Human Resources for Health Observer Series No. 16
NOVEMBER 2012
This document serves as an update to “Out of the Dark”, a report published by MSF in October 2011, highlighting the need to prioritise the long-neglected area of paediatric tuberculosis (TB). This update will outline the key improvements and setbacks—the ‘highlights’ and ‘...lowlights’—that have occurred over the last year.
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Countries can use this tool to collect in-depth facility inventories of biomedical equipment re-allocation, procurement and planning for COVID-19 case management. The survey assesses quantified availability and the causes for non-functioning of different sources of oxygen delivery and supply systems... to the patient in order to determine priorities and re-allocation requirements in accordance with needs.
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The Road to Recovery. This synthesis report is based on three national studies on the evolution of the Ebola epidemic and its impact on Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone
The RTA covered UNICEF’s response to COVID-19 from March 2020 – when WHO declared the disease a pandemic – until January 2021. Further, the RTA applied a broad and cross-cutting lens to all 21 UNICEF county offices across the region, focusing on six case study countries: Kenya, Madagascar, Nam...ibia, Somalia, South Africa and Uganda.
In addition to a Regional Analysis Report, the RTA produced six deep-dive reports with findings and lessons specific to the six case study countries mentioned above – all of which can be accessed through the drop-down listing on this page.
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Climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessment
In 2013 the World Health Organization (WHO) published the report Protecting health from climate change:
vulnerability and adaptation assessment. The aim was to provide basic and flexible guidance on conducting national or subnati...onal assessments of current and future vulnerability (the susceptibility of a population or region to harm) to the health risks of climate change, and of policies and programmes that could increase resilience, taking into account the multiple determinants of climate-sensitive health outcomes.
That guidance has been a very useful tool, applied to more than 50 countries and settings, and has helped countries to prepare their health contributions to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change national adaptation plans.
Since the launch of the guidance, WHO, technical partners such as Health Canada, and countries have learned much in terms of its applicability in different countries, at national and local levels.
At the same time, knowledge on climate change and health has increased.
WHO, the Pan American Health Organization and Health Canada have produced this updated version, which aims to better support countries in their assessments by proposing a simpler tool that incorporates all lessons learned.
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Guía práctica para mejorar la calidad de la atención mediante los servicios de agua, saneamiento e higiene en los establecimientos de salud
The frequency of infectious disease epidemics is increasing, and the role of the health sector in the management of epidemics is crucial in terms of response. In the context of infectious disease epidemics, the use of climate-informed early warning systems (EWS) has the potential to increase the eff...ectiveness of disease control by intervening before or at the beginning of the epidemic curve, instead of during the downward slope.
Currently, the initiation of interventions is heavily reliant on routine disease surveillance systems – data that often arrive too late for preventative response. However, forecasting of disease outbreaks using surveillance and weather information shows promising potential – there also remains further scope to examine seasonal climate forecasts. By combining these elements in new EWS based on computational models, it will be possible to improve both the timeliness and impact of disease control. The World Health Organization (WHO) is strengthening existing surveillance systems for infectious diseases to enable the development of more robust and timely EWS, which has resulted in the rapid development and innovation of EWS for disease outbreaks.
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