Letter of the holy father
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to large increases in healthcare waste, straining under resourced healthcare facilities and exacerbating environmental impacts from solid waste. This report quantifies the additional COVID-19 healthcare waste generated, describes current healthcare waste management syst...ems and their deficiencies, and summarizes emerging best practices and solutions to reduce the impact of waste on human and environmental health. The recommendations included in the report build on actions in the WHO manifesto for a healthy recovery from COVID-19: prescriptions and actionables for a healthy and green recovery. They target the global, national and facility levels to promote a “win–win” scenario for COVID-19 PPE use, testing and vaccinations that are safe and support environmental sustainability.
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The definition of Official Development Assistance (ODA) has for 40 years been the global standard for measuring donor efforts in supporting development co-operation objectives. It has provided the yardstick for documenting the volume and the terms of the concessional resources provided, assessing do...nor performance against their aid pledges and enabling partner countries, civil society and others to hold donors to account. Yet for all its value, the ODA definition has always reflected a compromise between political expediency and statistical reality. It is based on interpretation and consensus and therefore allows for flexibility. It has evolved over the decades, while preserving the original concepts of a definition based on principal developmental motivation, official character and a degree of concessionality. While agreement on the ODA concept was a major achievement, discussion of the appropriateness of this measure has never ended. The paper documents the evolution of the ODA concept and proposes a possible new approach to measuring aid effort.
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SODIS manual - updated version
The SODIS manual contains detailed information about technical and promotional aspects of the SODIS method.
Former version also available in French, Portuguese, Spanish, Uzbek, Russian
The Guidelines for the Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention of Leprosy provide state-of-the-art knowledge and evidence on leprosy diagnosis, treatment and prevention based on a public health approach in endemic countries. The target audience of this document includes policy-makers in leprosy or infec...tious diseases in the ministries of health (especially but not limited to endemic countries), nongovernmental organizations, clinicians, pharmaceutical companies, donors and affected persons
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The approach is in line with two of the five objectives outlined in the Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP): Strategic Objective 2 – Improve the quality of maternal and newborn care; and Strategic Objective 5 – Count every newborn through measurement, programme-tracking and accountability to genera...te data for decision-making and action.
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23 March 2021
The meeting addressed the last key area, that is, determining the best method or combination of diagnostic methods for a control programme for S. stercoralis infections in humans.
Dr Montresor’s presentation highlighted that while there is currently no “gold standard” for the... diagnosis of S. stercoralis, there is a felt urgency to optimize diagnostic regimens that are currently available, and in the context of population-based testing (as opposed to individual focused diagnostics in clinical settings).
In other words, the diagnostic test(s) should have good accuracy, but we should remember that in public health we do not aim at individual diagnosis: rather, we need a tool that should help to estimate the prevalence in a population.
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South Africa has faced many challenges over the past two decades, accomplishing profound positive changes in the social structure and government of the nation. This has not yet fully translated into better health for the population, however, particularly the poorest segment. In fact, the p...opulation has lost ground since the 1990s in virtually all important health indicators, leaving South Africa with a high burden of infectious disease.
August 2011, Vol. 101, No. 8 SAMJ
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The Call to Action on Protection from GBV in Emergencies, formally launched in 2013 by the United Kingdom and Sweden, aims to fundamentally transform the way GBV is addressed in humanitarian operations via the collective action of numerous partners, each bringing our various strengths and capacities... to the table. Our goal is to drive change and foster accountability within the humanitarian sphere. The commitment to act and to hold ourselves accountable for action is what binds us together under the Call to Action.
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Working with parent groups – a training resource for facilitators, parents, caregivers, and persons with cerebral palsy.
TThis manual aims to increase knowledge and skills in caring for a child with cerebral palsy. Research highlighted the significant needs of the caregivers, and how they can gai...n a huge amount of support from meeting with each other in an understanding environment.
It promotes a participatory learning approach with an emphasis on working with groups and the empowerment of parents and caregivers.
Download the manual and teaching materials for free, in English, French, Arabic or Spanish. A Chichewa (Malawi) version is also ready for sharing and the manual is being translated in a variety of other languages through the online community Working in the Community with Children with Cerebral Palsy
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Guidelines for social mobilization
TB and poverty; TB and children; TB and women; TB, migrants and refugees; TB and prisons
WHO/CDS/STB/2001.9
Original: English; Distribution: Limited
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an important public health concern shared by developed and developing countries. In developing countries the burden of infectious diseases is greater and exacerbated by limited access to, and availability and affordability of, antimicrobials required to treat infect...ions caused by AMR organisms. With drugs not listed on the essential drugs list (EDL), problems of increased morbidity, costs of extended hospitalisation and mortality are extremely serious. The problem of susceptibility to and spread of infections caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) infectious agents is fuelled by factors such as limited access to clean water and sanitation to ensure personal hygiene, malnutrition, and the HIV/TB epidemic.
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Every year, an estimated 15 million babies are born preterm – before 37 weeks of pregnancy. That is more than 1 in 10 live births. Approximately 1 million children die each year worldwide due to complications from their early birth. Those that survive often face a lifetime of ill-health including ...disability, learning difficulties, and visual and hearing problems.
Half of the babies born at or below 32 weeks (2 months early) die in low-income settings, due to a lack of feasible, cost-effective care, such as warmth, breastfeeding support, and basic care for infections and breathing difficulties. In high-income countries, almost all these babies survive.
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