Lessons learned from recent public health events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Ebola virus disease, Zika virus disease outbreaks, and other public health threats, including earthquakes and floods, have highlighted the need for countries to continuously develop, strengthen, and maintain capacities r...equired under the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR (2005)).
Developing capacities for health security in a country requires the engagement of public and private entities across a broad range of sectors, including human and animal health, agriculture, environment, finance, security, emergency management, education, and transportation. The World Health Organization (WHO) is mandated through various resolutions, decisions, and reports of the World Health Assembly, and through the IHR (2005), to provide technical guidance and support to its Member States in developing, strengthening, and maintaining their health systems, including capacities required under the IHR (2005).
For countries to better prevent, prepare for, detect, notify, respond to, and recover from public health emergencies, they must build and maintain IHR core capacities and support the strengthening of health emergency prevention, preparedness, response, and resilience (HEPR) capacities. National Action Plans for Health Security (NAPHS), as capacity development plans, provide the tasks and resources needed to ensure adequate capacities are in place to prevent, detect, respond to, and recover from public health events in a sustainable manner. Investing in the resilience of these capacities within national health systems at national and local levels not only improves national health security but also helps safeguard economic, social, and political developments.
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The document provides a detailed overview of cholera, including its clinical features, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. It explains the causes of cholera, its symptoms such as severe diarrhea and dehydration, and the importance of rehydration therapy (oral or intravenous) to reduce mortality. T...he document also emphasizes public health measures, including access to clean water, proper sanitation, and vaccination, as essential strategies to control and prevent cholera outbreaks. It serves as a comprehensive resource for healthcare professionals managing cholera cases and outbreaks.
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This study has been produced jointly by Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, a federally owned enterprise, implementing development programmes on behalf of the German Government, and CBM, a non-governmental organisation. Accordingly, its aim is to offer guidance to those in bo...th governmental and non-governmental organisations on development cooperation. Given the wide and differing range of implementation procedures, levels of intervention and organisational cultures, it is not a ready-to-be-applied toolbox with concrete blueprints for action. Rather, it raises awareness on core human rights and disability – inclusive principles. It explains and illustrates the implications of applying these principles to development practice. Practitioners can therefore use the guidance to initiate a process of consideration of how to embed these principles within their programmes.
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The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste has the highest TB incidence rate in the South East Asian Region - 498 per 100,000, which is the seventh highest in the world. In Timor-Leste TB is the eighth most common cause of death.
The salient observations are as follows:
In 2018, 487 (12.5%) of the... 3906 notified TB patients were tested for RR-TB and only 12 lab confirmed RR-TB patients were initiated on standard MDR-TB treatment of 20-months duration, (a 3-fold increase in RR-TB detection compared with 2017). This amounts to treatment coverage of only 17% of 72 estimated MDR/RR-TB among notified TB patients (3906) and 5% of 240 estimated incident MDR-TB patients as compared to 62% treatment coverage of 6300 incident drug sensitive TB patients estimated in TLS. The treatment success in the 2016 annual cohort of 6 MDR-TB patients has been reported at 83%. 80% of TB patients know their HIV Status with around 1% TB-HIV co-infection, 37/ 77 (48%) TB-HIV Co-infection Detected. Of the 387 PLHIV currently alive on ART, exact status on TB screening and testing is unknown. % of PLHIV newly enrolled in HIV care who received IPT is not known.
In 2018, the mortality rate for TB was 94 deaths per 100,000 people (1200 per annum) in TL with an increasing mortality trend (Figure 1), despite TB services being available for nearly two decades.
A survey of catastrophic costs due to TB (2016) highlights that 83% of TB patients are reported to be facing catastrophic costs due to the disease. This is the highest rate in the world.
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This rapid communication outlines the main outcomes of a WHO convened Guideline Development Group (GDG) meeting, held in May-June 2021 on the topic of the management of TB in children and adolescents. The rapid communication aims to inform staff from ministries of health and care providers across p...ublic and private sectors, technical partners and other stakeholders about the key findings, considerations and changes related to the diagnosis, treatment and care of TB for children and adolescents, in order to allow for planning at the country level ahead of the release of updated guidelines and an associated operational handbook. WHO will publish the guidelines and operational handbook in the coming months.
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The Venezuelan refugee and migrant crisis is one of the biggest external displacement crises in the world today. The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded an already desperate situation for many refugees and migrants, as well as their hosts, sorely testing health and social welfare systems and the abilit...y of countries to assist the vulnerable population.
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The document summarizes the infrastructure and activities for Ebola virus disease (EVD) preparedness that are already in place in the Gambia and identifies opportunities for improvement to strengthen the nation’s readiness in the event of an EVD incident.
With this World Health Day, WHO is drawing attention to a group of diseases that are spread by insects and other vectors, the heavy health and economic burdens they impose, and what needs to be done to reduce these burdens. Many of these diseases have been historically confined to distinct geographi...cal areas, but this situation has become more fluid due to a host of ills, including climate change, intensive farming, dams, irrigation, deforestation, population movements, rapid unplanned urbanization, and phenomenal increases in international travel and trade. The control of vector-borne diseases can make a major contribution to poverty reduction, as it precisely targets the poor
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Humanity & Inclusion has published a report on November 20, on the difficulties children with disabilities face in accessing education in the world’s poorest countries.
The EHSP in Botswana seeks to attain universal coverage of high-quality package of essential health services. The EHSP is an integrated collection of cost-effective interventions, promotive, preventive, curative, and rehabilitative, that address the main diseases, injuries and risk factors that affe...ct the population. The EHSP has two key purposes:
1) Provide a standardized package of basic services which forms the core of service delivery in all primary health care facilities
2) Promote a redistribution of health services by providing equitable access, especially in underserved areas, population, etc.
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The State of the world’s nursing 2020 report provides the latest, most up-to-date evidence on and policy options for the global nursing workforce. It also presents a compelling case for considerable – yet feasible – investment in nursing education, jobs, and leadership.
The primary chapters... of the report outline the role and contributions of nurses with respect to the WHO “triple billion” targets; the health labour market and workforce policy levers to address the challenges to nurses working to their full potential; the findings from analysis of National Health Workforce Account (NHWA) data from 191 Member States and progress in relation to the projected shortfall of nurses by 2030; and forward-looking policy options for an agenda to strengthen the nursing workforce to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals, improve health for all, and strengthen the primary health care workforce on our journey towards universal health coverage.
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To save the lives of mothers and their babies, mitigate complications, and limit the spread of disease, it is critical that recommendations are made on the prevention, treatment, and surveillance of women who are exposed to EVD, acquire EVD during pregnancy or breastfeeding, or survive EVD with ongo...ing pregnancies. These guidelines are the first to provide such recommendations.
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This casebook collects 64 case studies, each of which raises an important and difficult ethical issue connected with planning, reviewing, or conducting health-related research. The book’s purpose is to contribute to thoughtful analysis of these issues by researchers and members of research ethics ...committees (RECs, known in some places as ethical review committees or institutional review boards), particularly those involved with studies that are conducted or sponsored internationally.
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The guidelines reiterate that the general principles of ethics for biomedical research involving human participants shall also be applicable. In addition, the guidelines specify unique provisions for stem cells, because of their inherent property for unlimited proliferation, differentiation to cells... of the germ layers, oncogenic potential, unrecognised toxicities and possible involvement in pre-implantation stages of human development. The guideline therefore focuses on: 1. Monitoring mechanism and regulatory pathway for basic, clinical research and product development based on categories of research and level of manipulation. 2. Procurement of gametes, embryos and somatic cells for derivation and propagation of any stem cell lines, their banking and distribution. 3. Other important areas like international collaboration, exchange of cell/lines and education for stakeholders and advertisement.
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This 2011 update of Guidelines for the programmatic management of drug-resistant tuberculosis is intended as a tool for use by public health professionals working in response
to the Sixty-second World Health Assembly’s resolution on prevention and control of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and e...xtensively drug-resistant tuberculosis.
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