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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The primary audience of these recommendations includes healthcare providers who are responsible for developing national and local health protocols (particularly those related to hypertensive disorders of pregnancy), and those directly providing care to pregnant women and their newborns, including mi...dwives, nurses, general medical practitioners, obstetricians, obstetric physicians, managers of maternal and child health programmes, and relevant staff in ministries of health, in all settings.
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This survey of agricultural livelihoods and food security in the context of the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and other shocks was undertaken during February 2021 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 1 380 villages within 129 districts of 20 provinc...es, covering all agro-ecological zones of Afghanistan.
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Environmental Research Letters
Microplastic debris floating at the ocean surface can harm marine life. Understanding the severity of this harm requires knowledge of plastic abundance and distributions. Dozens of expeditions measuring microplastics have been carried out since the 1970s, but they ha...ve primarily focused on the North Atlantic and North Pacific accumulation zones, with much sparser coverage elsewhere. Here, we use the largest dataset of microplastic measurements assembled to date to assess the confidence we can have in global estimates of microplastic abundance and mass. We use a rigorous statistical framework to standardize a global dataset of plastic marine debris measured using surface-trawling plankton nets and coupled this with three different ocean circulation models to spatially interpolate the observations. Our estimates show that the accumulated number of microplastic particles in 2014 ranges from 15 to 51 trillion particles, weighing between 93 and 236 thousand metric tons, which is only approximately 1% of global plastic waste estimated to enter the ocean in the year 2010. These estimates are larger than previous global estimates, but vary widely because the scarcity of data in most of the world ocean, differences in model formulations, and fundamental knowledge gaps in the sources, transformations and fates of microplastics in the ocean.
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The report reveals that good IPC programmes can reduce health care infections by 70 %. oday, out of every 100 patients in acute-care hospitals, seven patients in high-income countries and 15 patients in low- and middle-income countries will acquire at least one health care-associated infection (HAI)... during their hospital stay. On average, 1 in every 10 affected patients will die from their HAI.
People in intensive care and newborns are particularly at risk. And the report reveals that approximately one in four hospital-treated sepsis cases and almost half of all cases of sepsis with organ dysfunction treated in adult intensive-care units are health care-associated.
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Minimizing risk of developing antibiotic resistance and aquatic ecotoxicity in the environment resulting from the manufacturing of human antibiotic.
The Standard, facilitated by BSI Standards Limited (BSI), provides clear guidance to manufacturers in the global antibiotic supply chain to ensure t...hat their antibiotics are made responsibly, helping to minimize the risk of AMR in the environment.
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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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Annals of Global Health, 87(1), p.43. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.3269;
The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of mental health symptoms (anxiety, depression, and stress) in Bangladesh and the factors associated with these symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.
They found that ...about 64%, 87%, and 61% of the respondents in Bangladesh reported high levels of depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively and this varied between divisions (regions), more in women, those who self-quarantined, and those that experienced classical symptoms of COVID-19. We think there is a need for mental health support in this population to minimise the long term effects.
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Financing Global Health 2016: Development Assistance, Public and Private Health Spending for the Pursuit of Universal Health Coverage presents a complete analysis of the resources available for health in 184 countries, with a particular focus on development assistance for health (DAH). DAH was estim...ated to total $37.6 billion in 2016, up 0.1% from 2015. After a decade of rapid growth from 2000 to 2010 (up 11.4% annually), DAH grew at only 1.8% annually between 2010 and 2016. In low-income countries, where much DAH is targeted, DAH made up 34.6% of total health spending in 2016. In upper-middle- and high-income countries, which generally do not receive DAH, DAH accounted for only 0.5% of total health spending. The other 99.5% of health spending – government, prepaid private, and out-of-pocket spending – is the subject of our further analysis.
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The rise of the discourse of 'trauma' as a major articulator of suffering within Western culture is a facet of the medicalization of life that has gathered pace in the last century. In recent years, Western mental health professionals have been increasingly involved in services addressing the plight... of war-affected populations - largely non-Western - in war zones or as refugees. Querying the extent to which their experiences can be reduced to a matter of mental health, this article addresses child refugees from war via three questions that go to the heart of the debate about how they are to be understood, the implications for their future maturation as individuals and citizens, and the role of psychological therapies aimed at catharsis of 'traumatic' memory.
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The key to a lasting world free of all forms of poliovirus lies in rapidly interrupting all remaining endemic transmission of WPV in the endemic areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. This is the only way to ensure that such strains do not re-emerge globally through international spread. It lays the cor...nerstone for the eventual cessation of all oral polio vaccine use, in order to eliminate the long-term risks associated with variant poliovirus strains, which is the GPEI’s top operational priority. The target for certifying the
world free of all WPV remains end-2026.
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Community health worker teams are potential game-changers in ensuring access to care in vulnerable communities. Who are they? What do they actually do? Can they help South Africa realize universal health coverage? As the proactive arm of the health services, community health workers teams provide ho...usehold and community education, early screening, tracing and referrals for a range of health and social services. There is little local or global evidence on the household services provided by such teams, beyond specific disease-oriented activities such as for HIV and TB. This paper seeks to address this gap.
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Supplement Article
www.jaids.com J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr Volume 78, Supplement 1, August 15, 2018
Consolidating Earthquake Safety Assessment Efforts in India. This document provides succinct instructions on how to perform rapid visual screening (RVS), a quick method of earthquake assessment of buildings. It covers a brief description of RVS and its role as a simplified qualitative assessment in ...the wider methodology of earthquake assessment of buildings, and the recommended forms for pre-earthquake and post-earthquake Level 1 Assessments for seven building typologies. The method recommended by the primer is the BMTPC method which provides both Seismic Safety Index and Performance Rating to a particular building.
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Securing a minimum of financial resources permitting to bring the full range of critical health services to all people constitutes a fundamental human right and an indispensable condition for human dignity. The model outlined here demonstrates that it is within our reach to close the financing gap e...ven for the poorest countries by 2020 if all governments, from the privileged and underprivileged parts of the world alike, just fulfil the commitments and recommendations for financing human development and health that already were agreed many years ago.
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The magnitude and complexity of these mental health conditions caused by prolonged and extensive trauma requires a diagnosis fitting the unique context of the Syrian conflict. Over half a million people have been killed since the beginning of the conflict in 2011, and more than 6.4 million are inter...nally displaced with over 5 million living as refugees. SAMS documents the multi-dimensional nature of mental health disorders afflicting Syrians, including accounts of refugee experiences from Eastern Ghouta, Idlib, and beyond. This qualitative report seeks to raise awareness about increasing mental health needs, while sharing personal stories of those who have been affected by the trauma of the conflict.
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