This handbook presents some basic information on safe construction practices. Its purpose is to provide guidance on choices regarding settlement planning in risky environments, as well as on the building techniques to improve individual shelters. The contents may be used to develop trainings on part...icipatory shelter risk reduction methods, such as PASSA.
This guide is not aimed at construction professionals, although it may serve them to communicate with beneficiaries and volunteers on safety measures. The intended readers are Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers, who are not expected to be experts in shelter construction and safety but should be able to understand the most important technical aspects of shelter safety in the communities in which they work.
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The WHO Cholera Vaccine Position Paper (August 2017) highlights the importance of oral cholera vaccines (OCVs) as a key tool in outbreak response and prevention, alongside water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) measures. It recommends OCVs for high-risk populations, endemic areas, and humanitarian cr...ises, emphasizing their effectiveness in reducing cases and mortality. The paper discusses two types of OCVs (Dukoral®, Shanchol™, Euvichol®) and supports the WHO-managed vaccine stockpile for rapid deployment in cholera-prone regions.
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Organizing and Delivering High Quality Care for Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases in the Americas
Scientific brief
8 April 2020
This research report provides results from the study of living conditions
among people with disabilities in Lesotho. Comparisons are made
between disabled and non-disabled in household level and individual
level. Disability was defined as limitation to perform certain activities that
was measure...d according to the Washington City Group questions.
Results obtained in Lesotho are also compared to those obtained in
earlier studies carried out in Mozambique, Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe
and Malawi. The Lesotho study was undertaken in 2009-2010.
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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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Amphetamine-type stimulants, new psychoactive substances
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World Drug Report 2017
Accessed: 14.03.2019
Of the 50 antibiotics in the pipeline, 32 target WHO priority pathogens but the majority have only limited benefits when compared to existing antibiotics. Two of these are active against the multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria, which are spreading rapidly and require urgent solutions.
Gr...am-negative bacteria, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli, can cause severe and often deadly infections that pose a particular threat for people with weak or not yet fully developed immune systems, including newborns, ageing populations, people undergoing surgery and cancer treatment.
The report highlights a worrying gap in activity against the highly resistant NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase 1), with only three antibiotics in the pipeline. NDM-1 makes bacteria resistant to a broad range of antibiotics, including those from the carbapenem family, which today are the last line of defence against antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.
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