Defending Rights
Breaking Barriers
Reaching People with HIV Services
Global Aids Update 2019
The “United Nations Framework for the immediate socio-economic response to COVID-19: Shared responsibility, global solidarity and urgent action for people in need” calls for protecting jobs, businesses and livelihoods to set in motion a safe rec...overy of societies and economies as soon as possible for a more sustainable, gender-equal, and carbon-neutral path—better than the “old normal”.
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The equation is simple: we cannot effectively respond to a global pandemic when millions of people are still caught in warzones. We cannot treat sick people when hospitals are being bombed, or prevent the spread of coronavirus when tens of millions ...are forced to flee from violence. We must have a global ceasefire, and we must put our collective resources behind making that ceasefire a reality.
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The emergence and transmission of zoonotic diseases are driven by complex interactions
between health, environmental, and socio-political systems. Human movement is considered
a significant and increasing factor in these processes, yet forced migr...ation remains an
understudied area of zoonotic research–due in part to the complexity of conducting interdisciplinary
research in these settings.
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Covid-19 Epidemiological Surveillance Guide: Public Health Emergency of National Importance for Coronavirus Disease 2019 - version 4
Many countries have made significant progress in the implementation of World Health Organization recommended preventive chemotherapy strategy, to eliminate lymphatic filariasis (LF). However, pertinent challenges such as the existence of areas of re...sidual infections in disease endemic districts pose potential threats to the achievements made. Thus, this study was undertaken to assess the importance of these areas in implementation units (districts) where microfilaria (MF) positive individuals could not be found during the mid-term assessment after three rounds of mass drug administration.
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The training focuses on building the capacity of health care workers at the primary and secondary level to address and manage TB in children.
Maternal and child malnutrition is a significant public health problem in South Sudan. Among children aged 6-59 months, 31% are stunted, 28% are underweight, and nearly 23% are acutely malnourished of which 13% are estimated to suffer from moderate ...acute malnutrition and 10% from severe acute malnutrition.
Overall, South Sudan’s nutrition situation is worrisome, with GAM persistently above the emergency threshold in the Greater Upper Nile, Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Warrap states. Though data on micronutrient deficiencies is scanty, Vitamin A Supplementation (VAS) among children 6-59 months stood at only 2.6% in 2010, showing low uptake (SHHS, 2010). This is against a backdrop of high morbidity levels and a negligible proportion of children 6 to 23 months receiving at least the recommended minimum acceptable diet. In order to ensure optimal child growth, it is essential to ensure good nutrition and basic health care from pregnancy through two years of age (the first 1000 days).
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In December 2013, UNICEF published its first comprehensive evaluation assessing how well its global and country strategies and programmes have worked to protect children in emergencies.
The ‘Evaluation of UNICEF Programmes to Protect Children i...n Emergencies’ was undertaken to identify key successes and gaps in child protection programming over the period 2009-2012 and to draw out lessons learned ahead of the roll-out of the new Strategic Plan, 2014-2017. The evaluation investigates achievements and gaps against the Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action (CCCs), UNICEF’s Child Protection Strategy and the previous Strategic Plan, 2006-2013. It assesses the extent to which interventions in longer term
child protection systems-strengthening and preparedness have led to a more effective response in crises.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has put significant pressure on health systems all around the world. The drastic measures established to contain its spread are creating serious impediments to economic activity (including agrifood systems) and, consequently, t...o livelihoods and food security and nutrition.
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IN THE AMOUNT OF SDR 21.8 MILLION (US$30 MILLION EQUIVALENT) WITH AN ADDITIONAL GRANT FROM THE GLOBAL FINANCING FACILITY (GFF) IN THE AMOUNT OF US$ 10 MILLION TO THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO FOR A HUMAN DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMS STRENGTHENING PROJECT
The arrival of COVID-19 in Afghanistan has brought heartache to millions of people who are now battling a deadly pandemic while simultaneously fighting for their survival amid poverty, disaster and war. Over my three years as Humanitarian Coordinator, I have marvelled at the resilience of the people... of this country to cope with the hardships of life in the world’s deadliest conflict – but even this remarkable strength is now being tested by the health, social and economic consequences of COVID-19. The virus is spreading across the country with frightening speed. Every province is now impacted, and people are understandably frightened.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is having far reaching impacts, well beyond the health crisis and needs, with the most severe impacts experienced in the poorest countries and those most vulnerable to humanitarian crises including natural disasters, such as Ne...pal.
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It estimates that there have been 228,000 additional deaths of children under five in these six countries [Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka] due to crucial services, ranging from nutrition benefits to immunisation, being halted.
It says the number of children being tr...eated for severe malnutrition fell by more than 80% in Bangladesh and Nepal, and immunisation among children dropped by 35% and 65% in India and Pakistan respectively...
It also estimates that there have been some 3.5 million additional unwanted pregnancies, including 400,000 among teenagers, due to poor or no access to contraception...
The interruption to health services also affected those suffering from other diseases - the report predicts an additional 5,943 deaths across the region among adolescents who couldn't get treated for tuberculosis, malaria, typhoid and HIV/Aids.
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A Situational Assessment and Five-YearAction Plan for the Africa CDC Strengthening Regional Public Health Institutions and Capacity for Surveillance and Response Program
The 2014–2015 Ebola epidemic in western Africa was the longest and most deadly Ebola epidemic in history, resulting in 28,616 cases and 11,310 deaths in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The Ebola virus has been known since 1976, when two separate outbreaks were identified in the Democratic Repub...lic of Congo (then Zaire) and South Sudan (then Sudan). However, because all Ebola outbreaks prior to that in West Africa in 2014–2015 were relatively isolated and of short duration, little was known about how to best manage patients to improve survival, and there were no approved therapeutics or vaccines. When the World Heath Organization declared the 2014-2015 epidemic a public health emergency of international concern in August 2014, several teams began conducting formal clinical trials in the Ebola affected countries during the outbreak.
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Internationally, there is a growing concern over antimicro-bial resistance (AMR) which is currently estimated to ac-count for more than 700,000 deaths per year worldwide. If no appropriate measures are taken to halt its pro-gress, AMR will cost approximately 10 million lives andabout US$100 trillion... per year by 2050. In contrast tosome other health issues, AMR is a problem that con-cerns every country irrespective of its level of incomeand development as resistant pathogens do not respect borders.Despite the threat presented by AMR, the 2014 WorldHealth Organization (WHO) and the recent O’Neill re-port describe significant gaps in surveillance, standardmethodologies and data sharing. The 2014 WHOreport identified Africa and South East Asia as the regions without established AMR surveillance systems.
Tadesseet al. BMC Infectious Diseases (2017) 17:616 DOI 10.1186/s12879-017-2713-1
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With a focus on Pakistan and Nigeria’s most vulnerable communities, this report provides insight about the role that community push-back is playing in the transmission of the polio virus and how the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) can m...itigate these social risks to reach every missed child.
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Paper commissioned for Fixing the Broken Promise of Education for All: Findings from the Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children
Over the period 2015 to 2019, scaling up a package of selected nutrition-specific and nutrition sensitive interventions to cover 90 per cent of Sudan would:
- Reduce the under-five mortality rate to 49/1,000 live births
- Reduce the prevalence of stunting to 25 per cent
- Reduce the ...prevalence of wasting (global acute malnutrition – GAM) to 6 per cent
- Increase exclusive breastfeeding to 63 per cent
- Reduce iron deficiency anaemia among pregnant women to 26 per cent.
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