30 April 2020
| COVID-19: Essential health services
COVID-19 has taken away our daily work, home and school routines. This is hard for children, teenagers and for you. Making new routines can help.
Updated 8 June 2020
How should humanitarian organisations prepare and respond to COVID-19 in humanitarian settings in low- and middle-income countries?
This Rapid Learning Review outlines 14 actions, insights and ideas for humanitarian actors to consider in their COVID-19 responses. It summarises and synthesises the... best available knowledge and guidance for developing a health response to COVID-19 in low- and middle-income settings as at April 2020
The paper, supported by the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock, will be updated throughout 2020 to reflect emerging knowledge and evidence on the most effective approaches to respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
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The 2014–2015 Ebola outbreak was catastrophic in West Africa but the indirect impact of increasing the mortality rates of other conditions was also substantial. The increased number of deaths caused by malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis attributable to health system failures exceeded deaths from ...Ebola.
With a relatively limited COVID-19 caseload, health systems may have the capacity to maintain routine service delivery in addition to managing COVID-19 cases. When caseloads are high, and/or health workers are directly affected, strategic adaptations are required to ensure that increasingly limited resources provide maximum benefit for the refugees and surrounding host population. The following are key considerations for UNHCR operations on prioritized health care services in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak. These are based on WHO Guidance for Maintaining Essential Health Services and UNHCR guidance for operations and where relevant operation or site level outbreak preparedness and response plans.
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In response to the first cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) reported on the continent, many African Union Member States implemented large-scale public health and social measures (PHSM) rapidly. These measures were aimed at reducing transmission and the number of new cases being reported, p...rotecting the most vulnerable populations, and allowing time for countries to ramp up critical healthcare and diagnostic services. While these quick actions bought time for Member States, the negative socio-economic impacts are being felt widely, and countries are now exploring how best to ease these measures back while still managing the outbreak.
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In March 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of a novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, to be a pandemic, due to the speed and scale of transmission.
WHO and public health authorities around the world are taking action to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. Certain populations,... such as those with disability, may be impacted more significantly by COVID-19. This impact can be mitigated if simple actions and protective measures are taken by key stakeholders.
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The first case of COVID-19 was reported in Mozambique on 22 March 2020. As of 26 May, Mozambique had 194 confirmed cases of COVID-19, of which 168 were locally transmitted. The country’s capital, Maputo, and the province of Cabo Delgado are currently the epicentres of the outbreak in Mozambique, w...ith Pemba and Afungi registering more than 50 percent of the overall cases. Other provinces affected are Manica, Inhambane, Gaza, Tete and Sofala.
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This practical guidance is designed to assist programme specialists to implement COVID19 RCCE activities for and with refugees, IDPs, migrants and host communities vulnerable to the pandemic. The guidance highlights key challenges and barriers faced by these people in accessing COVID19 health-relate...d information and presents key considerations and recommendations for planning and implementing RCCE activities. The document can be adapted to countries’ specific context and aligned with national response plans for COVID-19 and national RCCE plans.
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This paper is an initial compilation of the promising practices on risk communication and community engagement that have developed in Europe during the COVID pandemic, in complementarity to the UNHCR’s Practical Recommendations and Good Practice to Address Protection Concerns in the Context of the... COVID-19 Pandemic.It seeks to document and share such practices, but also to inspire new initiatives, foster exchange, and further develop a community of practice within the region.
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The main objective of this guidance is to provide scientific advice on public health principles and considerations for infection and prevention control of COVID-19 in migrant and refugee reception and detention centres in the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) and the United Kingdom ...(UK).
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his guidance details basic decontamination principles and procedures that should be followed to decontaminate the physical environment in the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Surface contamination and transmission risk all differ by the type of setting and the volume of p...eople that frequent each setting (e.g. healthcare facilities, public transport, and other busy facilities/workplaces), even though the principles of environmental decontamination remain the same.
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Immunizations are an essential health service that protect susceptible individuals from vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD).2 By providing timely immunizations, individuals and communities remain protected and the likelihood of a VPD outbreak decreases, Preventing a VPD ...outbreak not only saves lives but requires fewer resources than responding to the outbreak and helps reduce burden on a health system already strained by the COVID-19 pandemic, While committing to sustaining immunization systems, countries should use approaches that respect the principle of do-no-harm and limit transmission of COVID-19 while providing immunization activities, Immunization visits can also be used as opportunities to disseminate messages to encourage behaviours to reduce transmission risk of the COVID-19 virus, to identify signs and symptoms of COVID-19 disease, and to provide guidance on what to do if symptoms emerge
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Immunization in the context of COVID-19 pandemic: frequently asked questions (FAQ), 16 April 2020 ترافق ھذه الأسئلة المتكررةالمبادئالتوجیھیة الخاصة بأنشطة التمنیع أثناء جائحةكوفید-19الصادرة عن... منظمة الصحة العالمیة.1و ، حّن قُس تحسب الاقتضاء، وفقا لتطور جائحة كوفید-19.التمنیع ھو خدمة من الخدمات ال صحیة الأساسیة التي تحمي الأفراد ضین لّالمعرلأمراض التي یمكن الوقایة منھاباللقاحات.2وبفضلتوفیر التمنیعللأفراد والمجتمعات المحلیة في الوقت المناسب ،سّی ظ لونمحمیین،م م ا سیؤدي إلى انخفاض احتمالوقوع فاشیات الأمراض التي یمكن الوقایة منھا باللقاحات. وعلاوة على أن تلافيحدوثفاشیات الأمراض التي یمكن الوقایة منھا باللقاحاتیؤدي إلى إنقاذالأرواح، فإنھ یتطلب موارد أقل من تلك التي تتطلبھا الاستجابة للفاشیة، كما أنھیساعد على تخفیفالعبء الملقى على نظام صحي مرھق أصلا نتیجة جائحة كوفید-19.وبینما تلتزم البلدان بالحفاظ على نظم التمنیع ،ینبغي لھا أن تتبعالھ ج ُنا ل ت ي تحترم مبدأ عدم إلحاق الأذى وا ل ت ي تحد من انتقالمرض كوفید-19عند اضطلاعھا بأنشطة التمنیع. وا ًیمكن أیضاغتنام الفرص التي تتیحھا زیارات التمنیعّلنشر رسائل تشجع ي الّعلى تبنسلوكیات التي تحد من مخاطر انتقال عدوى الفیروس المسبب لمرض كوفید-19 ،والتعرف علىعلامات مرض كوفید-19وأعراضھ، وتقدیم إرشادات بشأنالتدابیر الواجب اتخاذھا في حال ظھور الأعراض
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Иммунизация является важной медицинской услугой, которая защищает человечество от болезней, предупреждаемых вакцинацией (БПВ)2. Благодаря своевременной имму...низации люди и сообщества обретают защиту, и вероятность вспышки БПВ уменьшается.Предотвращение вспышки БПВ не только спасает жизни, но и требует меньше ресурсовпо сравнению среагированиемна вспышку и помогает снизить нагрузку на систему здравоохранения, и без того перегруженную в результате пандемии COVID-19.
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Glob Heart . 2020 Oct 13;15(1):69. doi: 10.5334/gh.891.