SSMJ August 2017

Editorials

Editorial: Dr Tedros Adhanom, new WHO Director General

The 69th World Health Assembly elected Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia as the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) on May 24th 2017. The SSMJ reflects on what he means to the world body and his past relationship with South Sudan.

Famine and its effects on health in South Sudan

The Government of South Sudan declared famine in parts of South Sudan on February 20th 2017, affecting more than 4.9 million people, mainly in Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Unity states. Famine leads to severe undernutrition especially affecting young children and pregnant women which is a public health emergency, with short and long term consequences. As the main driver of the famine, the civil war must end so that access to the population that urgently need food can be attained.

News, Reports and Policy

Samaritan’s Purse in South Sudan

Samaritan’s Purse began working in southern Sudan in 1997, before South Sudan gained its independence in 2011. Samaritan’s Purse provides emergency relief support to internally displaced people (IDPs), refugees, and returnees across the country. The organization’s multi-sector response includes agricultural training, food assistance, health services, nutrition interventions, and water, sanitation & hygiene (WASH) programming. Samaritan’s Purse has four main areas of operation in the Greater Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile regions of the country.

Obituary: Dr Festo Jambo Elias Kayanga

Dr Festo Jambo is among the latest crop of South Sudanese obstetricians who emerged through the struggle of the 1980s and 1990s to serve in the field when few doctors existed.

IndiKit An online guide to SMART indicators for Relief and Development Projects

SSMJ Updated Guidelines for Authors

The South Sudan Medical Journal (SSMJ), the only medical journal in South Sudan, welcomes submissions of articles from you. We publish original research, reviews, survey reports/KAP studies, discussions and commentaries as well as case studies and presentations, and letters to the Editor.

Clinical Guidance

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Research

Eye diseases in Akon payam, South Sudan.

The study, to determine the prevalence and causes of blindness and visual impairment among patients in Akon payam, Warrap State, South Sudan, found that cataract and glaucoma remained major cause of blindness in this payam.

Mothers’ knowledge on essential newborn care at Juba Teaching Hospital, South Sudan

‘Essential newborn care’ is a set of recommendations from WHO designed to improve the health of the newborns through interventions pre-conception, during pregnancy, and postnatally. The study identified the knowledge and practices of essential newborn care among postnatal mothers at Juba Teaching Hospital.

Associated anomalies in cleft lip and palate: Analysis of 811 consecutive patients

Clefts are common birth defects and may be associated with oro-facial congenital anomalies. A review of 811 cleft lip and palate patients showed a low incidence of associated anomalies with a higher incidence in isolated cleft palate cases.

Attitudes and beliefs about mental illness among relatives of patients with schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental disease with inability to differentiate real from unreal. To explore the different attitudes and beliefs about schizophrenia, the study surveyed relatives of patients with schizophrenia treated at Butabika Mental Hospital, Kampala, Uganda. It found that beliefs about supernatural causes of schizophrenia and stigmatizing are still present, among others.

Case Reports

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Summaries

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