" in English, French and Spanish. CD-Roms with the same content as the website can also be ordered, free of charge.
HIV/AIDS Read "An Overview of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic & Responses to it" in this section of the site. To consider activities at different levels of care, download "Principles and Practice of PHC" from this site; look at Part Two 5.2.
Important websites on HIV/AIDS are at: who.int/hiv aidsalliance.org unaids.org unfpa.org, who publishes country statistics and programmes.
Methods of transmission – High risk groups: avert.org Go to the site and then click on your topic from the list on the left side of the screen
Preventing transmission: The Drum Beat; get on the mailing list for its electronic newsletter; The AIDS Alliance (HIV/AIDS and communities) now has a newsletter. For copies, email
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; Building emotional strength – for carers,etc: Interviewing & Counselling at the Grass Roots; Case studies (Aids Alliance); Peer Education (PDF);
Treatment: Treating HIV & AIDS: A Training Toolkit at the NAM/AIDSmap website offers basic training on HIV treatment and care for health care workers in resource-limited settings, to support the safe and effective introduction of antiretroviral therapy. NAM/Aidsmap have simple information booklets for the general public on HIV/AIDS. The subjects include: • Adherence (sticking to the treatment); • Anti-HIV Drugs; • Clinical Trials; • HIV and Children; • HIV and Hepatitis; • HIV and Women; • HIV & Sex; • HIV and TB; • HIV Therapy; • Lipodystrophy (Changes in your fat & metabolism); •Nutrition; • Resistance; • Viral Load & CD4 Count.
NAM/Aidsmap also offers an online newsletter on developments in treatment for doctors, nurses, managers etc. IF YOU WORK IN THIS FIELD IT WOULD BE SAD IF YOU WERE NOT BEING UPDATED THROUGH THE RIGHT NEWSLETTER - ESSENTIAL READING. NAM/AIDSmap newsletters Updates on trials and treatments engenderhealth.org offers an online course to bring you up-to-date on HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS & Gender: eldis.org had a lot on gender and HIV/AIDS with links to hundreds of documents and organisations on the web. Go to the site and put the words "Women & AIDS" into the Search slot. At www.healthlink.org.uk click the following words into the search slot:"HIV & Safe Motherhood". They have free Manuals, CD-ROMs etc; They also have downloadable Newsletters. See also A plea for re-thinking approaches (9-page PDF)
Home Care/Palliative care: See section 7 of our publication Principles & Practice of PHC, on Palliative Care; Worldwide Hospice and Palliative Care Online offer newsletters and factsheets. "Palliative care: Issues and Challenges" (3 pp. PDF) UNAids.org offer a technical update on palliative care (16pp PDF) CDC offer global and regional guides to AIDS and palliative Care For carers, see our publication Interviewing and Counselling at the Grassroots
Care of AIDS Orphans: Aids Alliance offers online toolkits for people working with vulnerable children such as AIDS orphans. See also othe other resources for children
In some circumstances the importance of HIV/AIDS means that other STDs are forgotten or neglected. Gonorrhoea, syphilis and chlamydia are bacterial infections and can be treated with antibiotics if the strain has not developed a resistance; herpes and HIV are viruses and cannot. All these diseases are more common in poor countries where access to treatment is difficult; they are also more common where people have many sexual partners. These other STDs are important because - they make HIV infection easier. This is because they can cause small sores on the genitals through which the HIV virus can pass.
- they are very common. In parts of the USA and in Africa, over 30% of groups of women or girls may have chlamydia. Both chlamydia and gonorrhoea may be present in women with no symptoms showing.
- they cause serious problems. Both chlamydia and gonorrhoea can leave girls and women unable to have children. Chlamydia is also a common cause of trachoma and blindness. Syphilis can be passed by mothers to their babies (congenital syphilis). Many of the babies will die in their first year; others will have serious mental and physical consequences
A priority in developing countries is to screen pregnant women, to prevent the passing on of syphilis to the babies. Women in primary health centres should be tested and treated at the same clinic visit. The introduction of decentralised testing in Haiti reduced the cases of congenital syphilis by 75% in 2 years. Many developing countries are now scaling up programmes for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. This offers an opportunity to screen for syphilis as well.
WHO over syphilis (N.B. in English written for graduates) WHO over vaccine research (PDF. English is written for graduates)
http://www.cdc.gov/std This site offers picture cards - illustrations of the disease in people. If you are teaching they could be very useful.
Tuberculosis For an overview of services at different levels of care, download "Principles & Practice of PHC" from this site. Look at Part Two, 5.4. Tuberculosis interacts with HIV/AIDS. It is a desease that for a time seemed to be declining but it is now a very serious problem and is increasingly becoming resistent to common drugs Keep up to date with WHO Subscribe to the AIDSMAP newsletter that will keep you up to date with TB in HIV/AIDS patients. Consider downloading An Expanded Framework for DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment)
Water, Sanitation & Waste disposal For an overview of activities at different levels of care download "Principles & Practice of PHC", Part Two Section 6. Look also at 5.3, Diarrhoea; 5.6, Common Local Diseases related to water; 5.8. Infections prevented by better water & sanitation. This is a big subject that requires a lot of exploration. Try WHO's publications on water, sanitation and health WHO offer a safe health-care waste management policy paper (pdf) Also, Management of solid health-care waste at primary health-care centres Another good website is www.irc.nl, the site of the International Water and Sanitation Centre. Use the search slot to find what you need. For example they have a fact-sheet on on-site sanitation, and a monitoring tool for school latrines, and good articles on Community Management.
Health Education For an introduction to the discipline and an overview of activities at different levels of care, download "Principles & Practice of PHC" on this site and go to Part Two, Section 4. Then look at the webpage "Behaviour Change" on this site, where you will find our resources on this topic including the manual "Health Education for Behaviour change".
Alternative approaches to health Operation Upgrade have a manual linking literacy and health, "Good Health Begins at home; A guide for literacy tutors" (36 pp in Zulu and English). Interest in Traditional Medicines seems to come and go. Valid sites on the Web dissapear. The lunatic claims for traditional remedies curing HIV/AIDS have done harm. The World Bank website has a section on indigenous knowledge and practices known as IK. This is a field that may become more important in the future.
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