In our fourth year of producing The State of Open Humanitarian Data, we can report the highest levels yet for data availability across priority humanitarian operations. These gains can be attributed to the commitment of organizations to sharing and maintaining their data publicly. There was also str...ong demand for data about the world's largest humanitarian crises, from the war in Ukraine to drought and food insecurity in the Horn of Africa.
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Tuberculosis continues to represent a severe public health problem in the Region of the Americas, even more so in the case of indigenous peoples, whose TB incidence is much higher than that of the general population. To achieve tuberculosis control in these communities, it is necessary to respond t...o communities’ diverse needs from an intercultural perspective that allows the application of a holistic approach—from a standpoint of equality and mutual respect—and considers the value of their cultural practices. In the Region of the Americas, although there has been progress toward recognizing the need for an intercultural approach to health services, obstacles rooted in discrimination, racism, and the exclusion of indigenous peoples and other ethnic groups persist. To respond to this situation, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) prepared this guidance which––based on an intercultural approach in accordance with the priority lines of the current PAHO Policy on Ethnicity and Health and its practical development in the Region’s indigenous populations––represent a support tool for implementing the End TB Strategy. This publication integrates PAHO’s accumulated experience and best practices developed by its Member States in recent years, including discussions and experiences shared in regional meetings on the issue, and emphasizes innovation and social inclusion. This requires an urgent shift away from traditional paradigms, taking specific actions that gradually reduce TB incidence and moving toward effective multisectoral actions that have proven effective in quickly containing the epidemic. This publication integrates PAHO’s accumulated experience and best practices developed by its Member States in recent years, including discussions and experiences shared in regional meetings on the issue, and emphasizes innovation and social inclusion. This requires an urgent shift away from traditional paradigms, taking specific actions that gradually reduce TB incidence and moving toward effective multisectoral actions that have proven effective in quickly containing the epidemic.
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To survive and thrive, children and adolescents need good health, adequate nutrition, security, safety and a supportive clean environment, opportunities for early learning and education, responsive relationships and connectedness, and opportunities for personal autonomy and self-realization. To prom...ote their health and wellbeing, children and adolescents need support from parents, families, communities, surrounding institutions, and an enabling environment. Scheduled well care visits provide a critical opportunity for support of individual children, adolescents, parents, caregivers and families promote health and wellbeing. This guidance on scheduled child and adolescent well-care visits is the first in a series of publications to support the operationalization of the comprehensive agenda for child and adolescent health and wellbeing. It provides guidance on what is required to strengthen health systems and services to ensure healthy growth and development of all children and adolescents, and to support their parents and caregivers.
The guidance focuses on scheduled routine contacts with providers to support children and adolescents in their growth and developmental trajectory, as well as their primary caregivers and families. It outlines the rationale and objectives of well care visits and proposes a minimum 17 scheduled visits; describes the expected tasks during a contact; provides age-specific content to be address during each contact; and proposes actions to build on and maximize existing opportunities and resources.
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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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Armed conflict continues to tear apart communities across the world. From Boko Haram’s abducted ‘brides’ and Islamic State’s ‘Caliphate Cubs’, to the countless others exploited by armed groups in Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Afghanistan, many taking part in the world’s... wars are still children.
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This report found that many people with disabilities enter institutions as children and remain there for their entire lives. Most of these institutions visited by Human Rights Watch researchers did not provide for more than people’s basic needs, such as food and hygiene, with scarce contact with t...he community and little opportunity for personal development. Some residents are tied to their beds and given sedatives to control them.
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This fourth WHO report on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) reviews the progress made towards achieving the Roadmap targets for 2020, noting the remaining challenges, then looks beyond 2020 to evaluate the changing global health and development landscape, considering the implications of integrating... these diseases into the broader 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
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The right to adequate housing, despite having been recognized by multiple international instruments, continues to be a human right that is consistently violated. Around 2O% of the world's population do not have adequate housing . In Latin America, informal settlements generally lack the conditions r...equired to live a decent life, and local and national public policies fail to radically transform this situation.
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Accessed: 02.05.2020
These consolidated guidelines provide recommendations for comprehensive prevention and case management strategies in Kenya
Scope of the Guidelines: Infection prevention and control Patient triage Emergency Medical Services Case management Laboratory testing algorithm
Target... Audience: Health care workers taking care of patients suspected or confirmed to have COVID-19
These guidelines combine both preventive and clinical management of the disease in Kenyan context. The protocol borrows various international recommendations including the World Health Organization, from experience of other countries such as China that has struggled with the outbreak for a longer time and from principles of virology and infectious disease management.
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ON LIFE SUPPORT3The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ebola outbreak has been contained, but confl ict and under-development leave over three million children at risk from measles and other killer diseases. The country’s medical services – ill-equipped and under-resourced – are on life support ...and in no condition to protect children unless urgent measures are taken.
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IHME’s Financing Global Health report provides an overview of health spending around the world, with a special focus on investments in health in low- and middle-income countries. The report examines how this funding for health is changing each year and forecasts how it may change in the future. Fi...nancing Global Health examines where money for health originates and what health issues it funds.
This year, Financing Global Health 2023 looks at how interest payments on loans that many countries took out during the COVID-19 pandemic to keep their economies afloat and their people protected are now straining health budgets. It also details how development partners’ investments in health in low- and middle-income countries – development assistance for health – have changed since reaching historic levels during the COVID-19 pandemic, dropping by $19.4 billion between 2021 and 2023, from $84.0 billion to $64.6 billion.
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In the Region of the Americas, the leishmaniases are a group of diseases caused by various species of Leishmania, which cause a set of clinical syndromes in infected humans that can involve the skin, mucosa, and visceral organs. The spectrum of clinical disease is varied and depends on the interacti...on of several factors related to the parasite, the vector, and the host. Cutaneous leishmaniasis is the form most frequently reported in the Region and nearly 90% of cases present single or multiple localized lesions. Other cutaneous clinical forms, such as disseminated and diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis, are more difficult to treat and relapses are common. The mucosal form is serious because it can cause disfigurement and severe disability if not diagnosed and treated early on. Visceral leishmaniasis is the most severe form, as it can cause death in up to 90% of untreated people.
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The Fifty-first World Health Assembly adopted resolution WHA51.11 in 1998, which targets the
global elimination of trachoma as a public health problem by 2020 (1). The strategy recommended
to achieve that goal is encapsulated by the acronym “SAFE”, which represents: Surgery for
individuals wi...th trachomatous trichiasis (TT; the late blinding stage of trachoma); and Antibiotics,
Facial cleanliness and Environmental improvement (2). The A, F and E interventions are delivered to
entire districts in which active (inflammatory) trachoma is common in order to treat ocular infection
with Chlamydia trachomatis, the causative organism of trachoma, and sustainably reduce its
transmission.
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This paper focuses on the Sustainable Development Goals related to poverty, economic growth, inequality, health, food production and the environment. It presents concrete examples of the underlying and complex aspects of antibiotic resistance and its impacts across different Sustainable Development ...Goals. The aim of this paper is to inform and stimulate discussions on how to further advance the implementation of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance, National Action plans on Antimicrobial Resistance, as well as work within all sectors that affect and are affected by antibiotic resistance
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Over half a billion children are living in areas with extremely high levels of floods and nearly 160 million children live in areas of high or extremely high droughts. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 26% of the annual 6.6 million deaths of children under five are linked to environ...ment-related causes and conditions. Children are also disproportionately affected by pollution, not only in terms of death rates, but also in terms of cognitive and physical development. This report illustrates that environmental causes also have an impact on whether children are pushed to work and on the kind of work they engage in, the conditions of work, exposure to dangerous toxicants and the risk of exploitation. However, the report raises more questions than it answers as it is one of the first reports addressing the question, how environmental degradation and climate change affect the vulnerability of children towards exploitation.
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This report is the first of its kind. It brings together various data sets to present the current status of hand hygiene, highlight lagging progress, and call governments and supporting agencies to action, offering numerous inspiring examples of change.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, hand hygiene ...received unprecedented attention and became a central pillar in national COVID prevention strategies. However, concern with hand hygiene should not only be as temporary public health measure in times of crisis, but as a vital everyday behaviour that contributes to health and economic resilience. Hand hygiene is a highly cost-effective investment, providing outsized health benefits for relatively little cost.
Despite efforts to promote hand hygiene, the rates of access to hand hygiene facilities remain stubbornly low. If current rates of progress continue, by the end of the SDG era in 2030, 1.9 billion people will still lack facilities to wash their hands at home.
This report presents a compelling case for investment in five key ‘accelerators’ as a pathway towards achieving hand hygiene for all – governance, financing, capacity development, data and information, and innovation. These accelerators are identified under the UN-Water SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework.
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Thirty years ago, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child at a moment of rapid global change marked by the end of apartheid, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the birth of the World Wide Web. These developments and more brought momentous and lasting evolut...ion, as well as a sense of renewal and hope for future generations. In a reflection of that hopeful spirit, the Convention has since become the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history.
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External quality assessment (EQA) is an important component of quality systems for blood transfusion services. Establishing external quality assessment programmes for screening of donated blood for transfusion-transmissible infections (TTI): implementation guide aims to support WHO member States in ...establishing and operating EQA programmes for screening donated blood for TTI. The guides has been designed for use by national health authorities and EQA organizing institutions in the development of EQA programme. It will also give participating laboratories an insight into the organization of EQA programmes for TTI screening and an understanding of the benefits of participation.
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PLoS Negl Trop Dis 13(10): e0007694. In 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized Chagas disease (CD; Trypanosoma cruzi infection) as a neglected tropical disease (NTD) [1] and included it into the global plan to combat NTDs [2]. The Target 3.3 of the United Nations Sustainable Developmen...t Goals (UN/SDG) aims at ending the epidemics of NTDs by 2030 [3]. Mother-to-child (congenital/connatal) transmission is currently the main mode of transmission of T. cruzi over blood transfusions and organ transplantations in vector-free areas within and outside Latin America (LA). Based on recent demonstrations that congenital transmission can be prevented [4–7], WHO has shifted its objective, in 2018, from control to elimination of congenital CD (cCD).
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Research Paper.
As the fighting in Syria winds down, international humanitarian organisations (IHOs) operating from Damascus are hopeful that the Syrian government’s interference in their work will decrease. However, the government is attempting to formalise its influence over humanitarian operat...ions.
Throughout the Syrian conflict, the government has imposed multiple administrative processes on humanitarian organisations to limit their ability to operate independently. This includes restricting the operational environment; undermining organisational independence; imposing local partners; influencing procurement procedures; and preventing direct monitoring and evaluation.
While some level of coordination with the government might be a pragmatic necessity to ensure the safety of operations in regime-controlled areas, this cooperation should not enable the government to use aid for military or political purposes. Consequently, international humanitarian organisations have an ethical dilemma in how they provide aid in these areas without undermining their principles of humanity, independence, impartiality and neutrality.
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