Reproductive and Mental Health during Natural Disaster

With the ever-increasing number of natural disasters, it is important to understand the impact on the health and wellbeing of survivors, especially women. The reproductive and mental health of women contributes significantly to their overall wellbeing. The Chapter gives an overview of natural disasters with an emphasis on consequences of earthquakes of health and wellbeing of the survivors. It includes a critical review of published studies on psychological trauma and reproductive health following earthquake disasters. Among the psychological consequences of earthquakes, this chapter describes post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety. The last section of this chapter reviewed reproductive health in relation to the mental health consequences following natural disasters.

Water and Sanitation

Globally, the provision of clean and safe drinking water to most populations has been an elusive development goal though some of us take the availability of this vital resource for granted. Millennium Development Goals (MDG) target 7.C is the target, which addresses sustainability and access to water, among other developmental goals. As the preceding targets appear elusive, Kenya is now refocussing on Vision 2030. It is important to identify reasons for this to avoid a repetition during the next fifteen years. In order to discover the factors hampering these achievements, all possible contributing factors need to be investigated and the focus of this chapter is the Kenya national legislation and policies. Based on the findings, we recommend a reassessment of policies on groundwater management, reconsideration of ideal universal goals and political commitment by state and organisational accountability to identify better strategies for achieving internationally identified standards and goals.

Nomadic Clinics as Innovative Concept that Transforms Health Care Services in Mobile Population

Nomads have the shared habit of migrating from one area to another. They contribute enormously to the economic development of the world. In Kenya's North Eastern counties, 60-70% of the population practices nomadic pastoralists. These counties has the poorest health indicator as a result of inadequate strategies in extending conventional health care to the nomadic population. In an effort to address this, a unique health delivery model dubbed ‘nomadic clinic'; was unveiled. An evaluation study was carried out to assess access, utilization, impact and cost- effectiveness of the clinic as well as to establish the community and staff perceptions on health service it provides. This was done in comparison to three static health facilities. Nearly all assessed indicators favoured the nomadic clinics. However, the mobile clinics faced myriad of challenges principally due to resource constraints. Fortunately, the new devolved system of governance provides unequivocal opportunities.

Seeking Solutions to the Challenges in Health Services in Developing Nations

The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, 2010, confirmed that the world's population is living longer and we are now less likely than a decade earlier to die from an infectious disease but also more likely to live our twilight years with morbidity (Murray et al., 2012). We will also most likely die from a chronic non-communicable disease (NCD) such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, respiratory diseases, and diabetes (Beaglehole, et al., 2008). However this brief glimpse at the trends in the health of the world's population obscures massive inequalities in the burden of disease as well as variations across the globe. In this piece, we will revisit primary health care, both at its dawn, its contribution to developing nations, and the ills it struggled through over the years. Cuba and Thailand are the key examples of developing nations that have experienced the contribution of primary health care more than most other countries.

Antimicrobial Consumption and Multidrug Resistant Organisms in Intensive Care Units

Improper antimicrobial use and bacterial resistance can affect an entire community, threaten public health and create economic burdens and ecological consequences on societies. This chapter discusses the importance of counteracting this public health issue. In Saudi Arabia, the appropriate use of antimicrobial agents is of particular concern. The prescribing of broad-spectrum antimicrobials in hospital settings is not highly restricted, and antimicrobials are available over the counters in pharmacies. This unwise use provides a scenario for the emergence of bacterial resistance and subsequent public health concerns. In addition, there is a lack of representative epidemiological research on antimicrobial consumption and quantitative data linking consumption to the incidence of resistance. This chapter illustrates that the implementation and the success of the strategies that monitor and control antimicrobial consumption depend on the availability of information about the extent and patterns of antimicrobial consumption. It demonstrates the potentials and recommendations on obtaining antimicrobial consumption data using defined daily dose as a unit of measurement in Saudi hospital settings.

Community Development and Faith-Based Organizations

This chapter is a reflection of analyses, experiences and research on the opportunities and challenges of working with faith-based organisations (FBO's) in the context of global health. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate the important role that FBO's have with state and non-state actors in the development of communities in complex contexts. The role of FBO's in development are demonstrated in reference to the Author's work experience with FBO's, which form case studies in East Africa, and Timor Leste. Further analyses through literature build on these experiences to demonstrate the leading role FBO's can have with state and non-state actors, and the effects on public health. In the case study of Timor Leste, suggestions are proposed to overcome challenges and build on the opportunities of state and non-state actors incorporating the Catholic Church into health programs.

Improving the Effects of Global Health Initiatives through FOMENT

The incidence of communicable and non-communicable diseases is rising globally in both developed and developing nations. New methodologies are required for reaching the general population and promoting preventative behavior. The objective of this chapter is to discuss the Focus, Organization, Management, Environment, Network, and Technology (FOMENT) process as a strategy and a tool to enhance the impact and efficiency of the diffusion process within public health systems and change agencies, especially in developing countries. FOMENT can be seen as an extension of Everett Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations Theory (DOI) and can be used by organizations to maximize the diffusion rate of health initiatives into a community. The understanding of individual variables from DOI and organizational variables from FOMENT, as well as their corresponding indicators will support the convergence approach to enhance diffusion capacity building (DCB) needed for the adoption of innovations and related behavior change.

Information Systems in Healthcare with a Special Focus on Developing Countries

Information Systems offer tremendous opportunities to improve healthcare services. Thus far, they have a proven track record as a way to improve the quality of services, and work processes effectiveness. However, Health Information Systems can be inappropriately specified, having functional errors, being unreliable, and not user friendly. Such breakdowns may affect working processes and decisions of healthcare providers, resulting in potential harm to patients. This chapter will elaborate a number of important issues/problems related to Information Systems in healthcare with the aim of providing a deeper contextual insight into their application in healthcare and offer advice on the factors that should be considered when designing and evaluating them. The chapter aims at providing a literature review of Information Systems in healthcare and highlight the challenges Information Systems face in this domain by providing a significant review of Information System theory in healthcare.

Barriers to Accessing Healthcare Services in Developing Nations

Patient satisfaction with the healthcare services is critical to addressing the barriers to accessing healthcare. Many combined factors are responsible for the poor accessibilities to primary healthcare centers. Less availability of prescription drugs and less thoroughness of care are most frequently associated with high rates of patient dissatisfaction. The low satisfaction rates of patients need to be investigated further to promote prevention programs and increase utilization of healthcare services by patients. The purpose of this book chapter is to analyse the critical dimensions that influence patient satisfaction with primary healthcare services in six gulf countries.

Interactive Visualizations as “Decision Support Tools” in Developing Nations

The impact of vector-borne diseases on developing nations is significant. Currently, the uncertainty of disease dynamics, volatility of human-environment interactions, and competing objectives coupled with the nature of applicable data present obstacles to stakeholders charged with developing preventive, control, and treatment measures. As a result, notwithstanding numerous measures, vector-borne diseases persist and impede the growth of developing nations. Therefore, computational tools that can address these obstacles and serve as decision support tools to stakeholders are much needed. This chapter is meant to draw attention to interactive visualization tools that allow stakeholders to control the flow of information, manipulate visual representations, and perform analytical tasks. Through a discussion of the vector-borne disease situation and interactive visualization tools, the case for integrating these tools into public health practice in developing nations is made.