Emerg Infect Dis. April 2015
Read online at: http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/21/4/14-1940_article
Over the span of a few weeks during July and August 2014, events in West Africa changed perceptions of Ebola virus disease (EVD) from an exotic tropical disease to a priority for global health securi...ty. We describe observations during that time of a field team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and personnel of the Liberian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. The authors outline the early epidemiology of EVD within Liberia, including the practical limitations on surveillance and the effect on the country’s health care system, such as infections among health care workers
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Web page access : 28.04.2017
Guidance for the prevention of volcanic ash rain: before, during and after the ash rain
The main objectives of the training module
- facilitate communication and understanding between the two disciplines of epidemiology and laboratory (medicine) for disease surveillance and outbreak investigation;
- provide the field epidemiologist with a better understanding of basic microbiolo...gy techniques and analysis and interpretation of results;
- convey the laboratory perspective of public health investigations to field epidemiologists in order to improve collaboration between these two disciplines and to enhance.
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A survey was conducted in countries in all six WHO regions and focused on the building blocks that are considered prerequisites to combat antimicrobial resistance: a comprehensive national plan, laboratory capacity to undertake surveillance for resistant microorganisms, access to safe, effective ant...imicrobial medicines, control of the misuse of these medicines, awareness and understanding among the general public and effective infection prevention and control programmes.
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The publication conveys the quantitative surveillance results focusing on tobacco use and noncommunicable disease (NCD) related behaviours among youth (13–15 years) in Member States of the WHO South-East Asia Region, namely, the Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) and the Global Youth... Tobacco Survey (GYTS). This publication contains selected indicators relating to tobacco use and other related risk behaviours of youth (aged 13–15 years) in Member States of the WHO South-East Asia Region. The tobacco indicators are mainly taken from GYTS and other indicators relating to risk behaviours (dietary behaviours, physical activity, alcohol use, drug use, mental health, violence and unintentional injury, sexual behaviours, protective factors and hygiene) are taken from GSHS. The latest findings from surveys conducted in Member States are presented in the publication.
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Antibiotic resistance has been recognized as a major global health threat and optimizing prescribing is one of the most effective measures to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics. The quality of prescribing depends mostly on those prescribers belonging to clinical medical specialties... having direct contact with patients. These doctors, who comprise the majority of antibiotic prescribers,undergo long-term undergraduate and postgraduate training that shapes their professional knowledge and behaviour
J Antimicrob Chemother2019;74: 3611–3618doi:10.1093/jac/dkz375 Advance Access publication 3 September 2019
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16 December 2020. This document summarizes current WHO guidance for public health surveillance of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in humans caused by infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (hereafter referred to as COVID19 surveillance).
Since the emergence of COVID 19 in December 2019, various public health responses measures have been implemented to control the pandemic. Among measures taken by the Africa CDC was the launch of PACT initiative to accelerate COVID 19 testing. Key to the initiative is the engagement of Community Heal...th Workers (CHWs) in risk communication and community engagement (RCCE), surveillance activities for early case identification, contacts tracing and in facilitating referrals for testing and continuum of care.
As of 31 May 2021, Through PACT support, over 17154 CHWs have been trained and locally deployed in 24 AU Member states. The PACT supported CHWs visited more than 2,568,654 households for community engagement activities, active case search and contact tracing, identified 1,618,601 Contacts, 710,167 COVID 19 suspect cases based on the standard case definition and facilitated referrals for 553053 (78%) suspect cases for testing. These efforts were crucial for early identification and isolation of cases in limiting further transmission.
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This document summarizes current WHO guidance for public health surveillance of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in humans caused by infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
New elements include:
update of contact definitions, in line with latest cont...act tracing guidance
update of detection strategies in line with updated version of WHO SARS-CoV-2 testing guidance
reinfection evidence standardization and surveillance: molecular, genomic and immunological evidence of reinfection
inclusion of clinical case definition of Post COVID-19 condition as defined by WHO
definition of breakthrough infection
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The COVID-19 HEalth caRe wOrkErs Study (HEROES): Regional Report from the Americas is a multicenter prospective cohort study to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of health care workers in 26 countries on four continents and how it is affected by several factors at diffe...rent interrelated levels: individual, family, occupational, and social. This brief report presents the evidence generated from the baseline survey of 11 participating countries in the Region of the Americas. Using validated scales, the findings show high rates of depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and psychological distress in several countries of the Region. The spirit of the project is not only to generate quality scientific evidence on the mental health of health care workers, but also to help develop interventions (both individual and institutional) and policies to address the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health.
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The GEHM series is an evidence-informed normative product of the WHO
Health and Migration Programme to inform policy-makers on migrationrelated public health priorities. These reviews aim to respond to policy questions identified as priorities by summarizing the best available evidence worldwide an...d proposing policy considerations. By addressing data gaps on the health status of refugees and migrants, the GEHM series aims to support evidenceinformed policy-making and targeted interventions that are impactful and make a difference in the lives of these populations.
This Report, the fourth in the GEHM series reviews the available evidence on barriers to antibiotic access and appropriate use in refugees and migrants. It finds that the available evidence on refugees’ and migrants’ access to and use of antibiotics is scarce and is largely constrained to high-income contexts.
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Rabies is a fatal viral disease, but is preventable in humans. The rabies virus is transmitted to humans through virus-laden saliva from a rabid animal, mostly dogs. The virus is shed in the saliva of an infected animal and can be introduced into another body through bites, scratches and any other ...wounds that transect the skin. Contact of the infected saliva with mucous membranes is also thought to be a possible route of infection, whereas contact of infected saliva with intact skin is not considered an exposure. Rabies is preventable through pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for individuals at high and continual risk, and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP).
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The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste has the highest TB incidence rate in the South East Asian Region - 498 per 100,000, which is the seventh highest in the world. In Timor-Leste TB is the eighth most common cause of death.
The salient observations are as follows:
In 2018, 487 (12.5%) of the... 3906 notified TB patients were tested for RR-TB and only 12 lab confirmed RR-TB patients were initiated on standard MDR-TB treatment of 20-months duration, (a 3-fold increase in RR-TB detection compared with 2017). This amounts to treatment coverage of only 17% of 72 estimated MDR/RR-TB among notified TB patients (3906) and 5% of 240 estimated incident MDR-TB patients as compared to 62% treatment coverage of 6300 incident drug sensitive TB patients estimated in TLS. The treatment success in the 2016 annual cohort of 6 MDR-TB patients has been reported at 83%. 80% of TB patients know their HIV Status with around 1% TB-HIV co-infection, 37/ 77 (48%) TB-HIV Co-infection Detected. Of the 387 PLHIV currently alive on ART, exact status on TB screening and testing is unknown. % of PLHIV newly enrolled in HIV care who received IPT is not known.
In 2018, the mortality rate for TB was 94 deaths per 100,000 people (1200 per annum) in TL with an increasing mortality trend (Figure 1), despite TB services being available for nearly two decades.
A survey of catastrophic costs due to TB (2016) highlights that 83% of TB patients are reported to be facing catastrophic costs due to the disease. This is the highest rate in the world.
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