The scale of West Africa’s Ebola epidemic has been attributed to the weak health systems of affected countries,
their lack of resources, the mobility of communities and their inexperience in dealing with Ebola. This briefing for African Affairs argues that these explanations lack important contex...t. The briefing examines responses to the outbreak and offers a different set of explanations, rooted in the history of the region and the political economy of global health and development. To move past technical discussions of “weak” health systems, it highlights how structural violence has contributed to the epidemic. As part of this, local people – their beliefs, concerns and priorities – have been marginalised. Both the crisis response and post-Ebola ‘reconstruction’ will be strengthened by acknowledgment of its long term structural underpinnings and from a more collaborative inclusion of local people.
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The publication is designed to provide Ipas staff, trainers, partners and other health-care providers with access to up-to-date, evidence-based recommendations. In general, the recommendations are the same as those in the World Health Organization’s 2012 Safe Abortion: Technical and Policy Guidanc...e for Health Systems, Second edition. In rare cases, the recommendations have been modified due to the settings where Ipas works. In addition, if there is more current evidence to inform the recommendations, they will be updated here.
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The purpose of this document is to inform the public about biological and chemical hazards and thereby prepare the population for an immediate response in the event of an incident until public health support is provided.
The agents reported here are: Anthrax, Botulism, Haemorrhagic Fever,
...Smallpox, the Plague, Tularaemia, Chlorine, Cyanide, Lewisite, Mustard Gas,
Ricin, Sarin, Soman, Tabun and VX. This list is not exhaustive and no doubt
other dangerous types could be produced. They have been selected as they are the most often mentioned threats. This information has been prepared with the public in mind, and thus much of the medical terminology has been removed and replaced with every day language.
Also available in Arabic: http://www.who.int/csr/delibepidemics/biochem_threatsAR.pdf?ua=1
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The World Health Organization (WHO) and United NationsHuman Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) joint globalreport, Hidden cities: unmasking and overcoming healthinequities in urban settings, exposes the extent to whichcertain city dwellers suffer disproportionately from a wide range of diseases and ...health problems. This report provides information and tools to helpgovernments and local leaders reduce health inequities in their cities. The objective of the report is not tocompare rural and urban health inequities. Urban healthinequities need to be addressed specifically for they aredifferent in their magnitude and in their distribution.
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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a serious public health concern with economic, social and political implications that are global in scope, and cross all environmental and ethnic boundaries. As a global threat, AMR risks the achievements of modern medicine, and has the po...tential to impact overall global development. It is important, therefore, to elevate AMR beyond health as part of a larger development agenda in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This report provides in-depth technical discussions in areas that have direct implications to the containment of AMR as a development agenda. The report is organized in five chapters which served as the technical background documents for the Biregional Technical Consultation on AMR in Asia, 14-15 April 2016. More information from the meeting is available in the WHO Meeting Report: Biregional Technical Consultation on Antimicrobial Resistance in Asia. The meeting was the first time senior officials from the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Agriculture across Asia came together to tackle AMR
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This version of Field Trials of Health Interventions includes seven new chapters on conducting systematic literature reviews, trial
governance, preliminary studies and pilot testing, budgeting and accounting, intervention costing and economic analysis, and Phase IV studies. Before new interventions... are released into disease control programmes, it is essential that they are carefully evaluated in ‘field trials’. These may be complex and expensive undertakings, requiring the follow-up of hundreds, or thousands, of individuals, often for long periods. This manual was designed to provide guidance on the practical issues in great detail
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J Antimicrob Chemother https://doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkab423
Antibiotic stewardship is absolutely crucial in the fight to control antimicrobial resistance. Everyone has a part to
play. Grassroots action is essential; it is no good sitting back and waiting for world leaders to solve this problem.
In... this article I outline some of the challenges and the steps that everyone can take to do their part in tackling
the slow-moving crisis of AMR.
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Responses to epidemics, emergencies and disasters raise many ethical issues for the people involved, including public health specialists and policy makers. This training manual provides material on ethical issues in research, surveillance and patient care in these difficult contexts.
In Israel, as in other countries, the COVID-19 outbreak highlights existing structural inequities,which compromise the health of some migrant groups. The Israeli case also demonstrate show strong NGOs successfully advocate for the protection of migrants‘health amidst the crisis, madepossible bya c...ertain level ofcooperation withthe Israeli Ministry of Health.Hence,measures for COVID-19preparedness in Israel‘s marginalized migrant communities mostly result from pressure from civil society, against thebackdrop of a generally exclusionary approach toward migrants.4Over time, the Israeli Ministry of Health thus shifted from acknowledging the need to include migrants in preparedness measures toward the realization that particular needs and circumstances amongmigrant communities in some instances require special responses. Givena legacy of neglect and exclusion, this creates challenges for both the authorities and the migrant communities.
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The Global status report on violence prevention 2014, which reflects data from 133 countries, is the first report of its kind to assess national efforts to address interpersonal violence, namely child maltreatment, youth violence, intimate partner and sexual violence, and elder abuse. Jointly publis...hed by WHO, the United Nations Development Programme, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the report reviews the current status of violence prevention efforts in countries, and calls for a scaling up of violence prevention programmes; stronger legislation and enforcement of laws relevant for violence prevention; and enhanced services for victims of violence.
You can download summaries in different languages, single chapters and graphics
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The Member States of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO)
that appear in the tables below have used the assessment instrument for mental health systems (WHOAIMS)
(1), as have Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, and Turks and Caicos, all British
O...verseas Territories. For the purpose of this report, the countries and territories were grouped into three subregions, as follows:
Central America, Mexico, and the Latin Caribbean, the non-Latin Caribbean, and South America. The tables
also indicate the year each national WHO-AIMS report was published.
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mhGAP is based on evidence-based technical guidelines (4) and provides a set of tools and
training packages to extend service provision. The mhGAP Intervention Guide (mhGAP-IG)
for MNS disorders in non-specialized health settings (8) is a clinical decision-making tool
for assessing and managing p...riority MNS conditions (depression, psychoses, epilepsy, child
and adolescent mental and behavioural disorders, dementia, disorders due to substance
use, self-harm and suicide).
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This document, Ghana’s National Newborn Health Strategy and Action Plan 2014–2018 outlines a targeted strategy for accelerating the reduction of newborn deaths in Ghana. Furthermore it provides a costed action plan with clearly marked timelines for implementation to facilitate resource mobilisat...ion, monitoring and evaluation, and scaling up of proposed newborn interventions. It is expected that all stakeholders working towards improving the health of children in Ghana will buy into this plan and collaborate towards attainment of the goals and objectives outlined here.
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Social Determinants of Health Discussion Paper 1 (Debates). This paper was prepared for the launch of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) by its secretariat based at WHO in Geneva. It was discussed by the Commissioners and then revised considering their input.
This publication summarizes the facilitators and barriers that will be encountered in the deinstitutionalization process and identifies useful and proven interventions in Latin American and Caribbean countries. Four areas of work are identified with the respective guidelines or suggestions for actio...n, which should provide an operational guide for countries that are restructuring mental health services and moving toward the deinstitutionalization of psychiatric care.
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The Early Childhood Development Policy and its Strategic Plan seek to provide a framework to ensure such a holistic and integrated approach to the development of young children. International research has demonstrated the high economic returns on ECD investment and its positive impact on health and ...education outcomes as well as the overall economic development of a nation. The implementation of the ECD Policy will thus provide Rwanda with the basis for achieving the objectives and goals of the EDPRS and Vision 2020.
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The document is primarily meant to inform mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) staff, such as: psychologists, psychosocial counsellors, social workers, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, and others who are involved providing individual or group counselling, psychotherapy and/or psychiatric... treatment for Syrians
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The preparedness strengthening team deployed to Ghana focused on specific objectives in order to assist the country in becoming as operationally prepared as possible to detect, investigate and report potential EVD cases effectively and safely and to mount an effective response to prevent a larger o...utbreak. To accomplish this goal, the team conducted “scoping” activities, stakeholder meetings, site visits and a “table-top” simulation exercise to determine what systems were in place and what aspects of preparedness could be strengthened.
It is organized in 10 components of the WHO consolidated checklist for EVD preparedness: 1) planning and coordination; 2) epidemiological and laboratory surveillance; 3) rapid response teams; 4) contact tracing; 5) points of entry; 6) laboratory; 7) case management; 8) infection prevention and control; 9) social mobilization and risk communication; 10) budget.
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This policy brief has been developed in response to the contemporary challenge of antibiotic resistance (ABR). ABR poses a formidable threat to global health and sustainable development. It is now increasingly recognized that the systematic neglect of cultural factors is one of the biggest obs...tacles to achieving better health outcomes and better standards of living worldwide. Using a cultural contexts of health approach, the policy brief explores the centrality of culture to the challenge of ABR. The brief examines how the prescription and use of antibacterial medicines, the transmission of resistance, and the regulation and funding of research are influenced by cultural, social and commercial, as well as biological and technological factors. The brief moves beyond the ready equation of culture with individual behaviours and demonstrates how culture serve as an enabler of health and provide new possibilities for change.
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GMS Zeitschrift für MedizinischeAusbildung 2015, Vol. 32(5),ISSN 1860-3572
Internationalizing higher education is considered to be a major goal for universities in Germany and many medical students aspire to include international experiences into their academic training. However, the exact meani...ng of “internationalizing” medical education is still poorly defined, just as is the possible pedagogic impact and effects. Against this background, this article presents the special track curriculum on global health (in German: Schwerpunktcurriculum Global Health, short: SPC) at Justus Liebig University Giessen, which was established in 2011 as a comprehensive teaching program to integrate international perspectives and activities systematically into the clinical years of the medical curriculum
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