Scabies is a global health concern disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations such as refugees and asylum seekers. Greece is a main point of entry in Europe for refugees, but epidemiological data on scabies
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in this population are scarce. We aimed to describe the epidemiology of scabies, including trends over the study period.
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This paper reviews the effects of vertical responses to COVID-19 on health systems, services, and people’s access to and use of them in LMICs, where historic and ongoing under-investments heighten vulnerability to a multiplicity of health threats.
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We use the term ‘vertical response’ to describe decisions, measures and actions taken solely with the purpose of preventing and containing COVID-19, often without adequate consideration of how this affects the wider health system and pre-existing resource constraints.
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These include taking proactive measures to ensure that people, particularly people in vulnerable groups, can access HIV treatment and prevention services, designating and supporting essential worker
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s, including community-led organizations, and implementing measures to prevent and address gender-based violence.
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This Guidance Document provides practical assistance to Country Offices scaling up programmes to manage SAM in young children. It outlines a step-by-step process through which countries can analyse their current situation, identify barriers and bott
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lenecks through the MoRES approach, and plan action to scale-up treatment. In particular it addresses the challenge of supporting governments to accelerate and sustain scale-up, build national capacities and source reliable and sustained supplies and financing for managing SAM. This document also provides complementary background information, references to international technical recommendations, resources and tools.
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Developmental disabilities are common. Yet, children with developmental disabilities have been neglected in health systems planning and policy provisions for health and continue to experience stigma
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tization, institutionalization, barriers to access health care and inequalities in health and education outcomes.
Using findings from research and practice and guided by the tenets of international human rights conventions, this WHO-UNICEF Global Report on children with developmental disabilities provides principles and approaches to intentionally include the needs and aspirations of children and young people with developmental disabilities in policy, programming and public health monitoring. It makes the case for greater accountability and proposes 10 priority actions to accelerate changes towards inclusive environments and responsive multisectoral care systems for children with developmental disabilities.
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This guide is an attempt to redress the deficit in understanding of implementation research and to encourage programme personnel and implementers to take a greater interest in the subject, recognizi
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ng that implementation research is in fact an integral part of programme planning and execution, rather than something that happens once programmes are up and running. Intended for newcomers to the field, those already conducting implementation research, and those with responsibility for implementing programmes, the guide provides an introduction to basic implementation research concepts and language, briefly outlines what it involves, and describes the many exciting opportunities that it presents
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Long-term planning for an adequate and safe supply of drinking-water should be set in the context of growing external uncertainties arising from changes in the climate and environment. The water sa
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fety plan (WSP) process offers a systematic framework to manage these risks by considering the implications of climate variability and change.
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The guide is presented in two parts:
Part 1. Principles of Operational Monitoring: Describes the key principles of operational monitoring, alongside the types of operational monitoring that may be performed and the information required w
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ithin an OMP.
Part 2. Operational Monitoring Plan Development: Describes the stepwise development of an OMP for a water supply system, including the source, water treatment, intermediate storage, distribution and household. For illustration purposes, practical guidance is provided using a specimen water supply system considered to be representative of a conventional small- to medium-sized supply in a lower resource setting. This template may be used to develop system-specific OMPs for individual water supply systems.
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The harmonized training package for Point-of-use-fortification using micronutrient powders has been developed to guide in training frontline health workers. The micronutrient powders will be distributed at the health facilities where instructions on
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use will be provided by Health Care Providers. Community Health Volunteers will educate, counsel, and mobilize caregivers at the community level to visit health facilities for nutrition assessment and provision of the micronutrient powders.
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South Africa has a long history of community health workers (CHWs). It has been a journey that has required balancing constrained resources and competing priorities. CHWs form a bridge between communities and healthcare service provision within health facilities and
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act as the cornerstone of South Africa’s Ward-Based Primary Healthcare Outreach Teams. This study aimed to document the CHW policy implementation landscape across six provinces in South Africa and explore the reasons for local adaptation of CHW models and to identify potential barriers and facilitators to implementation of the revised framework to help guide and inform future planning.
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Despite its rich culture, great economic potential, high level of education and last but not least its sheer size – it is the largest state whose borders lie entirely within Europe and is 1.7 times the size of the Federal Republic of Germany – Ukraine seems far away
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in perception and awareness. Publications on recent dramatic events, such as the Ukraine conflict or the Crimea crisis, have done little to change this. In fact, the armed conflict in the eastern Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk, which has been ongoing since February 2014, is still a burdening feature of many political and economic difficulties destabilizing the country. News coverage of health issues in Ukraine has recently been dominated by highly critical reports on the handling of the Covid 19 pandemic. This pandemic exacerbated existing weaknesses in the Ukrainian health care system, but at least it did not create any new ones.
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This policy brief aims to provide a review of the current progress on implementing the Malawi national action plan on AMR, identifies critical gaps, and highlights findings to accelerate further progress in the human health sector. The target audien
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ce includes all those concerned with implementing actions to combat antimicrobial resistance in Malawi.
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Violence against women and girls is widespread in the Region of the Americas, resulting in enormous consequences for the health and wellbeing of women and girls, their families and communities. Thes
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e costs are unacceptable and they can be prevented through evidence-based action, including the health sector through its policies and protocols, as well as in collaboration with other sectors. This report remains the first of its kind and is a major milestone for the Region. It is specifically informed by the commitments of Member States in the regional Strategy and Plan of Action on Strengthening the Health System to Address Violence against Women. The report provides an analysis of efforts to advance the prevention of violence against women through health policies, clinical protocols, multisectoral plans and related approaches across the Americas. Attention to this topic is timely, as the COVID-19 pandemic has created new visibility for this area of work. This report offers critical information on efforts in the Region that can be learned from and used to build upon in the future to prevent and respond to violence against all women and girls everywhere.
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Indian markets caused a stir across the country.1
According to the Centre for Science and the Environment (CSE), a respected New Delhi-based NGO, most honey brands
sold in India contained varying amounts of antibiotics. Their consumption over time
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could induce resistance to antibiotics,
putting people at risk of treatment failure in case of severe infections.
For the study, 12 samples were picked in Delhi, all well-known brands, including one each from Australia and Switzerland.
Antibiotics found included Chloramphenicol and various broad-spectrum drugs such as Ciprofloxacin and Erythromycin.
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The number of COVID-19 cases is on the rise again, with South Africa nearing half of all confirmed cases in the WHO African Region. Threats of new variants loom and low vaccination coverage raises q
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uestions on the future of the response to COVID-19. Prevention remains the key strategy in most sub-Saharan countries. Five National Centres (NCs) from the African Health Observatory Platform on Health Systems and Policies (AHOP), based in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Senegal, reflect on lessons to be learnt from their containment responses in the initial phases. They construct timelines to highlight the policies and challenges associated with introducing a range of public health containment measures and
discuss the extent to which these measures continue to be valuable given the ever-changing nature of the pandemic.
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This document focus on the direct consequences of the virus (morbidity and mortality) in specific populations and on the results of measures aimed at mitigating the spread of the virus, with indirec
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t impacts on socio-economic conditions. In this complex scenario, the gender approach has not received due attention during the pandemic. Gender is one of the structural determinants of health, but it does not appear in analyses of the direct and indirect effects of the pandemic, despite being essential in the recognition and analysis of the differential impacts on men and women and their interaction with the different determinants of health.
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PlosOne https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0196799; Zoonotic diseases continue to be a public health burden globally. Uganda is especially vulnerable due to its location, biodiversity, and population. Given these concerns, the Ugandan government in
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collaboration with the Global Health Security Agenda conducted a One Health Zoonotic Disease Prioritization Workshop to identify zoonotic diseases of greatest national concern to the Ugandan government.
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The Regional Action Framework for Noncommunicable Disease Prevention and Control provides a unified vision of objectives and recommended actions to combat the noncommunicable disease (NCD) epidemic in the Western Pacific Region. Implementation
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should be supported by cross-sectoral coordination, sustainable financing, evidence-based policy, and community engagement, tailored to each Member State’s unique context. In doing so, Member States are encouraged to transform a disease treatment-centered “sick system” into a “health system” in which a population’s health and well-being enable socioeconomic development.
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The Global Antibiotic Resistance Partnership (GARP)-Mozambique team, in partnership with the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP), has produced this report as part of a solid com-
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mitment to develop actionable policy proposals to tackle antibiotic resistance and improve appropriate antibiotic access. It is the result of a thorough review of published and unpublished data on antibiotic resistance and a long internal consultation effort that engaged academic scientists, health professionals and other stakeholders within Mozambique.
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It outlines key achievements, needs and opportunities for intervention in the field of rehabilitation in Ukraine. The content of this document is a snapshot
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in time – not an in-depth analysis of the entire rehabilitation sector. The analysis focuses on rehabilitation policy and governance, service provision, financing, information management and human resources, with the aim of improving access to high-quality rehabilitation services in Ukraine.
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