This report summarizes the latest scientific knowledge on the links between exposure to air pollution and adverse health effects in children. It is intended to inform and motivate individual and collective action by health care professionals to prevent damage to children’s health from exposure to ...air pollution.
Air pollution is a major environmental health threat. Exposure to fine particles in both the ambient environment and in the household causes about seven million premature deaths each year. Ambient air pollution alone imposes enormous costs on the global economy, amounting to more than US$ 5 trillion in total welfare losses in 2013.
This public health crisis is receiving more attention, but one critical aspect is often overlooked: how air pollution affects children in uniquely damaging ways. Recent data released by the World Health Organization (WHO) show that air pollution has a vast and terrible impact on child health and survival. Globally, 93% of all children live in environments with air pollution levels above the WHO guidelines (see the full report, Air pollution and child health: prescribing clean air. More than one in every four deaths of children under 5 years of age is directly or indirectly related to environmental risks. Both ambient air pollution and household air pollution contribute to respiratory tract infections that resulted in 543 000 deaths in children under the age of 5 years in 2016.
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Journal of the International AIDS Society Vol. 21 (2018) e25133
Many prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission programmes across Africa initiate HIV-infected (HIV positive) pregnant women on lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART) on the first day of antenatal care (“same-day” initiation...). However, there are concerns that same-day initiation may limit patient preparation before starting ART and contribute to subsequent non-adherence, disengagement from care and raised viral load. We examined if same-day initiation was associated with viral suppression and engagement in care during pregnancy.
The data suggest that same-day ART initiation during pregnancy is not associated with lower levels of engagement in care or viral suppression through 12 months post-delivery in this setting, providing reassurance to ART programmes implementing Option B+.
https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25133
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To help parents keep their children healthy and fit, WHO has developed the Child Nutrition and Physical Activity Guide. In addition to parents, the guide may prove to be a useful tool for other adults (such as grandparents or caregivers) working with primary school-aged children.
The Child Nutrit...ion and Physical Activity Guide is published only in the Russian language with support from the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation for use in Russian-speaking countries. It addresses the urgent need in some countries to improve child nutrition, particularly in areas that face a double health burden characterized by coexistence of undernutrition and overweight, obesity or noncommunicable diseases. Many children in those countries never eat breakfast, and their diet consists of large quantities of sweets and sugar-sweetened beverages with almost no vegetables and fruit.
The WHO guide also offers ideas on how to stimulate children’s interest in physical activity, such as active play, exercise or sports. This is especially relevant for countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), where, according to the latest findings, schoolchildren have a low participation in organized sports and exercise. On the other hand, a high proportion of schoolchildren walk to school every day. This could be a good starting point for CIS countries to make physical activity a daily habit that not only improves children’s physical health, but also promotes better mental health and well-being.
The guide aims to ensure that children obtain the knowledge and skills to make healthy food choices, critically evaluate their diet and integrate physical activity into daily life.
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This resource is a product of a partnership project between the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) and UNICEF Lebanon entitled “Strengthening Child Protection and Gender-based Violence Prevention and Response for Women, Children, and Youth with Disabilities." The overall goal of the project is to ...improve violence prevention and response programming for at-risk groups of women, girls, and boys with disabilities. It builds on existing initiatives of gender-based violence (GBV) and child protection (CP) actors to systematically advance disability inclusion across the CP and GBV prevention and response sectors in Lebanon.
Download the full Toolkit directly from the website link.
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The primary audience for this guideline includes health-care professionals who are responsible for developing national and local health-care protocols and policies, as well as managers of maternal and child health programmes and policy-makers in all settings. The guideline will also be useful to tho...se directly providing care to pregnant women and preterm infants, such as obstetricians, paediatricians, midwives, nurses and general practitioners. The information in this guideline will be useful for developing job aids and tools for pre- and in-service training of health workers to enhance their delivery of maternal and neonatal care relating to preterm birth.
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Prompt, effective antimalarial treatment, and supportive care can substantially reduce the rate of mortality from severe malaria. However, many children in malaria-endemic countries do not have access to health facilities or a qualified health care provider and do not receive the necessary care in a... timely fashion. Without rapid detection of danger signs and access to effective treatment, including pre-referral treatment that can be administered in the community level, many of these children with severe malaria die.
In situations where there is no immediate access to a health care facility, WHO recommends the administration of a standard dose of an effective antimalarial medicine as pre-referral treatment before referral to a facility at which complete treatment can be administered.
Rectal artesunate is the WHO-recommended pre-referral intervention in situations where artesunate injection are not feasible for children under the age of 6 years with suspected severe malaria. The intervention reduces the risk of death or permanent disability by up to 50% provided the child is referred to a health facility at which complete treatment can be administered.
This field guide is aimed at supporting the effective deployment of RAS as pre-referral treatment of suspected severe malaria in line with the WHO malaria guidelines.
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SI VOUS ATTENDEZ UN ENFANT EN ALLEMAGNE; WHEN EXPECTING A CHILD IN GERMANY
Regulation of the Minister of Health of the Republic of Indonesia on Prevention of HIV Transmission from Mother to Child
This brochure, available in English and Spanish, provides an overview of pediatric palliative care and answers questions that parents and families may have, such as:
How do I know if my child or family needs palliative care?
Does accepting palliative care mean our family is giving up on ot...her treatments?
How can my child’s pain be managed?
How can our family get palliative care?
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Summary of the main report: Direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 pandemic and response in South Asia .
It uses a series of exercises based on actual observed changes in services and intervention coverage to model impacts on mortality, hospitalizations, and ICU admissions due to COVID-19. It a...lso models the impact of nationwide stay-at-home orders to curb the spread of COVID-19 on maternal and child mortality, educational attainment of children, and the region’s economy. The study focuses on South Asia’s six most populous countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and makes the case for interventions and strategies to minimise these indirect consequences.
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This brief summarizes current evidence and guidance for maintaining safe and effective care across the spectrum of maternal, newborn and infant care while protecting mother and child and health care providers during COVID-19. Furthermore, implications of the principle of “do no harm” are reviewe...d for maternal, newborn and infant care delivery during COVID-19, so that this information is conveniently and readily available to clinical and health system policy leaders and stakeholders in countries and communities. Additionally, considerations for safe oxygen delivery as well as key Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) measures at home and in healthcare facilities for pregnant women, newborns and children are described in detail in the brief.
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Project Programs:
A. Medical Care Program
B. Community Health Promotion and Prevention Program
C. Maternal and Child Health Program
Target Population:
228,000 people living within the Mon, Kayah, Kayan, Karen,Shan, Kachin, Pa O, Chin and Arakan areas
Projec...t Duration:January to December 2016
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Reference Guide Version 2. Revised. The Nutrition Program Design Assistant is a tool to help organizations design the nutrition component of their community-based maternal and child health, food security, or other development program. The tool focuses on prevention and also provides guidance on recu...perative approaches that are needed when there is a high prevalence of acute malnutrition
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This document provides a guidance on the importance of consulting with children with disabilities. It provides practical suggestions for consulting with children and young people with disabilities in a variety of situations. It aims to equip individuals working on child rights with the knowledge an...d skills necessary to communicate with children with a variety of disabilities.
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The Global status report on violence prevention 2014, which reflects data from 133 countries, is the first report of its kind to assess national efforts to address interpersonal violence, namely child maltreatment, youth violence, intimate partner and sexual violence, and elder abuse. Jointly publis...hed by WHO, the United Nations Development Programme, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the report reviews the current status of violence prevention efforts in countries, and calls for a scaling up of violence prevention programmes; stronger legislation and enforcement of laws relevant for violence prevention; and enhanced services for victims of violence.
You can download summaries in different languages, single chapters and graphics
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The recommendations in this guideline are intended to inform the development of relevant national- and local-level health policies and clinical protocols. Therefore, the target audience includes national and local public health policy-makers, implementers and managers of maternal and child health pr...ogrammes, health care facility managers, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), professional societies involved in the planning and management of maternal and child health services, health care professionals (including nurses, midwives, general medical practitioners and obstetricians) and academic staff involved in training health care professionals.
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The articles in this compendium elaborate on some of the ideas shared at the symposium. Together, they provide a broad view of the dynamic interactions among physical, sexual and brain development that take place during adolescence. They highlight some of the risks to optimal development – includi...ng toxic stress, which can interfere with the formation of brain connections, and other vulnerabilities unique to the onset of puberty and independence. They also point to the opportunities for developing interventions that can build on earlier investments in child development – consolidating gains and even offsetting the effects of deficits and traumas experienced earlier in childhood.
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This guide is designed to support mid-level rehabilitation workers on work with children with cerebral palsy and their families. The manual includes information on early detection and assessment of the level of development of the child, equipment to support their needs and suggestions to promote mob...ility and improved communication. You can download this guide in Arabic and Italian, too
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This film is the Luganda version of 'Food for Life: What Pregnant Women Need to Eat.' The film was dubbed locally in Uganda, thanks to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
The 2015-16 MDHS is a national sample survey that provides up-to-date information on fertility levels; marriage; fertility preferences; awareness and use of family planning methods; child feeding practices; nutrition; adult and childhood mortality; awareness and attitudes regarding HIV/AIDS; women...s empowerment; and domestic violence. The target groups were women and men age 15-49 residing in randomly selected households across the country. In addition to national estimates, the report provides estimates of key indicators for both urban and rural areas in Myanmar and also for the 15 states and regions.
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