COVID‑19 strategic preparedness and response
The COVID-19 pandemic has raised profound ethical challenges on an unprecedented global scale. These challenges include how to allocate scarce resources (especially vaccines and therapeutics), both within and between countries, whether and when to mandate vaccines and/or masks, whether and how to co...nduct public health surveillance, whether to issue vaccine passports, and how to address stark international and intranational inequities. In addition, there have been ethical concerns about the conduct of COVID-19 research, such as the appropriateness of challenge studies.
more
States have committed and assumed obligations to address multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination against refugees, internally displaced persons, asylum seekers, returnees and stateless persons. The Global Compact on Refugees places ending discrimination of any kind based on the grounds of ...race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, disability, age, or other status at the centre of action to prevent displacement and to ensure peaceful coexistence between refugee and host communities. Narratives about cultural diversity and inclusion are important, but there is also a pressing need in many societies for conversations and action to address racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
more
The desired impact of the OH JPA is a world better able to prevent, predict, detect and
respond to health threats and improve the health of humans, animals, plants and the
environment while contributing to sustainable development. The OH JPA aims to work
towards this vision in the following way:
...
• Provide a framework for action and propose a set of activities the four organizations
can offer together to advance and sustainably scale up One Health.
• Provide upstream policy and legislative advice and technical assistance, to help
set national targets and priorities across the sectors for the development and
implementation of One Health legislation, initiatives and programmes.
• Take stock of existing cross-sectoral global and regional initiatives around One
Health, identify and advise on synergies and overlaps, and support coordination.
• Mobilize and make better use of resources across sectors, disciplines and
stakeholders.
• The OH JPA is guided by a theory of change and makes use of One Health principles
to strengthen collaboration, communication, capacity building and coordination
more
Today, patient harm due to unsafe care is a large and growing global public health challenge and is one of the
leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Most of this patient harm is avoidable. As countries strive to
achieve universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals, t...he beneficial effects of improved
access to health services can be undermined by unsafe care. Patient safety incidents can cause death and
disability, and suffering for victims and their families. The financial and economic costs of safety lapses are high.
There is often reduced public confidence and trust in local health systems when such incidents are publicized.
Health workers involved in serious incidents involving death or serious harm to a patient can also suffer lasting
psychological harm and deep-seated feelings of guilt and self-criticism.
more
Rabies remains an under-reported neglected zoonosis with a case-fatality rate of almost 100% in humans and animals. Dog-mediated human rabies causes tens of thousands of human deaths annually despite being 100% preventable. More than 95% of human cases are caused by the bite of a rabies-infected dog.... Dog-mediated human rabies disproportionately affects rural communities, particularly children, and economically disadvantaged areas of Africa and Asia, where awareness of the disease and access to appropriate post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) can be limited or nonexistent.
more
The Mapping Antimicrobial Resistance and Antimicrobial Use Partnership (MAAP) project has conducted a multi-year, multi-country study that provides stark insights on the under-reported depth of the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis across Africa and lays out urgent policy recommendations to addr...ess the emergency.
MAAP reviewed 819,584 AMR records from 2016-2019, from 205 laboratories across Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Eswatini, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. MAAP also reviewed data from 327 hospital and community pharmacies and 16 national-level AMC datasets.
more
This study compared clinical and autopsy findings for three asbestos-related diseases (asbestosis, mesothelioma and lung cancer) in former asbestos mineworkers, and explored factors that influenced agreement between clinical and autopsy findings using data from two compensation systems. In South Afr...ica, statutory compensation for occupational lung diseases in mineworkers makes provisions for autopsy examinations of the cardio-respiratory organs at the National Institute for Occupational Health (NIOH) in Johannesburg. In addition, the Johannesburg-based Asbestos Relief Trust and Kgalagadi Relief Trust (the “Trusts”) compensate individuals with defined asbestos-related diseases who worked in or lived near qualifying asbestos mining or processing operations. The Trusts also compensate dependents of deceased qualifying mineworkers and therefore encourage statutory autopsies for the detection of previously undiagnosed asbestos-related disease or disease that may have progressed to higher compensation grades.
more
interim guidance, 25 November 2024
Every day, schools engage in numerous activities that help promote the health and well-being of students, families, and communities. There is clear evidence of the benefits of the health-promoting schools (HPS) approach, not only for improving overall health outcomes (physical, mental, and social) i...n the educational community but also for achieving better learning outcomes. The closure of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted these benefits, as well as the close links between health, wellness, and education.
more
Cogent Medicine, 7:1, 1794272,
PUBLIC HEALTH & PRIMARY CARE | RESEARCH ARTICLE
Edutainment and infographics for
schistosomiasis health education in Ndumo area,
Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa
Tafadzwa Mindu1*, Muhubiri Kabuyaya1 and Moses J. Chimbari1
Educational interventions targeting communiti...es which are at risk of contracting
schistosomiasis infection may empower them to develop capacity to minimize the
spread of the disease. We compared the effectiveness of health education inter-
ventions for schistosomiasis knowledge uptake among school-going children in
Ndumo area, KwaZulu-Natal using a quasi-experimental trial.
more
Assessing the impact of the EVD outbreak on health systems in Sierra Leone. Survey concluded 6-17 October 2014
This is the fourth guidance note in a four-part series of notes related to impact evaluation developed by InterAction with financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation.This fourth guidance note, Use of Impact Evaluation Results, highlights three themes crucial for effective utilization of evalu...ation results. Theme one states that use does not happen by accident. Impact evaluations are more likely to be used when uses have been anticipated and planned from the earliest stages of the evaluation and, even better, from the planning stages of the work that is being evaluated. Theme two concerns the operations and systems required in an organization to use impact evaluations well. Theme three builds from the premise that the first two themes are necessary but insufficient conditions for the effective and widespread use of impact evaluations. The guidance note is also available in French, Arabic and Spanish on https://www.interaction.org/impact-evaluation-notes.
more
"Achieving, maintaining and improving accuracy, timeliness and reliability are major challenges for health laboratories. Countries worldwide committed themselves to build national capacities for the detection of, and response to, public health events of international concern when they decided to eng...age in the International Health Regulations implementation process. Only sound management of quality in health laboratories will enable countries to produce test results that the international community will trust in cases of international emergency. This handbook is intended to provide a comprehensive reference on Laboratory Quality Management System for all stakeholders in health laboratory processes, from management, to administration, to bench-work laboratorians. This handbook covers topics that are essential for quality management of a public health or clinical laboratory. They are based on both ISO 15189 and CLSI GP26-A3 documents"--Page 7.
more
Guía práctica para intervenciones colaborativas
The main objective of this guidance is to provide scientific advice, based on an evidence-based assessment of targeted public health interventions, to facilitate effective screening and vaccination for priority infectious diseases among newly arrived migrant populations to the EU/EEA. It is intended... to support EU/EEA Member States to develop national strategies to strengthen infectious disease prevention and control among migrants and meet the health needs of these populations.
more
This guidance addresses rationale, risk-based scenarios, practical considerations prior to adoption of the self-testing products, quality assurance, safety and ethical considerations, and data management considerations for COVID-19 self-testing. The Africa CDC recommends the use of rapid antigen sel...f-testing within two key scenarios. The first includes testing for case identification within scenarios with a high risk of infection, including symptomatic cases and contacts of a confirmed case. The second scenario involves general screening within scenarios of low or unknown risk exposure allowing for self-care such as before gatherings with at-risk individuals and prior to participation in events involving members of different households. Within these scenarios, a positive test result indicates likelihood of current infection, while a negative test result indicates a lower risk of active infection, though it does not rule out infection altogether. All positive cases should be managed following the national COVID-19 management protocol of Member States.ssur
more
Практический подход к разработке политики и стратегии в целях повышения качества медицинской помощи