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Background: A Free Maternal and Child Health program (FMCHP) was implemented in 12 states in Nigeria by the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), between 2009 and 2015, using funds from the debt relief gains. It was called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) NHIS-MDG FMCHP. The program ended with the termination of the MDG in 2015. With the creation of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) in Nigeria, this study sought to examine the past implementation experiences of the NHIS-MCH project with a view to identifying the enabling and constraining factors to program implementation, and the opportunities for adaptation and program scale-up in Nigeria using the BHCPF., Methods: The study was undertaken in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and involved review of relevant documents and in-depth interviews with 21 key informants. The program was assessed in themes from the conceptual framework. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis., Results: The program enrolled about 1.5 million pregnant women and children during the period of implementation in the country. The respondents perceived the program as pro-poor, efficient, and effective, and led to marked improvement in the functionality of the facilities, availability of services and reduced out-of-pocket expenditure, which led to increased demand and utilization of MCH services. There was inadequate stakeholder consultation, alleged corrupt practices, challenges with registration, issues with counterpart funding and public financing management issues identified. Most respondents supported the idea of using the new fund (BHCPF) to revitalize/scale-up the Free MCH program., Conclusion: This study highlights the key lessons and implementation challenges identified by the respondents. The NHIS-MDG FMCHP had positive impact on the target population though it was not sustained following the conclusion of the MDG program. The findings will inform policy decisions about the appropriateness of sustaining the program and the feasibility of extending healthcare coverage using the proposed BHCPF. The new fund (BHCPF) can be used to reactivate and scale-up the Free MCH program, but the current level of funding will not assure universal health coverage for the target beneficiaries as realized from the costing aspect of this study., Competing Interests: None

High-level political support for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) drew international attention to included causes at the turn of the century. Influences of this normative framework on national-level health agenda setting remain little investigated. This study investigates the agenda status of maternal survival against the backdrop of the MDGs in two countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Informed by replicative case studies conducted in Ghana and Tanzania, the study finds the MDGs played a significant role in the issue's increasing status in both countries by helping to align several factors that facilitate the agenda setting process, including: ideas concerning the severity of the problem and expectations for its redress; institutions that shape policies, programs and monitoring; and economic and political interests. The agenda setting process was similar in the countries but for two dynamics. HIV/AIDS dominated Tanzania's health policy agenda in the early 2000s, crowding out attention to maternal and other health issues. A network of concerned actors that expanded to form a broad political coalition later facilitated agenda setting in Tanzania, including securing some budgetary commitments. By contrast, Ghana's core maternal health network remained technically oriented and closed to broader political and civil society engagement, limiting its capacity to expand issue attention and budgetary commitments beyond the health sector., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) provide targets for 2015. MDG 6 includes a target to reduce the tuberculosis (TB) death rate by 50% compared with 1990. We aimed to assess whether this target was reached by the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area countries., Methods: We used Eurostat causes of death data to assess whether the target was reached in the EU. We calculated the reduction in reported and adjusted death rates and the annual average percentage decline based on the available data., Results: Between 1999 and 2014, the TB death rate decreased by 50%, the adjusted death rate by 56% and the annual average percentage decline was 5.43% (95% confidence interval 4.94-6.74) for the EU. Twenty of 26 countries reporting >5 TB deaths in the first reporting year reached the target of 50% reduction in adjusted death rate., Conclusions: The EU reached the MDG target of a 50% reduction of the TB death rate and also the annual average percentage decline was larger than the 2.73% needed to reach the target. The World Health Organization 'End TB Strategy' requires a further reduction of the number of TB deaths of 35% by 2020 compared to 2015, which will challenge TB prevention and care services in the EU.

Background: Pakistani health care system is in progress and since last year, Pakistan has tried to make much improvement in its health care delivery system and has brought out many reforms., Methods: A systematic search of national and international literature was looked from peerreviewed databases form MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PubMed., Results: There is little strength in health care delivery system in Pakistan like making health policies, participating in Millennium Development Goals program, initiating vertical programs and introducing Public Private Partnership, improving human resource development and infrastructure by making Basic Health Unit and Rural Health Centres. However, these all programs are very limited in its scope and that is the reason that Pakistan's healthcare system is still not very efficient. There are numerous weaknesses like poor governance, lack of access and unequal resources, poor quality of Health Information Management System, corruption in health system, lack of monitoring in health policy and health planning and lack of trained staff., Conclusions: Pakistan is improving very slowly in the health sector for the last five decades as is evident by its health indicators and above mentioned strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, the Government needs to take strong initiatives to change the current health care system.

Arsenic contamination in drinking water has a detrimental impact on human health which profoundly impairs the quality of life. Despite recognition of the adverse health implications of arsenic toxicity, there have been few studies to date to suggest measures that could be taken to overcome arsenic contamination. After the statement in 2000 WHO Bulletin that Bangladesh has been experiencing the largest mass poisoning of population in history, we researched existing literature to assess the magnitude of groundwater arsenic contamination in Bangladesh. The literature reviewed related research that had been initiated and/or completed since the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) under four domains: (1) extent of arsenic contamination; (2) health consequences; (3) mitigation and technologies and (4) future directions. To this means, a review matrix was established for analysis of previous literature based on these four core domains. Our findings revealed that several high-quality research articles were produced at the beginning of the MDG period, but efforts have dwindled in recent years. Furthermore, there were only a few studies conducted that focused on developing suitable solutions for managing arsenic contamination. Although the government of Bangladesh has made its population's access to safe drinking water a priority agenda item, there are still pockets of the population that continue to suffer from arsenic toxicity due to contaminated water supplies.

There is increasing concern regarding adverse effects of prenatal arsenic exposure on the neurodevelopment of children. We analyzed mortality data for children, who were born to 11,414 pregnant women between 2002 and 2004, with an average age of 5 years of follow-up. Individual drinking-water arsenic exposure during pregnancy was calculated using tubewell water arsenic concentration between last menstrual period and date of birth. There were 84 drowning deaths registered, with cause of death ascertained using verbal autopsy (International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision, codes X65-X70). The prenatal water arsenic exposure distribution was tertiled, and the risk of drowning mortality was estimated by Cox proportional hazard models, adjusted for potential confounders. We observed a significant association between prenatal arsenic exposure and drowning in children aged 1-5 years in the highest exposure tertile (HR=1.74, 95% CI: 1.03-2.94). This study showed that in utero arsenic exposure might be associated with excess mortality among children aged 1-5 years due to drowning.

Background: Maternal and neonatal mortality remains a serious challenge in Tanzania. Progress is tracked through maternal mortality ratios (MMR) and neonatal mortality rates (NMR), yet robust national data on these outcomes is difficult and expensive to ascertain, and mask wide variation., Search Strategy: We searched EMBASE, MEDLINE, Popline, and EBSCO online databases, basing search terms on ("maternal" OR "neonatal") AND ("mortality" OR "cause of death") AND "Tanzania.", Selection Criteria: Nationally representative or population representative from the subnational context were eligible, providing NMR, MMR, or numbers of maternal deaths or early neonatal deaths or neonatal deaths and live births., Data Collection and Analysis: Data were extracted on study context, time period, number of deaths and live births, definition of maternal and neonatal death, study design, and completeness and representativeness of data. NMR and MMR were extracted or calculated and study quality was assessed. Nationally representative data were compared with modelled national data from international agencies., Main Results: 2107 records were screened yielding 21 maternal mortality and 15 neonatal mortality datasets. There were high mortality levels with wide subnational MMR and NMR variation. National survey data differed from the modelled estimates, with wide uncertainty ranges., Conclusion: Subnational data quality was generally poor with no observable trends and geographical clustering across several regions. Combined MMR and NMR reporting is uncommon. Modelled national estimates lack precision and are complex to interpret. Results suggest that aggregate national data are inadequate for policy generation and progress monitoring. We recommend strengthening of vital registration and Health Management Information Systems with complementary use of process indicators, for improved monitoring of, and accountability for maternal and newborn health., (Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.)

Objective: To determine the prevalence of female genital mutilation (FGM), the common forms of FGM, reasons for the practice, associated obstetric outcomes, and how these have affected efforts to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 3, 4, and 5 in southeast Nigeria., Methods: A prospective descriptive study of parturients in southeast Nigeria was conducted from January to December 2012. All primigravid women attending delivery services at 2 health institutions during the study period were recruited, examined, and classified using the 2008 WHO classification for FGM., Results: The mean age of the 516 participants was 27.24±4.80 years and most (66.3%) had undergone FGM. Type II FGM was the most common form, accounting for 59.6% of cases. Most FGM procedures were performed in infancy (97.1%) and for cultural reasons (60.8%). Women who had undergone FGM had significantly higher risk for episiotomy, perineal tear, hemorrhage, cesarean delivery, neonatal resuscitation, fresh stillbirth/early neonatal death, and longer hospitalization, with higher risk ratios associated with higher degrees of FGM., Conclusion: FGM is still a common practice in southeast Nigeria, where its association with adverse reproductive outcomes militates against efforts to achieve MDGs 3, 4, and 5., (Copyright © 2014 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Few developing countries have the accurate civil registration systems needed to track progress in child survival. However, the health information systems in most of these countries do record facility births and deaths, at least in principle. We used data from two districts of Malawi to test a method for monitoring child mortality based on adjusting health facility records for incomplete coverage., Methods: Trained researchers collected reports of monthly births and deaths among children younger than 5 years from all health facilities in Balaka and Salima districts of Malawi in 2010-2011. We estimated the proportion of births and deaths occurring in health facilities, respectively, from the 2010 Demographic and Health Survey and a household mortality survey conducted between October 2011 and February 2012. We used these proportions to adjust the health facility data to estimate the actual numbers of births and deaths. The survey also provided 'gold-standard' measures of under-five mortality., Results: Annual under-five mortality rates generated by adjusting health facility data were between 35% and 65% of those estimated by the gold-standard survey in Balaka, and 46% and 50% in Salima for four overlapping 12-month periods in 2010-2011. The ratios of adjusted health facility rates to gold-standard rates increased sharply over the four periods in Balaka, but remained relatively stable in Salima., Conclusions: Even in Malawi, where high proportions of births and deaths occur in health facilities compared with other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, routine Health Management Information Systems data on births and deaths cannot be used at present to estimate annual trends in under-five mortality., (© 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Significant strides have been made in recent years to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality rates around the world. But in the United States, maternal mortality rates have increased from 6.6/100,000 live births in the 1980s and 1990s to somewhere between 13.3/100,000 live births, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 21/100,000 live births, as reported by the World Health Organization. This article discusses factors influencing this trend, and explores organizations, systems and programs that have shown promise for reducing maternal morbidity and mortality., (© 2013 AWHONN.)

Biotechnological intervention in the development of crops has opened new vistas in agriculture. Central to the accomplishment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), biotech-agriculture is essential in meeting these targets. Biotech crops have already made modest contributions toward ensuring food and nutrition security by reducing losses and increasing productivity, with less pesticide input. These crops could help address some of the major challenges in agriculture-based economies created by climate change. Projections of global climate change expect the concentration of greenhouse gases to increase, aridization of the environment to increase, temperature fluctuations to occur sharply and frequently, and spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall to be disturbed-all of which will increase abiotic stress-related challenges to crops. Countering these challenges and to meet the food requirement of the ever-increasing world population (expected to reach 9 billion by 2030) we need to (1) develop and use biotech crops for mitigating adverse climatic changes; (2) develop biotech crops resilient to adverse environmental conditions; and (3) address the issues/non-issues raised by NGO's and educate the masses about the benefits of biotech crops.

Worldwide, approximately 15 million babies (1 in 10) are born prematurely each year. Prematurity is the leading cause of death among newborns, accounting for 1 million deaths per year, and, after pneumonia, is the second leading cause of death in children under age 5 years. Newborns who do survive preterm delivery (PTD) struggle with visual, auditory, and learning disabilities. In order to reach the fourth Millennium Development Goal (MDG-4) of reducing the mortality rate in children under age 5 years by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015, there must be significantly fewer PTDs. In high-income nations, 50% of babies born at 24 weeks survive, whereas in low-resource nations, this survival rate is not achieved until 32 weeks of gestation. Over 90% of babies born in low-resource settings before 28 weeks die in the first few days of life (< 10% die in high-income nations), a 10:90 survival gap. Over 60% of PTDs worldwide occur in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Risk factors for PTD include adolescent pregnancy, short interval between births, poor prepregnancy weight (very low or high body mass index), chronic diseases (diabetes and hypertension), infectious disease, substance abuse, cervical incompetence, and poor psychological health. Thus, a commitment to improving maternal health and the quality of prenatal care is necessary to achieve the MDG-4.

To improve health and economy of the world population, the United Nations has set up eight international goals, known as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), that 192 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. The goals include: (1) eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; (2) achieving universal primary education; (3) promoting gender equality; (4) reducing child mortality; (5) improving maternal health; (6) combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; (7) ensuring environmental sustainability; and (8) developing a global partnership for development. Having been in the midway from the 2015 deadline, the UN Secretary-General urges countries to engage constructively to review progress towards the MDGs. This paper aims to evaluate advances in public health, with special reference to gender inequalities in health, health sector reform, global burden of disease, neglected tropical diseases, vaccination, antibiotic use, sanitation and safe water, nutrition, tobacco and alcohol use, indicators of health, and disease prevention in Latin America and the Caribbean region (LAC). The paper also identifies areas of deficits for the achievement of MDGs in LAC.

Background: The under five mortality rate (U5MR) is measure of wellbeing and decreasing the U5MR by two thirds is the target towards the achievement of the millennium development goal number four (MDG4)., Objective: To describe the changes in U5MR in Uganda from 1954 to 2000 and use them to project future trends up to 2015., Methods: We did a retrospective analysis of the Uganda national censuses of 1969, 1991 and 2002. We calculated the percentage of the annual average reduction rate (AARR) of U5MR between the years 1954-1966, 1966-1975, 1975-1988 and from 1988 to 2000. The AARRs of U5MR between 1954 and 2000 were then compared to that of 4.4% required to achieve MDG4., Results: The U5MR in Uganda between 1954 and 1966 decreased from 261 to 180 deaths per 1000 live births with an AARR of 3.05%. Between 1975 and 1988, the U5MR increased with AARR from 1966 to 1975 being -1.05% while the AARR from 1976 to 1988 was -0.11%. From 1988 to 2000 U5MR decreased from 205 to 152 deaths per 1000 live births with an AARR of 2.46%., Conclusions: The AARRs for the U5MR of -1.05-3.05% were below the 4.4% required to achieve MDG4.