The Global status report on alcohol and health and treatment of substance use disorders presents a comprehensive overview of alcohol consumption, alcohol-related harm and policy responses as well as treatment capacities for alcohol and drug use disorders worldwide. The report is based on data collec...ted by WHO from Member States and organized in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals health target 3.5 which calls on countries to strengthen “the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol”. The chapter on alcohol and health continues the series of WHO global status reports on alcohol and health and presents the latest available data on the status of, and trends in, alcohol consumption, as well as estimates of the alcohol-attributable disease burden and descriptions of policy responses worldwide. On the basis of data collected from countries on the treatment of substance use disorders the report describes the status of key components of treatment responses to alcohol and drug use disorders and proposes a new service capacity index for these disorders as an additional contextual indicator for monitoring progress in this domain of SDG health target 3.5. The report concludes with broad directions for international action to accelerate progress towards achievement of SDG health target 3.5.
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A systematic review of connections between climate change, globalization and NCD'S
A systematic review of connections between climate change, globalization and NCD'S
A systematic review of connections between climate change, globalization and NCD'S
WHO has identified climate change as one of the greatest health threats of the 21st century and air pollution as the single largest environmental health risk. Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease and cancer, are the leading causes ...of death in the European Region and globally, the latter rate being 74%
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Over one third of all deaths in Kenya in 2019 were attributed to NCDs (Vos et al., 2020). The four major NCDs – CVDs, cancer,
diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases – accounted for 57% of these deaths. Furthermore, the direct and indirect economic
impact of NCDs is significant- Kenya is sai...d to have lost Ksh 230 billion or 3.4% of its gross domestic product in 2016 from rising
NCD-related medical costs and indirect productivity losses. At the household level, an estimated decrease of 28.6% in income
due to NCDs was reported in 2007 (Mwai & Muriithi, 2016; Mensah et al., 2020). Therefore, preventing and managing NCDs are
significant public health and economic priorities.
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We, the participants at the first-ever International Conference on PEN-Plus in Africa (ICPPA), held on 23– 25 April 2024 in Dar Es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania, recognize the urgency of the rising burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) across our Region. We are alarmed by the implication...s for social and economic development across Africa, considering that rising numbers of people under the age of 40 die unnecessarily.
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Vanny Reis talks to Gary Humphreys about the transformative power of sport and physical activity in improving health
and well-being throughout people’s lives.
Just under 2.5 million people die annually due to alcohol use. This global estimate, however, excludes most of the health burden
borne by others than the alcohol user. Alcohol’s harm to others includes a multitude of conditions, such as trauma from traffic crashes, fetal disorders due to prenatal... exposure to alcohol, as well as interpersonal and intimate partner violence. While alcohol’s causal role in these conditions is well-established, alcohol’s harm to others’ contribution to the overall health burden of alcohol remains unknown. This knowledge gap leads to a situation in which alcohol policy and prevention strategies largely focus on the reduction of alcohol’s detrimental health harms on the alcohol users, neglecting affected others and population groups most vulnerable to these harms, including women and children. In this article, we seek to elucidate why estimates for alcohol’s harm to others are lacking and offer guidance for future research. We also argue that a full assessment of the alcohol health burden that includes the harm caused by others’ alcohol use would enhance the visibility and public awareness of such harms, and advancing the evaluation of policy interventions to mitigate them.
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Poor diets are the major cause of death and disease globally, driving high levels of obesity and noncommunicable diseases. Cheap, heavily marketed, ultra-processed, energy-dense and nutrient-poor food and drinks that are high in fat, sugar and salt play a major role. The high-sugar content of these ...products leads to consumption levels much higher than recommended. The World Health Organization recommends that sugar intake should be reduced to just 5% of energy intake by using fiscal policies and food and drink reformulation strategies. Over the previous decade, the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has implemented several policies aimed at reducing sugar intake. We compare the soft drinks industry levy and the sugar reduction programme, examining how differences in policy design and process may have influenced the outcomes. Success has been mixed: the mandatory levy achieved a reduction in total sugar sales of 34.3%, and the voluntary reduction programme only achieved a 3.5% reduction in sugar levels of key contributors to sugar intake (despite a target of 20%). Both policies can be improved to enhance their impact, for example, by increasing the levy and reducing the sugar content threshold in the soft drinks industry levy, and by setting more stringent subcategory specific targets in the sugar reduction programme. We also recommend that policy-makers should consider applying a similar levy to other discretionary products
that are key contributors to sugar intake. Both approaches provide valuable learnings for future policy in the United Kingdom and globally
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Cervical cancer is a disease of the female reproductive tract caused primarily by oncogenic types of human papillomavirus
(HPV). In 2020, it was the fourth most common cancer among women worldwide, with an estimated 604 000 new cases and 342 000 deaths
Young people across the world are urging governments to shield them from predatory tobacco marketing tactics. The industry targets youth for a lifetime of profits, creating a new wave of addiction. The latest data show that children are using e-cigarettes at rates higher than adults in many countrie...s and globally an estimated 37 million youth aged 13–15 years use tobacco.
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Since 2016, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has been promoting the implementation of the HEARTS Initiative in the Americas as a regional adaptation of the World Health Organization's Global HEARTS Initiative. During this time, 33 countries in the Region of the Americas have committed to ...implementing HEARTS, and PAHO has developed many technical resources to support them. Most of these resources are clinical tools for primary healthcare teams and focus on quality improvement. This compendium aims to group all these clinical tools in a single document under a simple format that facilitates their practical implementation in daily clinical practice. The reader will notice that each tool is summarized on a single page and presented in a modular format. Therefore, each tool can be used together or separately as needed. In addition, at the bottom of each tool, the reader will find the references and hyperlinks to access full texts in case deeper knowledge is required.
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Desde el 2016, la Organización Panamericana de la Salud (OPS) ha promovido la implementación de la Iniciativa HEARTS en las Américas, una adaptación regional de la estrategia Global HEARTS de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS). Durante este tiempo, 33 países de la Región de las Améric...as se han comprometido a implementar HEARTS y la OPS ha desarrollado una amplia variedad de herramientas clínicas para asistir a los equipos de salud en su trabajo cotidiano e impulsarlos a buscar la mejora continua de la calidad. Este compendio pretende presentar en un solo documento, y de manera simple y didáctica, todos los recursos técnicos desarrollados por la Iniciativa HEARTS en las Américas para facilitar su implementación en la práctica diaria del ámbito clínico. El lector notará que cada herramienta se detalla en una sola página y se presenta en un formato modular. Por lo tanto, cada herramienta se puede utilizar en conjunto o por separado según sea necesario. Además, en la parte inferior de cada herramienta, el lector encontrará las referencias y los enlaces para acceder a los textos completos en caso de que los usuarios deseen profundizar más su conocimiento respecto a cada tema.
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This document provides an updated list of “best buys” and other recommended interventions to address noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). It is based on Appendix 3 of the Global action plan for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases 2013–2020, which was first approved in 2013 and l...ast updated in 2017. The global action plan, which was extended to 2030 by a World Health Assembly decision in 2019 has 6 objectives, the implementation of which at country level supports the attainment of the 9 voluntary NCD targets, and facilitates the realization of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 on good health and well-being.
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This report presents an overview of the state of air quality and its impacts on health in Africa.
Air pollution is a familiar environmental health hazard. We know what we’re looking at when brown haze settles over a city, exhaust billows across a busy highway, or a plume rises from a smokestack. Some air pollution is not seen, but its pungent smell alerts you.
All health workers would benefit from gaining knowledge and skills to protect individuals and communities from air pollution exposure. This course examines the main health impacts of air pollution and which roles health workers can play to protect and promote people’s health.
The global burden of disease associated with air pollution exposure exacts a massive toll on human health worldwide: exposure to air pollution is estimated to cause millions of deaths and lost years of healthy life annually. The burden of disease attributable to air pollution is now estimated to be ...on a par with other major global health risks such as unhealthy diet and tobacco smoking, and air pollution is now recognized as the single biggest environmental threat to human health.
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