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
more
Further Analysis of the 2011 Ethiopia Demographic and Health
Survey. DHS Further Analysis Reports No. 82
This technical brief describes the re-affirmed WHO recommendation on ultrasound examination in the context of routine antenatal care and outlines policy and programme implications for translating this recommendation into action at the country level.
This collection of case studies on risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) from 18 different country/area level public health partners in the WHO European Region provides evidence of numerous results achieved and lessons learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. RCCE has not... traditionally been an area where evidence of challenges and solutions was documented. With this compendium, we wanted to collect and share this evidence to support decision-making in this area of work.
more
Initial public health responses to control the pandemic focused on promoting protective behaviors among the general population, including frequent hand washing, physical distancing and the use of face masks in public spaces However, many saw these only as interim measures to reduce the spread of the... virus and hopes for a return to a sense of ‘ rested on the development of a safe and effective vaccine.
more
For most people in displacement contexts, there are simply not enough vaccines available in the places where they are hosted: 85% of refugees are hosted in lower- and middle-income countries, while in the first six months of this year 85% of vaccines went to wealthy countries; lower- and middle inco...me countries have still received only a fraction of the vaccine doses they require.3 Shortages in these countries can also pose particular risks to vaccination campaigns aimed at displaced populations, as they can result in them being deprioritized.
more
This document provides guidance for countries on how to implement activities to achieve the interruption of yaws transmission. It is intended for use by national yaws eradication programmes, partners involved in the implementation of yaws eradication activities and WHO technical staff who provide te...chnical support to countries in the eradication of yaws.
more
This publications outlines the specific reproductive health needs of this cadre of adolescents and the programmatic responses that can be used to reach them.
Noma (cancrum oris) is a severe gangrenous disease of the mouth and face. It mostly affects children between the ages of 2 and 6 years living in extreme poverty. In addition to the known factors such as malnutrition, lack of vaccination in children and poor oral hygiene, several social and environme...ntal factors such as maternal malnutrition and close spacing of pregnancies that result in offspring with increasingly weakened immune systems are potentially related to the onset of the disease.
The aim of this guide is to assist the ministries of health (MoHs) to identify a general goal to be attained by the end of five years, with a view to sustainably reducing the incidence of noma as a public health problem through programmes that are fully integrated with national health planning, strengthening of primary health care (PHC) and attainment of UHC.
more
Localized cutaneous leishmaniasis and its evolving forms (diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis, mucosal leishmaniasis and cutaneous leishmaniasis recidivans), together with the sequela of visceral leishmaniasis (post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis), account for about one million cases of dermal leishmani...ases per year worldwide. Although not lethal, the dermal leishmaniases cause chronic, disfiguring skin lesions which are an important cause of morbidity and stigma.
more
Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Vol. 117: e220083chgsa, 2022
Two adjectives raise an issue for communicators working on Chagas disease (CD): “invisible and silent”. Two adjectives that can be ascribed to other neglected tropical diseases (NTD), but which are part of the essence of CD. Br...inging CD out of its situation of neglect and oblivion is a mission entrusted mainly to the world of communication as well as of science, politics and financial resources. However, communication has not always been considered among the priorities in the approach to the disease, except in valuable exceptions, some of which we have seen in the preceding article.
more
Globalization and Health (2021) 17:74 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-021-00722-3
The Lancet, Planetary Health Volume 5, ISSUE 11, e766-e774, November 01, 2021
Increasing human demand for water and changes in water availability due to climate change threatens water security worldwide. Additionally, exploitation of water resources induces stress on freshwater environments, leadi...ng to biodiversity loss and reduced ecosystem services. We aimed to conduct a spatially detailed assessment of global human water stress for low to high environmental flow (EF) protection.
more
The Kabeho Mwana project (2006–2011) supported the Rwanda Ministry of Health (MOH) in scaling up integrated community case management (iCCM) of childhood illness in 6 of Rwanda’s 30 districts. The project trained and equipped community health workers (CHWs) according to national guidelines. In p...roject districts, Kabeho Mwana staff also trained CHWs to conduct household-level health promotion and established supervision and reporting mechanisms through CHW peer support groups (PSGs) and quality improvement systems. The iCCM model implemented by Kabeho Mwana resulted in greater improvements in care-seeking than those seen in the rest of the country. Intensive monitoring, collaborative supervision, community mobilization, and CHW PSGs contributed to this success. The PSGs were a unique contribution of the project, playing a critical role in improving care-seeking in project districts. Effective implementation of iCCM should therefore include CHW management and social support mechanisms. Finally, re-analysis of national survey data improved evaluation findings by providing impact estimates.
more
Background: One of the objectives of the Global Action Plan by the World Health Organization (WHO) to contain antimicrobial resistance (AMR), is to improve global awareness through effective communication and education. Comprehensive information on the level of awareness of AMR among Nigerian public... is deficient. This study was therefore designed to assess the current level of awareness and knowledge of the Nigerian public of AMR.
more
Female Genital Schistosomiasis (FGS) is a gynaecological disease caused by Schistosoma haematobium, a parasitic worm that is acquired by skin contact with freshwater contaminated by schistosome cerceriae. Communities in which the infection is most endemic have limited access to clean water and healt...hcare services. Up to 150 million adolescent girls and women are estimated to be at risk of FGS and about 16–56 milion womens are living with FGS, with the majority of these in sub-Saharan Africa. The variability of these estimates points to the fact that this neglected tropical disease is not well studied and frequently not prioritized by local, regional, and global health policy makers.
more
The emergence and transmission of zoonotic diseases are driven by complex interactions
between health, environmental, and socio-political systems. Human movement is considered
a significant and increasing factor in these processes, yet forced migration remains an
understudied area of zoonotic res...earch–due in part to the complexity of conducting interdisciplinary
research in these settings.
more