The threat climate change poses to health, equity, and development has been rigorously documented. However, in an era marked by economic crisis, regional conflicts, natural disasters and growing disparities between rich and poor, the joint global actions required to address climate change have been ...vigorously debated – and critical decisions postponed.
This document, part of WHO’s Health in the Green Economy series, describes how many climate change measures can be “win-wins” for people and the planet.
These policies yield large, immediate public health benefits while reducing the upward trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions. Many of these policies can improve the health and equity of people in poor countries and assist developing countries in adapting to climate change that is already occurring, as evidenced by more extreme storms, flooding, drought and heatwaves.
WHO’s Department of Public Health and Environment launched the Health in the Green Economy initiative in 2010 to review potential health and equity “co-benefits” of proposed climate change measures – as well as relevant risks.
This review examines mitigation strategies discussed in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which constitutes the most broad-based global review of mitigation options by scientific experts.
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The health and socioeconomic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the countries of Latin America hard and laid bare the profound inequities about which numerous international, regional and national reports have sounded warnings in recent decades. In this context, the historical politica...l and economic exclusion and marginalization of the more than 800 indigenous peoples in the region has been accentuated as a result of insufficient State responses to the crisis, which have not adequately considered the collective rights of these peoples and have had little cultural relevance.
This document provides an overview of the situation of indigenous peoples in the region in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. It analyses both the State’s and indigenous peoples’ own responses to the crisis, as well as offering a set of recommendations to rectify the neglect of these peoples in the management of the pandemic, centring on their collective rights.
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Senegal is home to nearly 2 million girls and women who have experienced FGM. Overall, 25 per cent of girls and women have undergone the practice, varying from over 90 per cent in Kédougou to just under 1 per cent in Diourbel
Mass vaccination campaigns to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) are occurring in many countries; estimates of vaccine effectiveness are urgently needed
to support decision making. A countrywide mass vaccination campaign with the
use of an inactivated severe acute respiratory syndrome c...oronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
vaccine (CoronaVac) was conducted in Chile starting on February 2, 2021.
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Child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM) threaten the well-being of millions of girls around the world. Both have existed for generations, as manifestations of gender inequality, and have been propagated by discriminatory norms that devalue girls. In many countries where both child marriag...e and FGM are common, girls most at risk for each practice tend to share certain characteristics, such as low levels of education, rural residence, and living in poorer households. Yet, there are distinct differences in what drives each practice, and many communities in which one may be common, will not practice the other.
This report seeks to identify the extent to which child marriage and FGM co-exist. The intersection of these two practices – that is, the share of women who underwent FGM and were married in childhood – is reviewed over time, to determine whether girls’ likelihood of experiencing both practices has changed across generations. Lastly, the analysis identifies the characteristics that most commonly distinguish the girls who experience one practice from those who experience both.
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Female genital mutilation is a harmful traditional practice that violates girls’ right to health
and overall well-being. Most research cites social acceptance, marriageability, community
belonging, proof of virginity, curbing promiscuity, hygiene, and religion as motivations for the
practice. I...t is generally assumed that individual attitudes of parents and other family mem-
bers have an impact on decisions related to the cutting of girls, and that such attitudes are
influenced by social norms. The aim of this study is to understand how parental attitudes
towards the practice of female genital mutilation influence decision making related to the cut-
ting of girls.
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Almost 50 million girls and women have undergone FGM in five countries in the Middle East and North Africa, accounting for one quarter of the global total
The PHC STGs and EML should be used by healthcare workers providing care at clinics, community health centres, and gateway clinics at hospitals.
Pharmaceutical and Therapeutics Committees (PTCs) are responsible for ensuring the availability of medicines listed in the PHC EML at those facilities, as... well as at higher levels of care.
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The Department of Health (DOH) has developed a National Integrated Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) Policy.1 This policy addresses the many cross-cutting issues relating to SRH service provision, drawing together the principles, rights, and guidance for planning and implementation th...at underpin the provision of quality, comprehensive, and integrated SRHR services in South Africa. The National Integrated SRHR Policy is supported by several clinical and service delivery guidelines covering related programmatic
areas, including the National Contraception Clinical Guidelines.
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In the light of the transmissibility of coronaviruses, and the global experience with MERS-CoV (ongoing) and SARS in 2003 which were also caused by coronaviruses, South African authorities have compiled this guideline document to support surveillance, case finding, diagnosis, management and public h...ealth responses to cases under investigation.
*Please note*
The interim guidelines are based on what is currently known about the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The National Department of Health (NDOH) and National Institute for Communicable Diseases will update these interim guidelines as needed and as additional information becomes available.
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These guidelines are based on the 3rd Edition of the WHO Guidelines (Published 2015) World Health Organization’s Guidelines for the treatment of malaria. Additional literature surveys have been undertaken. Factors that were considered in the choice of therapeutic options included effectiveness, sa...fety, and impact on malaria transmission and on the emergence and spread of antimalarial drug resistance. On-going surveillance is critical given the spread of artemisinin resistance in Southeast Asia, although not yet confirmed anywhere in Africa. The guidelines on the treatment of malaria in South Africa aim to facilitate effective, appropriate and timeous treatment of malaria, thereby reducing the burden of this disease in our communities. This is essential to further reduce the malaria case fatality rates currently recorded in South Africa, to decrease malaria transmission and to limit resistance to antimalarial drugs.
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Due to the particular Amazonian situation of vectorial transmission based mostly on the wild cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi with diversity of triatomine vectors involved in effective transmission, and the variety of eco-epidemiological situations that facilitate such transmission, the countries of the A...mazon agreed that the development and strengthening of preventive actions based on comprehensive surveillance and detection of effective vectorial transmission, based on mandatory notification of acute or chronic cases, was required. In addition, it was recommended that surveillance and prevention and/or vector control actioDue to the particular Amazonian situation of vectorial transmission based mostly on the wild cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi with diversity of triatomine vectors involved in effective transmission, and the variety of eco-epidemiological situations that facilitate such transmission, the countries of the Amazon agreed that the development and strengthening of preventive actions based on comprehensive surveillance and detection of effective vectorial transmission, based on mandatory notification of acute or chronic cases, was required.
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This report has been prepared in response to informal requests by SIDS Member States and territories for WHO assistance in confronting the stark and dire situation which climate change has created in their countries and the impact it is having on their peoples
Screening programmes for tuberculosis (TB) among immigrants rarely consider the heterogeneity of
risk related to migrants’ country of origin. We assess the performance of a large screening programme in asylum seekers by analysing (i) the difference in yield and numbers needed to screen (NNS) by c...ountry and WHO-reported TB burden, (ii) the possible impact of screening thresholds on sensitivity, and (iii) the value of WHO-estimated TB burden to improve the prediction accuracy of screening yield.
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Resumen ejecutivo guía de práctica clínica manejo de la infección por Sars-CoV 2