This guide is intended to support national governments developing their national deployment and vaccination plans (NDVPs) for COVID-19 vaccines by outlining the roles, needs and opportunities for community health workers (CHWs) to contribute. This n...ote builds on and is structured to align with the Guidance on developing a national deployment and vaccination plan for COVID-19 vaccines. By providing CHW-relevant considerations for the VIRAT Tool, this document aims to support national governments in developing robust NDVPs for introducing COVID-19 vaccine(s) that leverage all the community-based deployment, implementation and monitoring tools at their disposal.
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Video discusses ways that climate change can impact community health, and things communities can do to prepare.
Since the emergence of COVID 19 in December 2019, various public health responses measures have been implemented to control the pandemic. Among measures taken by the Africa CDC was the launch of PACT initiative to accelerate COVID 19 testing. Key to the initiative is the engagement of ...ttribute-to-highlight medbox">Community Health Workers (CHWs) in risk communication and community engagement (RCCE), surveillance activities for early case identification, contacts tracing and in facilitating referrals for testing and continuum of care.
As of 31 May 2021, Through PACT support, over 17154 CHWs have been trained and locally deployed in 24 AU Member states. The PACT supported CHWs visited more than 2,568,654 households for community engagement activities, active case search and contact tracing, identified 1,618,601 Contacts, 710,167 COVID 19 suspect cases based on the standard case definition and facilitated referrals for 553053 (78%) suspect cases for testing. These efforts were crucial for early identification and isolation of cases in limiting further transmission.
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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 effec...tive 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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Health care and social service systems are facing exceptional demands at this time. Evidence is emerging that the COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately impacting low-income neighborhoods, communities of color, immigrant and other economically and ...medically vulnerable patients. These are the patients and communities Community Health Workers (CHWs) are best prepared
to serve. This workforce is defined by their connection to these populations and by their ability to communicate in linguistically and culturally appropriate ways.
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This inter-agency guidance document aims to supplement the COVAX demand creation package for COVID-19 vaccines with key considerations for humanitarian contexts and marginalized populations with specific access and communication needs.
21 Sept.2021
This research report offers community perceptions of COVID-19 from migrants, refugees, host communities and indigenous populations in nine countries in the Americas: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colo...mbia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago.
It reveals the myriad impacts that COVID-19 has had, and continues to have, on vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations. And it offers hands-on recommendations around the impact and usefulness of health information; trust, awareness and access to vaccines; and the socio-economic impact of the pandemic.
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During the COVID-19 health crisis, community pharmacists had an enhanced role in supporting health-care systems that were overburdened by managing seriously ill patients. This study was undertaken to determine the patterns of ...to-highlight medbox">community supply of antiviral and antibacterial agents from community pharmacies during the COVID-19 pandemic in selected countries in eastern Europe and central Asia. Nine countries – Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, North Macedonia, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – participated in this cross-sectional study.
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The Interim Guidance for Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) outlines recommendations, considerations and methods to raise awareness, manage risk perception, maintain trust and proactively support people at risk to make informed decis...ions to protect themselves and others from monkeypox. The guidance includes recommendations on identifying and communicating with affected populations and key audiences and avoiding stigma in communications outreach. It also includes key messages about symptoms of monkeypox, transmission, prevention measures, and communicating about uncertainty. This document also provides RCCE guidance for managers and planners of gatherings and events, where close physical contact may create an environment conducive for the transmission of monkeypox. Additionally, this document includes a compendium of recommendations for RCCE methods and resources to support the monkeypox response.
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This collection of case studies on risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) from 18 different country/area level public health partners in the WHO European Region provides evidence of numerous results achieved and lessons learned sin...ce the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. RCCE has not traditionally been an area where evidence of challenges and solutions was documented. With this compendium, we wanted to collect and share this evidence to support decision-making in this area of work.
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Buruli ulcer – community information sheet (October 2018)
Children are at high risk of dog bites and contracting rabies. Forty percent of reported rabies cases worldwide are children under the age of fifteen. In our project areas, the proportion of children dying is often even higher. Rabies most often persists in poor ...edbox">communities and rural regions of developing countries in Africa and Asia. If the risks are widely understood and appropriate dog bite treatment is well known – rabies is 100% preventable.
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The importance of community and civil society engagement to end TB has been highlighted in various strategies and global commitments. The WHO End TB Strategy, aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, emphasizes the role of ...n class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">communities and civil society in ending the TB epidemic by 2030. Furthermore, the political declaration of the 2023 United Nations High-level Meeting on TB highlights the need to ensure people-centred health services, with meaningful engagement of communities in the full spectrum of TB response.
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The objective is to estimate the level and trend of develoment assistance for comunity health worker related projects in low and middle income countries between 2007 and 2017
The risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) competency framework is a resource that details the essential behaviours and activities necessary for effective communication and engagement with comm...unities before, during and after public health emergencies. The purpose of this framework is to establish and promote a common understanding of behavioural competencies and how they should be applied for high-performing and community-centred health emergency programmes. It is intended to support the development of standardized training programmes, professional development and talent acquisition and to enhance the capabilities of public health professionals involved in RCCE. Its goal is to inform the establishment of a skilled, well-trained RCCE workforce that consistently understands and executes the necessary behaviours and activities required to conduct RCCE activities with competence and professionalism.
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This toolkit is a comprehensive set of practical tools and resources designed to support country-level risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) practitioners, decision-makers, and partners to plan and implement readiness and response activ...ities for dengue fever outbreaks. The toolkit contains: information about dengue fever; RCCE considerations for how to approach key issues during dengue fever outbreaks; tools for understanding the context in which dengue fever outbreaks occur; methods for collecting data to inform strategy development and bring evidence into planning and implementation of activities; guidance to support vector control and prevention activities; case studies; and links to existing RCCE tools and training. It is one of a suite of toolkits on RCCE readiness and response to a range of disease and response areas.
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