This brief considers the rationale for shielding individuals at high risk of severe disease or death from COVID-19 in low- and middleincome countries. It provides an overview of proposed approaches to shielding, discusses the categories of individuals who may be identified for shielding, and outline...s the likely difficulties of these measures and ways to mitigate them.
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4 August 2021. Currently, Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine COMIRNATY® (Tozinameran) is the only COVID-19 vaccine that should be stored and transported at -60ºC to -86ºC ultra-low temperature (ULT) conditions. Prior to use the vaccine can be transferred to -20ºC freezer or +2-8ºC refrigerator at... the lower store levels and immunization service points. However, vaccine shelf life is affected when vaccine is transferred to a different storage temperature. Health workers in charge of managing the storage, transport and administration of the vaccine should be well trained to maintain vaccine quality. Good cold chain planning, strong management of vaccine supply, logistics and distribution, including installation and effective monitoring and evaluation of the performance of the storage equipment and infrastructure, are also necessary.
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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.
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BMC Public Health (2016) 16:766
DOI 10.1186/s12889-016-3455-5
Policy Note: Thailand Health Systems in Transition
By 2002, Universal Health Coverage was achieved through three public insurance schemes: the Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme (CSMBS) for civil servants and their dependents, Social Health Insurance (SHI) for formal sector employees, and the U...niversal Coverage Scheme (UCS) for the remainder of the population.
The establishment of these three schemes has changed the way health care is financed. A supply-led system, under which all Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) health facilities received an annual budget allocation from the MOPH, has now been completely replaced by a system in which the three public purchasers - separated through a purchaser-provider split - manage a demand-led system of financing.
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In many of Myanmar’s contested regions, healthcare services are provided through two parallel governance systems – by the government’s Ministry of Health, and by providers linked to ethnic armed organizations. Building upon efforts to build trust between these two actors following ceasefires s...igned in 2011 and 2012, the new National League for Democracy-led government offers an unprecedented opportunity to increase cooperation between these systems and to ensure health services reach Myanmar’s most vulnerable populations.
The report provides an overview of existing health service arrangements in these areas, from both the Ministry of Health and from ethnic and community-based health organizations. It then unpacks the concept of “convergence”, highlighting key opportunities and policy recommendations for both government and non-government actors.
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The purpose of this document is to provide guidance on how quarantine and isolation can be achieved if there is a suspected or confirmed case in an overcrowded setting. It will focus on informal settlements and collective shelters, but the guidance can be applied in non-refugee settings as well, suc...h as detention centres and crowded neighborhoods. This guidance aims to support a coordinated and efficient response. It supports detailed planning at the regional level and is meant to be adapted to the local context. Households residing outside of these shelter types will be expected to follow the self-isolation circular provided by the MoPH. It is preferable, whenever feasible, that people are supported to remain in their homes. This guidance note will be continuously adapted as needed from the National level.
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DHS Working Papers No. 120
This research report provides results from the study on living conditions among people with disabilities in Zambia. Comparisons are made between individuals with and without disabilities and also between households with and without a disabled family member. Results obtained in Zambia are also compar...ed to those obtained in earlier studies carried out in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. The Zambian study was undertaken in 2005-2006.
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To improve survival and quality of life among the 2.5 million children living with HIV, a comprehensive package of prevention, care and treatment is required. This package should include management of infections such as pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria and ear infections, as well as common opportunisti...c infections and HIV-related co-morbidities. WHO is developing a series of guidelines on each of these conditions, following the GRADE approach. The document on the management of pneumonia and diarrhoea in HIV-infected infants and children is the first of this series. The recommendations are similar to those for non infected children, but they cover specific aspects related to HIV infection.
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Many features of the environment have been found to exert an important influence on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, progression, and severity. Changes in the environment due to migration to different geographic locations, modifications in lifestyle choices, and shifts in social policies and cultu...ral practices alter CVD risk, even in the absence of genetic changes. Nevertheless, the cumulative impact of the environment on CVD risk has been difficult to assess
and the mechanisms by which some environment factors influence CVD remain obscure. Human environments are complex; and their natural, social and personal domains are highly variable due to diversity in human ecosystems, evolutionary histories, social structures, and individual choices. Accumulating evidence supports the notion that ecological features such as the diurnal cycles of
light and day, sunlight exposure, seasons, and geographic characteristics of the natural environment such altitude, latitude and greenspaces are important determinants of cardiovascular health and CVD risk. In highly developed societies, the influence of the natural environment is moderated by the physical characteristics of the social environments such as the built environment
and pollution, as well as by socioeconomic status and social networks. These attributes of the
social environment shape lifestyle choices that significantly modify CVD risk. An understanding
of how different domains of the environment, individually and collectively, affect CVD risk could
lead to a better appraisal of CVD, and aid in the development of new preventive and therapeutic
strategies to limit the increasingly high global burden of heart disease and stroke.
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