UNHCR’s Public Health Strategy 2021-2025 is based on the lessons learnt, and builds on the achievements, of the Global Strategy for Public Health 2014-2018.
Progress was made on policies favouring inclusion and integration into national systems3 with 92% of 48 operations surveyed reporting refuge
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es having access to national primary health care facilities under the same conditions as nationals and 96% reporting refugees having access to all relevant vaccines under the same conditions as nationals. While many refugee hosting countries have policies that allow refugees to access national health services, many face partial access, prohibitive out-of-pocket expenditures and other barriers including distance to facilities, language and provider acceptance. Furthermore, more work is needed on strengthening these systems to be able to meet the needs of both host communities and refugees.
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Since the start of the pandemic, the region has been hit by multiple natural and biological disasters. At the same time, climate change has continued to warm the world, exacerbating the impacts of many of these disasters. The *Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2021, *also launched today, shows that the p
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andemic, combined with the persistent reality of climate change, has reshaped and expanded the disaster “riskscape” in Asia and the Pacific.
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Nature Medicine, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01283-z
BMJ 2020; 370 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3026 (Published 11 August 2020)
The BMJ "practice pointer" inlcudes a one-page visual summary of assessment and initial management of patients with persistant symptoms following acute SARS-CoV-2 infection
In many conflicts around the world, more children die from diseases linked to unsafe water than from direct violence. UNICEF is releasing Water Under Fire volume 3, a report that highlights the issues children face in accessing water in times of war. The report demonstrates the humanitarian impact o
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n children through case studies from Iraq, State of Palestine, Syria, Yemen, and Ukraine. Attacks on water, sanitation services and staff must stop.
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Drawing light from the pandemic: A new strategy for health and sustainable development (2021)
Available in English, French, German and Russian
A group-based stress managment course for adults.
Self-Help Plus (SH+) is WHO’s 5-session stress management course for large groups of up to 30 people. It is delivered by supervised, non-specialist facilitators who complete a short training course and use pre-recorded audio and an illustrated gui
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de (Doing What Matters in Times of Stress) to teach stress management skills. The course is suitable for adults who experiences stress, wherever they live and whatever their circumstances. It has been shown to reduce psychological distress and prevent the onset of mental disorders. The format of SH+ makes it well-suited for use alongside other mental health interventions, as a first step in a stepped care programme, or as a community intervention delivered alongside broader community programming.
Download the audio files in English directly from the WHO Website https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240035119
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According to the latest available estimates, more than 1 in 7 adolescents aged 10–19 is estimated to live with a diagnosed mental disorder globally. Almost 46,000 adolescents die from suicide each year, among the top five causes of death for their age group. Meanwhile, wide gaps persist between me
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ntal health needs and mental health funding. The report finds that about 2 per cent of government health budgets are allocated to mental health spending globally.
The full report , excecutive summary, brief reports are available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic athttps://www.unicef.org/reports/state-worlds-children-2021?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=media&utm_campaign=sowc-web
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According to the latest available estimates, more than 1 in 7 adolescents aged 10–19 is estimated to live with a diagnosed mental disorder globally. Almost 46,000 adolescents die from suicide each year, among the top five causes of death for their age group. Meanwhile, wide gaps persist between me
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ntal health needs and mental health funding. The report finds that about 2 per cent of government health budgets are allocated to mental health spending globally.
The full report , excecutive summary, brief reports are available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic athttps://www.unicef.org/reports/state-worlds-children-2021?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=media&utm_campaign=sowc-web
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This report is the first of its kind. It brings together various data sets to present the current status of hand hygiene, highlight lagging progress, and call governments and supporting agencies to action, offering numerous inspiring examples of change.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, hand hygiene
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received unprecedented attention and became a central pillar in national COVID prevention strategies. However, concern with hand hygiene should not only be as temporary public health measure in times of crisis, but as a vital everyday behaviour that contributes to health and economic resilience. Hand hygiene is a highly cost-effective investment, providing outsized health benefits for relatively little cost.
Despite efforts to promote hand hygiene, the rates of access to hand hygiene facilities remain stubbornly low. If current rates of progress continue, by the end of the SDG era in 2030, 1.9 billion people will still lack facilities to wash their hands at home.
This report presents a compelling case for investment in five key ‘accelerators’ as a pathway towards achieving hand hygiene for all – governance, financing, capacity development, data and information, and innovation. These accelerators are identified under the UN-Water SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework.
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The European Resuscitation Council Guidelines for Resuscitation provide specific instructions for how resuscitation should be practiced and take into account ease of teaching and learning, as well as the science. They were developed by Europeans and have been specifically written with European pract
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ice in mind.
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Global and Regional Data 1 December 2021; The 90–90–90 targets were missed, but not by much. At the end of 2020, 84% of people living with HIV knew their HIV status, 87% of people living with HIV who knew their HIV status were accessing antiretroviral therapy, and 90% of people on treatment were
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virally suppressed.
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For humanitarian organisations to respond effectively to complex crises, they require access to up-to-date evidence-based guidance. The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the importance of updating global guidance to context-specific and evolving needs in humanitarian settings. Our study aimed to under
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stand the use of evidence-based guidance in humanitarian responses during COVID-19. Primary data collected during the rapidly evolving pandemic sheds new light on evidence-use processes in humanitarian response.
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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 to which too many governments and donors are not doi
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ng 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 Strategic Tool for Assessing Risks (STAR) offers a comprehensive, easy-to-use toolkit and approach to enable national and subnational governments to rapidly conduct a strategic and evidence-based assessment of public health risks for planning and prioritization of health emergency preparedness a
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nd disaster risk management activities. This guidance describes the principles and methodology of STAR to enhance its adaptation and use at the national or subnational levels.
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