Background: Healthcare workers’ mental health was affected by SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
Aim: To evaluate healthcare workers’ mental health and its associated factors during the pandemic in Chile. Material and Methods: An online self-reported questionnaire was designed including the Goldberg Healt...h Questionnaire, the Patient Health
Questionnaire, (PHQ-9), and the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale among other questions. It was sent to 28,038 healthcare workers.
Results: The questionnaire was answered by 1,934 participants, with a median age of 38 years (74% women). Seventy five percent were professionals, and 48% worked at a hospital. Fifty nine percent of respondents had a risk of having a mental health disorder, and 73% had depressive symptoms. Significant associations were found with sex, workplace, and some of the relevant experiences during the pandemic. Fifty one
percent reported the need for mental health support, and 38% of them received it.
Conclusions: There is a high percentage of health workers with symptoms of psychological distress, depression, and suicidal ideas. The gender approach is essential to understand the important differences found. Many health workers who required mental health care did not seek or received it.
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Left unabated, climate change will have catastrophic effects on the health of present and future generations. Such effects are already seen in Europe, through more frequent and severe extreme weather events, alterations to water and food systems, and changes in the environmental suitability for infe...ctious diseases. As one of the largest current and historical contributors to greenhouse gases and the largest provider of financing for climate change mitigation and adaptation, Europe’s response is crucial, for both human health and the planet. To ensure that health and
wellbeing are protected in this response it is essential to build the capacity to understand, monitor, and quantify health impacts of climate change and the health co-benefits of accelerated action.
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SARS-CoV-2 infections among children and adolescents cause less severe illness and fewer deaths compared to adults. While a less severe course of infection is a positive outcome, there are concerns that mild symptoms may have led to less testing, resulting in fewer identified cases of COVID-19 in ch...ildren. If children with mild or no symptoms transmit the disease, they may act as drivers of transmission within their communities. Understanding symptoms, infectivity and patterns of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in children and adolescents is essential for developing, adapting and improving control measures for COVID-19 across all ages. This is a summary of the current knowledge around SARS-CoV-2 infection acquisition and transmission and COVID-19 disease symptoms in children and adolescents. It aims to inform decisions, based on local contexts, on how to best keep schools, kindergarten and day-care facilities open and what advice to apply to intergenerational mixing.
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SARS-CoV-2 infections among children and adolescents cause less severe illness and fewer deaths compared to adults. While a less severe course of infection is a positive outcome, there are concerns that mild symptoms may have led to less testing, resulting in fewer identified cases of COVID-19 in ch...ildren. If children with mild or no symptoms transmit the disease, they may act as drivers of transmission within their communities. Understanding symptoms, infectivity and patterns of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in children and adolescents is essential for developing, adapting and improving control measures for COVID-19 across all ages. This is a summary of the current knowledge around SARS-CoV-2 infection acquisition and transmission and COVID-19 disease symptoms in children and adolescents. It aims to inform decisions, based on local contexts, on how to best keep schools, kindergarten and day-care facilities open and what advice to apply to intergenerational mixing.
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In the face of rapid increases in the number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean, coupled with shortages of human and material resources, including medical equipment and gases, there is a need to redesign models of care in the Region to optimize available resources... and ensure that more patients receive the quantity and quality of oxygen they need. Oxygen is included in the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines and is used to care for patients at all levels of integrated health services networks. The efficacy of oxygen use in the treatment of patients with respiratory conditions caused by COVID-19 has been demonstrated, but there is great opportunity to improve the effectiveness of its use if it is used in a rational, sustainable, and safe way. Bearing in mind that the efficacy of a health technology is measured by its benefit under actual conditions of use, practical actions can be taken to improve the use of medical oxygen and avoid oxygen shortages. A drug is considered to be used rationally when patients receive it according to their clinical needs, in doses appropriate to their individual needs, for an appropriate period, and at a low cost to them and their community. By providing instruction on the rational use of oxygen and promoting it, negative repercussions can be avoided, such as loss of efficacy as a result of activities related to oxygen storage, distribution, and administration. Rational use of oxygen also involves controlling waste due to leaks in storage and distribution systems, use of gas at incorrect pressures, use of incorrectly adjusted flowmeters, and disconnections, among other problems. Another aspect to consider is the provision of adequate technical support for all oxygen production systems, in terms of maintenance and calibration, availability of electrical energy, and specific knowledge about these systems. For these reasons, a set of guidelines has been put together for the development of an efficient management system to deal with situations of oxygen scarcity, both now and in the future.
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In recent years, high prices of pharmaceutical products have posed challenges in high- and low-income countries alike. In many instances, high prices of pharmaceutical products have led to significant financial hardship for individuals and negatively impacted on healthcare systems’ ability to prov...ide population-wide access to essential medicines.
Pharmaceutical pricing policies need to be carefully planned, carried out, and regularly checked and revised according to changing conditions. Strong, well-thought-out policies can guide well-informed and balanced decisions to achieve affordable access to essential health products.
This guideline replaces the 2015 WHO guideline on country pharmaceutical pricing policies, revised to reflect the growing body of literature since the last evidence review in 2010. This update also recognizes country experiences in managing the prices of pharmaceutical products.
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This document focus on the direct consequences of the virus (morbidity and mortality) in specific populations and on the results of measures aimed at mitigating the spread of the virus, with indirect impacts on socio-economic conditions. In this complex scenario, the gender approach has not received... due attention during the pandemic. Gender is one of the structural determinants of health, but it does not appear in analyses of the direct and indirect effects of the pandemic, despite being essential in the recognition and analysis of the differential impacts on men and women and their interaction with the different determinants of health.
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INTRODUCTION: Health service use among the public can decline during outbreaks and had been predicted among low and middle-income countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) started implementing public health measures across Kin...shasa, including strict lock-down measures in the Gombe health zone.
METHODS: Using monthly time series data from the DRC Health Management Information System (January 2018 to December 2020) and interrupted time series with mixed effects segmented Poisson regression models, we evaluated the impact of the pandemic on the use of essential health services (outpatient visits, maternal health, vaccinations, visits for common infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases) during the first wave of the pandemic in Kinshasa. Analyses were stratified by age, sex, health facility and lockdown policy (i.e, Gombe vs other health zones).
RESULTS: Health service use dropped rapidly following the start of the pandemic and ranged from 16% for visits for hypertension to 39% for visits for diabetes. However, reductions were highly concentrated in Gombe (81% decline in outpatient visits) relative to other health zones. When the lock-down was lifted, total visits and visits for infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases increased approximately twofold. Hospitals were more affected than health centres. Overall, the use of maternal health services and vaccinations was not significantly affected.
CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in important reductions in health service utilizsation in Kinshasa, particularly Gombe. Lifting of lock-down led to a rebound in the level of health service use but it remained lower than pre-pandemic levels.
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Caregivers provide invaluable service and support to patients in health facilities. In many health systems, caregivers (often members of the patient’s family or friends) are responsible for providing basic care for a patient, including providing food and drinks, cleaning clothes and bed linen, as ...well as supporting basic activities for daily living, such as washing or using the toilet. Small children and infants who are dependent on caregivers for performing essential daily activities require similar assistance while being treated in a health care facility. Such care is also a priority for people approaching the end of life, as patients and relatives increasingly spend time together at this critical stage.
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This report aims to support countries in the necessary transition toward healthier, more sustainable diets by integrating biodiversity in food-based interventions to support nutrition and health. It is intended to help guide decision-makers in the health, nutrition and other sectors, to:
Consider... the important role of biodiversity in food systems for the development of integrated interventions to support healthy, diverse and sustainable diets;
To focus investments and country support for more comprehensive, coordinated and cross-cutting public health and nutrition projects and policies; and
To strengthen the resilience of food systems, health systems, and societies, each of which are each increasingly compromised by widespread ecological degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change.
Biodiversity at every level (genetic, species and ecosystem level) is a foundational pillar for food security, nutrition, and dietary quality. It is the basic source of variety in essential foods, nutrients, vitamins and minerals, and medicines, and underpins life-sustaining ecosystem services. It is a core environmental determinant of health, often a vital ingredient of healthy nutritional outcomes and livelihoods, gender equality, social equity, and other health determinants.
Biodiversity can play a more prominent role in planning for nutritional outcomes in various ways, e.g. by facilitating the production of nutritious fruits and plant products, sustaining livelihoods through more efficient production and increasing the diversity of products available in markets. This Guidance presents and expands on six core building blocks for mainstreaming biodiversity for nutrition and health:
Cross-sectoral knowledge development and knowledge co-production;
Enabling environments;
Integration;
Conservation and the wider use of biodiversity;
Education and awareness-raising;
Monitoring and evaluation;
This WHO report builds on an unprecedented opportunity to mainstream biodiversity in order to support healthy and sustainable diets, and offers the necessary technical guidance to catalyze and support a transformation of the global food system and transition to healthier, more sustainable diets.
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Human Mobility, Shared Opportunities recommends expanding legal pathways, reducing transaction costs on remittances, guaranteeing migrants’ rights, especially for women, fostering integration and social cohesion, and mobilizing diasporas. With forced migration doubling over the last 10 years to ar...ound 79 million people, tackling its causes will be essential for development.
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WHO published guidance for clinicians and health care decision-makers on the use of corticosteroids in patients with COVID-19.
We recommend systemic corticosteroids for the treatment of patients with severe and critical COVID-19. We suggest not to use corticosteroids in the treatment of patients ...with non-severe COVID-19 as the treatment brought no benefits, and could even prove harmful. Treatment should be under supervision of a clinician.
Corticosteroids are listed in the WHO model list of essential medicines, readily available globally at a low cost. WHO encourages countries to maintain sufficient stocks of corticosteroids to treat COVID-19 and the other disease for which they are effective, while not maintaining excessive stocks which could deny other countries access.
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COVID-19 is stretching formal and informal aspects of community life. The pandemic is overwhelming health systems. Country economies are reaching a breaking point, with particularly significant impact for the livelihoods of vulnerable families and those dependent on daily wages. COVID-19 is also aff...ecting community relationships and trust. Lack of trust in government leaders or health officials can lead citizens to be unwilling to accept essential health messages and take the necessary steps to combat the spread of the disease. The stress, fear and emotional vulnerabilities of children and their caregivers can be particularly acute, especially in light of prolonged school closures and the uncertainty about their health system’s capacity to withstand the pandemic or how long community and household quarantines will last.
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The guidance provides critical considerations and practical checklists to keep schools safe. It also advises national and local authorities on how to adapt and implement emergency plans for educational facilities.
In the event of school closures, the guidance includes recommendations to mitigate... against the possible negative impacts on children’s learning and wellbeing. This means having solid plans in place to ensure the continuity of learning, including remote learning options such as online education strategies and radio broadcasts of academic content, and access to essential services for all children. These plans should also include necessary steps for the eventual safe reopening of schools.
Where schools remain open, and to make sure that children and their families remain protected and informed.
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The WHO and UNICEF-led Hand Hygiene for All Initiative aims at ensuring implementation for WHO's global recommendations on hand hygiene to prevent and control COVID-19 pandemic, and hand hygiene improvement sustainability in countries as a mainstay of wider infection prevention and control (IPC) and... water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) efforts.
But how can hand hygiene implementation be successful? By implementing strategies and approaches proven through the successes of the WHO Save Lives: Clean Your Hands campaign and fostering integration between hand hygiene and WASH improvements. This brief draws on learning from legacy work and the current evidence based and summarizes how joint action and collaboration are essential for successful strategies, in the context of the COVID-19 response and beyond
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Across Zimbabwe, 7 million people in urban and rural areas are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, compared to 5.5 million in August 2019. Since the launch of the Revised Humanitarian Appeal in August 2019, circumstances for millions of Zimbabweans have worsened. Drought and crop failure, exa...cerbated by macro-economic challenges and austerity measures, have directly affected vulnerable households in both rural and urban communities. Inflation continues to erode purchasing power and affordability of food and other essential goods is a daily challenge. The delivery of health care, clean water and sanitation, and education has been constrained and millions of people are facing challenges to access vital services.
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The World Health Organization (WHO)6, the Civil Society Action Committee and the Lancet Migration global collaboration are amongst many organisations that have advised governments against returning irregular migrants during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The expulsion of i...rregular migrants to under-prepared countries puts migrants and communities at risk, and is against the principles of solidarity and public health that should inspire action during these challenging times. It also puts at risk the staff who implement these policies. Detention, overcrowded conditions and lack of hygiene all render irregular migrants more vulnerable to the impact of COVID-19. Irregular laborers, agricultura land food workers, cleaners and caregivers are all essential in the response to the pandemic, there fore the temporary or longer term regularisation of migrants to facilitate their access to health, social services and employment should be considered as a humane, practical and self-interested alternative to forcible return.
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Primary health care, as outlined in the 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata and again 40 years later in the 2018 WHO/UNICEF document A vision for primary health care in the 21st century: towards universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals, is a whole-of-government and whole-of-society a...pproach to health that combines the following three components: multisectoral policy and action; empowered people and communities; and primary care and essential public health functions as the core of integrated health services.(1) Primary health care-oriented health systems are health systems organized and operated so as to make the right to the highest attainable level of health the main goal, while maximizing equity and solidarity. They are composed of a core set of structural and functional elements that support achieving universal coverage and access to services that are acceptable to the population and that are equity enhancing. The term “primary care” refers to a key process in the health system that supports first-contact, accessible, continued, comprehensive and coordinated patient-focused care.
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The aim of this brief is to ensure that the COVID-19 pandemic does not disrupt the supply of and demand generation for condoms. Sexual relations may be transformed in the new context of the pandemic, but they have not stopped. While access to male and female condoms has been critical in the global r...esponse to reduce HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unintended pregnancies over the past three decades, these gains can be lost if condoms are not included in the essential commodities that are freely available to populations during the lockdown of countries. This brief for country condom programme managers and experts provides a summary of relevant actions to sustain supplies of male condoms, female condoms and lubricants, and to adjust approaches for condom promotion during the time of COVID-19
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This document will be continuously updated. Version as of April 27th, 2020
Migrant and displaced children are at heightened risk to the immediate and secondary impacts of COVID-19. They often live in cramped conditions with limited access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), may be in immig...ration detention or “left behind,” live with disabilities, unaccompanied or separated from their families, and can be hardest to reach with accurate information in a language they understand. Migrant workers and refugees can live in the most disadvantaged urban areas, where access to essential services is already limited. Refugee and migrant children may also be prevented from accessing essential services due to legal, documentation, linguistic or safety barriers. Further, the misinformation on the spread of COVID-19 exacerbates the xenophobia and discrimination that migrant and displaced children and their families already face.
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