This 400 page guide, created by PHI’s Center for Climate Change and Health and the American Public Health Association (APHA), with support from the California Department of Public Health helps local health departments prepare for and mitigate climate change effects—from drought and heat to flood...ing and food security—with concrete, implementable suggestions.
The guide: Provides a basic summary of climate change and climate impacts on health; Prioritizes health equity, explains the disproportionate impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities, and targets solutions first to the communities where they are most needed, including low-income, elderly and people of color communities; Connects what we know about climate impacts and climate solutions with the work of local health departments; and Offers specific examples of how local health departments can address and ameliorate the impacts of climate change in every area of public health practice.
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This handbook presents some basic information on safe construction practices. Its purpose is to provide guidance on choices regarding settlement planning in risky environments, as well as on the building techniques to improve individual shelters. The contents may be used to develop trainings on part...icipatory shelter risk reduction methods, such as PASSA.
This guide is not aimed at construction professionals, although it may serve them to communicate with beneficiaries and volunteers on safety measures. The intended readers are Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers, who are not expected to be experts in shelter construction and safety but should be able to understand the most important technical aspects of shelter safety in the communities in which they work.
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Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, health is receiving unprecedented public and political attention. Yet the fact that climate change also presents us with a health crisis deserves further recognition. From more deaths due to heat stress to increased transmission of infectious diseases, ...climate change affects the social and environmental determinants of health in ways that are profound and far-reaching. The fundamental interdependency of human health and the health of the environment is encapsulated in the concept of planetary health, a scientific field and social movement that has been gaining force since the 2015 publication of the Rockefeller Foundation-Lancet Commission report “Safeguarding human health in the Anthropocene epoch”.
We see an urgent need for strategic communication to raise awareness of climate-health synergies in order to overcome the misperception that climate and health are two independent agendas. The fragmented and sector-focused nature of thinking and action remains a significant barrier to integrating health considerations into climate planning and project development. Inevitably, collaboration across sectors requires a community of practice. Despite recent efforts focused on the climate-health nexus, much work remains to be done to translate scientific findings for policymakers, mobilise climate financing resources in support of health co-benefits, and promote genderjust solutions within climate change projects.
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This Tailoring Antimicrobial Resistance Programmes (TAP) process assists Member States in initiating and undertaking projects to address the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in their countries. AMR is a complex problem requiring unique, context-specific solutions. This TAP Toolbo...x contains a series of exercises and is aligned with the stages outlined in the TAP Quick Guide. The Toolbox is designed to be used by a TAP working group as they work through the stages outlined in the TAP Quick Guide. The exercises and tools presented in this Toolbox have been abridged and adapted from the TAP Manual which will be available soon.
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This brief advocacy document highlights the burden, risks and prevention of injuries and violence, which took the lives of 4.4 million people in 2019 and constitute 8% of all deaths. Among the injury-related causes of death include road traffic crashes, drowning, falls, burns, poisoning and violence... against oneself or others. For people age 5-29 years, three of the top five causes of death are injury-related, including road traffic injuries, homicide, and suicide. Injuries and violence are not evenly distributed across or within countries – some people are more vulnerable than others depending on the conditions in which they are born, grow, work, live and age; in general, being young, male and of low socioeconomic status all increase the risk of injury. This document, aimed at public health professionals; injury prevention researchers, practitioners and advocates; and donors, draws attention to specific strategies based on sound scientific evidence that are effective and cost-effective at preventing injuries and violence; it is critical that these strategies are more widely implemented.
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The 2020 Financing for Sustainable Development Report, the fifth report of the Inter-agency Task Force on Financing for Development, provides a comprehensive assessment of the state of sustainable finance. Prepared by more than 60 agencies of the United Nations system and partner international organ...izations, the report brings together a wide range of expertise and perspectives. It puts forward a set of policy recommendations to mobilize financing flows, and align them with economic, social and environmental priorities. These recommendations should assist Member States and all other stakeholders as they work toward fully implementing the Addis Agenda and achieve the SDGs.
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The 40-page field guide outlines possible causes of separation, discusses the psychosocial impacts of being separated, such as how we experience loss, and provides guidelines on how to support those who have been separated from family members – including delivering difficult news to loved ones, ba...sic helping skills, interviews, on-going support and referrals, and reunification. There is also a chapter on self-care for staff and volunteers. The materials provided here will need to be adapted to suit local contexts. The aim of this field guide is to build both confidence and skills in responding to disaster and crisis situations, and to raise awareness of the broader goals of the Movement’s work in supporting families separated from their loved ones
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The project was developed by the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA), in line with the Federation’s statement “a world in which students are equipped with knowledge, skills and value to take on health leadership roles locally and globally so to... shape a sustainable future”. This was supported by an ongoing and vital engagement from the World Health Organization (WHO) and their work the United Nations Alliance on Climate Change Education, Training and Public Awareness. The overall objective was to create a “all in one” type of resource to bring together climate change, health and youth advocacy.
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Prescriptions and Actionables for a Healthy and Green Recovery.
The practical steps outlined in this report aim at creating a healthier, fairer and greener world while investing to maintain and resuscitate the economy hit by the effects of COVID-19.
Policy makers, national and local decision-make...rs and a wide array of other actors wishing to contribute to a healthy recovery can now take decisive steps by shaping the way we live, work and consume. Effects on environmental degradation and pollution and climate change will be wide ranging. WHO and partner organizations have since long been developing substantive guidance and provide support for building healthier environments for healthier populations.
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Tuberculosis (TB) is, and should be, a curable disease; however, each year significant numbers of patients acquire or develop drug-resistant TB, which has a much lower cure rate. Patients with drug-resistant TB have a high prevalence of symptoms; hence, staff caring for these patients should h...ave some familiarity with palliative care, so that general palliative care principles are available to all patients. The timely identification, and addressing, of adverse events occurring during the treatment course is considered as general palliative care for those receiving curative treatment. This publication summarizes the general palliative care approach, which is recommended for use in settings and services that occasionally treat palliative care patients, but do not provide palliative care as the main focus of their work. The review focuses on 18 high TB priority countries of the WHO European Region.
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USAID funded/ Primary Health Care Project in Iraq (PHCPI) in cooperation with Iraqi Ministry of Health (MOH) aims to promote Primary Health Care (PHC) services provided by Primary Health Care Clinics (PHCCs) in Iraq in order to achieve the development goal in enhancing the PHC provision system throu...gh achieving the following results: First: Enhancing management and operations systems, which support clinical care. Second: Improving the quality of the delivered PHC according to quality standards. Third: Enhancing and expanding local community participation and partnership in PHC. Maintaining the medical & service devices in the hospitals and health clinics besides making them function according to the adapted standard specifications, lead to providing most efficient medical services for people and accomplish the purposes for which they were invented. Maintenance and repair of facilities and infrastructure, and keeping them safe and clean are also of the important approaches for the results referred to in (first) and (second) above. This can be achieved through enhancing and developing facilities, and medical & service devices management. This guideline seeks to develop work mechanism for engineers, technicians and the PHCCs’ facilities and medical & service equipment maintenance workers; clarify the concept of maintenance, its importance and classifications in health area, its planning and implementation, the tasks and duties of other directorates and departments of the Ministry in relation to all kinds of maintenance. Add to that preparing documents and forms, which are used in documenting and monitoring the steps required to be accomplished in the maintenance of PHCCs’ facilities and medical & service equipment, for the equipment to perform the best possible services for people and get their satisfaction.
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UNHCR’s Public Health Strategy 2021-2025 is based on the lessons learnt, and builds on the achievements, of the Global Strategy for Public Health 2014-2018.
Progress was made on policies favouring inclusion and integration into national systems3 with 92% of 48 operations surveyed reporting refuge...es having access to national primary health care facilities under the same conditions as nationals and 96% reporting refugees having access to all relevant vaccines under the same conditions as nationals. While many refugee hosting countries have policies that allow refugees to access national health services, many face partial access, prohibitive out-of-pocket expenditures and other barriers including distance to facilities, language and provider acceptance. Furthermore, more work is needed on strengthening these systems to be able to meet the needs of both host communities and refugees.
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Health, safety and wellbeing of the Healthcare workers is a prerequisite for good quality of care and patient satisfaction in health services. Healthcare facilities that are not safe for workers and patients are not resilient to any shock arising from hostile events, outbreaks or any other emergenci...es. Occupational Safety and Health Act (2005) and the National Occupational Safety and Health Policy of Zanzibar require the development of stringent systems for managing occupational safety and health in all workplaces and the health system in general.
These Policy Guidelines have been developed by the Ministry of Health in consultation with the Ministry responsible for Labour and other stakeholders, such as organizations of workers, employers and professional associations in the health sector. The purpose of these guidelines is to foster the implementation of the international commitments and the national legislation regarding decent work in the health system as well as to improve the quality of care and the resilience of health facilities.
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Promoting health and preventing disease is a critical component of the effort required to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC). to date, efforts to achieve UHC have focused mostly on strengthening health systems and their capacities to provide curative care. However, experience from the COVID-19 ...pandemic has reaffirmed the need for resilient health systems, emphasizing primary health care, including preventive and promotive health and well-being.
Emerging from the eye of the storm as the global health lead agency during the pandemic, WHO is equipped with the required insights and actions for a holistic approach to “building back fairer and better” after COVID-19.
The Healthier Populations (UHP) Cluster in the African Region is designed to support Pillar 3 of WHO’s 13th Global Programme of Work (GPW13) which aims to make 1 billion people healthier by reducing health inequities, preventing diseases and injuries, addressing health determinants, and promoting partnerships for collaborative actions amongst all stakeholders.
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Air pollution is a major environmental risk factor and contributor to chronic, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). However, most public health approaches to NCD prevention focus on behavioural and biomedical risk factors, rather than environmental risk factors such as air pollution. This article discus...ses the implications of such a focus. It then outlines the opportunities for those in public health and environmental science to work together across three key areas to address air pollution, NCDs and climate change: (a) acknowledging the shared drivers, including corporate determinants; (b) taking a ‘co-benefits’ approach to NCD prevention; and (c) expanding prevention research and evaluation methods through investing in systems thinking and intersectoral, cross-disciplinary collaborations.
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This module covers common Non-Communicable Diseases such as Hypertension, Diabetes and three common cancers (Cervical,
Breast and Oral cancer). The focus of this module is on building the knowledge and skills of the Multi-Purpose Workers (MPW) in
undertaking Population Based Screening, identifi ca...tion of cases for referral, follow up, recognition of complications, prevention
and health promotion. This module can be used by the female
or male MPW. However, while the content of the overall module
is the same for both some tasks will be different, particularly
those related to screening which the female MPW will have to
undertake. It is expected that the ANM/MPW will work closely
with the ASHA in her area. Together they form a front line worker
team to serve the needs of the community. The content of this
module will be covered in three days.
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Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) are a significant burden globally, with millions of patients affected each year. These infections affect both high- and limited-resource healthcare settings, but in limited-resource settings, rates are approximately twice as high as high-resource settings (15 o...ut of every 100 patients versus 7 out of every 100 patients). Furthermore, rates of infections within certain patient populations are significantly higher in limited-resource settings, including surgical patients, patients in intensive-care units (ICU) and neonatal units. It is well documented that environmental contamination plays a role in the transmission of HAIs in healthcare settings. Therefore, environmental cleaning is a fundamental intervention for infection prevention and control (IPC).It is a multifaceted intervention that involves cleaning and disinfection (when indicated) of the environment alongside other key program elements to support successful implementation (e.g., leadership support, training, monitoring, and feedback mechanisms). To be effective, environmental cleaning activities must be implemented within the framework of the facility IPC program, and not as a standalone intervention. It is also essential that IPC programs advocate for and work with facility administration and government officials to budget, operate and maintain adequate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure to ensure that environmental cleaning can be performed according to best practices.
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The objective of this concept note and the framework it outlines is the elimination of a group of CDs and the negative health effects they generate, which together create a tangible burden on affected individuals, their families and communities, and on health care systems throughout the Region. Thou...gh there is no unified consensus on the best measures to use for the public’s health and a nation’s epidemiologic situation, it is common for the disease burden to be measured by disease rates (incidence, prevalence, etc.), disease-specific death rates, comparative morbidity and mortality rates, geographic distribution, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). The current epidemiological situation, including data on disease rates or geographic distribution for the diseases in Table 1, is discussed below in Section 4. Hotez et al. (2008) were the first to review and compare the burden of DALYs in Latin America and the Caribbean—for NTDs, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and TB—as it existed about 10 years ago. Though the regional burden of TB, malaria, and neglected infectious diseases (NIDs) is somewhat less than it was 10 years ago, work (and schooling) continue to be lost to illness and premature death or disability, and the need for stepping up disease elimination efforts is evident in all communities living in vulnerable conditions....
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Data on asthma aetiology in Africa are scarce. We investigated the risk factors for asthma among schoolchildren (5–17 years) in urban Uganda. We conducted a case-control study, among 555 cases and 1115 controls. Asthma was diagnosed by study clinicians. The main risk factors for asthma were tertia...ry education for fathers (adjusted OR (95% CI); 2.32 (1.71–3.16)) and mothers (1.85 (1.38–2.48)); area of residence at birth, with children born in a small town or in the city having an increased asthma risk compared to schoolchildren born in rural areas (2.16 (1.60–2.92)) and (2.79 (1.79–4.35)), respectively; father’s and mother’s history of asthma; children’s own allergic conditions; atopy; and cooking on gas/electricity. In conclusion, asthma was associated with a strong rural-town-city risk gradient, higher parental socio-economic status and urbanicity. This work provides the basis for future studies to identify specific environmental/lifestyle factors responsible for increasing asthma risk among children in urban areas in LMICs.
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