Cholera is a diarrhoeal disease that is usually contracted when drinking water contaminated with Vibrio cholerae bacteria. The fight against this disease requires a multidisciplinary approach that combines a water, hygiene and sanitation (WaSH) response with a monitoring system, improved water suppl...y and quality, sanitation and hygiene, and a health response with the treatment of the disease itself.
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As a high-burden neglected tropical disease, soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections remain a major problem in the world, especially among children under five years of age. Since young children are at high risk of being infected, STH infection can have a long-term negative impact on their life, i...ncluding impaired growth and development. Stunting, a form of malnutrition in young children, has been long assumed as one of the risk factors in acquiring the STH infections. However, the studies on STH infection in children under five with stunting have been lacking, resulting in poor identification of the risk. Accordingly, we collected and reviewed existing related research articles to provide an overview of STH infection in a susceptible population of stunted children under five years of age in terms of prevalence and risk factors. There were 17 studies included in this review related to infection with Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, hookworm, and Strongyloides stercoralis from various countries. The prevalence of STH infection in stunted children ranged from 12.5% to 56.5%. Increased inflammatory markers and intestinal microbiota dysbiosis might have increased the intensity of STH infection in stunted children that caused impairment in the immune system. While the age from 2 to 5 years along with poor hygiene and sanitation has shown to be the most common risk factors of STH infections in stunted children; currently there are no studies that show direct results of stunting as a risk factor for STH infection. While stunting itself may affect the pathogenesis of STH infection, further research on stunting as a risk factor for STH infection is encouraged.
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Measuring progress towards universal health coverage.
This sixth edition of Health at a Glance Asia/Pacific presents a set of key indicators of health status, the determinants of health, health care resources and utilisation, health care expenditure and financing and quality of care across 27 Asia-...Pacific countries and territories. It also provides a series of dashboards to compare performance across countries and territories, and a thematic analysis on the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on Asia/Pacific health systems.
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An estimated 1.3 billion people – or 16% of global population worldwide – experience a significant disability today. Persons with disabilities have the right to the highest attainable standard of health as those without disabilities. However, the WHO Global report on health equity for persons w...ith disabilities demonstrates that while some progress has been made in recent years, the world is still far from realizing this right for many persons with disabilities who continue to die earlier, have poorer health, and experience more limitations in everyday functioning than others. These poor health outcomes are due to unfair conditions faced by persons with disabilities in all facets of life, including in the health system itself. Countries have an obligation under international human rights law to address the health inequities faced by persons with disabilities. Furthermore, the Sustainable Development Goals and global health priorities will not progress without ensuring health for all.
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In Control imparts knowledge, provokes reflection and triggers curiosity. The first half of the book provides an overview of the organisations, principles, frameworks and themes that every professional deploying to health emergencies should be aware of. The second half of the book provides practical... advice to help professionals survive and thrive during their mission – from staying healthy, protecting oneself from cyber-attacks and coping with stress to building trust among the host community or dealing with language barriers and the press.
This handbook is free of charge and can be made available in small quantities as long as supply lasts. To order, please send this form to: incontrol-handbook@rki.de
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Evidence shows that oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) reduces the risk of contracting HIV during sexual intercourse by more than 90% when taken daily. It is for this reason the National HIV Prevention Strategy 2015-2020 (2018 Revision) emphasises the role of preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in ...reducing new HIV infections in Malawi.
The Ministry of Health has prioritised PrEP use among the populations most at-risk of HIV infection in Malawi: young women ages 10 to 24 years, sero-discordant couples, female sex workers, men who have sex with men, and other priority populations (such as members of the uniformed services, prisoners, and mobile populations).
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Rwanda’s national health sector is focused on the equitable delivery of high-quality health services. The Government of Rwanda (GoR) recognizes that developing human resources in the health sector is a critical factor to the well-being of the population. Development of the health workforce has bee...n guided by the Human Resources for Health (HRH) Programme (2012-2019) and its successor, the National Strategy for Health Professions Development (NSHPD) (2020-2030). Rwanda has made significant progress in enhancing its skilled health workforce, with notable improvements in the health professional-to-population ratio over the past decade, attaining 13.4 doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, and dentists per 10 000 people in 2022. Despite such progress, health workforce levels remain below national and global recommendations.
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Almost 30 countries vulnerable to a new Ebola-style Epidemic, jeopardising the future of millions of Children. The report ranks the world’s poorest countries on the state of their public health systems, finding that 28 have weaker defences in place than Liberia where, alongside Sierra Leone and Gu...inea, the current Ebola crisis has already claimed 9,000 lives, and provoked an extraordinary international response to help contain it.
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1 June 2020
Countries around the world are facing the challenge of increased demand for care of people with COVID-19, compounded by fear, misinformation and limitations on movement that disrupt the delivery of health care for all conditions. Maintaining essential health services: operational guidan...ce for the COVID-19 context recommends practical actions that countries can take at national, subregional and local levels to reorganize and safely maintain access to high-quality, essential health services in the pandemic context. It also outlines sample indicators for monitoring essential health services, and describes considerations on when to stop and restart services as COVID-19 transmission recedes and surges. This document expands on the content of pillar 9 of the COVID-19 strategic preparedness and response plan, supersedes the earlier Operational guidance for maintaining essential health services during an outbreak, and complements the recently-released Community-based health care, including outreach and campaigns, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is intended for decision-makers and managers at the national and subnational levels.
This is an update to COVID-19: Operational guidance for maintaining essential health services during an outbreak: Interim guidance, 25 March 2020
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Snakebite envenoming constitutes a serious medical condition that primarily affects residents of rural communities in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and New Guinea. It is an occupational, environmental, and domestic health hazard that exacerbates the already impoverished state of these communities. Co...nservative estimates indicate that, worldwide, more than 5 million people suffer snakebite every year, leading to 25,000–125,000 deaths, while an estimated 400,000 people are left with permanent disabilities.
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This trainer toolkit is a guide for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) program implementers in Nigeria to train primary health care health workers to diagnose and provide care for women and girls with symptoms of female genital schistosomiasis (FGS). It has been developed based on a pilot study in ...Ogun State where 22 health facilities were trained on using the FGS tools. The trainer guide should be used alongside the ‘Health Worker Training Guide for managing FGS within primary health care’. Trainers should familiarise themselves with this manual before the training to ensure that all aspects of the training are conducted effectively.
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Antibiotics and other antimicrobial agents are invaluable life savers, particularly in resource-limited countries where infectious diseases are abundant. Both uncomplicated and severe infections are potentially curable as long as the aetiological agents are susceptible to the ...antimicrobial drugs. The rapid rate with which antimicrobial agents are becoming ineffective due to resistance acquired as a result of unchecked overuse and misuse threatens to undo the benefit of controlling infections. The evidence for resistant microorganisms, many times to more than a single antimicrobial agent, has been observed globally. In Tanzania, there is evidence in the form of few scattered studies conducted in different parts of the country in a multitude of settings including health care facilities, the community, domesticated animals and wild animals
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Medicinal plants occupied an important position in the socio-cultural, spiritual and medicinal arena of rural people of India. T
The present report is based on contribution made by members of the task force and many other experts on medicinal plants. We hope the report on implementation will promot...e sustainable and equitable development of medicinal plants sector provide "Health for All", boost exports, and will improve livelihood of the people and green the country for the present and the
generation to come.
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WHO needs US$2.54 billion to provide life-saving assistance to millions of people around the world facing health emergencies. WHO’s Health Emergency Appeal is a consolidation of WHO’s priorities and financial requirements for 2023 to carry out health interventions in emergency and humanitarian r...esponses. The number of people in need of humanitarian relief has increased by almost a quarter compared to 2022, to a record 339 million. WHO is responding to an unprecedented number of intersecting health emergencies: climate change-related disasters such as flooding in Pakistan and food insecurity across the Sahel in the greater Horn of Africa; the war in Ukraine; and the health impact of conflict in Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria and north eastern Ethiopia – all of these emergencies overlapping with the health system disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and outbreaks of measles, cholera, and other killers. Contributions to the appeal can be fully flexible, flexible across a region, or flexible within a country appeal.
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2nd edition. The purpose of the WHO human health risk assessment toolkit: chemical hazards is to provide its users with guidance to identify, acquire and use the information needed to assess chemical hazards, exposures and the corresponding health risks in their given health risk assessment contexts... at local and/or national levels.
The Toolkit provides road maps for conducting a human health risk assessment, identifies information that must be gathered to complete an assessment and provides electronic links to international resources from which the user can obtain information and methods essential for conducting the human health risk assessment
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Developed as part of the UN Women–WHO Global Joint Programme on Violence Against Women Data, this briefing note focuses on the measurement of violence against women with disability and is one in a series of methodological briefing notes for strengthening the measurement and data collection of viol...ence against particular groups of women or specific aspects of violence against women.
The briefing note is meant for researchers, national statistics offices, and others involved in data collection on violence against women. It provides an overview of the challenges in the availability, measurement, and collection of data on violence against women with disability and outlines recommendations for good practice in measurement, with the aim of strengthening ongoing and future data collection efforts and increasing the availability of such data.
The inclusion of women with disability and the issue of disability within population-based surveys and research on violence against women is necessary for an improved understanding of populations of women at specific risk of violence. This knowledge would also allow more tailored prevention strategies and response/services and programmes to be designed in a way that addresses the specific needs of women with disability.
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Evidence shows that FGM can cause several physical, mental and sexual health complications in girls and women, and in newborns. Health-care providers play an important role in supporting girls and women living with FGM, and improving their health and well-being. They are in a unique position to infl...uence and change the attitudes of their patients about FGM.
WHO is committed to scaling up the health-sector response to address FGM prevention and care. One aspect is to strengthen the quality of FGM prevention and care services by building the capacity of health-care providers. Several guidance materials have been produced to target health-care providers. These include FGM content for training curricula, clinical guidelines and a clinical handbook.
This training manual complements previous publications by building person-centred communication skills specifically for FGM prevention.
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Introduction: Considering the global prevalence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a vaccine is being developed to control the disease as a complementary solution to hygiene measures—and better, in social terms, than social distancing. Given that a vaccine will eventually be produced, informa...tion will be needed to support a potential campaign to promote vaccination.
Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the variables affecting the likelihood of refusal and indecision toward a vaccine against COVID-19 and to determine the acceptance of the vaccine for different scenarios of effectiveness and side effects.
Materials and Methods: A multinomial logistic regression method based on the Health Belief Model was used to estimate the current methodology, using data obtained by an online anonymous survey of 370 respondents in Chile.
Results: The results indicate that 49% of respondents were willing to be vaccinated, with 28% undecided or 77% of individuals who would potentially be willing to be inoculated. The main variables that explained the probability of rejection or indecision were associated with the severity of COVID-19, such as, the side effects and effectiveness of the vaccine; perceived benefits, including immunity, decreased fear of contagion, and the protection of oneself and the environment; action signals, such as, responses from ones' family and the government, available information, and specialists' recommendations; and susceptibility, including the contagion rate per 1,000 inhabitants and relatives with COVID-19, among others. Our analysis of hypothetical vaccine scenarios revealed that individuals preferred less risky vaccines in terms of fewer side effects, rather than effectiveness. Additionally, the variables that explained the indecision toward or rejection of a potential COVID-19 vaccine could be used in designing public health policies.
Conclusions: We discovered that it is necessary to formulate specific, differentiated vaccination-promotion strategies for the anti-vaccine and undecided groups based on the factors that explain the probability of individuals refusing or expressing hesitation toward vaccination.
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Gender-based violence is a life-threatening, global health and human rights issue that violates international human rights law and principles of gender equality. It is also a threat to lasting peace and an affront to our common humanity. United Nations Member States have called for urgent action to ...end GBV in emergencies, recognizing that in crises, the risk of GBV is heightened, particularly for women and adolescent girls.
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Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response.
The 2018 Sphere Handbook builds on the latest developments and learning in the humanitarian sector. Among the improvements of the new edition, readers will find a stronger focus on the role of local authorities and communities as ...actors of their own recovery. Guidance on context analysis to apply the standards has also been strengthened. New standards have also been developed, informed by recent practice and learning, such as WASH and healthcare settings in disease outbreaks, security of tenure in shelter and settlement, and palliative care in health. Different ways to deliver or enable assistance, including cash-based assistance, are also integrated into the Handbook.
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