The chapter Dementia in Latin America and the Caribbean: Prevalence, Incidence, Impact, and Trends over Time, is part of the publication series titled “Decade of Healthy Aging: situation and challenges”. This document aims to provide an outline of the current situation in Latin America and the C...aribbean in respect of the prevalence and incidence of dementia and its impact on the health status of older people. As dementia is a significant global health problem which also has social and economic impacts this document highlights the importance of monitoring dementia in the region. The document evidences that dementia is one of the main contributors to dependence and disability in older people in Latin America and the Caribbean and, although its prevalence and incidence increase exponentially with age, it is not part of normal aging. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common dementia, and there is no cure for this condition, but with timely diagnosis is possible to ameliorate symptoms. It is important to assess what are the needs of people leaving with dementia and their families and to integrate dementia risk reduction strategies in pre-existing strategies for other non-communicable diseases. As shown in the report, despite the huge burden dementia is still underdiagnosed, and it is fundamental to better monitor its prevalence, incidence and the different societal impact that dementia can have. For that, it is crucial to promote the use of harmonized methodologies to address this information in a broader number of studies and countries in the region. This can contribute to the generation of direct actions to decrease dementia risk and lead to healthier lives for people with dementia and their families.
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Organización Mundial de la Salud. (2022). Recomendaciones provisionales sobre el uso de la vacuna CanSinoBIO Ad5-nCoV-S [recombinante] (Convidecia™) contra la COVID-19: orientaciones provisionales, primera publicación: 19 de mayo de 2022.
This document puts forward the joint position and vision of an expert, global, multistakeholder working group on implementing Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) for all preterm or low birth weight (LBW) infants as the foundation for small and/or sick newborn care within maternal, newborn, and child health p...rogrammes, and spur collaborative global action. The document summarizes the background information, evidence, and rationale for making KMC available to every preterm or LBW newborn and seeks to galvanize the international maternal, newborn, and child health community and families to come together to support the implementation of KMC for all preterm or LBW infants to improve their and their mothers and families health and well-being.
This position paper is intended to be used by policy-makers (i.e. those responsible for national policy, guideline development and budget allocation), development partners, programme managers, health workforce leadership, practising clinicians, civil society leadership (e.g. parent and professional organizations) and researchers/research organizations involved in KMC implementation research.
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Lack of trained providers capable of identifying which labouring women could benefit from assisted vaginal birth (AVB), and of safely performing the procedure is a major barrier for its use. Education and training are, therefore, considered crucial for building skills and confidence in conducting AV...B and there is evidence that it would be welcomed by healthcare providers. However, acquiring and maintaining AVB skills is a complex task that requires a supportive environment, mentorship, supervision and accountability. As with other practices to manage infrequent procedures and complications, continuous education and on-site supervision are essential to ensure the safe and sustainable use of AVB.
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This checklist is for any organization or person supporting the routine use of evidence in
the process of policy-making. Evidence-informed policy-making (EIPM) is essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and universal health coverage (UHC). Its importance is emphasized in WH...O’s Thirteenth General Programme of
Work 2019–2023 (GPW13). This checklist was developed by the WHO Secretariat of Evidence-Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) to assist its Member countries in institutionalizing EIPM. Government agencies (i.e. the staff of the Ministry of Health),
knowledge intermediaries and researchers focused on strengthening EIPM will find in this checklist some key steps and tools to help their work. While the health sector is a key target group for EVIPNet, this tool can be applied by stakeholders from
different social sectors
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Adolescence, defined as the period between 10 and 19 years of age, is a developmental stage during which many psychosocial and mental health challenges emerge. There is a well-established link between mental health and HIV outcomes. Adolescents and young adults living with HIV typically have additio...nal mental health needs linked to their experiences of living with and managing a chronic illness, along with prevailing stigma and discrimination. Mental health promotion and prevention is thus a critical priority for this group.
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This publication describes the first WHO public-benefit Target Product Profiles (TPPs) for snakebite antivenoms. It focuses on antivenoms for treatment of snakebite envenoming in sub-Saharan Africa. Four TPPs are described in the document:
Broad spectrum Pan-African polyvalent antivenoms: products ...that are intended for widespread utility throughout sub-Saharan Africa for treatment of envenoming irrespective of the species of snake causing a bite. Monovalent antivenoms for specific use cases: for products for a single species (or genus) of snake (e.g., boomslangs or carpet viper antivenoms).
Syndromic Pan-African polyvalent antivenoms for neurotoxic envenoming: products that are intended for treatment of envenoming by species whose venoms are neurotoxic. Syndromic Pan-African polyvalent antivenoms for non-neurotoxic envenoming: products for snakebite envenoming where the effects are largely haemorrhagic, necrotic or procoagulant.
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The report summarizes the estimates of the burden of disease attributable to unsafe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene for the year 2019 for four health outcomes - diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections, soil-transmitted helminthiases, and undernutrition - which are included in the reporting o...f the Sustainable Development Goal indicator 3.9.2. The report includes estimates at global, regional and country level for 183 WHO Member States.
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The standards define 10 key competencies for health and care workers to support self-care in their clinical practice as well as the specific, measurable behaviours that demonstrate those competencies, focusing on people-centredness; decision-making; effective communication; collaboration; evidence-i...nformed practice, and personal conduct.
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The knowledge guide is the second publication in the Self-care competency framework to support health and care workers.
This describes how health and care workers can apply each of the 10 competency standards in their work, detailing the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes that underpin the... required behaviours.
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Past quantitative research on health financing has focused mostly on the level and distribution of total expenditure, with little emphasis on the specific role of public funds, despite their known importance for universal health coverage (UHC). Health Accounts data do not disaggregate public expendi...ture on health by source of funding. Achieving a better understanding of public financing for health in the context of the macro-fiscal and health financing environment is of fundamental importance to the development of future health financing policy, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
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The UK government hosted the Global Vaccine Summit on June 4, 2020 under the patronage of the Rt. Hon. Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The meeting was held by videoconference in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 2. The Summit brought... together more than 300 people, including 42 Heads of State and Government. 62 countries were represented, notably 14 Gavi implementing countries, all of the G7 nations and 19 governments of the G20. Eminent participants also included H.E. Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations; H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission; H.E. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General; H.E. Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director; Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Ministers from implementing and donor countries; CEOs of vaccine manufacturing companies and private sector partners; leaders of UN and other international agencies; senior civil society representatives; and Gavi champions. A full list of the participants can be found in Annex.
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This codebook outlines the set of TUFF procedures that have been developed, tested, refined, and implemented by AidData staff and affiliated faculty at the College of William & Mary. We initially employed these methods to achieve a specific objective: documenting the known universe of officially fin...anced Chinese projects in Africa (Strange et al. 2013, 2017). We have since then employed these methods to track Chinese official finance to five major world regions: Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Central and Eastern Europe (Dreher et al. 2017). Additionally, other social scientists have adapted and applied the TUFF methodology to identify grants and loans from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members (Minor et al. 2014), under-reported humanitarian assistance flows from traditional and non-traditional sources (Ghose 2017), foreign direct investment from Western and non-Western sources (Bunte et al. 2017), and pre-2000 foreign aid flows from China (Morgan and Zheng 2017). However, this codebook focuses specifically on TUFF data collection and quality assurance procedures to track Chinese official finance between 2000 and 2014.
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I examine the effectiveness of donors in targeting the highest burden of malaria in the Democratic Republic of Congo when health information structure is fragmented. I exploit local variations in the burden of malaria induced by mining activities as well as financial and epidemiological data from he...alth facilities to estimate how local aid is matching local health needs. Using a regression discontinuity design, I find significant but quantitatively small variations in aid to health facilities located within mining areas. Comparing local aid with the additional cost of treatment and prevention associated with the increased risk of malaria transmission, I find suggestive evidence that local populations with the highest burden of the disease receive a proportionately lower share of aid compared to neighbouring areas with reduced exposure to malaria infection. The evidence of disparities in the allocation of aid for malaria supports the view that donors may have inaccurate information about local population needs.
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Multiple pandemics, numerous outbreaks, thousands of lives lost and billions of dollars of national income wiped out—all since the turn of this century, in barely 17 years—and yet the world’s investments in pandemic preparedness and response remain woefully inadequate. We know by now that the ...world will see another pandemic in the not-too-distant future; that random mutations occur often enough in microbes that help them survive and adapt; that new pathogens will inevitably find a way to break through our defenses; and that there is the increased potential for intentional or accidental release of a synthesized agent. Every expert commentary and every analysis in recent years tells us that the costs of inaction are immense. And yet, as
the havoc caused by the last outbreak turns into a fading memory, we become complacent and relegate the case for investing in preparedness on a back burner, only to bring it to the forefront when the next outbreak occurs. The result is that the world remains scarily vulnerable.
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Pregnancy and childbirth during adolescence profoundly affects the lives of millions of girls worldwide, and is a leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity, and infant and child mortality. Every year, an estimated 21 million girls aged 15–19 years old in low- and middle-income countries be...come pregnant, and approximately 12 million give birth.
For many adolescent girls, the ability to control their sexual lives remains limited. Long-standing gender inequalities and discrimination, marginalization, harmful social and gender norms, and denial of rights, compounded by poverty and violence, render them vulnerable to early pregnancy, HIV and other health threats. Lack of age-appropriate sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) information and services create additional barriers to care and support; as a result, adolescent girls who become pregnant are much more likely to go on to have rapid repeated births.
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A year ago, the second Special Session of the World Health Assembly (WHASS) unanimously agreed to start a diplomatic process for a new binding instrument aimed at ensuring the international community is better prepared for the next health emergencies. The establishment of an Intergovernmental Negoti...ating Body (INB) at the WHO paved the terrain for a proper negotiation, which has started to unfold. The INB will be releasing the “conceptual zero draft” of the treaty text in early December 2022.
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The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a continuous and robust impact on world health. The resulting COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating physical, mental and fiscal impact on the millions of people living with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), as they have a higher risk of severe illness... and death from COVID-19. COVID-19 has been associated with an
excess in all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality beyond that related to the infection itself and its immediate consequences. Studies in the
United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America (USA) have clearly shown increasing deaths from ischemic heart disease, stroke and hypertensive disease due to COVID-19. Overall, the impact has been greater in individuals with lower socioeconomic status, even in high income nations.
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Atherosclerotic lower-extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD) is increasingly recognized as an important cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality that affects more than 230 million people worldwide. Traditional cardiovascular risk factors, including advanced age, smoking, and diabetes, are ...strongly linked to an increase risk of PAD. Although PAD has been historically underappreciated compared to coronary artery disease and stroke, greater attention on PAD in recent years has led to important new epidemiologic insights in the areas of thrombosis, inflammation, dyslipidemia, and microvascular disease. In addition, the concept of polyvascular disease, or clinically-evident atherosclerosis in multiple arterial beds, is increasingly identified as a particularly malignant cardiovascular disease worthy of special clinical attention and further study. It is noteworthy that PAD may increase the risk of adverse outcomes in similar or even greater magnitude than coronary disease or stroke. In this review, we highlight important new advances in the epidemiology of PAD with a particular focus on polyvascular disease, emerging biomarkers, and differential risk pathways for PAD compared to other atherosclerotic diseases.
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Introduction Community health workers (CHWs) are increasingly being tasked to prevent and manage cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its risk factors in underserved populations in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs); however, little is known about the required training necessary for them to ...accomplish their role. This review aimed to evaluate the training of CHWs for the prevention and management of CVD and its risk factors in LMICs.
Methods A search strategy was developed in line with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, and five electronic databases (Medline, Global Health, ERIC, EMBASE and CINAHL) were searched to identify peer-reviewed studies published until December 2016 on the training of CHWs for prevention or control of CVD and its risk factors in LMICs. Study characteristics were extracted using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and quality assessed using Effective Public Health Practice Project’s Quality Assessment Tool. The search, data extraction and quality assessment were performed independently by two researchers.
Results The search generated 928 articles of which 8 were included in the review. One study was a randomised controlled trial, while the remaining were before–after intervention studies. The training methods included classroom lectures, interactive lessons, e-learning and online support and group discussions or a mix of two or more. All the studies showed improved knowledge level post-training, and two studies demonstrated knowledge retention 6 months after the intervention.
Conclusion The results of the eight included studies suggest that CHWs can be trained effectively for CVD prevention and management. However, the effectiveness of CHW trainings would likely vary depending on context given the differences between studies (eg, CHW demographics, settings and training programmes) and the weak quality of six of the eight studies. Well-conducted mixed-methods studies are needed to provide reliable evidence about the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of training programmes for CHWs.
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