The COVID-19 pandemic has led to large increases in healthcare waste, straining under resourced healthcare facilities and exacerbating environmental impacts from solid waste. This report quantifies the additional COVID-19 healthcare waste generated, describes current healthcare waste management syst...ems and their deficiencies, and summarizes emerging best practices and solutions to reduce the impact of waste on human and environmental health. The recommendations included in the report build on actions in the WHO manifesto for a healthy recovery from COVID-19: prescriptions and actionables for a healthy and green recovery. They target the global, national and facility levels to promote a “win–win” scenario for COVID-19 PPE use, testing and vaccinations that are safe and support environmental sustainability.
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The unparalleled action needed to combat unprecedented inequality in the wake of COVID-19.
New billionaire minted every 26 hours, as inequality contributes to the death of one person every four seconds
Available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/inequality-ki...lls
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Special Focus on COVID-19
The report provides updated estimates for drinking water, sanitation and hygiene in schools including progress from 2015 to 2019. It highlights the rapid improvement needed to ensure students have access to handwashing facilities with soap and water during the COVID-19 pan...demic, and to meet associated SDG targets by 2030.
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Occupational health and safety programmes aim to prevent diseases and injuries arising out of, linked with or occurring in the course of work, while improving the quality and safety of care, safeguarding the health workforce and promoting environmental sustainability in the health sector.
This gu...ide provides an overview of the key elements of occupational health and safety programmes for health workers at national, subnational and facility levels, as well as advice for the development and implementation of such programmes. Health workers exposure risk assessment and management in the context of COVID-19 virus
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Early data estimates suggest that 90% of the Ukrainian population could be facing poverty and extreme economic vulnerability should the war deepen, setting the country – and the region – back decades and leaving deep social and economic scars for generations to come
Key questions
What is already known?
Critical illness is common throughout the world and COVID-19 has caused a global surge of critically ill patients.
There are large gaps in the quality of care for critically ill patients, especially in low-staffed and low-resourced settings, and mortal...ity rates are high.
Essential Emergency and Critical Care (EECC) is the effective lifesaving care of low-cost and low-complexity that all critically ill patients should receive in all wards in all hospitals in the world.
What are the new findings?
The clinical processes that comprise EECC and the essential care of critically ill patients with COVID-19 have been specified in a large consensus among clinical experts worldwide.
The resource requirements for hospitals to be ready to provide this care has been described.
What do the new findings imply?
The findings can be used across medical specialties in hospitals worldwide to prioritise and implement essential care for reducing preventable deaths.
Inclusion of the EEEC processes could increase the impact of pandemic preparedness and response programmes and policies for health systems strengthening.
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English Analysis on World and 3 other countries about Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment, Drought, Flood and more; published on 22 Oct 2021 by Action Against Hunger
A rapid review of evidence on the managing the risk of disease emergence in the wildlife trade - World Animal Health Organization (OIE)
For humanitarian organisations to respond effectively to complex crises, they require access to up-to-date evidence-based guidance. The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the importance of updating global guidance to context-specific and evolving needs in humanitarian settings. Our study aimed to under...stand the use of evidence-based guidance in humanitarian responses during COVID-19. Primary data collected during the rapidly evolving pandemic sheds new light on evidence-use processes in humanitarian response.
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This is the sixth of our 11-paper supplement entitled “Community Health Workers at the Dawn of New Era”. Expectations of community health workers (CHWs) have expanded in recent years to encompass a wider array
of services to numerous subpopulations, engage communities to collaborate with and to... assist health systems in responding to complex and sometimes intensive threats. In this paper, we explore a set of key considerations for training of CHWs in response to their enhanced and changing roles and provide actionable recommendations based on
current evidence and case examples for health systems leaders and other stakeholders to utilize.
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This report sets out the compelling case for repurposing harmful agricultural producer support to reverse this situation, by optimizing the use of scarce public resources, strengthening economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and ultimately driving a food systems transformation that can suppor...t global sustainable development commitments.
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As countries commit to achieving universal health coverage, it is imperative to ensure that the design and delivery of palliative care services place attention on quality of care, with action needed across all domains of quality health services: effectiveness, safety, people-centredness, timeliness,... equity, integration and efficiency. Providing compassionate, dignified and people-centred palliative care is an ethical responsibility of health systems.
This document provides a practical resource to support implementation of sustainable improvements in the quality of palliative care. It describes approaches to quality policy, strategy and planning for palliative care programmes and services, presents learning on quality of care arising from palliative care programmes, and offers considerations on measurement of quality palliative care services at all levels of the health system. The document also highlights relevant WHO resources available that further support the development of quality palliative care services.
The audience for this document is a general one that includes policy-makers, palliative care service planners, managers, practitioners and health care providers at all levels.
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Each year, the WHO Global TB Report provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic, and of progress in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the disease, at global, regional and country levels. This is done in the context of global TB commitments, strategies and targets.
The... 2021 edition of the report has been produced in a new and more web-centric format. This is designed to make the content available in smaller (more “bite-sized”) chunks that are easier to read, digest, navigate and use. There is a short and slim report PDF with 30 pages of main content plus six short annexes. This is accompanied by expanded and more detailed digital content on web pages. The total amount of content remains similar to that of previous years.
Available in English, French, Arabic and Chinese
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The Lancet Published Online
October 8, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0140-6736(21)02143-7
BMJ 2020; 370 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3379
Rapid Recommendation and visual graph. This is the fifth version (update 4) of the living guideline (BMJ 2020;370:m3379). When citing this article, please consider adding the update number and date of access for clarity. The publication of the RE...COVERY and REMAP-CAP randomised controlled trials triggered this guideline update, resulting in a strong recommendation for interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor blockers (tocilizumab or sarilumab) in patients with severe or critical covid-19.
Prior recommendations: (a) A recommendation not to use ivermectin in patients with covid-19, regardless of disease severity, except in the context of a clinical trial; (b) a strong recommendation against the use of hydroxychloroquine in patients with covid-19, regardless of disease severity; (c) a strong recommendation against the use of lopinavir-ritonavir in patients with covid-19, regardless of disease severity; (d) a strong recommendation for systemic corticosteroids in patients with severe and critical covid-19; (e) a conditional recommendation against systemic corticosteroids in patients with non-severe covid-19; and (f) a conditional recommendation against remdesivir in hospitalised patients with covid-19.
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More than 700 000 people lose their life to suicide every year. The world is not on track to reach the 2030 suicide reduction targets. WHO advocates for countries to take action to prevent suicide, ideally through a comprehensive national suicide prevention strategy. Governments and communities can ...contribute to suicide prevention by implementing LIVE LIFE – WHO’s approach to starting suicide prevention so that countries can build on it further to develop a comprehensive national suicide prevention strategy. The guide is for all countries, with or without a national suicide prevention strategy; national or local focal points for suicide prevention, mental health, alcohol or NCDs; and community stakeholders with a vested interest or who may already be engaged in implementing suicide prevention activities.
Excecutive Summary available in English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanisch here:
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In the Region of the Americas, the leishmaniases are a group of diseases caused by various species of Leishmania, which cause a set of clinical syndromes in infected humans that can involve the skin, mucosa, and visceral organs. The spectrum of clinical disease is varied and depends on the interacti...on of several factors related to the parasite, the vector, and the host. Cutaneous leishmaniasis is the form most frequently reported in the Region and nearly 90% of cases present single or multiple localized lesions. Other cutaneous clinical forms, such as disseminated and diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis, are more difficult to treat and relapses are common. The mucosal form is serious because it can cause disfigurement and severe disability if not diagnosed and treated early on. Visceral leishmaniasis is the most severe form, as it can cause death in up to 90% of untreated people.
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Almost 25% of deaths worldwide could be prevented if the actions in the compendium were fully implemented
This compendium provides a systematic compilation of published guidance from WHO and other UN organizations on health and environment. Guidance on policies and actions as well as awareness rais...ing and capacity building interventions is presented for all major areas of health and environment. Guidance referring to priority settings for action such as cities and other urban settlements, housing, workplaces and health care facilities is also listed.
For greater practical relevance, each guidance is classified according to principally involved sectors, level of implementation and instruments for implementation.
The compilation of guidance for each area of health and environment or priority setting for action is accompanied, as available, by information on main sources, exposure assessment and existing guideline values. Important tools and further resources are presented alongside.
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