Policy Brief 2 June 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is a health and human crisis threatening the food security and nutrition of millions of people around the world. Hundreds of millions of people were already suffering from hunger and malnutrition before the virus hit and, unless immediate action is tak...en, we could see a global food emergency. In the longer term, the combined effects of COVID-19 itself, as well as corresponding mitigation measures and the emerging global recession could, without large-scale coordinated action, disrupt the functioning of food systems. Such disruption can result in consequences for health and nutrition of a severity and scale unseen for more than half a century.
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he pandemic has produced an unprecedented economic and social crisis, and it could generate a food, humanitarian, and political crisis if urgent measures are not taken. The policy options for addressing the pandemic entail consolidating national pla...ns and achieving intersectoral consensus. The response should be structured in three nonlinear and interrelated phases—control, reactivation, and rebuilding—involving the participation of technical actors representing not only the field of health but also other social and economic areas. Measures implemented to control the pandemic as well as measures for the reactivation and rebuilding phases will require increased public investment in health until the recommended parameters are achieved.
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The toolkit provides practical guidance and tools that can support efforts, including planning and implementation activities, to create dementia-inclusive societies.
The toolkit is divided into two parts. Part I contains background information and a conceptual framework ...highlight medbox">for creating dementia-inclusive societies. Part II includes four practical modules, each featuring a series of practical steps and exercises. The four modules focus on: starting a new dementia-friendly initiative (DFI), integrating dementia into an existing initiative, monitoring and evaluation a DFI, and scaling a DFI. The modules can be used together or separately and offer guidance that can be adapted to suit local needs and settings.
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The objectives of the meeting were to agree on coordinated and aligned support to the 3 countries’ national health recovery plans (Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone); to identify cross-cutting areas and opportunities for integration; to identify ways ...to improve implementation modalities; and to identify actions including technical assistance needed to support the countries in the process of building resilient health systems.
The outcomes of the meeting consisted in proposed country action plans to move forward with the implementation of the recovery plans. The action plans includes:priorities and areas of work; activities needed to improve implementation modalities; technical assistance needs.
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Cystic fibrosis (CF) was earlier thought to be a disease prevalent in the West among Caucasians. However, quite a number of recent studies have uncovered CF cases outside of this region, and reported hundreds of unique and novel variant forms of CFTR. Here, we discuss the evidence of CF in parts of... the world earlier considered to be rare; Africa, and Asia. This review also highlighted the CFTR mutation variations and new mutations discovered in these regions. This discovery implies that the CF data from these regions were earlier underestimated. The inadequate awareness of the disease in these regions might have contributed towards the poor diagnostic facilities, under-diagnosis or/and under-reporting, and the lack of CF associated health policies. Overall, these regions have a high rate of infant, childhood and early adulthood mortality due to CF. Therefore, there is a need for a thorough investigation of CF prevalence and to identify unique and novel variant mutations within these regions in order to formulate intervention plans, create awareness, develop mutation specific screening kits and therapies to keep CF mortality at bay.
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Long Acting Muscarinic Antagonists (LAMA) such as tiotropium and glycopyrronium are used in the management of COPD1. They have been shown to improve lung function, quality of life and exercise tolerance. They have also been associated with reduced COPD-related exacerbations, associated hospitalisati...ons and duration of hospital stay. Both the South African Thoracic Society (SATS) and Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD), guidelines recommend the use of long acting anticholinergic drugs (or long acting beta agonists) in moderate to very severe disease as defined by lung function (FEV1). The most up to date guideline, utilizing the GRADE methodology (European Respiratory Society guidelines of 2017), confirms their superiority over long acting β agonists (LABA) as monotherapy for COPD in that LAMA's have demonstrated greater efficacy in terms of exacerbation reduction, with similar safety profile.2 These recommnedations are supported by published peer-reviewed
evidence including individual papers and Cochrane reviews.
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Following the release of the Wheelchair Service Training Package – Basic level (WSTP-B), WHO in partnership with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has developed the Wheelchair Service Training Package – Intermediate Lev...el (WSTP-I). WSTP-I is the second part of the WHO wheelchair service training package series and focusses more on addressing the needs of people who have severe difficulties in walking and moving around and also having poor postural control . While developing this training package, special attention was given on the provision of appropriate wheelchairs for children who have poor postural control and are unable to sit upright independently.
Purpose of the training
The need for wheelchair personnel is universal. WSTP-I is designed to support the training of personnel or volunteers to provide an appropriate manual wheelchair and cushion for children and adults who need additional postural support to sit upright. The main purpose of this training package is to:
increase the number of wheelchair users who receive a wheelchair which meets their needs;
increase the number of personnel trained in intermediate level wheelchair service delivery;
improve the competencies of wheelchair service delivery personnel;
increase the quality of wheelchair service delivery for people who need a comparatively higher level of intervention than basic level;
include this training package in regular paramedical/rehabilitation training programmes;
achieve greater integration of wheelchair service delivery within rehabilitation services.
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The State of the World’s Children 2013: Children with Disabilities examines the barriers – from inaccessible buildings to dismissive attitudes, from invisibility in official statistics to vicious discrimination – that deprive children with disabilities of their rights and keep them from partic...ipating fully in society. The report also lays out some of the key elements of inclusive societies that respect and protect the rights of all children, regardless of disability, and progress in helping all children to flourish and make their contribution to the world.
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The substantial burden of death and disability that results from interpersonal violence, road traffic injuries, unintentional injuries, occupational health risks, air pollution, climate change, and inadequate water and sanitation falls disproportionally on low- and middle-income countries. Injury Pr...evention and Environmental Health addresses the risk factors and presents updated data on the burden, as well as economic analyses of platforms and packages for delivering cost-effective and feasible interventions in these settings. The volume's contributors demonstrate that implementation of a range of prevention strategies-presented in an essential package of interventions and policies-could achieve a convergence in death and disability rates that would avert more than 7.5 million deaths a year
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Wheelchair Service Training Package - Basic level | The main purpose of the training package is to develop the minimum skills and knowledge required by personnel involved in wheelchair service delivery. An important aim of the training package is to get it integrated into the regular paramedical/reh...abilitation training programs such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, prosthetics and orthotics, rehabilitation nursing. Towards this, WHO is posting the whole training package in the Website for the training institutes and wheelchair service providers. The easiest way to make use of the training package is to download the complete package (requires 3 GB space).
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This curricula guide builds on several existing products of WHO and partners, aimed at supporting countries in their effort to address the first objective of the GAP-AMR (to improve awareness and understanding of AMR). It is targeted specifically at health educators and policy planners, and applies ...a systematic modular and submodular collection of learning objectives and outcomes that are organized according to the key occupational groups involved in the use of antimicrobials in human health. It is hoped that educators, faculties of heath personnel training institutions, health regulatory institutions and other users will find it a useful resource in meeting their respective needs for strengthening health workers’ contributions to containing AMR.
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The State of the world’s nursing 2020 report provides the latest, most up-to-date evidence on and policy options for the global nursing workforce.
The substantial burden of death and disability that results from interpersonal violence, road traffic injuries, unintentional injuries, occupational health risks, air pollution, climate change, and inadequate water and sanitation falls disproportionally on low- and middle-income countries. Injury Pr...evention and Environmental Health addresses the risk factors and presents updated data on the burden, as well as economic analyses of platforms and packages for delivering cost-effective and feasible interventions in these settings. The volume's contributors demonstrate that implementation of a range of prevention strategies-presented in an essential package of interventions and policies-could achieve a convergence in death and disability rates that would avert more than 7.5 million deaths a year.
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Die Versorgung von schutzbedürftigen Geflüchteten ist eine moralische Verpflichtung, der Deutschland nicht gerecht wird.
Wie groß die Bereitschaft in Deutschland ist, Geflüchtete aufzunehmen, hat die Reaktion der Bevölkerung auf die humanitäre Krise, ausgelöst durch den Angriffskrieg
Russla...nds auf die Ukraine, gezeigt. In der Verteidigungs- und Außenpolitik haben
wir einen Paradigmenwechsel gesehen. Notwendig ist ein solcher Paradigmenwechsel
auch bezüglich der Verantwortung gegenüber Überlebenden von Krieg, Folter und
Flucht allgemein.
Gesundheit ist ein Menschenrecht. Doch werden Menschen mit Fluchterfahrung
häufig mit ihren Belastungen alleingelassen, obgleich zahlreiche völkerrechtliche
Übereinkommen Deutschland verpflichten, bei Bedarf eine psychosoziale Beglei-
tung und/oder therapeutische Behandlung bereitzustellen
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This helpdesk report seeks to establish what lessons have been learnt from the current and previous Ebola outbreaks. It recommends good practice and makes suggestions based on the evidence for good practice and preparedness to reduce transmission an...d prevent further risk and exposure in affected countries.
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The current guidelines on Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (IMAM), addresses the issue of improved management of severe acute malnutrition (SAM), particularly in children under 5 years of age. In the absence of standard protocols, mortality in children admitted to hospital with SAM can ra...nge between 20 -30% with the highest levels of 50-60% among those with oedematous malnutrition. With modern treatment regimens and improved access to treatment, case-fatality rates can be reduced to less than 5%. These provincial guidelines on IMAM in KZN, includes inpatient care protocols on the management of SAM, and outpatient and community outreach components to manage moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) and prevent deterioration to SAM.
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In response to a call by the United Nations Secretary-General and the Governments of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, an international team conducted an Ebola Recovery Assessment.The aim was to contribute towards laying the foundation for short-, m...edium- and long-term recovery while the medical emergency response continues to tackle the epidemic.
This summary report is based on a full report as well as three detailed reports submitted to each of the three governments as contributions to their national recovery planning processes.
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“The children are psychologically crushed and tired.
When we do activities like singing with them, they
don’t respond at all. They don’t laugh like they
would normally. They draw images of children
being butchered in the war, or tanks, or ...the siege
and the lack of food.”
Teacher in the besieged town of Madaya to Save the Children
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This publication seeks to describe the best treatments and practices based on the scientific evidence available at the time of writing as evaluated by the authors and may change as a result of new research. Readers need to apply this knowledge to patients in accordance with the guidelines and laws o...f their country of practice. Some medications may not be available in some countries and readers should consult the specific drug information since not all the unwanted effects of medications are mentioned.
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This manual is designed primarily to assist managers of national malaria programmes and national reference laboratory responsible for quality assurance of malaria microscopy control. The information is also applicable to non-governmental organizatio...ns and funding agencies investing in quality management systems for malaria microscopy.
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