Under-diagnosis of asthma in ‘under-fives’ may be alleviated by improved inquiry into disease history. We assessed a questionnaire-based screening tool for asthma among 614 ‘under-fives’ with severe respiratory illness in Uganda. The questionnaire responses were compared to post hoc consensu...s diagnoses by three pediatricians who were guided by study definitions that were based on medical history, physical examination findings, laboratory and radiological tests, and response to bronchodilators. Children with asthma or bronchiolitis were categorized as “asthma syndrome”. Using this approach, 253 (41.2%) had asthma syndrome. History of and present breathing difficulties and present cough and wheezing was the best performing combination of four questionnaire items [sensitivity 80.8% (95% CI 77.6–84.0); specificity 84.7% (95% CI 81.8–87.6)]. The screening tool for asthma syndrome in ‘under-fives’ may provide a simple, cheap and quick method of identifying children with possible asthma. The validity and reliability of this tool in primary care settings should be tested.
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The new WHO recommendations for the treatment of isoniazid-resistant, rifampicin-susceptible TB are based upon a review of evidence from patients treated with such regimens by a Guideline Development Group in conformity with WHO requirements for evidence-based policies.
EU Policies Contribute to Abuse of Migrants in Libya
This report documents severe overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, malnutrition, and lack of adequate health care. Human Rights Watch found violent abuse by guards in four official detention centers in western Libya, including beatings and whippin...gs. Human Rights Watch witnessed large numbers of children, including newborns, detained in grossly unsuitable conditions in three out of the four detention centers. Almost 20 percent of those who reached Europe by sea from Libya in 2018 were children.
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Technical Note
Recently, the approach to hazardous events has undergone a considerable shift, away from reactive activities focused on managing and responding to events and towards a more proactive process of emergency and disaster risk management (DRM). The ultimate goal of this shift in focus is ...to prevent new and reduce existing disaster risks, a process known as disaster risk reduction (DRR), while strengthening individual, community, societal and global resilience.
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The National Guidelines for HIV-1 Viral Load Laboratory Testing support plans to scale up viral load (VL) testing to reach the 90-90-90 targets in India. This phased scale-up includes the setup of 70 additional VL testing laboratories nationally. These guidelines include laboratory design considerat...ions, a summary of VL technologies, and specimen collection and handling as well as transportation and storage guidance. Quality control and quality assurance requirements are described as well as laboratory safety issues. The guidelines also describe the VL laboratory network to be developed with supply chain management issues and commodities described. Annexes include laboratory registers and reporting forms.
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The 2020 recommendations for the programmatic management of TB preventive treatment are the first to be released under the rubric of WHO consolidated TB guidelines (Module 1 – Prevention). The WHO consolidated TB guidelines will gradually group all TB recommendations and will be complemented by ma...tching modules of a consolidated operational handbook. [1] The handbook will provide practical advice on how to put in place the recommendations at the scale needed to achieve national and global impact. The first handbook module in the series will be on the programmatic management of TB preventive treatment and will accompany the 2020 guidelines.
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This document provides a generic model that can be used for risk assessment of exposure to insecticide products applied as indoor residual sprays. It aims to harmonize the risk assessment of such insecticides for public health use in order to generate comparable data for their registering and labell...ing by national regulatory authorities. The assessment considers both adults and children (all age groups) as well as people in the following specific categories:
- those preparing the spray;
- those applying the spray;
- residents living in the treated houses;
- residents who participate in preparing and applying insecticides.
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Front. Trop. Dis. , 09 May 2023 Sec. Neglected Tropical Diseases Volume 4 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fitd.2023.1087003
The Lancet Infectious Disease Volume 25, Issue 2e77-e85February 2025
This report covers research conducted on HIV stigma and discrimination using the Stigma Index in the Papua New Guinea provinces of Western Highlands and Chimbu*. When Igat Hope began the project the aim was to conduct interviews in all regions of PNG. However, due to funding constraints and organis...ational capacities, the Stigma Index has only been applied in one region, that is, the Highlands Region. In future, the hope is to gather comparable data from other regions in PNG. Despite the fact that the overall project aims have not yet been achieved, the data contained in this report provides useful information that can be considered as work continues in PNG on HIV-related stigma and discrimination and human rights.
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"This is the final report of the six-year collaboration between the WHO Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse and the Gulbenkian Global Mental Health Platform, an initiative of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation aimed at reducing the global burden of mental health through the development a...nd application of evidence and good practices to global mental health."
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Guidelines for treatment of drug-susceptible tuberculosis and patient care
Update 2017
A One Health Response. A Briefing Note