ANALYSIS AND COMMENTS

September 2016 bmj; In summary, our study showed that consumption of 14 or more servings of alcohol a week was slightly associated with reduced fecundability, but consumption of lower amounts seemed to have no discernible effect on fertility. Nonetheless, because the fetus may be particularly vulnerable to alcohol during the …

September 2016 newtimes; Achieving universal health coverage (UHC) for communicable diseases in Africa will hit a snag unless more efforts are put in both government action and funding, according to a new report. The report, dubbed ‘Universal Health Coverage: A Framework for Action in Africa’, also reveals that total health …

August 2016 ElesbanKihuba; Isn’t the untimely death of a patient under the care of a health worker the most unfortunate outcome? When I heard of the late Mr. Odhiambo case I felt empathy. His eight hours search for care ended in failure, death and controversy. Shortly after the event the …

July 2016 WorldBankBlog; A recent study on patient safety in Kenya revealed that less that 5% of health facilities, both public and private, have attained the minimum international standards of safety. Although such studies are rare, there is reason to believe that the same picture prevails in most of SS …

July 2016 linkedinPulse; Packed securely inside the boxes was a new mammography system, being ferried upstream from the Port of Lamu in Kenya, where I traveled last month, to a small rural town, where women were in need of access to screening. Every patient everywhere in the world deserves such …

July 2016 DailyNation; Workers in Kenya’s informal sector are being largely bypassed by the benefits of Kenya’s public health insurance system, a review of health financing data shows. Informal sector workers make up only 39 per cent of the 5.2 million workers who were contributing members of NHIF in 2015, …

June 2016 TheConversation; Consumers gather information about food from a variety of sources including their families, the media and through education. But another way that they can get the information is through food and nutrition labels. Nutrition labelling refers to the section on food labels that declares nutrient content. This …

June 2016 gehealthcareNews; Sub-Saharan African populations and economies are growing at unprecedented speed with a population growth of 2.7% and economic growth of 4.4% annually. Africa has the fastest growing middle class in the world, with 313 million people (roughly the population of the US), 34% of Africa’s population. This …

June 2016 Chesai; Within development debates and applied to national governments, “good governance” is often seen as a loaded term infused with political and value judgements. Yet health system governance is widely seen as a crucial leverage point to generate performance improvements. But what is health system governance? The common …