In 2015, the United Nations set important targets to reduce premature
cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths by 33% by 2030. Africa disproportionately
bears the brunt of CVD burden and has one of the highest risks of dying
from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) worldwide. There is currently
an epide...miological transition on the continent, where NCDs is projected
to outpace communicable diseases within the current decade. Unchecked
increases in CVD risk factors have contributed to the growing burden of three
major CVDs—hypertension, cardiomyopathies, and atherosclerotic diseasesleading to devastating rates of stroke and heart failure. The highest age
standardized disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) due to hypertensive heart
disease (HHD) were recorded in Africa. The contributory causes of heart failure
are changing—whilst HHD and cardiomyopathies still dominate, ischemic
heart disease is rapidly becoming a significant contributor, whilst rheumatic
heart disease (RHD) has shown a gradual decline. In a continent where health
systems are traditionally geared toward addressing communicable diseases,
several gaps exist to adequately meet the growing demand imposed by CVDs.
Among these, high-quality research to inform interventions, underfunded
health systems with high out-of-pocket costs, limited accessibility and
affordability of essential medicines, CVD preventive services, and skill
shortages. Overall, the African continent progress toward a third reduction
in premature mortality come 2030 is lagging behind. More can be done in
the arena of effective policy implementation for risk factor reduction and
CVD prevention, increasing health financing and focusing on strengthening
primary health care services for prevention and treatment of CVDs, whilst
ensuring availability and affordability of quality medicines. Further, investing
in systematic country data collection and research outputs will improve the accuracy of the burden of disease data and inform policy adoption on
interventions. This review summarizes the current CVD burden, important
gaps in cardiovascular medicine in Africa, and further highlights priority
areas where efforts could be intensified in the next decade with potential
to improve the current rate of progress toward achieving a 33% reduction
in CVD mortality.
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OpenWHO is an interactive, web-based, knowledge-transfer platform offering free online courses to improve the response to health emergencies. In summary, OpenWHO currently offers courses covering the following topics and languages to support the response to COVID-19:
A general introduction to ...emerging respiratory viruses, including novel coronaviruses (available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish, Hindi, Hungarian, Indian Sign Language, Indonesian, Macedonian, Persian, Portuguese, Serbian, Turkish and Vietnamese);
Clinical care SARI (available in English, French, Russian, Spanish, Indonesian, Portuguese and Vietnamese);
Health and safety briefing for respiratory diseases – ePROTECT (available in Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish, Indonesian and Portuguese);
IPC for COVID-19 (available in Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Macedonian, Portuguese, Serbian and Turkish);
COVID-19 operational planning guidelines and partners platform to support country preparedness and response (available in Chinese, English, French, Russian and Portuguese);
SARI treatment facility design (available in Arabic, English and Portuguese);
An introduction to Go.Data (available in English and in additional languages); and
How to put on and remove PPE for COVID-19 (available in English and in additional languages).
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Accessed online August 2018
country brief, Syrian Arab Republic
The Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) is a medium-term strategic framework for cooperation between WHO and countries and outlines a shared agenda with priority areas of work for five years. The aim of this CSS is to define medium term vision for
WHO technical cooperation with the State of Eritrea ...for a 5-year period, 2023-2027, in support of the country’s Health Sector Strategic and Development Plan III (HSSDPIII) 2022-2026 aimed at improving the health status of its people
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HIV Country Intelligence - HIV Country Profiles
Accessed online August 2018
Accessed online August 2018
Country Profiles include summaries of developments related to mine ban policy, cluster munition ban policy, mine action, casualties, victim assistance, and support for mine action. Profiles are updated annually, when merited.