In recent years, high prices of pharmaceutical products have posed challenges in high- and low-income countries alike. In many instances, high prices of pharmaceutical products have led to significant financial hardship for individuals and negatively impacted on healthcare systems’ ability to prov...ide population-wide access to essential medicines.
Pharmaceutical pricing policies need to be carefully planned, carried out, and regularly checked and revised according to changing conditions. Strong, well-thought-out policies can guide well-informed and balanced decisions to achieve affordable access to essential health products.
This guideline replaces the 2015 WHO guideline on country pharmaceutical pricing policies, revised to reflect the growing body of literature since the last evidence review in 2010. This update also recognizes country experiences in managing the prices of pharmaceutical products.
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This edition of UNICEF’s annual Humanitarian Action for Children highlights UNICEF’s funding appeal, which sets out an ambitious agenda to address the major challenges facing children and young people living through conflict and crisis. It presents the investments needed in 2021 to save their li...ves and protect their futures.
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The COVID-19 pandemic and in fact all crises – acute or prolonged – remind us that human rights need to be central in all recovery and development efforts. The Sustainable Development Goals will only be achieved if we are able to create equal opportunities for all, address failures exposed and e...xploited by COVID-19, and apply human rights standards to tackle entrenched, systematic, and intergenerational inequalities, exclusion and discrimination.
We also share examples from Dorcas’ practice and formulate recommendations based on good practices of other organisations as well as our own. With this report, we aim to inform and inspire policy makers and humanitarian and development practitioners on inclusion of the rights of Older People in the current COVID-19 crisis, as well as others yet to come.
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This article was published on December 10, 2020, and updated on December 16, 2020, at NEJM.org. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2034577
Meeting Report 27-29 October 2020
The overall goal of the meeting was to discuss recent changes in treatment regimens and diagnostics for drug-resistant TB and to determine how these impact on the definition of XDR-TB, with a view to revising this definition. The pre-existing definition of XDR-TB w...as formulated in 2006 at a meeting of the Global Taskforce on XDR-TB, convened by WHO, and has been in use for clinical and surveillance purposes, since this time.
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The purpose of the review was to assign a cause of death, to ascertain the fac-tors that contributed to the death and to identify any systemic issues that could be addressed to prevent future similar deaths. The perinatal mortality audit process in 2019 provided important insights and evidence-based... recommendations that can be used both to address system errors and barriers and to identify and praise points of strength. The aim is to pro-vide recommendations for better care for mothers and their infants during pregnancy, childbirth and the neonatal period and improve the quality of care provided throughout the health system.
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25 February 2021
This technical guidance is a living document that builds on guidelines and reports of the UNAIDS Joint Programme. The definitions contained herein are working definitions that are subject to change. Updates will also be added further to the work of the multistakeholder Task Team on... community-led AIDS responses that was recently established by the UNAIDS Executive Director and the UNAIDS Joint Programme, and which will conclude its task in December 2021.
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The technical note calls for raising awareness among practitioners and policymakers about the importance of strong tobacco control measures for protecting the health and development of children, including banning tobacco advertising, implementing 100% smoke-free environments and raising taxes on tob...acco.
Exposure to tobacco smoke has devastating impacts throughout childhood and adolescence, starting from conception.
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This report, written by ATAA Humanitarian Relief Association, BINAA for Development, Children Of One world, Hand in Hand for Aid and Development, Horan Foundation, Hurras Network, MARAM Foundation, Orange Organization, Syrian American Medical Society, Save the Children and Shafak Organization, provi...des insights on the humanitarian situation on the ground in north west Syria.
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Evidence from a systematic review on antenatal zinc supplementation was evaluated as part of the World Health Organization (WHO) antenatal care (ANC) guideline development process in 2016, and the following recommendation on zinc supplementation was made: “Zinc supplementation for pregnant women i...s only recommended in the context of rigorous research.” The Guideline Development Group (GDG) made this recommendation because it felt that the evidence on the intervention was incomplete and that more research was necessary.
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Why bold action against inequalities is needed to en AIDS, stop COVID-19 and prepare for future pandemics
Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are the principal cause of morbidity, disability and premature mortality in Azerbaijan. The most effective way to reduce the NCD burden is to prevent NCD development, by addressing thebehavioural risk factors underlying NCDs at the population and individual leve...ls: smoking, alcohol use, excessive salt intake, low physical activity, overweight and obesity, and unhealthy diets. In Azerbaijan, a national survey of the prevalence of major NCD risk factors, aligned with the WHO-endorsed STEPwise approach to surveillance (STEPS) methodology, was conducted in 2017.
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The 2021 WHO health and climate change global survey report provides a valuable snapshot of the overall progress governments have made in addressing the health risks of climate change. The findings on key health and climate change indicators aim to empower policy makers to: make informed decisions o...n the implementation of policies and plans; identify evidence gaps; and better understand the barriers to achieving adaptation and resilience priorities in the health sector while maximizing the health benefits of sector-wide climate mitigation efforts.
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Climate change has important implications for the health and futures of children and young people, yet they have little power to limit its harm, making them vulnerable to climate anxiety. This is the first large-scale investigation of climate anxiety in children and young people globally and its rel...ationship with perceived government response.
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The Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report – Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000 - 2020 – presents estimates on household access to safely managed drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services over the past five years, and assesses progress toward achieving the s...ixth sustainable development goal (SDG) to ‘Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030’.
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During fresh fruit and vegetables (FFV) production, water is used for a variety of purposes. Even the water was conventionally treated and disinfected, it may still potentially contain human pathogens, albeit at low concentrations. A risk assessment, appropriate to the national or local production c...ontext, should be conducted to assess the potential risks associated with a specific water source or supply in order to devise the appropriate risk mitigation strategies.
Since the 48th session of Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH) noted the importance of water safety and quality in food production and processing, FAO and WHO has undertaken the work on this subject. This report describes the output of the third in a series of meetings, which examined appropriate and fit-for-purpose microbiological criteria for water used with fresh fruit and vegetables. The advice herein will support decision making when applying the concept of fit-for-purpose water for use in the pre- and post-harvest production of fresh fruit and vegetables.
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