Over half a billion children are living in areas with extremely high levels of floods and nearly 160 million children live in areas of high or extremely high droughts. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 26% of the annual 6.6 million ...deaths of children under five are linked to environment-related causes and conditions. Children are also disproportionately affected by pollution, not only in terms of death rates, but also in terms of cognitive and physical development. This report illustrates that environmental causes also have an impact on whether children are pushed to work and on the kind of work they engage in, the conditions of work, exposure to dangerous toxicants and the risk of exploitation. However, the report raises more questions than it answers as it is one of the first reports addressing the question, how environmental degradation and climate change affect the vulnerability of children towards exploitation.
more
WHO six-year strategy for the health sector and community capacity development.
The Handbook on Law and Disaster Risk Reduction (the Handbook) has been developed to provide guidance on how to use the Checklist and conduct relat...ed legislative reviews and reform processes. While the methodology for using the Checklist needs to be tailored to each country’s context and respective needs, the Handbook is intended to provide general guidance on key steps to consider.
more
This document provides interim guidance on the prevention, identification and management of health worker infection in the context of COVID-19. It is intended for occupational health departments, in...fection prevention and control departments or focal points, health facility administrators and public health authorities at both the national and facility level.
more
Surge in climate change-related disasters poses growing threat to food security
This document provides interim guidance on the prevention, identification and management of health worker infection in the context of COVID-19. It is intended for occupational health departments, in...fection prevention and control departments or focal points, health facility administrators and public health authorities at both the national and facility level.
more
Overview: Risk communication and community engagement are essential for any disease outbreak response. This is particularly critical during outbreaks of Ebola which may create fear in the public ...an class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">and frontline responders alike due to severe presentation of symptoms, misunderstanding of the causes of illness and high fatality rates. This document outlines some of the key considerations for risk communication and community engagement response to Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Ebola outbreaks have been associated with misinformation and false rumours. In the context of RCCE, rumours refer to unsubstantiated information, claims or beliefs about what is causing the disease or how it can be treated/cured. If not proactively addressed in culturally appropriate ways, misinformation and rumours can lead to the further rapid spread of the disease and unnecessary deaths, severe disease, suffering, and societal and economic loss.
The publication includes a 'Rumour Tracking Tool' (Annex II).
more
The current effort on fighting COVID-19 cannot conceal the fact that climatic and geological hazards affect Latin-America and the Caribbean every year. At a time when countries of the region are act...ively responding to the pandemic, they also need to prepare for and implement actions to mitigate the potential impacts of other recurrent hazards. For instance, countries like Guatemala and El Salvador have been recently hit by tropical storm Amanda and, as the Caribbean region faces its annual hurricane season, countries are enhancing climate-hazard preparedness. Many countries are bracing for a two-tier crisis as they grapple with complicated logistics, limited resources and scant supplies.
more
While many of the countries hit by the COVID-19 in the first few months of the year are now beginning to relax lockdown measures as infection and death rates fall, in the regions most affected by HIV, TB a...nd malaria, such as Africa, South Asia and Latin America, the pandemic continues to accelerate. In lower resource settings, lockdowns are less effective and hard to sustain, and clinical care facilities are extremely limited. In such environments, the response to COVID-19 must focus on containing the pandemic’s spread as far as possible through testing, contact tracing and isolation, protecting the health workforce through training and the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) and minimizing the knock-on impact on other diseases through shoring up fragile health systems, and adapting existing disease programs.
more
The consolidated guidelines are expected to provide the basis and rationale for the development of national guidelines for LTBI management, adapted to the national ...t medbox">and local epidemiology of TB, the availability of resources, the health infrastructure and other national and local determinants. The guidelines are to be used primarily in national TB and HIV control programmes, or their equivalents in ministries of health, and for other policy-makers working on TB and HIV and infectious diseases. They are also appropriate for officials in other line ministries with work in the areas of health.
more
The overall goal of the Kenya Health Sector Referral Strategy is to improve client access to referral. The objectives of the strategy are to realise improved capacity of health providers to identify clients who require referral, develop protocols that will lead to referral system efficiency ...ass="attribute-to-highlight medbox">and effectiveness, and promote and facilitate information and communication technology (ICT) to manage referrals, improve care, enhance capacity of the referral system in Kenya, provide communication and related equipment, and promote research and innovation for referrals.
more
This reference manual provides in-depth knowledge on the techniques, methodologies and best practices for using geospatial information in support of decision making for disaster risk ...tribute-to-highlight medbox">management for specific hazards
more
Message: The islands of The Bahamas and Haiti suffered severe impact from the passage of Hurricane Matthew, the 5th named Hurricane of the 2016 Atlantic Hurricane season. As a result, the Caribbean ...Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) through the Regional Response Mechanism (RRM) facilitated the coordination and deployment of regional specialized response teams to provide operational support and damage/needs assessments in the most affected areas in Haiti and The Bahamas. The Caribbean Community will also make targeted relief interventions in the affected Member States.
more
The report and an accompanying series of studies show the global uptake of the World Health Organization (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist in its first ten years since its launch and recommend ways th...e Checklist can be more effectively used to improve surgical safety for millions at risk.
The report found that uptake has been remarkably positive: the Checklist has been adopted in almost 90% of operating rooms in countries with a high Human Development Index (HDI), a country-level measure of health, education, and standard of living. It was referenced by at least 139 (70%) of the world's countries and is included as a national standard by the health ministries of at least 20 countries. The Checklist has also had beneficial qualitative impact, introducing a culture of safety and improved communication within surgical teams, increasing patient trust, and improving job satisfaction.
more