This new plan has been developed to build on successes made and lessons learnt from implementation of the two initial plans and to provide a short to medium term strategic anchor against which preparedness and response plans to the corona virus disease COVID-19 epidemic in the country should focus o...n for the period June 2021 to June 2022.
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Recently, a renewed interest in large-scale community health worker (CHW) programs has been seen globally. This renewal provides an opportune moment to take stock of issues and challenges such programs face and what can be done to make them as effective as possible. With this in mind, this manual is... intended to be used a practical guide for policymakers and program
managers wishing to develop or strengthen a CHW program, drawing lessons from other countries that have implemented CHW programs at-scale. Throughout, we discuss major policy and programmatic issues that decision-makers and planners need to consider when designing, implementing, scaling up or strengthening a national-level CHW program. We offer an overview
of specific challenges CHW programs face, country lessons, tools, and other resources that may be helpful, while incorporating relevant programmatic examples as much as possible.
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The Mtoto Mwerevu Stunting Reduction Toolkit is a resource for government and organisations involved in addressing stunting and broader nutrition issues in Tanzania. The toolkit was developed in conjunction with the Government of Tanzania (GoT) with funding from UK Aid as part of the Addressing Stun...ting in Tanzania Early (ASTUTE) programme. Its goal is to provide government, donors, non-governmental organisations, and civil society organisations (CSOs) with programming recommendations and tools to help implement successful multi-sectoral social and behaviour change (SBC) interventions aimed at preventing and reducing stunting.
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Noma (cancrum oris) is a severe gangrenous disease of the mouth and face. It mostly affects children between the ages of 2 and 6 years living in extreme poverty. In addition to the known factors such as malnutrition, lack of vaccination in children and poor oral hygiene, several social and environme...ntal factors such as maternal malnutrition and close spacing of pregnancies that result in offspring with increasingly weakened immune systems are potentially related to the onset of the disease.
The aim of this guide is to assist the ministries of health (MoHs) to identify a general goal to be attained by the end of five years, with a view to sustainably reducing the incidence of noma as a public health problem through programmes that are fully integrated with national health planning, strengthening of primary health care (PHC) and attainment of UHC.
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Best practice guidelines are systematically developed statements designed to assist nurses working in partnership with persons and their families to make decisions about health care and services (Field & Lohr, 1990). This nursing Best Practice Guideline (BPG) is intended to replace the RNAO BPGs Scr...eening for Delirium, Dementia and Depression in Older Adults (2010b) and Caregiving Strategies for Older Adults with Delirium, Dementia and Depression (2010a).
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The international reconstruction effort in Afghanistan after 2001 created an opportunity to advance human rights, and women’s and girls’ rights in particular. Although its achievements have fallen short of what was envisioned, significant improvements in legal protections have emerged through th...e adoption of new and revised laws, the founding and growth of legal aid organizations, and the training of a cadre of women lawyers, prosecutors, and judges.
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On February 29, 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement outlining a phased withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in exchange for Taliban commitments not to allow attacks on the US or its allies from Afghan territory. The troop withdrawal is expected to take place in parallel w...ith negotiations between representatives from the Afghan government and other Afghan political groups and Taliban leaders aimed at achieving a political settlement after decades of armed conflict.
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This is a guidance document for countries and implementing partners on the technical requirements for developing digital information systems for issuing standards-based interoperable digital certificates for COVID-19 vaccination status, and considerations for implementation of such systems, for the ...purposes of continuity of care, and proof of vaccination.
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In the last quarter of 2019 Southern African Regional Interagency Standing Committee Africa (RIASCO) reported that more than 11 million people were experiencing crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity in nine Southern African countries1 due to deepening drought and climate related crisis. The ...Southern African Development Community (SADC) urged for urgent humanitarian action, and at the beginning of November 2019 Angola, Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia had declared states of drought emergencies, requiring international assistance to address the worsening food insecurity situation.
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Background: Cervical cancer accounts for 23% of cancer incidence and 22% of cancer mortality among women in Burkina Faso. These proportions are more than 2 and 5 times higher than those of developed countries, respectively. Before 2010, cervical cancer prevention (CECAP) services in Burkina Faso wer...e limited to temporary screening campaigns.
Program Description: Between September 2010 and August 2014, program implementers collaborated with the Ministry of Health and professional associations to implement a CECAP program focused on coupling visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) for screening with same-day cryotherapy treatment for eligible women in 14 facilities. Women with larger lesions or lesions suspect for cancer were referred for loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP). The program trained providers, raised awareness through demand generation activities, and strengthened monitoring capacity.
Methods: Data on program activities, service provision, and programmatic lessons were analyzed. Three data collection tools, an individual client form, a client registry, and a monthly summary sheet, were used to track 3 key CECAP service indicators: number of women screened using VIA, proportion of women who screened VIA positive, and proportion of women screening VIA positive who received same-day cryotherapy.
Results: Over 4 years, the program screened 13,999 women for cervical cancer using VIA; 8.9% screened positive; and 65.9% received cryotherapy in a single visit. The proportion receiving cryotherapy on the same day started at a high of 82% to 93% when services were provided free of charge, but dropped to 51% when a user fee of $10 was applied to cover the cost of supplies. After reducing the fee to $4 in November 2012, the proportion increased again to 78%. Implementation challenges included difficulties tracking referred patients, stock-outs of key supplies, difficulties with machine maintenance, and prohibitive user fees. Providers were trained to independently monitor services, identify gaps, and take corrective actions.
Conclusions: Following dissemination of the results that demonstrated the acceptability and feasibility of the CECAP program, the Burkina Faso Ministry of Health included CECAP services in its minimum service delivery package in 2016. Essential components for such programs include provider training on VIA, cryotherapy, and LEEP; provider and patient demand generation; local equipment maintenance; consistent supply stocks; referral system for LEEP; non-prohibitive fees; and a monitoring data collection system.
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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created a global and gendered crisis that is compounding existing inequalities and disproportionately affecting girls and women. Emerging evidence from the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 shows school closures, disruptions in essential services and rising... poverty contributed to girls’ increased risk of female genital mutilation (FGM). School closures limited the monitoring and reporting of cases of FGM. Rising household monetary poverty may have contributed to families adopting negative coping mechanisms, including having girls undergo FGM as a precursor to marriage to reduce household costs. A report from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates 2 million additional cases of FGM by 2030 due to the pandemic.
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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created a global and gendered crisis that is compounding existing inequalities and disproportionately affecting girls and women. Emerging evidence from the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 shows school closures, disruptions in essential services and rising... poverty contributed to girls’ increased risk of female genital mutilation (FGM). School closures limited the monitoring and reporting of cases of FGM. Rising household monetary poverty may have contributed to families adopting negative coping mechanisms, including having girls undergo FGM as a precursor to marriage to reduce household costs. A report from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates 2 million additional cases of FGM by 2030 due to the pandemic.
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The 10 recommendations in the COP26 Special Report on Climate Change and Health propose a set of priority actions from the global health community to governments and policy makers, calling on them to act with urgency on the current climate and health crises.
The recommendations were developed in ...consultation with over 150 organizations and 400 experts and health professionals. They are intended to inform governments and other stakeholders ahead of the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and to highlight various opportunities for governments to prioritize health and equity in the international climate movement and sustainable development agenda. Each recommendation comes with a selection of resources and case studies to help inspire and guide policymakers and practitioners in implementing the suggested solutions
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This summary covers the preventive approach to breast cancer control and includes prophylactic medications, prophylactic surgery and lifestyle modifications for breast cancer prevention. Health professional training and individual risk assessments and counseling are also discussed.
Healthy communities rely on well-functioning ecosystems. They provide clean air, fresh water, medicines and food security. They also limit disease and stabilize the climate. But biodiversity loss is happening at unprecedented rates, impacting human health worldwide, according to a new state of knowl...edge review of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and WHO.
The report synthesizes the available information on the most important inter-linkages between biodiversity, ecosystem stability, and epidemic infectious diseases such as the Ebola virus; and the connection between biodiversity, nutritional diversity and health. It also covers the potential benefits of closer partnerships between conservation and health, from improved surveillance of infectious diseases in wildlife and human populations, to promoting access to green spaces to promote physical activity and mental health. It also highlights the many areas in which further research is needed.
The Joint report hopes to provide a useful reference for the Sustainable Development Goals and post-2015 development agenda, which represents an unique opportunity to promote integrated approaches to biodiversity and health by highlighting that biodiversity contributes to human well-being, and highlighting that biodiversity needs protection for development to be sustainable.
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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 is the ninth paper in our series, “Community Health Workers at the Dawn of a New Era”. Community health workers (CHWs) are in an intermediary position between the health system and the community. While this position provides CHWs with a good platform to improve community health, a major cha...llenge in large-scale CHW programmes is the need for CHWs to establish and maintain benefcial relationships with both sets of actors, who may have diferent expectations and needs. This paper focuses on the quality of CHW relationships with actors at the local level of the national health system and with communities.
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