Ahead of World Malaria Day, the WHO Global Malaria Programme published a new operational strategy outlining its priorities and key activities up to 2030 to help change the trajectory of malaria trends, with a view to achieving the global malaria targets. The strategy outlines 4 strategic objectives ...where WHO will focus its efforts, including developing norms and standards, introducing new tools and innovation, promoting strategic information for impact, and providing technical leadership of the global malaria response.
In recent years, progress towards critical targets of the WHO Global technical strategy for malaria 2016-2030 has stalled, particularly in countries that carry a high burden of the disease. In 2022 there were an estimated 608 000 malaria-related deaths and 249 million new malaria cases globally, with young children in Africa bearing the brunt of the disease.
Millions of people continue to miss out on the services they need to prevent, detect, and treat malaria. Additionally, progress in global malaria control has been hampered by resource constraints, humanitarian crises, climate change and biological threats such as drug and insecticide resistance.
“A shift in the global malaria response is urgently needed across the entire malaria ecosystem to prevent avoidable deaths and achieve the targets of the WHO global malaria strategy,” notes Dr Daniel Ngamije, Director of the Global Malaria Programme. “This shift should seek to address the root causes of the disease and be centred around accessibility, efficiency, sustainability, equity and integration.”
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Including a Tool to Assess the Adolescent Health and Development Component in Pre-Service Education of Health-Care Providers
Interim emergency guidelines
People younger than 20 years comprise 35% of the global population and 40% of the global population of least-developed nations. The number of children - neonates, infants, children, and adolescents up to 19 years of age - who need pediatric palliative care (PPC) each year may be as high as 21 millio...n. Another study found that almost 2.5 million children die each year with serious health related suffering and that more than 98% of these children are in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) (3). While estimates differ, there is no doubt that there is an enormous need for prevention and relief of suffering among children - for PPC.
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Rabies is a fatal viral zoonosis and serious public health problem.1 All mammals are believed to be susceptible to the disease, and for the purposes of this document, use of the term animal refers to mammals. The disease is an acute, progressive encephalitis caused by viruses in the genus Lyssavirus....
2 Rabies virus is the most important lyssavirus globally. In the
United States, multiple rabies virus variants are maintained in wild mammalian reservoir populations such as raccoons, skunks, foxes, and bats. Although the United States has been declared free from transmission of canine rabies virus variants, there is always a risk of reintroduction of these variants.The rabies virus is usually transmitted from animal to animal through bites. The incubation period is
highly variable. In domestic animals, it is generally 3 to 12 weeks, but can range from several days to months, exceeding 6 months.8 Rabies is communicable during the period of salivary shedding of rabies virus. Experimental and historic evidence documents that dogs, cats, and ferrets shed the virus for a few days prior to the onset of clinical signs and during illness. Clinical signs of rabies are variable and include inappetance, dysphagia, cranial nerve deficits, abnormal behavior, ataxia, paralysis, altered vocalization, and seizures. Progression to death is rapid. There are currently no known effective rabies antiviral drugs.
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Healthy communities rely on well-functioning ecosystems. They provide clean air, fresh water, medicines and food security. They also limit disease and stabilize the climate. But biodiversity loss is happening at unprecedented rates, impacting human health worldwide, according to a new state of knowl...edge review of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and WHO.
The report synthesizes the available information on the most important inter-linkages between biodiversity, ecosystem stability, and epidemic infectious diseases such as the Ebola virus; and the connection between biodiversity, nutritional diversity and health. It also covers the potential benefits of closer partnerships between conservation and health, from improved surveillance of infectious diseases in wildlife and human populations, to promoting access to green spaces to promote physical activity and mental health. It also highlights the many areas in which further research is needed.
The Joint report hopes to provide a useful reference for the Sustainable Development Goals and post-2015 development agenda, which represents an unique opportunity to promote integrated approaches to biodiversity and health by highlighting that biodiversity contributes to human well-being, and highlighting that biodiversity needs protection for development to be sustainable.
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21 August 2020
This guidance provides specific considerations for the use of non-medical masks, also known as fabric masks, by children as a means for source control in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic. It also advises on the use of medical masks for children under certain conditions.
Myanmar is prone to various natural hazards that include earthquakes, floods, cyclones, droughts, fires, tsunamis, some of whichhave the potential to impact large numbers of people. In the event that large numbers of people are affected (such as was the case in 2008 following cyclone Nargis), the go...vernment may decide to request international assistance to respond to the disaster.
The overall goal of the ERPP is to mitigate the impact of disasters and save as many lives as possible from preventable causes. It aims to ensure that effective and timely assistance is provided to people in need through effective coordination and communication on emergency preparedness and humanitarian response between members of the HCTin Myanmar. The approach has been developed in collaboration with the Government, to facilitate a coordinated and effective support to people affected by humanitarian crises.
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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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Census Report Volume 4-K
The results of the 2014 Census collected only relates to four of the six types of disability domains recommended by the Washington Group on Disability Statistics, namely: seeing, hearing, walking, and remembering or concentrating.
Out of a total of 50.3 million pe...rsons enumerated in the 2014 Census, there were 2.3 million persons (4.6 per cent of the total population) who reported some degree of difficulty with either one or more of the four functional domains. Of this number, over half a million (representing over 1 per cent of the population as a whole) reported having a lot of difficulty or could not do one or more of the four activities at all (referred to as severe disability). Among those with the severest degree of disability, 55 thousand were blind, 43 thousand were deaf, 99 thousand could not walk at all and 90 thousand did not have the capability to remember or concentrate.
The Census shows that disability is predominantly an old age phenomenon with its prevalence remaining low up to a certain age, after which rates increase substantially.
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A joint FAO/WFP update for the United Nations Security Council, January 2018. ISSUE N.3. Six months on from the last joint report for the United
Nations Security Council (UNSC), this report by the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) ...
provides an update on the acute food insecurity
situation in most of the conflict-affected countries
currently being monitored by the UNSC.
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The objectives of these guidelines are to provide recommendations outlining a public health approach to managing people presenting with advanced HIV disease, and to provide guidance on the timing of initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for all people living with HIV.
WHO recommends that a... package of screening, prophylaxis, rapid ART initiation and intensified adherence interventions be offered to everyone living with HIV presenting with advanced disease.
WHO strongly recommends that rapid ART initiation should be offered to people living with HIV following confirmed diagnosis and clinical assessment. Rapid initiation of ART is defined as within seven days of HIV diagnosis. WHO further strongly recommends ART initiation on the same day as HIV diagnosis based on the person’s willingness and readiness to start ART immediately, unless there are clinical reasons to delay treatment.
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The five hepatitis viruses have different epidemiological profiles, and their impact, duration, and transmission route also vary. The most common transmission routes contributing to the spread of hepatitis are exposure to infected blood via blood transfusion or unsafe injection practices, consumptio...n of contaminated food and drinking water, and transmission from mother to child during pregnancy and delivery. Also, unsafe injection practices, including the use of unsterile needles and syringes, serve as a major pathway for the spread of hepatitis B and C, and reducing transmission of both diseases requires addressing these practices.
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Detecting breast cancer early improves survival, lowers morbidity and reduces the cost of care. Learn about the major breast cancer early detection strategies in this knowledge summary, including breast cancer education and awareness, and breast self-detection and clinical breast exams (CBE).
This document aims to provide interim guidance for microbiology and virology experts, other laboratory professionals, laboratory managers, infectious disease programme managers, public health professionals and other stakeholders that provide primary, confirmatory or advanced testing for SARS-CoV-2, ...including genomic sequencing, or are involved in making decisions on establishing or scaling up capability and capacity to detect and characterize circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants.
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