Background Routine immunization coverage in Nigeria has remained low, and studies have identified a lack of accountability as a barrier to high performance in the immunization system. Accountability lies at the heart of various health systems strengthening efforts recently launched in Nigeria, including those related to immunization. Our aim was to understand the views of health officials on th...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate Brazil's public health surveillance system (HSS), identifying its core capacities, shortcomings, and limitations in dealing with public health emergencies, within the context of the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005). METHODS In 2008-2009 an evaluative cross-sectional study was conducted using semistructured questionnaires administered to key informants (municip...

We examined the relative importance of 23 community issues among elected officials and health directors in Connecticut in 2016. For this cross-sectional study, 74 elected officials (40.7% response rate) and 47 health directors (62.7% response rate), who were purposively sampled, completed a questionnaire to rate their perceived importance of 23 community issues. Eight of these issues were relat...

Background: Hospital surge capacity (HSC) is essential to the successful management of expected consequences of disasters and mass casualty incidents (MCIs). In MCIs, an unanticipated number of sick or injured people refer to the hospital, and thus, the hospital is faced with a significant increase in the burden of necessary activities and services. Therefore, managing the process in order to m...

The Second Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) 2015 High Level Meeting was successfully held in September 7 to 9 in Seoul, the Republic of Korea (ROK). Delegations from 46 countries including 26 ministerial level officials and 9 international organizations participated in the meeting. ROK, one of the 10 steering group countries of GHSA, shared the importance of multi-sectoral response through ...

OBJECTIVE To determine how a health officials' advice network might contribute to a high-performing public health systems by facilitating diffusion of innovation and best practices. DESIGN A secondary analysis of cross-sectional data obtained from the National Association of County and City Health Officials 2010 Profile of local health departments (LHDs) using network analysis. SETTING The ...

The American region has pledged to eliminate dog-mediated human rabies by 2015. As part of these efforts, we describe the findings of a desk and field mission review of Haiti's rabies situation by the end of 2013. While government officials recognize the importance of dog-mediated rabies control, and the national rabies plan adequately contemplates the basic capacities to that effect, regular a...

Developments in medicine and constitutional law dictate modification of public health legislation in the United States. Traditionally overlooked by legislators, present public health laws provide inadequate decision-making criteria and inappropriate procedures for dealing with issues. Revised legislation should provide health care officials and agencies with the tools to balance individual righ...