Globally, environmental pollution and other environmental risks cause 24% of all deaths, and these deaths are largely preventable. A shift towards policies and actions that minimize risks to health and promote health and sustainable personal and societal choices will reduce environmental risks to he...alth. These changes will result in many more people enjoying good health, living in appealing and unspoiled environments and in fewer people requiring health care, which will lower health care
expenditures.
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The world has been turned on its head by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This has provided a stark wakeup call on the severe under-financing of health systems around the world. It has laid bare the inequalities and limitations in the capacities of countries at all levels of develop...ment to prevent major health crises or respond to them. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) is releasing the second edition of its Global Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents (AA-HA!) guidance. The document aims to equip governments to respond to the health and well-being challenges, opportunities and needs of adolescents.
The guidance pro...vides the latest available data on adolescent health and well-being. It also outlines an updated list of core indicators that data should be collected on. Globally, road injury was the top cause of death for adolescent males in 2019. Among female adolescents, the leading causes of death were diarrhoeal diseases among the younger group (10-14 years) and tuberculosis (TB) in the older group (15-19 years).
Over the last 20 years, mortality rates have declined among adolescents globally, with the largest decline in older (15–19 years) adolescent girls. For non-fatal diseases, the burden has not improved over the past two decades, with the main causes of ill health in this category being: mental health conditions (depressive and anxiety disorders, childhood behavioural disorders), iron deficiency anaemia, skin diseases and migraine.
Adolescent well-being depends on a range of factors, including healthy food, education, life skills and employability, connectedness, feeling valued by society, safe and supportive environments, resilience, and the freedom to make choices. To take an appropriately holistic approach, the guidance outlines how to take crosscutting action to support adolescent health and well-being, with mutually reinforcing interventions across sectors, such as health, education, social protection, and telecommunications. Targeted efforts are also required to engage adolescents, as they trust health systems less than adults do and are especially vulnerable to modern-day trends, like online bullying and gaming.
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South Sudan continues to struggle with a severe health crisis affecting 8.9 million people, primarily in flood- and conflict-affected regions with population movements (displacement and returns), and disease outbreaks. The nation's health system, heavily reliant on international aid, faces staffing ...and resource shortages. Vulnerable groups, including women, children, the elderly, and those with disabilities, have limited healthcare access and face heightened risks of mortality and illness.
The life expectancy at birth (55 years) is among the lowest globally, as mortality rates remain among the highest with neonatal, infant, under-five mortality rates estimated at 39.63, 63.76 and 98.69 deaths per 1000 live births respectively, and a maternal mortality ratio of 1,223 deaths per 100,000 live births. Although some disease specific mortality rates such as TB and AIDS-related mortality have declined, mortality due to malaria and non-communicable diseases have increased over the past five years.
The main causes of morbidity remain communicable diseases; malaria, is the top cause of morbidity (64%) and mortality (45%) among outpatients, followed by pneumonia and diarrhea.20 Several Counties report malaria cases above the threshold perennially especially during the rainy seasons, affecting mainly children under five years. The last malaria indicator survey (2017) estimated malaria prevalence of 32%, 34% and 18% among children under-five, protection of civilian’s sites, and internally displaced persons, respectively.
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Mental health problems are common and cause great suffering to individuals and communities around the world. They have a significant impact not only on the physical and mental health of those affected but also on their families and the communities they live in. At the same time, all communities have... their own traditional mechanisms for support and contain a range wide of resources that can be helpful in preventing mental health conditions from developing, promoting positive mental health and supporting the recovery of people that are struggling with a mental health condition.
In the wider context, people living with a mental health condition are often excluded from their communities and experience various violations to their basic human rights (discrimination, violence, exclusion from employment opportunities). The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the mean prevalence of global mental health disorders is 10.8% while the prevalence in emergency settings is 22.1% in any conflict-affected population.
During emergencies and crisis, the stigma, exclusion and discrimination towards people living with mental health conditions is often higher, which can cause isolation and protection issues. Communities can play a crucial role in promoting mental health as well as enhancing primary care and access. Their role is to help reduce mental health inequalities by providing community resources that connect people to community-based resources and by providing mental health education. This also helps to reduce the massive mental health treatment gap.
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Socioeconomic status is associated with differences in risk factors for cardiovascular disease incidence and outcomes, including mortality. However, it is unclear whether the associations between cardiovascular disease and common measures of socioeconomic status—wealth and education—differ among... high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries, and, if so, why these differences exist. We explored the association between education and household wealth and cardiovascular disease and mortality to assess which marker is the stronger predictor of outcomes, and examined whether any differences in cardiovascular disease by socioeconomic status parallel differences in risk factor levels or differences in management.
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Air pollution is one of the leading causes of health complications and mortality worldwide, especially affecting lower-income groups, who tend to be more exposed and vulnerable. This study documents the relationship between ambient air pollution exposure and poverty in 211 countries and territories.... Using the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2021 revised fine particulate matter (PM2.5) thresholds, we show that globally, 7.3 billion people are directly exposed to unsafe average annual PM2.5 concentrations, 80 percent of whom live in low- and middle-income countries. Moreover, 716 million of the world’s lowest income people (living on less than $1.90 per day) live in areas with unsafe levels of air pollution, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Air pollution levels are particularly high in lower-middle-income countries, where economies tend to rely more heavily on polluting industries and technologies. These findings are based on high-resolution air pollution and population maps with global coverage, as well as subnational poverty estimates based on harmonized household surveys.
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The aim of the present paper is to review capacity building in public health nutrition (PHN), the need for which has been stressed for many years by a range of academics, national and international organisations. Although great strides have been made worldwide in the science of nutrition, there rema...in many problems of undernutrition and increasingly of obesity and related chronic diseases. The main emphasis in capacity building has been on the nutrition and health workforce, but the causes of these health problems are multifactorial and require collaboration across sectors in their solution. This means that PHN capacity building has to go beyond basic nutrition and beyond the immediate health workforce to policy makers in other sectors. The present paper provides examples of capacity building activities by various organisations, including universities, industry and international agencies. Examples of web-based courses are given including an introduction to the e-Nutrition Academy. The scope is international but with a special focus on Africa. In conclusion, there remains a great need for capacity building in PHN but the advent of the internet has revolutionised the possibilities.
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Asthma is one of the neglected diseases in Africa with a high prevalence. Allergic fungal diseases have been reported to complicate asthma progression and treatment outcomes. However, data about fungal asthma and its associated complications are limited in Africa. We aimed to estimate the burden of ...fungal asthma among adults and children in Africa using a systematic review.
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There is paucity of data on the burden and specific drivers operative in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the African setting and populations. Lack of awareness and inadequate knowledge on the aetio-pathogenesis of the disease together with inadequate capacity for ...COPD care contributes to preventive and management challenges. Thus, the majority of patients with COPD are misdiagnosed, misclassified and mismanaged or undertreated. With the struggling improvement in the quality of healthcare in Africa, studies conducted over the last 10 years indicates the rising trends in both the risk factors and the burden of COPD. The role of new risk factors such as indoor pollution, infections with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and pulmonary tuberculosis (TB), in the pathogenesis of COPD in Africa is increasingly being recognized. This literature review attempts to collect and synthesize information that could be useful in improving COPD care and informing the governments to take appropriate actions for prevention, diagnosis and management of COPD in Africa.
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Malawi is a landlocked country with a surface area of 118,484 km2. Administratively, the country is divided into three regions, namely the Northern, Central and Southern regions. The country has 28 districts, which are further divided into traditional authorities (TA) ruled by chiefs. The TAs are su...b-divided into villages, which form the smallest administrative units. The Village Development Committees (VDCs) under the TAs are responsible for development activities. Politically, each district is divided into constituencies that are represented by Members of Parliament (MPs) in the National Assembly for purposes of legislations. Constituencies are further divided into wards which are represented by a ward councillor at district assembly.
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The Haiti Earthquake and Cholera Emergency appeal (MDRHT018) was implemented by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in collaboration with the Haitian Red Cross Society (HRCS) following the devastating earthquake on 14 August 2021, and the cholera outbreak on 2... October 2022.
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NATIONAL HIV/AIDS/STI/TB COUNCIL DEVOLUTION PLAN
Children in every country are struggling with the impact of COVID-19. An entire generation has had its education disrupted, from nurseries and pre-primaries to universities and apprenticeships