This policy paper outlines key health financing policy actions for countries to ensure universal access to health services and financial protection for people fleeing conflict. It focuses on three policy areas – granting entitlement and ensure access to the full range of needed health services for... people fleeing conflict, making additional funding available and strengthening purchasing arrangements. Policy guidance is illustrated using country examples from Europe. The paper’s recommendations are relevant to all countries in Europe.
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Promoting health and well-being throughout Europe
To test for ethnic discrimination in access to outpatient health care services, we carry out
an email-correspondence study in Germany. We approach 3,224 physician offices in the 79
largest cities in Germany with fictitious appointment requests and randomized patients’
characteristics. We find t...hat patients’ ethnicity, as signaled by distinct Turkish versus Ger-
man names, does not affect whether they receive an appointment or wait time. In contrast,
patients with private insurance are 31 percent more likely to receive an appointment. Hold-
ing a private insurance also increases the likelihood of receiving a response and reduces the
wait time. This suggests that physicians use leeway to prioritize privately insured patients
to enhance their earnings, but they do not discriminate persons of Turkish origin based
on taste. Still, their behavior creates means-based barriers for economically disadvantaged
groups.
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The Committee discussed the implications for preparedness for smallpox-like events reflected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Committee noted how quickly diagnostics and vaccines could be developed and deployed when resources and political will were abundant. This rapidity was also due to the f...act that the genetic sequence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) had been shared worldwide. It was noted that in one country SARS-CoV-2 had been reconstructed in a laboratory from the viral genome sequence before the first case of COVID-19 had been reported, highlighting the benefits of synthetic biology technologies for accelerated development of diagnostics as well as the oft-described potential risks. Lessons learned about clinical care during the COVID-19 pandemic were also discussed.
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The COVID-19 HEalth caRe wOrkErs Study (HEROES): Regional Report from the Americas is a multicenter prospective cohort study to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of health care workers in 26 countries on four continents and how it is affected by several factors at diffe...rent interrelated levels: individual, family, occupational, and social. This brief report presents the evidence generated from the baseline survey of 11 participating countries in the Region of the Americas. Using validated scales, the findings show high rates of depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and psychological distress in several countries of the Region. The spirit of the project is not only to generate quality scientific evidence on the mental health of health care workers, but also to help develop interventions (both individual and institutional) and policies to address the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health.
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Curr HIV/AIDS Rep. 2022; 19(1): 37–45.
Published online 2022 Jan 29. doi: 10.1007/s11904-021-00589-4.
COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on the cascade-of-care among PLWH in LAC. There is a need for
longitudinal studies that assess clinic implication of these pandemic interactions in LAC.
Given that the emergency has exceeded the worst-case scenario, this revised supplementary appeal for the Ukraine situation outlines UNHCR’s additional requirements of $1.246 billion for March to December 2022.
Update, 23 de junio de 2022
As of September 2022, just over one million forced
migrants from Ukraine have entered Germany, making Germany the third largest recipient of migrants
(Ukraine Refugee Situation, 2022).
As early as March 2022, several news outlets reported that accommodation centers were at or near
capacity in ma...ny German states and lacked the resources to quickly register new arrivals (Süddeutsche
Zeitung, 2022; Herz, 2022). Consequently, some states asked for the use of the Königstein Key —
an algorithm used to redistribute forced migrants to different states based on each state’s capacity.5
Depending on which state forced migrants arrive in or where they relocate to, their first stop is typically
a reception facility where they are able to register, begin the asylum application procedure, and access
support services
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This collection of case studies on risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) from 18 different country/area level public health partners in the WHO European Region provides evidence of numerous results achieved and lessons learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. RCCE has not... traditionally been an area where evidence of challenges and solutions was documented. With this compendium, we wanted to collect and share this evidence to support decision-making in this area of work.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) convened a meeting of the Technical Advisory Group on Buruli ulcer at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on 25 to 27 March 2019
3rd edition. Patient safety standards are critical for the establishment and assessment of patient safety programmes within hospitals. This third edition of the Patient safety assessment manual provides an updated set of standards and assessment criteria that reflect current best practice and WHO gu...idance. The manual will support the implementation of patient safety assessments and improvement programmes within hospitals as part of the Patient Safety Friendly Hospital Framework to ensure that patient safety is prioritized and facilities and staff implement best practices. The manual is a key tool for use by professional associations regulatory accrediting or oversight bodies and ministries of health to improve patient safety.
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The world is not on track to end the AIDS pandemic. New infections are rising and AIDS deaths are continuing in too many communities. This report reveals why: inequalities are holding us back. In frank terms, the report calls the world’s attention to the painful reality that dangerous inequalities... are undermining the AIDS response and jeopardising the health security of everyone. The report highlights three specific areas of inequality for which concrete action is immediately possible—gender
inequalities and harmful masculinities driving HIV; marginalisation and criminalisation of key populations, which our data show is resulting in starkly little progress for those populations and undermining the overall response; and
inequalities for children whose lives must matter more than their market share. But this is not a counsel of despair, it is a call to action. Through bold action to confront these inequalities, we can end AIDS.
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This new guidance aims to support programme implementers, coordinators and others in humanitarian settings in their actions to counter suicide and self-harm in humanitarian contexts and to save lives.
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic exacerbated pre-existing inequalities in the treatment and care of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). This report examines the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to NCD medicines, and the policies and strategies implemented by countries and health sys...tems to anticipate and mitigate stresses across NCD medicine supply chains. The full range of upstream and downstream impacts are investigated, including: manufacturing; procurement, importation and last mile delivery; patient-level effects through affordability and availability; and the effects on NCD medicine availability by category of disease. The report culminates in recommended actions and interventions for key stakeholders in the NCD pharmaceutical supply chain, including governments, regulatory authorities, manufacturers and the private sector; as well as directions for future research for improving access and supply chain access resilience.
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В дорожной карте по борьбе с забытыми тропическими болезнями на 2021–2030 гг. («дорожная карта») определены глобальные цели и основные этапы в отношении борьбы с 20 бол...знями и группами болезней, их элиминации или полной ликвидации. В ней также определены сквозные целевые показатели, согласованные с Тринадцатой общей программой работы ВОЗ и Целями в области устойчивого развития, а также стратегии по достижению этих целевых
показателей в течение ближайших десяти лет.
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Le 13ème programme général de travail (PGT) 2019-2023 de l’OMS va amorcer bientôt sa dernière année de mise en oeuvre. Cependant, le chemin vers l’objectif du « triple milliard » semble encore long, à savoir « faire en sorte qu’un milliard de personnes supplémentaires bénéficient ...de la couverture sanitaire universelle, qu’un milliard de personnes supplémentaires soient mieux protégées face aux situations d’urgence et qu’un milliard de personnes supplémentaires bénéficient d’un meilleur état de santé et d’un plus grand bien-être ».
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In 2017, $37.4 billion of development assistance was provided to low- and middleincome countries to maintain or improve health. This amount is down slightly compared to 2016, and since 2010, development assistance for health (DAH) has grown at an annualized rate of 1.0%. While global development ass...istance for health has seemingly leveled off, global health spending continues to climb, outpacing economic growth in many countries. Total health spending for 2015, the most recent year for which data are available, was estimated to be $9.7 trillion (95% uncertainty interval: 9.7–9.8)*, up 4.7% (3.9–5.6) from the prior year, and accounted for 10% of the world’s total economy. With some sources of health spending growing and other types remaining steady, and with major variations in spending from country to country, it is more important than ever to understand where resources for health come from, where they go, and how they align with health needs. This information is critical for planning and is a necessary catalyst for change as we aim to close the gap on the unfinished agenda of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and move forward toward universal health coverage (UHC) in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) era.
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The 2030 health-related Sustainable Development Goals call on countries to end AIDS as a public health threat and also to achieve universal health coverage. The World Health Organization (WHO) promotes primary health care (PHC) as the key mechanism for achieving universal health coverage, and the PH...C approach is also essential for ending AIDS and reaching other Sustainable Development Goal targets.
The PHC approach is defined as a whole-of-society approach to health that aims to maximize the level and distribution of health and well-being through three components: (1) primary care and essential public health functions as the core of integrated health services; (2) multisectoral policy and action; and (3) empowered people and communities.
This publication helps decision-makers to consider and optimize the synergies between existing and future assets and investments intended for both PHC and disease-specific responses, including HIV. Specifically, it aims to:
• provide guidance to policy-makers, health system managers and programmatic leads from both PHC and HIV backgrounds regarding opportunities to jointly advance their respective efforts to strengthen PHC and end AIDS as a public health threat; and
• provide a resource for all stakeholders who seek to contribute to strengthening PHC and ending AIDS as a public health threat in a synergistic manner, including people living with HIV, members of key and vulnerable populations, community and civil society representatives, people working in all areas of health systems, researchers, funders and private-sector decision-makers.
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