As of 21 May 2020, 4.8 million confirmed cases of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been reported globally. In South America, COVID-19 was first detected on 26 February 2020, when Brazil confirmed a case in São Paulo.
The report underscores that sexual and reproductive health and rights are often the first to be sacrificed during epidemics and that the gains of the past decade must be protected. The report also makes it clear that scarce resources must be focused on the most marginalized women and girls, includin...g sex workers, gender diverse people, women in prison and migrants and others without proof of employment or residence.
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Children expressed the need for organisations to
support in the delivery of services such as health and
sanitation. The children also emphasized that schools
and the child-friendly spaces (CFSs) were effective
and important spaces to provide them with what they
need.
The outbreak of COVID-19 comes with unpredictable primary and secondary impacts on vulnerable and food-insecure populations across the world. Mortality and morbidity appear to be most acute for elderly people, and those with underlying health conditions. At the same time, the widely anti...cipated economic downturn could have a more devastating effect on the world’s poor than the virus itself
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Updated 20 Nov. 2020
Countries can use this checklist of hospital governance, structures, plans and protocols to rapidly determine the current capacities of hospitals to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify gaps and major areas that require investment and action for the development of h...ospital readiness improvement plans. The tool can be used periodically to monitor hospital emergency operational readiness capacity development
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In March 2020 the IASC Reference Group on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support uniting 57 humanitarian organizations as member issued the Interim Briefing Note Addressing Mental Health and Psychosocial Aspects of COVID-19 Outbreak. This document has proven to be very useful in the response and has... till now been translated in 24 languages. It covers a set of recommended activities as well as messages for different target groups.
The current document is an annex to the Interim Briefing Note and is meant to support the MHPSS operational response within the various sectors of humanitarian work. Approaches and interventions to MHPSS are not confined to one sector, but need to be integrated within many existing sectors and clusters.This document contains a wealth of operational information and practical approaches that can be used for humanitarian programming in health, SGBV, community-based protection, nutrition, camp management and camp coordination.
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Recognizing the extent to which the COVID-19 outbreaks affects women and men differently is hugely important. Some preliminary data suggested that more men than women are dying, potentially due to sex-based immunological differences, higher rates of cardiovascular disease for men and lifestyle choic...es, such as smoking. However, the experiences and lessons learned from the Zika and Ebola outbreaks and the HIV pandemic demonstrate that robust gender analysis and informed, gender-integrated response are vital to strengthen the access and acceptability of the humanitarian services needed to meet the distinct needs of women and girls, as well as men and boy and LGBTI people.
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This Interim Guidance outlines how key public health and social measures needed to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread and the impact of the disease can be adapted for use in low capacity and humanitarian settings. The recommendations outlined here need to be adjusted to the scale of transmission, co...ntext and resources, in order to achieve the objective of managing COVID-19, namely to reduce transmission and facilitate the detection and management of infected and exposed individuals within the population. The Guidance is intended for humanitarian and development actors of all operational levels working with communities ocal authorities involved in COVID-19 preparedness and response operations in these settings, in support of national and local governments and plans. Additional considerations for support to residents of urban informal settlements and slums are available in Annex 1.
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Letter of the holy father
The progressive development of peoples is an object of deep interest and concern to the Church. This is particularly true in the case of those peoples who are trying to escape the ravages of hunger, poverty, endemic disease and ignorance; of those who are seeking a larger share in the benefits of ci...vilization and a more active improvement of their human qualities; of those who are consciously striving for fuller growth.
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The International Council of Nurses (ICN) Code of Ethics ([1], p. 5) specifies the nurse’s role of promoting “an environment in which the human rights, values, customs and spiritual beliefs of the individual, family and community are respected”. The Malta Code of Ethics supports this for nurse...s and midwives [2], stating that the nurse is to “recognize and respect the uniqueness of every patient/client’s biological, psychological, social and spiritual status and needs”. Since patients are attended by different members of the multi-disciplinary team, these codes of ethics also address the holistic care of health care professionals that contribute towards patients’ safety. Examples of some heroes in nursing are given, whereby, their being in care generated signs of spirituality in their attempts to address patients’ needs, while their caring attitude instilled hope and healing.
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Our spiritual health profoundly impacts our physical health, well-being, and quality of life. Just as medical professionals care for our bodies and minds, spiritual care practitioners care for our spirits. The increasing need for spiritual care makes these practitioners even more crucial. However, m...any of us have limited access to quality, professional spiritual care. At times of struggle, this lack of spiritual care can have a negative impact on our health and well-being.Investigators and researchers are creating a growing body of evidence for the innumerable benefits of professional spiritual care, yet many people still do not have a lot of accurate information about these practitioners. To create this publication, the six largest healthcare chaplaincy organizations in North America collaborated to share the facts about spiritual care and practitioners’ roles, training, and standards.By providing evidence and dispelling myths, the thousands of spiritual care practitioners represented by these organizations hope to increase access to spiritual care for the benefit of all.
accessed July 2020
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TO HIS HOLINESS POPE JOHN PAUL II
BMJ Global Health2020;5:e002914. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2020-002914
The evidence produced in mathematical models plays a key role in shaping policy decisions in pandemics. A key question is therefore how well pandemic models relate to their implementation contexts. Drawing on the cases of Ebola and in...fluenza, we map how sociological and anthropological research contributes in the modelling of pandemics to consider lessons for COVID-19. We show how models detach from their implementation contexts through their connections with global narratives of pandemic response, and how sociological and anthropological research can help to locate models differently. This potentiates multiple models of pandemic response attuned to their emerging situations in an iterative and adaptive science. We propose a more open approach to the modelling of pandemics which envisages the model as an intervention of deliberation in situations of evolving uncertainty. This challenges the ‘business-as-usual’ of evidence-based approaches in global health by accentuating all science, within and beyond pandemics, as ‘emergent’ and ‘adaptive’.
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This guidance is targeted to primary health care policy-makers and only addresses issues relevant for primary health care providers. It has been prepared on the basis of a systematic review of the best available evidence and emergent country practices in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in the WHO ...European Region. It will be updated on a regular basis as new information becomes available.
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Journal of Palliative Medicine Volume 21, Number 10, 2018
DOI: 10.1089/jpm.2018.0248ad
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a formative experience for all humanity and a health emergency of global proportions, presenting a huge challenge to national leaders, health systems, and citizens. The findings of a new report by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) sho...ws that it has also been a test to our democracies and the respect for human rights to which countries across the OSCE committed many years ago.
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The Government of Republic of Zambia reported the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 on 18th March 2020. As of April 27th, 2020, there were 89 confirmed cases, three deaths and 42 recoveries. Confirmed cases are located in three provinces: Lusaka (83 cases), Copperbelt province (5 cases) and Central ...(1 case). Zambia introduced a series of measures including closure of three international airports, closure of all schools, movement restrictions and closure of non-essential services such as restaurant, bar, gym and public gatherings to curb the transmission rate.
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