Ghana

Poor water, sanitation, and hygiene practices contribute to the spread of infections and negative health outcomes in communities and health care settings. Globally, roughly 3.85 billion people use health facilitates that lack basic hand hygiene services, while 1.7 billion people access health facilities that lack basic water services. Achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6)—ensuring access to water and sanitation for all—demands innovative and strategic solutions.One such solution is the Aqua Research STREAM™ Disinfectant Generator (STREAM). The STREAM is an onsite chlorine generator that uses common salt and water to generate liquid chlorine that meets global standards for intermediate–level disinfection of surfaces in health care settings and can be used for treating drinking water.With funding from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and in collaboration with ministries of health, this learning brief series provides real–world examples and lessons learned from implementing the STREAM in three countries: Ghana, Uganda, and Ethiopia.It describes how PATH, in collaboration with ministries of health, is using the SDG 6 Global Accelerator Framework to introduce and scale up the STREAM on a national level.

To address the critical challenges of neonatal and maternal mortality, Ghana Health Service and PATH are expanding infectious disease screening and treatment among pregnant women through the Integrated Antenatal Care project. Working mainly at the primary health care level in nearly 70 facilities across 5 districts of Ghana’s Bono East Region, the project is building the capacities of health care providers, improving availability of services through antenatal care, and strengthen linkages between primary and referral facilities. The team is integrating screening and treatment for infectious diseases including hepatitis B, urinary tract infections, group B Streptococcus, and sexually transmitted infections.

As more vaccines intended to be given in pregnancy become available, PATH is conducting research in Africa to gain a fuller picture of adoption readiness.

This report present’s PATH’s Living Labs synthesis of insights including gaps, trends, findings, and recommendations for primary healthcare in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia conducted between January and March 2023.

New vaccines given in pregnancy are licensed or in development that could not only reduce infant illness and death from high-risk diseases (e.g., respiratory syncytial virus and Group B Streptococcus), but also pave the way for maternal immunization as a broader, more integrated platform for new vaccines to come. Getting there, however, will require coordination across immunization and antenatal care programs in new ways. As such, a better understanding of maternal immunization systems readiness, implementation feasibility, and intervention acceptability across these programs is needed, particularly in low- and middle-income economic settings where diseases often hit the hardest.This fact sheet describes a research project that PATH is conducting in Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania, and Zambia to help fill these information gaps. The research is designed to generate country-specific data on decision-making drivers, feasibility, and health system/service requirements for delivering maternal vaccines routinely, efficiently, and equitably. Participants include national, sub-national, and community stakeholders across the health care hierarchy in each country. Results will be useful for informing the evidence base for new maternal vaccine delivery in Africa and beyond.

Policies that build strong primary health care systems are essential to advancing health equity— but they are complex and difficult to design. PATH created the PHC in Policies Tracker as a consolidated source of information to equip stakeholders including policymakers, advocates, implementers, and donors with information about existing policies that shape PHC systems. This new virtual public dashboard tool maps and analyzes data about national-level health policy documents relevant to primary health care (PHC) in 26 low- and middle- income countries—comparing content of these policies with recommendations laid out in key global-level guidance frameworks such as the WHO PHC Monitoring Framework and Indicators (MFI). The tracker aims to improve understanding of policies for PHC in LMICs, add to the global conversation about how to design robust policy for PHC, and help users identify high-impact opportunities for action toward better health for all. This brief provides an overview of the findings and key takeaways from the tracker project, as well as information about methodology and limitations. Access the tracker at bit.ly/PHC_policy_tracker

To address the critical challenges of neonatal and maternal mortality, Ghana Health Service and PATH are expanding infectious disease screening and treatment among pregnant women through the Integrated Antenatal Care project. Working mainly at the primary health care level in nearly 70 facilities across 5 districts of Ghana’s Bono East region, the project is expanding the capacities of community-based and first-level health care providers in diagnosis and management of maternal infections; improving availability of services; and strengthening linkages between primary and referral facilities. The materials linked below were developed to aid the project's social and behavior change communication activities with health workers, patients, and communities.

Shigella is the leading bacterial cause of childhood diarrhea, and infections can have long-term effects on growth and development. No licensed Shigella vaccines currently exist, but several promising candidates in development could become available in a few years. PATH conducted a series of studies to better understand the public health value of potential Shigella vaccines and help inform decisions by international agencies, funders, vaccine developers, and national policymakers. This included a multi-country feasibility and acceptability study with national stakeholders and healthcare providers in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Nepal, and Vietnam to identify preferences and priorities for future Shigella vaccines. These briefs provide an overview of the results in each of the study countries.

From 2018-2022, the Devices, Diagnostics, and Drugs to AddressWomen’s Needs (D3AWN) Product Development Partnership (PDP)program advanced a portfolio of four products for the prevention andmanagement of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) and preeclampsia/eclampsia (PE/E) in African markets: the Ellavi uterine balloontamponade (UBT), LifeAssay Test-it™ protein-to-creatinine (PrCr)Urinalysis Dipstick Test, RELI Delivery system, and oxytocin insublingual fast-dissolving tablet formulation.

The trial aimed to determine how well a new, injectable, non-replicating rotavirus vaccine candidate works compared to a licensed oral rotavirus vaccine in preventing infant diarrhea.