Archives: East Asia and the Pacific

This article presents the policy methods used by the authors to improve safe accessibility of opioid pain medicines in Vietnam, achieved through working with committed local partners (including the MOH) to review Vietnamese policies governing opioid accessibility, devising an action plan to safely reduce or circumnavigate barriers to access, obtaining buy-in for the plan from all stakeholders including drug regulators and the police, and assisting the MOH to implement the plan.

This RHD training manual was developed as a part of the Pacific Rheumatic Heart Disease Control Program (PRHDCP)'s country supported activities in the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati, and Fiji. The RHD workshop program is designed for health workers and other key people involved in the diagnosis of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in the Pacific region.

This report synthesizes discussions and working papers presented at a satellite session on the "missing links" between diabetes and sexual and reproductive health, co-hosted by the Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW) and World Diabetes Foundation (WDF) in Indonesia in 2011. Sections include burden of disease, understanding gestational diabetes, diabetes and sexuality, and clinical and policy recommendations.

This study used echocardiographic screening to test prevalence of rheumatic heart disease among schoolchildren in Cambodia and Mozambique, revealing case numbers 10 times higher than clinical case finding. These data have important implications for planning, prevention, and health service delivery.