This Teacher’s Guide accompanies the WHO publication Management of wastes from health-care activities . It provides teaching materials and recommendations for a three day training course, designed mainly for managers of health-care establishments, public health professionals and policy makers
Heat is the top killer among all types of weather hazards, including hurricanes and tornadoes. But hospitals and health care providers do not always report heat-related illnesses or heat as an underlying cause of a death, making it hard to measure the actual impact of extreme heat on health.
The World Health Organization (WHO) video titled "Preventing Disease Through Healthy Environments" highlights the significant impact of environmental factors on global health. It reports that in 2012, approximately 12.6 million deaths—nearly one in four worldwide—were attributable to unhealthy e...nvironments. The video emphasizes the importance of addressing environmental risks to prevent diseases and improve public health outcomes.
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Climate change threatens to undermine the past 50 years of gains in public health. In response, theNational Health Service (NHS) in England has been working since 2008 to quantify and reduce its carbon footprint.
This Article presents the latest update to its greenhouse gas accounting, identifying ...interventions for mitigation efforts and describing an approach applicable to other health systems across the world.
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WHO's Health in the Green Economy sector briefings examine the health impacts of climate change mitigation strategies considered by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in their Fourth Assessment Report.
This paper explores the angles and opportunities of digital health, with a look
at digital innovation and its potential to support patients with circulatory diseases.
In reviewing developments in the field, current applications as well as gaps, the paper aims to support policymakers in leveraging ...technology for better circulatory health and to capture the roles that various sectors have in making
digital health a tool for everyone.
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The Noncommunicable Diseases Country Profiles 2018 by the World Health Organization (WHO) provides an in-depth look at the burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes across WHO Member States. It includes data on NCD m...ortality, risk factors like tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, and excessive alcohol consumption, as well as country-specific responses and health system capacities to manage and prevent NCDs.
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All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI) has been a signatory to the Climate and Environment Charter since 2021 and has worked extensively in advancing the commitments to the Charter through its programs and operations, as well as an advocacy partner within India and regionally.
Worldwide, around 2.3 billion people still cook using solid fuels (such as wood, crop waste, charcoal, coal and dung) and kerosene in open fires and inefficient stoves. Most of these people are poor and live in low- and middle-income countries. There is a large discrepancy in access to cleaner cooki...ng alternatives between urban and rural areas: in 2021, only 14% of people in urban areas relied on polluting fuels and technologies, compared with 49% of the global rural population.
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Severe and difficult asthma in a low- and middle-income country (LMIC) can relate to lack of availability of basic medications; potentially reversible factors such as poor adherence or comorbidities such as obesity inhibiting a good response to treatment; and (rarely) true severe, therapy-resistant ...asthma. However, definitions of severity should encompass not merely doses of prescribed medication, but also underlying risk. The nature of asthmatic airway disease shows geographical variation, and LMIC asthma should not be assumed to be phenotypically the same as that in high-income countries (HICs). The first assessment step is to ensure another diagnosis is not being missed. Largely, political action is needed if children with asthma are to get access to basic medications. If a child is apparently not responding to low dose, simple medications, the next step is not to increase the dose but perform a detailed assessment of what factors (for example co-morbidities such as obesity, or social factors like poor adherence) are inhibiting a treatment response; in most cases, an underlying reason can be found. An assessment of risk of future severe asthma attacks, side-effects of medication and impaired lung development is also important. True severe, therapy-resistant asthma is rare and there are multiple underlying molecular pathologies. In HICs, steroid-resistant eosinophilia would be treated with omalizumab or mepolizumab, but the cost of these is prohibitive in LMICs, the biomarkers of successful therapy are likely only relevant to HICs. In LMICs, a raised blood eosinophil count may be due to parasites, so treating asthma based on the blood eosinophil count may not be appropriate in these settings.
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a "risk factor" is something that increases your chances of getting a disease or condition. In the case of asthma there are two diffrent type of risk factors. There are risk factors for developing asthma , and there are separate risk factors for those who already have asthma getting a severe asthma ...attack. We like to refer to the second as "triggers for asthma attacks" instead of "risk factors" to avoid confusion.
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An allergy is when someone has a bad reaction to something in the enviroment that other people can tolerate. We get allergies when our bodies defence system hurt us instead of protecting us.
Secondhand smoke can infiltrate into other units through hallways and stairwells. Don’t be shy when it comes to your health. Talk to your building manager about making your apartment smokefree.
Secondhand smoke and the harmful chemicals in it are known causes of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS, ear infections.and asthma attacks in infants and children. They are also known causes of HEART DISEASE,stroke, and lung cancer in adult nonsmokers.
Silicosis is not a new disease; the impact of silica dust on respiratory function was observed by Hippocrates in 430 B.C. and in the 16th century by Agricol. In 1713, Rammazini described silicotic nodules in post-mortems of stone cutters presenting with respiratory symptoms. In the mid-late 1800s,... the introduction of mechanized tools in the mining sector rapidly increased levels of silica exposure, resulting in an increase in cases and our understanding of silicosis.
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