The climate crisis has many consequences – among them widespread health impacts that will lead to immense societal, ecological, and economic harm.
Over the past two decades multiple large-scale reviews on climate change and health have made clear the need for a multi-sectoral approach to target t...he drivers and impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem degradation. Despite this abundance of scientific evidence underscoring urgency of action, policy implementation responses lag behind. Even at COP26, itself delayed due to an ongoing pandemic, health continues to be considered by many countries a problem independent from climate and environment.
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PLoS Negl Trop Dis 13(10): e0007694. In 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized Chagas disease (CD; Trypanosoma cruzi infection) as a neglected tropical disease (NTD) [1] and included it into the global plan to combat NTDs [2]. The Target 3.3 of the United Nations Sustainable Developmen...t Goals (UN/SDG) aims at ending the epidemics of NTDs by 2030 [3]. Mother-to-child (congenital/connatal) transmission is currently the main mode of transmission of T. cruzi over blood transfusions and organ transplantations in vector-free areas within and outside Latin America (LA). Based on recent demonstrations that congenital transmission can be prevented [4–7], WHO has shifted its objective, in 2018, from control to elimination of congenital CD (cCD).
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Recent increases in family planning (FP) use have been reported among women of reproductive age in union (WRAU) in Senegal. However, trends have not been monitored among harder-to-reach groups (including adolescents, unmarried and rural poor women), key to understanding whether FP progress is equita...ble. We combined data from six Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in Senegal between 1992/93 and 2014. We examined FP trends over time among WRAU and subgroups, and trends in knowledge of FP and intention to use among women with unmet need for FP. Our results show that percent demand satisfied is lower among rural poor women and adolescents than WRAU, although higher among unmarried women. Marked recent increases have been observed in all subgroups, however fewer than 50% of women in need of FP use modern contraception in Senegal. Knowledge of FP has risen steadily among women with unmet need; however, intention to use FP has remained stable at around 40% since 2005 for all groups except unmarried women (75% of whom intend to use). Significant progress in meeting the need for FP has been achieved in Senegal, but more needs to be done particularly to improve acceptability of FP, and to strategically target interventions toward adolescents and rural poor women.
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What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and What We Need to Do
Annual report on global preparednessfor health emergencies
The next pandemic is not a question of if, but when—and the world is woefully unprepared, according to the first annual report from the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board. The WHO and the World Bank convened the independent group after ...the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Global News reports. Within 36 hours, a contagion like the 1918 flu could sweep the globe and take 50 to 80 million lives while wreaking havoc on the global economy, the report warns. And that’s just one possibility.
What would it take to get prepared? An investment of $1-$2 per person per year could create “acceptable” level of preparedness.
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Prepared as an outcome of ICMR Subcommittee on Colorectal Cancer | Coordinated by Division of Non Communicable Diseases | This Consensus Document on Management of Colorectal Cancer summarizes the modalities of treatment including the site-specific anti-cancer therapies,
supportive and palliative ca...re and molecular markers and research questions. It also interweaves clinical, biochemical and epidemiological studies.
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Young children are especially susceptible to exposure to trauma. Rates of abuse and neglect among this population are staggering. This article presents a review of relevant literature, including research findings specific to early childhood vulnerability to trauma, symptoms associated with traumatic... events, diagnostic validity of early childhood trauma, and treatments for young children. In the past, misconceptions about the mental health of young children have hindered accurate diagnosis and treatment of trauma-related mental illness. Due to the prevalence of trauma exposure in early childhood, counselors are encouraged to become familiar with ways that clients and families are impacted and methods for treatment. Implications for future research also are presented.
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SAMJ Review Vol. 108 No.3
Good Practices in Mental Health & Well-being
Phiri et al. Human Resources for Health (2017) 15:40
DOI 10.1186/s12960-017-0214-3
Large-Scale UN Response Needed to Address Health and Food Crises
This report is based on interviews with more than 150 health care professionals, Venezuelans seeking or in need of medical care who recently arrived in Colombia and Brazil, representatives from international and nongovernmental humani...tarian organizations. In addition, researchers analyzed data on the situation inside Venezuela from official sources, hospitals, international and national organizations, and civil society organizations.
We found a health system in utter collapse with increased levels of maternal and infant mortality; the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles and diphtheria; and increases in numbers of infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis (TB). Although the government stopped publishing official data on nutrition in 2007, research by Venezuelan organizations and universities documents high levels of food insecurity and child malnutrition, and available data shows high hospital admissions of malnourished children.
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Malar J (2017) 16:174 DOI 10.1186/s12936-017-1808-x
Background: Since 2004, artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) has been the first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria in Benin. In 2016, a medicine outlet survey was implemented to investigate the availability, price, and market share of... anti-malarial treatment and malaria diagnostics. Results provide a timely and important benchmark to measure future interventions aimed at increasing access to quality malaria case management services.
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The Lancet Planetary Health, Vol.5 Issue 2, Feb. 1,2021.
Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) serve to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement of staying “well below 2°C”, which could also yield substantial health co-benefits in the process. However, existing NDC commitments are inadequa...te to achieve this goal. Placing health as a key focus of the NDCs could present an opportunity to increase ambition and realise health co-benefits. We modelled scenarios to analyse the health co-benefits of NDCs for the year 2040 for nine representative countries (ie, Brazil, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa, the UK, and the USA) that were selected for their contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions and their global or regional influence.
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The health sector In Ukraine is beginning to change in recent years. The sector, based on a system of health care (Semashko) originating from the Soviet Union, had been stagnant for many years. Remarkably little had changed since Independence and the health care system is as of today still character...ized by a very hierarchical and territorial system with large numbers of beds in institutional care settings. At the same time the Government of Ukraine has only limited resources available that are spread thin over the existing infrastructure
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CEPI is seeking to raise $3.5 billion to implement CEPI’s next 5-year plan. To mitigate the immediate threat of COVID-19 variants, it is activating key elements of this plan now—and seeking to mobilise a portion of this $3.5 billion in 2021. We have already launched R&D programmes to initiate de...velopment of next-generation vaccines against COVID-19 variants and we are planning studies to answer critical scientific questions related to the durability of immunity, effectiveness of mixed-vaccine regimens, and vaccine effectiveness in vulnerable populations such as pregnant women. We are also bringing forward our plans to develop vaccines that could protect against multiple COVID-19 variants and other coronavirus specie
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The article focuses on "The State of the World’s Children 2023" report published by UNICEF. It highlights the critical role of vaccines in saving lives and the challenges in global immunization efforts, especially for marginalized and underserved children. The report emphasizes the impact of COVID...-19 on routine immunization, leaving millions of children unprotected from preventable diseases. It calls for urgent measures to restore and improve vaccination coverage, ensure equity in vaccine access, strengthen primary healthcare systems, and build trust in vaccines. The report also advocates for innovations and sustainable funding to achieve immunization for every child.
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