DHS in the News

Journalists worldwide write about The DHS Program results. The dissemination of DHS, SPA and HIV data is often widely covered by media in survey countries, but journalists also use The DHS Program data throughout the year as background information for their stories, or to compare health and development indicators across countries. These data are also used by journalists in the United States and other developed countries, as it is considered the gold standard of population, health and nutrition data. Below are some examples of recent news coverage. Please note: The links below are to websites outside The DHS Program.

Mar 30, 2015
Malawi malaria prevalence drops to 33 percent

StarAfrica (PARIS, FRANCE)

"The 2014 Malaria Indicator Survey conducted by the National Malaria Control Program in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has suggested a slight decline of the disease's prevalence rate from 43 to 33% in the country. Speaking during the report findings dissemination meeting in the capital Lilongwe on Monday, Secretary for Health, Charles Mwansambo said the decline has been achieved because of different interventions which the government and its partners put in place to reduce the burden to malaria among people..."

  http://en.starafrica.com/news/malawi-malaria-prevalence-drops-to-33-percent-survey.html
Mar 27, 2015
Sierra Leone let pregnant girls take exams

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL (London, UK)

"...The threatened measures would further disadvantage girls in Sierra Leone, where 28% of 15-19 year olds have a child or are pregnant according to the 2013 Sierra Leone Demographic and Health Survey..."  https://www.amnesty.org/en/international-secretariat/
Mar 19, 2015
Water sanitation and hygiene in health care facilities
WHO and UNICEF (Geneva, Switzerland)

"This report presents, for the first time, a global assessment of the extent to which health care facilities provide essential water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. Drawing on data representing 66,101 facilities in 54 low- and middle-income countries, the report concludes that 38% of facilities lack access even to rudimentary levels of WASH. When a higher level of service is factored in, the situation deteriorates significantly. Large disparities exist within countries and among types of facilities..."  http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/154588/1/9789241508476_eng.pdf?ua=1
Mar 17, 2015
How to end female genital mutilation in Egypt

Lucy Westcott
NEWSWEEK (New York)

"...The country has the world’s highest rates of FGM: 91 percent of married women, according to Egypt’s 2008 Demographic and Health Survey (the last year for which data are available). Among younger and better-educated women living in urban areas, as well as those who never married, the rates drop—but only to around 81 percent. In Egypt, as in most of the countries in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia where FGM is performed, it’s a cultural tradition with roots going back centuries..."  http://www.newsweek.com/2015/03/27/how-end-female-genital-mutilation-egypt-314264.html
Feb 26, 2015
US push for abstinence in Africa is seen as failure against HIV
Donald G. McNeil Jr.
THE NEW YORK TIMES (New York)

"...Originally called the World Fertility Surveys, they were begun in the 1970s. They were later subsumed into the large Demographic and Health Surveys, now paid for by the United States Agency for International Development, that document health behaviors in dozens of countries. Spending on abstinence and fidelity peaked in 2005 and began to drop after the Obama administration took office in 2009..." 
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/health/american-hiv-battle-in-africa-said-to-falter.html?mwrsm=Email&_r=0