After five consecutive below-average rains, the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa is expanding
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and deepening.
Combined with insecurity and macroeconomic volatility, the impact of the drought on food and nutrition security has been devastating. Across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, an estimated 22 million people are now acutely food insecure because of the drought. The malnutrition situation is also critical. Some 5.1 million children across drought-affected areas of the three countries are acutely malnourished in 2023, with dire implications for their health, growth and survival. Concerningly, the upcoming March-May 2023 rains are also forecast to be below-average. Should these rains fail, and humanitarian assistance not be delivered at scale, food insecurity will continue to deteriorate.
Regardless of how the 2023 rains perform, extremely high humanitarian needs will persist through 2023 while a full recovery from a drought of this magnitude will take years. To address the devastating drought-induced hunger and malnutrition across the region, WFP is pursuing an integrated dual track approach; meeting immediate life-saving food and nutritional needs while simultaneously building resilience to extreme climate variability.
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Concentrations of the major greenhouse gases, CO2 , CH4 , and N2 O, continued to increase despite the
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temporary reduction in emissions in 2020 related to measures taken in response to COVID-19.
2020 was one of the three warmest years on record. The past six years, including 2020, have been the six warmest years on record. Temperatures reached 38.0 °C at Verkhoyansk, Russian Federation on 20 June, the highest recorded temperature anywhere north of the Arctic Circle.
The trend in sea-level rise is accelerating. In addition, ocean heat storage and acidification are increasing, diminishing the ocean’s capacity to moderate climate change.
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UNAIDS 2017 / Reference
Generating evidence for policy and action on HIV and social protection
World Drug Report 2018
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Technical guidance.
This technical guidance aims to inform policy and practice development specifically related to improving the health of older r
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efugees and migrants within the European Union and the larger WHO European Region. Both ageing and migration are in themselves complex multidimensional processes shaped by a range of factors at the micro, meso and macro levels over the life-course of the individual, but also with intertwined trajectories. Relevant areas for policy-making include healthy ageing over the life-course, supportive environments, people-centred health and long-term care services, and strengthening the evidence base and research
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The COVID-19 pandemic has been a formative experience for all humanity and a health emergency of global proportions, presenting a huge challenge to
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national leaders, health systems, and citizens. The findings of a new report by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) shows that it has also been a test to our democracies and the respect for human rights to which countries across the OSCE committed many years ago.
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Despite some improvements, current levels of air pollution still pose a considerable risk to the environment and to human health in
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the WHO European Region. One issue of concern is that monitoring of particulate matter is very limited in the countries of eastern Europe, the Caucasus and central Asia. This paper summarizes the evidence about the health effects of air pollution from particulate matter and presents the policy implications, the aim being to stimulate policy-makers to develop more effective strategies to reduce air pollution and its health effects in those countries.
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This publication by UNAIDS, UNDP and the International Organisation for Migration examines various dimensions related to migration and HIV
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and AIDS.
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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
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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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The Atlas of health and climate is a product of this unique collaboration between
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the meteorological and public health communities. It provides sound scientific information on the connections between weather and climate and major health challenges. These range from diseases of poverty to emergencies arising from extreme weather events and disease outbreaks. They also include environmental degradation, the increasing prevalence of noncommunicable diseases and the universal trend of demographic ageing.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) Global Status Report on Noncommunicable Diseases 2010 projects that noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) will be responsible for over 44 million deaths during
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the next decade, representing an increase of about 15% since 2010. Most of these deaths will occur in the WHO regions of Africa, South-East Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean. In the African Region alone, NCDs will cause around 3.9 million deaths by 2020.
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The Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report – Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000 - 2020 – presents estimates on household access to safely managed drinking water,
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sanitation and hygiene services over the past five years, and assesses progress toward achieving the sixth sustainable development goal (SDG) to ‘Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030’.
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This report aims to raise awareness about the role that the reform of public health laws can play in advancing
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the right to health and in creating the conditions for people to live healthy lives. By encouraging a better understanding of how public health law can be used to improve the health of the population, the report aims to encourage and assist governments to reform their public health laws in order to advance the right to health.
The report highlights important issues that may arise during the process of public health law reform. It provides guidance about issues and requirements to be addressed during the process of developing public health laws. It also includes case studies and examples of legislation from a variety of countries to illustrate effective law reform practices and some features of effective public health legislation.
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This document provides up-to-date guidance on laboratory studies as well as smallscale (semi-field) and large-scale field trials to assess the efficacy a
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nd determine field
application rates of new molluscicide products for control of schistosomiasis.
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This publication presents the Agenda for the Americas on Health, Environment, and Climate Change 2021–2030 (
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the Agenda). The Agenda is a call to action to the health sector to lead the charge to address environmental determinants of health in the Americas. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) will work with Member States to achieve its goal and objective to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages using a sustainable and equitable approach that places a priority on reducing health inequity. The Agenda has been developed under the umbrella of the WHO Global Strategy on Health, Environment, and Climate Change, and builds upon the commitments set forth in the Sustainable Health Agenda for the Americas 2018–2030 and the PAHO Strategic Plan 2020–2025. The Agenda was developed in consultation with the Technical Advisory Group and through a consensus-driven decision-making process with Member States during the 2019–2020 period. Looking toward the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 3, the Agenda focuses on: improving the performance of environmental public health programs and institutions; fostering environmentally resilient and sustainable health systems; and promoting environmentally healthy and resilient cities and communities. Its implementation will be context-specific, based on the needs and realities of the countries. It will benefit countries and territories by promoting good governance practices, strengthening the leadership and coordination roles of the health sector, fostering cross-sectoral action, focusing on primary prevention, and enhancing evidence and communication. It will facilitate access to human, technical, and financial resources necessary to address environmental determinants of health and ensure that the Region is fully engaged in global health, environment, and climate change processes and agreements. The objective of the Agenda is to strengthen the capacity of health actors in the health and non-health sectors to address and adapt to environmental determinants of health (EDHs), prioritizing populations living in conditions of vulnerability, in order to meet Outcome 18 of the PAHO Strategic Plan 2020–2025 directly and several other outcomes of the Plan indirectly. To address and adapt to the challenges of EDHs in the Region, an integrated and evidence-informed approach within the health sector and across sectors will be needed, one enabled, and supported by good governance practices, adequate management mechanisms, high-level political will, and adequate human, technical, technological, and financial resources.
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The study collected data on the impact of HIV-related diseases on income, revenues, economic dependency, consumption, education, health,
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food security, stigma, discrimination, quality of life, and migration. The study also assessed people living with chronic diseases in order to compare the impact of living with HIV/AIDS with the impact of living with a chronic disease.
Stigma, discrimination, and socio-economic exclusion continue to affect the rights and socio-economic opportunities of people living with HIV in Myanmar. Households with a family member who has HIV, have lower incomes, fewer assets and lower home-ownership, compared to households that are not affected by HIV. They also have more household debt, and their families pay a higher rate of interest compared to families not affected by HIV.
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For biological agents, the publication covers 11 bacteria,
fungi and viruses listed by states parties to the Biological
Weapons Convention in dec
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larations of past offensive
research and development programmes, or considered of
special concern for possible use in terrorism. All of these
agents can cause natural disease in humans, though with
markedly different frequency.
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This situation analysis has gathered information about the current state of AMR, contributing factors and antimicrobial use in Zimbabwe from
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the human, animal, agricultural and environmental sectors. Data has been gathered from different sectors such as the general public, academia, the Ministry of Health and Child Care, the Ministry of Agriculture Mechanization and Irrigation Development and the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate. It shows that AMR is a real concern in Zimbabwe and a threat to the health outcomes of humans, to the economic productivity of the livestock industry and a risk to the environment.
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