The mandate of the National Tuberculosis Control Programme is to provide leadership and stewardship to accelerate intense and coordinated efforts to reduce the adult TB burden ...-to-highlight medbox">of 290 per 100,000 population recently established in the 2013 National TB Prevalence Survey. Other key challenges are low TB case notification, unacceptably high TB death rates, low antiretroviral therapy (ART) coverage among TB/HIV patients and low drug-resistant notification and treatment.
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A year ago, the second Special Session of the World Health Assembly (WHASS) unanimously agreed to start a diplomatic process for a new binding instrument aimed at ensuring the international community is better prepared for the next health emergencie...s. The establishment of an Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) at the WHO paved the terrain for a proper negotiation, which has started to unfold. The INB will be releasing the “conceptual zero draft” of the treaty text in early December 2022.
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7 April 2022. Aimed at national policymakers, public health and healthcare planners, staff working in reception centres, and healthcare staff caring for displaced persons, the information note concludes that universal testing of incoming refugees fr...om Ukraine for tuberculosis (TB) infection is not recommended. Specific groups, such as household contacts of bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary cases, or those who are immunocompromised should however be considered for TB infection testing.
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Disabled people in developing countries are the poorest of the poor: if we are serious about tackling extreme poverty, our development work has to target them. The post-2015 development framework offers hope that disabled people will finally get the... prominence they deserve on the global development agenda. But this will only be possible with sustained political pressure, and the UK’s position will only be credible if it leads by example in its own development work. Disabled people experience some of the most extreme poverty in the world, but there are also realistic opportunities for donors to turn the situation around.
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The Government of Botswana’s SRH Policy Guidelines and Service Standards document provides the framework for developing a responsive strategy and an implementation plan for SRHR and HIV&AIDS Linkages and Integration. The ...highlight medbox">global call on governments to demonstrate commitments to intensify linkages between sexual and reproductive health and HIV&AIDS at the policy and programme level is therefore an added opportunity for the government to review the current service provision model and optimize current resources to provide more integrated, comprehensive coordinated SRHR and HIV&AIDS services.
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Supporting the food and agriculture sectors in implementing the Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance to minimize the impact of antimicrobial resistance
This document updates the 2009 ECDC guidance on chlamydia control in Europe. It was developed by a technical expert group which conducted a critical review of the scientific evidence on the epidemiology of... chlamydia and the effectiveness of screening programmes.
The aim of this guidance is to support Member States to develop, implement or improve strategies for chlamydia control. This guidance describes the current evidence base behind the proposed options, highlights key gaps in knowledge, and suggests effective options for national chlamydia control strategies. It is directed primarily at policy advisors but should also be useful for programme managers and experts in sexual health.
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This document provides guidance to African Union Member States on key mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) considerations in relation to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. It contains useful guidance on MHPSS for the communi...ty, healthcare workers, caregivers of vulnerable populations and people in quarantine, isolation or treatment centers(1)
(2). This guidance aims to provide practical steps to reduce stress, anxiety, stigma and psychological disorders associated with COVID-19 and improve overall mental health and well being. This guidance can be used for planning purposes by policy makers and Ministries of
health and institutions coordinating emergency response to COVID-19 response by Member States. It can also be disseminated to stakeholders.
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The Sierra Leone National Infection Prevention and Control Guidelines were jointly developed and updated by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in collaboration with the World Health Organization and the US Centers for ...ghlight medbox">Disease Control and Prevention.
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During the implementation of the National Strategic Plan 2009–2012 on HIV and AIDS, Rwanda has continued its progress towards universal access to HIV and AIDS services. The new HIV and AIDS National Strategic Plan July 2013–June 2018 (thereafter... referred to as ‘the NSP’) presented here is set on pursuing the same objective, with inspiration from the global targets of “zero new HIV infections, zero HIV-related deaths and zero stigma and discrimination due to HIV”.
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The attainment of Zambia’s goal of being a prosperous and middle-income country by 2030 as stipulated in its Vision 2030 is dependent on among others, a healthy and productive population. Therefor...e, the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) has prioritized health as a key socio-economic investment in the Seventh National Development Plan 2017-2021. The government is also committed to achieving the targets under the health goal number three and other health related targets under other goals of the 2030 Sustainable Development agenda. Despite progress which has been made in improving the health of Zambians, the country still faces a high burden of communicable diseases and a growing burden of non-communicable diseases. Structural and social deprivation including poverty, inequalities and marginalisation also remain major threats to health. In order to effectively address all the social determinants of health, all sectors should take into account health and well-being as a key element of policy development.
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In Vietnam, most of the examination and treatment facilities are facing with of spread of bacteria resistant to many antibiotics. The level and spe...ed of drug resistance are increasing, at alarming level. The burden of drug resistance is increasing due to the increasing cost of treatment, prolonged treatment,. That will affect patients’ health, community and social development. In the future, many
nations will be able to face the possibility of having no effective drugs to treat infectious diseases if they do not make appropriate interventions.
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This new plan has been developed to build on successes made and lessons learnt from implementation of the two initial plans and to provide a short to medium term strategic anchor against which preparedness and response plans to the corona virus ...n class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">disease COVID-19 epidemic in the country should focus on for the period June 2021 to June 2022.
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Although Kenyans enjoy comparatively good health, the prevalence of
chronic disease is increasing and our ageing population is placing evergrowing pressures on the finite resources ...ribute-to-highlight medbox">of our health system.
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Antibiotics have been useful in fighting infectious diseases in our country for decades, but because of the overuse and misuse of these agents, an ...increasing number of organisms are now resistant to them. The Philippines, like other Southeast Asian countries, has already been encountering the many challenges of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) which include increasing social and economic costs and rising patient mortality. Although considered a global threat, it is already an emerging local health concern which calls for an urgent collaboration among different sectors to provide solutions addressing this growing problem.
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In the kingdom of Bahrain, the national antibiotic committee will set the framework for the national response to AMR, especially bacterial resistance to antibiotics. It will be aligned with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) ...ute-to-highlight medbox">Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance, and with standards and guidelines from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).
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Six months after its launch on 24 April, the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator has already delivered concrete results in speeding up the development of new therapeutics, diagnostics, and vaccines. Now mid-way through the scale-up phase, the... tools we need to fundamentally change the course of this pandemic are within reach. But to deliver the full impact of the ACT-Accelerator – and ultimately an exit to this global crisis – these tools need to be available everywhere. On behalf of the ACT-Accelerator Pillar lead agencies – CEPI, Gavi, the Global Fund, FIND, Unitaid, Wellcome Trust, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization, as well as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – I am pleased to share this document setting out the near-term priorities, deliverables and financing requirements of the ACT-Accelerator Pillars and Health Systems Connector. Urgent action to address these financing requirements will boost the impact of the ACTAccelerator achievements to date, fast-track the development and deployment of additional game-changing tools, and mitigate the risk of a widening gap in access to COVID-19 tools between low- and high-income countries. Delivering on this promise requires strong political leadership, financial investment, and incountry capacity building. COVID-19 cannot be beaten by any one country acting alone. We must ACT now, and ACT together to end the COVID-19 crisis.
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Executive summary On 27th and 28th April 2021, the division of Disease Control and Prevention in collaboration with Public Health England, organized a virtual consultative meeting as part ...s="attribute-to-highlight medbox">of the consultations with Member States and partners for the development of the Africa CDC five years strategic plan for the prevention and control of Non-communicable Diseases … Report: Expert and stakeholder virtual consultation meeting to develop the Africa CDC Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health Strategy
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During the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world’s economy slowed. Yet, the global annual average particulate pollution (PM2.5) was largely unchanged from 2019 levels. At the same time, g...rowing evidence shows air pollution—even when experienced at very low levels—hurts human health. This recently led the World Health Organization (WHO) to revise its guideline for what it considers a safe level of exposure of particulate pollution, bringing most of the world—97.3 percent of the global population—into the unsafe zone. The AQLI finds that particulate air pollution takes 2.2 years off global average life expectancy, or a combined 17 billion life-years, relative to a world that met the WHO guideline. This impact on life expectancy is comparable to that of smoking, more than three times that of alcohol use and unsafe water, six times that of HIV/AIDS, and 89 times that of conflict and terrorism.
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Mental health problems are common and cause great suffering to individuals and communities around the world. They have a significant impact not only on the physical and mental health of those affected but also on their families and the communities t...hey live in. At the same time, all communities have their own traditional mechanisms for support and contain a range wide of resources that can be helpful in preventing mental health conditions from developing, promoting positive mental health and supporting the recovery of people that are struggling with a mental health condition.
In the wider context, people living with a mental health condition are often excluded from their communities and experience various violations to their basic human rights (discrimination, violence, exclusion from employment opportunities). The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the mean prevalence of global mental health disorders is 10.8% while the prevalence in emergency settings is 22.1% in any conflict-affected population.
During emergencies and crisis, the stigma, exclusion and discrimination towards people living with mental health conditions is often higher, which can cause isolation and protection issues. Communities can play a crucial role in promoting mental health as well as enhancing primary care and access. Their role is to help reduce mental health inequalities by providing community resources that connect people to community-based resources and by providing mental health education. This also helps to reduce the massive mental health treatment gap.
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