The aim with this study was to examine in what amount disabled children in South Africa can live a participating life in society, with focus on special needs schools and their capability to empower the children. The data material has been collected through eight qualitative interviews, and observati...ons at seven special needs schools in the country. Through my result I have distinguished three main roads to empower the children: First, to analyze social structures, secondly, to gain knowledge and awareness, and thirdly, to strengthen the children’s self-esteem. I have also analyzed the structural barriers that are hindering disabled children to participate, and illustrated this by describing social policies and their effect on special needs schools in South Africa.
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The main purpose of the meeting was to review tsetse control tools, activities and their contribution to the elimination of gHAT and the monitoring thereof. Seven endemic countries provided reports on recent and ongoing vector control interventions at the national level (Angola, Cameroon, Côte d’...Ivoire, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea and Uganda). Country reports focused on the in situations implementing and supporting vector control activities, the tools and the approaches in use, the coverage of the activities in space and time and their impacts on tsetse populations. Future perspectives for vector control in the respective countries were also discussed, including opportunities and challenges to sustainability.
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The social protection landscape for people affected by TB in the WHO South-East Asia Region
Effective malaria case management requires quick access to diagnostics and antimalarial treatments to reduce illness and death. Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) has been essential to malaria treatment since 2001, as it combines artemisinin for rapid parasite reduction with a partner drug ...to ensure complete cure. However, resistance to antimalarial drugs, where parasites survive standard doses, threatens malaria control.
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This guideline covers care and management for adults (aged 18 and over) with type 2 diabetes. It focuses on patient education, dietary advice, managing cardiovascular risk, managing blood glucose levels, and identifying and managing long-term complications.
The document, "Progress on the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases," reports on global efforts to reduce the impact of NCDs, such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases, following the commitments made at high-level United Nations meetings. It highlights ...the inadequate progress in meeting the targets set under the Sustainable Development Goal 3.4 to reduce premature NCD mortality by one-third by 2030. Key challenges include insufficient funding, limited implementation of effective interventions, and political and economic barriers, especially in low-income countries. The report calls for strengthened international cooperation, policy reform, and innovative approaches to meet global health targets.
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The "Stories from the field" document by the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean shares effective strategies from the Eastern Mediterranean Region for addressing noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health challenges, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights regio...nal success stories in mitigating NCDs and mental health conditions through innovative, country-specific interventions. The report emphasizes multisectoral collaboration, community engagement, and resilience in public health responses. It aims to inspire further action and knowledge-sharing to enhance health outcomes in challenging settings across the region.
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Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a growing public health problem in Ghana and other African countries. Strokes and other CVDs have become a leading cause of death due to increasing risk factors such as hypertension. According to the Global Burden of Disease study (GBD), ischaemic heart disease was... the fourth leading cause of death in Ghana in 2016. The prevalence of hyper-
tension, a major risk factor for CVDs, is increasing rapidly and ranges from 19% to 48%, according to the Ghana Health Service Annual Report, 2017, due to rising life expectancy and the increasing prevalence of contributing factors such as overweight/obesity. Early diagnosis and adequate management of the risk factors can reduce the fatal consequences of CVDs.
At the heart of improving risk assessment and management of CVDs are nationally approved guidelines, which facilitate standardisation of care approaches.
These guidelines developed by experts from all levels of health care and stakeholders capture all recommended approaches and necessary information for clinicians and other healthcare workers on CVDs. They also serve as a practical guide for assessing and managing the most important CVDs prevalent in Ghana and can be used at all levels of care namely health facilities without a doctor; with a general practitioner and with a physician specialist.
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Hypertension is the number one health related risk factor in India, with the largest contribution to burden of disease and mortality. It contributes to an estimated 1.6 million deaths, due to ischemic heart disease and stroke, out of a total of about 10 million deaths annually in India. Fifty seven ...percent of deaths related to stroke and 24% of deaths related to coronary heart disease are related to hypertension. Hypertension is one of the commonest non-communicable diseases in India, with an overall prevalence of 29.8% among the adult population, and a higher prevalence in urban areas (33.8% vs. 27.6%)
according to recent estimates.
Awareness of hypertension in India is low while appropriate treatment and control among those with hypertension is even lower: Hypertension is a chronic, persistent, largely asymptomatic disease. A majority of the patients with hypertension in India are unaware of their condition. This is because of low levels of awareness and the lack of screening for hypertension in adults-either as a systematic programme or as an opportunistic exercise during visits to healthcare providers.
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This guide can be used to train medical officers to ensure BP is measured for all adults visiting the OPD, treat all patients with high BP, initiate treatment as per protocol, counsel patients for follow-up, refer patients to local care, and report data.
Patients with diabetes are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) with its manifestations of coronary artery disease (CAD), heart failure (HF), atrial fibrillation (AF), and stroke, as well as aortic and peripheral artery diseases. In addition, diabetes is a major risk factor f...or developing chronic kidney disease (CKD), which in itself is associated with developing CVD. The combination of diabetes with these cardio-renal comorbidities enhances the risk not only for cardiovascular (CV) events but also for CV and all-cause mortality. The current European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Guidelines on the management of cardiovascular disease in patients with diabetes are designed to guide prevention and management of the manifestations of CVD in patients with diabetes based on data published until end of January 2023. Over the last decade, the results of various large cardiovascular outcome trials (CVOTs) in patients with diabetes at high CV risk with novel glucose- lowering agents, such as sodium–glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists (RAs), but also novel non-steroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs), such as finerenone have substantially expanded available therapeutic op-
tions, leading to numerous evidence-based recommendations for the management of this patient population.
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The Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Guidelines aim to support healthcare workers improve quality and safety health care. The Guidelines further aim to promote and facilitate the overall goal of IPC by providing evidence-based recommendations on the critical aspects of IPC, focusing on the fun...damental principles and priority action areas. All health service organizations should consider the risk of healthcare-associated infection(s) (HAI) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) transmission to implement these recommendations. The IPC Guidelines also set national standards for the prevention and control of HAIs and to ensure compliance to the National Quality Standards.
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Background: COVID-19 is a global public health crisis that affects all sectors; studying the impact of this pandemic on the delivery of cardiology services in Africa is crucial as COVID-19-related cardiovascular complications may worsen the CVD burden in this already highly affected and resource-lim...ited continent
Methods: This was a cross-sectional e-survey study conducted amongst cardiologists in African countries. The primary outcome was the change in service delivery in African cardiology units during the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. The secondary outcomes were the satisfaction of cardiologists with regards to the workload and factors associated with this satisfaction.
Results: There was a significant reduction in working time and the number of patients consulted by week during this pandemic (p<0.001). In general, there was a decrease in the overall activities in cardiovascular care delivery. The majority of cardiology services (76.5%) and consulting programs (85%) were adjusted to the pandemic. Only half of the participants were satisfied with their workload. Reconfiguration of the consultation schedule was associated with a reduced satisfaction of participants (p=0.02).
Conclusions: COVID-19 is associated with an overall reduction in cardiology services rendered in Africa. Since the cardiovascular burdens continue to increase in this part of the World and the risk of cardiovascular complications linked to SARS COV2 remains unchanged cardiology, departments in Africa should anticipate a significant surge of cardiology services demanded by patients after the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Socioeconomic status is associated with differences in risk factors for cardiovascular disease incidence and outcomes, including mortality. However, it is unclear whether the associations between cardiovascular disease and common measures of socioeconomic status—wealth and education—differ among... high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries, and, if so, why these differences exist. We explored the association between education and household wealth and cardiovascular disease and mortality to assess which marker is the stronger predictor of outcomes, and examined whether any differences in cardiovascular disease by socioeconomic status parallel differences in risk factor levels or differences in management.
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This publication aims to provide updated guidance on the specific use of yellow fever laboratory assays in the context of surveillance to be used across the Global Yellow Fever Laboratory Network for disease surveillance. In the recent years, new commercial assays became available and are now recomm...ended for use by WHO and this publication will support national program on the use of compound laboratory assays as per the most recent recommended testing algorithms. This piece is aligned with the elimination effort set in the comprehensive global strategy to eliminate yellow fever epidemics (EYE) strategy 2017-2026 and where its advisory laboratory technical working group actively contributed to its development. The target audiences are policy-makers and health workers.
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The recommendations cover the level of blood pressure to start medication, what type of medicine or combination of medicines to use, the target blood pressure level, and how often to have follow-up checks on blood pressure. In addition, the guideline provides the basis for how physicians and other h...ealth workers can contribute to improving hypertension detection and management.
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Bonchial asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disease in the world. In Kenya, it has been estimated that about 7.5% of the Kenyan population, nearly 4 million people, are currently living with asthma. Many cases tend to be underdiagnosed and undertreated which leads to high levels of morbid...ity and avoidable deaths. The consequences of poorly controlled asthma, including physical, mental, social, and economic impacts, are magnified in the poor on account of poor access to asthma services and sub-optimal quality of those services. With these guidelines, Kenya's Ministry of Health aims to work towards embedding asthma care in Universal Health Care (UHC) to ensure that quality asthma services are available in primary care settings with
referral networks strengthened for those who may require secondary and tertiary care. These national asthma guidelines will also ensure that treatment for asthma is standardized in both the public and the non-state health care sector.
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Language influences the way we think, how we perceive reality, and how we behave. With respect to HIV, language can embody stigma and discrimination, which impacts access to testing, acquisition of HIV, and engagement with treatment. Language plays a role in supporting respect and empowerment of ind...ividuals, as communities shape how they are referred to and the labels they wish to use. Consideration and use of appropriate language can strengthen the global response to the HIV pandemic by diminishing stigma and discrimination and increasing support and understanding for individuals and communities living with HIV. Comments and suggestions for modifications should be sent to
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