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Child nutrition programmes can feed inequality: model from South Africa shows how context shapes lives

Child nutrition programmes can feed inequality: model from South Africa shows how context shapes lives

INTERVENTIONS to improve nutrition, especially for children and pregnant women, can be critical for health, physical growth and cognitive development, enabling better lives and futures. Reams of policy papers will attest to the fact that if a government or a donor spends substantially on nutrition, the return on their investments – in lives improved or saved – will be high. Less well known is that the full rewards of nutrition support for the neediest children don’t always materialise. Nutrition interventions on their own are not fulfilling their full potential for all who receive them. Authors CHRIS DESMOND, Researcher, SAMRC/Centre for…
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‘J&J shot can be given to pregnant women’

‘J&J shot can be given to pregnant women’

SOUTH Africa's drug regulator has said that Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine can be given to pregnant women with co-morbidities or at high risk of contracting the coronavirus. The South African health ministry said SAHPRA had previously said pregnant and breastfeeding women should be excluded from a local research study evaluating the J&J vaccine's efficacy. That research study, which aims to immunize 500,000 health workers, resumed on Wednesday after it was temporarily suspended over extremely rare cases of blood clots in people given J&J's vaccine in the United States. But in recommendations posted on its website on Thursday, the regulator…
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Testing vaccine in pregnant women

Testing vaccine in pregnant women

JULIE STEENHUYSEN PFIZER Inc and BioNTech SE have started an international study with 4,000 volunteers to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of their COVID-19 vaccine in healthy pregnant women, the companies said on Thursday. Pregnant women are at higher risk of developing severe COVID-19, and many public health officials have recommended some women in high-risk professions take coronavirus vaccines even without proof they are safe for them. Last week, the U.S. National Institutes of Health called for greater inclusion of pregnant and lactating women in COVID-19 vaccine research. Bioethicists, vaccine and maternal health experts have argued for years that pregnant…
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African countries differ widely in prenatal HIV testing: why it matters

African countries differ widely in prenatal HIV testing: why it matters

THE introduction of antiretroviral drugs has resulted in a remarkable decline in mother-to-child transmission of HIV. New infections among children declined by 52% worldwide and 55% in sub-Saharan Africa between 2010 and 2019. ANTHONY IDOWU AJAYI, Postdoctoral Research Scientist, African Population and Health Research Center This is why universal screening of all pregnant women for HIV is so important. If all pregnant women were screened and treated, the risk of mother-to-child transmission could be reduced to less than 5%. Fewer than 5,000 children would be infected globally. But despite the wide availability of testing and treatment, 150,000 children were newly…
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Mental health for pregnant women and new mothers: why extra care is needed

Mental health for pregnant women and new mothers: why extra care is needed

ABEL FEKADU DADI, PhD research fellow (Epidemiology), Flinders University The experience of pregnancy and childbirth has been conventionally described as a happy and joyful period of time. On the other hand, the childbearing age for females is a risky time to develop depression. This is due to a range of hormonal and other changes women go through during pregnancy and childbirth. There’s much more awareness about depression today than there was two decades ago. In 2014 the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported depression as a leading mental health issue. Recent global evidence has shown a substantial burden of perinatal depression…
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