Technical information note. Ensuring an uninterrupted supply of quality-assured, affordable anti-TB
drugs and diagnostics to the world
A lot has happened this year. While we continued to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, we were hit by disease outbreaks and
humanitarian crises. Yet, despite these challenges, we marched on, resolute in resolving critical health systems issues to increase
access to quality healthcare services. To furth...er our vision and bring concrete actions to reality, under
the leadership of the Government of South Sudan, we developed the Health Sector Strategic Plan to define the strategic
approaches, key interventions, mapping resource needs, and the implementation framework to strengthen the health system
to deliver essential quality health services equitably for 2023 to 2027. For WHO, this Plan will usher in a new reality -- access
to lifesaving or health-promoting interventions is doable and possible, making the health sector fairer, especially for those
unable to pay
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The Abuja declaration identifies that the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and related infectious diseases must come with additional financial resources. Therefore, African governments agreed on setting the target ...bute-to-highlight medbox">of allocating at least 15 per cent of each country’s annual budget to the improvement of the health sector. Moreover, the declaration demands donor countries to assist by fulfilling the target of delivering official development assistance (ODA) in the amount of 0.7 per cent of gross national product (GNP).
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Access to safe blood and blood products is recognized as one of the key requirements for delivery of modern health care in the journey towards health for all. The foundation ...o-highlight medbox">of safe and sustainable blood supplies depends on the collection of blood from voluntary non-remunerated and low-risk donors. Data from the WHO Global Database for Blood Safety (GDBS) brings out several inadequacies related to the supply and safety of blood and blood products. These inadequacies include a number of variations in safe blood practices across the world, including the quantity of blood donated (voluntary and replacement types), quality and adequate testing of the donated blood (immunohaematology [IH] and transfusion-transmitted infections [TTIs]), rational use of blood and blood components such as appropriate patient blood management protocols. These variations are very high in countries of the South-East Asian Region and most of them are either low- or middle-income countries (LMICs).
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National action plans on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) often overlook the critical intersection of gender, despite evidence that exposure and susceptibility to infection, health-seeking behaviours, as well as antimicrobial prescribing and use patte...rns are all influenced by gender.
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Inclusive Project Cycle Management - This table includes some commonly used M&E tools that are likely to be relevant for the kind of work undertaken by CBM and its partners.
Today there are Community-based Rehabilitation (CBR) programmes in a large number of countries. In many countries, the CBR approach is a part of the national rehabilitation services. However, there ...is a lack of reliable data about persons with disabilities who benefit from CBR and the kind of benefits they receive. This article reviews the disability data collection systems and presents some case studies to understand the influence of operational factors on data collection in the CBR programmes. The review shows that most CBR programmes use a variable number of broad functional categories to collect information about persons with disabilities, combined occasionally with more specific diagnostic categories. This categorisation is influenced by local contexts and operational factors, including the limitations of human and material resources available for its implementation, making it difficult to have comparable CBR data. Therefore, any strategies to strengthen the data collection in CBR programmes must take these operational factors into account.
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Background
Asthma education, a key component of long-term asthma management, is challenging in resource-limited settings with shortages of clinical staff. Task-shifting educational roles to lay (no...n-clinical) staff is a potential solution. We conducted a randomised controlled trial of an enhanced asthma care intervention for children in Malawi, which included reallocation of asthma education tasks to lay-educators. In this qualitative sub-study, we explored the experiences of asthmatic children, their families and lay-educators, to assess the acceptability, facilitators and barriers, and perceived value of the task-shifting asthma education intervention.
Methods
We conducted six focus group discussions, including 15 children and 28 carers, and individual interviews with four lay-educators and a senior nurse. Translated transcripts were coded independently by three researchers and key themes identified.
Results
Prior to the intervention, participants reported challenges in asthma care including the busy and sometimes hostile clinical environment, lack of access to information and the erratic supply of medication. The education sessions were well received: participants reported greater understanding of asthma and their treatment and confidence to manage symptoms. The lay-educators appreciated pre-intervention training, written guidelines, and access to clinical support. Low education levels among carers presented challenges, requiring an open, non-critical and individualised approach.
Discussion
Asthma education can be successfully delivered by lay-educators with adequate training, supervision and support, with benefits to the patients, their families and the community. Wider implementation could help address human resource shortages and support progress towards Universal Health Coverage.
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The new Global Strategy aims to achieve the highest attainable standard of health for all women, children and adolescents, transform the future and ensure that every newborn, mother and child not only survives, but thrives.
A joint FAO/WFP update for the United Nations Security Council, January 2018. ISSUE N.3. Six months on from the last joint report for the United
Nations Security Council (UNSC), this report by the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United ...
Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP)
provides an update on the acute food insecurity
situation in most of the conflict-affected countries
currently being monitored by the UNSC.
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you can find branded materials including immunization backgrounders, posters, social media posts and more to amplify your existing activities and facilitate any communications for the week. Please feel free to tailor and adapt materials to meet spec...ific country
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The key question addressed in this article is social inclusion, as an opposite concept of social exclusion. The author provides a historical of social inclusion/exclusion terminology. Further, some ...of the principles of social inclusion are presented. In the end, the article focuses on the role of education as a very important and useful tool for ensuring social inclusion.Social inclusion through education, in particular through vocational education, considered by the author as the only way towards sustainable development of Albanian society.
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Policy note: Cambodia Health Systems in Transition.
The health system includes a mix of public and private providers. The use of private providers is much greater among the wealthy, while the u...se of informal-sector health providers is greater among the poor. Due to these circumstances there is considerable scope to establish appropriate public-private cooperation and to reinforce the regulatory mandate of the Ministry of Health (MOH).
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Slavery on fishing vessels, degradation of ecosystems, overfishing, debt bondage, human trafficking and child labour in peeling sheds – the scandals surrounding the Thai fishery and shrimp industries have garnered international censure. Farmed and... processed at the cost of extreme exploitation of both people and the planet, Thai shrimp ends up on plates around the world. The former delicacy can now be bought cheaply everywhere. But how high is the price really? And who has to pay it?
This report by seeks to remind governments in the countries of production that it is their duty to enforce human rights and living wages, rather than to compete for the favour of large companies to the detriment of people and the environment. It also appeals to consumers and their governments – and to importers – to send a clear message to suppliers in Thailand and elsewhere: If you want to survive on the global market, you need to respect human rights and child rights, and uphold social and environmental standards.
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The Hand Hygiene Self-Assessment Framework is a systematic tool with which to obtain a situation analysis of hand hygiene promotion and practices within an individual health-care facility.
The guidance provides critical considerations and practical checklists to keep schools safe. It also advises national and local authorities on how to adapt and implement emergency plans for educational facilities.
In the event of school closures..., the guidance includes recommendations to mitigate against the possible negative impacts on children’s learning and wellbeing. This means having solid plans in place to ensure the continuity of learning, including remote learning options such as online education strategies and radio broadcasts of academic content, and access to essential services for all children. These plans should also include necessary steps for the eventual safe reopening of schools.
Where schools remain open, and to make sure that children and their families remain protected and informed.
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Accessed on 11.03.2020
Burkina Faso will not achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on reducing maternal mortality of children under five, which is still too high.
Over 1 million women in Burkina Faso caught between conflict and COVID-19
More than a million women and girls in Burkina Faso are facing increased sexual violence, hunger and water shortage as a result of the coronavirus pandemic on top ...="attribute-to-highlight medbox">of the existing conflict, said Oxfam today.
In its report “Women in Burkina Faso’s crisis: survivors and heroines”, Oxfam reveals that women and girls are exposed to unprecedented risks including daily harassment and aggression, especially in the fields and at water points.
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On 30thJanuary 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the People’s Republic of China to be a Public Health Emergency ...attribute-to-highlight medbox">of International Concern (PHEIC) under the international Health Regulations. The following day, the Italian Government declared a state of emergency, stopping all flights to and from Chinese airports. 1.2On 7th April the foreign, interior, transport and health ministers signed a decree under theInternational Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue stating that Italian ports could no longer be classified as places of safety for foreign naval units, including NGO-run migrantrescue ships, operating outside the Italian Search and Rescue (SAR) area. Despite the national lockdown and the closure of ports to international rescue vessels in the Mediterranean Sea, small ships departing from Libya and Tunisia have continued to sail towards the Italian coastline. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), during the period 1stJanuary –12thApril, 2020 there were an estimated 3,229 sea arrivals in Italy
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MEDBOX Issue Brief no. 6
This issue brief gives you an overview of the most important documents on humanitarian aid and the WASH sector in MEDBOX