Now entering its ninth year, the crisis in north-east Nigeria has created vulnerabilities and humanitarian concerns. An estimated 7.7 million men, women, boys and girls are in acute need of protection and assistance. While the humanitarian community has provided life-saving assistance to over 5.6 mi...llion affected people in 2017 and helped stabilise living conditions for millions of people, reducing mortality and morbidity, significant humanitarian needs still remain.
The Humanitarian Response Plan at a glance:
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 1
Provide life-saving emergency assistance to the most vulnerable people in conflict-affected areas ensuring that assistance is timely and appropriate and meets relevant technical standards.
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 2
Ensure that all assistance promotes the protection, safety and dignity of affected people, and is provided equitably to women, girls, men and boys.
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 3
Foster resilience and early recovery, and strengthen the humanitarian development nexus by working towards collective outcomes.
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This publication aims to provide examples of better palliative care practices for older people to help those involved in planning and supporting care-oriented services most appropriately and effectively. Examples have been identifi ed from literature searches and from an international call... for examples through various organizations, including the European Association of Palliative Care and the European Union Geriatric Medicine Society. Some examples consider how to improve aspects within the whole health system; specifi c smaller examples consider how to improve palliative care education, support in the community, in hospitals or for specifi c groups of people, such as people in nursing homes and people with dementia and their families. Some examples await rigorous evaluation of effectiveness, and more research is needed in this fi eld, especially the cost–effectiveness and generalizability of these initiatives.
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In the last five years, i.e. how old turned the Campaign “Indifesa” (Defenceless) in 2016, that was launched by Terre des Hommes in 2012, the world has become smaller. One can actually say that the derangements following the Arab Spring in 2011 reshuffled what is stable and what produces instabi...lity; between those, who live in a peaceful world, and those, who try to survive in areas affected by violence. All that significantly reduced the distance between those, who live there, along the Mediterranean cost, and those, who live here. Such deep disorder made even more acute, visible and tangible also for the so called developed world all the serious violations of the human rights suffered by little girls and girls: on the one hand the widespread political instability and violence made even more precarious the little girls and young women’s conditions on the Mediterranean southern coast, where they were already fragile; and on the other hand the migration flows further worsened them, matching at the same time the conditions of those young and very young migrants to those of the European girls of the same age.
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Results
Recommendations• NGOs should provide MHPSS services with a focus on empowerment and self-reliance
• Introduce interventions focusing on pain mechanisms, coping strategies and physical resilience
• Implement livelihood programmes
• Increase service accessibility and outreach activ...ities
• Provide support groups for people who have lost a close family member
• Highlight the importance of supervision and training
• Ensure high quality service provisions by applying relevant outcome measures and to further contribute to the evidence base for MHPSS
• Diversify MHPSS activities to different target groups, including men and women, and address the needs of elderly and individuals with disabilities
This study provides evidence of a large gap between the need of MHPSS among Syrian refugees and provided services. Of the 1082 respondents in this study, 62% expressed that they needed assistance to deal with physical pain and distress. Almost 80% reported being in pain, of which 27% were in severe or very severe pain. Additionally, 55% suffer from distress and 56% rate their own health as fair or poor. Even among the 18-25-yearolds, the prevalence of reporting their overall health as fair was 30.7%. For functionality levels, 28.5% felt severely or extremely emotionally affected by their health problems, and more than 20% had serious difficulties in doing day-to-day work. On the other hand, the majority (72-74%) had no problems in maintaining friendships and participating in community activities
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ECDC Technical Report
In line with ECDC’s recommendations provided in the ’Risk Assessment of HTLV-1/2 transmission by tissue/cell transplantation’ dated 14 March 2012, this Directive replaces the term ‘incidence’ with ‘prevalence’ in the description of endemic areas of HTLV-1/2 i...nfection. According to the new requirements ‘HTLV-1 antibody testing must be performed for donors living in, or originating from high-prevalence areas or with sexual partners originating from those areas or where the donor’s parents originate from those areas’ and this applies to both donors of non-reproductive tissues and cells and reproductive cells.
ECDC contracted experts from the Institut Pasteur in Paris to systematically review the published evidence on the distribution of HTLV-1 infection prevalence throughout the world and to identify high-prevalence countries and areas.
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Providing community-based mental health services position paper
Accessed: 07.03.2020
A Review of Community Health Worker (CHW) knowledge, attitudes and practices relating to the sexual health of MSM, including existing training materials and manuals in Europe and neighbouring countries (D5.1)
Contract 2015 71 01 A behavioural survey for HIV/AIDS and assoc...iated infections and a survey and tailored training for community based health workers to facilitate access and improve the quality of prevention, diagnosis of HIV/AIDS, STI and viral hepatitis and health care services for men who have sex with men (MSM).
Pubic Health
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Policy brief, 24 July 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected older people disproportionately, especially those living in long-term care facilities. In many countries, evidence shows that more than 40% of COVID-19 related deaths have been linked to long-term care facilities, with figures being as h...igh as 80% in some high-income countries. Concerted action is needed to mitigate the impact across all aspects of long-term care, including home- and community-based care, given that most users and providers of care are those who are vulnerable to severe COVID-19.
This policy brief provides 11 policy objectives and key action points to prevent and manage COVID-19 across long-term care. Its intended audience is policy makers and authorities (national, subnational and local) involved in the COVID-19 pandemic. The brief builds on currently available evidence on the measures taken to prevent, prepare for and respond to the COVID‑19 pandemic across long-term care services including care providers
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These guidelines provide new and updated recommendations on the use of point-of-care testing in children under 18 months of age and point-of-care tests to monitor treatment in people living with HIV; the treatment monitoring algorithm; and timing of antiretroviral therapy (ART) among people living w...ith HIV who are being treated for tuberculosis.
New recommendations launched today outline key new actions that countries can take to improve the delivery of HIV testing, treatment and care services by providing greater options for differentiated approaches such as, supporting HIV treatment start in the community, ensuring that children are diagnosed and treated early, and that viral load treatment monitoring is more accessible, focused and triggers clinical action
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The WHO Guidance on community mental health services: Promoting person-centred and rights-based approaches document is part of the WHO Guidance and technical packages on community mental health services set of publications. It provides a detailed description of person-centred and human rights-based ...approaches in mental health, and summary examples of good practice services around the world. It describes the linkages needed with housing, education, employment and social protection sectors, and presents examples of integrated regional and national networks of community-based mental health services. Specific recommendations and action steps are presented for developing community mental health services that respect human rights and focus on recovery. This comprehensive document is accompanied by a set of seven technical packages focused on specific categories of mental health services and guidance for setting up new services.
The WHO Guidance on community mental health services: Promoting person-centred and rights-based approaches is a set of publications that provides information and support to all stakeholders who wish to develop or transform their mental health system and services to align with international human rights standards including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
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This second edition of the Infection prevention and control in the context of coronavirus disease (COVID-19): A living guideline provides the most up to date technical guidance on mask use in community settings in the context of COVID-19.
In this edition, new information includes updated mask re...commendations for children in community settings including updated age specific recommendations, statements for children with disabilities and those at high risk for complications related to COVID-19 infection. Updated implementation considerations for mask use in school settings are also included.
This living guideline is being published using the MAGICApp online publishing platform https://app.magicapp.org/#/guideline/Lr2a8L , as well as in PDF copy on the WHO website.
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This report includes analysis from informal regional consultations in the African Region, the Caribbean and North America, Latin America, South-East Asia Region, European Region, Eastern Mediterranean Region, alongside three forums in the Western Pacific Region. It analyses the overarching similarit...ies, regional nuances and priorities raised across the six WHO regions for the meaningful engagement of individuals with lived experience.
It is the second publication in the WHO Intention to action series, which aims to enhance the limited evidence base on the impact of meaningful engagement and address the lack of standardized approaches on how to operationalise meaningful engagement. The Intention to action series aims to do this by providing a platform from which individuals with lived experience, and organizational and institutional champions, can share solutions, challenges and promising practices related to this cross-cutting agenda. The Intention to action series also aims to provide powerful narratives, inspiration and evidence towards the Fourth United Nations High Level Meeting on NCDs in 2025 and achieving the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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The Infection prevention and control in the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a living guideline consolidates technical guidance developed and published during the COVID-19 pandemic into evidence-informed recommendations for infection prevention and control (IPC). This living guideline... is available both online and PDF.
This version of the living guideline (version 6.0) includes fifteen statements on IPC measures in health-care settings (screening and patient placement, ventilation, physical barriers, environmental cleaning, waste management, amongst others) as well as one statement on mask fit in the community context.
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Heart failure with a reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is a condition frequently encountered by healthcare professionals and, in order to achieve the best outcomes for patients, needs to be managed optimally. This guideline document is based on the European Society of Cardiology Guidelines for the t...reatment of acute and chronic heart failure published in 2016, and summarises what is considered the best current management of patients with the condition. It provides information on the definition, diagnosis and epidemiology of HFrEF in the African context. The best evidence-based treatments for HFrEF are discussed, including established therapies (beta-blockers, ACE-i/ARBs, mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs), diuretics) that form the cornerstone of heart failure management as well as therapies that have only recently entered clinical use (angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI), sodium/glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors). Guidance is offered in terms of more invasive therapies (revascularisation, implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) and cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) by implantation of a biventricular pacemaker with (CRT-D) or without (CRT-P) an ICD, left ventricular assist device (LVAD) use and heart transplantation) in order to ensure efficient use of these expensive treatment modalities in a resourcelimited environment. Furthermore, additional therapies (digoxin, hydralazine and nitrates, ivabradine, iron supplementation) are discussed and advice is provided on general preventive strategies (vaccinations). Sections to discuss conditions that are particularly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa (HIV-associated cardiomyopathy (CMO), peripartum CMO, rheumatic heart disease, atrial fibrillation) have been added to further improve clinical care for these commonly encountered disease processes.
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The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a continuous and robust impact on world health. The resulting COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating physical, mental and fiscal impact on the millions of people living with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), as they have a higher risk of severe illness... and death from COVID-19. COVID-19 has been associated with an
excess in all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality beyond that related to the infection itself and its immediate consequences. Studies in the
United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America (USA) have clearly shown increasing deaths from ischemic heart disease, stroke and hypertensive disease due to COVID-19. Overall, the impact has been greater in individuals with lower socioeconomic status, even in high income nations.
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This report includes analysis from informal regional consultations in the African Region, the Caribbean and North America, Latin America, South-East Asia Region, European Region, Eastern Mediterranean Region, alongside three forums in the Western Pacific Region. It analyses the overarching similarit...ies, regional nuances and priorities raised across the six WHO regions for the meaningful engagement of individuals with lived experience.
It is the second publication in the WHO Intention to action series, which aims to enhance the limited evidence base on the impact of meaningful engagement and address the lack of standardized approaches on how to operationalise meaningful engagement. The Intention to action series aims to do this by providing a platform from which individuals with lived experience, and organizational and institutional champions, can share solutions, challenges and promising practices related to this cross-cutting agenda. The Intention to action series also aims to provide powerful narratives, inspiration and evidence towards the Fourth United Nations High Level Meeting on NCDs in 2025 and achieving the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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Care for persons with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is a major health priority for most countries worldwide, particularly for low-middle income countries where the problem seems to be worsening. Globally,... research demonstrates that the vast majority of people with NCDs receive suboptimal care. Many people living with chronic conditions remain undiagnosed and unaware of their condition, while many others remain untreated or with inadequate control. Meanwhile the premature mortality caused by NCDs remains high in many countries. In response to the global epidemic of NCDs, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases in 2012, which establishes 9 voluntary global targets and indicators to be considered by Member States when formu- lating national plans to combat NCDs.
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he aetiology of asthma and allergic disease remains poorly understood, despite considerable research. The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC), was founded to maximize the value of epidemiological research into asthma and allergic disease, by establishing a standardized m...ethodology and facilitating international collaboration. Its specific aims are: 1) to describe the prevalence and severity of asthma, rhinitis and eczema in children living in different centres, and to make comparisons within and between countries; 2) to obtain baseline measures for assessment of future trends in the prevalence and severity of these diseases; and 3) to provide a framework for further aetiological research into genetic, lifestyle, environmental, and medical care factors affecting these diseases. The ISAAC design comprises three phases. Phase 1 uses core questionnaires designed to assess the prevalence and severity of asthma and allergic disease in defined populations. Phase 2 will investigate possible aetiological factors, particularly those suggested by the findings of Phase 1. Phase 3 will be a repetition of Phase 1 to assess trends in prevalence.
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