BMC Res Notes  (2016) 9:182 DOI 10.1186/s13104-016-1993-7
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                Asthma is the most common non-communicable disease in children and remains one of the most common throughout the life course. The great majority of the burden of this disease is seen in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), which have disproportionately high asthma-related mortality relati...ve to asthma prevalence. This is particularly true for many countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Although inhaled asthma treatments (particularly those containing inhaled corticosteroids) markedly reduce asthma morbidity and mortality, a substantial proportion of the children, adolescents, and adults with asthma in LMICs do not get to benefit from these, due to poor availability and affordability. In this review, we consider the reality faced by clinicians managing asthma in the primary and secondary care in sub-Saharan Africa and suggest how we might go about making diagnosis and treatment decisions in a range of resource-constrained scenarios. We also provide recommendations for research and policy, to help bridge the gap between current practice in sub-Saharan Africa and Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) recommended diagnostic processes and treatment for children, adolescents, and adults with asthma.
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                                                                The Lancet Planetary Health  Volume 6, ISSUE 4, e342-e349, April 01, 2022. Human impacts on earth-system processes are overshooting several planetary boundaries, driving a crisis of ecological breakdown. This crisis is being caused in large part by global resource extraction, which has increased dra...matically over the past half century. We propose a novel method for quantifying national responsibility for ecological breakdown by assessing nations’ cumulative material use in excess of equitable and sustainable boundaries.
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                                                                Internationally, there is a growing concern over antimicro-bial resistance (AMR) which is currently estimated to ac-count for more than 700,000 deaths per year worldwide. If no appropriate measures are taken to halt its pro-gress, AMR will cost approximately 10 million lives andabout US$100 trillion... per year by 2050. In contrast tosome other health issues, AMR is a problem that con-cerns every country irrespective of its level of incomeand development as resistant pathogens do not respect borders.Despite the threat presented by AMR, the 2014 WorldHealth Organization (WHO) and the recent O’Neill re-port describe significant gaps in surveillance, standardmethodologies and data sharing. The 2014 WHOreport identified Africa and South East Asia as the regions without established AMR surveillance systems.
Tadesseet al. BMC Infectious Diseases (2017) 17:616 DOI 10.1186/s12879-017-2713-1
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                                                                Key questions
What is already known?
    Critical illness is common throughout the world and COVID-19 has caused a global surge of critically ill patients.
    There are large gaps in the quality of care for critically ill patients, especially in low-staffed and low-resourced settings, and mortal...ity rates are high.
    Essential Emergency and Critical Care (EECC) is the effective lifesaving care of low-cost and low-complexity that all critically ill patients should receive in all wards in all hospitals in the world.
What are the new findings?
    The clinical processes that comprise EECC and the essential care of critically ill patients with COVID-19 have been specified in a large consensus among clinical experts worldwide.
    The resource requirements for hospitals to be ready to provide this care has been described.
What do the new findings imply?
    The findings can be used across medical specialties in hospitals worldwide to prioritise and implement essential care for reducing preventable deaths.
    Inclusion of the EEEC processes could increase the impact of pandemic preparedness and response programmes and policies for health systems strengthening.
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                                                                Regional Network for Equity in Health in east and southern Africa (EQUINET): Disussion Paper 113
This report synthesises the learning across the full programme of work. It presents the methods used, the context and policy motivations for developing EHBs; how they are being defined, costed, di...sseminated and used in health systems, including for service provision and quality, resourcing and purchasing services and monitoring and accountability on service delivery and performance, and for learning, useful practice and challenges faced.
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                                                                In Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                Objective: To review research on associations of trauma type with PTSD in the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) surveys, a series of epidemiological surveys that obtained representative data on trauma-specific PTSD.
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                The Lancet Planetary Health Published:May 17, 2022DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00090-0
Every year pollution causes 9 million deaths—1 in every 6 deaths worldwide, according to a Lancet Commission on pollution and health.
While the number of deaths caused by household air pollution a...nd water pollution decreased from 2015 to 2019, overall deaths remain roughly the same because of a 7% increase in deaths caused by air pollution and toxic chemical pollution.
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                                                                Sustainability Science (2019) 14:1343–1354
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                Clinical Pharmacology: Advances and Applications, 2025:17 29–47
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                he aetiology of asthma and allergic disease remains poorly understood, despite considerable research. The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC), was founded to maximize the value of epidemiological research into asthma and allergic disease, by establishing a standardized m...ethodology and facilitating international collaboration. Its specific aims are: 1) to describe the prevalence and severity of asthma, rhinitis and eczema in children living in different centres, and to make comparisons within and between countries; 2) to obtain baseline measures for assessment of future trends in the prevalence and severity of these diseases; and 3) to provide a framework for further aetiological research into genetic, lifestyle, environmental, and medical care factors affecting these diseases. The ISAAC design comprises three phases. Phase 1 uses core questionnaires designed to assess the prevalence and severity of asthma and allergic disease in defined populations. Phase 2 will investigate possible aetiological factors, particularly those suggested by the findings of Phase 1. Phase 3 will be a repetition of Phase 1 to assess trends in prevalence.
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                                                                The World Climate and Security Report (WCSR) 2021 from the Expert Group of the International
Military Council on Climate and Security is a global assessment of the security dimensions of a changing
climate and effective means to address them. It is intended to inform timely climate and security po...licy
and action, and builds upon the analysis in the first WCSR, released in February 2020.
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                                                                The World Climate and Security Report (WCSR) 2021 from the Expert Group of the International Military Council on Climate and Security is a global assessment of the security dimensions of a changing climate and effective means to address them. It is intended to inform timely climate and security poli...cy and action, and builds upon the analysis in the first WCSR, released in February 2020.
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                                                                Trop. Med. Infect. Dis. 2022, 7, 152. https://doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed7080152
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                The African Palliative Care Association  is pleased to publish the first edition of  Palliative Care Standards for Africa. The  development of these standards was achieved  through wide consultation with service  beneficiaries and providers, and they have  been developed to suit different levels of ... service delivery, from primary to tertiary.  These standards are underpinned by the  World Health Organization’s definition of  palliative care, and recognise that scaling  up palliative care requires a public health  approach with four pillars: policy, education,  drug availability and implementation. In  addition, the increasing need to establish  specific indicators of quality and effectiveness  for palliative care has been a big driving force  behind these comprehensive standards.  It is APCA’s wish that they will provide a  framework for the development of evaluation 
and performance indicators that can facilitate  programme improvement and development. The standards are designed to allow the  development or improvement of palliative  care across the different services levels,  within the organisational capacity of various  service providers. They describe a relationship  between primary, intermediary and tertiary  level service providers, with expectations for all  providers articulated through detailed criteria  for each standard. It is therefore expected that  these standards will influence the planning  and delivery of palliative care services at  all levels of health care service delivery.
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