The climate crisis has many consequences – among them widespread health impacts that will lead to immense societal, ecological, and economic harm.
Over the past two decades multiple large-scale reviews on climate change and health have made clear the need for a multi-sectoral approach to target t...he drivers and impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem degradation. Despite this abundance of scientific evidence underscoring urgency of action, policy implementation responses lag behind. Even at COP26, itself delayed due to an ongoing pandemic, health continues to be considered by many countries a problem independent from climate and environment.
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ECDC Technical Report
In line with ECDC’s recommendations provided in the ’Risk Assessment of HTLV-1/2 transmission by tissue/cell transplantation’ dated 14 March 2012, this Directive replaces the term ‘incidence’ with ‘prevalence... in the description of endemic areas of HTLV-1/2 infection. According to the new requirements ‘HTLV-1 antibody testing must be performed for donors living in, or originating from high-prevalence areas or with sexual partners originating from those areas or where the donor’s parents originate from those areas’ and this applies to both donors of non-reproductive tissues and cells and reproductive cells.
ECDC contracted experts from the Institut Pasteur in Paris to systematically review the published evidence on the distribution of HTLV-1 infection prevalence throughout the world and to identify high-prevalence countries and areas.
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‘Psychosocial Support of Children in Emergencies’ is a reference document for humanitarian workers who want to increase their understanding of the experiences ... medbox">of children in emergency situations and how to support them in mitigating the negative effects of these experiences and how to prevent further harm. While the book is not designed to be a day-to-day programming tool, it outlines UNICEF’s orientation to the psychosocial principles integral to any work with children and provides a number of examples from field work of how these principles can be turned into concrete actions.
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Following review of evidence and advice from the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on Tuberculosis (TB) Diagnostics and Laboratory Strengthening, the World Health Organization (WHO) announces that current WHO recommendations for the use ...ttribute-to-highlight medbox">of interferon-gamma release assays (IGRA) are also valid for Beijing Wantai’s TB-IGRA and Qiagen QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus products. This expands the range of tests available to detect TB infection. Full details are provided in this WHO policy statement.
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Stats SA has released an in-depth report on persons with disabilities. The report, written using Census 2011 data, is the first in a series of in-depth analyses of various Census 2011 variables, suc...h as ageing and education.
The report provides statistical evidence relating to the prevalence of disability and characteristics of persons with disabilities at both individual and household levels. Two methods were used to profile disability prevalence and patterns based on the six functional domains, namely seeing, hearing, communication, remembering/concentrating, walking and self-care. These two methods were:
- the level/degree of difficulty in a specific functional domain and;
- the disability index.
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Asthma is one of the neglected diseases in Africa with a high prevalence. Allergic fungal diseases have been reported to complicate asthma progression and treatment outcomes. However, data about fungal asthma and its associated complications are lim...ited in Africa. We aimed to estimate the burden of fungal asthma among adults and children in Africa using a systematic review.
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Knowledge based upon a descriptive literature review of applied research
Many features of the environment have been found to exert an important influence on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, progression, and severity. Changes in the environment due to migration to different geographic locations, modifications in lifesty...le choices, and shifts in social policies and cultural practices alter CVD risk, even in the absence of genetic changes. Nevertheless, the cumulative impact of the environment on CVD risk has been difficult to assess
and the mechanisms by which some environment factors influence CVD remain obscure. Human environments are complex; and their natural, social and personal domains are highly variable due to diversity in human ecosystems, evolutionary histories, social structures, and individual choices. Accumulating evidence supports the notion that ecological features such as the diurnal cycles of
light and day, sunlight exposure, seasons, and geographic characteristics of the natural environment such altitude, latitude and greenspaces are important determinants of cardiovascular health and CVD risk. In highly developed societies, the influence of the natural environment is moderated by the physical characteristics of the social environments such as the built environment
and pollution, as well as by socioeconomic status and social networks. These attributes of the
social environment shape lifestyle choices that significantly modify CVD risk. An understanding
of how different domains of the environment, individually and collectively, affect CVD risk could
lead to a better appraisal of CVD, and aid in the development of new preventive and therapeutic
strategies to limit the increasingly high global burden of heart disease and stroke.
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BACKGROUND. Asthma is a heterogeneous condition characterised by chronic inflammation and variable expiratory airflow limitation, as well as airway reversibility. The burden of asthma in children is increasing in low- and middle-income countries and... remains under-recognised and poorly managed.
OBJECTIVES. To quantify the burden of asthma in the South African (SA) population and identify the risk factors associated with disease severity in the local context.
METHODS. The SA Childhood Asthma Working Group (SACAWG) convened in January 2017 with task groups, each headed by a section leader, constituting the editorial committee on assessment of asthma epidemiology, diagnosis, control, treatments, novel treatments and self-management plans. The epidemiology task group reviewed the available scientific literature and assigned evidence according to the Grades of Recommendation Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system.
CONCLUSIONS. Asthma in children remains a common condition, which has shown an increasing prevalence in urban and rural populations of SA. Of concern is that almost half of children in urban communities experience severe asthma symptoms, and many asthmatics lack a formal diagnosis and thus access to treatment. Exposure to tobacco smoke and living in highly polluted areas increase the severity of wheezing in young children.
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African Journal of Laboratory Medicine | Vol 7, No 2 | a796 | 06 December 2018
Psychatry & Pediatrics
Chapter I.3
J Int Assoc Provid AIDS Care. 2017 ; 16(5): 499–505. doi:10.1177/2325957417709089.
Improving the quality of hospital antibiotic use is a major goal of WHO’s global action plan to combat antimicrobial resistance. The WHO Essential Medicines List Access, Watch, and Reserve (AWaRe)... classification could facilitate simple stewardship interventions that are widely applicable globally. We aimed to present data on patterns of paediatric AWaRe antibiotic use that could be used for local and national stewardship interventions.
www.thelancet.com/lancetgh Vol 7 July 2019
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These guidelines provide evidence-based guidance on the use of peripartum antiviral prophylaxis in HBsAg-positive pregnant women for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission ...bute-to-highlight medbox">of HBV.
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Climate change triggers mounting food insecurity, poverty and displacement in Africa