The uneven distribution of HIV risks and burdens across populations is a well-substantiated fact, though seldom publicly acknowledged. Gay men and other men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, sex workers, and transgender women are 24, 24, 13.5, and 49 times more likely to acquire HIV, ...respectively, than other reproductive aged adults (15 years old and older). Globally, new infections among these key populations account for 45% of all new HIV infections. This figure is likely to be an underestimate, given the intense stigma associated with disclosing and reporting acquisition risks for HIV among gay men, people who use drugs, sex workers, and transgender people. In addition, HIV epidemics in the majority of low- and middle-income countries (90 of 120) have concentrated epidemics among key populations. In countries with more broadly generalized epidemics, risks are still not evenly distributed and key populations still shoulder disease burden that is markedly disproportionate.
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Vitamin A supplementation (VAS) programs targeted at children aged 6–59 months are implemented in many countries. By improving immune function, vitamin A (VA) reduces mortality associated with measles, diarrhea, and other illnesses. There is currently a debate regarding the relevance of VAS, but a...midst the debate, researchers acknowledge that the majority of nationally-representative data on VA status is outdated. To address this data gap and contribute to the debate, we examined data from 82 countries implementing VAS programs, identified other VA programs, and assessed the recentness of national VA deficiency (VAD) data.
Article published in: Nutrients, 2017, 9, 190
https://doi.org/10.3390/nu9030190
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The report reflects on the trends, achievements and challenges in global health over the past decade during which Dr Margaret Chan has been Director-General of WHO. It discusses the role of WHO in dealing with such issues as the rise of noncommunicable diseases, leaps in life expectancy, and emergin...g threats like climate change and antimicrobial resistance.
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The process to develop this "National Traditional Medicine Policy" included a detailed situational analysis of traditional medicine in Liberia and a desk review of relevant documents and the regional policy framework on the alignment of WAHO countries ...policy harmonization.
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This year marked the beginning of the WHO biennium 2016-2017 action plan; this annual report highlights WHO’s key achievements in 2016
It also documents the extraordinary efforts by a broad coalition of government ministries, municipalities, international agencies, community groups, women’s or...ganizations, religious and traditional leaders, media, private sector and donors towards restoration and improving health indicators.
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The goal of this Global Action Plan is to articulate synergistic actions that will be required to prevent HIVDR from undermining efforts to achieve global targets on health and HIV, and to provide the most effective treatment to all people living with HIV including adults, key populations, pregnant ...and breastfeeding women, children and adolescents. The Global Action Plan has five strategic objectives: 1) prevention and response; 2) monitoring and surveillance; 3) research and innovation; 4) laboratory capacity; and 5) governance and enabling mechanisms.
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Subsidiarity guides people to establish relationships where they can make decisions, accomplish good work, and live their lives in a manner that respects human dignity
This report investigates the impact of potential misclassification of samples on HIV prevalence estimates for 23 surveys conducted from 2010-2014. In addition to visual inspection of laboratory results, we examined how accounting for potential misclassification of HIV status through Bayesian latent ...class models affected the prevalence estimates. Two types of Bayesian models were specified: a model that only uses the individual dichotomous test results and a continuous model that uses the quantitative information of the EIA (i.e., the signal-to-cutoff values). Overall, we found that adjusted prevalence estimates matched the surveys’ original results, with overlapping uncertainty intervals. This suggested that misclassification of HIV status should not affect the prevalence estimates in most surveys. However, our analyses suggested that two surveys may be problematic. The prevalence could have been overestimated in the Uganda AIDS Indicator Survey 2011 and the Zambia Demographic and Health Survey 2013-14, although the magnitude of overestimation remains difficult to ascertain. Interpreting results from the Uganda survey is difficult because of the lack of internal quality control and potential violation of the multivariate normality assumption of the continuous Bayesian latent class model. In conclusion, despite the limitations of our latent class models, our analyses suggest that prevalence estimates from most of the surveys reviewed are not affected by sample misclassification.
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This toolkit provides practical guidance to governments, funders, civil society organizations and other implementing partners on conducting a gender analysis and using findings to inform HIV prevention, care and treatment programs with key populations. It outlines considerations and steps for conduc...ting a gender analysis; explores how to engage with stakeholders, including key population members, in a meaningful partnership; shares lessons learned from a comprehensive gender analysis in Kenya and an abridged gender analysis in Cameroon; and provides tools and resources for conducting a gender analysis with key populations.
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The articles in this compendium elaborate on some of the ideas shared at the symposium. Together, they provide a broad view of the dynamic interactions among physical, sexual and brain development that take place during adolescence. They highlight some of the risks to optimal development – includi...ng toxic stress, which can interfere with the formation of brain connections, and other vulnerabilities unique to the onset of puberty and independence. They also point to the opportunities for developing interventions that can build on earlier investments in child development – consolidating gains and even offsetting the effects of deficits and traumas experienced earlier in childhood.
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Scaling Up Mental Health Care In Rural India
The objective of this project was to list the medical devices required to provide the essential reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health interventions defined by existing WHO guidelines and publications, in order to improve access to these devices in low- and middle-income countries, support... quality of care, and strengthen health-care system. The medical devices are allocated across the reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health continuum of care according to the level of health-care delivery.
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This report identifies and analyses policies and laws which currently include of Persons with disabilities in social protection specifically the Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme and considers some of the gaps in the VUP norms which prevent the successful inclusion of Persons with Disabilities.
Expanding access to quality health services through task sharing
Updates for the integrated management of childhood illness (IMCI) - Guideline.
As part of its response to the global epidemic of obesity, WHO has issued guidelines to support primary healthcare workers identify and manage children who are overweight or obese. Specifically, all infants and children ...aged less than 5 years presenting to primary health-care facilities should have both weight and height measured in order to determine their weight-for-height and their nutritional status according to WHO child growth standards. Comparing a child's weight with norms for its length/height is an effective way to assess for both wasting and overweight
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DHS Further Analysis Reports No. 107 - This report, based largely on the 2014-15 national survey in Rwanda, focuses on changes and trends in reproductive behavior since 2010. In the 4-5 years after the 2010 survey, fertility continued its decline to 4.2 births per woman as contraceptive prevalence i...ncreased slightly. However, the earlier downward trend in number of children desired appears stalled. This is clearly evident from an increase in the proportions of married women and men who say they want more children. Child mortality has significantly declined and remains strongly related to fertility; while age at marriage has continued to increase. The demographic goals specified in the 1998-99 plan for development, Rwanda Vision 2020, appear on track, but the annual rate of population growth remains high, currently 2.5%, because fertility is high. Furthermore, large numbers of young people are now entering their child-bearing years. Although most trends seem encouraging, especially compared with other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, significant population growth is expected in Rwanda, from 12 to 16 million people by 2030, and to 22 million people by mid-century, even with assumed reductions of fertility.
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To understand the patterns of Rwanda’s achievements in health development, it is important to explore how Rwanda addresses the Social Determinants of Health (SDH) particularly those related to routine conditions in which people are born, live and work. It is in this particular context that a case ...study on Rwanda’s Performance in Addressing Social Determinants of Health was conducted by the Rwanda Ministry of Health, with technical and financial support from the World Health Organization (WHO). The overall goal of the exercise was to document Rwanda's recent initiatives that contribute to the advancements of the Rio Political Declaration on Social Determinants of Health.
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