A study conducted by the World Health Organisation Regional Office for Africa. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on older persons both globally and in the African region. Although overall the region’s population is younger relative to many other world regions, the WHO AFRO region ...has a population just over 62 million older people and is ageing rapidly, with the number of older people expected to triple in the next three decades (Aboderin et al., 2020).
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Spirometry is required as part of the comprehensive evaluation of both adult and paediatric individuals with suspected or confirmed respiratory diseases and occupational assessments. It is used in the categorisation of impairment, grading of severity, assessment of potential progression and response... to interventions. Guidelines for spirometry in South Africa are required to improve the quality, standardisation and usefulness in local respiratory practice. The broad principles of spirometry have remained largely unchanged from previous versions of the South African Spirometry Guidelines; however, minor adjustments have been incorporated from more comprehensive international guidelines, including adoption of the Global Lung Function Initiative 2012 (GLI 2012) spirometry reference equations for the South African population.
All equipment should have proof of validation regarding resolution and consistency of the system. Daily calibration must be performed, and equipment quality control processes adhered to. It is important to have standard operating procedures to ensure consistency and quality and, additionally, strict infection control as highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Adequate spirometry relies on a competent, trained operator, accurate equipment, standardised operating procedures, quality control and patient co-operation. All manoeuvres must be performed strictly according to guidelines, and strict quality assurance methods should be in place, including acceptability criteria (for any given effort) and repeatability (between efforts).
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The Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) is a document to guide WHO’s work in countries. CCS is a medium-term vision for WHO’s technical cooperation with a given Member State, and supports the country's national health policy, strategy or plan. The CCS time frame is flexible to align with national... cycles and processes. It is the basis for aligning WHO’s collaboration with other United Nations bodies and development partners at the country level.
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The paper presents interview data from Malawian government representatives, trade unionists, employers and people with disabilities from the country's largest cities Lilongwe and Blantyre. Findings relate to the gap between the discourse of employers and government officials and that of workers with... disabilities. Firstly, we find a policy-based assumption of a formalised workforce that is not representative of the predominantly informal disabled workforce. Secondly, the disruptive, intermittent and often reactive nature of non-governmental organisation (NGO) interventions can limit long-term inclusivity agendas and undermine the work of disabled activists in Malawi. Lastly, we present findings on the stigmatised nature of disability in these urban centres. We find that stigma is economic: Urban workers with disabilities are discriminated against locally by employers, landlords and banks on assumptions they will not produce or earn enough to meet productivity demands, rent or repayment costs.
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The World Health Organization's fourth Country Cooperation Strategy 2022-2026 is an outcome of a consultative process with inputs from the Ministry of Health, various agencies in the health sector, and other relevant stakeholders. It has been developed to provide strategic direction and support towa...rd achieving the priorities of the Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini.
It is designed to support the strengthening of health systems and services toward the attainment of Universal Health
Coverage (UHC) and the Sustainable Development Goals targets. The CCS 2022-2026 also presents the collaborative
agenda between the Kingdom of Eswatini and the three levels of WHO, aligns with the strategic priorities of WHO’s
13th General Programme of Work (2019 – 2025), as well as Eswatini’s United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2021-2025
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South Africa has recorded its first case of monkeypox today, 23 June 2022. The Minister of
Health Dr. Joe Phaahla explained that he received a report from the National Health
Laboratory Services’ CEO that they have confirmed through laboratory tests the first case of
monkeypox in South Africa. ...South Africa's monkeypox patient zero is a 30-year-old man from
Johannesburg.
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has prepared an
information sheet to better understand monkeypox, the symptoms to treatment.
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Biosafety involves the implementation of containment principles, technologies and practices to prevent unintentional exposure to biological agents. Biosecurity involves the protection, control and accountability of biological materials and information related to these materials and dualuse research,... to prevent their unauthorized access, loss, theft, misuse, diversion or intentional release.
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PEPFAR Malawi’s Country Operational Plan 2022 (COP22) embodies joint priorities from national and subnational dialogues building on the 2020-2025 National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS. The interagency team has developed a person-centered, district-tailored and Malawi Population-Based HIV Impact Ass...essment (MPHIA)-informed strategy through extensive engagement with Government of Malawi (GoM) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to sustain HIV epidemic control. At the end of COP21, PEPFAR Malawi was commended for contributing to reaching epidemic control in strong collaboration with GoM and stakeholders including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund). This includes enrollment of 88% of recipients of care on three or more months of antiretroviral treatment (ART), better outcomes for Malawian children through remarkable efforts in Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) programming and progress made towards reaching men with more intentional and focused programming.
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Kangaroo mother care (KMC) is a critical strategy to care for preterm and low birth weight infants in resource-limited settings. Despite evidence of its effectiveness and low cost, coverage has remained low, largely due to sociocultural barriers. We aimed to better understand social norms and commun...ity perceptions of preterm infants and KMC (facility-initiated and community-continued) in Malawi, a country with a high preterm birth rate, to inform a pilot social and behavior change program.
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Background: Disability is a complex concept involving physical impairment, activity limitation, and participation restriction. The
Washington Group developed a set of questions on six functional domains (seeing, hearing, walking, remembering, self-care, and
communicating) to allow collection of co...mparable data on disability. We aimed to improve understanding of prevalence and correlates of disability in this low-income setting in Malawi.
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With development, people around the world have become wealthier and live longer. At the same time, development can lead to growing inequalities within and between nations. This paper analyses inequalities related to disability and how they vary across countries by development level. Using internatio...nally comparable data on disability inequalities in 40 countries, we assess disability inequalities through the use of regression analyses with a variety of development measures. Results support the hypothesis only partially: disability inequalities related to education, employment, and multidimensional poverty are found to be significantly larger in countries at higher levels of development. However, this is not the case for rates of access to water, sanitation, clean fuel, electricity, housing, and assets. These results, overall, hold when using different development and
outcome indicators, and when focusing on specific subgroups of the population. The potential implications of these findings are discussed. Further research is needed to understand, for education and employment, the factors and processes that contribute to larger disability inequalities in countries at higher levels of development and what strategies might be pursued to reduce them.
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The leishmaniases are a group of diseases caused by Leishmania spp., which occur in cutaneous, mucocutaneous and visceral forms. They are neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), which disproportionately affect marginalized populations who have limited access to health care. HIV co-infected patients with... Leishmania infection are highly infectious to sandflies, and an increase in the coinfection rate in an endemic area is likely to increase the effective infective reservoir.
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The "National Guideline for Cholera Surveillance and Outbreak Response" by the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) provides a comprehensive approach to combating cholera outbreaks in Ethiopia. It emphasizes the importance of a multisectoral approach, including case management, WASH measures, an...d the use of cholera vaccines. A key component is the establishment of Cholera Treatment Centers (CTCs) that provide 24/7 care. Additionally, the guideline stresses water quality monitoring and hygiene practices to prevent the spread of cholera and protect public health.
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This Preventing SRGBV guide is intended to enable you to facilitate all 5 days of the course along with the classroom presentation and the participants’ workbook. It includes suggestions for talking points, guidance for activities, and say/do/tell cues and help for implementing activities. The ide...al number of participants is 18-20 – less than that could mean the discussions are not meaningful enough and more than that might mean you are unable to help everyone express themselves.
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This document aims to describe a minimum set of surveillance activities recommended at the national level to detect and monitor the relative prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 variants and outline a set of activities for the characterization and assessment of risk posed by these variants. A set of indicators ...is also provided to standardize monitoring and public reporting of variant circulation.
The document is primarily intended for national and sub-national public health authorities and partners who support implementation of surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 variants
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The American Jornal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, vol. 105, no.6, pp.1772-1781.
Schistosomiasis, which is the second most important parasitic infection after malaria in terms of its socioeconomic impact, is responsible for the loss of an estimated 4.5 million disability-adjusted life years (DA...LYs) worldwide. Schistosomiasis, including both intestinal and urinary forms of the disease, occurs in 78 countries across the globe. An estimated 240 million people are infected, with more than 779 million living at risk globally. The majority of those infected and those at risk for infection live in low-income countries, and approximately 80% of the morbidity occurs in impoverished communities and households in sub-Saharan Africa. Within Uganda, 91 of the 134 districts are endemic for intestinal schistosomiasis caused by Schistosoma mansoni, and the eastern region, especially along Lake Victoria, has one of the highest S. mansoni burdens worldwide. Schistosoma haematobium is only endemic in the five districts of the Lango region in northern Uganda.
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Manual 1. The Practical Approach to Care Kit – PACK – is used by nurses, doctors and community health workers in their everyday work to care for patients at the clinic and in the community –PACK Adult, PACK Adolescent, PACK Child and PACK Community.PACK Home is designed for people seeking more... information about how to care for their own health and the health of their family at home.Collect and read all the PACK Home volumes in English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa, isiZulu or Sesotho
Download the different languages: https://knowledgetranslation.co.za/pack/pack-home/
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ASLM in collaboration with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and in partnership with the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Amref and Last Mile Health present the Quality Assurance Framework for SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid Testing for Diagnosis of COVID-19. This framework aims to pr...ovide general technical guidance to African Union Members States on the rollout, establishment, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 Ag RDT interventions so as to effectively and efficiently detect, control and minimise errors in the performance of COVID-19 laboratory testing processes. It describes the core components for quality assurance, resources mobilisation and advocacy for scale up, monitoring, evaluation, learning and accountability for SARS-CoV-2 implementation.
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