The outbreak of COVID-19 comes with unpredictable primary and secondary impacts on vulnerable and food-insecure populations across the world. Mortality and morbidity appear to be most acute for elderly people, and those with underlying health conditions. At the same time, the widely anti...cipated economic downturn could have a more devastating effect on the world’s poor than the virus itself
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Effective risk communication requires the alignment of complex factors including trust between the communicator and the audience(s), audience involvement, and emotional responses to risk. Risk communication is especially challenging now as new media changes the landscape for both
communicators and... their audiences. Viewed as a discussion of the most important findings for risk communicators and managers, this report delves into research-driven recommendations for effective risk communication practices.
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La presente publicación describe la evidencia científica disponible sobre la utilidad del uso complementario de pruebas moleculares y de detección de anticuerpos para mejorar el diagnóstico de sospechosos de COVID-19. La utilización complementaria de ambas pruebas podría mejorar la identificac...ión correcta de pacientes con COVID-19, incluyendo a los pacientes asintomáticos o con enfermedad leve, contribuyendo a disminuir su propagación.
Esta publicación pertenece al compendio Publicaciones Minsa sobre COVID-19
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This guidance document is meant to support practitioners working in disaster prone contexts to develop and implement more effective integrated resilience programming. It promotes programming that cuts across different fields of work like rights awareness, food security, emergency preparedness, livel...ihoods, education, health etc. whilst at the same time encouraging us to work simultaneously at the individual, household, community and national level. It includes specific recommendations for developing resilience programming for communities prone to floods, cyclone, drought and earthquakes. It also includes recommendations to develop safe school programming to help reduce the impact of disasters on school infrastructure, ensure education continuity and build the resilience of students, teachers and their families.
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Em vista do aumento repentino do número de hospitalizações causadas pela pandemia de COVID-19 na América Latina e no Caribe, bem como da escassez de recursos humanos e materiais, como equipes médicas e gases medicinais, é necessário reformular os modelos de atenção na Região de modo a otim...izar o que já está disponível e garantir que mais pacientes recebam oxigênio na quantidade necessária e com a qualidade adequada O oxigênio consta na lista de medicamentos essenciais da Organização Mundial da Saúde sendo usado na atenção a pacientes em todos os níveis das redes integradas de serviços de saúde. Considerando que já está comprovada a eficácia do uso de oxigênio no tratamento de pacientes com afecções respiratórias causadas pela COVID-19, há uma grande oportunidade de melhorar a efetividade caso se promova seu uso racional, sustentável e seguro.
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El oxígeno está incluido dentro de la lista de medicamentos esenciales de la OMS y es utilizado para atender pacientes en todos los niveles de las redes integradas de servicios de salud. Dado que la eficacia del uso de oxígeno ya está probada en el tratamiento de pacientes con afecciones respira...torias provocadas por la COVID-19, existe una gran oportunidad para mejorar la efectividad promoviendo su uso de una manera racional, sostenible y segura.
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This learning report attempts to understand the drivers for, and barriers to, effective implementation as well as review the experiences of Start Fund members in responding to these outbreaks to support evidence-based decision-making within the Start Network at project, crisis, and system level. Spe...cifically, it analyses the effectiveness, efficiency, and relevance of Start Fund disease outbreak responses by reviewing and analysing funding, decision-making and response activities before ultimately exploring implications and recommendations.
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Laboratory Biossafety Manual
Guidelines for Prevention and Reponse
Vaccines are powerful weapons in the fight against pandemic viruses as shown by responses to both the 2009 H1N1 influenza and the COVID-19 pandemics. However, planning for accessing, allocating and deploying vaccines in a pandemic situation is a complex endeavour, beset with multiple challenges at a...ll levels – local, regional and global. The World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners have prepared this revised guidance document to assist countries update their national deployment and vaccination plans (NDVPs) by leveraging global learnings from past pandemic responses, including the recent COVID-19 vaccination effort. The development and testing of a NDVP would not only advance pandemic preparedness efforts but would also have benefits in terms of increasing national capabilities to manage other health emergencies which require emergency vaccination campaigns.
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This guidance note is intended primarily for health actors working in emergency and disaster risk management (hereafter 'emergency risk management') at the local, national or international level, and in governmental or nongovernmental agencies. People with disabilities, those... working in the disability sector and those working in other sectors that contribute to improved health outcomes related to emergency risk management, may also find this guidance note useful.
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Disabled people in developing countries are the poorest of the poor: if we are serious about tackling extreme poverty, our development work has to target them. The post-2015 development framework offers hope that disabled people will finally get the prominence they deserve on the global development ...agenda. But this will only be possible with sustained political pressure, and the UK’s position will only be credible if it leads by example in its own development work. Disabled people experience some of the most extreme poverty in the world, but there are also realistic opportunities for donors to turn the situation around.
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The “United Nations Framework for the immediate socio-economic response to COVID-19: Shared responsibility, global solidarity and urgent action for people in need” calls for protecting jobs, businesses and livelihoods to set in motion a safe recovery of societies and economies as soon as possibl...e for a more sustainable, gender-equal, and carbon-neutral path—better than the “old normal”.
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This guidance document provides basic principles for a spokesperson of any health authority on how to respond to vocal vaccine deniers. The suggestions are based on psychological research on persuasion, on research in public health, communication studies and on WHO risk communication guidelines.
The COVID-19 pandemic arrived in an evolving epidemiological context where some countries are experiencing a progressive decrease in HIV positivity in their testing programme as they are moving closer to the first 95 target. Distinguishing changes in HIV testing services due to the COVID-19 pandemic... from those resulting from evolving HIV testing strategies is crucial for adapting services and helping countries define their strategic mix of testing options moving forward. There is a need to focus, prioritize and plan for strategic efforts to prevent going further off the track toward achieving global targets and goals.
To support these efforts, WHO in partnership with ministries of health conducted an in-depth analysis of HIV testing services and antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation prior to and during reported COVID-19 disruptions. Additional publicly available Global Fund and PEPFAR data was also reviewed and analysed. This analysis, and coordination with ministries of health, identified key service delivery adaptations utilized during COVID-19-related disruptions and formed the basis of this strategic guide.
This document focuses on current country needs, as well as plans for prioritization and potential surge support needs in the event of future disruptions. Although the data and implications are specific to sub-Saharan Africa, key principles and lessons can be applied elsewhere.
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A view of global supply chains, pressure points, and implications for antimicrobial resistance response