What are the FP and CAC competencies?
Through the clear articulation of the family planning and comprehensive abortion care (FP and CAC) competencies for the primary health care workforce, the aim is to advance improvements in FP and CAC service delivery by aligning health worker education approach...es with population health needs and health system demands.
This document, which describes these competencies in detail, is intended to:
be a foundational tool to be adopted and adapted by educators and regulators for FP and CAC providers (students) with a pre-service training pathway of at least 12 months;
describe competencies that are relevant to current and future health practice;
enable widespread use of the competencies not only for curriculum development for pre-service education, but also for in-service education, regulation, qualifications, quality assurance, personal development, performance evaluation, recruitment, management and career progression;
focus on the core functions of FP and CAC providers within broader efforts towards achieving universal health coverage
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This Mpox SPRP Global Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Framework, also referred to as the Framework, aims to monitor and report on global progress towards these objectives, including information about country-level response efforts and WHO support to Member States. Regular collection and analysis of da...ta on these objectives, alongside the ongoing tracking of the epidemiological situation, are key to informing decision-making, operational adjustments, as well as ensuring transparency and accountability for achieving the goal to stop the Mpox outbreak. This document suggests reporting indicators for monitoring of the global response to the Mpox PHEIC as articulated in the Mpox SPRP and Operational Planning Guidelines for countries.
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Recent United Nations Conferences of the Parties (COPs) have demonstrated that health professionals are
playing an increasingly prominent role in calling for rapid action to address the climate crisis.
Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) published a clinical case definition of post COVID-19
condition, by a Delphi consensus, on 6 October 2021. That process concluded that a separate definition
may be applicable for children. It is important to understand the frequency, characteristics ...and risk factors
that lead to post COVID-19 condition, along with its impact on everyday functioning and development of
children and adolescents. Long-term outcomes of the condition are currently unknown and need to be
studied. For these reasons, a globally standardized clinical case definition is needed.
Aim: To develop a globally relevant standardized clinical case definition for children and adolescents by
building on the WHO clinical case definition for post COVID-19 condition in adults.
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En la actualidad, los daños que sufren los pacientes a causa de una atención poco segura constituyen un desafío
importante y creciente para la salud pública mundial y son una de las principales causas de muerte y discapacidad
en todo el mundo. La mayor parte de estos daños son evitables. Ahor...a que los países se esfuerzan por alcanzar la
cobertura sanitaria universal y los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible, los efectos beneficiosos de un mayor acceso
a los servicios de atención de la salud pueden verse socavados por una atención poco segura. Los incidentes
relacionados con la seguridad de los pacientes pueden causar muerte y discapacidad, así como sufrimiento a
las víctimas y sus familias. Los costos económicos que conllevan los fallos de seguridad son elevados. A menudo
se reduce la confianza del público en los sistemas de salud locales cuando se dan a conocer estos accidentes.
El personal de salud implicado en sucesos graves que implican la muerte o un daño grave a un paciente
también puede sufrir un deterioro psicológico duradero y sentimientos de culpa y autocrítica muy arraigados
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In East Africa, the trend in cross-border FGM puts at risk the progress achieved in eliminating the practice. The only way we can reach zero FGM by 2030 is by concerted and immediate action to address all aspects of FGM.
This policy brief highlights the cross-border dimension of FGM (Ethiopia, Keny...a, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda) in the East Africa region. The brief describes the factors that perpetuate cross-border FGM and the work that is being done to reduce the rates.
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The Operational guide: use of referral laboratories for the analysis of foodborne hazards in the Pacific aims to strengthen the food analysis capacity of Pacific Island countries and areas by identifying national and reference laboratories capable of testing for priority foodborne hazards. The Pacif...ic Island countries and areas are often vulnerable to food safety incidents and emergencies due to their geographical distribution and dependence on food imports. The guide outlines key considerations for selecting referral laboratories and submitting samples to them, enabling continuous improvement of food safety systems and providing safe food for all. The target audiences are health and food safety authorities.
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Global HIV control funding falls short of need. To maximize health outcomes, it is critical that national governments sustain reasonable commitments, and that international donor assistance be distributed according to country needs and funding gaps. We develop a country classification framework in t...erms of actual versus expected national domestic funding, considering resource needs and donor financing. With UNAIDS and World Bank data, we examine domestic and donor HIV program funding in relation to need in 84 low- and middle-income countries. We estimate expected domestic contributions per person living with HIV (PLWH) as a function of per capita income, relative size of the health sector, and per capita foreign debt service.
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Past quantitative research on health financing has focused mostly on the level and distribution of total expenditure, with little emphasis on the specific role of public funds, despite their known importance for universal health coverage (UHC). Health Accounts data do not disaggregate public expendi...ture on health by source of funding. Achieving a better understanding of public financing for health in the context of the macro-fiscal and health financing environment is of fundamental importance to the development of future health financing policy, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
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Development finance institutions owned by European governments and the World Bank Group are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on expensive for-profit hospitals in the Global South that block patients from getting care, or bankrupt them, with some even imprisoning patients who cannot afford th...eir bills. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, some of these same hospitals denied entry to patients suffering from the virus or sold intensive care beds at eyewatering prices to the highest bidder. These development institutions have woefully inadequate safeguards, invest via a complex web of tax-avoiding financial intermediaries, and offer little to zero evidence on the impacts their investments are having. Oxfam is calling on rich-country governments and the World Bank Group to immediately halt their spending on for-profit private healthcare, and for an urgent independent investigation to be conducted into all active and historic investments.
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The definition of Official Development Assistance (ODA) has for 40 years been the global standard for measuring donor efforts in supporting development co-operation objectives. It has provided the yardstick for documenting the volume and the terms of the concessional resources provided, assessing do...nor performance against their aid pledges and enabling partner countries, civil society and others to hold donors to account. Yet for all its value, the ODA definition has always reflected a compromise between political expediency and statistical reality. It is based on interpretation and consensus and therefore allows for flexibility. It has evolved over the decades, while preserving the original concepts of a definition based on principal developmental motivation, official character and a degree of concessionality. While agreement on the ODA concept was a major achievement, discussion of the appropriateness of this measure has never ended. The paper documents the evolution of the ODA concept and proposes a possible new approach to measuring aid effort.
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Climate-induced water insecurity poses one of the biggest threats to humanity and will lead to more hunger, disease and displacement
Oxfam water engineers are having to drill deeper, more expensive and harder-to-maintain water boreholes used by some of the poorest communities around the world, mo...re often now only to find dry, depleted or polluted reservoirs.
Today, during World Water Week, Oxfam publishes the first of its series of reports, “Water Dilemmas”, about the growing water crisis, in large part driven by global heating from greenhouse gas emissions. The report describes how climate change will impact water security in different regions, leading to more hunger, disease and displacement.
Carlos Calderon, Humanitarian Advocacy and Partnerships Lead for Oxfam Aotearoa said, “This new Oxfam research is focused on the global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) situation, but it paints a picture that illustrates the complexity of elements that, combined, will continue to increasingly affect women, girls, boys and men in the decades to come. Changing weather, poverty, inequality, gender-based violence, political instability and conflicts are impacting the availability and quality of adequate water systems. All governments, particularly those from rich countries, should responsively take action at a global scale. The clock is ticking. Our children will judge us for our actions today, or for the lack of them.”
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Hepatitis B (HBV) infection is a major public health problem and cause of chronic liver disease.
The 2024 HBV guidelines provide updated evidence-informed recommendations on key priority topics. These include expanded and simplified treatment criteria for adults but now also for adolescents; expa...nded eligibility for antiviral prophylaxis for pregnant women to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HBV; improving HBV diagnostics through use of point-of-care HBV DNA viral load and reflex approaches to HBV DNA testing; who to test and how to test for HDV infection; and approaches to promote delivery of high-quality HBV services, including strategies to promote adherence to long-term antiviral therapy and retention in care.
The 2024 guidelines include 11 updated chapters with new recommendations and also update existing chapters without new recommendations, such as those on treatment monitoring and surveillance for liver cancer.
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Objectives Our study aimed to systematically review the literature and synthesise findings on potential associations of built environment characteristics with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in Asia.
The Resolution Population and Individual Approaches to the Prevention and Management of Diabetes and Obesity was approved by the 48th Directing Council of the Pan American Health Organization, September 29- October 3, 2008, in response to the epidemic of obesity and diabetes currently affecting the ...countries of the Americas. Its main goal is to call on Member States to prioritize the prevention of obesity and diabetes and their common risk factors by establishing and/or strengthening policies and programs, integrating them into public and private health systems and working to ensure adequate allocation of resources to carry out such policies and programs.
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In this document, the Inter-American Committee of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation, together with the South
American Society of Cardiology, aimed to formulate strategies, measures, and actions for cardiovascular disease prevention
and rehabilitation (CVDPR). In the context of the imple...mentation of a regional and national health policy in Latin American
countries, the goal is to promote cardiovascular health and thereby decrease morbidity and mortality. The study group on
Cardiopulmonary and Metabolic Rehabilitation from the Department of Exercise, Ergometry, and Cardiovascular Rehabilitation
of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology has created a committee of experts to review the Portuguese version of the guideline
and adapt it to the national reality.
The mission of this document is to help health professionals to adopt effective measures of CVDPR in the routine
clinical practice. The publication of this document and its broad implementation will contribute to the goal of the World
Health Organization (WHO), which is the reduction of worldwide cardiovascular mortality by 25% until 2025.
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Obesity and diabetes are affecting the peoples of the Americas at high and increasing rates. National surveys demonstrate that obesity is increasing in prevalence among all age groups; 7% to 12% of children under 5 years old and
one-fi fth of adolescents are obese, while rates of overweight and obe...sity among adults approach 60%. Obesity is the major modifi able risk factor for diabetes.
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The document "Management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus" provides comprehensive guidelines for the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of type 2 diabetes in adults. It emphasizes the importance of individualized glycemic targets, lifestyle interventions like diet and exercise, and the use of medicatio...ns such as metformin, SGLT2 inhibitors, and GLP1 receptor agonists to manage blood sugar levels and reduce long-term complications. The document also discusses the screening and management of comorbidities such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetic complications like retinopathy, neuropathy, and nephropathy. It highlights the role of diabetes self-management education and support in improving adherence to treatment and patient outcomes. The guidelines are evidence-based and aim to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with type 2 diabetes.
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The documents focus on promoting healthier nutrition by addressing issues like sugar, salt, and fat intake, emphasizing their role in non-communicable diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and heart diseases. They include educational tools for children and adults to support balanced diets and public h...ealth strategies to reform food systems and improve dietary habits globally.
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