In its report from 2014, the Working Group outlines the various factors influencing vaccine acceptance or refusal, and what can be done to create social norms around vaccine acceptance and to encour
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age the general public regarding the necessity of vaccination.
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The Department of Health is committed to providing the best quality care to patients and users of health services, in order to meet their expectations and needs,
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and to improve service delivery.
The main purpose of the National Core Standards is to:
• Develop a common definition of quality of care, which should be found in all health establishments in South Africa as a guide to the public and to managers and staff at all levels;
• Establish a benchmark against which health establishments can be assessed, gaps identified, strengths appraised; and
• Provide a national framework to certify health establishments as compliant with standards
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The APCA Atlas provides the most up-to-date information of palliative care development in nearly all countries in Africa, using indicators derived, rated, and chosen by in-country African experts followed by a thorough Delphi consensus process with
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a panel of international experts on palliative care indicators
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While “sustainability” has become a central aspect of social action and responsibility around the world, its complex and multi-di-
mensional nature requires further explanation.
This brief summarizes the lessons learned across Europe on the redevelopment of contaminated sites as a part of urban planning and renewal. Specifically, it aims to provide information on the health and
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environmental impacts to be considered during site redevelopment projects, and to identify good practice and relevant local experiences to support effective, healthy and sustainable redevelopment of contaminated sites. As such, this brief offers key messages to support the work of local decision-makers, planners, practitioners, researchers and civil society organizations.
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The guideline on Drug misuse: opioid detoxification, commissioned by NICE and developed by the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, sets out clear, evidence-based recommendations for healthcare staff on how to work with people who misuse
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opioids to significantly improve their treatment and care, and to deliver detoxification safely and effectively. Of the estimated 4 million people in the UK who use illicit drugs each year, approximately 50,000 misuse opioids (such as heroin, opium, morphine, codeine and methadone). Opioid misuse presents a considerable health risk and can lead to significant social problems. This NICE guideline is an important tool in helping people to overcome their drug problem.
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This strategy defines the World Health Organization (WHO) vision and framework for supporting Member States to accelerate the development, implementation and monitoring of their National Action Plan
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for Health Security (NAPHS) from 2022 to 2026. The National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) are critical to ensure national capacities in health emergency prevention, preparedness, response and recovery are planned, built, strengthened and sustained in order to achieve national, regional and global health security and therefore keep the world safe, serve the vulnerable and promote health.
The strategy promotes, where existing, the use of existing national action plans for health security and not necessary the creation of an additional unique plan. This will avoid duplication and ensure maximum efficiency in domestic resourcing and operationalization efficiency while harnessing external buy-in to support national health priorities.
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Traditional food markets play important economic, cultural, and social role and are sources of livelihood for millions of people in urban and rural
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areas. The manual Five keys for safer traditional food markets: risk mitigation in traditional food markets in the Asia-Pacific Region aims to support and guide local authorities, market community, and consumers to transform these markets into safer and healthier places through practical risk mitigation measures and community engagement strategies. The manual provides guidance on the implementation of five keys to promote public health and safety, particularly, in the context of food safety, zoonoses diseases, and infectious respiratory diseases.
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The recurrence of severe climate events combined with economic, social, and institutional fragilities leave El Salvador in an utterly critical humanitarian situation and highly vulnerable. Located i
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n a disaster-prone subregion, El Salvador is among the 20 countries at the highest risk of disasters worldwide. The successive hydrometeorological hazards that impacted El Salvador over the past two years include tropical storms Amanda and Cristóbal and hurricanes Eta, Iota, and,
more recently, Julia. These storms profoundly affected the lives and livelihoods of almost 900 000 people and significantly disrupted health services, especially at the first level of care. In addition, the country’s exposure to earthquakes, floods, and droughts is also constant. Infrastructural and institutional limitations to deal with emergencies and
low capacity to respond to adverse events are an additional challenge, which leaves the population—particularly the most vulnerable—at even higher risk.
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“2022 was an eventful year for the WHO Country Office in Ghana,” says Dr Francis Kasolo, WHO Representative to Ghana.
In 2022, WHO Ghana collaborated with partners to deliver interventions in support of the Government of Ghana's health sector agenda to ensure healthy lives for all towards ach
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ieving Universal Health Coverage. This 2022 annual report highlights some of the achievements that were chalked in our efforts to help promote the health and wellbeing of Ghanaians
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The Contingency Fund for Emergencies (CFE) provides WHO with rapid and flexible resources to respond to disease outbreaks and other health emergencies. The annual report provides an overview of the
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use and impact of the Fund over the previous year.
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WHO’s total revenue in 2020 was US$ 4299 million and total expenses were US$ 3561 million, resulting in a surplus of US$ 824 million, which includes finance revenue (e.g. interest and investment i
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ncome) of US$ 86 million, representing increases of 38% and 15% in revenue and expenses respectively. 10. The financial statements report all the Organization’s revenue and expenses. The Organization’s operations are managed under three fund groups: (1) the General Fund, which supports the programme budget, (2) Member States – other, and (3) the Fiduciary Fund (Note 2.18 gives particulars of each of the funds). This segregation of resources facilitates clearer reporting of WHO’s revenues and expenses.
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Sexual abuse perpetrated against children is one of the most significant crises of our time. Child sexual abuse is a significant risk factor for children, in common with other forms of child maltreatment. Sexual abuse can have severe short- and long
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-term consequences on the physical, mental, social, emotional and economic well-being of children, families and communities. In emergencies, the threat of all forms of child abuse and gender-based violence (GBV), including child sexual abuse, is acute and widespread.
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Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a growing public health problem in Ghana and other African countries. Strokes and other CVDs have become a leading cause of death due to increasing risk factors su
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ch as hypertension. According to the Global Burden of Disease study (GBD), ischaemic heart disease was the fourth leading cause of death in Ghana in 2016. The prevalence of hyper-
tension, a major risk factor for CVDs, is increasing rapidly and ranges from 19% to 48%, according to the Ghana Health Service Annual Report, 2017, due to rising life expectancy and the increasing prevalence of contributing factors such as overweight/obesity. Early diagnosis and adequate management of the risk factors can reduce the fatal consequences of CVDs.
At the heart of improving risk assessment and management of CVDs are nationally approved guidelines, which facilitate standardisation of care approaches.
These guidelines developed by experts from all levels of health care and stakeholders capture all recommended approaches and necessary information for clinicians and other healthcare workers on CVDs. They also serve as a practical guide for assessing and managing the most important CVDs prevalent in Ghana and can be used at all levels of care namely health facilities without a doctor; with a general practitioner and with a physician specialist.
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Effective malaria case management requires quick access to diagnostics and antimalarial treatments to reduce illness and death. Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) has been essential to mala
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ria treatment since 2001, as it combines artemisinin for rapid parasite reduction with a partner drug to ensure complete cure. However, resistance to antimalarial drugs, where parasites survive standard doses, threatens malaria control.
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As part of a wider organisational undertaking to better capture and communicate the effectiveness of its work, Oxfam developed an evaluative method to assess the quality of targeted humanitarian responses. This method uses a global humanitarian indi
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cator tool which is intended to enable Oxfam GB to estimate how many disaster-affected men and women globally have received humanitarian aid that meets establishes standards for excellence. This method was used after the independence of South Sudan, which was followed by political tensions with its neighbour on issues unresolved from the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which include border demarcation, wealth-sharing and the fate of the disputed territory of Abyei.
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In many countries, people with disabilities still face multiple barriers when accesing health services. This case study details the challenges encountered on the way, the lessons drawn from it and achievements to date. You could also download a long
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version: http://health.bmz.de/good-practices/GHPC/Every_person_counts/Every_person_counts_long_ENG.pdf
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"Achieving, maintaining and improving accuracy, timeliness and reliability are major challenges for health laboratories. Countries worldwide committed themselves to build national capacities for the
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detection of, and response to, public health events of international concern when they decided to engage in the International Health Regulations implementation process. Only sound management of quality in health laboratories will enable countries to produce test results that the international community will trust in cases of international emergency. This handbook is intended to provide a comprehensive reference on Laboratory Quality Management System for all stakeholders in health laboratory processes, from management, to administration, to bench-work laboratorians. This handbook covers topics that are essential for quality management of a public health or clinical laboratory. They are based on both ISO 15189 and CLSI GP26-A3 documents"--Page 7.
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In 2014, GHS/NACP, with support from UNICEF and other partners, conducted a situation analysis on paediatric HIV care and treatment in Ghana. The purpose of this analysis was to identify the gaps wi
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thin the current delivery of paediatric HIV care and support system and develop a road map for effective implementation of Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) and to increase paediatric antiretroviral therapy (ART) coverage. The analysis identified gaps such as lack of task shifting on ART services, low paediatric ART coverage, and poor linkage of ART, EID, and PMTCT services with other RCH - immunization and nutrition services.
In view of the findings of the analysis, it was recommended that an Acceleration Plan for Paediatric HIV Services be developed to address the barriers and bottlenecks identified during the assessment. At the current pace of paediatric HIV Services, it can be extrapolated that paediatric ART coverage will increase from 26% to only about 40% by 2020; Ghana will, therefore, fall short of the global target of 90-90-90 (UNAIDS concept).
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This action plan for the Kingdom Saudi Arabia to combat antimicrobial resistance has been formulated in the line of the WHO five objectives. It addresses the need for effective “one health” approach involving coordination among numerous national sectors
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and actors, including human and veterinary medicine, agriculture, finance, environment, and well-informed consumers. Therefore, a large committee of all stakeholders was formed with five technical subcommittees were established to addresses every aspect
to contain antimicrobial resistance in the country.
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