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 a...nd the United Nations Economic and Social Commission 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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Apart from implementation of TB infection Prevention and Control measures, treatment of those with active TB of the lungs is key in preventing the spread of the TB bacilli. The Public Health Act CAP 242, section 17 classify TB as notifiable infectious disease and under section 26 as part of preventi...on and control of infectious diseases, those exposed or suffer from the notifiable infectious diseases should be isolated in designated place and detained while taking medication until in the assessment of the Medical officer of health confirm that the person is free from infection or able to be discharged without danger to public health.
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The procurement of essential medicines and other health products is a critical function in support of the effective discharge of WHO’s mandate, and WHO values the importance of the quality of essential medicines and health products that are supplied to countries. The first World Health Assembly in... 1948 recognized the need to establish a procurement service at WHO, and recommended setting up an office “to give advice on the procurement of essential drugs, biological products and other medical supplies”.
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Ghana's attempt to regulate health care waste management started in 2002 with the development of guidelines on health care waste manage-ment by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In 2006, the Ministry of Health developed the health care waste poli...cy and guidelines. This guidance document improved health care waste management in the country.
With support from the UNDP-GEF medical waste management project, the Ministry of He lth has revised the existing National Health Care Waste Management (HCWM), policy and guideline, 2006 and has produced two separate documents- A National Health Care Waste Management Policy and a National Guideline for Health Care Waste Management
countrywide. This policy is replacing the 2006 policy and introduces new technical and administrative policy issues to enhance waste management in health care facilities.
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This National Health Policy has 5 objectives, namely
i. To strengthen the healthcare delivery system to be resilient
ii. To encourage the adoption of healthy lifestyles
iii. To improve the physical environment
iv. To improve the socio-economic s...tatus of the population
v. To ensure sustainable financing for health
These objectives shall collectively ensure that there will be improved alignment, complementarity and synergies within and across all public sector ministries as well as with other stakeholders, towards achieving the national health goal.
The policy shall therefore ensure that MDAs and other identifiable organizations work within the principles of the Health-in-All Policy and the One-Health Policy frameworks (WHO), to achieve the desired healthy life status of people living in Ghana.
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The Community Health Systems (CHS) Catalog is a resource that provides information on community health program workers, and interventions for the 25 countries deemed priority by USAID’s Of of Population and Reproductive Health. It comprises a compilation of 25 country profiles developed from a de...sk review of community health policies, strategies, a related documentation.
This document summarizes country trends drawn from the CHS Catalog and highlights interesting and relevant findings
about the global community health policy landscape.
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Analysis on World about Agriculture, Food and Nutrition and more; published on 23 Sep 2021 by ECA, ECLAC and 3 other organizations
This document synthesizes key elements of the World Health Organization (WHO) normative guidance on health policy and system support for community health worker (CHW) programmes and their application for HIV programmes. Building on relevant elements... of HIV guidelines, tools and evidence identified by experts, it provides recommendations on tasks and roles that can be performed by CHWs (including for HIV), identifies the policy and system supports to optimize CHW performance, and gives examples of best practice. Its purpose is to inform the optimal design and delivery of CHW programmes targeting – either specifically or as part of a broader approach – the scale-up and sustainability of HIV services.
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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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Covid-19 Social Policy Response Series / No.14
This report examines Ecuador’s social policy response to mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic’s effects and protect
vulnerable populations. It chronolo...gically traces containment, closure policies, social policies and programmes
put in place following the announcement of Covid-19 as a global pandemic. A combination of external con-
straints and domestic structures, i.e. informality and weak coordination, led to truncated efforts in the healthcare
response, while persistent inequalities in access to technology and high levels of informality led to fragmented
education, labour policies and social protection responses. The report zooms into the Family Protection Grant
(Bono de Protección Familiar or BPF), a new social protection programme that covers informal workers, which
captures the difficulties in reaching unregistered populations amid lockdown and containment measures.
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Globally, the cancer burden is rising, exerting significant strain on
populations and health systems at all levels of income. There are
concerted efforts towards enhancing access to comprehensive
cancer prevention and control initiatives.
Globally, approximately 56.8 million people are in need of palliative care
services; 78% of them living in low and middle-income country yet only
about 12% have their needs being met causing great suffering for many.
Expanding access to quality health services through task sharing
During the pandemic, Brazil has provided its citizens with support in the areas of long-term care and disability, the labor market, social assistance, education, and pensions. This report focuses on two social policy areas, health-care and family be...nefits (including labor policies), as these were the most crucial social policies implemented in Brazil during the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of the resources allocated and the magnitude of social impact. Brazil’s relatively generous social policies were uncoordinated with public health interventions, which contributed to poor compliance with these public health interventions. This suggests that social policy initiatives alone are insufficient in mitigating the social consequences of the pandemic. They need to be accompanied by and coordinated with public health measures, including regulations on testing, social distancing and mask wearing.
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The guidance notes describe key actions that policy-makers at national and subnational levels can take in relation to: diagnostic testing for COVID-19, clinical management of COVID-19, meeting targets for vaccination against COVID-19, maintaining in...fection control measures for COVID-19 in health-care settings, building confidence through risk communication and community involvement, and ensuring that all health-care workers are aware of the risks of COVID-19.
This guidance note focuses on the following areas: COVID-19 diagnostic testing, clinical management of COVID-19, achieving COVID-19 vaccination targets, maintaining COVID-19 infection control measures in health-care settings, building confidence through risk communication and community engagement, and managing COVID-19 infodemia. This guidance note focuses on risk communication and community engagement in the context of COVID-19.
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The power of the Global Drug Policy Index lies in its key objective: to score and
rank how countries are faring in different areas of drug policy as identified in the
UN report ‘What we have lea...rned over the last ten years: A summary of knowledge
acquired and produced by the UN system on drug-related matters’,1 and derived
from the landmark UN System Common Position on Drug
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Background: Foreign aid continues to play an essential role in health sector development in low-resource countries, particularly in terms of providing a vital portion of their health expenditures. However, the relationship between foreign aid allocation and malaria ...t medbox">policy formulation and/or implementation among state aid recipients remains unknown.
Methods: Publicly available data were collected with the country as observational unit to set up the conceptual framework. The quality and strength of relationships between socioeconomic, environmental and institutional parameters were estimated by Pearson and polychoric correlations. A correlation matrix was explored by factor analysis.
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Background: Foreign aid has been shown to be favourably biased towards small countries. This study investigated whether country size bias also occurs in national malaria policy and development assistance from international agencies. Methods: Data fr...om publicly available sources were collected with countries as observational units. The exploratory data analysis was based on the conceptual framework with socio-economic, environmental and institutional parameters. The strength of relationships was estimated by the Pearson and polychoric correlation coefficients. The correlation matrix was explored by factor analysis.
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Background: The need for sufficient and reliable funding to support health policy and systems research (HPSR) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has been widely recognised. Currently, most resources to support such activities come from trad...itional development assistance for health (DAH) donors; however, few studies have examined the levels, trends, sources and national recipients of such support – a gap this research seeks to address. Method: Using OECD’s Creditor Reporting System database, we classified donor funding commitments using a keyword analysis of the project-level descriptions of donor supported projects to estimate total funding available for HPSR-related activities annually from bilateral and multilateral donors, as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to LMICs over the period 2000–2014.
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Oral health is defined as the absence of disease and a status that ensures optimal functioning of the mouth and its tissues in a manner preserving the highest level of function and self-esteem. Oral health enables an individual to eat, speak and socialise having no active disease, discomfort or disc...ouragement thus contributing to the general well-being. Good oral health is an essential component of general health and a right of every person1. Poor oral health has a negative impact on general health, work productivity, educational performance and adversely affects growth and development.
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