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Cardiovascular diseases in Africa in the twenty-first century: Gaps and priorities going forward

Minja, N.W.; Nakagaayi, D.; Aliku, T. et al. Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine (2022) CC

In 2015, the United Nations set important targets to reduce premature cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths by 33% by 2030. Africa disproportionately bears the brunt of CVD burden and has one of the highest risks of dying from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) worldwide. There is currently an epide...miological transition on the continent, where NCDs is projected to outpace communicable diseases within the current decade. Unchecked increases in CVD risk factors have contributed to the growing burden of three major CVDs—hypertension, cardiomyopathies, and atherosclerotic diseasesleading to devastating rates of stroke and heart failure. The highest age standardized disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) due to hypertensive heart disease (HHD) were recorded in Africa. The contributory causes of heart failure are changing—whilst HHD and cardiomyopathies still dominate, ischemic heart disease is rapidly becoming a significant contributor, whilst rheumatic heart disease (RHD) has shown a gradual decline. In a continent where health systems are traditionally geared toward addressing communicable diseases, several gaps exist to adequately meet the growing demand imposed by CVDs. Among these, high-quality research to inform interventions, underfunded health systems with high out-of-pocket costs, limited accessibility and affordability of essential medicines, CVD preventive services, and skill shortages. Overall, the African continent progress toward a third reduction in premature mortality come 2030 is lagging behind. More can be done in the arena of effective policy implementation for risk factor reduction and CVD prevention, increasing health financing and focusing on strengthening primary health care services for prevention and treatment of CVDs, whilst ensuring availability and affordability of quality medicines. Further, investing in systematic country data collection and research outputs will improve the accuracy of the burden of disease data and inform policy adoption on interventions. This review summarizes the current CVD burden, important gaps in cardiovascular medicine in Africa, and further highlights priority areas where efforts could be intensified in the next decade with potential to improve the current rate of progress toward achieving a 33% reduction in CVD mortality. more

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Caring for child survivors of sexual abuse guidelines

International Rescue Committee; UN Children's Fund (2024) CC

Sexual abuse perpetrated against children is one of the most significant crises of our time. Child sexual abuse is a significant risk factor for children, in common with other forms of child maltreatment. Sexual abuse can have severe short- and long-term consequences on the physical, mental, social,... more

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Infrastructure, policy and regulatory interventions to increase physical activity to prevent cardiovascular diseases and diabetes: a systematic review

Durão, S.; Burns, J.; Schmidt, B. et al. BMC Public Health (2023) CC

Background Noncommunicable diseases are major contributors to morbidity and mortality worldwide. Modifying the risk factors for these conditions, such as physical inactivity, is thus essential. Addressing the context or circumstances in which physical activity occurs may promote physical activity a...t a population level. We assessed the effects of infrastructure, policy or regulatory interventions for increasing physical activity. Methods We searched PubMed, Embase and clinicaltrials.gov to identify randomised controlled trials (RCTs), controlled before-after (CBAs) studies, and interrupted time series (ITS) studies assessing population-level infrastructure or policy and regulatory interventions to increase physical activity. We were interested in the effects of these interventions on physical activity, body weight and related measures, blood pressure, and CVD and type 2 diabetes morbidity and mortality, and on other secondary outcomes. Screening and data extraction was done in duplicate, with risk of bias was using an adapted Cochrane risk of bias tool. Due to high levels of heterogeneity, we synthesised the evidence based on effect direction. Results We included 33 studies, mostly conducted in high-income countries. Of these, 13 assessed infrastructure changes to green or other spaces to promote physical activity and 18 infrastructure changes to promote active transport. The effects of identified interventions on physical activity, body weight and blood pressure varied across studies (very low certainty evidence); thus, we remain very uncertain about the effects of these interventions. Two studies assessed the effects of policy and regulatory interventions; one provided free access to physical activity facilities and showed that it may have beneficial effects on physical activity (low certainty evidence). The other provided free bus travel for youth, with intervention effects varying across studies (very low certainty evidence). Conclusions Evidence from 33 studies assessing infrastructure, policy and regulatory interventions for increasing physical activity showed varying results. The certainty of the evidence was mostly very low, due to study designs included and inconsistent findings between studies. Despite this drawback, the evidence indicates that providing access to physical activity facilities may be beneficial; however this finding is based on only one study. Implementation of these interventions requires full consideration of contextual factors, especially in low resource settings. more

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Sanitary inspection packages – A supporting tool for the Guidelines for drinking water quality: Small water supplies

World Health Organization WHO (2024) C_WHO

A sanitary inspection is a simple, on-site evaluation (traditionally using a checklist) to help identify and support the management of priority risk factors that may lead to contamination of a drinking-water supply. Sanitary inspections are a well-established and widely-applied practice. They can su... more

Regional Action Framework on Communication for Health: A vision for using communication to improve public health in the Western Pacific Region

World Health Organization WHO (2024) C_WHO

Strategic communication is at the heart of public health and more important than ever in the digital age. Using communication strategically requires expertise, skills and resources to plan, implement and evaluate interventions that encourage governments to implement policies that improve people’s ... more

Pediatric oncology nursing practice in Latin America and the Caribbean

Pan American Health Organisation PAHO (2024) C_WHO

One of the main aims of the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer and the CureAll Americas framework is to strengthen centers of excellence and promote the training of the health workforce, especially pediatric oncology nurses, specialized in nursing care for children and adolescents with cance... more

Caring for child survivors of sexual abuse Resource Package
recommended

UN Children's Fund UNICEF (2024) CC

Produced by UNICEF and IRC, with the support of the German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH (GIZ) and the generous funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Caring for Child Survivors of Sexual Abuse (CCS) Resource Package (Second Editi... more

Air pollution and the noncommunicable disease prevention agenda: opportunities for public health and environmental science

Howse, E.; Crane, M.; Hanigan, I. et al. Environmental Research Letters (2021) CC

Air pollution is a major environmental risk factor and contributor to chronic, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). However, most public health approaches to NCD prevention focus on behavioural and biomedical risk factors, rather than environmental risk factors such as air pollution. This article discus... more

Impact of climate change on non-communicable diseases due to increased ambient air pollution

Breitner-Busch, S.; Mücke, H.; Schneider, A. et al. Journal of Health Monitoring (2023) CC

Background: The impacts of air pollutants on health range from short-term health impairments to hospital admissions and deaths. Climate change is leading to an increase in air pollution.

Global alcohol action plan 2022-2030

World Health Organization WHO (2021) C_WHO

Alcohol use is deeply embedded in the social landscape of many societies, and some 2300 million people drink alcoholic beverages in most parts of the world. At the same time, more than half of the global population aged 15 years and older reported having abstained from drinking alcohol during the pr... more

Action plan (2022–2030) to effectively implement the global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol as a public health priority

World Health Organization WHO (2023) C_WHO

Alcohol consumption is deeply embedded in the social landscape of many societies. Several major factors have an impact on levels and patterns of alcohol consumption in populations – such as historical trends in alcohol consumption, the availability of alcohol, culture, economic status and trends i... more

Strengthening pandemic preparedness and response through integrated modelling

OECD; World Health Organization WHO; World Bank (2024) CC

The far-reaching impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic underscore the critical need for evidence-informed, transparent and inclusive decision-making. Policy-makers have grappled with complex choices amidst uncertainty. They have constantly reassessed response measures while navigating their economic impl... more

Report of the workshop for implementing the WHO South-East Asia Regional NCD Roadmap, 2022-2030 WHO

World Health Organization (WHO) World Health Organization (WHO) (2023) C_WHO

The workshop aimed to support countries in the prioritization and acceleration of NCD prevention and management with a specific focus on accelerating the prevention and control of hypertension and diabetes, identifying the most impactful NCD interventions within their context, closing the gaps in ca... more

Intention to action series: Regional reflections. Analysis from informal regional consultations with people living with noncommunicable diseases and mental health conditions 2023 WHO

World Health Organization (WHO) World Health Organization (WHO) (2023) C_WHO

This report includes analysis from informal regional consultations in the African Region, the Caribbean and North America, Latin America, South-East Asia Region, European Region, Eastern Mediterranean Region, alongside three forums in the Western Pacific Region. It analyses the overarching similarit... more

Invisible numbers; The true extent of noncommunicable diseases and what to do about them 2022

World Health Organization (WHO) World Health Organization (WHO) (2022) C_WHO

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) – chief among them, cardiovascular diseases (heart disease and stroke), cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases – along with mental health, cause nearly three quarters of deaths in the world. Their drivers are social, environmental, commercial and geneti... more

Strategic Framework for Enhancing Prevention and Control of mpox, 2024-2027

World Health Organization WHO (2024) C_WHO

Mpox continues to affect people around the world. A new framework released today by WHO will guide health authorities, communities and other stakeholders in preventing and controlling mpox outbreaks, eliminating human-to-human transmission of the disease, and reducing spillover of the virus from ani... more

Report - Invisible numbers: the true extent of noncommunicable diseases and what to do about them

World Health Organization (WHO) World Health Organization (WHO) (2022) C_WHO

Sharing successful strategies from the Eastern Mediterranean Region in mitigating noncommunicable diseases and mentalhealth disorders during the COVID-19pandemic and beyond

World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (2023) C_WHO

The "Stories from the field" document by the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean shares effective strategies from the Eastern Mediterranean Region for addressing noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health challenges, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights regio... more

WHO package of essential noncommunicable (PEN) disease interventions for primary health care

World Health Organization (WHO) World Health Organization (WHO) (2020) C_WHO

The "WHO Package of Essential Noncommunicable (PEN) Disease Interventions for Primary Health Care" provides a set of cost-effective, evidence-based interventions to address noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, and cancers. Designed ... more

The efects of extreme heat on human health in tropical africa

Kunda J., Gosling S., Foody G. et al. (2024) C2

This review examines high-quality research evidence that synthesises the efects of extreme heat on human health in tropical Africa. Web of Science (WoS) was used to identify research articles on the efects extreme heat, humidity, Wet-bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT), apparent temperature, wind, Heat ... more

Caring for child survivors of sexual abuse Resource Package recommended

Caring for child survivors of sexual abuse Resource Package
recommended