This brief document aims to provide a framework for WHO assistance in this area.
Pregnancy and childbirth during adolescence profoundly affects the lives of millions of girls worldwide, and is a leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity, and infant and child mortality. Every year, an estimated 21 million girls aged 15–19 years old in low- and middle-income countries be...come pregnant, and approximately 12 million give birth.
For many adolescent girls, the ability to control their sexual lives remains limited. Long-standing gender inequalities and discrimination, marginalization, harmful social and gender norms, and denial of rights, compounded by poverty and violence, render them vulnerable to early pregnancy, HIV and other health threats. Lack of age-appropriate sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) information and services create additional barriers to care and support; as a result, adolescent girls who become pregnant are much more likely to go on to have rapid repeated births.
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It is of utmost importance to low-income countries and some lower-middle income nations in the time of the SDG period that they are not on course to accomplish the health-related SDG 3 and its targets until 2030. If we honestly intend to support this goal and realize it for the people living in the ...regions that are facing the lowest survival chances, we also need to recognize that these countries are far from being in a position to raise the necessary resources solely with their own means.
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Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all is possible – but only if economically better-off and disadvantaged countries play their part
The World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO), in accordance with recommendations from various WHO committees, has developed three flagship initiatives to support Member States in the African region to prepare for, detect and respond to public health emergencies. They are the r...esult of extensive consultations with more than 30 African government ministers, technical actors, and partners across the continent as well as regional institutions such as the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), whose contributions have shaped the priority activities. This report provides the fourth quarterly summary of progress in implementing the flagship initiatives.
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This document aims to provide guidance to countries in the identification of priority areas
for intervention as part of the Situational Analysis of their National Cholera Control or
Elimination Plans (NCPs).
Guidelines for the Management of common childhood Illness. 2nd edition
These guidelines focus on the management of the major causes of childhood mortality in most developing countries, such as newborn problems, pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, meningitis, septicaemia, measles and related conditions, ...severe acute malnutrition and paediatric HIV/AIDS. It also covers common procedures, patient monitoring and supportive care on the wards and some common surgical conditions that can be managed in small hospitals.
A smart phone and tablet application is available from the Apple or Google Play Store.
Special attention is drawn to the following sections, which are particulary relevant within the COVID-19 context:
Chapter 4: information on cough and difficulty in breathing, pneumonia and bronchiolitis;
Chapter 10: information on essential supportive care including feeding, fluid and oxygen provision;
Annex 1: information on related practical procedures.
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Any individual that meets the suspected case definition of monkeypox should be offered testing in appropriately equipped laboratories by staff trained in the relevant technical and safety procedures. Confirmation of monkeypox virus infection is based on nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT), usi...ng real-time or conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR), for detection of unique sequences of viral DNA. PCR can be used alone, or in combination with sequencing. The recommended specimen type for laboratory confirmation of monkeypox is skin lesion material, including swabs of lesion surface and/or exudate, roofs from more than one lesion, or lesion crusts.
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In 2021, the humanitarian community continued to support those in need, placing protection at the centre of its response. Learning from and building on past efforts, humanitarian actors will continue to respond and adapt their response to the various shocks impacting populations in Cameroon, such as... violence against civilians, natural disasters, and epidemics, including the COVID-19 pandemic.
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BMJ Global Health 2022;7:e008007. doi:10.1136/ bmjgh-2021-00800
Almost eight years of active fighting have had profound consequences on the lives of millions of people in the conflict-affected Donetska and Luhanska oblasts of eastern Ukraine. An estimated 2.9 million people are projected to need humanitarian assistance in 2022, with some 55 per cent living in th...e non-Government controlled area (NGCA).1 1 According to the national Ukrainian legislation, such areas have been defined as the temporarily occupied territories of Donetska and Luhanska oblasts.
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Bull World Health Organ 2022;100:50–59 | doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.21.286689
The report highlights key trends and developments in laws affecting people living with HIV and key populations in Asia and the Pacific over the five-year period 2014–2019. It updates the legal and policy review conducted in 2016 for UNAIDS, UNDP and the United Nations Economic and Social Commissio...n for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). A database of laws of the 38 Member States of ESCAP was created as part of this review. The database identifies laws that are either punitive or enabling for people living with HIV and key populations in Asia and the Pacific.
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