Risk assessment and priority interventions
Through technical consultations with countries and partners, WHO has led the development of Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats Module 1: Planning for respiratory pathogen pandemics. Version 1.0. The Module, currently available as an advanced draft, builds on previous pandemic lessons a...nd guidance, and has the following new elements:
It presents an integrated and efficient respiratory pathogen pandemic planning approach covering both novel pathogens and those known to have pandemic potential;
It enables coherence in addressing pathogen-agnostic and pathogen-specific elements for better preparedness;
It gives an organizing framework including operational stages and triggers for escalation and de-escalation between pandemic preparedness and response periods;
It contextualizes 12 IHR (2005) core capacities within the five components of health emergency preparedness, response and resilience (HEPR), from the respiratory threats perspective; and
It describes the critical sectors for respiratory pathogen pandemic preparedness to trigger multisectoral collaboration.
WHO will finalize and publish this Module after a global technical meeting that will be held on 24-26 April 2023.
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Background paper 10
The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
May 2021
Interconnected Disaster Risks is a new science-based report for the general public from United Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security. It was first published in 2021, and is set to become an annual report.
How to respond to Covid19 pandemic in West and Central Africa
As of 21 May 2020, 4.8 million confirmed cases of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been reported globally. In South America, COVID-19 was first detected on 26 February 2020, when Brazil confirmed a case in São Paulo.
Refugees and migrants face similar health threats from COVID-19 as their host populations. However, inadequate access to essential services and exclusion may makes early detection, testing, diagnosis, contact tracing and seeking care for COVID-19 difficult for refugees and migrants thus increasing t...he risk of outbreaks in these population and presenting an additional threat to public health. This document offers guidance to Member States and partners for the inclusion of refugees and migrants, as part of holistic efforts to respond to COVID-19 epidemics in the general populations.
17 April 2020
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IAEA Safety Standards for protecting people and the environment
Managing Sexual Violence against Aid Workers aims to support aid agencies in preventing, being prepared for and responding to incidents of sexual violence against their staff. It is intended as a good practice guide to help strengthen existing processes and support organisations as they set up their... own protocols.
This guide is aimed at anyone with a responsibility for staff care, safety and security, as well as anyone involved in processes aimed at preventing or responding to incidents of sexual violence against staff, such as security focal points, HR staff, project and programmes staff, and first responders to incidents of sexual violence within an aid organisation.
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The report offers 20 top recommendations for getting ahead of future outbreaks in Yemen and similarly complex humanitarian settings.
In 2015, Yemen was declared a Level 3 emergency by the UN, kicking into gear the highest level of humanitarian support. A massive cholera outbreak followed, leading t...o 1 million suspected cases in 2 waves from September 2016-July 2018.
“We largely know ‘what to do’ to control cholera, but context-specific practices on ‘how to do it’ in order to surmount challenges to coordination, logistics, insecurity, access and politics remain needed,” the report states.
While the response improved between the 2 waves, there were gaps. For one, Yemen’s history of cholera should have triggered a heavy focus on pre-planning for an epidemic, such as stockpiling supplies and doubling down on community-based surveillance, the report fou
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Climate change, increasing population densities, and intensified globalisation in trade, travel and migration are among the most important factors shaping the 21st century. Each impacts upon population health and the risk of infectious disease, particularly those originating at the human-animal-envi...ronmental interface. The recognition that many risk drivers of infectious disease fall outside of the typical domain of the health sector creates the challenge of identifying and pursuing priorities for cross-sectoral action aimed at strengthening global health security. In response, the One Health concept has emerged, as have related initiatives addressing Planetary Health and Biodiversity and Human Health. From a public health perspective and operationally speaking, the One Health approach offers great potential, emphasising as it does cooperation and coordination between multiple sectors. Yet despite having been a focal point for discussion for over a decade, numerous challenges facing the implementation of One Health preparedness strategies remain. While some are technical, related to the requirement for innovative early warning systems or new vaccines, for example, others are institutional and cultural in nature, given the transdisciplinary nature of the topic. There have thus been calls to address One Health from multiple perspectives, from ecology to the social sciences. In order to further explore this issue and to identify priority areas for action for strengthening One Health preparedness in Europe, ECDC convened an expert consultation on 11–12 December 2017.
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NSW Disaster Mental Health Handbook 5
The Disaster Mental Health Manual and associated handbooks are intended as a resource for mental health staff who are seeking background information and practical guidance and resources to assist in a disaster mental health response.
Climate risks have significant effects on public health including: injury, death, communicable diseases such as vector-borne and water-borne diseases, and non-communicable impacts such as malnutrition, heat stress and health effects of air pollution.
IN NUMBERS
60 MILLION people affected globally at present.
32 MILLION people food insecure in Southern Africa.
10.2 MILLION people in Ethiopia need emergency food assistance.
50 PERCENT crop losses in Haiti due to El Niño-influenced drought.
The document summarizes the infrastructure and activities for Ebola virus disease (EVD) preparedness that are already in place in the Gambia and identifies opportunities for improvement to strengthen the nation’s readiness in the event of an EVD incident.
Overview:
- Part A is an introductory part which will give you background information about CBDRR in Myanmar. It has a small section about the importance of CBDRR in Myanmar, the stakeholders of CBDRR in Myanmar, as well as an overview about the challenges that are faced when implementing CBDRR... in Myanmar.
- Part B contains the instructions on how to conduct the 9-step process agreed upon and described in detail in the step-by-step methodology document. These nine (9) steps are considered the minimum required activities to be followed by all MRCS community based initiatives regardless of their budget or time frame.
- Part C includes all the implementation steps of CBDRR programs namely step 6 (Action Plan Development), and step 7 (Implementation of Action Plan).
- Part D includes all the steps that finalize a CBDRR program namely step 4 and step 8 (Baseline and Endline Study) as well as step 9 (Handover & Exit Strategy).
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The CBDRR Step-by-Step Methodology aims to guide the effective implementation of new community-based as well as school-based interventions implemented by MRCS as well as other DRR actors in Myanmar identifying key steps that need to be followed under each program as well as minimum activities for ea...ch of the steps.
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