The Strategic Plan of Action and Budget 2016-2025 for the elimination of onchocerciasisin countries was prepared based on the above dlrective for the consideration of IAF 18.The vision of the plan of action is to eliminate onchocerciasis in 80 percent of Africancountries. Implementation of the plan ...will also help strengthen health systems at community level while implementing CDI wlll help scale-up interventions agalnst other NTDs to the benefit of the wider national health systems.
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The Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD) Data Portal offers comprehensive data on NCDs such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases. It provides country-specific information on NCD mortality rates, risk factors, and national responses, facilitating analysis and compa...rison across regions. The portal also includes resources like publications and tools to support global efforts in NCD prevention and control.
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The Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD) Data Portal offers comprehensive data on NCDs such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases. It provides country-specific information on NCD mortality rates, risk factors, and national responses, facilitating analysis and compa...rison across regions. The portal also includes resources like publications and tools to support global efforts in NCD prevention and control.
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Bioforce launches today "STOP COVID-19 - Essentials for the prevention and control of the virus", a freely accessible, on-line, succint and practical, self learning tool in French, aimed at national and international actors deployed for the prevention and control of the virus in local communities wh...ere confinement is particularly difficult.
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HelpAge International is a global network of organisations promoting the right of all older people to lead dignified, healthy and secure lives. Convite is a humanitarian, independent, nonprofit, non-governmental organisation that works to guarantee and promote social, economic and cultural rights ac...ross Venezuela and is a new member of the HelpAge Global Network. Convite provides direct support to older people, as well as assisting the National Committee of the Pensioned and Retired of Venezuela as part of the Latin American Democracy Network. One of the organisation’s main objectives is to the raise the profile of the crisis in the country internationally.
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13 July 2021. Eid al Adha is a festival during which Muslim families and friends unite to pray together and give alms, especially in the form of sacrificed animal meat. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, this document highlights public health advice for social gatherings and religious practices that... can be applied across different national contexts.
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A new story book that aims to help children understand and come to terms with COVID-19 has been produced
With the help of a fantasy creature, Ario, “My Hero is You, How kids can fight COVID-19!” explains how children can protect themselves, their families and friends from coronavirus and how to... manage difficult emotions when confronted with a new and rapidly changing reality.
Available in more languages
The book – aimed primarily at children aged 6-11 years old – is a project of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Reference Group on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings, a unique collaboration of United Nations agencies, national and international nongovernmental organizations and international agencies providing mental health and psychosocial support in emergency settings.
Available in different languages
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Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(12), 2626; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122626
Climate change is increasing risks to human health and to the health systems that seek to protect the safety and well-being of populations. Health authorities require information about current associatio...ns between health outcomes and weather or climate, vulnerable populations, projections of future risks and adaptation opportunities in order to reduce exposures, empower individuals to take needed protective actions and build climate-resilient health systems. An increasing number of health authorities from local to national levels seek this information by conducting climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessments. While assessments can provide valuable information to plan for climate change impacts, the results of many studies are not helping to build the global evidence-base of knowledge in this area. They are also often not integrated into adaptation decision making, sometimes because the health sector is not involved in climate change policy making processes at the national level. Significant barriers related to data accessibility, a limited number of climate and health models, uncertainty in climate projections, and a lack of funding and expertise, particularly in developing countries, challenge health authority efforts to conduct rigorous assessments and apply the findings. This paper examines the evolution of climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessments, including guidance developed for such projects, the number of assessments that have been conducted globally and implementation of the findings to support health adaptation action. Greater capacity building that facilitates assessments from local to national scales will support collaborative efforts to protect health from current climate hazards and future climate change. Health sector officials will benefit from additional resources and partnership opportunities to ensure that evidence about climate change impacts on health is effectively translated into needed actions to build health resilience.
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The guidance in this publication consists of generic definitions and methodologies for the characterization of extreme weather and climate events. This publication contribute to ensuring consistent exchange of information that underpins the WMO State of the Climate Reports, Climate Watches, climate ...change studies and other emerging applications.
The purpose of the present guidelines is not to change the practice at the national level. Instead, it provides guidance for generic definitions, which are useful in contributing to WMO State of the Climate reports, climate watches, climate change studies and other emerging applications, including the recently adopted methodology for cataloguing hazardous events (WMO-CHE). These applications require regional and/or international exchange of information on extreme events.
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The Mapping Antimicrobial Resistance and Antimicrobial Use Partnership (MAAP) project has conducted a multi-year, multi-country study that provides stark insights on the under-reported depth of the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis across Africa and lays out urgent policy recommendations to addr...ess the emergency.
MAAP reviewed 819,584 AMR records from 2016-2019, from 205 laboratories across Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Eswatini, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. MAAP also reviewed data from 327 hospital and community pharmacies and 16 national-level AMC datasets.
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Background
Access to medicines is important for long‐term care of cardiovascular diseases and hypertension. This study provides a cross‐country assessment of availability, prices, and affordability of cardiovascular disease and hypertension medicines to identify areas for improvement in access ...to medication treatment.
Methods and Results
We used the World Health Organization online repository of national essential medicines lists (EMLs) for 53 countries to transcribe the information on the inclusion of 12 cardiovascular disease/hypertension medications within each country's essential medicines list. Data on availability, price, and affordability were obtained from 84 surveys in 59 countries that used the World Health Organization's Health Action International survey methodology. We summarized and compared the indicators across lowest‐price generic and originator brand medicines in the public and private sectors and by country income groups. The average availability of the select medications was 54% in low‐ and lower‐middle‐income countries and 60% in high‐ and upper‐middle‐income countries, and was higher for generic (61%) than brand medicines (41%). The average patient median price ratio was 80.3 for brand and 16.7 for generic medicines and was higher for patients in low‐ and lower‐middle‐income countries compared with high‐ and upper‐middle‐income countries across all medicine categories. The costs of 1 month's antihypertensive medications were, on average, 6.0 days’ wage for brand medicine and 1.8 days’ wage for generics. Affordability was lower in low‐ and lower‐middle‐income countries than high‐ and upper‐middle‐income countries for both brand and generic medications.
Conclusions
The availability and accessibility of pharmaceuticals is an ongoing challenge for health systems. Low availability and high costs are major barriers to the use of and adherence to essential cardiovascular disease and antihypertensive medications worldwide, particularly in low‐ and lower‐middle‐income countries.
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The Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD) Data Portal offers comprehensive data on NCDs such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases. It provides country-specific information on NCD mortality rates, risk factors, and national responses, facilitating analysis and compa...rison across regions. The portal also includes resources like publications and tools to support global efforts in NCD prevention and control.
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Chaque année, des milliers d’enfants béninois meurent ou n’arrivent pas à développer pleinement leur potentiel physique ou intellectuel du fait de la malnutrition chronique. La présente politique du secteur de la santé pour la nutrition se focalise sur la mère, lenourrisson,... l’enfant et l’adolescent et prend en compte les résolutions du récent forum national organisé à Cotonoudu 11 au 13 juin 2015, par le Conseil National de l’Alimentation et de la Nutrition(CAN)sur la lutte contre la malnutrition chronique axée sur la fenêtre d’opportunité des 1000 premiers jours de la vie (allant de la conception à la fin de la deuxième année de vie). Elle se fonde sur les principes d’équité?d’éthique et de transparence dans la gestion des problèmes nutritionnels.Cette politique est l’œuvre de la Direction de la Santé de la Mère et de l’Enfant (DSME) avec le soutien technique et financier de l’Organisation Mondiale de la Santé (OMS). Elle servira au cours des dix prochaines années (2016-2025) d’orientation à tous les acteurset partenaires qui contribuent à l’amélioration de l’état nutritionnel des cibles visées.
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Climate change is resulting in poorer health outcomes, increasing mortality and is a driver of health inequities. However, health is well placed to be a significant part of the solution; the positive health impacts from stronger climate change action can motivate stronger global ambition; health sys...tems which are resilient to climate change can help protect their populations from the negative impacts (in the short and longer terms); and sustainable low carbon health systems can make a substantial contribution to reducing national and global emissions.
This fact sheet on climate change and health is part of the Climate Fast Facts series of the United Nations Climate Action team.
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The report identifies major global gaps in WASH services: one third of health care facilities do not have what is needed to clean hands where care is provided; one in four facilities have no water services, and 10% have no sanitation services. This means that 1.8 billion people use facilities that l...ack basic water services and 800 million use facilities with no toilets. Across the world’s 47 least-developed countries, the problem is even greater: half of health care facilities lack basic water services. Furthermore, the extent of the problem remains hidden because major gaps in data persist, especially on environmental cleaning.
This report also describes the global and national responses to the 2019 World Health Assembly resolution on WASH in health care facilities. More than 70% of countries have conducted related situation analyses, 86% have updated and are implementing standards and 60% are working to incrementally improve infrastructure and operation and maintenance of WASH services. Case studies from 30 countries demonstrate that progress is being propelled by strong national leadership and coordination, use of data to direct resources and action, and the mutual benefits of empowering health workers and communities to develop solutions together.
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This joint publication by UNAIDS and WHO emphasizes the importance of integrating HIV prevention, testing, treatment and care and mental health services for people living with HIV. It provides a compilation of tools, best practices, recommendations and guidelines that facilitate the integration of i...nterventions and services to address the interlinked issues of mental health and HIV. This publication is intended for global, regional and national policy-makers; programme implementers including at subnational levels; organizations working in and providers of HIV and mental health services; civil society; and community-based and community-led organizations and advocates.
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167,607 dengue cases, including 720 deaths, reported from 1 January to 27 July 2019: 97% higher than in 2018, in spite of a delayed rainy season.
Case Fatality Rate (CFR) of 0.43% as of 27 July 2019 is lower than in the same time period in 2018 (0.54%), but still significantly higher than the reg...ional average of 0.22% in the Western Pacific.
The Philippines Department of Health (DOH) declared a National Dengue Epidemic on 6 August 2019, urging all regional DOH offices to step up dengue surveillance, case management and outbreak re-sponse, clean-up drives, and vector control in health facilities and communities, conduct Sabayang 4-O’Clock Habit Para sa Deng-Get Out focusing on search and destroy of mosquito breeding sites, and to enable LGUs to use their quick response funds to help address the epidemic.
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Bonchial asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disease in the world. In Kenya, it has been estimated that about 7.5% of the Kenyan population, nearly 4 million people, are currently living with asthma. Many cases tend to be underdiagnosed and undertreated which leads to high levels of morbid...ity and avoidable deaths. The consequences of poorly controlled asthma, including physical, mental, social, and economic impacts, are magnified in the poor on account of poor access to asthma services and sub-optimal quality of those services. With these guidelines, Kenya's Ministry of Health aims to work towards embedding asthma care in Universal Health Care (UHC) to ensure that quality asthma services are available in primary care settings with
referral networks strengthened for those who may require secondary and tertiary care. These national asthma guidelines will also ensure that treatment for asthma is standardized in both the public and the non-state health care sector.
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Guidelines for good practice
The Guidelines are organized around eight key Principles corresponding to the course of a staff member’s contract. The accompanying diagram represents the principles visually. Each principle has supporting Indicators and Comments and Case Studies designed to assist th...e reader to more fully understand the concepts that the principles are based on and how they can be translated into practice. The principles and indicators are intended to apply to both international and national staff and to both office and field staff, recognizing that adjustments may be necessary to take account of the unique needs and characteristics of each group and of the organization. They constitute a tool for learning, reflection and planning rather than a set of rigid rules or solutions that are applicable under all conditions.
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South Africa reported it fist case of COVID-19 on 5 March 2020. While the first cases were imported, local transmission has led to a rapid increase in the number of cases. As of 21 April 2020, more than 3,400 cases and 58 deaths had been confirmed. On 15 March, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a n...ational state of disaster, and the government has since taken several measures to curb the spread of the virus, including closing borders, implementing strict social distancing measures and a 35-day nation-wide lockdown. These measures, along with the global economic shock caused by the pandemic, are expected to generate rising needs requiring an immediate and urgent response. Although South Africa is considered an upper-middle-income country, the amount of disparities—social, economic, and gender—make the country particularly vulnerable during this emergency.
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