This article provides an overview of the current and projected climate change risks and impacts to mental health and provides recommendations for priority actions to address the mental health consequences of climate change.
Health Evidence Network synthesis report 53
HIV Diagnostics
Information Note
WHO/HIV/2017.16
Policy Guidance Brief 2
• The potential health risks from climate change include: increase of waterborne and vector-borne diseases, heat-related illnesses, injuries and deaths, food insecurity and increased malnutrition. The poor, women, children and the elderly, as well as communities living... in remote high-risk areas are most vulnerable.
• The expected results to achieve this outcome are: (i) climate risk management system is well-established, robust and nationally integrated to respond efectively to increased intensity and impact of risks and hazards on people’s health and wellbeing; (ii) improved social protection, gender consideration and risk finance capacity to prepare for and recover from potential loss and damage resulting from climate change; (iii) Myanmar’s health system is improved and can deal with climate-induced health hazards and support climate-vulnerable communities to respond effectively to disaster and health hazards from climate change.
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The vision of the new Strategic Action Plan for Strengthening HIS in Myanmar 2017- 2021 is “A strong health information system for a strong health system”. The mission statement of HIS in Myanmar also developed during the strategic planning exercise is “Generating and making accessible compreh...ensive, integrated and timely health information for decision making at different levels of health system”. The goal of the HIS in Myanmar formulated during the assessment is “ To provide complete, valid, reliable and timely health information for making right decisions at the right time to ensure an equitable, effective, efficient and responsive health system”.
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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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Biennial Report of the Regional Director
Olashore et al.
Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health (2017) 11:8 DOI 10.1186/s13034-017-0144-9
Myanmar, as a country going through rapid socio-political transition and institutional development also suffers with a high burden of infectious disease. An ongoing challenge has been to effectively reach its 51 million population, most of whom battle tuberculosis, acute respiratory infections, diar...rhoea and malaria including amongst under-five children.
Limited research data on the occurrence of resistant organisms in the nation have, makes it hard to estimate the exact antimicrobial resistance (AMR) scenario. Limited peer reviewed evidence indicates significant divergence from the average resistance trends in APAC region. Nevertheless, several key steps by Government of Myanmar have been instrumental in paving the way for the country to join other nations in the South East Asia Region to speed up its plan on addressing the AMR crisis. Combating antimicrobial resistance would, however, require highest political commitment, multi-sectoral coordination, sustained investment and technical assistance.
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Mugisha et al. Int J Ment Health Syst (2017) 11:7 DOI 10.1186/s13033-016-0114-2
Mission report: June 11-20, 2017
Recommendations for health care professionals – the experience from Latvia
Objective: To review research on associations of trauma type with PTSD in the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) surveys, a series of epidemiological surveys that obtained representative data on trauma-specific PTSD.
Several diagnostic criteria of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are remarkably similar to symptoms reported by individuals with depression, particularly as they manifest as cognitive processing deficits in children. Because of this overlap in profile and the high rate of comorbidity of PTSD and... depression (48% to 69%), pinpointing similarities/differences in cognitive processes related to each of these disorders is essential to accurate diagnosis. This study aims to examine cognitive performance profiles of 23 children who have been victims of PTSD and to compare their results with 23 children with depression and 24 controls.
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Following review of the latest evidence, WHO recommends that TB-LAMP can be used as a replacement for microscopy for the diagnosis of pulmonary TB in adults with signs and symptoms of TB. It can also be considered as a follow-on test to microscopy in adults with signs and symptoms of pulmonary TB, e...specially when further testing of sputum smear-negative specimens is necessary.
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Regional Tuberculosis Program, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO)