The* Facilitator manual on community-based psychosocial support *and the* Volunteers manual on community-based psychosocial support* provides resources for trainers and participants in key aspects of psychosocial support, including understanding the impact of crisis events, supportive communication,... protection issues and self-care.
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Ethiopia has been repeatedly affected by conflict, flooding, drought, and disease outbreaks in the past years. As of January 2024, the country is actively responding to the longest recorded cholera outbreak which started in August 2022, recurrent measles outbreaks which started in August 2021, and t...he highest number of malaria cases reported since 2017. The El Niño phenomenon is expected to cause further havoc up to July 2024, by causing drought in some parts of the country, and flooding in others. Food insecurity due to lost harvest and livestock is aggravating already high malnutrition rates, negatively impacting morbidity and mortality.
The Health Cluster is closely collaborating with the Ministry of Health (MOH) to prepare for, prevent, and respond to public health emergencies by mobilizing resources to enable health partners to provide life-saving health services to vulnerable populations.
In an environment with ever-increasing needs and decreased funding, the below priorities for 2024 and 2025 have been identified: 1 Strengthen advocacy for longer-term, development funding to address root causes of recurrent disease outbreaks, including through the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus 2 Advocate for increased access to quality health services, with a strong focus on:
sexual and reproductive health services (including for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence)
inclusion of people with disabilities, older people, and people living with HIV
remote populations through inclusion of Mobile Health Teams (MHT) as part of the health system 3 Standardize health services provided by Health Cluster partners through the implementation of Essential Health Care packages, aligned with existing MOH guidance, aimed at ensuring quality service delivery for affected populations, especially at community level 4 Strengthen quality of, and access to data for needs analysis and informed decision-making 5 Strengthen subnational coordination, with increased focus on zones and local health partners
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Breast cancer is the most common cancer worldwide and the leading cause of cancer deaths among women, disproportionately affecting low- and middle-income countries. The Global Breast Cancer Initiative strives to reduce breast cancer mortality by 2.5 percent per year, which over a 20-year period can ...save 2.5 million lives. The purpose of this core technical package is to outline a pathway for incremental, sustainable improvements tailored to country-specific needs based on three key strategies and objectives: health promotion for early detection; timely diagnosis; and comprehensive breast cancer management. This document provides a common framework linking policy makers, stakeholders, the clinical community, program managers and civil society to evidence-based systematic approaches that can facilitate health systems strengthening and reduce inequities in women’s health throughout their life cycles
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The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the issues in regulating and managing international emergency in a selection of large and small-scale sudden onset disasters (SODs). In doing so, it aims to contribute to several key international commitments as well as its objective in disaste...rs and emergencies to “reduce the consequences the event may have on world health and its social and economic implications”.
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The development of this Operational Roadmap has been driven by a growing consensus in Ukraine on the need to prioritize activities that are urgently required to address the mental health and psychosocial needs of the country’s population and also the importance of basing the response on existing s...tructures, resources and innovations introduced in reforms in past years.
According to this consensus, new resources mobilized by and for Ukraine should complement existing ones, in line with the national vision and with best international standards, and should be planned in a way that further strengthens the country’s mental health system.
The Government of Ukraine is committed to urgently addressing the mental health and psychosocial needs of the population, under the auspices of the First Lady of Ukraine and the leadership of the recently established Intersectoral Coordination Council for Mental Health and Psychological Assistance to Victims of the Armed Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine (referred to in this document as the Intersectoral Coordination Council).
This Roadmap has been developed following a series of consultations with Ukrainian authorities and national and international agencies working in the area of mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) and engaged in emergency response in Ukraine. The consultation process was organized by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine (MOH) and supported by WHO Ukraine, under the auspices of the First Lady of Ukraine and in collaboration with the MHPSS Technical Working Group of Ukraine (MHPSS TWG Ukraine) and the IASC MHPSS Reference Group (IASC MHPSS RG), and building on substantial advances in the mental health sector under existing programmes in the country.
The Roadmap is informed by international technical guidance and national policies and plans, including the IASC Guidelines on MHPSS in Emergency Settings, the Minimum Services Package for MHPSS in Emergencies (MHPSS MSP), the IASC Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013– 2030, the WHO European Framework for Action on Mental Health, the Concept for Development of Mental Health Care in Ukraine until 2030, the National Mental Health Action Plan for 2021–2023 and the National Recovery and Development Plan.
Informed by the overall goal of MHPSS assistance in Ukraine – to reduce suffering and improve the mental health and psychosocial well-being of the affected population – the Roadmap aims to provide a consolidated overview of envisioned MHPSS priorities, informed by the local context and the vision of the Government of Ukraine together with national and international partners, and with the best available evidence and resources, to all MHPSS stakeholders already engaged in or joining emergency response and recovery efforts in Ukraine.
As well as information on the context in Ukraine, the Roadmap includes:
• a list of evidence-based MHPSS interventions and services contextualized and introduced in Ukraine in recent years (described in Table 1) and
• a set of multisectoral actions to scale up MHPSS services in both the short and longer terms, informed by available evidence, international technical guidance and expert consensus (described in Table 2).
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In fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable settings, delivery of quality health services faces significant challenges, including disruption of a routine health service organization and delivery systems, increased health needs, complex and unpredictable resourcing issues, and vulnerability to multi...ple public health crises. Despite the difficulty of addressing quality in such settings, the necessity for action is acute, given the significant health needs of the populations in these environments and the increasing numbers of people for whom such settings are home.
This manual has been developed to provide a starting point for multi-actor efforts and actions to address quality of care in the most challenging settings. This includes practical approaches to action planning and implementation of a contextualised set of quality interventions.
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The aim of this handbook is to provide network members and other laboratories involved in the diagnosis of tuberculosis, with an agreed list of key diagnostic methods and their protocols in various areas of TB diagnosis, ranging from microbiological diagnosis of active TB to the diagnosis of latent ...TB infection. This handbook offers a single source of reference by compiling all methods, with a strong focus on standard (reference) and evidence-based methods. In so doing, it will also contribute to the improvement of disease surveillance data for Europe.
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As of 31 October 2020 This is the tenth edition of this summary of rapid systematic reviews, which includes the results of a rapid systematic review of currently available literature. More than 200 therapeutic options or their combinations are being investigated in more than 1,700 clinical trials. I...n this review, 46 therapeutic options are examined. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is continually monitoring ongoing research on any possible therapeutic options. As evidence emerges, then PAHO will immediately assess and update its position, and particularly as it applies to any special sub-group populations such as children, expectant mothers, those with immune conditions, etc.
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The Lancet. 13 March 2022. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02868-3. Previous Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) studies have reported
national health estimates for Ethiopia. Substantial regional variations in socioeconomic status, population, demography, and access to hea...lth care within Ethiopia require comparable estimates at the subnational level. The GBD 2019 Ethiopia subnational analysis aimed to measure the progress and disparities in health across nine regions and two chartered cities.
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The Lancet Planetary Health, Vol.5 Issue 2, Feb. 1,2021.
Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) serve to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement of staying “well below 2°C”, which could also yield substantial health co-benefits in the process. However, existing NDC commitments are inadequa...te to achieve this goal. Placing health as a key focus of the NDCs could present an opportunity to increase ambition and realise health co-benefits. We modelled scenarios to analyse the health co-benefits of NDCs for the year 2040 for nine representative countries (ie, Brazil, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa, the UK, and the USA) that were selected for their contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions and their global or regional influence.
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Ethnic disparities in COVID-19 persist, with increased rates of infection, severe disease, and death among people from minority ethnic groups. COVID-19 vaccination rates also remain lowest in these communities compared with white people in the UK. Among people older than 18 years, the proportion who... have had three COVID-19 vaccinations in England in March, 2022, was lowest among Black Caribbean (38%), Black African (45%), and Pakistani (45%) ethnic groups. These disparities are likely to be attributed to the intersection of key social determinants, including socioeconomic factors such as deprivation, overcrowding, and working patterns and conditions,
alongside discrimination and structural violence in the health-care system and society.
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The objective of Health in the Americas: Overview of the Region of the Americas in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic is to respond to the need to address important public health issues in an increasingly timely manner, while serving as a platform with a close focus on specific issues of regional ...importance. This 2022 edition is the second in its new format, providing an overview of the analysis, as well as an in-depth description of the key issues related to COVID-19 in the Region of the Americas. This overview is supported by the Health in the Americas+ virtual platform, which offers interactive resources for data analysis and allows for the comparison of information disaggregated by subregions and countries.
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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV‑2) causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has reached pandemic levels;
Patients with cardiovascular (CV) risk factors and established cardiovascular disease (CVD) represent a vulnerable population when suffering from COVID-19;
Patien...ts with cardiac injury in the context of COVID-19 have an increased risk of morbidity and mortality
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Millennium Development Goal 8E aims for affordable access to essential medicines. Essential medicines, as defined by WHO, are those that “satisfy the health-care needs of the majority of the population” and that should therefore “be available at all times in adequate amounts”. However, there... is a category of medicines that faces a unique challenge in terms of availability. These are the medicines governed by the international conventions on narcotic and psychotropic substances. “Controlled medicines” is the common definition for pharmaceuticals whose active principles are listed under the 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs as amended by the 1972 Protocol, such as morphine and methadone; the 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances, such as diazepam and buprenorphine; and the 1988 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, such as ergometrine and ephedrine. The conventions list substances in “Schedules” according to their different levels of potential for abuse and harm, and the commensurate severity of control measures to be applied by countries.
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DHS Working Papers No. 105 - Rwanda has developed and implemented many strategies at the national level to reduce the incidence of HIV in the general population. One of the main objectives of such interventions is to improve the general level of knowledge of HIV, with the hypothesis that increasing... HIV knowledge will reduce risky sexual behavior. However, there has been a concern that HIV knowledge may not necessarily reduce risky sexual behavior. Only a limited number of population-based studies describe the results of these interventions in terms of how HIV knowledge affects risky sexual behavior. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to fill in this gap, by exploring HIV knowledge and its effect on risky sexual behavior among men in Rwanda.
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This study highlights the challenges and areas in need of improvement as perceived by CHWs and beneficiaries, in regards to a nationwide scale-up of CHW interventions in a resource-challenged country. Identifying and understanding these barriers, and addressing them accordingly, particularly within ...the context of performance-based financing, will serve to strengthen the current CHW system and provide key guidance for the continuing evolution of the CHW system in Rwanda.
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Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) provides a vast amount of information and the highest possible resolution for pathogen subtyping. The application of WGS for global surveillance can provide information on the early emergence and spread of AMR and further inform timely policy development on AMR control.... Sequencing data emanating from AMR surveillance may provide key information to guide the development of rapid diagnostic tools for better and more rapid characterization of AMR, and thus complement phenotypic methods. This document addresses the applications of WGS for AMR surveillance, including the benefits and limitations of current WGS technologies
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Today more people are exposed to hazards. While humanitarian action to mitigate the impact of disasters will always be vitally important, the community is facing critical challenge- how to better anticipate, manage and reduce - disaster risks by integrating the potential threat into its planning and... policies at the community level. This manual aims to improve the capacity of the Panchayati Raj Institutions - the local self government and communities that face hazards due to environmental reasons. To help such capacity development efforts, we need learning materials focusing on key areas - water supply, environmental sanitation for better disaster management and preparedness.
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In 2013 the World Health Organization (WHO) published the report Protecting health from climate change:vulnerability and adaptation assessment. The aim was to provide basic and flexible guidance on conducting national or subnational assessments of current and future vulnerability (the susceptibilit...y of a population or region to harm) to the health risks of climate change, and of policies and programmes that could increase resilience, taking into account the multiple determinants of climate-sensitive health outcomes.
That guidance has been a very useful tool, applied to more than 50 countries and settings, and has helped countries to prepare their health contributions to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change national adaptation plans.
Since the launch of the guidance, WHO, technical partners such as Health Canada, and countries have learned much in terms of its applicability in different countries, at national and local levels.
At the same time, knowledge on climate change and health has increased.
WHO, the Pan American Health Organization and Health Canada have produced this updated version, which aims to better support countries in their assessments by proposing a simpler tool that incorporates
all lessons learned.
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On September 10, 2022, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced a cholera outbreak in Aleppo governorate with 15 laboratory confirmed cases reported between August 25 and September 9, 2022. Activities under this plan seek to address the immediate needs stemming from this outbreak and highlight respons...e priorities across all areas of the response and key sectors involved. This plan initially focuses on the Health, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), and Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) responses for an initial period of 90 days. The activities detailed in this plan are also within the programmatic scope of the 2022-2023 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP).
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