After years of relative calm, Zimbabwe has been grappling with a cholera outbreak since 12 February 2023. This resurgence is not an isolated incident, as 10 more countries (Malawi, Mozambique, Somal...ia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, South Sudan, Burundi, Tanzania and South Africa) in Eastern and Southern Africa are facing similar challenges with cholera an acute watery diarrhea.
To date, a total of 13,176 suspected cases and 1,543 confirmed cases have been reported.This stark reality underscores the need for continued coordinated action to control the spread of this preventable disease.
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Climate change is affecting every region on Earth and already causing irreversible impacts. While it is a global phenomenon, its negative impacts are felt more intensely by poorer countries and poor... communities heavily reliant on natural resources and lacking coping and adaptive capacities to deal with a changing climate. Within those poor communities and countries, persons with disabilities are often amongst the most marginalized people.
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The IDF Diabetes Atlas is intended to support the diabetes community in advocating for more action to identify undiagnosed diabetes, prevent type 2 diabetes in people at risk, and improve care for all people with diabetes. It also aims to support th...e development of high quality diabetes data in all countries and territories, in order to fill the gaps in knowledge that currently exist.
The 10th edition of the IDF Diabetes Atlas reports a continued global increase in diabetes prevalence, confirming diabetes as a significant global challenge to the health and well-being of individuals, families and societies.
The IDF Diabetes Atlas 10th Edition and other resources are available for download.
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Access to medical personal protective equipment (PPE) is essential for routine healthcare delivery, and a critical tool for containing outbreaks, as well as preventing and responding to pandemics. It is one of our most effective tools against COVID-...19, and an undervalued tool more generally in infection control.
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It is Zika virus (ZIKV) that most often causes these neurological effects it appears to be the only arbovirus than can cause congenital malformations such as microcephaly. In any case, more scientific tests are needed to establish the causal relatio...nship between the virus and this malformation (7-10).
This document is a practical tool designed to help health workers improve clinical diagnosis and provide timely care for patients infected
with the dengue, chikungunya, or Zika virus. It is intended mainly for
health workers in primary care facilities where laboratory diagnosis of
arboviruses is not always available. However, this guide may also be
very useful in hospitals that provide second- and third-level care, as it
describes the clinical manifestations of each of the three most important
arboviral diseases currently found in the Region, the elements for
differential diagnosis, and their clinical behavior.
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Managers Who Lead empowers health managers at all levels of an organization to lead teams to face challenges and achieve results. It answers questions such as: How can I lead and manage more effectively? How do I create ...hlight medbox">a shared vision and a clear path for achieving it? What can I do to improve work climate? How can I prepare myself and others for higher levels of responsibility? How do I lead change inside and outside my organization?
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Promoting and protecting health is essential to human welfare and sustained economic and social development. This was recognized more than 30 years ago by the Alma-Ata Declaration signatories, who noted that Health for All would contribute
both to ...a better quality of life and also to global peace and security
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This review of the IFRC support to the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society response to the 2012 cholera outbreak provides ideas and concepts to promote a more coherent and evidence based rationale on how... to make more effective use of IFRC global assets to stop, control, mitigate and respond to cholera epidemics. No fit and healthy person should die from cholera – that should be the indicator of success.
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This is an initiative in which it is hoped the development community can start to ask itself deep and serious questions about how the current development model has contributed to shaping the magnitude of today’s crisis – and, importantly, point to what needs to change to realise ...ribute-to-highlight medbox">a more resilient global future.
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The West African Ebola outbreak has been the largest, most severe and most complex in human history. For more than a year, people from all over the world have answered the call to work with WHO to o...vercome this outbreak. Starting from the initial detection of the outbreak, to the arrival of the first responders, to the overwhelming spread of cases in West Africa, to the moment when cases began to decline, ‘The Ebola Diaries’ is a series of first-person accounts describing what it has been like working on the front lines of a global health crisis of unprecedented proportions.
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In this guide, indicators relevant to different aspects of nutrition and associated sectors are brought together, especially those which have appeared regularly over the last 15 years. More than a c...omprehensive list of indicators, the guide seeks to provide an illustration of the variety of the most relevant indicators and those most widely used in each sector, particularly with reference to indicators recommended by major expert bodies such as those of the United Nations.
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The Government of Botswana’s SRH Policy Guidelines and Service Standards document provides the framework for developing a responsive strategy and an implementation plan for SRHR and HIV&AIDS Linkages and Integration. The global call on governments... to demonstrate commitments to intensify linkages between sexual and reproductive health and HIV&AIDS at the policy and programme level is therefore an added opportunity for the government to review the current service provision model and optimize current resources to provide more integrated, comprehensive coordinated SRHR and HIV&AIDS services.
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Detailed adapted physical activities are provided with practical guides, group sport guides and assessment tools in order to promote a more inclusive society through sports
The Rwandan Health Sector Research Policy (HSRP) policy defines the scope of research in the Rwandan health sector and presents the strategic principles to ensure that the research done in Rwandan health sector will be conducted in a ...tribute-to-highlight medbox">more coordinated manner, promoting research for equity and social justice and to benefit the Rwandan community as well as the global community in general. The health sector research policy provides solutions to the challenges which have been identified in health research. It will support and improve Rwanda’s health research environment and create a space and framework in which health research will grow and support improved health outcomes in Rwanda. It gives a clear orientation for dissemination and use of results. For sustainability of health research in Rwanda, foreign researchers are called upon to collaborate with Rwandans with clear capacity building plans.
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Policy Note #1: Myanmar Health Systems in Transition Policy Notes Series
The Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar is committed to achieving universal health coverage (UHC) by 2030. In practice, this means that over the next 15 years the aim is to progressively ensure that all peop...le in all parts of the country have access to the health-care services they need – both preventive and curative – without suffering financial hardship when paying for them.
This policy note is the first in a set of four. It provides an overview of the challenges to be overcome in making progress toward UHC and sets out recommendations for how they can be tackled. The other notes look in more detail at three specific issues: how UHC can improve equity, and how strengthening the township health system and expanding financial risk protection contribute to UHC.
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Reduced healthy life expectancy due to the high burden of both mental ill health and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) is a major public health concern in the European Region. The links between mental disorders and major NCDs are well established.
In... clinical practice, however, mental disorders in patients with NCDs as well as NCDs in patients with mental disorders are often overlooked. Premature mortality and disability could be reduced if there were a greater focus on comorbidity.
This report addresses the needs of adults of working age with mental health problems – those with common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety and those with more severe conditions such as schizophrenia and bi-polar affective disorder. It also addresses the needs of those with NCDs, specifically cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes mellitus.
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During the past five decades, the incidence of dengue has increased 30-fold. Some 50–100 million new infections are estimated to occur annually in more than 100 endemic countries, with a document...ed further spread to previously unaffected areas; every year hundreds of thousands of severe cases arise, including 20 000 deaths; 264 disability-adjusted life years per million population per year are lost , at an estimated cost for ambulatory and hospitalized cases of US$ 514–1394, often affecting very poor populations. The true numbers are probably far worse, since severe underreporting and misclassification of dengue cases have been documented.
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Large-Scale UN Response Needed to Address Health and Food Crises
This report is based on interviews with more than 150 health care professionals, Venezuelans seeking or in need of medical care who recently arrived in Colombia and Brazil, representa...tives from international and nongovernmental humanitarian organizations. In addition, researchers analyzed data on the situation inside Venezuela from official sources, hospitals, international and national organizations, and civil society organizations.
We found a health system in utter collapse with increased levels of maternal and infant mortality; the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles and diphtheria; and increases in numbers of infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis (TB). Although the government stopped publishing official data on nutrition in 2007, research by Venezuelan organizations and universities documents high levels of food insecurity and child malnutrition, and available data shows high hospital admissions of malnourished children.
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The infectious disease burden in India is among the highest in the world. A large amount of antibiot-ics are consumed in fighting infections, some of them saving lives, but every use adding to antibiotic resistance in bacteria. Antibiotic use i...s increasing steadily (table 1), particularly certain antibiotic classes (beta-lactam antibacterials), most notably in the more prosperous states. Resistance follows in lock-step.
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The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today released two new data dashboards that highlight the huge disparities in countries’ abilities to cope with and recover from the COVID-19 crisis.
The pandemic is more than ...te-to-highlight medbox">a global health emergency. It is a systemic human development crisis, already affecting the economic and social dimensions of development in unprecedented ways. Policies to reduce vulnerabilities and build capacities to tackle crises, both in the short and long term, are vital if individuals and societies are to better weather and recover from shocks like this.
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