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Publication Years
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This Curriculum Guide accompanies the Refugee and Migrant Health: Global Competency Standards for Health Workers and the Knowledge Guide to support the operationalization of the Standards. The Curriculum Guide provides guidance for institutions, health organizations and individuals engaged in the ed
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ucation and training of health practitioners and health administrators to support incorporation of the knowledge, skills and attitudes set out in the Knowledge Guide into curricula and for assessment of the achievement of the relevant learning outcomes and Competency Standards.
more
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.
more
Stats SA has released an in-depth report on persons with disabilities. The report, written using Census 2011 data, is the first in a series of in-depth analyses of various Census 2011 variables, such as ageing and education.
The report provides statistical evidence relating to the prevalence of dis
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ability and characteristics of persons with disabilities at both individual and household levels. Two methods were used to profile disability prevalence and patterns based on the six functional domains, namely seeing, hearing, communication, remembering/concentrating, walking and self-care. These two methods were:
- the level/degree of difficulty in a specific functional domain and;
- the disability index.
more
The standards define 10 key competencies for health and care workers to support self-care in their clinical practice as well as the specific, measurable behaviours that demonstrate those competencies, focusing on people-centredness; decision-making; effective
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communication; collaboration; evidence-informed practice, and personal conduct.
more
Asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disease among school-going adolescents worldwide. However, the burden of severe asthma is highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study aimed to explore teachers’ perceptions of asthma care across six African countries. We conducted focus group discussions
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(FGDs) using a semi-structured interview guide. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically. FGDs were conducted in Kumasi(Ghana), Blantyre (Malawi), Lagos (Nigeria), Durban (South Africa), Kampala (Uganda), and Harare (Zimbabwe) between 01 November 2020 and 30 June 2021. We identified two key themes related to asthma care; barriers to asthma care and suggestions to improve the care of adolescents with asthma. Barriers reported by teachers included a lack of knowledge and skills among themselves, adolescents, and caregivers. In addition, some traditional beliefs of teachers on asthma exacerbated challenges with asthma care in schools. Regarding suggestions, most teachers identified a need for all-inclusive asthma training programmes for teachers, adolescents and caregivers, focusing on acute episodes and mitigating triggers. Utilising teachers with personal experiences with asthma to advocate and support these initiatives was suggested. Further suggestions included the need for annual screening to enable early identification of adolescents with asthma and clarify restrictions on teachers administering asthma medications. Teachers across African schools identify multiple barriers to asthma care. Structured school education programs and annual asthma screening are key to addressing some barriers to care.
more
Healthy Settings, a key component of Malawi’s Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP) 2011–2016, is the World Health Organization’s (WHO) holistic community-led approach to achieving health improvement by addressing social determinants of health, an approach which is central to the current WHO fra
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mework on integrated people-centred health services. Healthy Settings projects by their construct have many different components which vary from one group and community to another depending on their priorities: from housing, hospital improvements and waste management to “softer” interventions like leadership skills training and health promotion. It can be challenging to find relevant indicators to monitor and assess the impact of such a complex holistic project, this paper explores if social capital data can provide useful impact assessment indicators at the start of such a project.
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The document provides guidance and tools for training health professionals in outbreak investigation. It explains why such training is essential, outlines the methodology for conducting short, practical courses, and describes how lectures, case studies, and exams are used to build
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skills needed for detecting, investigating, and responding to public health events. It also details how to plan, organize, and implement the training, including required resources, team roles, and evaluation procedures.
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a comprehensive guide
for the HCPs who work in counselling and psychological care of children and adoles-
cents. The Handbook includes information on HIV clinical care; growth and development;
mental health; child protection; counselling and communicati
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on; disclosure; loss, grief,
and bereavement; adherence; sexual and reproductive health; transition of care; support
systems; and monitoring and evaluation of psychosocial services. The material provided
in the Handbook aims to equip HCPs with important information that will help them to
maximise resiliency, minimise risk factors, and promote positive personal growth among
the children and adolescents they care for who are living with or affected by HIV.
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The document “Strategic Framework for Strengthening Cross-Border Surveillance and Information Sharing in Africa” outlines a coordinated strategy developed by Africa CDC to improve public health surveillance and collaboration across national borders in Africa. It addresses the challenge that infe
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ctious diseases often spread across borders due to population movement, trade, and migration, while surveillance systems and data-sharing mechanisms frequently remain nationally focused and fragmented.
The framework proposes strengthening regional coordination, harmonizing surveillance systems, enhancing information sharing between countries, and building laboratory and workforce capacity. It also emphasizes timely detection of cross-border health threats, joint outbreak investigations, and improved communication among Member States. Overall, the document aims to enhance preparedness, early warning systems, and collective response to public health threats across the African continent.
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The document “Pandemic Planning Response Guide” provides guidance for organizations on how to prepare for, respond to, and recover from a pandemic. It explains what a pandemic is and emphasizes the importance of advance planning to reduce disruptions to operations. The guide presents a structure
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d response framework based on different pandemic phases—from early alert and pre-pandemic preparation to the active pandemic phase and the recovery period afterward. For each phase, it outlines triggers, strategic actions, and practical tasks organizations should implement, such as establishing communication plans, ensuring business continuity, supporting remote work, managing supply chains, and protecting employee health and safety. In addition, the guide discusses key planning considerations like crisis communication, mental health impacts, transportation disruptions, and workforce management. Overall, the document serves as a practical template to help organizations maintain essential services and adapt their operations during a global health emergency.
more
The document “Mpox Continental Response Plan 2.0” outlines the strategy developed by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) to respond to the ongoing mpox outbreak across Africa. The plan describes coordinated
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actions to strengthen surveillance, laboratory capacity, case detection and contact tracing in affected countries. It also focuses on improving access to vaccines, diagnostics and treatment, supporting healthcare systems, and enhancing risk communication and community engagement. In addition, the document highlights the importance of regional and international cooperation, resource mobilization and technical support to help African countries control the outbreak and prevent further spread. Overall, the plan serves as a continental framework to guide a coordinated public health response to mpox in Africa.
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The text explains the concept of disaster preparedness and outlines how societies can better prepare for and respond to emergencies. It describes key components such as risk assessment, planning, resource management, warning systems, and training, emphasizing that effective preparedness requires coo
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rdination between institutions, communities, and individuals. The text also highlights the importance of early warning systems, showing that not only technical accuracy but also clear communication and community response are crucial. Overall, it argues that disaster preparedness is an ongoing process that combines planning, capacity building, and practical measures to reduce risks and improve emergency response.
more
This tool enables a rapid, systematic review of pharmacy curricula at the national or institutional level to evaluate their robustness in delivering the expected content and competencies. It can also assist institutions in designing strategies to strengthen AMR curricular content, and to facilitate
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structured, periodic dialogue on AMR and infection-related competencies among pharmacy faculty and other relevant stakeholders. A pharmacy curriculum that comprehensively integrates AMR content will help ensure that future pharmacists have the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to address AMR effectively in both clinical practice and public health.
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In Control: A Practical Handbook for Professionals Working in Health Emergencies Internationally RKI
The greatest risk to persons engaging in international medical emergency response is poor preparation.
The In Control handbook hopes to provide a remedy.
At the time of writing, we are living through the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a health emergency that disregards physical borders, brin
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gs into focus social inequalities and affects people on every continent. This shared challenge requires unprecedented measures and the collaboration of the brightest minds to support global health protection through this crisis and beyond. Healthcare infrastructures have to be strengthened, public health capacities and processes upgraded, medical countermeasures and vaccinations found and psychosocial side-effects treated.
Solidarity is the normative order of the day and the human species has to collaborate to face this invisible threat. Hiding and living in fear is not an option in this interconnected world. We have both a responsibility and an opportunity to make substantial contributions to a safer, healthier and more sustainable future for us all.
The existence of this handbook is an impressive example of solidarity. Over 50 authors from more than 15 institutes and organisations have come together voluntarily within a very short time to make their expertise available and enable cross-sectoral thinking. Knowledge is bundled, resources are combined, information gaps are filled. The In Control handbook is not a theoretical treatise of possible dangers, but a collection of subject-matter expertise, written by experts and practitioners who have shaped health topics over the past 20 years in the most diverse corners of the world.
The Centre for International Health Protection at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) is collaborating with its partners and investing heavily in the build-up of operational know-how and capacity to support health crisis response abroad. This is done by preparing and enabling professionals to deploy safely across the world to assist those in need. In Control addresses the multi-faceted challenges of an international deployment. Readers will find not only technical medical information, but also insights into, for example, the fragility of our environment, the cultural differences that influence risk communication or the dilemmas arising from social distancing. Legal principles are highlighted, along with ethical guidance to ensure that our actions and decisions correspond to the highest moral standards.
more
The World Health Organization (WHO) is releasing the second edition of its Global Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents (AA-HA!) guidance. The document aims to equip governments to respond to the health and well-being challenges, opportunities and needs of adolescents.
The guidance pro
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vides the latest available data on adolescent health and well-being. It also outlines an updated list of core indicators that data should be collected on. Globally, road injury was the top cause of death for adolescent males in 2019. Among female adolescents, the leading causes of death were diarrhoeal diseases among the younger group (10-14 years) and tuberculosis (TB) in the older group (15-19 years).
Over the last 20 years, mortality rates have declined among adolescents globally, with the largest decline in older (15–19 years) adolescent girls. For non-fatal diseases, the burden has not improved over the past two decades, with the main causes of ill health in this category being: mental health conditions (depressive and anxiety disorders, childhood behavioural disorders), iron deficiency anaemia, skin diseases and migraine.
Adolescent well-being depends on a range of factors, including healthy food, education, life skills and employability, connectedness, feeling valued by society, safe and supportive environments, resilience, and the freedom to make choices. To take an appropriately holistic approach, the guidance outlines how to take crosscutting action to support adolescent health and well-being, with mutually reinforcing interventions across sectors, such as health, education, social protection, and telecommunications. Targeted efforts are also required to engage adolescents, as they trust health systems less than adults do and are especially vulnerable to modern-day trends, like online bullying and gaming.
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Since the Alma Ata Declaration in 1978, community health volunteers (CHVs) have been at the forefront, providing health services, especially to underserved communities, in low-income countries. However, consolidation of CHVs position within formal health systems has proved to be complex and continue
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s to challenge countries, as they devise strategies to strengthen primary healthcare. Malawi’s community health strategy, launched in 2017, is a novel attempt to harmonise the multiple health
service structures at the community level and strengthen service delivery through a team-based approach. The core community health team (CHT) consists of health surveillance assistants (HSAs), clinicians, environmental health officers and CHVs. This paper reviews Malawi’s strategy, with particular focus on the interface between HSAs, volunteers in community-based programmes and
the community health team. Our analysis identified key challenges that may impede the strategy’s implementation:
(1) inadequate training, imbalance of skill sets within CHTs and unclear job descriptions for CHVs; (2) proposed community-level interventions require expansion of pre-existing roles for most CHT members; and (3) district authorities may face challenges meeting financial obligations and filling community-level positions. For effective implementation, attention and further deliberation is needed on the appropriate forms of CHV support, CHT composition with possibilities of co-opting trained CHVs
from existing volunteer programmes into CHTs, review of CHT competencies and workload, strengthening coordination and communication across all community actors, and financing mechanisms. Policy support through the development of an addendum to the strategy, outlining opportunities for task-shifting between CHT members, CHVs’ expected duties and interactions with paid CHT personnel is recommended.
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Lessons learned, ethical dilemmas, what failed, and what next? Presentation
The document provides practical guidelines for conducting a national disaster risk assessment, developed by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. It emphasizes the importance of understanding disaster risk as a foundation for effective disaster risk management and sustainable develo
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pment. The guidelines outline a structured process that includes preparing and scoping the assessment, conducting risk analysis, and using the results to inform policy and decision-making. They promote a comprehensive, multi-hazard approach that considers vulnerabilities, exposure, and capacities, while encouraging collaboration among governments, experts, and stakeholders. Overall, the document aims to help countries build stronger systems for assessing and managing risks, thereby enhancing resilience and reducing the impacts of disasters.
more
Contact tracing is a key element of WHO’s recommended approach to control the spread of COVID-19 by breaking the chains of human-to-human transmission.
This document provides guidance to health authorities at all levels to improve the success rate of contact tracing by informing efforts with RCCE
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principles, evidence and activities, and provides ready-to-use tools for professionals involved in contact-tracing efforts to inform their practices with RCCE principles and likewise improve their success rate.
more
Reading Material for ASHA no.8
