The health impact of radiological and nuclear emergencies can last for decades. Lessons learned from past radiological and nuclear accidents have demonstrated that the mental health and psychosocial consequences can outweigh the direct physical health impacts of radiation exposure. International rad...iation emergency preparedness and response standards outline provisions for mitigating these effects. Yet, practical guidance for addressing the mental health and psychosocial aspects of radiation emergencies remains scarce.
This framework aims to promote integration between the MHPSS and radiation protection fields. It is intended for officials and specialists involved in radiation emergency planning and risk management as well as MHPSS experts working in health emergencies.
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doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.28.20221143
This article is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed [what does this mean?]. It reports new medical research that has yet to be evaluated and so should not be used to guide clinical practice.
The virtual conference, co-organised by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) brought together African leaders, public health professionals and researchers, policyma...kers, business leaders and civil society and community leaders.
The objective was to discuss strategies and approaches to remove barriers to widespread delivery and uptake of effective COVID-19 vaccines across Africa, guided by African voices and indigenous values. The goal of the conference was to provide input for a framework for fair, equitable and timely allocation of COVID-19 vaccines in Africa.
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Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases and their risk factors are an increasing public health and development challenge in Kazakhstan. This report provides evidence through three analyses that NCDs reduce economic output and ...discusses potential options in response, outlining details of their relative returns on investment. An economic burden analysis shows that economic losses from NCDs (direct and indirect costs) comprise 2.3 trillion tenge, equivalent to 4.5% of gross domestic product in 2017. An intervention costing analysis provides an estimate of the funding required to implement a set of policy interventions for prevention and clinical interventions. A cost–benefit analysis compares these implementation costs with the estimated health gains and identifies which policy packages would give the greatest returns on investment. For example, the salt policy package achieved a benefit-to-cost ratio of 118.4 over 15 years, a return of more than 118 tenge for every 1 tenge invested.
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The WHO Regional Office for Europe has established the Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative in more than half the countries in the Region for routine monitoring of the policy response to the emerging obesity epidemic. The aim of the Initiative ...is to measure trends in overweight and obesity in children aged 6.0–9.9 years to get a clear understanding of the epidemic and to allow inter-country comparisons. This document outlines the common protocol agreed for use in the Initiative.
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Taking the whole of Africa approach to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic has and will continue to require coordinated efforts from multiple stakeholders from across the continent. Africa CDC would like to acknowledge the deep partnership and continued support of AUDA-NEPAD, AVAREF, WHO AFRO, the Bill a...nd Melinda Gates Foundation and the Mastercard Foundation. These partners have helped to shape and drive the continent’s strategic response to the COVID-19 pandemic and have offered support to ensure the continent receives a fair and equitable share of the COVID-19 vaccine without delay.
We look forward to continuing and deepening our partnership for the benefit of the public health of Africa.
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Interim guidance 2 February 2021 . Available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Ukranian, Russian
Health workers are at the front line of the COVID-19 outbreak response and as such are exposed to different hazards that put them at risk. Occupatio...nal hazards include exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens, violence, harassment, stigma, discrimination, heavy workload and prolonged use of personal protective equipment (PPE). This document provides specific measures to protect occupational health and safety of health workers and highlights the duties, rights and responsibilities for health and safety at work in the context of COVID-19.
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The checklist and reference list has two parts: high-level cross-cutting content (Part A) and specific programme content (Part B). Part A applies to all countries and contains situation and response analysis, the NSP development process, the goal, t...argets and priority-setting of the NSP and the principles of human rights and gender equity and sustainability. Part B comprises the programme requirements of prevention, treatment and care, comorbidities and integration, social protection, health systems, community engagement, human rights and gender equity, efficiency and effectiveness, governance, management and accountability, HIV and the humanitarian response
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n light of the potential risk posed by SARS-CoV-2 variants, in January 2021 WHO organized an ad hoc consultation to discuss the development of an R&D agenda in response to existing and emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants.
The key objectives were to iden...tify the critical research questions related to variants and agree on a research approach to address them. Six breakout groups covered a range of specific issues related to COVID-19 variants: Epidemiology and mathematical modelling; evolutionary biology; animal models; assays and diagnostics; clinical management and therapeutics; and vaccines.
This report is a summary of presentations and panel discussions.
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The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent public health guidance to reduce the spread of the diseasehave wide-reaching implications for children’s health and wellbeing. Furthermore, paediatric emergency departments(EDs) have rapidly adapted provision of care in ...x">response to the pandemic. This qualitative study utilized insight frommultidisciplinary frontline staff to understand the changes in paediatric emergency healthcare utilization duringCOVID-19 the experiences of working within the restructured health system.
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This guidance covers diagnosis and care of patients with long-term effects of COVID-19. It makes recommendations for the care of adults and children who have new or ongoing symptoms 4 weeks or more after the start of acute COVID-19. It is meant for health and care practitioners. This interim documen...t has been developed by the Africa Taskforce on Coronavirus Case Management Technical Working Group and will be continuously reviewed and updated in response to emerging evidence
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10 May 2021. Manufactureres:
SK Bioscience Co. Ltd. [COVID-19 Vaccine (ChAdOx1-S [recombinant])]
Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd. [COVISHIELD™, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 Corona Virus Vaccine (Recombinant)]
The ChAdOx1-S/nCoV-19 [recombinant] vaccine is a replication-deficient adenoviral vecto...r vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The vaccine expresses the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein gene, which instructs the host cells to produce the protein of the S-antigen unique to SARS-CoV-2, allowing the body to generate an immune response and to retain that information in memory immune cells. Efficacy shown in clinical trials in participants who received the full series of vaccine (2 doses) irrespective of interval between the doses was 63.1%, based on a median follow-up of 80 days, but tended to be higher when this interval was longer. The data reviewed at this time support the conclusion that the known and potential benefits of ChAdOx1-S/nCoV-19 [recombinant] vaccine outweigh the known and potential risks.
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Health in All Policies: A Guide for State and Local Governments was created by the Public Health Institute, the California Department of Public Health, and the American Public Health Association in response to growing interest in using collaborativ...e approaches to improve population health by embedding health considerations into decision-making processes across a broad array of sectors. The Guide draws heavily on the experiences of the California Health in All Policies Task Force and incorporates information from the published and gray literature and interviews with people across the country.
The guide was developed through funding from the American Public Health Association and The California Endowment.
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In order to meet changing global population needs and consumer expectations, healthcare systems worldwide are under transformation and face restructuring. As systems adapt and shift their emphasis in response to the disparate requests for healthcare... services, oppor-tunities emerge for nurses, especially the APN, to meet these demands and unmet needs (Bryant-Lukosius et al. 2017; Carryer et al. 2018; Cassiani & Zug 2014; Cooper & Docherty 2018; Hill et al. 2017; Maier et al.2017). In 2002, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) pro-vided an official position on Advanced Practice Nursing (ICN 2008a). Since that time, worldwide development has increased significantly and simultaneously this field of nursing has matured. ICN felt that a review of its position was needed to assess the relevance of the definition and characteristics offered in 2002. This guid-ance paper defines diverse elements such as assump-tions and core components of the APN. The attributes and descriptors presented in this paper are intended to promote a common vision to continue to enable a greater understanding by the international nursing and healthcare communities for the development of roles commonly identified as Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) and Nurse Practitioner (NP).
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The Guideline for Disinfection and Sterilization in Healthcare Facilities, 2008, presents evidence-
based recommendations on the preferred methods for cleaning, disinfection and sterilization of patient-
care medical devices and for cleaning and d...isinfecting the healthcare environment. This document
supercedes the relevant sections contained in the 1985 Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Guideline for
Handwashing and Environmental Control. 1 Because maximum effectiveness from disinfection and
sterilization results from first cleaning and removing organic and inorganic materials, this document also
reviews cleaning methods. The chemical disinfectants discussed for patient-care equipment include
alcohols, glutaraldehyde, formaldehyde, hydrogen peroxide, iodophors, ortho-phthalaldehyde, peracetic
acid, phenolics, quaternary ammonium compounds, and chlorine. The choice of disinfectant,
concentration, and exposure time is based on the risk for infection associated with use of the equipment
and other factors discussed in this guideline. The sterilization methods discussed include steam
sterilization, ethylene oxide (ETO), hydrogen peroxide gas plasma, and liquid peracetic acid. When
properly used, these cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization processes can reduce the risk for infection
associated with use of invasive and noninvasive medical and surgical devices. However, for these
processes to be effective, health-care workers should adhere strictly to the cleaning, disinfection, and
sterilization recommendations in this document and to instructions on product labels.
LAST UPDATE 2019
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On 25 August, UN agencies and partners launched a US$187.3 million Flash Appeal to reach 500,000 of the most vulnerable people affected by the 14 August earthquake.
Around 650,000 people are in need of emergency humanitarian assistance in the three most affected departments – Grand’Anse, Nipp...es and Sud – where 634,000 were already in need of multisectoral assistance before the quake.
Based on lessons learned from past emergencies, humanitarian actors are aiming to capitalize on local and national level expertise, capacities and knowledge to promote a rapid and effective response tailored to the expressed needs of affected people.
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Assessment of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) service disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Preliminary results.
Guidance on how to provide continuity for NCD programmes:• How to include NCDs in public health emergencies protocols?• How to develop national NCDs tool kits for use in emergen...cies?• How to provide ambulatory essential NCD services during lockdown?• How to provide medical care for NCDs through telemedicine and digital solutions?
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24 Nov. 2021
Action against gender-based violence being pushed to the outlying margins of the global COVID-19 response
A new Oxfam report shows an undeniable increase in gender-based violence (GBV) during the COVID-19 pandemic around the world t...o which too many governments and donors are not doing enough to tackle.
The report, The Ignored Pandemic: The Dual Crisis of Gender-Based Violence and COVID-19, showed the number of calls made by survivors to domestic violence hotlines in ten countries during the first months of lockdown. The data reveals a 25 – 111 percentage surge; in Argentina (25%), Colombia (79%), Tunisia (43%), China (50%), Somalia (50%), South Africa (69%), UK (25%), Cyprus (39%), Italy (73%) and the largest increase in Malaysia where calls surged by over 111%.
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The world is facing an unprecedented range of emergencies. In reaction to these complex adversities, many people experience considerable distress and impairment, and a minority may even go on to develop mental health conditions. Meanwhile, those with pre-existing mental health conditions may experie...nce a worsening of their condition and are at risk of neglect, abandonment, abuse and lack of access to support. Unfortunately, evidence-based mental health care is often extremely limited in humanitarian settings. In response, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) published the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) Humanitarian Intervention Guide (mhGAP-HIG) in 2015. This practical tool supports health-care providers in assessing and offering first-line management of mental, neurological and substance use (MNS) conditions in humanitarian emergency settings.
2 December 2021. The current report, Stories of change from four countries: Building capacity for integrating mental health care within health services across humanitarian settings, describes efforts in four countries to build evidence-based mental health systems in humanitarian emergency settings using the mhGAP-HIG. This report includes three sections, the first describing the importance of scaling up mental health care in emergency contexts, the second outlining case studies (“stories of change”) to scale up the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) programme in four settings and the third describing lessons learned by stakeholders.
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Herd immunity by mass vaccination offers the potential to substantially limit the continuing spread of COVID-19, but high levels of vaccine hesitancy threaten this goal. In a cross-country analysis of vaccine hesitant respondents across Latin Americ...a in January 2021, we experimentally tested how five features of mass vaccination campaigns—the vaccine’s producer, efficacy, endorser, distributor, and current population uptake rate—shifted willingness to take a COVID-19 vaccine. We find that citizens preferred Western-produced vaccines, but were highly influenced by factual information about vaccine efficacy. Vaccine hesitant individuals were more responsive to vaccine messengers with medical expertise than political, religious, or media elite endorsements. Citizen trust in foreign governments, domestic leaders, and state institutions moderated the effects of the campaign features on vaccine acceptance. These findings can help inform the design of unfolding mass inoculation campaigns.
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