Rabies is entirely preventable, and vaccines, medicines, tools and technologies have long
been available to prevent people from dying of dog-mediated rabies. Nevertheless, rabies still
kills about 60 000 people a year,
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of whom over 40% are children under 15, mainly in rural areas
of economically disadvantaged countries in Africa and Asia. Of all human cases, up to 99% are
acquired from the bite of an infected dog.
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High prices, hard-to-access human insulin, few insulin producers, and weak health systems are just some of the barriers that people with diabetes face a century after insulin was discovered, WHO not
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es in a new report
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The major neglected tropical diseases, Taenia solium taeniosis/cysticercosis and schistosomiasis caused by Schistosoma mansoni or S. haematobium are presumed to be widely distributed in Africa. Taenia solium taeniosis/ cysticercosis has been reporte
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d as an emerging disease in different regions of Africa [1, 2], but currently the exact distribution remains unclear. Reported prevalences of T. solium taeniosis and cysticercosis in African countries are not extensive and are further complicated by the lack of ‘gold standard’ tests for diagnosis.
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Tuberculosis (TB) control in the African Region has evolved since the disease was declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO
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) in 1993. Member States have adopted and implemented successive global and regional strategies and resolutions, with demonstrable positive impacts on incidence, prevalence and mortality, albeit with variations across countries. By the end of 2015, the Region as a whole met the key Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halting and beginning to reverse TB incidence. However only 35 of the 47 Member States met the MDG target.
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Globally, in low-income countries, the average newborn mortality rate is 27 deaths per 1,000 births, the report says. In high-income countries, that rate is 3 deaths per 1,000. Newborns from
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the riskiest places to give birth are up to 50 times more likely to die than those from the safest places.
The report also notes that 8 of the 10 most dangerous places to be born are in sub-Saharan Africa, where pregnant women are much less likely to receive assistance during delivery due to poverty, conflict and weak institutions. If every country brought its newborn mortality rate down to the high-income average by 2030, 16 million lives could be saved.
More than 80 per cent of newborn deaths are due to prematurity, complications during birth or infections such as pneumonia and sepsis, the report says. These deaths can be prevented with access to well-trained midwives, along with proven solutions like clean water, disinfectants, breastfeeding within the first hour, skin-to-skin contact and good nutrition.
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Learning from the Use of Data, Information, and Digital Technologies in the West Africa Ebola Outbreak Response
The report will describe how the Ebola Response MPTF, which has attracted contributions from 38 Member States, one business and many individuals, has offered a transparent and strategic tool to supp
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ort the Ebola response. As of 31 January 2015, the Fund had total pledges amounting to US$142 million, out of which US$132 million have been deposited
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Towards a policy of inclusion
The GHS Index is intended to be a key resource in the face of increasing risks of high-consequen
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ce and globally catastrophic biological events and in light of major gaps in international financing for preparedness. These risks are magnified by a rapidly changing and interconnected world; increasing political instability; urbanization; climate change; and rapid technology advances that make it easier, cheaper, and faster to create and engineer pathogens.
Key findings from the study of 195 countries:
• Out of a possible 100 points, the average GHS Index score across 195 countries was 40.2.
• The majority of high- and middle-income countries do not score above 50.
• Action is urgently needed to improve countries’ readiness for high-consequence infectious disease outbreaks.
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This is the first global report on epilepsy summarizing the available evidence on the burden of
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epilepsy and the public health response required at global, regional and national levels.
The reports highlights major gaps in awareness, diagnosis, treatment, and health policies through a series of appalling numbers. With around 50 million people affected worldwide, epilepsy is one of the most common and serious brain disorders. Nearly 80% of people with epilepsy live in low-income and middle-income countries
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Globally, it is estimated that 128.6 million people are currently in need of humanitarian assistance. Of these individuals, approximately one-fourth are women and girls
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of reproductive age. Although family planning is one of the most life-saving, empowering, and cost-effective interventions for women and girls, it remains an overwhelming gap in emergency responses due to a lack of prioritisation and funding. Consequently, many women and girls are forced to contend with an unmet need for family planning and unplanned pregnancies in addition to the traumas of conflict, disaster, and displacement.
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At least half of the world’s population does not have full coverage of essential health services. Health expenses push more than 100 million peop
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le into extreme poverty each and every year, forcing them into terrible choices that no one should ever have to make: Buy medicine or food? Education or health care? These stark statistics make the case for universal health coverage compelling.
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Strengthening the capacities of SUN Countries by sharing and disseminating good practices in the fight against malnutrition.
This report is a s
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ummary of the results of the preparation and implementation of the Learning Route (LR) organized jointly by the SUN (Scaling Up Nutrition) Movement’s Secretariat, the Fight Against Malnutrition Unit (CLM, Cellule de Lutte contre la Malnutrition) and PROCASUR Corporation; this Learning Route was held in Senegal from the 26th of May to the 1st of June, 2014. The aim of this publication is to illustrate the experience, its main outcomes, and the lessons learned.
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This report is one of the first major products of the newly established Precision Public Health
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Metrics unit of the UCN cluster of the WHO Regional Office for Africa. The report presents national trends in communicable and non-communicable disease burden and control in the WHO African region. It tracks progress made with respect to disease burden reduction, elimination and eradication. It also highlights major emerging threats, opportunities and priorities in the fight against commu- nicable and non-communicable diseases in the region. It covers the period 2000-2022, but for some indicators, information is available only up to 2021.
The report shows the number of reported cases for malaria and vaccine preventable diseases (meningitis, measles, yellow fever, pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, and polio); disease incidence due to HIV, tuberculosis and four major noncommunicable diseases (cardiovas- cular diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic respira- tory diseases).
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The well-being of children in sub-Saharan Africa is under siege from all directions since the advent of
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the COVID-19 pandemic. The region is now suffering its first-ever economic recession, pushing about 50 million people into extreme poverty, a majority of whom are children.
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