This report compiles data for the first time on the far-reaching consequences of uncontrolled hypertension, including heart attacks, strokes and premature death, along with substantial economic losses for communities and countries. It also contains information on the global, regional and country-lev...el burden of hypertension and progress of control efforts.
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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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This volume presents the complex patterns of cancer incidence and death around the world and evidence on effective and cost-effective ways to control cancers. The Disease Control Priorities Volume 3 evaluation of cancer will indicate where cancer treatment is ineffective and wasteful, and offer alte...rnative cancer care packages that are cost-effective and suited to low-resource settings.
Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition: Volume 3
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Produced by UNICEF and IRC, with the support of the German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH (GIZ) and the generous funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Caring for Child Survivors of Sexual Abuse (CCS) Resource Package (Second Editi...on, 2023) is a revision of the original CCS Guidelines and associated Training (First Edition, 2012). The Second Edition offers an up-to-date global technical guidance on providing a model of quality care for children and families affected by sexual abuse in humanitarian settings. The new resources include both revised and content additions based on practitioner feedback, the most recent evidence and learning. In particular, the Guidelines aim to bring a stronger focus on gender inequality, intersectionality, as well as the connections between the best interests of the child and a survivor-centered approach.
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About one fourth of the world’s population is estimated to have been infected with the tuberculosis (TB) bacilli, and about 5–10% of those infected develop TB disease in their lifetime. The risk for TB disease after infection depends on several factors, the most important being the person’s im...munological status. TB preventive treatment (TPT) given to people at highest risk of progressing from TB infection to disease remains a critical element to achieve the global targets of the End TB Strategy, as reiterated by the second UN High Level Meeting on TB in 2023. Delivering TPT effectively and safely necessitates a programmatic approach to implement a comprehensive package of interventions along a cascade of care: identifying individuals at highest risk, screening for TB and ruling out TB disease, testing for TB infection, and choosing the preventive treatment option that is best suited to an individual, managing adverse events, supporting medication adherence and monitoring programmatic performance.
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The Demographic Dividend study on Rwanda assessed the socio-economic and human development potential of our country in the short, medium and long-term period using a comprehensive approach. It generated relevant policy and programme information to guide a well-informed polciy required to propel Rwan...da towards achieving its aspirations of being high middle income country by 2035 and high income country by 2050.
The primary objectives of this study were to assess Rwanda’s prospects for harnessing the demographic dividend and demonstrate priority policy and programme options that the country should adopt in order to optimise its chances of earning a maximum demographic dividend in the context of its youthful population and medium, long-term socio-economic development aspirations.
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WHO‘s Global Strategy to Accelerate the Elimination of Cervical Cancer, launched today, outlines three key steps: vaccination, screening and treatment. Successful implementation of all three could reduce more than 40% of new cases of the disease and 5 million related deaths by 2050.
Recency assays use one or more biomarkers to identify whether HIV infection in a person is recent (usually within a year or less) or longstanding. Recency assays have been used to estimate incidence in representative cross-sectional surveys and in epidemiological studies to better understand the pat...terns and distributions of new and longstanding HIV infections.
This technical guidance outlines best practices regarding the appropriate use of HIV recency assays for surveillance purposes and updates 2011 technical guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) on the use of HIV recency assays.
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Germany’s overall response to COVID-19 has been evaluated as reasoned and sound. Nonetheless, it has exposed weaknesses and blindspots in the German healthcare system regarding the inclusion of migrant groups. For instance, marginalised groups such as labour migrants and asylum-seekers are not con...sidered for tailored measures in the government’s response to COVID-19. On the other hand, certain efforts to include migrant groups, such as the provision of information in numerous languages, are unprecedented in the German context. They may point to increasing accommodation for diversity.
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Towards Malaria Elimination
From policy to practice: how the TB-HIV response is working
“The HIV community must place much more focus on TB co-infection than
it has done to date. TB takes the lives of over 1000 people living with HIV
every day, a number which is absolutely unacceptable. This report highlights that
TB d...oesn’t have to be a death sentence for people living with HIV, but we need
more action. By joining forces, the HIV and TB community can finally give this
deadly issue the attention it deserves.”
– Mike Podmore, Director STOPAIDS
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The failure to protect the people most vulnerable to climate change is especially alarming given the steady increase in the number of climate and weather-related disasters. According to the World Disasters Report, the average number of climate and weather-related disasters per decade has increased n...early 35 per cent since the 1990s.
Over the past decade, 83 per cent of all disasters were caused by extreme weather and climate-related events such as floods, storms, and heatwaves. Together, these disasters killed more than 410,000 people and affected a staggering 1.7 billion people.
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Western Pac Surveill Response J. 2014 Oct-Dec; 5(4): 34–46.
Published online 2014 Dec 18. doi: [10.5365/WPSAR.2014.5.4.007]
Miscellaneous
Chapter J.5
Overwhelming evidence shows that a range of health concerns—mental illness, substance dependence, HIV/AIDS, and noncommunicable diseases—affect prisoners disproportionately. But, while incarceration poses risks to health—including inadequate nutrition and exposure to violence—prisons also pr...esent important opportunities to promote health and risk reduction that need to be tapped.
Some recommended remedies:
Health ministries, not ministries of justice, should manage health care responsibilities
Ensure that testing is available, but not mandatory, for infectious diseases
Make prison health part of the broader public health agenda
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The Zimbabwe National Pharmacovigilance Policy Handbook, 2nd Edition updates the November 2013 version to indicate the Zimbabwe National Pharmacovigilance (PV) Centre’s compliance with the WHO Pharmacovigilance Indicators Handbook 2015.