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There has been an increased recognition of the importance of men in the global HIV response. Previous studies indicate that in different settings, men are generally less engaged in various HIV services besides having worse health outcomes in comparison to the women. Some of the main factors behind this, based on the previous studies include social factors, gender factors, economic factors, political factors, as well as institutional factors. Recently, various scholars have been reporting evidence concerning the strategies, which aims to improve the levels of engagement of men when it comes to HIV services. There are a number of highly promising approaches, which have been suggested, which includes community-based outreach programs, gender-transformative interventions aimed at shifting gender practices and norms, as well as the development of highly responsive and male-friendly health services. Despite the fact that a number of initiatives have been put in place, there are different kind of challenges, which still remain, more so with regards to costs, as well as sustainability, intersecting inequalities such as class and race, and the challenges, which are faced with regards to altering the community-level gender norms.

Cervical cancer remains a leading cause of cancer-related mortality among women in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Zambia, despite the preventability of the disease through vaccination, early screening, and treatment. This narrative review explores the current landscape of cervical cancer prevention in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), highlighting the role and limitations of health education in driving screening uptake to inform the Zambian cervical cancer program. A comprehensive literature search was conducted using four of the largest health sciences electronic databases, MEDLINE/PubMed, Science Direct, EBSCOHost, and Google Scholar to identify relevant articles. A stepwise screening of titles, abstract and full texts was followed. A total of 58 articles were included in the review. While numerous health education initiatives across LMICs, such as media campaigns, school-based curricula, and community outreach, have demonstrated increased awareness, they have not consistently translated into higher screening participation. This review revealed multi-country evidence that knowledge alone does not guarantee behavior change. Key enablers, including self-efficacy, access to services, social support, and cultural acceptability, are crucial determinants of health-seeking behavior, aligning with behavior change models such as the Health Belief Model and Social Cognitive Theory. In LMICs, structural barriers, including insufficient resources, provider shortages, and logistical challenges, compound low awareness and cultural stigma. However, promising strategies such as Human Papilloma Virus self-sampling, integration of screening with HIV programs, and the use of community-based volunteers offer scalable, context-sensitive solutions. Despite recent efforts, LMICs still face significant gaps in screening coverage, particularly in rural areas, and limited evaluation of program effectiveness. Future interventions must focus on tailoring health education to local realities, integrating services into existing health platforms, and strengthening community engagement to achieve the WHO’s 2030 cervical cancer elimination targets.

Despite an array of preventive global public health interventions, SARS-CoV-2 has continued to spread significantly, infecting millions of people across the globe weekly. Newer variants of interest and concern have continued to emerge, placing the need for policymakers to rethink prevention strategies to end the pandemic. The approval of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines for public health use in December 2020 was seen as a significant development towards pandemic control and possibly ending the pandemic. However, breakthrough infections have continued to be observed among the ‘fully vaccinated’, and the duration and sustainability of vaccine-induced immunity has remained a topical public health discourse. In the absence of accurate public health communication, the breakthrough infections and waning immunity concepts have potential to further compound vaccine hesitancy. With this viewpoint, we discuss breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections, waning immunity, the need for COVID-19 booster shots, vaccine inequities, and the need to address vaccine hesitancy adequately to propel global vaccination programs forward.

IntroductionHealth education programmes (HEPs) have been associated with a number of benefits. These include providing individuals with information on matters related to their mental, social, physical as well as emotional health. HEPs also play a major role in preventing diseases and reducing the level of engagement of individuals in risky behaviours. While this is the case, there are barriers to the effective implementation of HEPs, especially in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) where resources are scarce. Available evidence has revealed socioeconomic challenges ranging from literacy issues, discomfort about issues of sexuality, and cultural barriers to financial constraints as key barriers to the implementation of sexual and reproductive health HEPs in LMICs. We will focus on HEPs related to sexual and reproductive health; all age groups will be considered with no restrictions on geographical setting nor model of HEP delivery. This review will map literature on the barriers to the effective implementation of HEPs in LMICs to guide future implementation research.MethodsArksey and O’Malley’s 2005 scoping methodological framework will act as the guide for this review. We will search the following electronic databases: EBSCOhost (Academic search complete, PsycINFO, Health Sources, CINAHL and MEDLINE with full text), Google Scholar, PubMed, SCOPUS, Science Direct and Web of Science. Grey literature from Mount Kenya University theses and dissertations, governments’ as well as international organisations’ reports, such as WHO, and reference lists of included studies will be searched for eligible studies. We will limit our search to publications from 1 January 2000 to 30 September 2019. Using thematic content analysis, we will employ NVivo V.12 to extract the relevant outcomes from the included articles. We will conduct a quality appraisal of the included articles using the mixed methods appraisal tool (MMAT) version 2018.Ethics and disseminationNo ethical approval is needed for the study as it will not include animal nor human participants. The results of the proposed scoping review will be disseminated electronically, in print and through conference presentation as well as at key stakeholder meetings.

Understanding the burden of SARS-CoV-2 infections among healthcare workers is a critical component to inform occupational health policy and strategy. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to map and analayse the available global evidence on the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infections among healthcare workers. The random-effects adjusted pooled prevalence of COVID-19 among those studies that conducted the test using the antibody (Ab) method was 7% [95% CI: 3 to 17%]. The random-effects adjusted pooled prevalence of COVID-19 among those studies that conducted the test using the PCR method was 11% [95% CI: 7 to 16%]. We found the burden of COVID-19 among healthcare workers to be quite significant and therefore a cause for global health concern. Furthermore, COVID-19 infections among healthcare workers affect service delivery through workers’ sick leave, the isolation of confirmed cases and quarantine of contacts, all of which place significant strain on an already shrunken health workforce.