Updated guidance. The guidance provides useful information to staff working in prisons, as well as to health and prison authorities, explaining how to prevent and address a potential outbreak of COV...ID-19. In addition, it aims to protect the health and well-being of all those who live and work in, and visit, these settings and the general population at large. People deprived of their liberty, and living or working in enclosed environments in close proximity, are likely to be more vulnerable to the COVID-19 disease than the general population. Moreover, correctional facilities may amplify and enhance COVID-19 transmission beyond their walls.
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Older people, and people of all ages with pre-existing medical conditions (such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, lung disease, or cancer) appear to develop serious illness more often than others. Here's how you can protect yourself.
BMJ Global Health2020;5:e002014. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2019-002014
This inter-agency guidance document aims to supplement the COVAX demand creation package for COVID-19 vaccines with key considerations for humanitarian contexts and marginalized populations with specific access ...dbox">and communication needs.
21 Sept.2021
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The 2021 COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP) for AFR serves as a regional guide for a holistic public health response to COVID‑19 at regional, national and sub-national levels.... The 2021
SPRP:
1. Builds upon the lessons learnt from the implementation of the 2020 SPRP and outlines a regional preparedness, response and recovery strategy for COVID‑19.
2. Has been adapted to reflect the Regional context including COVID-19 vaccination. It also considers epidemiological changes and recommen-dations emerging from the evaluation report of the 2020 SPRP4.
3. Highlights to Member States strategic preparedness and response actions to be sustained at national and sub-national levels, as well as the critical inter-agency and partner support required.
4. provides the indicative resource requirements to reinforce WHO planned interventions in the African Region to enhance countries’ capacities to suppress transmission, save lives and mitigate the impact of the pandemic on people and health systems.
5. Provides a road map for mitigating potential resurgence in the Region as economies reopen and ensure country level continuity of other essential health services.
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The emergence and transmission of zoonotic diseases are driven by complex interactions
between health, environmental, and socio-political systems. Human movement is considered
a significant ...class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">and increasing factor in these processes, yet forced migration remains an
understudied area of zoonotic research–due in part to the complexity of conducting interdisciplinary
research in these settings.
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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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Essential obstetric and newborn care is designed as a tool to help protect mothers and their children in adverse environments. It is intended for midwives, doctors with obstetrics training, ...ass="attribute-to-highlight medbox">and health care personnel who deal with obstetric emergencies.
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We systematically reviewed Medline as well as the references of published review articles for relevant studies of adherence to multidrug treatment of both drug-susceptible and drug-resistant TB through February 3, 2018. We included randomized contro...lled trials (RCTs) as well as prospective and retrospective cohort studies (CSs) with an internal or external control group that evaluated any adherence intervention and conducted a meta-analysis of their impact on TB treatment outcomes. Our search identified 7,729 articles, of which 129 met the inclusion criteria for quantitative analysis. Seven adherence categories were identified, including DOT offered by different providers and at various locations, reminders and tracers, incentives and enablers, patient education, digital technologies (short message services [SMSs] via mobile phones and video-observed therapy [VOT]), staff education, and combinations of these interventions.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002595
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Trainer Manual Introduction (Section 1-3)
The guide is suitable and can be used for the following audiences:
1. nurses and other trained healthcare workers who can use this manual as a self-study tool ...dbox">and then incorporate its guidance into their practice;
2. governmental and non-governmental employers of lay and professional TB treatment adherence workers, who can provide training and guidance to their staff using the guidance in this manual;
3. TB clinicians, programme managers, policy makers and other leaders, to make them aware of the full range of interventions required by a person on TB treatment to complete his or her treatment and thus understand the gap that often exists in the support provided to patients;
4. people who, with enhanced capacity and support, can act as peer counsellors and supporters for people affected by TB. This can include family members who, in most contexts, play an important role in offering support to people with TB.
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Background
Noncommunicable diseases are major contributors to morbidity and mortality worldwide. Modifying the risk factors for these conditions, such as physical inactivity, is thus essential. Addressing the context or circumstances in which physi...cal activity occurs may promote physical activity at a population level. We assessed the effects of infrastructure, policy or regulatory interventions for increasing physical activity.
Methods
We searched PubMed, Embase and clinicaltrials.gov to identify randomised controlled trials (RCTs), controlled before-after (CBAs) studies, and interrupted time series (ITS) studies assessing population-level infrastructure or policy and regulatory interventions to increase physical activity. We were interested in the effects of these interventions on physical activity, body weight and related measures, blood pressure, and CVD and type 2 diabetes morbidity and mortality, and on other secondary outcomes. Screening and data extraction was done in duplicate, with risk of bias was using an adapted Cochrane risk of bias tool. Due to high levels of heterogeneity, we synthesised the evidence based on effect direction.
Results
We included 33 studies, mostly conducted in high-income countries. Of these, 13 assessed infrastructure changes to green or other spaces to promote physical activity and 18 infrastructure changes to promote active transport. The effects of identified interventions on physical activity, body weight and blood pressure varied across studies (very low certainty evidence); thus, we remain very uncertain about the effects of these interventions. Two studies assessed the effects of policy and regulatory interventions; one provided free access to physical activity facilities and showed that it may have beneficial effects on physical activity (low certainty evidence). The other provided free bus travel for youth, with intervention effects varying across studies (very low certainty evidence).
Conclusions
Evidence from 33 studies assessing infrastructure, policy and regulatory interventions for increasing physical activity showed varying results. The certainty of the evidence was mostly very low, due to study designs included and inconsistent findings between studies. Despite this drawback, the evidence indicates that providing access to physical activity facilities may be beneficial; however this finding is based on only one study. Implementation of these interventions requires full consideration of contextual factors, especially in low resource settings.
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Available in different languages: English, French, Arabic, Russian
This guidance note is intended primarily for health actors working in emergency and disaster risk management (hereafter 'emergency risk management') at the local, national or international level, ...edbox">and in governmental or nongovernmental agencies. People with disabilities, those working in the disability sector and those working in other sectors that contribute to improved health outcomes related to emergency risk management, may also find this guidance note useful.
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To improve survival and quality of life among the 2.5 million children living with HIV, a comprehensive package of prevention, care and treatment is required. This package should include management ...of infections such as pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria and ear infections, as well as common opportunistic infections and HIV-related co-morbidities. WHO is developing a series of guidelines on each of these conditions, following the GRADE approach. The document on the management of pneumonia and diarrhoea in HIV-infected infants and children is the first of this series. The recommendations are similar to those for non infected children, but they cover specific aspects related to HIV infection.
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The message contained in this publication is clear: countries need a
public health system that can respond to the deliberate release of
chemical and biological agents. Regrettable though this message may
be, the use of poison gas in the war betwe...en Iraq and the Islamic
Republic of Iran in the 1980s, the recent anthrax incidents in the United
States, and the attack with sarin nerve agent, six years earlier, on the
Tokyo underground, illustrate why it is necessary to prepare.
Russian and Japanese version available:
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Good practice examples from India