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Programmatic innovations to address challenges in tuberculosis prevention and care during the COVID-19 pandemic

World Health Organization WHO (2021) C_WHO

13 May 2021 To avoid a reversal of progress from the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, new knowledge and lessons from successful programmatic innovations are urgently needed to improve TB prevention and care. Experience can provide evidence for innovative approaches and strategies to mainta... more

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African Union AMR Landmark Report: Voicing African Priorities on the Active Pandemic

Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2024) CC

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has emerged as a leading cause of death in the African region, surpassing fatalities from malaria, HIV, and TB. In response to this critical threat, the region has adopted the AMR Global Action Plan and the African Union Framework for Antimicrobial Resistance Control 2...020 – 2025, which is tailored to meet the specific needs of African nations through a coordinated approach. While most countries in the region have developed and prioritized National Action Plans (NAPs) to tackle AMR, the overall response remains inadequate given the magnitude of the threat, which endangers human, animal, environmental, aquatic, and plant health. Africa bears a significant burden of infectious diseases, accounting for approximately 95% of malaria deaths, 70% of people living with HIV, and 25% of TB deaths globally. In 2019, AMR was linked to approximately 55,000 deaths from HIV, 30,000 from malaria, and 255,000 overall. Major drivers of AMR in the region include the overuse and misuse of antimicrobials in human and food systems, migration, suboptimal vaccination rates, and environmental contamination from hospital and pharmaceutical effluents. Additionally, there is a lack of access to quality-assured antimicrobials and diagnostics, compounded by inadequate knowledge about AMR. Unlike high-income countries, where indiscriminate antimicrobial use is the primary factor driving AMR, African countries face additional challenges, including a lack of access to clean and safe water, poor Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) programs, inadequate infection prevention measures, and suboptimal vaccinations for preventable diseases. One in three hospitals in the region lacks clean, safe running water, and one in eight people defecate openly due to inadequate sanitation. Investments in WASH, infection prevention, and biosecurity could save approximately 700,000 lives annually. Addressing AMR in Africa requires a comprehensive, multi-sectoral approach involving the entire society. Sustainable access to antimicrobials, including antibiotics, vaccines, and therapeutics, is crucial, as lack of access leads to more morbidity and mortality than AMR itself. Support for the region should focus on preventing infections, strengthening health and food systems, developing human resources, ensuring sustainable access to diagnostics and therapeutics, and investing in laboratory infrastructure to support surveillance and data generation. more

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OCHA Policy Brief on Gendered Drivers, Risks and Impacts of Food Insecurity in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (2023) CC

It is widely understood that the food insecurity crisis in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa is one of the world’s fastest growing and most neglected crises. It lacks sufficient global focus, resources and urgency. As in so many crises, women and girls are disproportionately affected and shoulder t...he consequences of protracted neglect, with unconscionable impacts on their safety, life chances and agency. Gaining a holistic view of the gendered drivers, risks and impacts of food insecurity in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa is difficult. This is due to a lack of data and prioritization, and the large geographical and socioeconomic terrain covered by both regions. However, what we do know about this crisis is more than enough to urgently address the needs of women and girls. An OCHA discussion paper on this topic (which will be published imminently, and from which this policy brief is drawn) found that there is: A strong risk of profound regression in gender equality gains made to date in the countries of concern, including on education, sexual and reproductive health, and the economic independence of women and girls (with knock-on effects on broader humanitarian and development outcomes). An increasing challenge to reverse what must be recognized as a protracted and growing gender-based violence (GBV) emergency in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. The food insecurity crisis in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa is protracted, multidimensional and highly gendered, with spiralling impacts on gender equality and food security outcomes. It is driven by interwoven and overlapping factors, including climate change, political instability, conflict, socioeconomic conditions, migration and displacement and, more recently, COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine. Interlinked with these factors are gendered structural drivers of food insecurity, including deeply entrenched gender inequalities and harmful social norms. Gendered risks and impacts of food insecurity include alarming limitations on access to education, sexual and reproductive health rights, women’s agency and participation, and dramatic increases in different existing forms of GBV and the emergence of new ones. Recognition of such gendered dimensions of food insecurity and of the need for a multisectoral approach in the response is key to addressing the crisis, along-side sustained commitment and adequate allocation of resources. This policy brief draws out key findings from the OCHA discussion paper on this topic, which includes a desk review of studies, assessments and reports, and interviews with local women’s organizations on the front lines of the food insecurity crisis in communities across both regions. Below are the most pressing gendered drivers, risks and impacts of food insecurity (not in order of priority), as well as key gaps in the current humanitarian response to food insecurity, and recommendations to take forward. more

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Manual for investigating suspected outbreaks of illnesses of possible chemical etiology: guidance for investigation and control

World Health Organization WHO (2021) C_WHO

This manual describes methods for investigating clusters or outbreaks that may be of chemical origin and describes the importance of a structured, coordinated, collaborative multidisciplinary, multi-agency approach at local, regional, national and international levels.

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Achieving Control of Asthma in Children in Africa (ACACIA): protocol of an observational study of children’s lung health in six sub-Saharan African countries

Mosler, G.; Oyenuga, V.; Addo-Yobo, E. et al. BMJ Open (2020) CC

Little is known about asthma control in the rising number of African children who suffer from this condition. The Achieving Control of Asthma in Children in Africa (ACACIA) study is an observational study collecting evidence about paediatric asthma in urban areas of Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, South Afr... more

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The Ukraine war and threats to food and energy security

Benton, T.; et al. Chatham House (2022) CC

Cascading risks from rising prices and supply disruptions, April 2022. Global resource markets are still reeling from the impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; the two countries are major suppliers of energy, food and fertilizers. Supply disruption and the sudden imposition, in response to the... more

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COVID-19: Make it the Last Pandemic

World Health Organization WHO (2021) C_WHO

Available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. You can download a summary of the main report and background documents! The report demonstrates that the current system—at both national and international levels— was not adequate to protect people from COVID-19. The time it t... more

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Situational Brief: Transit Migration in Mexico during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Sedas A. C., M. Aguerrebere, L. A. Martinez Juarez, et al. Lancet Migration (2020) CC

Aligned to the Lancet Migration Global Statement to include migrants and refugees incountries’response to COVID-19, this update focuses on Mexico’s challenges and opportunities to build an inclusive response that is based on a contextualized adaptation of there commendations published by th... more

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Supporting survivors of violence with a multi-sectorial, solidarity-based, stress- and trauma-sensitive approach

Karin Griese, Alena mehlau Medica Mundiale (2016) CC

Guiding the work of medica mondiale is an attitude of sensitivity towards both trauma and stress. This stress- and trauma-sensitive approach has a strengthening and relieving effect on the affected people and also the activists, specialist staff and working groups. For medica mondiale, trauma as a... more

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Banking on health: the surging pandemic of health financialization

Dentico N. Society for International Development (SID) (2023) CC

In the last three decades, health financialization has surged in several creative ways, yet this growing phenomenon remains surprisingly unknown, and neglected, in the global health arena. Financialization in the health domain could be described as the uncontrolled expansion of finance along vari... more

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Technical note on accelerating P. falciparum elimination in the Americas

Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) (2023) C_WHO

All malaria-endemic countries in the Region of the Americas have taken on the challenge of eliminating malaria and have focused their health programs and strategies on that goal. The risk of emergence of artemisinin resistance in the Americas, the characteristics of P. falciparum parasite, and the e... more

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Working Paper 46 - Aid, China, and Growth: Evidence from a New Global Development Finance Dataset

Dreher, A.; A. Fuchs; B. Parks et al. AidData at William & Mary (2017) CC

This paper introduces a new dataset of official financing—including foreign aid and other forms of concessional and non-concessional state financing—from China to 138 countries between 2000 and 2014. We use these data to investigate whether and to what extent Chinese aid affects economic growth ... more

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Assessing development assistance for child survival between 2000 and 2014: A multisectoral perspective

Lu, C.; A. Chu, Z. Li et al. PLOS One (2017) CC

The majority of Countdown countries did not reach the fourth Millennium Development Goal (MDG 4) on reducing child mortality, despite the fact that donor funding to the health sector has drastically increased. When tracking aid invested in child survival, previous studies have exclusively focused on... more

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Intention to action series: Regional reflections. Analysis from informal regional consultations with people living with noncommunicable diseases and mental health conditions

World Health Organisation (WHO) (2023) C_WHO

This report includes analysis from informal regional consultations in the African Region, the Caribbean and North America, Latin America, South-East Asia Region, European Region, Eastern Mediterranean Region, alongside three forums in the Western Pacific Region. It analyses the overarching similarit... more

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Surgical approaches to the urogenital manifestations of lymphatic filariasis

World Health Organization WHO (2019) C_WHO

During the 17 years since Surgical approaches to the urogenital manifestations of lymphatic filariasis was first published, there has been heightened awareness of the physical, economic and emotional burden of the genitourinary manifestations of filariasis. With the impetus to provide better guidanc... more

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Intention to action series: Regional reflections. Analysis from informal regional consultations with people living with noncommunicable diseases and mental health conditions 2023 WHO

World Health Organization (WHO) World Health Organization (WHO) (2023) C_WHO

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Buruli ulcer: wound care and rehabilitation

Frimpong, M.; F. S.Sarfo, M. Sarpong Duah, et al. Dove Medical Press Limited (2016) C1

Buruli ulcer caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans is a neglected tropical disease characterized by extensive ulceration involving predominantly the upper and lower limbs of patients. The disease is common in rural tropical communities in West and Central Africa, where access to proper health care is lim... more

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Infection prevention and control in the context of coronavirus disease (‎COVID-19)‎: a living guideline, 10 August 2023

World Health Organization WHO (2023) C_WHO

The Infection prevention and control in the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a living guideline consolidates technical guidance developed and published during the COVID-19 pandemic into evidence-informed recommendations for infection prevention and control (IPC). This living guideline... more

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Public Policy Responses to Address the Mental Health Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence From Chile

Irarrazaval M., Norambuena P. et al Frontiers in Public Health (2021) C2

Objectives: This paper reviews the mental health policies that have been implemented in Chile in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the international context of countries' responses. Even before the start of the pandemic, there were significant barriers to access mental health services in Chile, ... more

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Infection Prevention: A reference booklet forhealth care providers

EngenderHealth (2011) C2

Infectious diseases are constantly in transition. New diseases develop, known dis-eases become widespread or reemerge, and occasionally a disease is eradicated.Infectious diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis, and cholera are significant causes ofillness and death in many parts of the world. Health car... more