This is the Health Network Shareweb of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC. Our staff and partners as well as anybody interested in international health issues are welcome to use the SDC Health Shareweb. This shareweb serves as a gateway to the latest SDC Health Policy and Practice, the Swiss contribution to reaching the Sustainable Development Goals related to health, as well as to general information about the work we are doing.
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Evidence of falling use of modern contraception and rising abortion in sub-Saharan Africa with enactment of the US Mexico City Policy
The Mexico City Policy, first announced by President Ronald Reagan, prohibits US foreign assistance to any organisation that performs abortions or provides abortion counselling. Many implementing organisations impacted by this policy are providers of family planning services, as it reduces their ability to supply modern contraceptives to meet demand. A recently published study examined patterns of modern contraceptive use, pregnancies and abortion among 743, 691 women in 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa during periods of reinstatement and repeal of the Mexico City Policy across three US presidential administrations. Read more>>
Researchers develop intervention to eliminate schistosomiasis and draw lessons from persistent transmission and reinfection
Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease with considerable impact on global health. More than 200 million people are infected, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. Researchers from Swiss TPH, the Natural History Museum London and partner institutions in Zanzibar developed an intervention aiming to eliminate schistosomiasis in Zanzibar, Tanzania. The researchers found that while schistosomiasis was eliminated as a public health problem in over 90% of the study regions, the transmission was not interrupted and reinfection occurred. Read more>>
Community engagement in the Ebola response
The experience of the Ebola virus by those infected and their families involves a series of social and moral choices. From the public health perspective, relatives and friends are expected to give up their loved ones to treatment centres where they will likely die with strangers and often foreigners. This presents dilemmas that in part explain why people often do not cooperate with Ebola outbreak control measures, contributing to rapid transmission of infection. Read more>>
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