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This article is printed in the Health and Science Bulletin produced by the Centre for Health and Population Research, based in Bangladesh. It outlines research conducted among parents in Matlab, Bangladesh, revealing how their beliefs affect household treatment of childhood pneumonia and influence delays in seeking care from trained providers. Many indigenous beliefs and social factors prevent primary care providers, particularly mothers, of pneumonia cases from obtaining prompt and appropriate help. For example, in fear of being blamed for poor caring practices, mothers are reluctant to share information about the illness with other family members. Intervention strategies designed to reduce child mortality associated with pneumonia need to address the cultural beliefs and challenges. Efforts should focus on involving family members such as the child's father or grandmother in early recognition of pneumonia cases. It also suggests that health workers use local terminology and cultural knowledge to communicate the need for prompt treatment with a trained provider

This article presents a case-controlled study that estimated the prevalence of disabilities in HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected children in Lilongwe, Malawi, examines types of disability and associated clinical and socio-demographic factors and identifies needs, opportunities and barriers for rehabilitation in Malawi. This study reveals the magnitude of disability among HIV-infected children and the large unmet need for rehabilitation services. It recommends that this expanding issue is investigated further to provide an evidence base for holistic care for disabled children living with HIV

PLoS ONE, Vol 8, No 12

This toolkit is designed to be a flexible tool for people who want to involve children of all ages in discussion about issues that affect them, but don’t know how to do so. It does not list practical activities but rather makes suggestions on what needs to be done to ensure that such exercises have a good chance of success. It addresses issues around how to make sure that children feel that their views and opinions have been listened to and respected. What can be done to ensure that the children involved are safe and protected at all times? How can children and adults be equal partners in representing an organisation, country or delegation to a formal meeting? The main topics covered include organising a consultation or meeting with children, planning a prepatory meeting with and for children, having children on your delegation, the role of adults in creating an enabling environment, ensuring children are safe and protected, and ensuring quality follow up

This report provides an overview of the status of early childhood education and care (ECED) in Canada. It draws on the work of the ECDC Community Indicator Project, through which Campaign 2000 aims to strengthen the link between the early childhood education sector and the broader community. Using indicators such as public expenditure, child care availability and child care affordability, it assesses how regions respond to the educational needs of very young children in Canada

Poor-rich inequalities in health in developing countries receive a lot of attention from researchers and policy makers. However, different indicators of wealth are used in different studies. There is a lack of evidence on the extent to which the use of different measures of economic status affects the observed magnitude of health inequalities. This paper provides empirical evidence for 10 developing countries, using the Demographic and Health Surveys data-set. It compares the World Bank asset index to three alternative wealth indices, all based on household assets. Results indicated that the relative position of households in the national wealth hierarchy varied to an important extent with the asset index used; observed poor-rich inequalities in under-5 mortality and immunisation coverage often changed, in some cases to an important extent; and the size and direction of this change varied per country, index, and health indicator