Sexual & Reproductive Health Group at ITM Antwerp

Inequities in #spatial access to childbirth care in Conakry, Guinea. Published in Nature Cities

► Disparities in #geographic access to facilities providing childbirth care

► Driven by skewed spatial distribution of facilities, heavy traffic & socio-economic disadvantage

doi.org/10.1038/s442...

Putting health facilities on the map: a renewed call to create geolocated, comprehensive, updated, openly licensed dataset of health facilities in sub-Saharan African countries - BMC Medicine Background Healthcare service provision, planning, and management depend on the availability of a geolocated, up-to-date, comprehensive health facility database (HFDB) to adequately meet a population’...

𝗣𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗽 𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝘂𝗯-𝗦𝗮𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮

A (renewed) call to create geolocated, comprehensive, updated, openly licensed dataset of health facilities in SSA.

In #BMCMedicine! bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

#GISchat #GeoSky #GeoHealth, @itmantwerp.bsky.social

Foreign Aid Cuts Will Lead to 34,000 More Pregnancy-Related Deaths in Just One Year The freeze on U.S. foreign assistance funding and the subsequent stop work order has already taken an irreversible toll on global health programs, including family planning services, causing chaos acr...

As of today, 7 million people have been denied access to contraceptive care because of the Trump administration’s #ForeignAid shutdown.

📢 Read our new op-ed for @msmagazine.com, where we explain the devastating consequences & call on policymakers to act: gu.tt/4kEn9Wo

We ask for:
1️⃣ continued universal access to existing data on the DHS Program website
2️⃣ work which was in progress in 25 countries to continue
3️⃣ shifting ownership of technical expertise toward countries in and *for* which the DHS, MIS and SPA surveys are conducted.

✨✨✨➡️ ssrn.com/abstract=513...

🚨 What happens when vital health data disappears? The suspension of USAID funding for the DHS Program threatens global health monitoring, policymaking, and life-saving interventions. We must restore funding before this loss impacts millions. Share with your network!
www.itg.be/en/health-st...

Abandoning research participants is an unconscionable betrayal In 1964, the Declaration of Helsinki created a set of universal ethical principles to protect human participants in health research.1 Described as “the cornerstone of research ethics,”2 these principl...

🧵 Trump’s USAID funding freeze abruptly halted critical global health research, abandoning participants mid-trial. A gross ethical violation. @bachynski.bsky.social & I explain what happened and why it matters @bmj.com . ⬇️
www.bmj.com/content/388/...

When health data go dark A call to restore DHS Program funding

When health data go dark, we create dangerous blind spots. The USAID funding freeze has halted DHS Program work in many LMICs. Read our call to restore data access & continue DHS activities: shorturl.at/8U1LN @itmantwerp.bsky.social @srhgroup-itm.bsky.social @lenkabenova.bsky.social

@pete-m-m.bsky.social @rehemaouko.bsky.social @lenkabenova.bsky.social

When was the last time you felt like a child in an amusement park? ✨

For us, just this Monday!

Appreciating the science, patience and mad skills that it takes to raise a tsetse fly colony @itmantwerp.bsky.social

Thank you to Prof Van Den Abbeele!🙏

🤩 We are excited to announce that Dr Özge Tunçalp is our new Executive Director! With an impressive career in public health, maternal health, and health systems strengthening, she is eager to lead ITM into a new chapter.

Learn more 👉 itg.be/en/health-st...

Congratulations to @jilmolenaar.bsky.social and her team for this excellent publication in Social Science and Medicine!

Excited to share our study published in BMC Women's Health! We explored factors that limit PrEP use among AGYW in Africa, highlighting stigma, social support gaps and systemic challenges. Targeted interventions are vital for equitable HIV prevention.

Full paper: rdcu.be/d4Vhe

Congratulations to PhD student Cathy Birabwa for this paper which took over a year to write - thoughtful, deep, contextually specific analysis of women's pathways to emergency obstetric care.

www.ghspjournal.org/content/earl...

Doelen behaald, de essentie gemist: De politiek van geboortedata | Kennismakers De hoge druk om doelstellingen te halen voor betere gezondheidsuitkomsten voor vrouwen en hun baby’s, kan onbedoeld negatieve gevolgen hebben.

De hoge druk om doelstellingen te halen voor betere gezondheidsuitkomsten voor vrouwen en hun baby’s, kan onbedoeld negatieve gevolgen hebben. De Nederlandstalige versie van mijn blog staat nu online op de Kennismakers website! shorturl.at/WzVPt @srhgroup-itm.bsky.social @annadams.bsky.social

Our colleague @jilmolenaar.bsky.social has published a new paper!🥳

Like ‘old Twitter’: The scientific community finds a new home on Bluesky After recent changes to Elon Musk’s X, a gradual migration turns into a stampede

“The majority has spoken, and researchers are moving en masse” to Bluesky, says @shaine.bsky.social.

Couldn't help myself and had to write about science twitter, X, bluesky and "the migration"...
www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

World AIDS Day: Take the Rights path Register to attend our World AIDS Day event 'Take the Rights path', on 22/11/24, to discuss the importance of fostering a rights-based HIV response

📢 join us for #WorldAIDSDay at ITM Antwerp at our event this Friday 22 November at 1:30 (CET), following the official theme “Take the Rights Path”.
Find our programme full of interesting speakers and opportunities to register below 👇
www.itg.be/en/events/wo...

Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde (ITG) in Antwerpen Het ITG streeft naar de vooruitgang van wetenschap en gezondheid, met focus op onderzoek, onderwijs en professionele dienstverlening (hiv/soa en reisgeneeskunde).

System issues and contextual factors affected staff motivation on what is documented, valued and ultimately used to improve quality of care.

More info?
www.itg.be/en/research/...

Dr Aliki Christou @alichristou.bsky.social presented at the 19th International Stillbirth Alliance Conference her FWO Vlaanderen post-doctoral research looking at the challenges with perinatal and stillbirth data availability, quality and use in health systems of Benin and Cambodia. 1/2

🔥🔥

You can download a PDF copy of @seyeabimbola.bsky.social book now!

www.editions.ird.fr/produit/728/...

Hello, nice to find each other here!

Thank you!

Thank you Rishita!

Good people of Bluesky, we are new here! Thank you for the welcome.

Is there a starting pack for:
- maternal/newborn health?
- HIV/STIs?
- sexual/reproductive health? (already saw the one from @cbpolis.bsky.social 🙏)
- child and adolescent health?

Many thanks!

Fantastic to see this analysis and reflection @pete-m-m.bsky.social!

Meeting the target but missing the point: The politics of childbirth data Pressure to meet targets to improve health outcomes for women and their babies can have unintended negative consequences. Rose, one of two nurse-midwives on duty in a hospital labour ward in Southe…

Pressure to meet targets to improve health outcomes for women and their babies can have unintended negative consequences. In this blog post, published on Harvard’s Maternal Health Taskforce website, I explain why.
www.mhtf.org/2024/11/07/m...