Category Archives: Uncategorized

Persistent headaches? Blurred or double vision? Regular nosebleeds? Get your blood pressure checked!

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Bottles and bags with diabetes and health promotion messages

Bottles and bags with diabetes and health promotion messages


This was one of the messages shared in Swaziland recently by Good Shepherd Hospital staff during their Family Health Promotion Day. They day included diabetes and hypertension screening and staff developed a selection of bags and bottles with the following health promotion messages written in Siswati:

  • Hypertension can be treated. Get your blood pressure checked!
  • Persistent headaches? Blurred or double vision? Regular nosebleeds? Get your blood pressure checked!
  • Diabetes can be treated effectively. Get checked for diabetes!
  • Excessive thirst? Frequent urination? Tiredness? Get checked for diabetes! It is treatable.
  • Eat a balanced diet and help to avoid diabetes and hypertension
  • Do 30 minutes of physical activity everyday and help to avoid diabetes and hypertension

Elsewhere at Good Shepherd Hospital, staff are now trained in TB infection prevention following the launch of their hospital wide TB Infection Prevention and Control Policy.

Influencing TB policy and practice in Bangladesh using a Public-Private Mix approach

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PPP bangladeshIn a high TB burden country such as Bangladesh, National TB Control Programmes (NTPs) often adopt the Stop TB Strategy. These are delivered primarily through government-run health facilities, but these programmes often have little contact with private medical practitioners (PMPs).
COMDIS-HSD developed a Public-Private Mix (PPM) model to involve private doctors in the National TB Programme’s urban TB control activities. We piloted the PPM model in 4 research sites in Dhaka city. The study came up with 6 key policy messages and 6 key research findings.

Writing for policy makers? Why not use the 7 rules of plain English

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The 7 rules of plain English


How do you begin to present your research findings outside of the academic community? This presentation is for researchers who are faced with a blank sheet of paper whenever they try to write about their findings to anyone outside of their academic community.
The 7 rules for writing in plain English are:
1. Keep your sentences short
2. Prefer active verbs
3. Use ‘you’ and ‘we’
4. Avoid jargon: use words that are appropriate for the reader
5. Don’t be afraid to give instructions
6. Avoid nominalisations
7. Use lists where appropriate

Improved tools for assessing respiratory rate would strengthen rational use of antibiotics

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Dr Kirstie Graham attended the Health Services Research conference in London and shared the results of Malaria Consortium’s study into the rational use of antibiotics by community health workers (CHWs) and caregivers in Zambia. Findings show that:

  • CHWs are capable of assessing respiratory rate and prescribing appropriate treatment
  • Improved tools for assessing respiratory rate would strengthen rational use of antibiotics
  • A 3-day rather than 5-day course of antibiotics could improve caregiver adherence, reducing the risk of drug resistance and cost. However, additional evidence is needed to support the use of a short course of antibiotics for pneumonia in Africa.

Also at the conference, Anna Gagliardi mentioned 3 different tools that could be used to help develop and implement guidelines: 1) GRADE, 2) GLIA, and 3) AGREE. Elsewhere, Susan Michie focused on the process for designing effective interventions for behaviour change, with particular reference to The Behaviour Change Wheel to help support and simplify the process of using behaviour change techniques in designing interventions.
The conference covered many wider health systems research topics you can view abstracts here and Dr Graham’s blog about the conference here.

The importance of providing counselling and financial support to patients receiving treatment for MDR-TB

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Stigma workshop in Nepal

Stigma workshop in Nepal


A recent paper by COMDIS-HSD researchers outlines how patients with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) face extreme social, financial and employment hardship, with most patients having to move house, leave their job, and face stigmatisation.
The paper concludes that given the vulnerability of MDR-TB patients, counselling combined with financial support could go a long way to reducing their vulnerability, as well as increase cure rates. The paper recommends that National TB Programmes incorporate financial support and counselling into MDR-TB care; the costs are low and the benefits are high.

Hear our research findings presented at the 44th Union World Conference on Lung Health

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COMDIS-HSD was well represented at the 44th Union World Conference on Lung Health

COMDIS-HSD was well represented at the 44th Union World Conference on Lung Health


COMDIS-HSD was well represented at the 44th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Paris, with papers presented by Prof Xiaolin Wei (GHRD, China) and Dr Sushil Baral (HERD, Nepal). You can hear the following presentations and view their slides here:

  • Financial and Social Support to Internal Migrant TB Patients in Shanghai: An Intervention Study;
  • Developing and Implementing a Smoking Cessation Intervention within the Practical Approach to Lung Health in Nepal, including a poster.

Our long association with the International Union Against TB and Lung Disease continues with Dr Amir Khan taking up his new position as the Vice-President of the Union, as well as Dr Xiaolin Wei taking up his new position as the Chair of the Tobacco Control Section. Their tenure lasts until late 2015.

Prof Xiaolin Wei to review family physician training for National Development and Reform Commission in China

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Prof Xiaolin Wei, Head of Global Health Research and Development, our partners in China


China’s National Development and Reform Commission has launched a series of family physician training programmes in 10 different cities, covering both the east and west provinces of China. Prof. Xiaolin Wei, Head of Global Health Research and Development, is an expert in primary care and has been chosen to lead a review of the training programme in Guiyang province.
The programme is part of the Chinese government’s plan to create a primary care referral system where patients seek care from family physicians first, and are then referred to big hospitals for specialist care only. The programme forms part of a wider health reform initiative to strengthen primary care facilities, such as Community Health Centres (CHCs) in urban areas and township hospitals in rural areas.
The health reform initiative also aims to discourage profit-seeking behaviours at the primary care level and to promote the use of drugs on the essential drug lists, therefore eliminating mark-ups on drugs dispensed in CHCs. Other strategies include promoting health insurance coverage, reforming public hospitals and establishing the essential medicines programme.

HEART interviews Prof John Walley about improving health service delivery using the COMDIS-HSD approach

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Prof John Walley, Co-Director of COMDIS-HSD

Prof John Walley, Co-Director of COMDIS-HSD


The Health and Education Advice and Resource Team (HEART) interviewed Prof John Walley for its HEART Talks series.
In this video John explains the COMDIS-HSD approach to improving health service delivery for chronic diseases focusing on primary care. The video illustrates the approach and explains the development and evaluation of a package of materials for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and diabetes case management and prevention.
HEART is a consortium of leading organisations in international development, health, nutrition and education. It works to support the use of evidence and expert advice in policymaking, by helping time-pressured decision-makers better understand, interpret and apply health, nutrition and education evidence.

Zambian ICCM study findings shared at ICCM London Symposium

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2 participants outside health facility

2 participants outside health facility

Malaria Consortium recently shared findings from their Zambian Integrated Community Case Management study at their ICCM Symposium in London. The symposium was attended by representatives of the Ugandan Ministry of Health, UNICEF, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Presentations and discussions focused on Malaria Consortium’s longest running ICCM programme and its effectiveness and impact on the health of children under five.

The symposium was broadcast live online, and you can view each presentation separately here. You can also download each presentation here.

Dr Kirstie Graham talks to The Guardian about ICCM

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Dr Kirstie Graham, Malaria Consortium

Dr Kirstie Graham, Malaria Consortium


In the second of a series of 3 articles, Dr Kirstie Graham of Malaria Consortium takes part in a short Q&A on the malaria and infectious diseases hub of The Guardian website. The COMDIS-HSD study in Zambia looks at how to promote the ‘rational use’ of antibiotics using one form of intervention that is increasingly being used to reduce child mortality in rural Africa: Integrated Community Case Management (ICCM). The Q&A covers why the ‘rational’ use of antibiotics is so important, as well as the link between ICCM and the rational use of antibiotics.
In the first article, Kirstie outlined why antibiotic resistance is ‘a ticking time bomb for public health’.