One of the many gender inequities in the health and care workforce that COVID-19 has exposed is around the fit and design of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The rapid onset and scale of COVID-19 led to shortages of PPE in most countries, causing preventable infection and mortality among healthc...are workers and others on the front lines. Even though most health workers are women, manufacturing specifications for medical PPE are usually drawn up based on the male body and there have been many reports of PPE not designed for women's bodies.
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Large-Scale UN Response Needed to Address Health and Food Crises
This report is based on interviews with more than 150 health care professionals, Venezuelans seeking or in need of medical care who recently arrived in Colombia and Brazil, representatives from international and nongovernmental humani...tarian organizations. In addition, researchers analyzed data on the situation inside Venezuela from official sources, hospitals, international and national organizations, and civil society organizations.
We found a health system in utter collapse with increased levels of maternal and infant mortality; the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles and diphtheria; and increases in numbers of infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis (TB). Although the government stopped publishing official data on nutrition in 2007, research by Venezuelan organizations and universities documents high levels of food insecurity and child malnutrition, and available data shows high hospital admissions of malnourished children.
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TUATION UPDATE
In the early morning of 6 February 2023, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurred in southern Türkiye near the
northern border of Syria. The earthquake was followed 11 minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Many
aftershocks are still being felt across the region. Whilst the imp...act is still being assessed, initial reports evidence
significant damage in the areas of southern Türkiye and northern Syria.
In response, the Syria Ministry of Health (MoH) activated its emergency operations centre (EOC) on 6 Feb 2023
under the chairmanship of the Deputy Minister. In all affected governorates, public and private health facilities
and medical convoys have been repurposed to support the response and are being managed by the National
Ministry of Health (MoH) and Directorate of Health (DoH) at governorate level. Support has been directed to
affected areas, with medical convoys including 28 ambulances and 7 mobile clinics, deployed from the health
directorates of Damascus, Rural Damascus, Quneitra, Homs, Tartous, Aleppo and Latakia. At the same time, 4
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The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has produced a three-volume series entitled Managing Hazardous Material Incidents. The series is designed to help emergency response and health care professionals plan for and respond to hazardous material emergencies.
- Volume I Emergenc...y Medical Services: A Planning Guide for the Management of Contaminated Patients
- Volume II Hospital Emergency Departments: A Planning Guide for the Management of Contaminated Patients
- Volume III Medical Management Guidelines for Acute Chemical Exposures
Volumes I and II are planning guides to assist first responders and hospital emergency department personnel in planning for incidents that involve hazardous materials.
Volume III is a guide for health care professionals who treat persons who have been exposed to hazardous materials.
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COVID-19 Vaccines: 1 Safety Surveillance 2 Manual
While there is no indication that pregnant women have an increased susceptibility to infection with SARS-CoV-2, there is evidence that pregnancy may increase the risk of severe illness and mortality from COVID-19 disease in comparison with non-pregn...ant women of reproductive age. As seen with non-pregnant women, a high proportion of pregnant women have asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe disease is associated with recognized medical (e.g., high body-mass index (BMI), diabetes, pre-existing pulmonary or cardiac conditions) and social (e.g., social deprivation, ethnicity) risk factors. Pregnant women with symptomatic COVID-19 appear to have an increased risk of intensive care unit admission, mechanical ventilation and death in comparison with non-pregnant women of reproductive age, although the absolute risks remain low. COVID-19 may increase the risk of preterm birth, compared with pregnant women without COVID-19, although the evidence is inconclusive.
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These guidelines are designed for ICRC and other health professionals – nurses, midwifes, doctors – who either lack experience in antenatal care or are not used to working in countries where medical infrastructure is underdeveloped or non-existent
Em vista do aumento repentino do número de hospitalizações causadas pela pandemia de COVID-19 na América Latina e no Caribe, bem como da escassez de recursos humanos e materiais, como equipes médicas e gases medicinais, é necessário reformular os modelos de atenção na Região de modo a otim...izar o que já está disponível e garantir que mais pacientes recebam oxigênio na quantidade necessária e com a qualidade adequada O oxigênio consta na lista de medicamentos essenciais da Organização Mundial da Saúde sendo usado na atenção a pacientes em todos os níveis das redes integradas de serviços de saúde. Considerando que já está comprovada a eficácia do uso de oxigênio no tratamento de pacientes com afecções respiratórias causadas pela COVID-19, há uma grande oportunidade de melhorar a efetividade caso se promova seu uso racional, sustentável e seguro.
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September – December 2021
The funds will be used by WHO to ensure:
continued coordination with other agencies and health actors in the response to the crisis situation
continuity of health services for the population of Afghanistan
provision of life-saving medical supplies
con...tinued response to COVID-19
timely response to potential outbreaks
response to urgent trauma needs
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Dérivant du grec τραῦμα signifiant « blessure », le mot « traumatisme »
a été utilisé durant des siècles comme un terme médical désignant « une blessure
des tissus vivants causée par un agent externe.» Ainsi, ce n’est qu’en 1889, lorsque
Oppenheim fit la première descrip...tion clinique des « névroses traumatiques »
chez des victimes d’accidents de chemin de fer, que le terme pris également une
acceptation psychologique.
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Ghana's attempt to regulate health care waste management started in 2002 with the development of guidelines on health care waste manage-ment by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In 2006, the Ministry of Health developed the health care waste policy and guidelines. This guidance document im...proved health care waste management in the country.
With support from the UNDP-GEF medical waste management project, the Ministry of He lth has revised the existing National Health Care Waste Management (HCWM), policy and guideline, 2006 and has produced two separate documents- A National Health Care Waste Management Policy and a National Guideline for Health Care Waste Management
countrywide. This policy is replacing the 2006 policy and introduces new technical and administrative policy issues to enhance waste management in health care facilities.
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v.1 (3 de abril de 2020)
Este guia de prática clínica fornece recomendações baseadas em evidências para o controle de infecção, coleta de amostras, cuidados de suporte, tratamento medicamentoso e prevenção de complicações. As recomendações são dirigidas a todos os profissionais de sa...de que atendem os pacientes no serviço de urgência/emergência e na unidade de terapia intensiva (UTI) (médicos com especialidade em medicina de urgência, pneumologia, medicina intensiva, clínica médica, anestesiologia, infectologia, fisioterapeutas respiratórios, enfermeiros e farmacêuticos). O guia deve ser usado por tomadores de decisão e membros de entidades governamentais relacionados com o tratamento de pacientes com COVID-19 em UTI na região das Américas. Este guia não incluirá aspectos relacionados com a nutrição, fisioterapia (exceto fisioterapia respiratória) e tratamento de complicações.
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Ce document a été élaboré par Peter Ventevogel, consultant, sous la supervision de Marian Schilperoord. Les versions préliminaires de cette publication ont grandement bénéficié de la contribution de plusieurs personnes au sein de l’UNHCR et d’organisations partenaires. Nous voudrions tou...t particulièrement remercier les collègues suivants pour leur relecture du document : A l’UNHCR: Gregory Garras, Sarah Harrison, Alexandra Kaun, Stefanie Krause, Preeta Law, Allen Gidraf Kahindo Maina, MaryBeth Morand, Audrey Nirrengarten, Martina Nicole Pomeroy, Monika Sandvik-Nylund, Ita Sheehy, Paul Spiegel, Margriet Veenma and Constanze Quosh. Dans les autres organisations: Carolina Echeverri (consultante SMSPS) Sabine Rakotomalala (UNICEF), Emmanuel Streel (consultant SMSPS), Wietse Tol (Université Johns Hopkins) Mark van Ommeren (OMS) et Inka Weissbecker (International Medical Corps).
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• Clashes continued between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), and Turkish backed forces, concentrated around the M4 highway and Tal Tamer district in Al-Hasakeh. Further displacement was reported.
• Several civilian casualties occurred due to improvised explosive ...devices (IEDs) in Afrin, Quamishli, and along the Tell Abiad-Ras al-Ain corridor. On 16 November, a car bomb in Al Bab, Aleppo reportedly killed 14 people and injured 27, including civilians.
• On 13 November, Alouk water station was repaired following reconnection of the Debarseyah supply line, again restoring water to 460,000 people in Al-Hasakeh city and surrounding areas
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The recommendations in this guideline are intended to inform the development of relevant national- and local-level health policies and clinical protocols. Therefore, the target audience includes national and local public health policy-makers, implementers and managers of maternal and child health pr...ogrammes, health care facility managers, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), professional societies involved in the planning and management of maternal and child health services, health care professionals (including nurses, midwives, general medical practitioners and obstetricians) and academic staff involved in training health care professionals.
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People with underlying noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease and cancer have a high risk for developing severe and even fatal COVID-19. It is important for them to strictly follow basic protective measures and make sure th...eir chronic diseases are well managed. However, pandemics cripple health systems and compromise provision routine medical care. This technical note gives general guidance to people living with NCDs, their caregivers and family members, the public, health programme managers and health-care workers on how to reduce risks of a COVID-19 infection and maintain care for people living with NCDs during the outbreak.
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This is an update (third edition) of the BACPR Standards & Core Components and represents current evidence-based best practice and a pragmatic overview of the structure and function of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation Programmes (CPRPs) in the UK. The previously described seven standards... have now been reduced to six but without sacrificing any of the key elements and with a greater emphasis placed on measurable clinical outcomes, audit and certification. Similarly, the second edition provided an overview of seven core components felt to be essential for the delivery of quality prevention and rehabilitation, and this too has been reduced to six. The interplay between cardio-protective therapies and medical risk factors is almost impossible to disentangle for the vast majority of patients and even if specific drug therapies are deployed exclusively for risk factor modulation, the indirect effect will also be cardio-protective. Thus, these have been combined into a single core component – medical risk management.
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Maintaining proper storage conditions for health commodities is vital to ensuring their quality. Product expiration dates are based on ideal storage conditions and protecting product quality until their expiration date is important for serving customers and conserving resources. Guidelines for the S...torage of Essential Medicines and Other Health Commodities is a practical reference for those managing or involved in setting up a storeroom or warehouse. The guide contains written directions and clear illustrations on receiving and arranging commodities; special storage conditions; tracking commodities; maintaining the quality of the products; constructing and designing a medical store; waste management; and resources. It was written to meet the needs of district-level facilities; however, the guidelines and information it contains apply to any storage facility, of any size, in any type of environment.
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Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant
tuberculosis (XDR-TB) increasingly occur in resource-constrained settings.
In the context of a national response to MDR- and XDR-TB, health workers in
TB clinics (in district hospitals and some accredited health centres) wil...l need
to diagnose MDR-TB, initiate second-line anti-TB drugs, and monitor MDRTB
treatment.
Management of MDR-TB: a field guide was created to help health workers
carry out these tasks. It is a job aid that medical officers and TB nurses
are meant use frequently during the day for quick reference. This module
is closely related to other clinical guideline modules in the Integrated
Management of Adolescent and Adult Illness (IMAI) series. In particular, the
approach to chronic disease management is taken from General principles
of good chronic care in the IMAI series.
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The study on health facility preparedness for cholera outbreak response in Cameroon evaluates the ability of healthcare facilities in four cholera-prone districts to manage cholera outbreaks. The findings highlight significant weaknesses, including limited surveillance systems, inadequate access to ...water, poor sanitation, and lack of essential medical supplies such as Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) and cholera case management guidelines. Many health facilities also lacked trained personnel and proper waste disposal systems, increasing the risk of disease spread within healthcare centers. The study underscores the urgent need for improved hygiene infrastructure, better training, and resource allocation to enhance outbreak response and reduce cholera-related mortality.
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The Ministry of Health together with its partners realizes that efficient and effective
delivery of clinical care is highly dependent on the availability of appropriately
upgraded environment, which is in well facilitated space. Such facilities and utilities
should always be properly designed, bu...ilt, and maintained, so as to ensure efficient
treatment in clean and safe from infection.
The main challenges in achieving this include the lack of, appropriate holistic and
futuristic management plans, human resource for facility/utility management and
maintenance, adequate budget funds for renovation/maintenance activities at all
levels which means daily and long-term of facility maintenance plans and executions.
It is hoped that the guidelines will help to standardise
design of medical facilities and utilities country wide and result in efficient and
effective establishment of these life-saving function
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