This report on progress achieved in the WHO European Region and Member States in implementing the European food and nutrition action plan 2015–2020 presents selected epidemiological data on the nutritional status of populations throughout the Region and on implementation of policies recommended in... regional and global frameworks to promote healthy nutrition and prevent obesity. The data contained in the report are derived from the responses of Member States to the WHO Global nutrition policy review questionnaire.
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28 Dec 2020. The main objective of these guidelines is to provide tools for staff working in the field of immunization to support effective communication between health personnel and the general population, with the aim of strengthening, maintaining or recovering trust in vaccines and the immunizati...on programs in the Region of the Americas.
Available in English, Spanish and Portuguese
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ABSTRACT
More than 500 million people worldwide live with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Health systems today face fundamental challenges in delivering optimal care due to ageing populations, healthcare workforce constraints, financing, availability and affordability of CVD medicine, and service del...ivery.
Digital health technologies can help address these challenges. They may be a tool
to reach Sustainable Development Goal 3.4 and reduce premature mortality from
non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by a third by 2030. Yet, a range of fundamental barriers prevents implementation and access to such technologies. Health system governance, health provider, patient and technological factors can prevent or distort their implementation.
World Heart Federation (WHF) roadmaps aim to identify essential roadblocks on the pathway to effective prevention, detection, and treatment of CVD. Further, they aim to provide actionable solutions and implementation frameworks for local adaptation. This WHF Roadmap for digital health in cardiology identifies barriers to implementing digital health technologies for CVD and provides recommendations for overcoming them.
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Introduction Pharmacovigilance (PV) systems to monitor drug and vaccine safety are often inadequate in sub-Saharan
Africa. In Malawi, a PV enhancement initiative was introduced to address major barriers to PV.
Objective The objective of this initiative was to improve reporting of adverse events (A...Es) by strengthening passive safety
surveillance via PV training and mentoring of local PV stakeholders and healthcare providers (HCPs) at their own healthcare
facilities (HCFs).
Methods An 18-month PV training and mentoring programme was implemented in collaboration with national stakeholders,
and in partnership with the Ministry of Health, GSK and PATH. Two-day training was provided to Expanded Programme on
Immunisation coordinators, identified as responsible for AE reporting, and four National Regulatory Authority representa-
tives. Abridged PV training and mentoring were provided regularly to HCPs. Support was given in upgrading the national
PV system. Key performance indicators included the number of AEs reported, transmission of AE forms, completeness of
reports, serious AEs reported and timeliness of recording into VigiFlow.
Results In 18 months, 443 HCPs at 61 HCFs were trained. The number of reported AEs increased from 22 (January 2000 to
October 2016) to 228 (November 2016 to May 2018), enabling Malawi to become a member of the World Health Organization
Programme for International Drug Monitoring. Most (98%) AE report forms contained mandatory information on reporter,
event, patient and product, but under 1% were transmitted to the national PV office within 48 h.
Conclusion Regular PV training and mentoring of HCPs were effective in enhancing passive safety surveillance in Malawi,
but the transmission of reports to the national PV centre requires further improvement.
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L’OMS a ciblé 17 maladies comme des Maladies Tropicales Négligées. Ces maladies sont très différentes les unes des autres, mais elles ont comme point commun de toucher principalement les populations les plus pauvres. Elles maintiennent dans la pauvreté les populations ayant initialement un n...iveau de développement faible. Ces maladies coexistent au sein des mêmes populations, augmentant de ce fait leur vulnérabilité.
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Prioritise education in conflict-affected areas:
Across the world 28 million1 primary school-age children living in conflict-affected countries are
out-of-school, and they form half of the world’s total out-of-school population. During conflict,
infrastructure assets such as schools are damaged... or completely destroyed during fighting. Children
may choose to stay away from school due to their and their family’s safety fears in the midst of
conflict, or the need to supplement their family’s income amidst conflict-related financial loss.
Children who are internally displaced by conflict face a particularly challenging task accessing
education due to the specific conditions created by their displacement, such as loss of livelihoods
making school fees hard to find, and discrimination from host communities. Children caught in
conflict are being deprived of their right to education2 and denied the opportunity to benefit from the
protective and life-sustaining mechanisms of education.
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In the last decade, Timor-Leste has made remarkable progress in strengthening its health system and improving the health status of its population. This has resulted in an increased life expectancy, and the achievement of Millennium Development Goals such as a reduction in infant and under-five morta...lity, an improvement in maternal and child health outcomes, and an increase in immunization coverage. Further, the country has successfully eliminated infectious diseases such as polio, measles, and maternal and neonatal tetanus. There is full political commitment to reducing the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) by 80% and the number of deaths due to TB by 90% by 2030. The country has made great progress in the context of the pandemic, having established numerous quarantine facilities/isolation centres; trained health-care workers; streamlined the procurement and supply of medicines, consumables, personal protective equipment and other equipment; and strengthened the capacity in critical care across secondary and tertiary health care, to better respond to future pandemics and other disaster situations.
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The objective of the evaluation is to understand whether the CHW program has achieved its intended objectives, thus contributing to the overarching objectives defined in the HSSP III of improving the health status of the population by “Ensuring universal accessibility of quality health services fo...r all Rwandans”.
This evaluation has focused on CHWs, who are selected, trained and deployed by the MoH to deliver a defined set of tasks at community level. CHWs are the central element of the Community Health Policy and of the community health strategy plan (CHSP) of the MoH.
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The Demographic Dividend study on Rwanda assessed the socio-economic and human development potential of our country in the short, medium and long-term period using a comprehensive approach. It generated relevant policy and programme information to guide a well-informed polciy required to propel Rwan...da towards achieving its aspirations of being high middle income country by 2035 and high income country by 2050.
The primary objectives of this study were to assess Rwanda’s prospects for harnessing the demographic dividend and demonstrate priority policy and programme options that the country should adopt in order to optimise its chances of earning a maximum demographic dividend in the context of its youthful population and medium, long-term socio-economic development aspirations.
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Through public-private partnerships, the government of Rwanda can make more efficient use of public resources by targeting and meeting the needs of specific populations and thus help ensure family planning services and products will be available to all Rwandans in the long term. This report aims to ...inform stakeholders working to strengthen family planning through multisectoral partnerships about Rwanda’s family market.
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Sleeping sickness is controlled by case detection and treatment but this often only reaches less than 75% of the population. Vector control is capable of completely interrupting HAT transmission but is not used because of expense. We conducted a full scale field trial of a refined vector control tec...hnology. From preliminary trials we determined the number of insecticidal tiny targets required to control tsetse populations by more than 90%. We then carried out a full scale, 500 km2 field trial covering two HAT foci in Northern Uganda (overall target density 5.7/km2). In 12 months tsetse populations declined by more than 90%. A mathematical model suggested that a 72% reduction in tsetse population is required to stop transmission in those settings. The Ugandan census suggests population density in the HAT foci is approximately 500 per km2. The estimated cost for a single round of active case detection (excluding treatment), covering 80% of the population, is US$433,333 (WHO figures). One year of vector control organised within country, which can completely stop HAT transmission, would cost US$42,700. The case for adding this new method of vector control to case detection and treatment is strong. We outline how such a component could be organised.
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Purpose: This research study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the services provided by CBR programmes in Jordan.
Method: This was a mixed- methods investigation. A survey was carried out with 47 participants (stakeholders and volunteers) from four CBR centres in Jordan. It comprised 18 que...stions that collected both qualitative and quantitative data with both closed- and open-ended questions. The quantitative data were analysed using SPSS Version 22.0. Qualitative data were analysed through thematic content analysis and open coding to identify emergent themes.
Results: 40.4% of the participants evaluated the effectiveness of CBR services as low. This mainly stemmed from the lack of efforts to increase the local community’s knowledge about CBR, disability and the role of CBR programmes towards people with disabilities.
Conclusions: A proposal was offered concerning the priorities of CBR programmes in Jordan. Efforts need to be directed at promoting livelihood and empowerment components in order to actualise the principles of CBR, mainly by promoting multispectral collaboration as a way of operation.
Implications: This study was inclusive of all types of disability. Barriers to the effectiveness of services may stem from accessibility issues to the families of persons with disabilities (hard to reach) or from CBR services themselves (hard to access). The culturally specific evaluative tool in this study was of “good” specificity and sensitivity, this evaluative instrument can be transferrable to measure the impact of CBR programmes in other settings.
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The strategic priorities of the CCS 2014–2018 are:
(1) Strengthening the health system.
(2) Enhancing the achievement of communicable disease control targets.
(3) Controlling the growth of the noncommunicable disease burden.
(4) Promoting health throughout the life course.
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(5) Strengthening capacity for emergency risk management and surveillance systems for various health threats.
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A booklet on how CHWs were addressing eye health across Africa based on desk research and a survey in 23 countries
Guidelines.
The guidelines set out essential actions that humanitarian actors must take in order to effectively identify and respond to the needs and rights of persons with disabilities who are most at risk of being left behind in humanitarian settings.
The recommended actions in each chapter pl...ace persons with disabilities at the centre of humanitarian action, both as actors and as members of affected populations. They are specific to persons with disabilities and to the context of humanitarian action and build on existing and more general standards and guidelines.
These are the first humanitarian guidelines to be developed with and by persons with disabilities and their representative organizations in association with traditional humanitarian stakeholders. Based on the outcomes of a comprehensive global and regional multi-stakeholder consultation process, they are designed to promote the implementation of quality humanitarian programmes in all contexts and across all regions, and to establish and increase both the inclusion of persons with disabilities and their meaningful participation in all decisions that concern them.
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Children malnutrition eradication in developing countries is a real challenge, especially among
vulnerable population. There are so many effort towards women (who are the main care providers)
socio-economic situation in order to improve their children nutrition. This article aims to identify the
...impact of mothers’ activities on child nutrition and care. Interviews were used to collect data from
mothers of children less than 5 years old. Pearson correlation test and regression models were
performed to highlight relation and to identify the main factors that affect child nutrition and care. The
nutritional statuses of children show a high prevalence of underweight (38.46%), emaciation (25.17%)
and stunting (23.77%). Statistic results show that a child whose mother has food processing as main
activity has 2,322 more times to not suffer from emaciation malnutrition compared to a child whose
mother has trade as main activity. A child whose mother has high revenue has 1.463 more times to
not be suffering from stunting malnutrition compared to a child whose mother has lower revenue. A
child whose father has fishing as main activity has 8,4 more chance to not be suffering from stunting
malnutrition compared to a child whose father has another activity as main activity. A child whose
father is present in the household has 8.11 more chance to not suffer from stunting malnutrition
compared to a child whose father is absent. A child from mother who has food processing as main
activity is 2,464 more times preserved from fever compared to a child from mother whose main activity
is trade. Moreover child position, child feeding with porridge, child nursing are correlated with mother
activity. This situation is justified by the fact that mother need money to improve child nutrition and
health but they are also confronted to the fact that those activity that provide significant money are
sometime time consuming and not permit to take care of children in term of feeding practices, hygiene
control etc. Therefore it is important that intervention towards women take in consideration those
factors (money and time) but also the family in the whole.
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Evidence shows that oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) reduces the risk of contracting HIV during sexual intercourse by more than 90% when taken daily. It is for this reason the National HIV Prevention Strategy 2015-2020 (2018 Revision) emphasises the role of preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in ...reducing new HIV infections in Malawi.
The Ministry of Health has prioritised PrEP use among the populations most at-risk of HIV infection in Malawi: young women ages 10 to 24 years, sero-discordant couples, female sex workers, men who have sex with men, and other priority populations (such as members of the uniformed services, prisoners, and mobile populations).
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Accessed: 07.03.2020
A Review of Community Health Worker (CHW) knowledge, attitudes and practices relating to the sexual health of MSM, including existing training materials and manuals in Europe and neighbouring countries (D5.1)
Contract 2015 71 01 A behavioural survey for HIV/AIDS and assoc...iated infections and a survey and tailored training for community based health workers to facilitate access and improve the quality of prevention, diagnosis of HIV/AIDS, STI and viral hepatitis and health care services for men who have sex with men (MSM).
Pubic Health
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Christian Connections for International Health (CCIH), a U.S.-
based nonprofit membership organization commissioned a
Family Planning (FP) survey of faith-based facility-based private
not-for-profit (FB-PNFP) health facilities in Uganda in 2013.
Country-wide health facilities of the Uganda Ortho...dox Church
Medical Bureau (UOMB), the Uganda Muslim Medical Bureau
(UMMB), the Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau (UCMB), and the
Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau (UPMB) were contacted by
phone and interviewed with established questions related to
family planning, contraceptive security, maternal and newborn
health.
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The number of new Ebola infections in Sierra Leone is declining, despite the outbreak continuing to claim lives. New cases have dropped to around 9-12 per week, according to recent WHO figures. There were over 500 cases per week at the height of the crisis around late November 2014.
The impact on t...he lives of the thousands of people directly affected by the disease has been devastating. It has caused substantial suffering to many others, leaving the population very vulnerable.
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