Humanitarian crises exacerbate nutritional risks and often lead to an increase in acute malnutrition. Emergencies include both manmade (conflict) and natural disasters (floods, drought, cyclones, ty
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phoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc.). Complex emergencies are combinations of both manmade and natural disasters, often of a protracted nature. Millions of people are affected by humanitarian crises every year. The increasing frequency and scale of emergencies requires nutrition to be addressed in all phases of a response.
Crisis situations, whether acute or protracted, impact on a range of factors that can increase the risk of undernutrition, morbidity, and mortality. They may involve: the large-scale destruction of property and infrastructure; the erosion of livelihood strategies and purchasing power; a breakdown of and reduced access to essential services, including health services, water supply, and sanitation; and the displacement of large numbers of people. Emergencies can also disrupt social systems and the quality of care/feeding practices. Household access to food may be negatively affected and people may find themselves in overcrowded settlements with their families divided. As a result, at the individual level, there is often an increased risk of deteriorating health and nutritional status, resulting in a greater likelihood of death.
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The ERF provides WHO staff with essential guidance on how the Organization manages the assessment, grading and response to public health events and
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emergencies with health consequences, in support of Member States and affected communities. The ERF adopts an all-hazards approach and it is therefore applicable in all acute public health events and emergencies.
This version (2024) of the WHO ERF has been developed following extensive consultation across the three levels of the Organization and response experiences over the last five years of emergency response. Key areas have been updated to improve the accountability, predictability, timeliness and effectiveness of WHO’s response to emergencies.
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Updated Guideline.
The Emergency Triage Assessment and Treatment (ETAT) guidelines provide guidance on the most common emergency conditions in chi
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ldren presenting at the health facility. These include but are not limited to airway obstruction and other breathing problems; circulatory impairment or shock; severely altered CNS function (coma or convulsive seizures); and severe dehydration which require urgent appropriate care to prevent death.
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It summarizes guidance on how to manage – and when to refer – children and adolescents presenting with common complaints and conditions. It inc
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ludes information to enable primary health care providers to coordinate the continued care of children and adolescents with long-term conditions and diseases managed by specialists. Preventive and promotive measures from the newborn period to adolescence include advice on the timing and content of well-child visits, the promotion of early childhood development and health messages for adolescents.
This Pocket Book aims to improve the diagnosis and management of common conditions in children and adolescents that can be managed at the outpatient level. It helps to improve the use of laboratory and other diagnostic measures and the rational use of essential drugs and equipment.
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The target audience of this document (and the associated online companion tool) includes WHO country offices
in Member States of the African Region; Member States’ ministries of health and their
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public health emergency
operation centres; relevant external assessment teams; and partners looking to identify preparedness gaps and
support interventions that help address them. In the event of a suspected or confirmed VHF case, the document also serves to provide any intervening partner with a sense of what structures should be in place, in order to guide
scale-up activities in line with regional and national plans.
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Regional Network for Equity in Health in east and southern Africa (EQUINET): Disussion Paper 112
The Essential Health Benefit (EHB) is known as Essen
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tial Health Care Package (EHCP) in Swaziland. This desk review provides evidence on the experience of EHCPs in Swaziland and includes available policy documents and research reports.
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13 May 2021
To avoid a reversal of progress from the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, new knowledge and lessons from successful programmatic innovations are urgently needed to improve TB prevention
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and care. Experience can provide evidence for innovative approaches and strategies to maintain and scale up high-quality TB services. WHO therefore called for case studies on programmatic innovations that address emerging challenges in TB prevention and care during the pandemic in order to collect and disseminate the findings to the TB community. Between November 2020 and February 2021, a total of 23 case studies relevant to the call were accepted from 19 countries in the six regions of WHO. The lessons learnt from these country activities to ensure the continuity of essential services like TB care in the face of the crippling crisis may also inform strategies for minimizing the impact of future emerging pathogens on health services.
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National Child Traumatic Stress Network National Center for PTSD | The field of school safety and emergency management has evolved significantly over the past decade. Tragically, acts of violence, n
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atural disasters, and terrorist attacks have taught us many lessons. We also know that other types of emergencies can impact schools, including medical emergencies, transportation accidents, sports injuries, peer victimization, public health emergencies, and the sudden death of a member of the school community. We now recognize the need for school emergency management plans that are up-to-date and take an “all-hazards” approach with clear communication channels and procedures that effectively reunite parents and caregivers with students. We have also learned that preparing school administrators, teachers, and school partnering agencies before a critical event is crucial for effective response, the value of ongoing training and emergency exercises, and that having intervention models that address the public health, mental health, and psychosocial needs of students and staff is essential to a safe school environment and the resumption of learning.
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Emergencies, in spite of their tragic nature and adverse effects on mental health, are unparalleled opportunities to build better mental health systems for all people in need. This WHO publication shows how this was done in 10 diverse
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emergency-affected areas
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This guide is intended for shelter operators, planners, and staff, as well as emergency managers, public health professionals, and radiation protec
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tion professionals who participate in shelter planning and could be called upon to support shelter operations. This guide provides information on the incident-specific considerations that shelter operators will
need to take into account in a radiation emergency. Shelter operations include other mass care and emergency assistance activities that are required to support a sheltered population, such as feeding, providing essential supplies, and assisting with reunification of family and friends. Guidance to support such activities can be found in other planning resources. The information in this guide is intended to complement, not supplant, existing shelter protocols and responsibilities.
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Needs assessment is essential for programme planning, monitoring and evaluation, and accountability, however needs assessment is still a
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critical weakness of humanitarian response. Organisations need to improve how they do assessments. The Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS) and the Emergency Capacity Building Project (ECB) have produced this guide to fill the gap that existed for a practical resource that pulls together the main lessons learned from various initiatives and experiences.
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In 2020, UNRWA will continue to support Palestine refugees affected by the protracted crisis through providing relief assistance and ensuring access to essential education
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and health services. Drawing on its existing structures, supply chains and capacities, the Agency will continue to adapt its interventions to respond to ongoing and evolving needs in an effective and agile manner. In Syria, it is expected that the spontaneous return of Palestine refugees from within and outside the country will continue in areas that experience relative calm and where basic infrastructure is rehabilitated, as observed in Sbeineh and Khan Eshieh camps in recent years. In 2020, UNRWA will increase its efforts to rehabilitate its facilities and restore its services in areas of spontaneous return, including in Dera’a, where small scale returns have been observed in 2019.
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Key questions
What is already known?
Critical illness is common throughout the world and COVID-19 has caused a global surge of critically ill patients.
There are large gaps in the quality
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of care for critically ill patients, especially in low-staffed and low-resourced settings, and mortality rates are high.
Essential Emergency and Critical Care (EECC) is the effective lifesaving care of low-cost and low-complexity that all critically ill patients should receive in all wards in all hospitals in the world.
What are the new findings?
The clinical processes that comprise EECC and the essential care of critically ill patients with COVID-19 have been specified in a large consensus among clinical experts worldwide.
The resource requirements for hospitals to be ready to provide this care has been described.
What do the new findings imply?
The findings can be used across medical specialties in hospitals worldwide to prioritise and implement essential care for reducing preventable deaths.
Inclusion of the EEEC processes could increase the impact of pandemic preparedness and response programmes and policies for health systems strengthening.
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Volume 1 covers emergency triage assessment and treatment, and acute care for a severely ill or
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acutely injured patient for approximately the first 24 hours of care. It describes the clinical procedures commonly used in emergency and acute care, and gives a summary of the medicines used and the steps necessary for infection control.
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Nurses are key players in health promotion and disease prevention and the backbone of health care systems worldwide. Nurses work on the front lines
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of disease prevention, health promotion, and health management and are often the unsung heroes in health care facilities and emergency response. Despite the critical role they play in health care, there is a nursing shortage across the world that will affect the delivery of competent nursing care. This document highlights key action points for targeted investment in the nursing workforce and calls on Member States to strengthen nursing within the context of their own country efforts.
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Saving lives is the priority of WHO’s response in Ukraine. WHO works to ensure time-critical, lifesaving multisectoral assistance, non-discriminatory access to emergency
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and essential health services and priority prevention programmes, and laying the foundation for longer-term health systems recovery and strengthening.
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Maternal and child malnutrition is a significant public health problem in South Sudan. Among children aged 6-59 months, 31% are stunted, 28% are underweight, and nearly 23% are acutely malnourished
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of which 13% are estimated to suffer from moderate acute malnutrition and 10% from severe acute malnutrition.
Overall, South Sudan’s nutrition situation is worrisome, with GAM persistently above the emergency threshold in the Greater Upper Nile, Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Warrap states. Though data on micronutrient deficiencies is scanty, Vitamin A Supplementation (VAS) among children 6-59 months stood at only 2.6% in 2010, showing low uptake (SHHS, 2010). This is against a backdrop of high morbidity levels and a negligible proportion of children 6 to 23 months receiving at least the recommended minimum acceptable diet. In order to ensure optimal child growth, it is essential to ensure good nutrition and basic health care from pregnancy through two years of age (the first 1000 days).
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22 April 2022, This document provides updated interim recommendations on the use of masks by health workers providing care to patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. This update is prompted by new evidence around mask use
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and COVID-19 transmission, as well as the emergence of variants of concern including Omicron. Masks continue to be a critical tool to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These interim guidelines supersede the recommendations provided in the WHO recommendations on mask use by health workers, in light of the Omicron variant of concern published on 22 December 2022.
WHO continually evaluates the emerging evidence and will review these interim recommendations within two months and issue new guidance as needed.
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This is an open-access training course for frontline healthcare providers who manage acute illness and injury with limited resources. Produced in response to requests from multiple countries and int
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ernational partners, the BEC package includes a Participant Workbook and electronic slide decks for each module. Integrating the guidance from WHO Emergency Triage, Assessment and Treatment (ETAT) for children and the Integrated Management of Adult/Adolescent Illness (IMAI), BEC teaches a systematic approach to the initial assessment and management of time-sensitive conditions where early intervention saves lives
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