Main Points
The delivery of humanitarian assistance is expected to slow down significantly over the next seven to ten days in anticipation of the electoral process and limited availability of transport and security assets.
The percentage of extremely food-insecure people who have recei...ved food assistance increased to 65 per cent, as 520,000 people of the targeted 806,000 have now been reached.
Health partners have expressed concern over growing evidence of a spike in cases of severe acute malnutrition in hard-to-reach areas in the Sud region.
Cholera response partners are optimistic that the vaccination campaign of 8 to 15 November will contribute to reducing transmission in Sud and rand’Anse and the risk of a future outbreak
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This document updates recommendations for HIV testing by laboratories in the United States and offers approaches for reporting test results to persons ordering HIV tests and to public health authorities. The recommended algorithm is a sequence of tests used in combination to improve the accuracy of ...the laboratory diagnosis of HIV based on testing of serum or plasma specimens. The updated recommendations also include tests for HIV antigens and HIV nucleic acid because studies from populations at high risk for HIV demonstrate that antibody testing alone might miss a considerable percentage of HIV infections detectable by virologic tests
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This situation analysis has gathered information about the current state of AMR, contributing factors and antimicrobial use in Zimbabwe from the human, animal, agricultural and environmental sectors. Data has been gathered from different sectors such as the general public, academia, the Ministry of ...Health and Child Care, the Ministry of Agriculture Mechanization and Irrigation Development and the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate. It shows that AMR is a real concern in Zimbabwe and a threat to the health outcomes of humans, to the economic productivity of the livestock industry and a risk to the environment.
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This programmatic brief explores how to expand HIV and STI prevention and contraceptive method options in contraceptive services and, thus, to reduce HIV and STI incidence among adolescent girls and women. It focuses on settings with extremely high HIV prevalence and incidence. This brief complement...s existing guidance on HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), amplifies calls for action and outlines more comprehensive approaches to integration of SRHR and HIV services. It also emphasizes the importance of SRHR for women living with HIV. It aligns with updated WHO recommendations for contraceptive eligibility for women at high risk of HIV and other HIV guidance for adolescent girls and young women.
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Aligned to the Lancet Migration Global Statement to include migrants and refugees incountries’response to COVID-19, this update focuses on Mexico’s challenges and opportunities to build an inclusive response that is based on a contextualized adaptation of there commendations published by th...e Lancet Migration. A critical component for this analysis is the recognition of migration as a social determinant of health, which acts as a major risk factor for populations subjected to violence, trauma and forced exile while in the face of a global pandemic.
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The COVID-19 pandemic’s immediate costs, measured in lives lost and damaged, have been appalling and continue to rise. In addition, its effects on individuals’ livelihoods and economies around the world have been deep and are likely to be long lasting. While saving lives was the near-exclusive f...ocus during the first phase of the crisis, governments are now trying to strike a delicate balance between preventing further economic damage by reopening parts of their economies, while managing the obvious health risks of doing so.
In the international mobility and migration arenas—policy areas enormously affected by the health and economic effects of the pandemic—this reflection considers both how these fields have fared thus far and the challenges that lay ahead
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Rwanda first confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in March 2020. Although the number of cases has been low, health system resources are being redirected to respond and an increasing number of children are affected by the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic, including disruptions... to schooling and heightened protection risks.
While Rwanda remained Ebola-free during the outbreak, it remains a priority country and continues to maintain its Ebola preparedness. Rwanda is also home to 147,000 refugees, half of whom are children, who require assistance in and outside of camps.1 In 2021, UNICEF will continue to deliver life-saving services to refugees and children and families affected by COVID-19 and its socio-economic impacts, and maintain its Ebola preparedness and contingency planning.
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A Technical Brief for Breakthrough ACTION Field Teams
Social media can be used to collect and address rumors or popular beliefs among target audiences, share evidence-based and timely health information, receive instant feedback on materials, conduct remote trainings, promote awareness of a project..., its mission and events, and more. As increased numbers of people search online for health information, social media platforms are leading the lightning-speed spread of both dangerous coronavirus misinformation and the correct life-saving measures individuals, families, and communities can take to reduce their risk. Public health programs must have a proactive presence in these information-sharing spaces to provide access to trusted and accurate information.
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Antimicrobial Resistance or AMR continues to pose a major threat to human development and to the fight against infectious diseases. It also endangers animal health and welfare, and food production, and severely impacts our economies and societies. An holistic approach must be used to mitigate AMR ri...sks in Africa. Therefore, AMR governance is essential to promote sustainable actions that include proper institutional collaborations from public and private sectors to meet the dynamic societal demands in the continent. So join us in being part of the solution to Antimicrobial Resistance in Africa!
The Video is available in English, French, Arabic and Portuguese
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Tuberculosis (TB) is the deadliest infectious disease in most low- and middle-income countries, claiming more than 4,000 lives each day. The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has seriously impacted people with pre-existing health conditions. People with TB are usually more vulnerable to other infectio...ns, including the novel coronavirus, due to pre-existing lung damage. They are also at higher risk of developing complications from COVID-19.
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Second edition. June 2022. This revised guidance recommends that access to COVID-19 testing is decentralized as far as possible and made available at health facilities, and through the use of self tests to enable access to care and the mitigation of transmission. Testing should be prioritized for hi...gh-risk and vulnerable individuals presenting with acute onset of respiratory illness so that those found to be infected can benefit from clinical care and access to COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines
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n response to the outbreak, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has been supporting African Union Member States in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic through a variety of interventions such as non-pharmaceutical interventions, quarantine, testing, isolation, contact t...racing, and clinical management. The Test to Treat guideline aims to increase continental testing efforts and reduce COVID-19 transmission in Africa and put-up response measures to control the impact of the virus, both to limit spread and to reduce substantially the risks of severe health outcomes related to COVID-19 infection. These countermeasures include highly effective vaccines and boosters, rapid testing options for monitoring exposure, and effective therapeutic options for both pre-exposure prevention and treatment of mild-to-moderate disease, oxygen therapy for moderate-severe disease, all of which can potentially be updated efficiently as new variants emerge that may affect the effectiveness of the available tools.
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The sub-Saharan African region, carries 90% of the over 250 million cases of schistosomiasis occurring worldwide. In this region, after Nigeria, Tanzania is second country having the highest cases of schistosomiasis and approximately 51.5%0 of the Tanzanian population is either exposed or live in ar...eas with high risk of exposure. The country is endemic to both Schistosoma mansoni and Schistosoma haematobium, these infections are common in communities characterised with limited access to water, sanitation, hygienic practices and health services. Schistosoma mansoni infection is associated with hepatosplenic disease characterised with hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, progressive periportal fibrosis (PPF) which can lead to portal hypertension and its related sequelae, mainly ascites, liver surface irregularities, oesophageal varices and haematemesis. The main consequences of S. haematobium infection are haematuria, dysuria, nutritional deficiencies, urinary bladder lesions, hydronephrosis, urinary bladder squamous cell carcinoma and in children, growth retardation. Preventive chemotherapy using mass drug administration (MDA) of praziquantel targeting primary school aged children is the main strategy for controlling schistosomiasis in Tanzania.
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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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Over the past twenty years, huge efforts made by a broad coalition of stakeholders curbed the last epidemic and brought the disease to the brink of elimination. In this paper, the latest figures on disease occurrence, geographical distribution and control activities are presented. Strong evidence in...dicates that the elimination of sleeping sickness ‘as a public health problem’ by 2020 is well within reach. In particular, fewer than one thousand new cases were reported in 2018, and the area where the risk of infection is estimated as moderate, high or very high has shrunk to less than 200,000 km2. More than half of this area is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The interruption of transmission of the gambiense form, targeted by the World Health Organization (WHO) for 2030, will require renewed efforts to tackle a range of expected and unexpected challenges. The rhodesiense form of the disease represents a small part of the overall HAT burden. For this form, the problem of under detection is on the rise and, because of an important animal reservoir, the elimination of disease transmission is not envisioned at this stage.
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Chagas disease (CD) is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, and it is endemic in Central, South America, Mexico and the
South of the United States. It is an important cause of early mortality and morbidity, and it is associated with poverty and stigma. A third of
the cases evolve into chronic... cardiomyopathy and gastrointestinal disease. The infection is transmitted vertically and by blood/organ
donation and can reactivate with immunosuppression. Case identification requires awareness and screening programmes targeting the
population at risk (women in reproductive age, donors, immunocompromised patients). Treatment with benznidazole or nifurtimox is most
effective in the acute phase and prevents progression to chronic phase when given to children. Treating women antenatally reduces but does
not eliminate vertical transmission. Treatment is poorly tolerated, contraindicated during pregnancy, and has little effect modifying the
disease in the chronic phase. Screening is easily performed with serology. Migration has brought the disease outside of the endemic
countries, where the transmission continues vertically and via blood and tissue/organ donations. There are more than 32 million migrants
from Latin America living in non-endemic countries. However, the infection is massively underdiagnosed in this setting due to the lack of
awareness by patients, health authorities and professionals. Blood and tissue donation screening policies have significantly reduced
transmission in endemic countries but are not universally established in the non-endemic setting. Antenatal screening is not commonly
done. Other challenges include difficulties accessing and retaining patients in the healthcare system and lack of specific funding for the
interventions. Any strategy must be accompanied by education and awareness campaigns directed to patients, professionals and policy
makers. The involvement of patients and their communities is central and key for success and must be sought early and actively. This review
proposes strategies to address challenges faced by non-endemic countries
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Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a parasitic disease caused by infection with a vector-borne protozoan parasite of the genus Leishmania spp. The parasite is transmitted by the bite of an infected phlebotomine sand fly. Infection results in skin lesions which take a long time to heal and may leave per...manent, disfiguring scars (de Vries et al. 2015). CL is classified as a neglected tropical disease (NTD), and in common with several other NTDs, is associated with psychosocial effects including stigma, social exclusion, and declining mental health (Bailey et al. 2019; Bennis et al. 2018; Wenning et al. 2022). Emerging evidence suggests that people with CL are at a higher risk of experiencing anxiety, depression, decreased body satisfaction, loss of social status, and lower quality of life (Bennis et al. 2018; Yanik et al. 2004). The global mean age-standardised disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost by CL was 0.58 per 100,000 people (Karimkhani et al. 2016). Notably, this statistic only considers the physical effects of the lesions and does not account for the potentially considerable psychological and social effects of CL (Bailey et al. 2017; Bailey et al. 2019; Wenning et al. 2022).
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2023 is seeing intense heatwaves. According to a July 2023 briefing by the World Meteorological Association temperatures will frequently reach above 35–40°C in many places across the Mediterranean region, with temperatures in the Middle East and southeastern Türkiye reaching up to 45°C and, in ...North Africa, 44–49°C. April–May 2023 also saw temperature records broken across many parts of Asia, including Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.
The IPCC predicts that 420 million people will be exposed to extreme heat and heatwaves in the near future. Hundreds of thousands of people die from preventable heat-related causes each year, while temperature extremes and wildfires cause devastation to lives and livelihoods. According to the WMO, ‘heatwaves are amongst the deadliest natural hazards [and] heat is a rapidly growing health risk’.
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Background: The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in international and domestic funding for malaria control, coupled with important declines in malaria incidence and mortality in some regions of the world. As the ongoing climate of financial uncertainty places strains on investment in global ...health, there is an increasing need to audit the origin, recipients and geographical distribution of funding for malaria control relative to populations at risk of the disease. Methods: A comprehensive review of malaria control funding from international donors, bilateral sources and national governments was undertaken to reconstruct total funding by country for each year 2006 to 2010. Regions at risk from Plasmodium falciparum and/or Plasmodium vivax transmission were identified using global risk maps for 2010 and funding was assessed relative to populations at risk. Those nations with unequal funding relative to a regional average were identified and potential explanations highlighted, such as differences in national policies, government inaction or donor neglect.
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Cholera is a transmissible diarrhoeal infection caused by Vibrio cholerae. Endemic and/or epidemic in over 40 countries (mainly in Africa and Asia), cholera continues to be a major global public health issue.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the number of cases reported worldwid...e represents in reality only 5 to 10% of actual cases.
This guide is intended for medical and non-medical staff responding to a cholera outbreak. It attempts to provide concrete answers to the questions and problems faced by staff, based on the recommendations of reference organisations, such as WHO and UNICEF, as well as Médecins Sans Frontières’ experience in the field.
It is divided into 8 chapters. Chapter 1, Cholera overview, outlines the epidemiological and clinical features of cholera. Chapter 2, Outbreak investigation, explains the method and stages of a field investigation, from the alert to implementation of initial activities. Chapter 3, Cholera control measures, details measures and tools to prevent and/or control cholera transmission and mortality in populations affected, or at risk of being affected, by an epidemic (curative care, prevention means and health promotion activities). Chapter 4, Strategies for epidemic response, addresses the roll-out strategies of the measures described in Chapter 3 which depend on context (e.g. urban, rural, endemic, non-endemic setting, etc.), resources and particular constraints. Chapter 5, Cholera case management, details the different stages of cholera treatment, from diagnosis through to cure.
Chapter 6, Setting up cholera treatment facilities, focuses on the installation of treatment facilities that vary in size and complexity according to operational requirements (treatment centres and units and oral rehydration points). Chapter 7, Organisation of cholera treatment facilities, describes the organisation of these specialized facilities in terms of human resources, supply, water, hygiene and sanitation, etc. Chapter 8, Monitoring and evaluation, presents the key data to be collected and analysed during an epidemic to facilitate a tailored response and evaluate its quality and effectiveness.
The guide includes various practical tools in the appendices to facilitate activities (e.g. water quality tests, job descriptions, documents, etc.). Moreover, the toolbox also contains additional tools in editable formats (individual patient file, cholera case register, pictograms).
Despite all efforts, it is possible that certain errors may have been overlooked in this guide. Please inform the authors of any errors detected.
To ensure that this guide continues to evolve while remaining adapted to field realities, please send any comments or suggestions.
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