Despite its rich culture, great economic potential, high level of education and last but not least its sheer size – it is the largest state whose borders lie entirely within Europe and is 1.7 times the size of the Federal Republic of Germany – Ukraine seems far away in perception and awareness. ...Publications on recent dramatic events, such as the Ukraine conflict or the Crimea crisis, have done little to change this. In fact, the armed conflict in the eastern Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk, which has been ongoing since February 2014, is still a burdening feature of many political and economic difficulties destabilizing the country. News coverage of health issues in Ukraine has recently been dominated by highly critical reports on the handling of the Covid 19 pandemic. This pandemic exacerbated existing weaknesses in the Ukrainian health care system, but at least it did not create any new ones.
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Every day in 2020, approximately 800 women died from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth - meaning that a woman dies around every two minutes.
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 3.1 is to reduce maternal mortality to less than 70 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births by ...2030.
The United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group (MMEIG) – comprising WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the World Bank Group and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (UNDESA/Population Division) has collaborated with external technical experts on a new round of estimates covering 2000 to 2020. The estimates represent the most up to date, internationally-comparable MMEIG estimates of maternal mortality, using refined input data and methods from previous rounds.
The report presents internationally comparable global, regional and country-level estimates and trends for maternal mortality between 2000 and 2020.
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Obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) have been steadily increasing globally, and with them, a pressing need to implement effective responses to address the contributing factors. Among the available evidence-based policy options that enable healthier choices and improved diets is ...the implementation of taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs).
This tax manual is a practical guide for policy-makers and others involved in SSB tax policy development to promote healthy diets and populations. It features summaries and case studies of SSB global taxation evidence, and provides support on the policy-cycle development process to implement SSB taxation — from problem identification and situation analysis through policy design, development and implementation to the monitoring and evaluation phase. Additionally, the manual identifies and debunks industry tactics designed to dissuade policy-makers from implementing these taxes.
SSB taxes can be a win-win-win strategy: a win for public health (and averted health-care costs), a win for government revenue, and a win for health equity.
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Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection, and two types of HPV (16 and 18) cause nearly 50% of high-grade cervical pre-cancers. HIV and cervical cancer are inextricably linked. Women living with HIV are six times more likely to develop cervical cancer, which is o...ne of the AIDS-defining illnesses and the most common cancer among women living with HIV globally. Cervical cancer is a preventable, curable disease and can be eliminated as a public health problem with primary and secondary prevention, treatment, and care of cervical cancer, in combination with addressing social, health and other inequalities and integrated approaches.
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Patient safety standards are critical for the establishment and assessment of patient safety programmes within hospitals. This third edition of the Patient safety assessment manual provides an updated set of standards and assessment criteria that reflect current best practice and WHO guidance. The m...anual will support the implementation of patient safety assessments and improvement programmes within hospitals as part of the Patient Safety Friendly Hospital Framework to ensure that patient safety is prioritized and facilities and staff implement best practices. The manual is a key tool for use by professional associations regulatory accrediting or oversight bodies and ministries of health to improve patient safety.
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This module is part of the WHO series The Immunological Basis for Immunization, which was initially developed in 1993 as a set of eight modules, comprising one module on general immunology and seven modules each devoted to one of the vaccines recommended for the Expanded Programme on Immunization, i....e. vaccines against diphtheria, measles, pertussis, polio, tetanus, tuberculosis and yellow fever. Since then, this series has been updated and extended to include other vaccines of international importance. The main purpose of the modules is to provide national immunization managers and vaccination professionals with an overview of the scientific basis of vaccination against a range of important infectious diseases. The modules developed since 1993 continue to be vaccine-specific, reflecting the biological differences in immune responses to the individual pathogens and the differing strategies employed to create the best possible level of protection that can be provided by vaccination. The modules also serve as a record of the immunological basis for the WHO recommendations on vaccine use, published in the WHO vaccine position papers.*
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Constituting the second part of the World Drug Report 2022, the present booklet contains an overview of the global demand for and supply of drugs.
The first chapter of the booklet begins with the latest estimates of the number of people who use drugs, the distribution of those users by type of drug...s, age and sex, and recent trends in the use of drugs. The chapter also reviews the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on drug use patterns and service provision. Other issues examined in the chapter are the health consequences of drug use, including the number of people in treatment for drug use disorders and the extent of drug injecting and of HIV and hepatitis C among people who inject drugs. The chapter concludes with a review of the extent to which strategies, policies and interventions are in place to respond to the drug use problem.
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The Investment guidelines for youth in agrifood systems in Africa, developed jointly by FAO and the African Union Commission (AUC) through a multi-stakeholder and participatory process, highlight the importance of youth as change agents and key stakeholders contributing to sustainable agrifood syste...ms. The guidelines aim to accelerate investments in and by youth in agrifood systems by providing practical guidance - including tools and examples - to design, develop, implement, monitor and evaluate youth-focused and youth-sensitive investment programmes and to engage youth fully as partners in the entire process.
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Weekly Epidemiological Record No 9, 2022, 97, 61–80
This position paper supersedes the 2016 publication, “Malaria vaccine: WHO position paper-2016.”1 It includes the updated WHO recommendations on the wider use of the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine for the reduction of malaria morbidity and mortality in ...children living in areas of moderate to high malaria transmission. It also incorporates findings from the evaluation of the WHO-coordinated Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme (MVIP), recommended by SAGE and MPAG in 2015, and from additional studies since 2015.
This paper does not include findings on vaccine efficacy in infants first vaccinated at 6–12 weeks of age. Because of the lower vaccine efficacy observed in this age category, WHO did not recommend pilot implementation or RTS,S/AS01 vaccine introduction for these young infants. Recommendations2 on the use of RTS,S/AS01 vaccine were discussed by SAGE and MPAG during a joint session in October 2021; evidence presented at the meeting can be accessed at https://terrance.who.int/mediacentre/data/ sage/SAGE_eYB_Oct2021.pdf
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9 March 2022, Timely and accurate diagnostic testing for SARS-CoV-2 is an essential part of a comprehensive COVID-19 response strategy. Ag-RDTs can be performed by individuals in which they collect their own specimen, perform a simple rapid test and interpret their test result themselves at a time a...nd place of their choosing, termed COVID-19 self-testing. This interim guidance provides a new recommendation that COVID-19 self-testing, using SARS-CoV-2 Ag-RDTs, should be offered as part of SARS-CoV-2 testing services. It also includes implementation considerations that can guide decisions on whether, and how, to adopt self-testing in different contexts, including the populations being prioritized; the disease prevalence in that population; and the impact on accessibility of testing, health care services and result reporting.
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This guide is designed to accompany the training module, Communicating with health workers about COVID-19 vaccination. It provides detailed explanations, resources and guidance to accompany the slides in the training module and support those implementing the training. It is intended for training fac...ilitators or trainers of trainers (ToTs) who will be conducting the training at the country level either face-to-face or online with a group of participants. Facilitators can use this guidance document to help them adapt the training content to their local context and facilitate discussion with training participants. Facilitators are encouraged to have this guide available to them as a tool during the training session.
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The number of COVID-19 cases is on the rise again, with South Africa nearing half of all confirmed cases in the WHO African Region. Threats of new variants loom and low vaccination coverage raises questions on the future of the response to COVID-19. Prevention remains the key strategy in most sub-Sa...haran countries. Five National Centres (NCs) from the African Health Observatory Platform on Health Systems and Policies (AHOP), based in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Senegal, reflect on lessons to be learnt from their containment responses in the initial phases. They construct timelines to highlight the policies and challenges associated with introducing a range of public health containment measures and
discuss the extent to which these measures continue to be valuable given the ever-changing nature of the pandemic.
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Update 1 October 2020.
This document provides guidance to Member States on the effective use of face masks/coverings in the community by individuals without COVID-19 symptoms in order to reduce potential transmission of SARS-CoV-2.a It also provides advice on the use of masks during home care for ...patients with COVID-19.
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21 August 2020
This guidance provides specific considerations for the use of non-medical masks, also known as fabric masks, by children as a means for source control in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic. It also advises on the use of medical masks for children under certain conditions.
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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BMJ Glob Health 2019;4:e001272. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2018-001272
Trust is an essential component of successful cooperative endeavours. The global health response to the 2014–2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak confronted historically tenuous regional relationships of trust. Challenging sociopolitical co...ntexts and initially inappropriate communication strategies impeded trustworthy relationships between communities and responders during the epidemic. Social scientists affiliated with the Ebola 100-Institut Pasteur project interviewed approximately 160 local, national and international responders holding a wide variety of roles during the epidemic
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Accessed January 22, 2019.
This updated version include important research that has added to our knowledge about effective treatments for
child and adolescent depression. Its goal is to help parents and families make informed decisions about getting the best care for a child with depression. For ...easy use, it is presented in Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) format.
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Antimicrobials are precious agents for combating infectious diseases and had saved millions of lives throughout the world. However, the current trend of increasing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become a global health problem with increased morbidity and mortality in infectious diseases. Sri La...nka is not an exemption and face many health related issues with multidrug resistant (MDR) organisms. Currently there is a global effort in combating antimicrobial resistance. WHO extends its fullest support and plays a major role in motivating the countries to combat antimicrobial resistance with national action plans in place. Sri Lanka has initiated combating AMR with multisectoral collaboration, under one health concept. The development of the National Strategic Plan (NSP) 2017-2022 provides the roadmap to combat AMR.
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Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases and their risk factors are an increasing public health and development challenge in Kyrgyzstan. This report provides evidence through three analyses that NCDs reduce economic outp...ut and discusses potential options in response, outlining details of their relative returns on investment. An economic burden analysis shows that economic losses from NCDs are equivalent to 3.9% of gross domestic product. An intervention costing analysis provides an estimate of the funding required to implement a set of policy interventions for prevention and clinical interventions. A cost–benefit analysis compares these implementation costs with the estimated health gains and identifies which policy packages would give the greatest returns on investment.
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Building on Nigeria’s Call to Action to Save Newborn Lives, the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) has developed the National Strategy and Implementation Plan for Scale-up of Chlorhexidine. The Ministry incorporated existing maternal, newborn, and child health plans with additional comprehensive st...rategic planning and consultation to develop a comprehensive, five-year costed scale-up plan. The strategy and implementation plan is intended to guide programming, resource allocation, and commitments to achieve the national objective of Chlorhexidine uptake of 52% after the fifth year of national scaleup.
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