Contains data from World Health Organization's data portal covering the following categories:
Mortality and global health estimates, Sustainable development goals, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Health systems, Malaria, Tuberculosis, Child health, Infectious diseases, Neglected Tropical Disea...ses, World Health Statistics, Health financing, Tobacco, Substance use and mental health, Injuries and violence, HIV/AIDS and other STIs, Public health and environment, Nutrition, Urban health, Noncommunicable diseases, Noncommunicable diseases CCS, Negelected tropical diseases, Infrastructure, Essential health technologies, Medical equipment, Demographic and socioeconomic statistics, Health inequality monitor, Health Equity Monitor, Child malnutrition, TOBACCO, Neglected tropical diseases, International Health Regulations (2005) monitoring framework, 0, Insecticide resistance, Oral health, Universal Health Coverage, Global Observatory for eHealth (GOe)
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The Global guidance framework for the responsible use of the life sciences: mitigating biorisks and governing dual-use research (the framework) aims to provide values and principles, tools and mechanisms to support Member States and key stakeholders to mitigate and prevent biorisks and govern dual-u...se research.
The framework adopts the One health approach and focuses on the role that responsible life sciences research can play in preventing and mitigating risks caused by accidents, inadvertent or deliberate misuse with the intention to cause harm to humans, nonhuman animals, plants and agriculture, and the environment.
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The war in Ukraine has had devasting impact on women and girls
worldwide, widening gender gaps and increasing rates of food insecurity, malnutrition and energy poverty. This brief reviews the available evidence of that impact, recommending urgent attention to its consequences for women and girls. I...ts findings underline the global impacts on gender equality and women’s rights that have been compounded by climate change, environmental degradation and the COVID-19 pandemic,
demonstrating further entrenched inequalities and human rights violations.
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After more than three years without cases, Haiti reported on 2 October 2022 a cluster of cholera cases in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, just as the country was on the verge of being declared cholera- free.
This cholera resurgence in Haiti is happening in a complex operational context, ...amid a volatile socio- political environment marked by blockades, fuel shortages, criminal gang activity and rampant insecurity. Civil unrest and lack of access to the affected communities are deepening the complex humanitarian crisis and hindering emergency response efforts.
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To improve the quality of care during labour and childbirth, facilitate effective implementation of the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations: Intrapartum care for a positive childbirth experience, published in 2018, and promote a shift towards improving the experience of childbirth, WHO d...eveloped the WHO Labour Care Guide (LCG) and an accompanying WHO labour care guide: user's manual. The WHO LCG is a tool to facilitate implementation of quality, evidence-based, woman-centred care for a positive childbirth experience within the context of a broader, rights-based approach.
The goal of this policy brief is to provide maternal and newborn health stakeholders and decision-makers with an overview of the WHO LCG and its guiding principles, key advantages of making the shift from the WHO partograph to the WHO LCG, and what is required to ensure an enabling environment that will facilitate a sustainable introduction of the WHO LCG.
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1.1 Why this course is needed
The first few hours and days of a newborn baby’s life are a critical window for establishing breastfeeding and for providing mothers with the support they need to breastfeed successfully. Since 1991, the Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) has helped to motivate... facilities providing maternity and newborn baby services worldwide to better support breastfeeding. It has been adopted by many countries and organizations. The BFHI aims to provide a health-care environment that supports mothers to acquire the skills necessary to exclusively breastfeed for six months, and to continue breastfeeding for two years or beyond.
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This short document summarizes the key content of the WHO report Reducing the harm from alcohol by regulating cross-border alcohol marketing, advertising and promotion. It outlines the way that alcohol is being marketed across national borders – often by digital means – and often regardless of t...he social, economic or cultural environment in receiving countries. It highlights how increasingly sophisticated advertising and promotion techniques, including linking alcohol brands to sports and cultural activities, sponsorships and use of e-mails, SMS and social media, are being used to increase customer loyalty and gain new customers. The summary also explains that young people and heavy drinkers are increasingly targeted by alcohol advertising, often to the detriment of their health, and highlights the need for more effective national regulations and better international collaboration.
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The Arab region in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) represents a substantial area of the terrestrial landmass encompassing several countries and ecosystems. This area is generally drier and warmer compared to the rest of the world and has extreme resource limitations that are highly vulnerabl...e to a changing climate, geopolitical instability and land degradation (Slimani & Aidoud, 2004). Agriculture (crops and livestock) is a critical source of employment and a potential option for engaging rural youth. However, environmental degradation coupled with declining and variable agricultural productivity may pose a massive challenge already beset by instability and declining oil reserves (Tagliapietra, 2017). The Arab region is also subjected to short and long-duration climate extreme events, and the overall impact of their cascading effects on ecosystems, societies and economies is still an open question. Climate change, along with post-war geopolitical complexities, has greatly affected the Arab region in terms of its economy and social balance. Climate change has penetrating effects on the region’s agriculture sector and hence its economy. These are mainly manifested via changes in water resources and extreme weather conditions such as heatwaves and a drastic decline in precipitation.
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Despite the significant role of vector control in national leishmaniasis control programmes, the programmatic community perceives vector control as the weakest component of leishmaniasis control strategies in terms of resources, scientific evidence of the usefulness of interventions and capacity for... quality-assured implementation. Therefore, the main objective of this manual is to provide practical tools, techniques and procedures to strengthen sand fly control and surveillance in order to improve implementation of leishmaniasis control programmes. The manual provides a rationale for programme managers in different geographical regions on the types of vector control interventions to be used in different epidemiological and environmental settings and also how to measure their impact.
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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.
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HIV-1 infection disproportionately affects women in sub-Saharan Africa, where areas of high HIV-1 prevalence and Schistosoma haematobium endemicity largely overlap. Female genital schistosomiasis (FGS), caused most frequently by S. haematobium egg deposition in the genital tract, has been associated... with prevalent HIV-1 infection in cross-sectional studies. The presence of S. haematobium eggs in genital tissue is also associated with vascularization and the accumulation of CD4+ lymphocytes and macrophages, making the granuloma-associated environment a potential contributor to HIV-1 vulnerability. In addition to modulation of the local cervicovaginal environment, FGS has also been associated with a higher frequency of systemic CD4 T-cells expressing the chemokine receptor CCR5. Tissue-entrapped eggs are also associated with clinically visible FGS-associated manifestations in the cervicovaginal mucosa. FGS lesions may breach the intact cervicovaginal immune barrier and are hypothesized to provide an entry point for HIV-1 infection. However, the underlying mechanism for potential HIV-1 vulnerability in FGS has not been fully characterized and requires further investigation.
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The control of schistosomiasis was a high priority in China soon after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, and schistosomiasis japonica was largely brought under control through 7 decades of effort. However, great challenges still exist to completely eliminate schistosomiasis f...rom the country by 2030 due to climate change, natural disasters, socioeconomic development, environmental protection, etc. The progress of the national schistosomiasis control program and the experience
accumulated over past several decades in China is reviewed in this article, and solutions to achieve the elimination of schistosomiasis through a One Health
approach are explored, which addresses complex health issues from a holistic perspective of human-animal-environment interaction.
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Cholera which disproportionally impacts poor countries and the most vulnerable continues to affect at least 47 countries across the globe, resulting in an estimated 1.3 – 4 million cases, and 21,000 - 143,000 deaths per year worldwide. In Ethiopia, despite major improvements seen in the increasing... access to healthcare, clean water, and improvement in maternal and child health, the country continues to be significantly affected by cholera outbreaks. From 2015 – 2021 for example, several outbreaks of cholera have occurred in multiple parts of the country resulting in over 105,000 cases and thousands of deaths. Some of the risk factors associated with cholera in Ethiopia include inadequate access to clean water, practice of open defecation, poor household and environmental sanitation, unhygienic latrine and weak sanitation practise among communities.
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General tips:
1- Make sure to assign a staff member to be the focal point to support persons with disabilities in every location/project. (The focal point should know the evacuation procedures).
2- The focal point should coordinate the evacuation and support persons with disabilities in case of an... evacuation/emergency.
3- Communicate clearly verbally and through other communication channels who the focal point is and support options available.
4- Make sure persons with disabilities/older persons are prioritized during evacuation.
5- Always inform everyone about the availability of specific services -remember that not all disabilities are visible.
6- Don’t make assumptions about the needs and priorities of persons with disabilities - Always ask them.
7- Make sure persons with disabilities/older persons are regularly updated and informed about the situation using different communication methods.
8- Look at the place/environment and think about other barriers persons with disabilities might face and address them.
9- Make sure that persons with disabilities, older persons, and those with sever medical conditions are identified when registering new arrivals or when doing door-to-door registration.
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Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease with epidemic potential, especially after a heavy rainfall,
caused by a bacterium called Leptospira. Leptospira interrogans is pathogenic to humans and
animals, with more than 200 serologic variants or serovars. Humans usually acquire
leptospirosis through dire...ct contact with the urine of infected animals or a urine-contaminated
environment. Human-to-human transmission occurs only very rarely. Leptospirosis may present
with a wide variety of clinical manifestations, from a mild illness that may progress to a serious
and sometimes fatal disease. Its symptoms may mimic many diseases, such as influenza,
dengue and other viral haemorrhagic diseases; making the correct diagnosis (clinical and
laboratory) at the onset of symptoms is important to prevent severe cases and save lives,
primarily in outbreak situations.
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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.
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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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The Fifty-first World Health Assembly adopted resolution WHA51.11 in 1998, which targets the
global elimination of trachoma as a public health problem by 2020 (1). The strategy recommended
to achieve that goal is encapsulated by the acronym “SAFE”, which represents: Surgery for
individuals wi...th trachomatous trichiasis (TT; the late blinding stage of trachoma); and Antibiotics,
Facial cleanliness and Environmental improvement (2). The A, F and E interventions are delivered to
entire districts in which active (inflammatory) trachoma is common in order to treat ocular infection
with Chlamydia trachomatis, the causative organism of trachoma, and sustainably reduce its
transmission.
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Lack of trained providers capable of identifying which labouring women could benefit from assisted vaginal birth (AVB), and of safely performing the procedure is a major barrier for its use. Education and training are, therefore, considered crucial for building skills and confidence in conducting AV...B and there is evidence that it would be welcomed by healthcare providers. However, acquiring and maintaining AVB skills is a complex task that requires a supportive environment, mentorship, supervision and accountability. As with other practices to manage infrequent procedures and complications, continuous education and on-site supervision are essential to ensure the safe and sustainable use of AVB.
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Small island developing states (SIDS) are a set of islands and coastal states that share similar sustainable development challenges, as a result of their size, geography and vulnerability to climate change. Thirty-nine WHO member states in four regions – the African Region, the Region of the Ameri...cas, the South-East Asian Region, and the Western Pacific region – are classified as SIDS. Whilst the individual countries differ in many respects, collectively they face unique social, economic and environmental challenges.
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