An in-depth analysis of the health-seeking behaviour of patients and health system response in seven countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region
Health facilities in the Region of the Americas frequently suffer the effects of health emergencies and disasters, which jeopardize their ability to provide services to the population. The STAR-H methodology helps staff responsible for health emergency and disaster risk management to identify and as...sess risks as part of strategic planning to improve facility preparedness. It is intended to help them develop, with a multi-hazard approach, a response framework with operating procedures to deal with hazards of any type, scale, or frequency; determine roles and responsibilities; facilitate the effective use of resources; undertake strategic planning exercises, and improve the preparedness of facilities to effectively respond to and recover from impacts. This methodology is designed for use in health facilities of any size and capacity, and makes it possible to generate historical reports and national or subnational risk profiles. This information can be used to develop an effective health emergency and disaster risk management program.
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The World Heart Federation (WHF) is a leading global advocate for stronger legislation and policies regarding cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its risk factors, including raised cholesterol. The present Cholesterol Advocacy Toolkit 2022 provides WHF member organizations with information as well as p...ractical tools to
support cholesterol advocacy at the local and regional levels.
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ABSTRACT
More than 500 million people worldwide live with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Health systems today face fundamental challenges in delivering optimal care due to ageing populations, healthcare workforce constraints, financing, availability and affordability of CVD medicine, and service del...ivery.
Digital health technologies can help address these challenges. They may be a tool
to reach Sustainable Development Goal 3.4 and reduce premature mortality from
non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by a third by 2030. Yet, a range of fundamental barriers prevents implementation and access to such technologies. Health system governance, health provider, patient and technological factors can prevent or distort their implementation.
World Heart Federation (WHF) roadmaps aim to identify essential roadblocks on the pathway to effective prevention, detection, and treatment of CVD. Further, they aim to provide actionable solutions and implementation frameworks for local adaptation. This WHF Roadmap for digital health in cardiology identifies barriers to implementing digital health technologies for CVD and provides recommendations for overcoming them.
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Many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are undergoing an epidemiological transition. With an improvement in socioeconomic conditions and an aging population, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), like cardiac arrhythmias, are expected to increase in these countries. However, there are limited studi...es on the epidemiology and management of cardiac arrhythmias in LMICs. This review will highlight the unique challenges and opportunities that these countries face when managing cardiac arrhythmias.
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Through technical consultations with countries and partners, WHO has led the development of Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats Module 1: Planning for respiratory pathogen pandemics. Version 1.0. The Module, currently available as an advanced draft, builds on previous pandemic lessons a...nd guidance, and has the following new elements:
It presents an integrated and efficient respiratory pathogen pandemic planning approach covering both novel pathogens and those known to have pandemic potential;
It enables coherence in addressing pathogen-agnostic and pathogen-specific elements for better preparedness;
It gives an organizing framework including operational stages and triggers for escalation and de-escalation between pandemic preparedness and response periods;
It contextualizes 12 IHR (2005) core capacities within the five components of health emergency preparedness, response and resilience (HEPR), from the respiratory threats perspective; and
It describes the critical sectors for respiratory pathogen pandemic preparedness to trigger multisectoral collaboration.
WHO will finalize and publish this Module after a global technical meeting that will be held on 24-26 April 2023.
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While epidemiological data for type 1 diabetes (T1D) in low/middle-income countries, and particularly low-income countries (LICs) including Liberia is lacking, prevalence in LICs is thought to be increasing. T1D care in LICs is often impacted by challenges in diagnosis and management. These challeng...es, including misdiagnosis and access to insulin, can affect T1D outcomes and frequency of severe complications. Despite the severe nature of T1D and growing burden in subSaharan Africa, little is currently known about the impact of T1D on patients and caregivers in the region. Methods We conducted a qualitative study consisting of interviews with patients with T1D, caregivers, providers, civil society members and a policy-maker in Liberia to better understand the psychosocial and economic impact of living with T1D, knowledge of T1D and selfmanagement, and barriers and facilitators for accessing T1D care.
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Asia remained the world’s most disaster-hit region from weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2023. Floods and storms caused the highest number of reported casualties and economic losses, whilst the impact of heatwaves became more severe, according to a new report from the World Meteorolog...ical Organization (WMO).
The State of the Climate in Asia 2023 report highlighted the accelerating rate of key climate change indicators such as surface temperature, glacier retreat and sea level rise, which will have major repercussions for societies, economies and ecosystems in the region.
In 2023, sea-surface temperatures in the north-west Pacific Ocean were the highest on record. Even the Arctic Ocean suffered a marine heatwave.
Asia is warming faster than the global average. The warming trend has nearly doubled since the 1961–1990 period.
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Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) is one of the greatest child survival challenges in the world today and
reportedly affects more than 16.2 million children each year1. High impact, proven treatment interventions exist
yet sadly approximately only 3.2 million children with SAM have access to treatme...nt each year2. Thus, there
is a need to scale up interventions to improve coverage and access across high burden countries. While efforts
are currently underway to expand services in many countries, obstacles remain.
One critical barrier to expanding SAM treatment services is the acceptance, accessibility and utilisation of
ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF). In some countries and contexts, RUTF is still not fully accepted by
community members; while other countries face problems with procurement, storage and supply chain
management which impact on availability and use3. Reports from Ghana and Zambia highlighted that stock-
outs and logistical challenges are often noted as key contributors to high default rates in outpatient treatment
centres4.
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WHO’s Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) defines the Organization’s medium-term vision for working in and with a particular country. The CCS, developed in the context of global and national health priorities, examines the overall health situation in a country, including the state of the health s...ector, socioeconomic status and the major health determinants.
This CCS sets out WHO’s strategic framework for collaboration with the Syrian Arab Republic, from June 2022 until June 2025, in light of the 12 years of crisis that have had a devastating impact on the health sector and infrastructure of basic services. It carefully considers the current and projected issues during its transition from continued humanitarian assistance to recovery, resilience and development. The consolidation of health policies and strategies and health system strengthening, based on the strengthening of primary health care (PHC), aims to contribute to the achievement of national and global development and health goals and the targets of the SDGs.
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Adolescence is a critical stage in life for physical, cognitive and emotional development, shaping future health and well-being. Comprehensive measurement of adolescent health is essential to prioritize health issues, guide interventions and track progress. However, global, regional and national ado...lescent health measurement has historically been inconsistent and incomplete.
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Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children, imposing a consistent burden on health system. In recent years, prevalence of asthma symptoms became globally increased in children and adolescents, particularly in Low-Middle Income Countries (LMICs). Host (genetics, atopy) and environmental fa...ctors (microbial exposure, exposure to passive smoking and air pollution), seemed to contribute to this trend. The increased prevalence observed in metropolitan areas with respect to rural ones and, overall, in industrialized countries, highlighted the role of air pollution in asthma inception. Asthma accounts for 1.1% of the overall global estimate of “Disability-adjusted life years” (DALYs)/100,000 for all causes. Mortality in children is low and it decreased across Europe over recent years. Children from LMICs particularly suffer a disproportionately higher burden in terms of morbidity and mortality. Global asthma-related costs are high and are usually are classified into direct, indirect and intangible costs. Direct costs account for 50–80% of the total costs. Asthma is one of the main causes of hospitalization which are particularly common in children aged < 5 years with a prevalence that has been increased during the last two decades, mostly in LMICs. Indirect costs are usually higher than in older patients, including both school and work-related losses. Intangible costs are unquantifiable, since they are related to impairment of quality of life, limitation of physical activities and study performance. The implementation of strategies aimed at early detect asthma thus providing access to the proper treatment has been shown to effectively reduce the burden of the disease.
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About one fourth of the world’s population is estimated to have been infected with the tuberculosis (TB) bacilli, and about 5–10% of those infected develop TB disease in their lifetime. The risk for TB disease after infection depends on several factors, the most important being the person’s im...munological status. TB preventive treatment (TPT) given to people at highest risk of progressing from TB infection to disease remains a critical element to achieve the global targets of the End TB Strategy, as reiterated by the second UN High Level Meeting on TB in 2023. Delivering TPT effectively and safely necessitates a programmatic approach to implement a comprehensive package of interventions along a cascade of care: identifying individuals at highest risk, screening for TB and ruling out TB disease, testing for TB infection, and choosing the preventive treatment option that is best suited to an individual, managing adverse events, supporting medication adherence and monitoring programmatic performance.
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This document provides a list of key WHO-recommended maternal and newborn health commodities and aims to accelerate progress towards the SDGs. It consolidates the key and enabling commodities from existing WHO guidelines on maternal and newborn health.
Time has seen management for Cystic Fibrosis (CF) advance drastically, most recently in the development of the disease-modifying triple combination therapy ivacaftor/tezacaftor/elexacaftor. There is currently limited evidence regarding both the global epidemiology of CF and access to this transforma...tive therapy - and therefore where needs are not being met. Therefore, this study aims to define gaps in access to CF treatment. The results show that a significant CF patient burden exists in countries where disease-modifying drugs are unavailable, and final figures are likely underestimates. This analysis shows the potential to improve rates of diagnosis and treatment for CF, so a higher percentage of patients receive the most effective triple combination treatment.
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