Abstract: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic psychological disorder that can develop after exposure to a traumatic event. This review summarizes the literature on the epidemiology, assessment, and treatment of PTSD. We provide a review of the characteristics of PTSD along with associa...ted risk factors, and describe brief, evidence-based measures that can be used to screen for PTSD and monitor symptom changes over time. In regard to treatment, we highlight commonly used, evidence-based psychotherapies and pharmacotherapies for PTSD. Among psychotherapeutic approaches, evidence-based approaches include cognitive-behavioral therapies (e.g., Prolonged Exposure and Cognitive Processing Therapy) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. A wide variety of pharmacotherapies have received some level of research support for PTSD symptom alleviation, although selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors have the largest evidence base to date.
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This document explains the scope of the logistics services provided by the National Logistics Cluster, in support of the COVID-19 response in Nepal, how humanitarian actors and Nepal Government may access these services, and the conditions under which these services will be provided. The objective o...f the transport and storage services is to support humanitarian organisations and Government to establish a supply chain of medicines, medical goods and medical equipment mandated by the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) for Prevention of COVID-19transmission, control and treatment to the hospitals and primary healthcare facilities.
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La pandemia del coronavirus (COVID-19) ha afectado la vida familiar alrededor del mundo. El cierre de escuelas y colegios, el trabajo a distancia, el distanciamiento físico: es mucho para cualquier persona, pero especialmente para los padres. Un grupo de colaboradores nos juntamos con la iniciativa... 'Parenting for Lifelong Health' (en español, Paternidad y Crianza para Salud de por Vida) para brindar a los padres y responsables de niños una serie de consejos prácticos para ayudar a manejar esta nueva (temporaria) normalidad.
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Ocean plastic pollution has reached crisis level: every minute, more than an entire garbage truck of plastic makes its way into the world’s oceans—roughly 11 million metric tons annually. While plastic waste presents an immediate threat to marine wildlife and ecosystems, this global challenge al...so has implications for major industries such as fishing and tourism, impacting the livelihoods of millions of people. The drivers and impacts of ocean plastic pollution also contribute to global challenges in food security, human health, and climate change.
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Because of the limited access to more powerful diagnostic tools, there is a paucity of data regarding the burden of fungal infections in Burkina Faso. The aim of this study was to estimate the incidence and prevalence of serious fungal infections in this sub-Saharan country. We primarily used the na...tional demographic data and performed a PubMed search to retrieve all published papers on fungal infections from Burkina Faso and its surrounding West African countries. Considering the prevalence of HIV infection (0.8% of the population) and a 3.4% incidence of cryptococcosis in hospitals, it is estimated that 459 patients per year develop cryptococcosis. For pneumocystosis, it is suggested that 1013 new cases occur every year. Taking into account the local TB frequency (population prevalence at 0.052%), we estimate the prevalence of chronic pulmonary aspergillosis at 1120 cases. Severe forms of asthma with fungal sensitization and allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis are estimated to affect 7429 and 5628 cases, respectively. Vulvovaginal candidiasis may affect 179,000 women, and almost 1,000,000 children may suffer from tinea capitis. Globally, we estimate that roughly 1.4 million people in Burkina Faso (7.51% of the population) suffer from a serious fungal infection. These data should be used to drive future epidemiological studies, diagnostic approaches, and therapeutic strategies.
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Update - 27 June 2018
During the reporting week, the monsoon rains brought 252 mm of rainfall compared to 95 mm during the previous week. The downpour caused 65% of the week’s weather-related incidents (i.e. landslides, wind-storms and floods). Three rain gauges were installed in Chakmarkul (...near Camp 21), Camp 16 and Kutupalong, complementing existing rain gauges in Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf, as well as the Meteorological Station installed by Samaritan Purse in Camp 12. This network of rain gauges provides localized rainfall data at regular intervals throughout the day, which will allow the humanitarian community to better monitor, anticipate and respond to developments within the camps. Relocation of families at risk of landslides and flooding continued; a total of some 200 families have already moved to Camp 20 Extension and more than 100 families to Camp Extension 4. Repair of access roads, culverts, bridges and infrastructure is ongoing with continued attention to preparing for further heavy rains.
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Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will require the international community to mobilize significant additional financing over the next decade. Tracking and analyzing this funding is central to measuring progress and making more informed choices to direct financial flows where they wi...ll have the greatest impact. This brief highlights AidData’s updated methodology to track financing to the SDGs, providing a baseline of funding for the years immediately before and after their launch. To track SDG-related financing, we build on our 2017 pilot methodology. Using data from the OECD CRS database on all official development assistance between 2010 and 2016, we identify individual projects that are linked to specific SDG goals or targets and then quantify total financing by SDG. This brief highlights four countries that represent different development contexts and trajectories, exploring how a country’s individual context impacts its SDG-related donor funding by examining the composition of funding and financing trends. We also look at SDG financing from the perspective of donors to see how their own interests are reflected in development portfolios across different countries.
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International Journal of Special Education. Vol.29 (3) 2014, 69-81
Educating students with disabilities in an inclusive general education setting has been shown to increase academic achievement, increase peer acceptance, increase self esteem, create a richer friendship network, and have positive li...fetime benefits (higher salaried jobs, independent living). In addition, inclusion can have benefits for students without disabilities. The West African nation of Senegal has pledged to increase inclusive education for students with disabilities by 2015. Issues that affect inclusive education for all in Senegal are access to schooling, community and societal perceptions of individuals with disabilities, poverty, and teacher training and pedagogy. To increase inclusive education for all in Senegal the country must increase access to schooling through physical accessibility and decentralization, create community awareness campaigns that increase knowledge of disabilities, and develop teacher training that fosters a student-centered pedagogy.
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The Cholera Fact Sheet is available in English, Spanish, Arabic, French, and Haitian Kreyol. This heavily-illustrated, easy-to-read handout provides information for preventing, diagnosing and treating cholera with limited resources. It offers instructions for purifying drinking water and prepari...ng a rehydration drink at home.
You can link to the English sheet, which includes links to all other languages: http://en.hesperian.org/hhg/Cholera_Factsheet#utm_source=MedBox&utm_medium=site&utm_campaign=cholera_hw
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In 2015, the United Nations set important targets to reduce premature
cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths by 33% by 2030. Africa disproportionately
bears the brunt of CVD burden and has one of the highest risks of dying
from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) worldwide. There is currently
an epide...miological transition on the continent, where NCDs is projected
to outpace communicable diseases within the current decade. Unchecked
increases in CVD risk factors have contributed to the growing burden of three
major CVDs—hypertension, cardiomyopathies, and atherosclerotic diseasesleading to devastating rates of stroke and heart failure. The highest age
standardized disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) due to hypertensive heart
disease (HHD) were recorded in Africa. The contributory causes of heart failure
are changing—whilst HHD and cardiomyopathies still dominate, ischemic
heart disease is rapidly becoming a significant contributor, whilst rheumatic
heart disease (RHD) has shown a gradual decline. In a continent where health
systems are traditionally geared toward addressing communicable diseases,
several gaps exist to adequately meet the growing demand imposed by CVDs.
Among these, high-quality research to inform interventions, underfunded
health systems with high out-of-pocket costs, limited accessibility and
affordability of essential medicines, CVD preventive services, and skill
shortages. Overall, the African continent progress toward a third reduction
in premature mortality come 2030 is lagging behind. More can be done in
the arena of effective policy implementation for risk factor reduction and
CVD prevention, increasing health financing and focusing on strengthening
primary health care services for prevention and treatment of CVDs, whilst
ensuring availability and affordability of quality medicines. Further, investing
in systematic country data collection and research outputs will improve the accuracy of the burden of disease data and inform policy adoption on
interventions. This review summarizes the current CVD burden, important
gaps in cardiovascular medicine in Africa, and further highlights priority
areas where efforts could be intensified in the next decade with potential
to improve the current rate of progress toward achieving a 33% reduction
in CVD mortality.
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Cardiovascular diseases, principally ischemic heart disease (IHD), are the most important cause of death and disability in the majority of low- and lower-middle-income countries (LLMICs). In these countries, IHD mortality rates are significantly greater in individuals of a low socioeconomic status (...SES).
Three important focus areas for decreasing IHD mortality among those of low SES in LLMICs are (1) acute coronary care; (2) cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention; and (3) primary prevention. Greater mortality in low SES patients with acute coronary syndrome is due to lack of awareness of symptoms in patients and primary care physicians, delay in reaching healthcare facilities, non-availability of thrombolysis and coronary revascularization, and the non-affordability of expensive medicines (statins, dual anti-platelets, renin-angiotensin system blockers). Facilities for rapid diagnosis and accessible and affordable long-term care at secondary and tertiary care hospitals for IHD care are needed. A strong focus on the social determinants of health (low education, poverty, working and living conditions), greater healthcare financing, and efficient primary care is required. The quality of primary prevention needs to be improved with initiatives to eliminate tobacco and trans-fats and to reduce the consumption of alcohol, refined carbohydrates, and salt along with the promotion of healthy foods and physical activity. Efficient primary care with a focus on management of blood pressure, lipids and diabetes is needed. Task sharing with community health workers, electronic decision support systems, and use of fixed-dose combinations of blood pressure-lowering drugs and statins can substantially reduce risk factors and potentially lead to large reductions in IHD. Finally, training of physicians, nurses, and health workers in IHD prevention should be strengthened.
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Climate change presents the single biggest threat to human development, and its widespread impacts disproportionately burden the poorest and most vulnerable households in fragile and rural developing contexts – particularly women and children.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate C...hange’s (IPCC) latest report, ‘between 2010 and 2020, droughts, floods and storms killed 15 times as many people in highly vulnerable countries, particularly in Africa — which is responsible for less than 3 percent of global emissions – than in the wealthiest countries’.
Recognising environmental degradation and climate change are key accelerators of extreme child vulnerability, World Vision (WV) approved the Environmental Stewardship Management Policy (‘the Policy’) and Guidelines (‘the Guidelines’) in 2021.
To support the implementation of the Policy and Guidelines, WV has developed this Environmental Stewardship and Climate Action Handbook (‘the Handbook’) to help offices across the WV Partnership implement best practice environmental management strategies both in the field and in our operations and facilities.
Integrating environmental stewardship and climate action into all our work – whether that be in our Area Programmes, grant projects, responses to disasters or advocacy – is critical to achieving WV’s strategy.
As a Christian organisation we are compelled to follow the ways of Jesus Christ, calling us to care for the ‘least of these’ (Matthew 25:40) – the vulnerable children who are disproportionately impacted by climate change. Our response to the degradation of the environment is not motivated by political expediency or funding – but because we are called to steward God’s creation (Genesis 1:28).
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The Ethiopia Multi-Sectorial Cholera Elimination Plan (2022-2028) outlines a national strategy to eliminate cholera in Ethiopia by 2028. The plan follows the Global Roadmap to End Cholera by 2030 and is based on six key pillars: Leadership & Coordination, Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH), Surveill...ance & Reporting, Use of Oral Cholera Vaccines (OCV), Healthcare System Strengthening, and Community Engagement.
Ethiopia has historically faced recurrent cholera outbreaks due to poor sanitation, unsafe water, and weak health infrastructure. The plan prioritizes high-risk areas (hotspot woredas) and aims to reduce cholera-related mortality by 90% by 2028. It includes efforts to improve WASH conditions, strengthen disease surveillance, enhance rapid response capabilities, expand vaccination campaigns, and integrate cholera control into broader health policies.
The government, in collaboration with international partners such as WHO, UNICEF, and the Global Task Force for Cholera Control (GTFCC), will implement and monitor the plan. The estimated budget for the initiative is $390 million over eight years. Ethiopia aims to achieve zero cholera transmission in hotspot regions, ensuring sustainable public health improvements.
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There is no question that over the last thirty years environmentaldegradation and the ecological crisis have become in our day and age apredominant sign of the times. In response to this worrisome develop-ment official documents of the Roman Catholic Church, at various lev-els, have sought to addres...s the growing ecological concern from theperspective of Catholic social teaching. Consequently references to ecol-ogy and environmental issues have surfaced in papal encyclicals duringthe last fifteen years generating national and regional responses. In theUnited States, for example, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops hasissued two pastoral statements on environmental issues in 1991 and2001. Significantly, the Catholic Bishops of the Pacific Northwest, rep-resenting Canada and the U.S. have also issued a unique internationalletter focused on a particular ecological region—the Columbia RiverWatershed. What all of these efforts hold in common is the attempt toapply Catholic social teaching to a new and disturbing phenomenon inhuman experience. The result has been an expansion of Catholic socialthought. What was once the “social question” has now become the socialand “ecological question.” This development, the effort to address ecol-ogy and environmental issues as ethical problems, is the focus of thispaper. In particular this paper will link environmental and humanecology with the concept of sustainability, with the intention of propos-ing an interpretation of the common good and a definition of sustain-ability within Catholic social teaching.
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This guidance document is meant to support practitioners working in disaster prone contexts to develop and implement more effective integrated resilience programming. It promotes programming that cuts across different fields of work like rights awareness, food security, emergency preparedness, livel...ihoods, education, health etc. whilst at the same time encouraging us to work simultaneously at the individual, household, community and national level. It includes specific recommendations for developing resilience programming for communities prone to floods, cyclone, drought and earthquakes. It also includes recommendations to develop safe school programming to help reduce the impact of disasters on school infrastructure, ensure education continuity and build the resilience of students, teachers and their families.
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CBM’s Child Safeguarding Policy is based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 (and its optional protocols); the national child protection legislation of Germany as well as that of the CBM program
countries and the Keeping Children Safe Standards. This policy has been created beca...use respecting the dignity of all children and keeping them safe is a foundational principle of CBM’s work. For the purpose of this policy a child is anyone under the age of 18 years. CBM is committed to ensuring a safe environment for children through investing the necessary resources needed to apply the procedures contained in this policy.
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Introduction: Considering the global prevalence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a vaccine is being developed to control the disease as a complementary solution to hygiene measures—and better, in social terms, than social distancing. Given that a vaccine will eventually be produced, informa...tion will be needed to support a potential campaign to promote vaccination.
Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the variables affecting the likelihood of refusal and indecision toward a vaccine against COVID-19 and to determine the acceptance of the vaccine for different scenarios of effectiveness and side effects.
Materials and Methods: A multinomial logistic regression method based on the Health Belief Model was used to estimate the current methodology, using data obtained by an online anonymous survey of 370 respondents in Chile.
Results: The results indicate that 49% of respondents were willing to be vaccinated, with 28% undecided or 77% of individuals who would potentially be willing to be inoculated. The main variables that explained the probability of rejection or indecision were associated with the severity of COVID-19, such as, the side effects and effectiveness of the vaccine; perceived benefits, including immunity, decreased fear of contagion, and the protection of oneself and the environment; action signals, such as, responses from ones' family and the government, available information, and specialists' recommendations; and susceptibility, including the contagion rate per 1,000 inhabitants and relatives with COVID-19, among others. Our analysis of hypothetical vaccine scenarios revealed that individuals preferred less risky vaccines in terms of fewer side effects, rather than effectiveness. Additionally, the variables that explained the indecision toward or rejection of a potential COVID-19 vaccine could be used in designing public health policies.
Conclusions: We discovered that it is necessary to formulate specific, differentiated vaccination-promotion strategies for the anti-vaccine and undecided groups based on the factors that explain the probability of individuals refusing or expressing hesitation toward vaccination.
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Climate-induced water insecurity poses one of the biggest threats to humanity and will lead to more hunger, disease and displacement
Oxfam water engineers are having to drill deeper, more expensive and harder-to-maintain water boreholes used by some of the poorest communities around the world, mo...re often now only to find dry, depleted or polluted reservoirs.
Today, during World Water Week, Oxfam publishes the first of its series of reports, “Water Dilemmas”, about the growing water crisis, in large part driven by global heating from greenhouse gas emissions. The report describes how climate change will impact water security in different regions, leading to more hunger, disease and displacement.
Carlos Calderon, Humanitarian Advocacy and Partnerships Lead for Oxfam Aotearoa said, “This new Oxfam research is focused on the global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) situation, but it paints a picture that illustrates the complexity of elements that, combined, will continue to increasingly affect women, girls, boys and men in the decades to come. Changing weather, poverty, inequality, gender-based violence, political instability and conflicts are impacting the availability and quality of adequate water systems. All governments, particularly those from rich countries, should responsively take action at a global scale. The clock is ticking. Our children will judge us for our actions today, or for the lack of them.”
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The aim of this study is to research deeply on the post-traumatic stress disorder in sexually abused children. Proving the presence of forms of the disorder in children and the their treatment mode will be in the center of the study. The methods used to conduct this study will be a literature review... on the focused issue referring to reviews of articles which focus on the defined peer group. For the purpose we have selected only articles focusing on sexually abused children treated for post-traumatic stress disorder. The results of the study reveal that all forms of abuse could bring consequences on children, even more, posttraumatic stress is the language with which the victims communicate their sorrow in the most typical mode. Sexual abuse as one of the major forms of abuse, is among the most severe which cause irreversible consequences over a category of children. In conclusion we can assume that post-traumatic stress in sexually abused children might appear through the most severe forms of psychiatric and psychological symptoms and for the recovery and rehabilitation of the child in many cases the pharmacological treatment seems as the best choice for the child.
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Historically, the discovery of the sulfa drugs in the 1930s and the subsequent development of penicillin during World War II ushered in a new era in the treatment of infectious diseases. Infections that were common causes of death and disease in the pre-...antibiotic era - rheumatic fever, syphilis, cellulitis and bacterial pneumonia - became treatable, and over the next 20 years most of the classes of antibiotics that find clinical use today were discovered and changed medicine in a profound way. The availability of antibiotics enabled revolutionary medical interventions such as cancer chemotherapy, organ transplants and essentially all major invasive surgeries from joint replacements to coronary bypass. Antibiotics, though, are unique among drugs in that their use precipitates their obsolescence. Paradoxically, these cures select for organisms that can evade them, fueling an arms race between microbes, clinicians and drug discoverers.
Wright BMC Biology 2010, 8:123 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/8/12
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