Around the world, more than 2 billion people lack access to safely managed water, sanitation and hygiene services, with conflicts and climate change exacerbating the issue.
Unsafe and insufficient WASH facilities, especially in rural and remote areas, can lead to increased health complications fo...r older people, persons with disabilities and children. They also reinforce cycles of poverty, inequality and deprivation – particularly for women, children and marginalized groups, who are disproportionately impacted by a lack of equitable access to water and sanitation.
Launched on World Water Day, the guidelines address the knowledge gap on ways to practically implement inclusive approaches to WASH infrastructure development, particularly in developing countries and fragile contexts.
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The country profiles incorporate facts indicating the national status of medical devices in areas such as: medical device policies, regulations, incorporation, lists, inventories, nomenclature, health technology assessment, management, and biomedical engineering resources. This publication is int...ended for use as a reference by decision-makers in Ministries of Health, nongovernmental organizations and academic institutions involved in health technology at the district, national, regional, or global levels.
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May 17,2022 MEDBOX Issue Brief no.21
The Water and Sanitation for Health Facility Improvement Tool (WASH FIT) presents a framework and acts as a guide to support multisectoral action to improve water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in health care. Central to the WASH FIT methodology is training and incremental improvements.
Implementat...ion of WASH FIT requires six preparatory steps at the national level, one of which is conducting national sensitization and training of trainers, followed by facility-level training. At the facility level, step 1 (of five) involves establishing and training a WASH FIT team.
The WASH FIT methodology is outlined in WASH FIT: A practical guide for improving quality of care through water, sanitation and hygiene in health care facilities. Second edition. (the WASH FIT guide), which includes a set of templates designed to help users with each phase of the improvement cycle.
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Cases of human monkeypox are rarely seen outside of west and central Africa. There are few data regarding viral kinetics or the duration of viral shedding and no licensed treatments. Two oral drugs, brincidofovir and tecovirimat, have been approved for treatment of smallpox and have demonstrated eff...icacy against monkeypox in animals. Our aim was to describe the longitudinal clinical course of monkeypox in a high-income setting, coupled with viral dynamics, and any adverse events related to novel antiviral therapies.
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The document is structured into five sections. The first presents the key experiences and challenges that justify a renewal of the EPHFs. The second section updates the groundwork for the exercise of public health and provides a framework to inform the exercise of the new essential functions. The th...ird section proposes a new integrated approach for implementing the EPHFs. The fourth section presents a new list of 11 EPHFs related to each stage of this integrated approach. Finally, in the last section, considerations are put forth to guide EPHF implementation as a means of strengthening the health sector.
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This manual for trainers outlines the information and materials required to undertake training in line with the WASH FIT Guide, including background documents, the content of the recommended training modules and training evaluation approaches. The modular approach outlined enables trainers to decide... on all topics that are most useful to support the delivery of targeted training at the local level. It also provides sample training schedules, evaluation forms and is linked to a full set of interactive, adult-learning focused, training slides.
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RÉSUMÉ D’ORIENTATION
L’objectif des présentes orientations est de renforcer la capacité des établissements de santé à protéger et à améliorer la santé des communautés desservies face à un climat instable et changeant ; et de donner aux établissements de santé les moyens d’assur...er leur durabilité environnementale, grâce à une meilleure utilisation des ressources et à une diminution du rejet de déchets dans l’environnement. En étant résilients au changement climatique et écologiquement viables, les établissements de santé peuvent offrir des soins de qualité et des services plus accessibles, et en contribuant à réduire les coûts des établissements, ils garantissent également la prestation de soins plus abordables. Ils représentent par conséquent un élément important de la couverture sanitaire universelle (CSU).
Le présent document a pour objectif de :
guider les professionnels travaillant dans des structures de soins de santé de manière à ce qu’ils comprennent les risques sanitaires supplémentaires liés au changement climatique et qu’ils s’y préparent efficacement ;
renforcer la capacité à exercer une surveillance efficace des maladies liées au climat ; et à suivre, anticiper, gérer les risques sanitaires associés au changement climatique et à s’y adapter ;
inciter les responsables des établissements de santé à collaborer avec les secteurs déterminants pour la santé (notamment l’eau et l’assainissement, l’énergie, les transports, l’alimentation, l’urbanisme, l’environnement) afin de se préparer aux risques sanitaires supplémentaires posés par le changement climatique grâce à l’adoption d’une approche de résilience, et à promouvoir des pratiques écologiquement durables dans la prestation des services ;
fournir des outils pour aider les responsables des établissements de santé à évaluer leur résilience face aux menaces liées au changement climatique et leur durabilité environnementale, sur la base de l’utilisation appropriée des ressources (en particulier l’eau et l’énergie et les achats durables), et du rejet de matières dangereuses (biologiques, chimiques, radiologiques) dans leur environnement ;
promouvoir des mesures visant à garantir que les établissements de santé soient constamment et de plus en plus solides et continuent d’être efficaces et réactifs pour améliorer la santé et contribuer à réduire les inégalités et la vulnérabilité dans leur contexte local.
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Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity. The decade ahead will test the nation's nearly 4 million nurses in new and complex ways. Nurses live and work at the intersection of health, education, and communities. Nurses work in a wide array of settings and practice at a range of professional levels. T...hey are often the first and most frequent line of contact with people of all backgrounds and experiences seeking care and they represent the largest of the health care professions.
Free download available, register for free
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Health Statistics in the Western Pacific Region 2023: Monitoring health for the SDGs is the third biennial report providing an overview of the progress of the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Region towards the health-related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets. Thi...s edition also serves as a baseline assessment for the implementation of the global WHO Fourteenth General Programme of Work 2025–2028 (GPW14) within the Western Pacific Region and the for the Regional Vision “Weaving Health for Families, Communities, and Societies of the Western Pacific Region: Working Together to Improve Health, Well-Being and Save Lives”.
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This policy brief explores the challenges faced in disaster risk governance in relation to the climate emergency.
English Analysis on World about Climate Change and Environment, Food and Nutrition and more; published on 07 Oct 2021 by IEP
Discussions about climate change often focus on the future, but millions of children are experiencing its devastating impacts now. The scale of the crisis is huge, and growing fast. It is children that will bear the brunt of climate change, yet its impact on them is understudied, their voices are no...t being heard, and current solutions are woefully inadequate. It is a perfect storm that we must stop in its path – before it is too late.
Available in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic
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A framework to implement the Agenda for the Americas on Health, Environment, and Climate Change 2021–2030
The Lancet Planetary Health, Vol.5 Issue 2, Feb. 1,2021.
Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) serve to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement of staying “well below 2°C”, which could also yield substantial health co-benefits in the process. However, existing NDC commitments are inadequa...te to achieve this goal. Placing health as a key focus of the NDCs could present an opportunity to increase ambition and realise health co-benefits. We modelled scenarios to analyse the health co-benefits of NDCs for the year 2040 for nine representative countries (ie, Brazil, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa, the UK, and the USA) that were selected for their contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions and their global or regional influence.
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April 2022 Volume 35 Issue 2 e00152-21
Population movements have turned Chagas disease (CD) into a global public health problem. Despite the successful implementation of subregional initiatives to control vectorial and transfusional Trypanosoma cruzi transmission in Latin American settings where t...he disease is endemic, congenital CD (cCD) remains a significant challenge. In countries where the disease is not endemic, vertical transmission plays a key role in CD expansion and is the main focus of its control. Although several health organizations provide general protocols for cCD control, its management in each geopolitical region depends on local authorities, which has resulted in a multitude of approaches. The aims of this review are to (i) describe the current global situation in CD management, with emphasis on congenital infection, and (ii) summarize the spectrum of available strategies, both official and unofficial, for cCD prevention and control in countries of endemicity and nonendemicity. From an economic point of view, the early detection and treatment of cCD are cost-effective. However, in countries where the disease is not endemic, national health policies for cCD control are nonexistent, and official regional protocols are scarce and restricted to Europe. Countries of endemicity have more protocols in place, but the implementation of diagnostic methods is hampered by economic constraints. Moreover, most protocols in both countries where the disease is endemic and those where it is not endemic have yet to incorporate recently developed technologies. The wide methodological diversity in cCD diagnostic algorithms reflects the lack of a consensus. This review may represent a first step toward the development of a common strategy, which will require the collaboration of health organizations, governments, and experts in the field.
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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...ies, regional nuances and priorities raised across the six WHO regions for the meaningful engagement of individuals with lived experience.
It is the second publication in the WHO Intention to action series, which aims to enhance the limited evidence base on the impact of meaningful engagement and address the lack of standardized approaches on how to operationalise meaningful engagement. The Intention to action series aims to do this by providing a platform from which individuals with lived experience, and organizational and institutional champions, can share solutions, challenges and promising practices related to this cross-cutting agenda. The Intention to action series also aims to provide powerful narratives, inspiration and evidence towards the Fourth United Nations High Level Meeting on NCDs in 2025 and achieving the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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Four (04) new EVD alerts were reported from Rubkona, Nimule, and juba during week 45 (ending 13 November 2022) but only one sample was collected for laboratory confirmation which tested negative. The other three were discarded as they did not meet EVD case definition.