The WHO European Office for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases organized an expert meeting on monitoring of digital marketing of unhealthy products to children and adolescents in June 2018. Based on that meeting, this report aims to provide a tool to support Member States in moni...toring digital marketing of unhealthy products to children; the resulting tool – the so-called CLICK monitoring framework – is flexible and can be adapted to national context. The report also describes current digital marketing strategies, the challenges arising from current practices, and some policy options to tackle digital marketing to children and adolescents.
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This technical report presents results from the FEEDcities Project – eastern Europe and central Asia. This cross-sectional survey was conducted in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan in October 2016 to evaluate the local urban food environment. It characterized the vending sites, the food offered and the nutri...tional composition of the industrial and homemade street foods available in these settings. It also described the nutritional composition of ready-to-eat foods sold in supermarkets and at vending sites in food courts. The policy implications of the findings are outlined.
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This technical report presents the results of a cross-sectional survey conducted in Banja Luka, the Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina, between July and August 2017, as part of the FEEDcities Project (Food Environment Description in cities – eastern Europe and central Asia). The aim of the r...eport is to describe the city’s local street food and takeaway food environment, exploring the characteristics of food vending sites, the industrially produced and homemade foods they typically offer, and the nutritional composition of these foods. Finally, the report provides guidance on how to address its findings through policy action.
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Childhood obesity is a major public health problem globally, which could undermine progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Prevention is recognized as the most efficient means of curbing the epidemic; however, given the scale of the problem and the many children who need profes...sional support due to the severity of the disease and/or obesity-related complications, health systems all over Europe must take steps to develop obesity management systems. The aim of this project was to assess the response of health care delivery systems in 19 countries in the WHO European Region to the childhood obesity epidemic.
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Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases and their risk factors are an increasing public health and development challenge in Kazakhstan. This report provides evidence through three analyses that NCDs reduce economic output and ...discusses potential options in response, outlining details of their relative returns on investment. An economic burden analysis shows that economic losses from NCDs (direct and indirect costs) comprise 2.3 trillion tenge, equivalent to 4.5% of gross domestic product in 2017. 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. For example, the salt policy package achieved a benefit-to-cost ratio of 118.4 over 15 years, a return of more than 118 tenge for every 1 tenge invested.
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In 2007, WHO warned that infectious diseases are emerging and re-emerging at a rate that has not been seen before. The potential for infectious diseases to spread rapidly results in high morbidity and mortality, causing a potential global public health treat of major concern.
Several factors are ...contributing to the (re)emergence of infectious diseases such as population growth, living in close contact with animals, frequent travelling, poverty, destructive ecological changes due to economic development and land use and climate change result in global warming.
Especially Africa is at a threat for (re)emerging infectious diseases due to the huge population growth (expected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050) with rapid urbanisation. Additionally, people across and beyond the continent are excessively mobile which is combined with a weak health system. Moreover, the risk of (re)emerging infectious disease is further heightened by three newly adopted continental initiatives: African Continental Free Trade Area, Free Movement of Persons and African Passport and Single African Air Transport Market.
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The magnitude and complexity of these mental health conditions caused by prolonged and extensive trauma requires a diagnosis fitting the unique context of the Syrian conflict. Over half a million people have been killed since the beginning of the conflict in 2011, and more than 6.4 million are inter...nally displaced with over 5 million living as refugees. SAMS documents the multi-dimensional nature of mental health disorders afflicting Syrians, including accounts of refugee experiences from Eastern Ghouta, Idlib, and beyond. This qualitative report seeks to raise awareness about increasing mental health needs, while sharing personal stories of those who have been affected by the trauma of the conflict.
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International Perspectives and Future Directions
Lessons learnt from the ADCAP programme | This guide shares good practices and challenges that have emerged through the experience of the Age and Disability Capacity Programme (ADCAP) implementing partners, in embedding inclusion of older people and people with disabilities within their humanitaria...n policies and practices. All mainstream and specialist organisations engaged in humanitarian responses can learn and benefit from this experience. This guide complements the ‘Humanitarian inclusion standards for older people and people with disabilities’ (see Appendix 4), by documenting practices that will help humanitarian organisations to systematically include older people and people with disabilities.
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2nd edition. The 2018 Roadmap incorporates an additional critical population: adolescents. Despite making up 1 in 6 of the world’s people, adolescents have been largely overlooked as global momentum to address TB has grown. Spanning the ages of 10–19 years, adolescents are both at risk of TB and... represent an important population for TB control. They often present with infectious TB and frequently have multiple contacts in congregate settings, such as schools and other educational institutions. Nevertheless, few countries capture TB data in suitably age-disaggregated ways to allow full understanding of its impact in this group and even fewer provide the adolescent-friendly services our young people need to access diagnosis and care.
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Zambia has recognised the Public Health threat of antimicrobial resistance and its impact on morbidity and mortality, as well as the subsequent economic consequences. The country has recorded microorganisms which have developed resistance to antimicrobial drugs. Notable among these are; Multidrug Re...sistant Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (MDR), Human Immunodeficiency virus resistant to antiretroviral drugs, Plasmodium resistance to antimalarial drugs, and fungal species showing indications of resistance to antifungal drugs. Emergence of “Superbugs” such as Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Extended Spectrum beta-lactam (ESBL) producing Klebsiella pneumoniae and Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci (VRE) have also been reported.
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A practical tool to help health workers in the clinical and operational management of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis with special focus on the introduction, implementation and management of the nine-month treatment regimen.
A WHO Guideline for Emergency Risk Communication (ERC) policy and practice.
Recent public health emergencies, such as the Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa (2014–2015), the emergence of the Zika virus syndrome in 2015–2016 and multi-country yellow fever outbreaks in Africa in 2016, h...ave highlighted major challenges and gaps in how risk is communicated during epidemics and other health emergencies. The challenges include the rapid transformation in communications technology, including the near-universal penetration of mobile telephones, the widespread use and increasingly powerful influence of digital media which has had an impact on ‘traditional’ media (newspapers, radio and television), and major changes in how people access and trust health information. Important gaps include considerations of context – the social, economic, political and cultural factors influencing people’s perception of risk and their risk-reduction behaviours.
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htb supplement: 2018 Vol 19:(1)
New drugs in development
July 2018
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