An IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems
As more frequent droughts and floods threaten the global food supply, humans are increasing their demands on water and land,... The New York Times reports.
Data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report:
• 500 million people are living in areas that are becoming desert.
• Soil is depleted at 10X-100X the rate it’s being formed.
• More than 10% of the global population is undernourished.
Major threats include the risk of “multi-breadbasket failure”—simultaneous food crises on several continents—and migration triggered by food shortages.
Good News/Bad News: Catastrophe can be avoided, but it would require massive changes to agriculture, food systems and behavior.
A Key Action: Eat less meat. Cattle production is driving deforestation, consuming huge amounts of water, generating methane and causing other impacts, notes Nature.
more
• Clashes continued between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), and Turkish backed forces, concentrated around the M4 highway and Tal Tamer district in Al-Hasakeh. Further displacement was reported.
• Several civilian casualties occurred due to improvised explosive ...devices (IEDs) in Afrin, Quamishli, and along the Tell Abiad-Ras al-Ain corridor. On 16 November, a car bomb in Al Bab, Aleppo reportedly killed 14 people and injured 27, including civilians.
• On 13 November, Alouk water station was repaired following reconnection of the Debarseyah supply line, again restoring water to 460,000 people in Al-Hasakeh city and surrounding areas
more
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.
more
he pandemic has produced an unprecedented economic and social crisis, and it could generate a food, humanitarian, and political crisis if urgent measures are not taken. The policy options for addressing the pandemic entail consolidating national plans and achieving intersectoral consensus. The respo...nse should be structured in three nonlinear and interrelated phases—control, reactivation, and rebuilding—involving the participation of technical actors representing not only the field of health but also other social and economic areas. Measures implemented to control the pandemic as well as measures for the reactivation and rebuilding phases will require increased public investment in health until the recommended parameters are achieved.
more
With this quick reference guide, providers can easily recognize diseases and side effects related to climate change, implement appropriate management and provide guidance to exposed populations, provide up-to-date information on the relationship between the adverse effects of certain drugs and the w...orsening of climate-sensitive health conditions, and determine the possible consequences of climate change for health services. This book addresses key meteorological risks, as well as the health conditions which they may influence, grouped by specific clinical areas.
more
Con esta guía de referencia rápida podrán reconocer con facilidad las enfermedades y efectos secundarios relacionados con el cambio climático, administrar los tratamientos adecuados y aconsejar a las poblaciones expuestas, presentar información actualizada sobre la relación entre los efectos s...ecundarios de ciertos medicamentos y la agravación de las dolencias sensibles al clima, y determinar las consecuencias posibles para los servicios de salud. En este libro se abordan los principales fenómenos meteorológicos, así como las afecciones en las que pueden tener incidencia, agrupados por áreas clínicas específicas.
more
Refugees and migrants face unacceptable and extreme forms of violence on mixed migration routes from East and West Africa to and through North Africa. This report provides clear and strong findings based on almost 16,000 interviews with refugees and migrants all along the migration routes. It provid...es clear data on the extent to which refugees and migrants face various violations of their rights, and identifies who are generally reported to be responsible and should thus be held accountable.
more
this Service Delivery brief provides evidence-based strategies that can help support drug shops and pharmacies in providing a wider variety of family planning methods and information. Evidence shows that with training and support, pharmacy and drug shop staff can facilitate the use of a broad range ...of modern contraception, especially in areas where the unmet need is high, access to family planning services is poor, and health worker shortages and other barriers prevent women, men, and youth from accessing family planning services
Availabe in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese
more
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 ...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.
more
Project Drawdown (2022) provides evidence of how climate solutions can also be win-win opportunities for meeting development and human well-being needs while boosting prosperity for rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The report summarizes the co-benefits of five groups of a subs...et of Project Drawdown climate solutions (28 total solutions) for advancing human well-being in rural areas of low- and middle-income countries
more
In September 2021, the UN and its partners presented a response plan to mitigate the impact of the water crisis in northern and north-east Syria which requested US$200 million to assist up to 3.4 million of the over five million people estimated to be affected by the water crisis in northern Syria b...etween September 2021 and February 2022. Under the auspices of the 2022-2023 Syria Humanitarian Response Plan, this updated water response plan presents the most recent needs based on latest forecasts and is a continuation of the earlier plan presented in 2021. It covers the needs from all response modalities/areas1 for Syria, aims to assist 5 million people until December 2022 and requests $226.2 million.
more
Trachoma causes more vision loss and blindness than any other infection in the world. This disease is caused by Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria. Other variants or strains of these bacteria can cause a sexually transmitted infection (chlamydia) and disease in lymph nodes.
This is photomicrograph ...of a conjunctival smear that revealed the presence of what are known as, intracytoplasmic inclusions Trachoma is easily spread through direct personal contact such as from fingers, through shared towels and clothes, and through flies that have been in contact with the eyes or nose of an infected person. When left untreated, repeated Chlamydia trachomatis infections in the eye can cause severe scarring on the inside of the eyelid. This can cause the eyelashes to scratch the cornea (trichiasis). In addition to causing pain, trichiasis permanently damages the cornea and can lead to irreversible blindness.
Chlamydia trachomatis infections spread in areas that lack access to safely managed drinking water and sanitation systems. Trachoma affects the most resource-limited communities in the world. Globally, almost 1.9 million people have vision loss because of trachoma, and it causes 1.4% of all blindness worldwide.1 In 2021, 136 million people lived in trachoma-endemic areas and were at risk of trachoma blindness.
more
Schistosomiasis is widely recognized as a disease that is socially determined. An understanding of the social and behavioural factors linked to disease transmission and control should play a vital role in designing policies and strategies for schistosomiasis prevention and control. To this must be a...dded the awareness that schistosomiasis is also a disease of poverty. It still survives in poverty-stricken, remote areas where there is little or no safe water or sanitation, and health care is scarce or non-existent. For a variety of complex reasons, many of which are addressed in this book, the disease is particularly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, and persists in certain areas of rural China. This concern for human behaviour in an environment of poverty echoes the concerns of the new research priority for “diseases of poverty” identified by the Special Programme for Research & Training in Tropical Diseases.
more
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.
more
Schistosomiasis is widely recognized as a disease that is socially determined. An
understanding of the social and behavioural factors linked to disease transmission and
control should play a vital role in designing policies and strategies for schistosomiasis
prevention and control. To this must b...e added the awareness that schistosomiasis is
also a disease of poverty. It still survives in poverty-stricken, remote areas where there
is little or no safe water or sanitation, and health care is scarce or non-existent. For
a variety of complex reasons, many of which are addressed in this book, the disease
is particularly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, and persists in certain areas of rural
China. This concern for human behaviour in an environment of poverty echoes the
concerns of the new research priority for “diseases of poverty” identified by the
Special Programme for Research & Training in Tropical Diseases.
more
Leishmaniases are a group of diseases of zoonotic importance caused by over 20 species of protozoa of the genus Leishmania, in which domestic dogs are considered to be the main reservoir for the disease. However, the involvement of other vertebrates as reservoirs for these parasites has also been in...vestigated. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to carry out a systematic review with meta-analysis on occurrences of leishmaniasis in equids. The case reports described animals with cutaneous symptoms of leishmaniasis (papules, nodules, ulcers or crusts) that regressed spontaneously, located mainly on the head and limbs, from which three species of protozoa were identified in the lesions: Leishmania braziliensis, Leishmania infantum and Leishmania siamensis. In turn, the meta-analysis showed a combined prevalence of 25%, although with high heterogeneity among the studies, which was attributed to the use of different methods for diagnosing the disease. Leishmaniasis in equids is a benign disease but it should be included in the differential diagnosis of cutaneous diseases among these species. Seroepidemiological studies are important in investigating and monitoring suspected exposure of these hosts to the parasite, especially in endemic areas. However, there is also a need to standardize diagnostic methods.
more
This regional action plan provides a broad framework for the regional level to assist governments in accelerating the implementation of existing international, regional and national commitments on ending FGM. Formulating the plan has provided an opportunity for the region to identify broad prioritie...s, initiate strategic actions and determine responsibilities among different actors. It also ensures that anti-FGM campaign activities are seen not as standalone efforts but rather as an integral part of the African Union’s discussions, in line with the African Union initiative on eliminating FGM (Saleema Initiative)
more
Since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis on 24 February 2022, WHO has supported Government-led efforts and initiatives alongside key partners on the ground. Building on efforts to date, and working alongside Bulgaria’s health authorities to bring added value to existing mechanisms, the WHO Countr...y Office Bulgaria, the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the WHO Health and Migration Programme, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Bulgaria and key partners, undertook a joint review mission to support Bulgaria, with a focus on addressing the health system needs of refugees, migrants, asylum seekers and vulnerable host populations in Bulgaria.
The assessment team developed this report on the key findings and a package of potential interventions based on the opportunities identified and the need for technical support and assistance. The report summarizes concrete areas of work for which collaborations can be further strengthened. The joint review team identified key recommendations for consideration across 8 priority areas. The report and the outcomes of the review mission serve as a basis for future technical collaboration in the area of refugee health, to address the health needs of refugees and third-country nationals fleeing from Ukraine.
more
This report presents a framework to link science, policy and practice for a comprehensive assessment of climate mitigation and adaptation investments and their impact on human health.The framework proposes to use weather and climate data to forecast health impacts over time, as well as biophysical a...nd economic models to quantify the outcomes of investments in climate change adaptation and mitigation for relevant sectoral indicators and health co-benefits. It provides guidance on the economic valuation of health co-benefits of climate action, for inclusion in sector-specific cost–benefit analysis (CBA), including the spatial allocation of such costs and benefits.
The framework developed and presented in this study is comprehensive, and provides various entry points for different audiences, including decision-makers in the public and private sectors, researchers and scientists, working in the health sector as well as in other thematic areas and related sectors affected by climate action.
more
Vector-borne diseases are responsible for 17% of the global burden of communicable diseases and more than 500 000 deaths annually. The ambitious global targets for the control of vector-borne diseases come in the context of the (re-)emergence of diseases, increasing resistances to insecticides and u...ncertainty related to the financing of global vector control efforts. The United Nations 2030 Agenda with its related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the New Urban Agenda adopted at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III)
in Quito in 2016 and WHO’s Global vector control response 2017–2030 (WHO, 2017a) emphasize the value of elevating multisectoral actions and strategies that extend beyond the health sector to the core of integrated vector control.
This policy brief underlines the important role housing conditions have in the transmission of vector-borne diseases and showcases interventions and policies the housing sector can contribute to effective, integrated and intersectoral vector-borne diseases management.
more