13 May 2021
To avoid a reversal of progress from the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, new knowledge and lessons from successful programmatic innovations are urgently needed to improve TB prevention and care. Experience can provide evidence for innovative approaches and strategies to mainta...in and scale up high-quality TB services. WHO therefore called for case studies on programmatic innovations that address emerging challenges in TB prevention and care during the pandemic in order to collect and disseminate the findings to the TB community. Between November 2020 and February 2021, a total of 23 case studies relevant to the call were accepted from 19 countries in the six regions of WHO. The lessons learnt from these country activities to ensure the continuity of essential services like TB care in the face of the crippling crisis may also inform strategies for minimizing the impact of future emerging pathogens on health services.
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This summary covers the preventive approach to breast cancer control and includes prophylactic medications, prophylactic surgery and lifestyle modifications for breast cancer prevention. Health professional training and individual risk assessments and counseling are also discussed.
Lesotho’s predominantly rural population faces significant health challenges within a setting of inadequate human resources for health. It is essential that nurses and nurse-midwives, who together make up the largest health workforce in the country, be adequately prepared to address Lesotho’s He...alth Priorities according to the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) in the settings where they work. Under the HRAA project, Jhpiego conducted a task analysis study to obtain data on job duties or tasks performed by these cadres, as well as information about how often the tasks are performed, if and where tasks were learned, and the self-perceived level of competence in performing the tasks.
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This publication’s primary purpose is to provide a compilation of actions to address malnutrition in all its forms, in a concise and user-friendly format to help in decision-making processes for integration of nutrition interventions in national health policies, strategies, and plans based on coun...try-specific needs and global priorities.
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This guide is available in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese
This guide consolidates COVID-19 guidance for human resources for health managers and policy-makers at national, subnational and facility levels to design, manage and preserve the workforce necessary to manage the COVI...D-19 pandemic and maintain essential health services.
The guide identifies recommendations to protect, support and empower health workers at individual, management, organizational and system levels.
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PlosOne January 20, 2021
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241899
Antibiotic fixed dose combinations (FDCs) can have clinical advantages such as improving effectiveness and adherence to therapy. However, high use of potentially inappropriate FDCs has been reported, with implications for antim...icrobial resistance (AMR) and toxicity.
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The seventh WHO Report on the global tobacco epidemic analyses national efforts to implement the most effective measures from the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) that are proven to reduce demand for tobacco.
The report showed that while only 23 countries have implemented ce...ssation support policies at the highest level, 116 more provide fully or partially cost-covered services in some or most health facilities, and another 32 offer services but do not cost-cover them, demonstrating a high level of public demand for support to quit.
Tobacco use has also declined proportionately in most countries, but population growth means the total number of people using tobacco has remained stubbornly high. Currently, there are an estimated 1.1 billion smokers, around 80% of whom live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
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Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) threatens displaced women and girls, as well as men and boys, in all regions of the world. Creating safe environments and mitigating the risk of SGBV can only be achieved by addressing gender inequality and discrimination. While the scourge of SGBV is receivin...g much more attention internationally – as illustrated by Security Council Resolutions 1820, 1888 and 1960 – preventing SGBV is a complex challenge. To assist operations in addressing this core protection concern, UNHCR is presenting the Action against Sexual- and Gender-Based Violence: An Updated Strategy. This strategy provides a structure to assist UNHCR operations in dealing with SGBV on the basis of a multi-sectoral and interagency approach. UNHCR policies and programmes have for many years helped operations to address SGBV in coordination with other actors. 80% of operations in urban settings and 93% in camp settings work with SGBV Standard Operating Procedures which strengthen cooperation between partners. Moreover, support to community-based organisations has given communities a greater sense of ownership in addressing SGBV.
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Communities can play a critical role in suicide prevention. Facilitating community engagement in suicide prevention is an important task. The toolkit is a step-by-step guide for communities to engage in suicide prevention activities and have ownership of the process and keep efforts sustained. It is... hoped that the pilot version will be used, after necessary adaptation, in many countries and contexts, so that the final product can be strengthened and become more effective and user-friendly.
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The overall goal of the Kenya Health Sector Referral Strategy is to improve client access to referral. The objectives of the strategy are to realise improved capacity of health providers to identify clients who require referral, develop protocols that will lead to referral system efficiency and effe...ctiveness, and promote and facilitate information and communication technology (ICT) to manage referrals, improve care, enhance capacity of the referral system in Kenya, provide communication and related equipment, and promote research and innovation for referrals.
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This framework has been developed with the aim of providing standard procedures, assessment and planning tools, and guidance in the delivery of case management services. As Malawi moves forward to build a holistic child protection system, case management will serve as a core anchor and a mobilizing ...force for child protection.
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The MHPSS MSP is an easy-to-follow intersectoral package, which spells out the activities and actions that all humanitarian actors should put in place in all emergencies for an effective MHPSS response. It speaks to different actors at the global, regional, national, and local levels to plan, coordi...nate and implement an effective MHPSS response.
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Its main objectives are: to explain the educational approach underlying the Guide; to explain how to teach pharmacotherapy with the Guide; to give practical advice on how to assess the students, the teachers and the course; and to assist in mobilizing support for problem-based pharmacotherapy teachi...ng.
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A practical manual presenting the specific knowledge, skills and practices that First Aiders should have to act safely and effectively when caring for people caught up in armed conflicts and other situations of violence, such as internal disturbances and tensions.
This Strategic Operating Framework (SOF) has been developed to guide WASH Sector partners in responding to humanitarian needs in Sudan in conjunction with the existing and forthcoming humanitarian response plans (2022 and 2023). This SOF is drafted in consultation with the Strategic Advisory Group (...SAG) at the national level and will be revised as the humanitarian situation evolves in line with changes made to the WASH Cluster response plan and other guidance received by the SAG and the Technical Working Groups. However, by adhering to the cluster (Sector) approach, the partners agree to:
Assist the authorities in responding to the WASH needs of the population affected.
Promote a common understanding of the WASH sector needs and interventions in the response context among the WASH partners.
Ensure a well-coordinated response and consequently increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and impact of individual agency responses; and
Align towards common humanitarian principles and operational objectives.
Partners to conform to the broad operational framework outlined in this document. Agencies that breach these guidelines will be expected to provide clear justification to the WASH Sector and other WASH Sector partners through the SAG
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Guiding the work of medica mondiale is an attitude of sensitivity towards both trauma and stress.
This stress- and trauma-sensitive approach has a strengthening and relieving effect on the affected
people and also the activists, specialist staff and working groups. For medica mondiale, trauma as a...
consequence of violence is not to be found exclusively in the area of (individual) psychology, but also
very significantly at the level of society and politics. For this reason, even a multi-sectoral approach
to supporting those affected by violence cannot stand alone: it must go hand in hand with measures
to bring about change in general political conditions, societal structures and public awareness.
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The Newborn Situational Analysis reports of 2009 and 2011, as well as the “Bottleneck analysis on neonatal health” of 2013, culminated in the Nigeria launch of “Call to action on Newborn health” at the first National Newborn Health Conference in 2014. This call to action provided the framewo...rk for the development of the Nigeria Every Newborn Action
Plan (NiENAP). The NiENAP lays out a vision to end preventable stillbirths and newborn deaths by accelerating progress and scaling up evidence- based high-impact and cost effective interventions. The plan is guided by the principles of country-leadership, integration, accountability, equity, human rights, innovation and research. This blue print outlines our commitment as government and stakeholders to repositioning newborn health as we implement approaches that impact on the lives of newborns for improved health outcome.
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In April 2018, Refugees International (RI) conducted a mission to Bangladesh, to research the GBV (gender-based violence) response for Rohingya women and girls. RI found that the entire humanitarian system is struggling under tremendous constraints in Bangladesh, and protection and health actors do ...deliver lifesaving services to survivors in an incredibly challenging environment. This report, however, focuses on key gaps and challenges in GBV programming, as communicated by practitioners deployed to Bangladesh at various stages of the emergency, by local organizations, and by the affected women and girls themselves.
In the analyses and recommendations provided in this report, RI draws in part from the framework of the international initiative to safeguard women and girls in emergencies — the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies — and urges the donors and humanitarian organizations that are Call to Action partners to implement it more effectively and with urgency during this emergency.
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Gender-based violence is a life-threatening, global health and human rights issue that violates international human rights law and principles of gender equality. It is also a threat to lasting peace and an affront to our common humanity. United Nations Member States have called for urgent action to ...end GBV in emergencies, recognizing that in crises, the risk of GBV is heightened, particularly for women and adolescent girls.
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High levels of storage iron may increase malaria susceptibility. This risk has not been investigated in semi-immune adolescents. We investigated whether baseline iron status of nonpregnant adolescent girls living in a high malaria transmission area in Burkina Faso affected malaria risk during the fo...llowing rainy season. For this prospective study, we analysed data from an interim safety survey, conducted six months into a randomised iron supplementation trial. We used logistic regression to model the risk of P. falciparum infection prevalence by microscopy, the pre-specified interim safety outcome, in relation to iron status, nutritional indicators and menarche assessed at recruitment.
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