Ghana

Integrated antenatal care eLearning courseTo address the critical challenges of neonatal and maternal mortality, Ghana Health Service and PATH expanded infectious disease screening and treatment among pregnant women through the Integrated Antenatal Care project (2022‒2024).One key output of this project is an eLearning course designed to build health care providers' capacity to improve the overall quality of care, including diagnosis, prevention, and management of maternal infections in pregnant women during antenatal care visits. It also fosters demand creation for intervention and services available in health facilities. The course's overall goal is to contribute to the reduction of morbidity and mortality attributable to infections in newborns by improving the diagnosis and management of maternal infections during antenatal care.The course includes the following modules:1. Infection prevention and control2. Point of care and other diagnostics3. Clinical features and management of selected infections in pregnant women4. Antimicrobial resistance and stewardship5. Standard operating procedures for infection control and management during antenatal careThe document linked below provides a course overview. For more information, please contact Gideon Sarpong Nyamekye.

How the government, PATH, and many partners are working together to save the lives of newborns.

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.

How PATH and partners are implementing an integrated, sustainable, community-centered approach to preventing and managing noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).

How PATH, the Ghana Health Service, and local health workers have optimized antenatal care at nearly 70 facilities.

To address the critical challenges of neonatal and maternal mortality, Ghana Health Service and PATH expanded infectious disease screening and treatment among pregnant women through the Integrated Antenatal Care project (2022‒2024). Working mainly at the primary health care level in nearly 70 facilities across 5 districts of Ghana’s Bono East Region, the project built the capacities of health care providers, improved availability of services through antenatal care, and strengthened linkages between primary and referral facilities. The team has integrated screening and treatment for infectious diseases including hepatitis B, urinary tract infections, group B Streptococcus, and sexually transmitted infections. As the project concludes, PATH and Ghana Health Service are working to ensure sustained impact through long-term integration and scale-up of these antenatal care interventions—not only to prevent maternal and neonatal deaths in Ghana, but to also provide a replicable model for other low- and middle-income country settings around the globe.

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.

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.