This brief provides a snapshot of child protection interventions by UNHCR and its partners during the pandemic, covering community engagement, case management, alternative care and capacity building. In addition to working with children and communities, UNHCR also engages with authorities through po...licy advocacy in the context of COVID-19, such as to end immigration detention of children.
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About six to seven million people worldwide, mostly in Latin America, are estimated to be infected with
Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas disease (WHO data from 2021). Chagas disease is
found mainly in endemic areas of 21 Latin American countries.
Chikungunya: WHO fact sheet on Chikungunya providing key facts and information on scope of the problem, who is at risk, prevention, WHO response.
This project aimed to reduce the risk of vector-borne infection with Chagas disease by
controlling triatomine bugs, the vectors transmitting the parasite of Chagas disease, and
establishing an epidemiological surveillance system with community participation.
Chagas disease is a neglected tropical disease caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. It is a significant public health problem, affecting millions of people worldwide. And although it was described 110 years ago, only two old nitroheterocyclic drugs, benznidazole and nifurtimox, are cu...rrently available for the treatment of Chagas disease and both have several limitations. Besides the clear unmet medical need, many challenges preclude the development of new treatments, some of them related to a lack of understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease and parasite-host interactions. New knowledge and tools are becoming available, but the number of new chemical entities progressing through the preclinical pipeline is inadequate. Therefore, it is still uncertain whether safe, effective and accessible new drugs will be available in the near future. The Chagas disease research community must commit to even greater collaboration to ensure that patients eventually benefit from better treatments.
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Cholera is an acute gastrointestinal infection caused by the bacterium Vibrio Cholerae serogroup O1 or O139, and is often linked to unsafe drinking water, lack of proper sanitation and personal hygiene. It adversely affects mostly the poor and vulnerable populations in countries, which are already d...eprived of proper health facilities and conducive environmental conditions. The disease spreads through oro-fecal transmission by the ingestion of contaminated food or water or by person-to-person contact. It has a short incubation period of 2 hours to 5 days and the number of affected cases can rapidly increase across large regions. Cholera is a significant threat to global public health leading to an estimated 3-5 million cases per year worldwide, with an annual toll of 100,000 deaths. The disease was first reported in 1817 from the Ganges Delta of India and since then the ongoing 7th pandemic has emerged from Indonesia, reached Africa in 1970 and Somalia happens to be one of the early affected countries. Over the past few decades,
Somalia has witnessed the occurrence of repeated AWD/Cholera disease outbreaks that have caused high morbidity and mortality across the country.
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An IPCC Special Report on climate change, desertification, land
degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and
greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems
The Zimbabwe Multi-Sectoral Cholera Elimination Plan (2018–2028) aims to eradicate cholera by improving water, sanitation, and healthcare infrastructure, strengthening disease surveillance, and expanding oral cholera vaccination (OCV). The strategy focuses on five pillars, including public health ...response, WASH, infrastructure, community empowerment, and financing. A multi-sectoral approach involving government, international organizations, and local communities targets cholera hotspots to prevent outbreaks and ensure long-term disease control.
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The Lancet Regional Health - Americas 2024;30: 100681
Published Online 3 February 2024 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2024.100681
The rise of the discourse of 'trauma' as a major articulator of suffering within Western culture is a facet of the medicalization of life that has gathered pace in the last century. In recent years, Western mental health professionals have been increasingly involved in services addressing the plight... of war-affected populations - largely non-Western - in war zones or as refugees. Querying the extent to which their experiences can be reduced to a matter of mental health, this article addresses child refugees from war via three questions that go to the heart of the debate about how they are to be understood, the implications for their future maturation as individuals and citizens, and the role of psychological therapies aimed at catharsis of 'traumatic' memory.
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The cholera poster provides essential information about the disease, including its symptoms, sources of infection, prevention measures, and treatment options. It describes cholera as a potentially fatal disease that spreads through contaminated food and water, particularly in emergency conditions. K...ey symptoms include severe diarrhea resembling "rice water," vomiting, leg cramps, weakness, and dehydration.
The poster emphasizes prevention strategies such as drinking only boiled or clean water, washing hands with soap, cooking food thoroughly, and maintaining hygiene when handling clothes and diapers. It also explains the importance of Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS), which can treat 80% of patients by preventing dehydration. ORS can be made at home using salt, sugar, and clean water. The poster highlights that cholera can quickly weaken a healthy person and even cause death within 24 hours if untreated.
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Chagas disease affects 8-10 million people worldwide, mainly in Latin America. The current therapy for Chagas disease is limited to nifurtimox and benznidazole, which are effective in treating only the acute phase of the disease but with severe side effects. Therefore, there is an unmet need for new... drugs and for the exploration of innovative approaches which may lead to the discovery of new effective and safe drugs for its treatment.
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The article discusses the success of the Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (GARD) in Brazil. It details the initiatives launched to address chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) like asthma and COPD, emphasizing the development of national programs and collaborative efforts with the... World Health Organization (WHO). Key achievements include successful advocacy, education campaigns, and pilot projects for asthma control, which have led to improved access to treatment and better management of CRDs. Despite challenges such as limited government priority, GARD Brazil has made significant progress in awareness and care for respiratory conditions. The article highlights the need for continued support to sustain these efforts and develop a formal national action plan.
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This manual describes methods for investigating clusters or outbreaks that may be of chemical origin and describes the importance of a structured, coordinated, collaborative multidisciplinary, multi-agency approach at local, regional, national and international levels.
Website last accessed on 31.03.2023
La Tripanosomiasis Americana o Enfermedad de Chagas es una antropozoonosis,
es decir una enfermedad que afecta tanto al hombre como a numerosos animales
mamíferos y que es producida por un protozoario flagelado de la sangre y de los
tejidos el Trypanosoma cruzi.
Chagas disease is found mainly in endemic areas of 21 continental Latin American countries. The most common way people are infected with Chagas is through the blood-sucking triatomine bugs, also known as ‘kissing bugs’ (or vinchuca, barbeiro, pito, chinche, chipo in different Latin American coun...tries). The bugs typically live in wall or roof cracks of poorly constructed homes made of materials such as mud, straw and palm thatch. They come out at night to feed on people’s blood while they’re sleeping, then defecate close to the bite. Their faeces contain the parasite, which can then enter the person’s body when they inadvertently smear the bug’s waste into the bite or another skin break, the eyes or the mouth.
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Improving the survival chances and quality of life of women, newborns, and children remains an urgent global challenge. Since 2012, substantial progress has been made in reducing maternal and under-5 deaths, and a only handful of countries are on target to meet the SDG targets in 2030. Yet, 5 millio...n children still die each year under the age of 5, and nearly half of those are newborns less than a month old. Worse still, the global maternal mortality ratio is going in the wrong direction.
A Decade of Progress and Action for the Future will examine the tenacity and innovation that helped us make gains, the lessons learned through monitoring, country-led adaptation and leadership, analysis, and reflection, as well as the approaches we must take to reinvigorate the momentum and global commitment to improving maternal and child survival. Increasing coverage, strengthening the quality of care, and enhancing equity will be tantamount to our global progress.
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The World Health Organization's fact sheet on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) - arabic version