BACKGROUND The Spectrum program is used to estimate key HIV indicators for national programmes. The purpose of the study is to describe the key updates made to Spectrum in the last 2 years to produce the version used in the 2013 global estimates of HIV/AIDS. METHODS The United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Reference Group on Estimates, Models and Projections regularly reviews new dat...

A UK national programme to screen all newborn infants for phenylketonuria was introduced in 1969, followed in 1981 by a similar programme for congenital hypothyroidism. Decisions to start these national programmes were informed by evidence from observational studies rather than randomised controlled trials. Subsequently, outcome for affected children has been assessed through national disease r...

Introduction There is on-going debate about the merits of programmes supported by international aid, with critics arguing that many programmes are unsustainable, that they follow international agendas and lead to fragmentation of national health systems. The debate focuses on large providing for patients’ health needs and the impact of the programme within the public health system. Vietnam has ...

Training of non-psychiatrist medical professionals in psychiatry through short courses is an urgent need recognised by the National Mental Health Policy. In order to improve the training programmes over a time, a suitable method of evaluation of the effect of training is essential. Such a method of evaluation was developed at NIMHANS using clinical vignettes. These vignettes were successfully u...

This article summarises the existing international structures in Europe which collate data produced by surveillance systems in individual countries. The surveillance of influenza, tuberculosis, and other infections in Europe is undertaken by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the European Community (EC), and national and international organisations set up to study specific diseases. The surve...

Community-based reproductive health services (CBRHS) have been in implementation in Ethiopia for over a decade. This paper assesses the impact of such programmes on contraceptive use. The data were obtained from the 2000 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and the 2003 Contraceptive Prevalence Survey (CPS). While the 2000 DHS contained a nationally representative random sample of wome...

Health systems everywhere face increasing challenges in responding to chronic disease. This paper explores the nature of these challenges, including the increasing burden of chronic disease and the weak evidence that informs clinical and policy responses. It then describes a series of innovations in different parts of Europe that seek to address these challenges: nurse-led clinics; mechanisms t...

While the cluster concept is not new and remains subject to debate, national programmes based on a cluster model continue to be prominent and are adapted to an increasingly wide variety of contexts. The goal of the report is not to revisit a theoretical debate regarding definitions but rather to understand why, in practice, there is renewed policy interest in supporting clusters. Programmes use...

National disease-control programmes, like that for tuberculosis, in countries with a high burden of disease are often organized in a vertical manner. Clinical management of individual patients in such a set-up is strongly driven by topdown implementation of a set of guidelines embedded in a hierarchical supervision structure. As such, the strength and the organization of a national disease-cont...

D Bulletin of the World Health Organization | August 2008, 86 (8) research systems, institutions and personnel. As a result, research activities in many lowand middle-income countries reflect more closely foreign and global health research priorities than the research needs of the countries in which research is being conducted. As externally funded research is virtually monopolised by HIV/AIDS,...