Eight new studies will assess the impact of collaborative planning to maximize health campaigns, with funding from The Task Force’s Health Campaign Effectiveness (HCE) program.
A key tool in public health, health campaigns are time-bound, coordinated sets of activities that target resources to achieve specific health goals and are used as a key tool in public health. Over a period of six months, the case studies will investigate efforts to integrate health campaigns for issues such as providing vitamin A supplements, treating lymphatic filariasis, deworming, eradicating polio, screening for hypertension, and providing COVID-19 information .
While individual health campaigns have proven to be successful in improving health and even eradicating diseases like smallpox, the Health Campaign Effectiveness Coalition aims to help country health systems maximize the use of campaigns across various health domains. To reach this goal, the Coalition’s program office is identifying, testing, and replicating evidence-based practices through case studies like the eight chosen for the first funding round.
In India, Dr. Satybrata Routray, Director of NTD, Malaria & Immunization for PATH India will examine the integration of mass-drug administrations that focus on deworming children with India’s Pulse Polio health campaign. This integration seeks to reduce the number of front-line workers needed to run the campaigns, minimize health worker training costs, and increase operational efficiencies.
In Colombia, Dr. Jovana Alexandra Ocampo Cañas, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad de los Andes, will examine the implementation of a primary health care model that uses cross-campaign collaboration. The model will integrate a range of interventions for health challenges such as neglected infectious diseases, including the joint construction of tools for community promotion and prevention, implementation strategies for basic sanitation and water filtration equipment, promotion of hand and face washing to prevent trachoma, and the implementation of deworming treatments.
Learn more about all eight awardees and their case studies here.
Header photo: Community members listen to a health worker explain about an upcoming mass drug administration (Ivermectin, DEC, and Albendazole) for lymphatic filariasis in Uttar Pradesh, India.
