Objective: To conduct a landscape assessment of public knowledge of cardiovascular disease risk factors and acute myocardial infarction symptoms, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) awareness and training in three underserved communities in Brazil.
Metho...ds: A cross-sectional, population-based survey of non-institutionalised adults age 30 or greater was conducted in three municipalities in Eastern Brazil. Data were analysed as survey-weighted percentages of the sampled populations.
Results: 3035 surveys were completed. Overall, one-third of respondents was unable to identify at least one cardiovascular disease risk factor and 25% unable to identify at least one myocardial infarction symptom. A minority of respondents had received training in CPR or were able to identify an AED. Low levels of education and low socioeconomic status were consistent predictors of lower knowledge levels of cardiovascular disease risk factors, acute coronary syndrome symptoms and CPR and AED use.
Conclusions: In three municipalities in Eastern Brazil, overall public knowledge of cardiovascular disease risk factors and symptoms, as well as knowledge of appropriate CPR and AED use was low. Our findings indicate the need for interventions to improve public knowledge and response to acute cardiovascular events in Brazil as a first step towards improving health outcomes in this population. Significant heterogeneity in knowledge seen across sites and socioeconomic strata indicates a need to appropriately target such interventions.
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Hypertension is referred to as a “silent killer”. Most people with hypertension are unaware of their condition as in most cases, they experience no warning signs or symptoms hence they are not identified or treated. Hypertention is associated with a number of conditions, disability, and causes o...f death. These include: strokes; myocardial infarction; end-stage renal disease; congestive heart failure; peripheral vascular disease and blindness. According to Stats SA, in 2017, hypertensive disorders resulted in 19 900 deaths with a further 44 357 deaths associated with cerebrovascular diseases and other heart diseases. This means around 30% of all deaths in 2017 were associated with increased blood pressure.
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Thefirst report on Latin America and the Carribean presents key indicators on health and health systems in 33 Latin America and the Caribbean countries. . Analysis is based on the latest comparable data across almost 100 indicators including equity, health status, determinants of health, health car...e resources and utilisation, health expenditure and financing, and quality of care. The editorial discusses the main challenges for the region brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as managing the outbreak as well as mobilising adequate resources and using them efficiently to ensure an effective response to the epidemic.
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On August 13, 2024, the Africa CDC declared the mpox outbreak a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS). The following day, the WHO declared it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). A coordinated, continent-wide response is essential, co-led by the African Union... (AU) through the Africa CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO), in close collaboration with global partners working under a unified plan, budget, and monitoring framework.
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Asthma is the commonest chronic childhood disease and encompasses a spectrum of airway diseases with similar symptoms. Inaccurate diagnosis remains common, especially in younger children, with failure to characterize the different “asthmas.” Children worldwide repeatedly suffer symptoms which se...verely affect their everyday lives. Children die from asthma, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). In many countries, asthma prevalence is rising. Access to effective care and changing environments are hugely variable and may explain the higher morbidity in inner-city children, in LMICs, and in deprived populations in high-income countries. Despite the disease being eminently controllable, morbidity and mortality persist.
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Over the past 20 years, the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) has regularly published and annually updated a global strategy for asthma management and prevention that has formed the basis for many national guidelines. However, uptake of existing guidelines is poor. A major revision of the GINA r...eport was published in 2014, and updated in 2015, reflecting an evolving understanding of heterogeneous airways disease, a broader evidence base, increasing interest in targeted treatment, and evidence about effective implementation approaches. During development of the report, the clinical utility of recommendations and strategies for their practical implementation were considered in parallel with the scientific evidence.
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The 2022 Financing for Sustainable Development Report identifies a “great finance divide” as a main driver of the divergent recovery. Developed countries were able to borrow record sums at ultra-low interest rates to support their people and economies, but the pandemic response and investment in... recovery of poor countries was limited by fiscal constraints. This joint report, by over 60 agencies of the United Nations system and partner international organizations, provides analysis and puts forward policy recommendations to overcome this “finance divide” and enhance developing countries’ access to financing for recovery and productive and sustainable investment.
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The accounting framework for health care financing is a key component of A System of Health Accounts 2011, published by OECD, Eurostat and WHO in October 2011.1 The framework makes health accounts more adaptable to rapidly evolving health financing systems, further enhances crosscountry comparabilit...y of health expenditures and financing data, and ultimately improves the information base for the analytical use of national health accounts (NHAs). It is hoped that SHA 2011 – including its financing framework – will make health accounts a more useful assessment and monitoring tool for health systems and health expenditure in the economy as a whole.
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Ending the epidemics of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria by 2030 is within reach, but not yet fully in our grasp.
With only 11 years left, we have no time to waste. We must step up the fight now.
The annual Development Co-operation Report brings new evidence, analysis and ideas on
sustainable development to members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and the international community more broadly. The objectives are to promote best practices and innovation in development co-ope...ration and to inform and shape policy reform and behaviour change to realise better lives and the Sustainable Development Goals for all
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More than 40% of the world population is 24 years old or younger, the vast majority of whom live in low- and lower middle–income countries. Globally, a quarter of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for mental disorders and substance abuse is borne by this age group and about 75% of mental diso...rders diagnosed in adulthood have their onset before the age of
24 years . Most children and young people in developing countries, however, do not have access to mental health care.
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This report shows that increased domestic revenues can and will cover only part of the necessary SDG budget spending of the LIDCs. Achieving the SDGs in the LIDCs will also require increases of both Official Development Assistance (ODA) and Private Development Assistance (PDA) to reach aggregate lev...els of SDG-directed development aid on the order of US$300-400 billion USD per year
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The present book deals not only with emergency response, but also with measures designed to reduce the impact of disasters on environmental health infrastructure, such as water supply and sanitation facilities. It also aims to strengthen the ability of people to withstand the disruption of their acc...ustomed infrastructure and systems for environmental health (e.g. shelter, water supply, sanitation, vector control etc.) and to recover rapidly.
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The emergence of multifrug-resistant malaria in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) has been identified as an emergency issue that may have catastrophic consequences on the future of malaria elimination in the GMS as well as globally. In recognition of the need for a cohesive regional response,... GMS countries have committed to a shared goal of eliminating malaria from the GMS by 2030 working within the framework of the Strategy for Malaria Elimination in the Greater Mekong Subregion 2015-2030. Population mobility has been identified as a key concern in the context of multidrug-resistant malaria; and in a region of highly porous borders where the majority of intra-Mekong migration occurs through informal channels, addressing the health needs of migrant populations has never been more critical.
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Only 8,730 asylum applications were registered in the EU+ in April, the lowest since at least 2008, and a massive 87% decrease from pre-COVID-19 levels in January and February.
The European Asylum Support Office (EASO) has released a special report which shows that the COVID-19 related travel restr...ictions and national health measures which were imposed during the past few months led to a dramatic cut in asylum applications in Europe.
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Cervical cancer continues to be a significant public health problem and a major cause of premature mortality among women, disproportionately affecting the socioeconomically disadvantaged population in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In the absence of implementing the known evidence-based, ...cost-effective interventions, the number of deaths per year is projected to reach approximately 416 000 globally in 2035. It was estimated in 2020 that 32% of incident cervical cancer cases and 34% of cervical cancer deaths in the world occurred in the 11 Member States of the WHO South-East Asia (SEA) Region. In 2020, 190 874 new cases and 116 015 deaths were estimated due to cervical cancer, which is the third commonest cancer in the Region
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This background document (EUR/RC72/BG/7) was considered and adopted by the WHO Regional Committee for Europe at its 72nd session (Tel Aviv, Israel, 12–14 September 2022), together with the working document (EUR/RC72/7) and information document (EUR/RC72/INF./4). The Regiona...l Committee adopted resolution EUR/RC72/R3, in which it endorsed the framework.
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The aim of this “model contingency plan” is to assist programme managers and planners in devel-oping a national, context-specific, dengue outbreak response plan in order to: (a) detect a dengue outbreak at an early stage through clearly defined and validated alarm signals; (b) precisely define w...hen a dengue outbreak has started; and (c) organize an early response to the alarm signals or an “emergency response” once an outbreak has started.
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Conflicts and disasters, including pandemics, affect women and men in all their diversity differently, and women and girls often suffer the most. Crisis-related hardships combine and compound pre-existing disadvantages, for example, they often cause women’s working conditions to worsen while incre...asing their overall workload and care responsibilities. At the same time, crises can give rise to changes that enable women to take up roles that were previously available only to men, and crises can open opportunities to address existing gender-based discrimination and violations of rights.
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After five consecutive below-average rains, the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa is expanding and deepening.
Combined with insecurity and macroeconomic volatility, the impact of the drought on food and nutrition security has been devastating. Across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, an estima...ted 22 million people are now acutely food insecure because of the drought. The malnutrition situation is also critical. Some 5.1 million children across drought-affected areas of the three countries are acutely malnourished in 2023, with dire implications for their health, growth and survival. Concerningly, the upcoming March-May 2023 rains are also forecast to be below-average. Should these rains fail, and humanitarian assistance not be delivered at scale, food insecurity will continue to deteriorate.
Regardless of how the 2023 rains perform, extremely high humanitarian needs will persist through 2023 while a full recovery from a drought of this magnitude will take years. To address the devastating drought-induced hunger and malnutrition across the region, WFP is pursuing an integrated dual track approach; meeting immediate life-saving food and nutritional needs while simultaneously building resilience to extreme climate variability.
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