This report provides the context, underlying evidence, content and process related to the
development of the draft global strategic directions for nursing and midwifery 2021–2025.
This report - the largest of its kind to date - draws on the experiences of over 8,500 women and 300 health professionals across eight countries. It exposes the aggressive marketing practices used by the formula milk industry, and highlights impacts on families’ decisions about how to feed their b...abies and young children.
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The Lancet Global Health Published:May 12, 2020DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30229-1
Supplement to the 2016 consolidated Guidelines on the use of antiretroviral drugs for Treating and Preventing HIV infection
HIV Treatment
Mortality and burden of disease attributable to selected major risks
Breastfeeding is the cornerstone of infant and young child survival, nutrition and development and maternal health. The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life, followed by continued breastfeeding ...with appropriate complementary foods for up to 2 years and beyond.1 Early and uninterrupted skin-toskin contact, rooming-in2 and kangaroo mother care3 also significantly improve neonatal survival and reduce morbidity and are recommended by WHO.
Corrigendum 23 June 2020
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Sepsis remains a leading cause of mortality and morbidity, especially during the first five days of life and in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) [1]. Hospital infection also remains a major cause of ...mortality in children despite progress encountered in the last decades.
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In where under-five mortality is high and vitamin A deficiency is a public health problem, two high-dose supplements of vitamin A per year, spaced four to six months apart, can strengthen children’s immune systems and improve their chances of sur...vival.
During much of early childhood – from 6 months to 5years of age – two high doses of vitamin A every year can prevent blindness and hearing loss, boost children’s immunity against diseases like measles and diarrhoea and provide critical protection against death. Like all forms of malnutrition, vitamin A deficiency is a marker of inequality. In countries where diets are lacking in vitamin A and infections and deaths are prevalent, supplementation programmes give vulnerable children a better chance to survive, develop and thrive.
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Accessed on 11.03.2020
Burkina Faso will not achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on reducing maternal mortality of children under five, which is still too high.
Sepsis contributes significantly to preventable mortality and is the final common pathway to death for severe infectious diseases; it can also arise as a complication of injuries and non-communicable diseases.
Natural disasters often increase morbidity and mortality rates. Taking appropriate measures to maintain environmental health helps to reduce or eliminate the risks of preventable disease and death. Such measures contribute not only to the health of ...individuals in and near disaster-stricken areas, but they also contribute to decreasing the high costs of providing emergency health services in the aftermath of disaster.
This document is divided into several parts. The first section primarily addresses the effects of natural disasters on environmental health conditions and services. In the second section, environmental health measures are described that should be undertaken in each of three time frames: the predisaster, disaster, and postdisaster periods.
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The Practical Approach to Emergencies in the Pregnant Mother, Newborn infant and Child. Provder Manual
A printable copy of the article published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) can be found on the CDC Homepage. Follow the Download Link for redirection to CDC.
The mental health of women not only adversely affects them, but its impact on their
developing infant is also severe. If the ability of women to take care of their baby is
compromised, the survival and development of the ...highlight medbox">infant is jeopardized. Maternal
depression in resource-constrained settings is linked directly to lower infant birth
weight, higher rates of malnutrition and stunting, higher rates of diarrhoeal disease,
infectious illness and hospital admission and reduced completion of recommended
schedules of immunization in children. It also adversely affects physical, cognitive,
social, behavioural and emotional development of children (1).
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Air pollution is one of the leading causes of health complications and mortality worldwide, especially affecting lower-income groups, who tend to be more exposed and vulnerable. This study documents the relationship between ambient air pollution exp...osure and poverty in 211 countries and territories. Using the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2021 revised fine particulate matter (PM2.5) thresholds, we show that globally, 7.3 billion people are directly exposed to unsafe average annual PM2.5 concentrations, 80 percent of whom live in low- and middle-income countries. Moreover, 716 million of the world’s lowest income people (living on less than $1.90 per day) live in areas with unsafe levels of air pollution, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Air pollution levels are particularly high in lower-middle-income countries, where economies tend to rely more heavily on polluting industries and technologies. These findings are based on high-resolution air pollution and population maps with global coverage, as well as subnational poverty estimates based on harmonized household surveys.
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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 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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Birth defect has been an emerging major cause of child mortality in the region. Scarcity of the birth defects information hampers policy decisions and control measures at national level. In order to create evidence for action for birth defects preve...ntion in the region, WHO-SEARO in collaboration with CDC, USA has developed and launched a regional electronic database on birth defects. This surveillance database allows data collection on newborn health, birth defects and stillbirths cases and provides real time information at hospitals and national level.
Training of the hospital health staffs and data managers in the birth defects surveillance network; at regional, national and at hospital levels is recognized as essential for expansion of this database and to assure quality of data. A two days training module for hospital based birth defects surveillance was developed using a guide for operation and facilitator guide.
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Despite recent global declines, under-five mortality remains high in many of the poorest countries. Barriers to timely
quality care, including user fees, distance to facilities and the availability of trained health workers and medical supplies,
...hinder progress in further reducing morbidity and mortality
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Notable progress has also been made on other key health indicators such as reducing maternal, infant and child deaths and malnutrition, increasing immunization coverage, eliminating infectious diseases such as polio and reducing the incidence of mal...aria, tuberculosis and diarrhoeal diseases.
But despite such substantial progress, the country now faces new and emerging new challenges such as the rising burden of noncommunicable diseases, increased risks associated with disasters, environmental threats and health emergencies during disease outbreaks including the COVID-19 pandemic that is a serious public health threat to Bangladesh. To establish a resilience system for future potential pandemics, the national capacity for emergency preparedness and early response to health emergencies needs to be bolstered considerably.
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