Fragile Beginnings. The Fragile Beginnings series examines the growing body of research on the unique vulnerabilities of children: in utero and at birth, during infancy and childhood and throughout adolescence. Its purpose is to enable evidence-based advocacy and action on children’s environmental... health
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Thematic brief. This brief highlights the link between climate change and VBDs in Asia Pacific. Using malaria to tell the narrative, it lists key actions that policymakers and the public health community can consider in addressing the impact of a changing climate on health. The brief also includes ...a list of resources that countries can benefit from in planning their response.
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The growing understanding of how sequence information can contribute to improved public health is driving global investments in sequencing facilities and programmes. The falling cost and complexity of generating GSD provides opportunities for expanding sequencing capacity; however, challenges to wid...espread implementation remain. This document provides policy-makers and stakeholders with guidance on how to maximize the public health benefit of SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequencing activities in the short and long term as the pandemic continues to unfold. Practical considerations for the implementation of a virus genomic sequencing programme and an overview of the public health objectives of genomic sequencing are covered. This guidance focuses on SARS-CoV-2 but is applicable to other pathogens of public health concern.
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Practical guide on patient education on the effectiveness of Pulmonary Tuberculosis treatment at Salasaca Health Centre
GMS Zeitschrift für MedizinischeAusbildung 2015, Vol. 32(5),ISSN 1860-3572
Internationalizing higher education is considered to be a major goal for universities in Germany and many medical students aspire to include international experiences into their academic training. However, the exact meani...ng of “internationalizing” medical education is still poorly defined, just as is the possible pedagogic impact and effects. Against this background, this article presents the special track curriculum on global health (in German: Schwerpunktcurriculum Global Health, short: SPC) at Justus Liebig University Giessen, which was established in 2011 as a comprehensive teaching program to integrate international perspectives and activities systematically into the clinical years of the medical curriculum
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Background
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are one of the global leading causes of concern due to the rising prevalence and consequence of mortality and disability with a heavy economic burden. The objective of the current study was to analyze the trend in CVD incidence, mortality, and mortality-to-...incidence ratio (MIR) across the world over 28 years.
Methods
The age-standardized CVD mortality and incidence rates were retrieved from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2017 for both genders and different world super regions with available data every year during the period 1990–2017. Additionally, the Human Development Index was sourced from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) database for all countries at the same time interval. The marginal modeling approach was implemented to evaluate the mean trend of CVD incidence, mortality, and MIR for 195 countries and separately for developing and developed countries and also clarify the relationship between the indices and Human Development Index (HDI) from 1990 to 2017.
Results
The obtained estimates identified that the global mean trend of CVD incidence had an ascending trend until 1996 followed by a descending trend after this year. Nearly all of the countries experienced a significant declining mortality trend from 1990 to 2017. Likewise, the global mean MIR rate had a significant trivial decrement trend with a gentle slope of 0.004 over the time interval. As such, the reduction in incidence and mortality rates for developed countries was significantly faster than developing counterparts in the period 1990–2017 (p < 0.05). Nevertheless, the developing nations had a more rather shallow decrease in MIR compared to developed ones.
Conclusions
Generally, the findings of this study revealed that there was an overall downward trend in CVD incidence and mortality rates, while the survival rate of CVD patients was rather stable. These results send a satisfactory message that global effort for controlling the CVD burden was quite successful. Nonetheless, there is an urgent need for more efforts to improve the survival rate of patients and lower the burden of this disease in some areas with an increasing trend of either incidence or mortality.
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This paper introduces a new dataset of official financing—including foreign aid and other forms of concessional and non-concessional state financing—from China to 138 countries between 2000 and 2014. We use these data to investigate whether and to what extent Chinese aid affects economic growth ...in recipient countries. To account for the endogeneity of aid, we employ an instrumental-variables strategy that relies on exogenous variation in the supply of Chinese aid over time resulting from changes in Chinese steel production. Variation across recipient countries results from a country’s probability of receiving aid. Controlling for year- and recipient-fixed effects that capture the levels of these variables, their interaction provides a powerful and excludable instrument. Our results show that Chinese official development assistance (ODA) boosts economic growth in recipient countries. For the average recipient country, we estimate that one additional Chinese ODA project produces a 0.7 percentage point increase in economic growth two years after the project is committed. We also benchmark the effectiveness of Chinese aid vis-á-vis the World Bank, the United States, and all members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC).
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This literature review summarizes the link between psychological well-being and entrepreneurial outcomes for small and medium-size enterprises in fragile, conflict, and violence–affected contexts. It identifies potentially promising, scalable psychosocial training interventions, based on cognitive...-behavioral therapy approaches, that can be adapted and implemented to improve psychological health at the individual level, that could lead to better business performance at the firm level.
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The 2019 ANA’s Principles for Nurse Staffing, Third Edition, identifies major elements needed to achieve appropriate nurse staffing, which enhances the delivery of safe, quality health care. These principles are grounded in the substantive and growing body of evidence that demonstrates the link be...tween appropriate nurse staffing and better patient outcomes and apply to all types of nurse staffing at every practice level in any healthcare delivery setting. Focused on addressing the complexities of appropriate nurse staffing decisions, the principles and supporting material in this publication will guide nurses and other decision-makers in identifying and developing processes and policies needed to improve nurse staffing.
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Bangladesh is the world’s most polluted country. Air pollution shortens the average Bangladeshi’s life expectancy by 6.9 years, relative to what it would be if the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline of 5 μg/m³ was met. Some areas of Bangladesh fare much worse than average, with air poll...ution shortening lives by nearly 9 years in Dhaka, the country’s most polluted city.
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3 June 2021. After 40 years of AIDS, charting a course to end the pandemic.
The report shows that countries with progressive laws and policies and strong and inclusive health systems have had the best outcomes against HIV. In those countries, people living with and affected by HIV are more likely t...o have access to effective HIV services, including HIV testing, pre-exposure prophylaxis (medicine to prevent HIV), harm reduction, multimonth supplies of HIV treatment and consistent, quality follow-up and care.
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Policy Guidance Brief 1
• Climate change has already challenged the agriculture sector in Myanmar by afecting rice yields and livestock production, while disasters such as foods and cyclones have caused massive destruction in rural areas.
• Without adaptation, the long-term consequenc...es of climate change will likely include reduced productivity and huge economic losses, food insecurity, poverty and migration.
• According to the Climate Change Action Plan for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Livestock sector, by 2030 Myanmar should achieve climate-resilient productivity and promote climate-smart responses to support food security and livelihood strategies while also introducing resource-efficient and lowcarbon practices.
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Pakistan is the world’s fourth most polluted country. Air pollution shortens the average Pakistani’s life expectancy by 3.8 years, relative to what it would be if the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline of 5 μg/m3 was met.1 Some areas of Pakistan fare much worse than average, with air pol...lution shortening lives by almost 7 years in the country’s most polluted regions, like Lahore and Peshawar.
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In Central and West Africa, regions together comprising 27 countries and 605 million people, the average person is exposed to particulate pollution levels that are more than 4 times the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guideline of 5 μg/m³1. If these particulate pollution levels persist, averag...e life expectancy in the regions would be 1.6 years lower, and a total of 971 million person-years would be lost, relative to if air quality met the WHO guideline. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi, are the top three most polluted countries in the region.
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There is increasing interest in understanding the role of air pollution as one of the greatest threats to human health worldwide. Nine of 10 individuals breathe air with polluted compounds that have a great impact on lung tissue. The nature of the relationship is complex, and new or updated data are... constantly being reported in the literature. The goal of our review was to summarize the most important air pollutants and their impact on the main respiratory diseases (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, lung cancer, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, respiratory infections, bronchiectasis, tuberculosis) to reduce both short- and the long-term exposure consequences. We considered the most important air pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, ozone, particulate matter and biomass smoke, and observed their impact on pulmonary pathologies. We focused on respiratory pathologies, because air pollution potentiates the increase in respiratory diseases, and the evidence that air pollutants have a detrimental effect is growing. It is imperative to constantly improve policy initiatives on air quality in both high- and low-income countries.
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This brief focuses specifically on the Grand Nord (Great North): the Beni and Lubero territories of northern North Kivu that are the epicentre of the outbreak. Further participatory enquiry should be undertaken with the affected populations, but given ongoing transmission, conveying key consideratio...ns and immediate recommendations have been prioritised.
This brief is based on a rapid review of existing published and grey literature, professional ethnographic research in DRC, personal communication with administrative and health officials and practitioners in the country, and experience of previous Ebola outbreaks.
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Conflict, climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the economic effects of the Ukraine crisis are interacting to create new and worsen existing hunger hotspots, reversing the gains families had made to escape poverty.
Nepal is the world’s third most polluted country. Air pollution shortens average Nepalese life expectancy by 4.1 years, relative to what it would be if the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline of 5 μg/m3 was met.1 The highest concentrations of air pollution are observed in Nepal’s southwes...tern districts, which share their borders with the highly-polluted Indo-Gangetic Plain of India. Here, residents stand to lose nearly 7 years of life expectancy.
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Sectors in which Priority Adaptation Projects should be implemented first include:
- 1) Agriculture, Early Warning Systems and Forest (First Priority Level Sectors). This is followed by:
- 2) Public Health and Water Resources (Second Priority Level Sectors);
- 3) Coastal Zone (Thir...d Priority Level Sector); and
- 4) Energy and Industry, and Biodiversity (Fourth Priority Level Sectors).
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Disabled children: a legal handbook is an authoritative yet accessible guide to the legal rights of disabled children and their families in England and Wales. The handbook aims to empower disabled children and their families through a greater understanding of their rights and entitlements. It is es...sential reading for the families of disabled children, their advocates and lawyers, voluntary and statutory sector advisers, commissioners, managers and lawyers working for public authorities, education, social and health care professionals, students and academics.
Each chapter has been adapted into a PDF for you to download for free
https://councilfordisabledchildren.org.uk/help-resources/resources/disabled-children-legal-handbook-2nd-edition
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