VOX Sanguinis, 2021:
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) affected millions of people worldwide and caused disruptions at the global level including in healthcare provision. Countries of the WHO African region have put in place measures for the COVID-19 pandemic containment that may adversely a...ffect blood system activities and subsequently reduce the supply and demand of blood and blood components. This study aims to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on blood supply and demand in the WHO African Region and propose measures to address the challenges faced by countries.
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These guidelines group all recommendations on TB care and support in one document and are complemented by an operational handbook. The guidelines are to be used primarily by national TB programmes, or their equivalents in Ministries of Health, stakeholders and technical organizations working on... TB care in the public and private sectors and in the community.
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This case study takes a closer look at experiences in three countries and one sub-region, each with a unique profile, a specific set of challenges and opportunities, and differing levels of WASH competencies. Through the lens of the participating National Societies and the communities they serve, th...is study captures rich layers of learning from multi-country implementation between 2016 to 2020.
The unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic gives a glimpse of the resulting global restrictions that are testing aspects of National Society capacity and preparedness on the ground. It is an opportunity to take stock of progress and the outlook ahead - to celebrate achievements and share experiences with National Societies and partners contemplating capacity development in emergency WASH in the Asia Pacific region.
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Lymphatic filariasis: managing morbidity and preventing disability: an aide-mémoire for national programme managers, second edition: web annex A: protocol for evaluating minimum package of care of morbidity management and disability prevention for lymphoedema management in designated health facilit...ies.
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BMJ 2020; 370 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3379
Rapid Recommendation and visual graph. This is the fifth version (update 4) of the living guideline (BMJ 2020;370:m3379). When citing this article, please consider adding the update number and date of access for clarity. The publication of the RE...COVERY and REMAP-CAP randomised controlled trials triggered this guideline update, resulting in a strong recommendation for interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor blockers (tocilizumab or sarilumab) in patients with severe or critical covid-19.
Prior recommendations: (a) A recommendation not to use ivermectin in patients with covid-19, regardless of disease severity, except in the context of a clinical trial; (b) a strong recommendation against the use of hydroxychloroquine in patients with covid-19, regardless of disease severity; (c) a strong recommendation against the use of lopinavir-ritonavir in patients with covid-19, regardless of disease severity; (d) a strong recommendation for systemic corticosteroids in patients with severe and critical covid-19; (e) a conditional recommendation against systemic corticosteroids in patients with non-severe covid-19; and (f) a conditional recommendation against remdesivir in hospitalised patients with covid-19.
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Recently, a renewed interest in large-scale community health worker (CHW) programs has been seen globally. This renewal provides an opportune moment to take stock of issues and challenges such programs face and what can be done to make them as effective as possible. With this in mind, this manual is... intended to be used a practical guide for policymakers and program
managers wishing to develop or strengthen a CHW program, drawing lessons from other countries that have implemented CHW programs at-scale. Throughout, we discuss major policy and programmatic issues that decision-makers and planners need to consider when designing, implementing, scaling up or strengthening a national-level CHW program. We offer an overview
of specific challenges CHW programs face, country lessons, tools, and other resources that may be helpful, while incorporating relevant programmatic examples as much as possible.
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The Toolkit is a resource that may be used by businesses of all sizes in the different sectors. The guidelines provided in the Toolkit are intentionally general so they can easily be adapted by employers to their specific business culture, working environment and human resource procedures.
The Tool...kit will be particularly relevant to designated employers in terms of the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998. Human resources personnel, DPO’s and all organisations pursuing greater employment opportunities
for persons with disabilities will find the Toolkit similarly useful.
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A lack of knowledge about the threat of vaccine-preventable diseases, risks and benefits of vaccines, mistrust of government and health workers, poor service delivery and alternative health or religious beliefs play a role in lower uptake of some vaccines. These challenges underscore the importance ...of early integration and investment in a thoughtful communication plan for immunization programmes. This World Health Organization (WHO) report presents communication guidance and specific considerations for countries that plan to introduce human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine into their national immunisation programme as part of an effort to prevent cervical cancer.
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PNAS | March 4, 2014 | vol. 111 | no. 9
Malaria is an important disease that has a global distribution and significant health burden. The spatial limits of its distribution and seasonal activity are sensitive to climate factors, as well as the local capacity to control the disease. Malaria is also ...one of the few health outcomes that has been modeled by more than one research group and can therefore facilitate the first model intercomparison for health impacts under a future with climate change. We used bias-corrected temperature and rainfall simulations from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 climate models to compare the metrics of five statistical and dynamical malaria impact models for three future time periods (2030s, 2050s, and 2080s). We evaluated three malaria outcome metrics at global and regional levels: climate suitability, additional population at risk and additional person-months at risk across the model outputs. The malaria projections were based on five different global climate models, each run under four emission scenarios (Representative Concentration Pathways, RCPs) and a single population projection. We also investigated the modeling uncertainty associated with future projections of populations at risk for malaria owing to climate change. Our findings show an overall global net increase in climate suitability and a net increase in the population at risk, but with large uncertainties. The model outputs indicate a net increase in the annual person-months at risk when comparing from RCP2.6 to RCP8.5 from the 2050s to the 2080s. The malaria outcome metrics were highly sensitive to the choice of malaria impact model, especially over the epidemic fringes of the malaria distribution.
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Lymphatic filariasis is a neglected tropical disease that can cause permanent disability through disruption of the lymphatic system. This disease is caused by parasitic filarial worms that are transmitted by mosquitos. Mass drug administration (MDA) of antihelmintics is recommended by WHO to elimina...te lymphatic filariasis as a public health problem. This study aims to produce the first geospatial estimates of the global prevalence of lymphatic filariasis infection over time, to quantify progress towards elimination, and to identify geographical variation in distribution of infection.
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The Humanitarian Pandemic Preparedness (H2P) Initiative and its many partners have developed ready-to-use training curricula for district- and community-level leaders, and community volunteers and workers in order to minimize morbidity and mortality in the event of an influenza pandemic. The time t...o put these tools into action is now.
The curriculum has separate tracks for district/community leaders and for first responders (community volunteers and workers) at the community level.
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After five consecutive below-average rains, the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa is expanding and deepening.
Combined with insecurity and macroeconomic volatility, the impact of the drought on food and nutrition security has been devastating. Across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, an estima...ted 22 million people are now acutely food insecure because of the drought. The malnutrition situation is also critical. Some 5.1 million children across drought-affected areas of the three countries are acutely malnourished in 2023, with dire implications for their health, growth and survival. Concerningly, the upcoming March-May 2023 rains are also forecast to be below-average. Should these rains fail, and humanitarian assistance not be delivered at scale, food insecurity will continue to deteriorate.
Regardless of how the 2023 rains perform, extremely high humanitarian needs will persist through 2023 while a full recovery from a drought of this magnitude will take years. To address the devastating drought-induced hunger and malnutrition across the region, WFP is pursuing an integrated dual track approach; meeting immediate life-saving food and nutritional needs while simultaneously building resilience to extreme climate variability.
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A 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck at 04:17 local time on 6 February 2023, with its epicentre located in Pazarcık district
in Kahramanmaraş province, Türkiye. Over 1200 aftershocks have since been reported. These are Türkiye’ s most powerful
earthquakes since 1939
This document is an output of a WHO cross-programme initiative aiming to improve the prevention, diagnosis and management of anaemia and thereby accelerate reduction in its prevalence. It comes at an important time, midway through the era of the Sustainable Development Goals, when progress in reduci...ng anaemia has stagnated. This framework is based on the core principles of primary health care: meeting people’s health needs through comprehensive promotive, protective, curative, and rehabilitative care along the life course; systematically addressing the broader determinants of health; and empowering individuals, families, and communities to optimize their health
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The World health statistics report is the annual compilation of health and health-related indicators which has been published by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 2005. The 2023 edition reviews more than 50 health-related indicators from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and WHO’s T...hirteenth General Programme of Work (GPW 13).
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