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Biomedical subjects

R H Henderson

Publications and source records attributed to R H Henderson.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1980

Clinical survey techniques to estimate prevalence and annual incidence of poliomyelitis in developing countries.

Recent epidemiological data suggest that poliomyelitis is a more important public health problem in developing countries than was originally suspected. Because of the availability of a cheap, effective, but labile oral vaccine, it is important that countries determine the incidence of poliomyelitis in order to determine the necessity and speed with which a vaccination programme should be introduced.Sequelae of poliomyelitis are distinctive and can be used to study the incidence of residual paralysis in children above the age of 5 years. Prevalence data for lameness due to poliomyelitis can then be translated into rates of annual incidence of paralytic disease. Lameness surveys can be efficiently done in schools and data are reliable as long as a similar search for lame children is done amongst children of the same age group who do not attend school but are in the geographical area served by the school. House-to-house surveys, while more time-consuming, are more reliable.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1973

Assessment of vaccination coverage, vaccination scar rates, and smallpox scarring in five areas of West Africa.

In 1966, nineteen countries of West and Central Africa began a regional smallpox eradication and measles control programme in cooperation with the World Health Organization. This paper summarizes sample survey data collected to assess the results of the programme in Northern Nigeria (Sokoto and Katsina Provinces), Western Nigeria, Niger, Dahomey, and Togo. These data indicate that the programme, which used mass vaccination campaigns based on a collecting-point strategy, was generally successful in reaching a high proportion of the population. Analysis of vaccination coverage and vaccination scar rates by age underlined the importance to the programme of newborn children who accumulate rapidly following the mass campaign. Of all persons without vaccination scars at the time of the surveys, 34.4% were under 5 years of age; in the absence of a maintenance programme, this figure would rise to 40% after 1 year.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Global control of vaccine-preventable diseases: how progress can be evaluated.

In the developing world, excluding China, less than 40% of infants receive a third dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis or poliovirus vaccines. More than 3 million children still die annually from measles, neonatal tetanus, and pertussis, while more than a quarter of a million children are crippled by poliomyelitis. Acceleration of existing efforts, with the use of approaches that must differ according to the requirements of individual countries, constitutes the overriding priority for the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI). In evaluating immunization programs, priority should be placed on monitoring immunization coverage and disease incidence. Routine reports are essential for this purpose, although they may usefully be supplemented by surveys. The problems revealed by an evaluation of immunization programs can be taken as being generic to the health services as a whole, until proven otherwise. Therefore, in remedying these problems, approaches that improve the health services as a whole should be sought.

Communicable Disease Control↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Primary health care as a practical means for measles control.

In 1977 the 30th World Health Assembly affirmed that the main social target of governments and the World Health Organization in the coming decades should be "the attainment by all citizens of the world by the year 2000 of a level of health that will permit them to lead a socially and economically productive life." The International Conference on Primary Health Care in Alma-Ata, USSR in 1978 identified primary health care as the fundamental approach for attaining this social target. What relevance do these pronouncements have concerning the worldwide control of measles? Is primary health care a prerequisite to control? Is it sufficient? It is concluded that little chance for global measles control exists unless national policy makers and health workers at all levels adopt the general approach of primary health care but that it is unlikely this approach, by itself, will assure measles control. Special efforts to reduce or stop measles transmission will also be required. In most developing countries at least, the goal of measles control can best be pursued as part of a broader program to reduce morbidity and mortality from several diseases of children preventable by immunization.

Developing Countries↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The Expanded Programme on Immunization of the World Health Organization.

In the developing world today, less than 20% of children are immunized against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, tuberculosis, measles, and poliomyelitis. Consequently, these diseases kill 10 children and disable 10 more each minute. To address this problem, the World Health Organization created the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), with the goal of reducing morbidity and mortality by making immunization services available for all children of the world by 1990. This goal will be difficult to achieve. Information systems and immunization services themselves need to be strengthened. This goal will require commitments by the developing countries of human resources and commitments by developing and developed countries of financial support. Commitment is also needed by parents, who need to be informed that death and disability from these diseases can disappear if their children are immunized. Can these commitments be obtained? There is no choice but to try, for few appeals can be made as powerfully. The EPI cannot be permitted to fail.

Community Health Services↗