In response to COVID-19, countries around the world have implemented several public health and s
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ocial measures (PHSM), such as movement restrictions, closure of schools and businesses, and international travel restrictions.1 As the local epidemiology of the disease changes, countries will adjust (i.e. loosen or reinstate) these measures according to the intensity of transmission.
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The results of a WHO survey conducted to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on up to 25 essential health services in countries show disrupt
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ions of essential health services in nearly all countries, and more so in lower-income than higher-income countries. The great majority of service disruptions were partial, which was defined as a change of 5–50% in service provision or use.
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This strategy, produced by IFRC, UNICEF and WHO, provides an overview of RCCE coordination approach and priorities across the different phases of the COVI
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D-19 preparedness and response
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While the full effects of COVID-19 remain unknown, the pandemic continues to profoundly impact regional migration and mobility dynamics, with deep
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health, social and economic consequences for the most vulnerable, including migrants, displaced populations and their host communities, and returnees.
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Member States of the Region have initiated processes to strengthen leadership and governance for mental health. Several countries have developed
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and implemented mental health plans, strategies and legislations. Direct spending on mental health needs to be increased throughout the Region through the health sector as well as other relevant sectors.
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One of the many gender inequities in the health and care workforce that COVID-19 has exposed is
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around the fit and design of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The rapid onset and scale of COVID-19 led to shortages of PPE in most countries, causing preventable infection and mortality among healthcare workers and others on the front lines. Even though most health workers are women, manufacturing specifications for medical PPE are usually drawn up based on the male body and there have been many reports of PPE not designed for women's bodies. WGH undertook a global research project to document the challenges women health workers have faced.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is having far reaching impacts, well beyond the health crisis and needs, w
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ith the most severe impacts experienced in the poorest countries and those most vulnerable to humanitarian crises including natural disasters, such as Nepal.
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It is targeted towards humanitarian settings and aims to complement other guidance on the management of the dead with a stronger focus on the practical realities faced when dealing with the dead in humanitarian settings. The guidance offers practica
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l recommendations for the management of the bodies or human remains of persons who died from COVID-19
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Updated version – September 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting everyone. Globally, millions of people have been infected with the virus, while hundreds of thousands have lost their lives. I
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n Moldova, the pandemic is placing an ever-increasing pressure on the health care and social protection systems, causing major disruptions to economic processes and limitations to social life, deepening inequalities and proving how vulnerable we are.
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Countries around the world are facing the challenge of increased demand for care of people with COVID-19, compounded by fear, misinformation and li
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mitations on movement that disrupt the delivery of health care for all conditions. Maintaining essential health services: operational guidance for the COVID-19 context recommends practical actions that countries can take at national, subregional and local levels to reorganize and safely maintain access to high-quality, essential health services in the pandemic context. It also outlines sample indicators for monitoring essential health services, and describes considerations on when to stop and restart services as COVID-19 transmission recedes and surges.
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- Module 1: Understanding modelling approaches for sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, and nutrition
Coronavirus
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disease 2019 (COVID-19) has a wide range of documented effects. It directly causes death and disability for some people infected. However, disruption to essential health services, resources allocated to mitigation and therefore away from essential health service delivery, and the overall impact on the economy and society must also be considered within the response to COVID-19. Understanding the magnitude of all of these effects is an essential part of developing mitigation polices.
Several epidemiological models have been created to assess the potential impact of disruptions to essential health services caused by COVID-19 on morbidity and mortality from conditions other than COVID-19 illness. This guide presents models that have been used to assess these indirect impacts. The effects have been studied in various settings, using a variety of models.
The guide is intended for people who need to understand what the models say, their construction and their underlying assumptions, or need to use models and their outcomes for planning and programme development and to support policy decisions for a country or region.
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Latin America and the Caribbean is characterized by a matrix of social inequality whose axes —such as
socioeconomic stratum, gender, stage in the life cycle, ethnicity and race, territory, disabi
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lity, and immigration
status— create multiple, often concurrent, situations of exclusion and discrimination. The coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) pandemic has exacerbated wide social gaps and it is no coincidence that Latin America
and the Caribbean is one of the regions in which the health and socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic have
been the most severe, which shows that the costs of inequality are unsustainable
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This report presents the findings from a ‘deep dive’ undertaken by UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office to consider the experiences in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines
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and the Pacific. The target audience for this report includes OPDs and humanitarian actors at global, regional, and country levels.
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Occupational health and safety programmes aim to prevent diseases and injuries arising out of, linked with or occurring in the course of work, whil
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e improving the quality and safety of care, safeguarding the health workforce and promoting environmental sustainability in the health sector.
This guide provides an overview of the key elements of occupational health and safety programmes for health workers at national, subnational and facility levels, as well as advice for the development and implementation of such programmes. Health workers exposure risk assessment and management in the context of COVID-19 virus
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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
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halted.
It says the number of children being treated 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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One of the many gender inequities in the health and care workforce that COVID-19 has exposed is
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around the fit and design of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The rapid onset and scale of COVID-19 led to shortages of PPE in most countries, causing preventable infection and mortality among healthcare workers and others on the front lines. Even though most health workers are women, manufacturing specifications for medical PPE are usually drawn up based on the male body and there have been many reports of PPE not designed for women's bodies.
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WHY THIS GUIDE?
Because, in the face of crises and emergencies, it is vital to include a human rights perspective in responses. Vulnerable groups face major obstacles to accessing and benefiting fr
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om prevention, mitigation, and health care policies due to structural barriers of inequality. To offer guidelines to the countries of the Americas for crafting and implementing inclusive and accessible, human rights-based responses to a pandemic that is unprecedented in the region and in the world as a whole.
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9 April 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is presenting States in Europe with an extraordinary and unprecedented public
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health emergency. In response, States are taking necessary and legitimate measures to prevent the spread of the virus and to protect their populations. Some of these measures have been taken within the framework of a declared state of emergency, based on specific national provisions governing emergency situations.
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21 May 2021. he Practical Approach to Care Kit – PACK – is used by nurses, doctors and community health workers in their everyday work to care for patients at the clinic
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and in the community – PACK Adult, PACK Adolescent, PACK Child and PACK Community.
PACK Adult is also known as APC (Adult Primary Care) outside of the Western Cape. Both form part of the the Ideal Clinic initiative: www.idealhealthfacility.org.za
PACK Home is designed for people seeking more information about how to care for their own health and the health of their family at home.
Available in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa
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The report underscores that sexual and reproductive health and rights are often the first to be sacrificed during epidemics
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and that the gains of the past decade must be protected. The report also makes it clear that scarce resources must be focused on the most marginalized women and girls, including sex workers, gender diverse people, women in prison and migrants and others without proof of employment or residence.
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