Kenya is home to 4 million girls and women who have experienced FGM. Overall, 21 per cent of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years have undergone the practice, varying from 98 per cent in the North Eastern region to 1 per cent in the Western region
Pregnancy and childbirth during adolescence profoundly affects the lives of millions of girls worldwide, and is a leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity, and infant and child mortality. Every year, an estimated 21 million girls aged 15–19 years old in low- and middle-income countries be...come pregnant, and approximately 12 million give birth.
For many adolescent girls, the ability to control their sexual lives remains limited. Long-standing gender inequalities and discrimination, marginalization, harmful social and gender norms, and denial of rights, compounded by poverty and violence, render them vulnerable to early pregnancy, HIV and other health threats. Lack of age-appropriate sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) information and services create additional barriers to care and support; as a result, adolescent girls who become pregnant are much more likely to go on to have rapid repeated births.
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Female Genital Mutilation in Mali: Insights from a statistical analysis Mali is home to nearly 8 million girls and women who have experienced FGM. Overall, 89 per cent of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years have undergone the practice, ranging from 96 per cent in Sikasso region to 1 per cent or less... in Gao and Kidal
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WHO clinical guidelines.
For the first time, WHO has published guidelines to help (primarily) front-line healthcare providers give high-quality, compassionate, and respectful care to children and adolescents (up to age 18) who have or may have experienced sexual abuse, including sexual assault or r...ape.
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The Federal Ministry of Health of Ethiopia (FMOH), the National Disaster Risk Management Commission (NDRMC) and other government actors together with UN agencies (UNICEF, UNHCR, WHO and WFP) and nutrition development partners call for all parties involved in the response to emergencies in Ethiopia t...o provide appropriate, prompt support for the feeding and care of infants, young children and their mothers. This is a critical for supporting child survival, growth and development and preventing malnutrition, illness and death. This joint statement has been issued to help secure immediate, coordinated, multi- sectoral action on infant and young child feeding (IYCF) in emergencies.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is causing untold fear and suffering for older people across the world. As of 26 April, the virus itself has already taken the lives of some 193,710 people, and fatality rates for those over 80 years of age is five times the global average. As the virus spreads rapidly to devel...oping countries, likely overwhelming health and social protection systems, the mortality rate for older persons could climb even higher.
Less visible but no less worrisome are the broader effects: health care denied for conditions unrelated to COVID-19; neglect and abuse in institutions and care facilities; an increase in poverty and unemployment; the dramatic impact on well-being and mental health; and the trauma of stigma and discrimination.
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PLoS ONE 13(8): e0202499. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202499
This was a school-based cross-sectional study conducted in 2015 among 305 school children aged 7–16 years from two primary schools located in Ilemela and Magu Districts, north-western Tanzania. Single stool and urine samples w...ere collected from each participant and examined for the presence of Schistosoma mansoni eggs, parasite antigen, and parasite DNA using KK thick smears, POC-CCA tests, and real-time PCR, respectively.
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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...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.
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This Topic Guide has been compiled to provide an overview of undernutrition in the context of development. The focus of the Guide is on undernutrition, defined as the outcome of insufficient (quantity and quality) of food intake (hunger) and repeated infectious diseases. Undernutrition includes bein...g underweight for one’s age, too short for one’s age (stunted), underweight for one’s height (wasted), and deficient in vitamins and minerals (micronutrient malnutrition). This review does not focus on the other component of malnutrition, which is overnutrition
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The report aims to help policy-makers and programme managers identify the areas that need attention and to work towards effective implementation and enforcement of policies and legislations. The need for alcohol policy-specific infrastructures to support the alcohol policy process, including designa...ted responsible agency, policy and strategy, and law and regulation, is also required at the country level.
The report is presented in three sections. Section 1 gives an insight to the alcohol consumption situation in the WHO South-East Asia Region and cites the alcohol-related problems that the Region is facing. Section 2 illustrates the policy situation in the 10 areas of national action identified in the Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol and gives specific recommendations pertaining to these areas. Section 3 provides overall recommendations.
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Musculoskeletal disorders represent a significant problem of modern society which are more pronounced in young people and school children. Etiology of these disorders is found in inadequate ergonomic conditions, too heavy school bag, school furniture inadequate to age, poor posture, sedentary lifest...yle, reduction of physical activity and lack of exercise.
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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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The Social Determinants of Health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live and age. They have a large influence on our health. It also determines health inequities, which is the unfair and avoidable health difference between different groups of people In this video we take a look at t...he social determinants of health..what they are, how it impacts health and a useful framework to understand it.
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The position papers are intended for use by national public health officials and managers of immunization programmes. They may also be of interest to international funding agencies, vaccine advisory groups, vaccine manufacturers, health professionals, researchers, the scientific media and the genera...l public.
Les notes de synthèse s’adressent aux responsables nationaux de la santé publique et aux administrateurs des programmes de vaccination, mais elles peuvent également présenter un intérêt pour les organismes internationaux de financement, les groupes consultatifs sur la vaccination, les fabricants de vaccins, les professionnels de la santé, les chercheurs, les médias scientifiques et le grand public.
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Schools are generally the most popular setting for drug-use-
prevention programmes, and are used both by governmental and
non-governmental agencies. This may be for many reasons: ease of
obtaining funding for school drug-use-prevention programmes, the
captive audience, and the popular perception... that drug prevention
should start from schools, or the need to show that action is being
taken to control a serious social problem.
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BMC Infectious Diseases (2019) 19:832
Intestinal schistosomiasis is highly endemic in Tanzania and mass drug administration (MDA) using
praziquantel is the mainstay of the control program. However, the MDA program covers only school aged children
and does not include neither adult individuals nor... other public health measures. The Ijinga schistosomiasis project
examines the impact of an intensified treatment protocol with praziquantel MDA in combination with additional
public health interventions. It aims to investigate the feasibility of eliminating intestinal schistosomiasis in a highly
endemic African setting using an integrated community-based approach.
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This Strategy and Plan of Action on Health Promotion within the Context of the Sustainable Development
Goals 2019-2030 seeks to renew health promotion (HP) through social, political, and technical actions,
addressing the social determinants of health (SDH), he conditions in which people are born, ...grow, live,
work, and age (1). It seeks to improve health and reduce health inequities within the framework of
the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
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Throughout the Americas, populations are aging and the Region is undergoing a rapid demographic transition. The aging index, which reflects the size of the older age groups per 100 compared to children under age 15, clearly demonstrates the increase in people aged 60 and older. Compared to global tr...ends, the Region of the Americas will have a larger number of people aged 60 and older than children under 15 by 2030, which is approximately 25 years before the global average. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented an unparalleled health crisis around the world. The impact on older persons and those with underlying health conditions has highlighted the challenges of addressing the needs of older populations during a public health emergency. Given this demographic transition it is essential to think about preparedness of systems and services to address this population’s needs, including an increase in emergency planning and protection of older populations.
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Our goal at Voices for Georgia’s Children is to help decision-makers craft and implement policies that ensure Georgia’s children grow up to be healthy, educated and productive citizens. To that end, we have developed a comprehensive policy agenda focused on early childhood, child health and disc...onnected youth, which, if followed, can effectively prevent and offset some of the damaging experiences faced by our children. Many of our recommendations are aligned with those included in this policy brief.
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To support countries in adapting their response to different COVID-19 scenarios, the World Health
Organization (WHO) Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing commissioned this scoping review of published and grey literature. The objective was to identify interventions... implemented to maintain the provision and use of essential services for MNCAAH during disruptive events and to summarize lessons learned during these interventions. The review included outbreaks of Ebola virus disease (EVD), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Zika virus disease (ZVD), the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and natural disasters and humanitarian emergencies that caused disruption to services, transport and other activities.
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