This report presents examples from different agencies on how they approached community engagement in their Covid-19 responses, the tools and methodologies used, as well as the challenges they encountered and how they attempted to overcome these. It discusses what community engagement means to the va...rious agencies interviewed and in the literature consulted. And it puts forward some reflections on how CCCM and other sector agencies can take steps to ensure community participation in this and future pandemic responses.
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Interim guidanceAnnex to: Policy considerations for implementing a risk-based approach to international travel in the context of COVID-19, 2 July 2021
Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, health is receiving unprecedented public and political attention. Yet the fact that climate change also presents us with a health crisis deserves further recognition. From more deaths due to heat stress to increased transmission of infectious diseases, ...climate change affects the social and environmental determinants of health in ways that are profound and far-reaching. The fundamental interdependency of human health and the health of the environment is encapsulated in the concept of planetary health, a scientific field and social movement that has been gaining force since the 2015 publication of the Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission report “Safeguarding human health in the Anthropocene epoch”.
We see an urgent need for strategic communication to raise awareness of climate-health synergies in order to overcome the misperception that climate and health are two independent agendas. The fragmented and sector-focused nature of thinking and action remains a significant barrier to integrating health considerations into climate planning and project development. Inevitably, collaboration across sectors requires a community of practice. Despite recent efforts focused on the climate-health nexus, much work remains to be done to translate scientific findings for policymakers, mobilise climate financing resources in support of health co-benefits, and promote genderjust solutions within climate change projects.
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South Africa has a long history of community health workers (CHWs). It has been a journey that has required balancing constrained resources and competing priorities. CHWs form a bridge between communities and healthcare service provision within health facilities and act as the cornerstone of South A...frica’s Ward-Based Primary Healthcare Outreach Teams. This study aimed to document the CHW policy implementation landscape across six provinces in South Africa and explore the reasons for local adaptation of CHW models and to identify potential barriers and facilitators to implementation of the revised framework to help guide and inform future planning.
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Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change pp 47–66
This chapter reviews the emerging importance of pollen allergies in relation to ongoing climate change. Allergic diseases have been increasing in prevalence over the last decades, partly as the result of the impact of climate change. ...Increased sensitisation rates and more severe symptoms have been the partial outcome of: increased pollen production of wind-pollinated plants resulting in long-term increased abundance of pollen in the air we breathe; earlier shifts of airborne pollen seasons making occurrence of allergic symptoms harder to predict and deal with efficiently; increased allergenicity of pollen causing more severe health effects in allergic individuals; introduction of new, invasive allergenic plant species causing new sensitisations; environment-environment interactions, such as plants and hosted microorganisms, i.e. fungi and bacteria, which comprise a complex and dynamic system, with additive, presently unforeseeable influences on human health; environment-human interactions, as the consequence of a combination of environmental factors, like air pollution, global warming, urbanisation and microclimatic variability, which create a multi-resolution spatiotemporal system that requires new processing technologies and huge data inflow in order to be thoroughly investigated. We suggest that novel, real-time, personalised pollen information services, like mobile-app risk alerts, must be developed to provide the optimum first line of allergy management.
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English Analysis on World about Climate Change and Environment, Health and Epidemic; published on 03 Nov 2021 by World Bank
Verstädterung, Flächennutzung, globaler Handel und Industrialisierung haben auf der ganzen Welt tiefgreifende negative Folgen für Natur, Biodiversität und Ökosysteme. Der fortwährende Abbau natürlicher Ressourcen wirkt sich nicht nur auf den Zustand der Umwelt aus, sondern hat auch enorme Aus...wirkungen für Wohlergehen und Sicherheit der Gesellschaften. Dieser Bericht bietet eine Übersicht der vielfältigen Einwirkung der natürlichen Umwelt auf die menschliche Gesundheit. Er legt dar, wie Natur und Ökosysteme Gesundheit und Wohlbefinden unterstützen und schützen können und wie zugleich die Zerstörung der Natur und der Verlust an Biodiversität die menschliche Gesundheit bedrohen. Er ist an ein Publikum gerichtet, das nicht über umfassende Erfahrung mit den Verbindungen zwischen Natur und Gesundheit verfügt. Diese Übersicht richtet sich in erster Linie an Personen, die sich beruflich oder politisch mit Umwelt und Gesundheit beschäftigen, kann aber auch für andere Bereiche relevant sein, die mit dem Schutz, der Handhabung und der Nutzung von Natur und Biodiversität befasst sind.
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The Quadripartite organizations have developed the One Health Priority Research Agenda for AMR report, this is a joint initiative to assist in directing and catalysing scientific interest and financial investments for the priority research agenda across sectors for countries and funding bodies. The ...research agenda also serves as a guide to mitigate One Health AMR that will help policymakers, researchers, and a multidisciplinary scientific community work together on solutions to prevent and mitigate AMR within the One Health approach.
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The potential for terrorist use of chemical agents is a noted concern highlighted by the Tokyo sarin gas attacks of 1995. The events of September 11, 2001, increased congressional attention towards reducing the vulnerability of the United States to such unconventional attacks. The
possibility that... terrorist groups might obtain insecure chemical weapons led to increased scrutiny of declared Libyan chemical weapon stockpiles following the fall of the Qadhafi regime. Experts have expressed similar concerns regarding the security and use of Syrian chemical weapons,
reportedly including stocks of nerve (sarin, VX) and blister (mustard gas) agents.
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Q15. SCOPING QUESTION: Is pharmacological intervention effective and safe for treatment of psychotic disorders in adolescents (including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder)?
Participant Manual September 2009
In line with the National Mental Health Strategy for Lebanon (2015-2020), this guide answers the objective of the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support task force: “Development and provision of staff care interventions for persons working in the MHPSS and Protection sectors”. It aims at prevent...ing burnout, improving the wellbeing of staff, and managing difficult situations resulting from work conditions.
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Background: The impacts of air pollutants on health range from short-term health impairments to hospital admissions
and deaths. Climate change is leading to an increase in air pollution.
This update of the Guidelines for poison control, entitled Guidelines for establishing a poison centre, reflects the development of the role of poison centres in public health and the sound management of chemicals, described in section 1, and the opportunities provided by new technology. Assessments... carried out under the IHR show
continuing gaps in capacity for managing chemicals (2). In particular, many countries still lack access to poison
centre services (3). There is therefore demand for updated guidance.
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A total of 18 laboratories from 13 countries participated in the four rounds of EQA: 10 laboratories from eight African endemic countries, four of which participated in all four rounds and three in three rounds. The overall results showed that the median performance of these laboratories improved ov...er the four rounds. However, the proportion of laboratories reporting false–positive cases remains high and indicates a problem of specificity probably due to contamination. The proportion of laboratories reporting both false–positive and false–negative results raises the issue of the quality of the data reported by WHO in Africa as well as the results of the studies carried out in these different laboratories in various countries.
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