But what happens after, in postpartum care? We have recently found — and these findings have been published in two papers — that while women come to health facilities to give birth, they stay for a very short time, in some settings only a matter of hours, and even routine checks are not carried out.
We do not have a good understanding of why the basic protocols for postnatal monitoring are not followed. I will be reviewing postnatal care in health facilities worldwide, and. We have seen unparalleled success in the uptake of antenatal care and the proportion of births happening in health facilities. But this has also resulted in these facilities becoming more crowded, which is especially a problem in fast-growing cities.
There are often shortages of staff, skills or equipment. In a big hospital more than babies may be born per day. How do the teams working there structure routine postnatal checks and pre-discharge procedures? To follow. What is a marker of success for you? Our results will hopefully better enable countries and health facilities to implement new postnatal care recommendations and thus make substantial advancements in maternal survival and well-being.
They are now in the process of updating these recommendations for which they are looking at the most recent evidence and we aim to inform their guidelines with our re-. Firstly, I am trying to understand how different countries organise the postpartum period: how does the follow-up of mothers happen in various countries, what is the scope of possibilities.
As I mentioned, one of my other passions is making use of secondary data, particularly the Demographic and Health Surveys. These datasets are collected in dozens of countries and are available for anyone to use. However, a large percentage of the papers written from these data is led by Western and Northern academics.
I hold writing retreats and workshops for people from the South to learn how to analyse and publish about their own countries from their own data and gain the data analysis skills. We held one in Uganda and one in Guinea last year and we really hope to continue them on an annual basis, facilitated by experienced researchers from the South. This is a very rewarding part of my job. Almost 20, people visited the clinic for travel advice and vaccinations in — more than in Since the end of , these travellers can carry a world of health information in their pocket because the Institute has developed a new smartphone.
The app is called Wanda and is available in Dutch, French and English. Besides developing this new app, ITM has also given its travel medicine website a complete makeover. Why was the travel medicine website thoroughly revamped? The information on the old website focused on doctors and less so on travellers. We concentrated primarily on the medical aspects.
Wanda is made specifically for the traveller. We have completely revised all information and tailored it to the needs of users who have no medical knowledge. We also wanted to improve the user experience of the travel medicine platform and I think we succeeded: the website navigation is more logical, and the search function has become more efficient. Why did you add an app? In practice, however, we noticed that our patients often did not read this brochure, let alone take it with them on their journey.
However, these days, almost everyone has a smartphone, and once you have installed the app, you have the information constantly at hand, even when there is no internet. A second advantage is that the app can give much more information than a brochure. And finally, we can use the app to send travellers an alert when there is an outbreak in their country of destination.
So, when I download the app, I will find all the information I need about healthy travel? After all, the app only contains general information. Wanda is not intended to replace face-to-face medical consultations. We can use the app to send travellers an alert when there is an outbreak in their country of destination. Did you already receive positive feedback? We did! Travellers are very enthusiastic. We also know that NGOs recommend the app to members of their staff who are regular travellers.
Wanda is trilingual, all information is available in Dutch, English and French. Do you have any plans for the further development of this app? We will certainly be adding new topics, such as air pollution or bed bugs. We are also considering whether we can use the app to support scientific studies. For example, we could ask travellers to tell us voluntarily via the app if they have a fever. It would help our research into trop-. We also want to create a new platform for doctors, to ensure that the information that could previously be found via our website remains easily accessible.
Heidi and her daughter Sofie will soon be travelling to The Gambia. I visited The Gambia page on Wanda and learned that this was indeed the case. We received yellow fever, tetanus and hepatitis A and polio vaccinations. Leveraging our rich scientific and research expertise, the new Master of Science in Tropical Medicine invites students from all over the world to take a deep dive into tropical medicine choosing either from our clinical or biomedical science orientation.
Lut: We have so many diverse and eager students coming to ITM taking short courses and postgraduate certificates in public health, clinical and biomedical sciences in the context of tropical medicine. What can students expect? Lut: Connection would be my answer — to a close-knit community of experts with whom they can learn and co-create.
Connection to ITM professors and research staff with vast field experience, and of course connection to our strong coun-. This connection is strengthened through our cosy, student-centred campus in Antwerp that allows professors to tailor-make programmes to meet particular student research and thesis needs. We are also a very democratic place, so hierarchies are flat with a very participatory learning style.
Students can also look forward to lots of hands-on simulations that teach the realities of fitting highly developed science into low-resource settings. To start, all students acquire a basis in international health, they will then move into either a biomedical or a clinical cluster. After acquiring a basis in this cluster, they can then choose electives to best suit their needs: this can be from ITM or from other institutions.
They also have supervisors and input from all three areas of ITM expertise — pathogens, populations and patients — so that, along with going deep vertically in their chosen field of expertise, they can really make the most of this horizontal, holistic approach.
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This was really apparent through my fieldwork in Peru and Bolivia for example, where I was able to combine. You say ITM also grows richer, how so? Jean-Claude: Well as a researcher, your findings are only of use when they are shared as widely as possible and can be used as authority and input for further research. Educating others is a unique and expansive way of disseminating and further developing our research.
Every time I teach, I learn a great deal from students and the interactions that we have. The 60th edition built on this tradition by addressing the current challenges of global health, with a specific focus on migration, climate change and technological innovation. Infectious diseases specialist Diana Pou Ciruelo gave a talk about migration through the Mediterranean. She urged researchers to fight the rumours that refugees bring infectious diseases, and to show the world that they are healthy individuals fleeing from awful conditions, looking for a better life.
They mostly suffer from psychological trauma. Her Majesty the Queen of the Belgians inaugurated the Colloquium. In her speech she was advocating for breaking the silence on mental health matters. Nuno Faria, Associate Professor from the University of Oxford, talked about his innovative research in tracking the genomics of arboviruses.
He highlighted the importance of moving towards a coordinated and global genomics-informed surveillance of viral pathogens. Staff wrote encouraging messages on paper T-shirts and hung these on clothes lines throughout the ITM buildings.
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Although HIV medication has turned this deadly disease into a chronic condition, the stigma associated with the virus remains strong. At the same time, a team of ITM researchers, including Dr Marie Laga, investigated venereal diseases in sex workers in the slums of Nairobi. They too examined whether this same disease was spreading in Kenya. Their findings were shocking.
As many as half of the female sex workers were found to be infected with the virus. The news that. HIV could also be transmitted through heterosexual contact, however, met with a lot of resistance and initially a number of scientific journals even refused to publish these new findings. In the meantime, the Institute took care of the first generation of HIV patients, the majority of whom were Belgian gays.
Sexuality, particularly homosexuality, was still a big taboo in Belgium in the s leading a double life; they were often married and had children.
Moreover, the disease was fatal to most and as a result many HIV-positive Belgians faced a double stigma: being gay and infected with HIV. ITM staff did their best to offer psychological support, a listening ear. The treatment of patients in other hospitals was not always straightforward. Antisemitism: a historical encyclopedia of prejudice. Anthropology and the Racial Politics of Culture. Duke University Press. The Communication of Hate. Peter Lang. Los Angeles Times. Cambridge University Press. The Observer.
Comparative Literature , Spring Retrieved 24 September S , Israel. New York: Harper, pp. United Nations Economic and Social Council.