The Urban Health Initiative promotes tools and guidance to assess the health impacts of air pollution and the health benefits of sustainable development in energy, transportation, land-use and waste.
Air pollution is one of the world’s leading killers. Globally, air pollution causes some 7 million deaths annually from outdoor and household sources.
Worldwide, around 2.3 billion people still cook using solid fuels (such as wood, crop waste, charcoal, coal and dung) and kerosene in open fires and inefficient stoves. Most of these people are poor and live in low- and middle-income countries. There is a large discrepancy in access to cleaner cooki...ng alternatives between urban and rural areas: in 2021, only 14% of people in urban areas relied on polluting fuels and technologies, compared with 49% of the global rural population.
more
The World Health Organization (WHO) highlights the significant health risks associated with household air pollution, primarily resulting from the use of inefficient and polluting fuels and technologies for cooking, heating, and lighting. In 2020, approximately 2.1 billion people—about one-third of... the global population—relied on open fires or inefficient stoves fueled by kerosene, biomass (such as wood, animal dung, and crop waste), and coal. This exposure led to an estimated 3.2 million deaths, including over 237,000 deaths of children under the age of five. The pollutants emitted from these sources contribute to a range of health issues, including respiratory infections, heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lung cancer. The WHO emphasizes the urgent need for transitioning to cleaner fuels and technologies to mitigate these health risks.
more
The combined effects from ambient (outdoor) air pollution and indoor (household, in particular) air pollution cause approximately 7 million premature deaths every year, largely as a result of increased mortality from stroke, IHD, COPD, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections (1). Air pollution ...can occur in both the outdoor and indoor environments. Cook-stoves in homes, motor vehicles, industrial facilities and forest fires are common sources of air pollution. Air pollutants with the strongest evidence for adverse health outcomes include particulate matter (PM; both PM 2.5 (i.e. particles with an aerodynamic diameter
equal to or less than 2.5 μm) and PM10 (i.e. particles with an aerodynamic diameter equal to or less than 10 μm), ozone (O 3), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) and carbon monoxide (CO). Air pollution is however composed of many more pollutants (1).
more
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
more
The WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office's webpage on cholera information resources provides a comprehensive collection of materials to support understanding and management of cholera outbreaks. It includes posters for public education, recent publications such as Global Defence Against the Inf...ectious Disease Threat (with a chapter on cholera), Cholera Outbreak: Assessing the Outbreak Response and Improving Preparedness, and First Steps for Managing an Outbreak of Acute Diarrhoea. Additionally, it features policy documents like the WHO statement on international travel and trade during cholera outbreaks and the World Health Assembly resolution WHA 64.15 on cholera control and prevention. The page also links to the Global Task Force on Cholera Control and provides cholera country profiles, offering valuable insights into global and regional efforts to combat cholera.
more
Survival, Health and Dignity for Refugees
Accessed March 13, 2019
The Faster We Go, the Health We'll Be.
The report outlines five climate solutions that research shows will deliver immediate, often localized, health and equity benefits. Our focus is on the solutions that proactively advance both health and health equity, recognizing that some of us face greater h...ealth risks than others.
more
The poster deals with the hygienic handling of food by manufacturers to prevent a possible cholera infection and its further spread.
Accessed 21 July 2021:The Caregiver Booklet is designed to help patients,family members, and community caregivers in the home-based care of serious long term illness. Home care is best for many people with long term illnesses,including those who are close to the end of life. All patients bein...g cared for at home should be first assessed and treated by a health worker, who will help caregivers provide high quality home care and ensure that medicines are taken correctly.
This booklet explains how to:
1. Deal with specific symptoms.
2. Provide care for terminal and bedridden patients at home.
3. Decide when to seek help from a health facility.
more
The first update of the ECDC ventilation guidance document contains:
key new findings that emphasise four bundles of NPIs to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in closed spaces;
updated references on the evidence of transmission in closed spaces;
recommendations based on the n...ew evidence and on national and international guidance; and
an overview of national guidance ventilation documents in the context of COVID-19 based on an inquiry sent to ECDC’s National Focal Points (NFPs) for Preparedness and Response and NFPs for Influenza and other respiratory diseases.
more
A panic attack is a distinct episode of high anxiety, with fear or
discomfort, which develops abruptly and has its peak within 10
minutes. During the attack, several of the following symptoms are
present.
Community Health Volunteers
This content is from the Advance Chapters of the NEW Where There Is No Doctor
Project Drawdown (2022) provides evidence of how climate solutions can also be win-win opportunities for meeting development and human well-being needs while boosting prosperity for rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The report summarizes the co-benefits of five groups of a subs...et of Project Drawdown climate solutions (28 total solutions) for advancing human well-being in rural areas of low- and middle-income countries
more