The document summarizes the infrastructure and activities for Ebola virus disease (EVD) preparedness that are already in place in the Gambia ...class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">and identifies opportunities for improvement to strengthen the nation’s readiness in the event of an EVD incident.
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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 affect...ed individuals, their families and communities, and on health care systems throughout the Region. Though 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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UNICEF provides a detailed update and list of Ebola virus disease personal protective equipment technical specifications for use in high- ...ss="attribute-to-highlight medbox">and low-risk settings. It includes barriers for full body protection, as well as the head, nose, mouth, eyes, hands and feet. In selecting the right PPE specifications for frontline workers, the degree of contact with infectious material, and the potential for infected fluid penetration should be considered.
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Updated with information on Ebola virus disease and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus
A wide variety of health events ranging in severity may occur related to air transport, requiring di...fferent responses or, perhaps, no response at all. The target audience for this guidance document includes the national focal points (NFP) for the IHR and public health authorities at PoE, as well as national aviation regulatory authorities, airport operators and personnel, aircraft operators, air crew and other stakeholders involved in air transport and emergency preparedness and response to public health events
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Organizing and Delivering High Quality Care for Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases in the Americas
A resource for pesticide registrars and regulators.
The WHO urged governments to restrict access to highly toxic pesticides used for self-poisonin...g . Other effective interventions include education, youth intervention programs and follow-up of people at risk—and better data. Only 80 out of 183 WHO member states reported high-quality vital registration data in 2016
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Advocacy, communication and social mobilization for TB control
National Tuberculosis Control Program; Mycobacterial Disease Control National AIDS/STD Program
Guidelines for planning and provision of pastoral and social support services
Childhood Respiratory Diseases & the Environment learning objectives
•To understand how the respiratory tract is affected by the environment
•To describe respiratory diseases linked to the ... environment
•To list one population-level intervention and one personal-level intervention for decreasing risk of respiratory diseases
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Alcohol contributes significantly to the disease and mortality burden in the WHO European Region, and primary health care systems play an important... role in reducing the impact of harmful alcohol use. Screening and brief interventions (SBIs) for alcohol are an evidence-informed approach to addressing the needs of the many patients presenting in primary care who may benefit from reducing their alcohol consumption. This manual provides information to plan training and support for primary care practitioners to confidently deliver SBI for alcohol problems to their patients. The manual outlines the background and evidence base for SBI, and gives practical advice on establishing an implementation programme as well as detailed educational materials to develop the knowledge and skills of participants in organized training sessions.
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The new treatment recommendations that extend the 2018 treat all recommendation for adults with chronic HCV infection to include adolescents and children down to 3 years, ...ighlight medbox">and to align the existing recommended pangenotypic direct-acting antiviral (DAA) regimens (SOF/DCV, SOF/VEL and G/P) for adults, to those for adolescents and children. This alignment is expected to simplify procurement, promote access to treatment among children in low- and middle-income countries and contribute to global efforts to eliminate the disease
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Strengthening Community responses to HIv Treatment and Prevention
Asthma is the commonest chronic childhood disease and encompasses a spectrum of airway diseases with similar symptoms. Inaccurate diagnosis remains... common, especially in younger children, with failure to characterize the different “asthmas.” Children worldwide repeatedly suffer symptoms which severely affect their everyday lives. Children die from asthma, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). In many countries, asthma prevalence is rising. Access to effective care and changing environments are hugely variable and may explain the higher morbidity in inner-city children, in LMICs, and in deprived populations in high-income countries. Despite the disease being eminently controllable, morbidity and mortality persist.
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Cystic fibrosis (CF) was earlier thought to be a disease prevalent in the West among Caucasians. However, quite a number of recent studies have uncovered CF cases outside of this region, and report...ed hundreds of unique and novel variant forms of CFTR. Here, we discuss the evidence of CF in parts of the world earlier considered to be rare; Africa, and Asia. This review also highlighted the CFTR mutation variations and new mutations discovered in these regions. This discovery implies that the CF data from these regions were earlier underestimated. The inadequate awareness of the disease in these regions might have contributed towards the poor diagnostic facilities, under-diagnosis or/and under-reporting, and the lack of CF associated health policies. Overall, these regions have a high rate of infant, childhood and early adulthood mortality due to CF. Therefore, there is a need for a thorough investigation of CF prevalence and to identify unique and novel variant mutations within these regions in order to formulate intervention plans, create awareness, develop mutation specific screening kits and therapies to keep CF mortality at bay.
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The cardiovascular disease continuum begins with risk factors such as diabetes mellitus (DM), progresses to vasculopathy and myocardial dysfunction, and...span> finally ends with cardiovascular death. Diabetes is associated with a 2- to 4-fold increased risk for heart failure (HF). Moreover, HF patients with DM have a worse prognosis than those without DM. Diabetes can cause myocardial ischemia via micro- and macrovasculopathy and can directly exert deleterious effects on the myocardium. Hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, and insulin resistance can cause alterations in vascular homeostasis. Then, reduced nitric oxide and increased reactive oxygen species levels favor inflammation leading to atherothrombotic progression and myocardial dysfunction. The classification, diagnosis, and treatment of HF for a patient with and without DM remain the same. Until now, drugs targeting neurohumoral and metabolic pathways improved mortality and morbidity in HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Therefore, all HFrEF patients should receive guideline-directed medical therapy. By contrast, drugs modulating neurohumoral activity did not improve survival in HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) patients. Trials investigating whether sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors are effective in HFpEF are on-going. This review will summarize the epidemiology, pathophysiology, and treatment of HF in diabetes.
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This document has been prepared based on the evidence currently available about
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission (human-to-human transmission via respiratory droplets or direct contact from an infected individual).
It is recommende...d to use it in conjunction with the published World Health Organization
(WHO) Handbook for management of public health events on board ships.
The target audience of this documents is any authority involved in public health response to
a COVID-19 public health event on board ships, including International Health Regulations
(IHR) National Focal Point (NFP), port health authorities, local, provincial and national health
surveillance and response system, as well as port operators and ship operators
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Consensus -based guidelines for diagnosis, prevention and treatment of tuberculosis in children and...an> adolescents
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Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) is an essential part of any disease outbreak response. Risk communication in the context of an Ebola outbreak refers to real time exchange of infor...mation, opinion and advice between frontline responders and people who are faced with the threat of Ebola to their survival, health, economic or social wellbeing. Community engagement refers to mutual partnership between Ebola response teams and individuals or communities in affected areas, whereby community stakeholders have ownership in controlling the spread of the outbreak.
It is intended to be used to guide RCCE work which is central to stopping the outbreak and preventing its further amplification. Unlike other areas of response, RCCE draws heavily on volunteers, frontline personnel and on people without prior training in this area. As such, the document provides basic background information, scopes the socio-economic and cultural aspects (that are known at the time of publication), and provides the latest evidence-based advice and approaches
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In 2012, all Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed a historical target to reduce premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases
(NCD). This commitment was echoed in 2015 by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals..., which included a target to reduce premature mortality (the
measure of unfulfilled life expectancy and deaths between the ages of 30 and 70 years) from NCD by 30% by the year 2030. The Sustainable Development Goals are especially relevant to cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading cause of death globally, with increasing prevalence in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).
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