Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD), mainly heart attack and stroke, is the
leading cause of premature mortality in low and middle income countries (LMICs).
Identifying and managing individuals at high risk of CVD is an important strategy to prevent and control CVD, in addition to multisector...al population-based interventions to reduce CVD risk factors in the entire population.
Methods: We describe key public health considerations in identifying and managing individuals at high risk of CVD in LMICs.
Results: A main objective of any strategy to identify individuals at high CVD risk is to maximize the number of CVD events averted while minimizing the numbers of
individuals needing treatment. Scores estimating the total risk of CVD (e.g. ten-year risk of fatal and non-fatal CVD) are available for LMICs, and are based on the main CVD risk factors (history of CVD, age, sex, tobacco use, blood pressure, blood cholesterol and diabetes status). Opportunistic screening of CVD risk factors enables identification of persons with high CVD risk, but this strategy can be widely applied in low resource settings only if cost effective interventions are used (e.g. the WHO Package of Essential NCD interventions for primary health care in low resource settings package) and if treatment (generally for years) can be sustained, including continued availability ofaffordable medications and funding mechanisms that allow people to purchase medications without impoverishing them (e.g. universal access to health care). Thisalso emphasises the need to re-orient health systems in LMICs towards chronic diseases management.
Conclusion: The large burden of CVD in LMICs and the fact that persons with high
CVD can be identified and managed along cost-effective interventions mean that
health systems need to be structured in a way that encourages patient registration, opportunistic screening of CVD risk factors, efficient procedures for the management of chronic conditions (e.g. task sharing) and provision of affordable treatment for those with high CVD risk. The focus needs to be in primary care because that is where most of the population can access health care and because CVD programmes can be run effectively at this level.
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The Western Pacific Region is the largest and most diverse region in the world, made up of 37 countries and territories in the Pacific, Oceania and parts of Asia, with a population of more than 1.9 billion people stretching over an area from China and Mongolia in the north to New Zealand in the sout...h. In 1999, 22 countries and territories in the Pacific joined together and launched the Pacific Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis. Shortly after, the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis was launched in 2000. In 2004, 12 countries in the Asia subregion of the Western Pacific Region and Southeast Asian Region joined and developed the Mekong-Plus Strategic Plan for Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis. Since then, significant efforts have been made by all endemic countries, with annual mass drug administration (MDA) as a principal strategy, through strong partnership with the WHO and other donors and partners. As a result, by the end of 2019, 10 of 22 endemic countries in the region, including 8 of 16 countries in the Pacific and 2 countries in the Asia subregion, achieved WHO validation for elimination of lymphatic filariasis (LF) as a public health problem. All the other countries are either progressing with post-MDA surveillance or accelerating efforts by adoption of the new triple drug therapy strategy and enhancement of MDA campaigns to tackle persistent transmission. Some 85% of the originally endemic implementation units have stopped MDA and the number of people requiring MDA for LF in the Western Pacific Region was reduced by 72% from 2000 to 2018. This paper reviews the progress, key success factors and remaining challenges and indicates the way forward to achieve LF elimination in the Western Pacific Region.
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Overview
Rev Panam Salud Publica 40(6), 2016
This infodemic management course applies evidence-based guidance to the COVID-19 pandemic. It covers key risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) principles and illustrates how they can be operationalized in the context of an extended outbreak that affects different populations with varyin...g risk levels. Illustrations from WHO headquarters, regions, and Ministries of Health provide concrete examples of messaging and other communication interventions developed during COVID-19.
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Planetary health is a transdisciplinary approach that aims to advance the understanding of the links between human-driven changes to the planet and their consequences, and to develop appropriate solutions to the challenges identified. This emerging movement has not yet agreed upon a code of ethics t...o underpin the rapidly expanding body of research being carried out in its
name. However, a code of ethics might support the principles for planetary health set out in the Canmore Declaration of 2018. Phrases such as “Public Health 2.0”, “Human Health in an Era of Global Environmental Change”, or “A safe and just operating space for humanity” are often used in planetary health discussions, but are not always clearly defined and so far, the field lacks a strong guiding ethical framework. In this paper, we propose a starting point towards a code of ethics for planetary health that builds on the Canmore Declaration.
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Understanding challenges and solutions to global health issues from an inter-disciplinary perspective.
Accessed 5 March 2019.
Massoda Tonye et al. Malar J (2018) 17:156
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-018-2284-7
Background: In 2011, the demographic and health survey (DHS) in Cameroon was combined with the multiple indicator
cluster survey. Malaria parasitological data were collected, but the survey period did not overl...ap with the high
malaria transmission season. A malaria indicator survey (MIS) was also conducted during the same year, within the
malaria peak transmission season. This study compares estimates of the geographical distribution of malaria parasite
risk and of the effects of interventions obtained from the DHS and MIS survey data.
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Challenges in achieving the MDG for maternal mortality. In-depth analysis of the EDHS 2000-2011
Health systems in Latin America face many challenges in controlling the increasing burden of diabetes. Digital health interventions are a promise for the provision of care, especially in developing countries where mobile technology has a high penetration. This study evaluated the effectiveness of th...e implementation of a Diabetes Program (DP) that included digital health interventions to improve the quality of care of persons with type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) in a vulnerable population attending the public primary care network.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is challenging health systems across the world. Rapidly increasing demand for care of people with COVID-19 is compounded by fear, misinformation and limitations on the movement of people and supplies that disrupt the delivery of frontline health care for all people...
This g...uidance addresses the specific role of community-based health care in the pandemic context and outlines the adaptations needed to keep people safe, maintain continuity of essential services and ensure an effective response to COVID-19. It is intended for decision-makers and managers at the national and subnational levels and complements a range of other guidance, including that on priority public health interventions, facility-based care, and risk communication and community engagement in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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A all for global Action. The Oral Health Atlas. Second edition
Special issue: Mental Health Challenges in Lithuania
Nos. 1-2 '11
This open access book not only describes the challenges of climate disruption, but also presents solutions. The challenges described include air pollution, climate change, extreme weather, and related health impacts that range from heat stress, vector-borne diseases, food and water insecurity and ch...ronic diseases to malnutrition and mental well-being.
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First Global Patient Safety Challenge Clean Care is Safer Care
The WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care provide health-care workers (HCWs), hospital administrators and health authorities with a thorough review of evidence on hand hygiene in health care and specific recommendations to impro...ve practices and reduce transmission of pathogenic microorganisms to patients and HCWs. The present Guidelines are intended to be implemented in any situation in which health care is delivered either to a patient or to a specific group in a population. Therefore, this concept applies to all settings where health care is permanently or occasionally performed, such as home care by birth attendants.
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Recovery from COVID-19 has been challenging in Guatemala. As a result of the prolonged socio-economic impact of the pandemic, the average poverty rate nationwide has increased by almost 5%. This rise in the poverty level further exacerbates preexisting vulnerabilities and erodes the limited safety n...ets available to vulnerable populations. Year after year, recurrent disasters and humanitarian crises aggravate the historic social gaps that result in high levels of vulnerability, multidimensional poverty, and overall deprivation of essential services among hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans. According to the World Risk Report 2020, Guatemala is the tenth country with the highest level of exposure to disaster worldwide. Globally, it ranks 28th regarding vulnerability according to the 2021 INFORM’s risk index and 62nd in the Global Climate Risk Index 2021.
In 2020, Guatemala faced a record-breaking and devastating hurricane season with extreme rainfall, catastrophic winds, and deadly landslides, from which the country has not yet recovered. Unfortunately, recurrent extreme weather events, such as Hurricane Julia that hit Central America in early October 2022, progressively but deeply eroded a weak health infrastructure and local health systems.
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BackgroundClimate change is one of the great challenges of our time. The consequences of climate change on exposed biological subjects, as well as on vulnerable societies, are a concern for the entire scientific community. Rising temperatures, heat waves, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts, fir...es, loss of forest, and glaciers, along with disappearance of rivers and desertification, can directly and indirectly cause human pathologies that are physical and mental.
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1 June 2020
Countries around the world are facing the challenge of increased demand for care of people with COVID-19, compounded by fear, misinformation and limitations on movement that disrupt the delivery of health care for all conditions. Maintaining essential health services: operational guidan...ce for the COVID-19 context recommends practical actions that countries can take at national, subregional and local levels to reorganize and safely maintain access to high-quality, essential health services in the pandemic context. It also outlines sample indicators for monitoring essential health services, and describes considerations on when to stop and restart services as COVID-19 transmission recedes and surges. This document expands on the content of pillar 9 of the COVID-19 strategic preparedness and response plan, supersedes the earlier Operational guidance for maintaining essential health services during an outbreak, and complements the recently-released Community-based health care, including outreach and campaigns, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is intended for decision-makers and managers at the national and subnational levels.
This is an update to COVID-19: Operational guidance for maintaining essential health services during an outbreak: Interim guidance, 25 March 2020
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French and European food systems need to be trans- formed in order to address health, environmental and social challenges.
This new publication presents the continuing and emerging challenges to children’s environmental health.