As the Americas undergo profound demographic change and there are more persons aged 65 years or older than children younger than 5 years, it is crucial to recognize that national immunization programs must be redesigned to ensure comprehensive protection for individuals across the lifespan. By adopt...ing a life course approach (LCA) to immunization, vaccination programs can be tailored to close immunity gaps at different stages of life. The life course approach foresees the establishment of multiple strategies to reduce missed opportunities for vaccination according to age group. This technical document explains the key concepts of the LCA with a focus on immunization by vaccination, as well as the underlying biological mechanisms that require the application different vaccines at different life stages according to changes to the immune system and in the epidemiological situation of a community.
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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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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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There has been a rapid expansion of cash-based, social protection programmes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in recent years as Governments increasingly realise the enormous benefits cash transfers offer (World Bank, 2018). In fact, as an investment in human capital and inclusive economic development, ...social protection is arguably one of the most efficient uses of Government resources and “one of the smartest investments that policymakers can support” (Cummins, 2021).
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The Extending Service Delivery (ESD) project has developed Healthy Timing and Spacing of
Pregnancy: A Trainer’s Reference Guide as a resource for trainers in developing in-service training
for facility-based healthcare providers and community health workers (chws) who already have
some basic ex...perience with and understanding of FP/RH. This is not a training manual, but a
reference guide which can be used and adapted by trainers based on whether or not trainees are facilitybased
or community-based.
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This manual was designed to support the GRN-UNICEF Youth Health and Development Programme with the aim of sustaining My Future is My Choice graduates and other young people’s peer education activities. It was written and reviewed in a three-day workshop in November 1999 and in the following weeks ...with assistance from participating organizations including AIDS Care Trust, Catholic AIDS Action, Ella Du Plessis High School AIDS Awareness Club, the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation, NACAMA, the National Youth Council of Namibia, PEDI/PECP, Polytechnic of Namibia, the University of Namibia and UNICEF. It was revised by Jennifer Lentfer of the Youth Health and Development Program of UNICEF Namibia in July of 2001.
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Adapted from the WHO's Decision-Making Tool for family
planning clients and providers