Leptospirosis is a bacterial zoonotic disease of worldwide importance, though relatively neglected in many African countries including sub Saharan Africa that is among areas with high burden of this disease. The disease is often mistaken for other febrile illnesses such as dengue, malaria, rickettsi...oses and enteric fever. Leptospirosis is an occupational disease likely to affect people working in environments prone to infestation with rodents which are the primary reservoir hosts of this disease. Some of the populations at risk include: sugarcane plantation workers, wetland farmers, fishermen and abattoir workers. In this study we investigated the prevalence of antibodies against Leptospira among sugarcane plantation and factory workers, fishing communities as well as among rodents and shrews in domestic and peridomestic environments within the study areas.
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Mycetoma is a chronic infectious disease of the subcutaneous tissue with a high morbidity. This disease has been reported from countries between 30°N and 15°S since 1840 but the exact burden of disease is not known. It is currently unknown what the incidence, prevalence and the number of reported ...cases per year per country is. In order to estimate what the global burden of mycetoma is, a meta-analysis was performed. In total 50 studies were included, which resulted in a total of 8763 mycetoma cases. Most cases were found in men between 11 and 40 years of age. The foot was most commonly affected.
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Scabies is a skin infection that is a result of direct skin to skin contact and is primarily mediated by close and extended contact with scabies infested person. Scabies occurs worldwide among people of all ages, races, genders and social classes and has been identified as a neglected tropical infec...tious disease. Globally, it affects more than 130 million people at any time.
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Several Public Health Services and general practitioners in the Netherlands observed an increase in scabies in the Netherlands. Since individual cases of scabies are not notifiable in the Netherlands, the epidemiological situation is mostly unknown. To investigate the scabies incidence in the Nether...lands, we described the epidemiology of scabies between 2011 and 2021.
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The purpose of this guide is to provide practical advice for health staff undertaking infectious disease preparedness and response activities to ensure that access to safe abortion care (SAC) is maintained when an infectious disease outbreak occurs. It is an operational guide which can serve to supp...ort health actors to maintain SAC services during outbreaks and ensure that necessary SAC considerations are integrated within outbreak responses; it is not a clinical guide. The locational focus of this document is humanitarian and fragile settings; however, recommendations may apply to infectious disease outbreaks in all low-resource populations. This guide is intended to complement Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights During Infectious Disease Outbreaks: Operational Guidance for Humanitarian and Fragile Settings.
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El objetivo de esta guía es brindar recomendaciones prácticas al personal de salud que se hace cargo de las actividades de preparación y respuesta a las enfermedades contagiosas para asegurar que se mantenga el acceso a servicios de aborto seguro (SAS) cuando surja un brote de enfermedades contag...iosas. Es una guía operativa que puede servir para apoyar a los actores de la salud para que los SAS se mantengan durante los brotes y asegurar que las consideraciones necesarias de SAS se integren dentro de la respuesta al brote; no es una guía clínica. El enfoque centrado en la ubicación de este documento se dirige a los asentamientos frágiles y de ayuda humanitaria; sin embargo, las recomendaciones pueden aplicarse a brotes de enfermedades contagiosas a cualquier población con escasez de recursos. Esta guía busca complementar el trabajo llamado La salud sexual y reproductiva y los derechos durante los brotes de enfermedades contagiosas: Guía operativa para escenarios frágiles y de ayuda humanitaria.
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Ce guide a pour objectif de fournir des conseils pratiques à destination du personnel de santé entreprenant des activités de préparation et de réponse aux maladies infectieuses afin de maintenir l’accès à des Soins d’Avortement sans Risque (SAR) durant une épidémie de maladie infectieus...e. Il s’agit d’un guide pratique destiné à aider les acteurs du secteur de la santé à garantir le maintien des services de Soins d’Avortement sans Risque (SAR) pendant les épidémies et à veiller à ce que les considérations nécessaires en matière de Soins d’Avortement sans Risque soient intégrées à la riposte à l’épidémie; il ne s’agit pas d’un guide clinique. Ce document se concentre sur les situations de crise humanitaire et les contextes fragiles, toutefois les recommandations peuvent s’appliquer aux épidémies de maladies infectieuses auprès des populations à faibles ressources. Ce guide est prévu en complément du document: Santé et droits en matière de sexualité et de procréation durant les épidémies de maladies infectieuses: orientations de mise en oeuvre pour les situations de crise humanitaire et les contextes fragiles.
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The objectives of the meeting were:
1. To update the current status of the disease transmission, country capacities and plans for tackling the disease.
2. To understand the epidemiology including disease distribution and risk, the models
for estimating under-detection, the geographical variati...ons of in clinical presentation,
the roles of domestic and wild animal reservoirs and the subsequent different
transmission patterns and control approaches, including vector control.
3. To update current research and development efforts for improving diagnostic and
treatment tools.
4. To define the goals for achieving the control of r-HAT, the need for a multisectoral
approach and to discuss the strategy for controlling r-HAT and the coordination
mechanisms.
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This report outlines the coordination and partnership between two key ministries
(Education and Public Health) in Kenya, other line ministries, the private sector, NGOs
and the community in implementing the first phase of a sub-national school-based deworming exercise. The areas targeted included ...Coast, Central, Western, Nyanza
and parts of Eastern provinces, covering over 45 districts in this first phase. The SBD
programme is guided by the National School Health Policy and Guidelines launched in
2009.
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The epidemiology of the disease is mediated by the interaction of the parasite (trypanosome) with the vectors (tsetse flies), as well as with the human and animal hosts within a particular environment. Related to these interactions, the disease is confined in spatially limited areas called “foci..., which are located
in Sub-Saharan Africa, mainly in remote rural areas. The risk of contracting HAT is, therefore, determined by the possibility of contact of a human being with an infected tsetse fly. Epidemics of HAT were described at the beginning of the 20th century; intensive activities have been set up to confront the disease, and it was under control in the 1960s, with fewer than 5,000 cases reported in the whole continent.
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Human rabies remains a significant public health problem in Africa with outbreaks reported in most countries. In Nigeria–the most populous country in Africa–rabies causes a significant public health burden partly due to perennial obstacles to implementing a national prevention and control progra...m.
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To enhance health co-benefits across urban policies which tackle air pollution and climate change, WHO, in cooperation with various international, national, and local partners, implemented the Urban Health Initiative (UHI) pilot project in Accra, Ghana. The Initiative prompted the health sector to u...se its influential position to demonstrate to decision-makers and the public the full range of health, environmental and economic benefits that can be achieved from implementing local emission reduction and energy access policies and strategies. Policy tracking, although not always considered, is a fundamental component of this procedure. It assesses the planning, implementation and progress of a policy to refine or adjust policies with the final objective of increasing the likelihood of the policy being successful. This report is an outcome of the last component of the UHI model process, Policy tracking and monitoring outcomes. The report proposes a framework for tracking urban health policies, with a special focus on the impacts of air quality and energy access on human health and well-being in African countries, giving some examples from the pilot project in Accra. The report also provides resources to survey air quality in cities and other tools to assess public health and the environmental impacts of urban policies and monitor or track their effects.
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Improving the survival chances and quality of life of women, newborns, and children remains an urgent global challenge. Since 2012, substantial progress has been made in reducing maternal and under-5 deaths, and a only handful of countries are on target to meet the SDG targets in 2030. Yet, 5 millio...n children still die each year under the age of 5, and nearly half of those are newborns less than a month old. Worse still, the global maternal mortality ratio is going in the wrong direction.
A Decade of Progress and Action for the Future will examine the tenacity and innovation that helped us make gains, the lessons learned through monitoring, country-led adaptation and leadership, analysis, and reflection, as well as the approaches we must take to reinvigorate the momentum and global commitment to improving maternal and child survival. Increasing coverage, strengthening the quality of care, and enhancing equity will be tantamount to our global progress.
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The annual Joint Meeting of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Panel of Experts on Pesticide Residues in Food and the Environment and the World Health Organization (WHO) Core Assessment Group on Pesticide Residues (JMPR) was held in Rome, Italy, from 13 to 22 September.... The FAO panel of experts had met in preparatory sessions from 8 to 12 September. The Meeting was held in pursuance of recommendations made by previous Meetings and accepted by the governing bodies of FAO and WHO that studies should be undertaken jointly by experts to evaluate possible hazards to humans arising from the occurrence of pesticide residues in foods. During the meeting the FAO Panel of Experts was responsible for reviewing pesticide use patterns (use of good agricultural practices), data on the chemistry and composition of the pesticides and methods of analysis for pesticide residues and for estimating the maximum residue levels that might occur as a result of the use of the pesticides according to good agricultural use practices. The WHO Core Assessment Group was responsible for reviewing toxicological and related data and for estimating, where possible and appropriate, acceptable daily intakes (ADIs) and acute reference doses (ARfDs) of the pesticides for humans. This report contains information on ADIs, ARfDs, maximum residue levels, and general principles for the evaluation of pesticides. The recommendations of the Joint Meeting, including further research and information, are proposed for use by Member governments of the respective agencies and other interested parties.
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National Guidelines on Nutrition, Care, Support, and Treatment (NCST) for Adolescents and Adults
These guidelines are intended to:
• Establish a consistent set of nutrition interventions and recommendations aimed at managing and preventing undernutrition and overnutrition in adolescents and ad...ults, with a focus on people with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) patients.
• Provide simple and clear guidance to service providers and managers on how to implement the nutrition interventions and recommendations at the various health care delivery contact points.
• Provide a framework for policymakers and development partners to use when planning nutrition interventions for adolescent and adults.
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Forests, trees and green spaces, hereinafter ‘forests and trees’ for short, provide multiple goods and services that contribute to human health. These include medicines, nutritious foods and other non-wood forest products (NWFPs). Globally, at least 3.5 billion people use NWFPs, including medici...nal plants, which are particularly important for vulnerable groups and Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs).
During periods of crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for forest products typically increases amongst these groups. Forests and trees also contribute to better health by playing a role in climate change
mitigation and adaptation, contributing to regulating the carbon cycle, but also moderating the micro-climate, filtering pollutants from the air and protecting settlements against the effects of extreme events such as droughts and flash floods.
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Chagas disease is currently endemic and also predicted to be at increased transmission risk under future climate change scenarios. Similarly, an expansion of areas in the United States at increased risk for Chagas disease transmission is also expected over the next several decades under climate chan...ge scenarios. Of particular interest is the predicted northern shift of triatomine species to central regions of the United States with historically unsuitable climates for T. cruzi vectors. The weight of evidence regarding the influences climate change may pose on T. cruzi vector species distributions demonstrates the sensitivity of Chagas disease transmission to future climate variability. In order to advance forecasts for the impact climate change may have on Chagas disease transmission in the Americas, it is imperative to
further develop, utilize, and perhaps combine predictive species distribution modeling approaches that integrate accurate, long term data on climate variables, vector species distributions, Chagas disease incidence, as well as other socio-ecological variables.
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The Pharmaceutical Forum of the Americas (PFA) has previously published guidelines and organised campaigns for community pharmacists on the prevention, detection and control of arbovirus infections in 2018 with a grant from the FIP Foundation for Pharmacy Education and Research. Building on that exp...ertise, FIP joined efforts with the PFA and is now publishing its first-ever handbook to support pharmacists in the
area of vector-borne diseases. As the integration of the regional forums in FIP advances, such collaborative projects are tangible results of an increasingly regionally informed and regionally targeted work by FIP.
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The following technical report outlines the rationale, process and results of a joint research study, coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), co-chaired by the Ministry of Health and Social Protection and the Ministry of Environment and Sus...tainable Development in collaboration with the Climate and Climate Air Coalition, the Stockholm Environment Institute, the Clean Air Institute and leading international and national experts. A rationale section describes the links between greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, short-lived climate pollutants, air pollution and adverse health outcomes. A summary of the research study describes how scenarios were modelled to examine the health and economic implications of raising ambition in Colombia’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
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This report presents the results of the official United Nations estimates and projections of urban and rural populations for 233 countries and areas of the world and for close to 1,900 urban settlements with 300,000 inhabitants or more in 2018, as published in World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 ...Revision. The data in this revision are consistent with the total populations estimated and projected according to the medium variant of the 2017 Revision of the United Nations global population estimates and projections, published in World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision. This revision updates and supersedes previous estimates and projections published by the United Nations.
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