HIV-1 drug resistance (HIVDR) genotyping is an essential component of the WHO global HIVDR surveillance strategy. Plasma “gold standard” specimen type for HIVDR genotyping, but its use may not be feasible in rural, remote areas in low- and middle-income countries, since preparing and storing it ...require personnel and laboratory infrastructure that are often lacking. An alternative specimen type is dried blood spots (DBS), which can be made without special laboratory processing. DBS are more easily transported than plasma because they can be shipped at ambient temperature as non-hazardous materials using regular mail or courier services.
3rd edition
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The World Health Organization’s comprehensive antenatal care (ANC) guideline WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience was first published in 2016 with the objective of improving the quality of routine health care that all women and adolescent girls receive during p...regnancy. The overarching principle – to provide pregnant service users with a positive pregnancy experience – aims to encourage countries to expand their health-care agendas beyond survival, with a view to maximizing health, human rights and the potential of their populations. Recognizing that ANC provides a strategic platform for important health-care functions, including health promotion and disease prevention, 14 out of the 49 recommendations in the WHO 2016 ANC guideline relate to nutritional interventions in pregnancy.
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This primer aims to guide health professionals on engaging with WASH-related issues. It gives an overview of WASH interventions and the status of WASH services globally and outlines key linkages with health. It provides examples of key actions that health actors can take to ensure WASH efforts effec...tively protect public health and highlights World Health Organization (WHO) activities to support those actions.
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The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is the lead UN agency working to further gender equality and women’s empowerment in Sri Lanka. We are pleased to be a part of the joint effort with the Ministry of Health to develop the first ‘Standard Operating Procedures on sexual and gender-based vio...lence for first-contact-point healthcare providers’.
These operating procedures were developed alongside the ‘National guidelines on sexual and gender-based violence’, which aims to strengthen Sri Lanka’s health systems response to survivors of violence. We are grateful to the British High Commission in Colombo for their support in developing these guidelines and procedures as they mark an important milestone in creating a safer Sri Lanka for all women and girls. UNFPA is proud to be a part of this journey, and we stand ready to provide continued assistance to the Government of Sri Lanka and all key stakeholders to ensure women and girls receive essential services that support their safety, well-being and access to justice and to create a violence-free Sri Lanka.
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Safe water, sanitation and hygiene (collectively known as WASH) are crucial for human health and well-being. Yet, millions of people globally lack adequate WASH services and consequently suffer from or are exposed to a multitude of preventable illnesses.
The Core Elements of Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship provides a framework for antibiotic stewardship for outpatient clinicians and facilities that routinely provide antibiotic treatment. This report augments existing guidance for other clinical settings. In 2014 and 2015, respectively, CDC release...d the Core Elements of Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Programs and the Core Elements of Antibiotic Stewardship for Nursing Homes. Antibiotic stewardship is the effort to measure and improve how antibiotics are prescribed by clinicians and used by patients. Improving antibiotic prescribing involves implementing effective strategies to modify prescribing practices to align them with evidence-based recommendations for diagnosis and management.
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Outstanding child and adolescent TB priorities include the need to: find the missing children with active TB and link them to TB care; prevent TB in children who are in contact with infectious TB cases (through implementation of active contact investigation and provision of preventive treatment); an...d advance integration within general child health services, including maternal and child health/ reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, HIV, nutrition and other programmes.
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Open Journal of Epidemiology, 2018, 8, 226-241
Abstract
Introduction: Road traffic accidents (RTAs) are a major public health issue
in developing countries, where roads tend to be built haphazardly and accidents
take a heavy toll on victims—including leaving them disabled. This
study seeks ...to identify those factors that cause RTA victims to become disabled
as a result of their injuries. Methods: This retrospective community-
based study looked at RTA victims treated in five public and faith-based
hospitals in Benin. Disability was evaluated using the Washington Group on
Disabilities Statistics questionnaire. The independent variables were related to
the victim’s socio-demographic traits, the circumstances of the accident, and
post-crash response mechanisms. The proportions were compared using the
chi-squared test, with a threshold of 5%. Results: The prevalence of disability
among road traffic accident victims is 9.59% (CI 95%: 6.86% - 13.20%). The
occurrence of disability is associated with age (p = 0.002), occupational group
(p = 0.0077), the mode of transport used to transfer the victim (p < 0.001)
and the location of the injuries (p = 0.0035). The study also found that people
fail to make sufficient use of post-crash response mechanisms. Conclusion:
Public policy-makers should therefore focus on stepping up interventions to
get more people using both protective equipment and post-crash response services.
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Version-1, June 2018
This document provides 3MDG stakeholders with essential information on SRHR indicators, derived from the 3MDG Logical Framework, Data Dictionary for Health Service Indicators (2014 June, DoPH, MoHA), A Guide to Monitoring and Evaluating Adolescent Reproductive Health Progra...ms (MEASURE Evaluation, June 2000) and Monitoring National Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control Programmes (WHO, PAHO, 2013). Partners are strongly encouraged to integrate the SRHR indicators into their ongoing monitoring and evaluation (M&E) activities.
These indicators are designed to help partners assess the current state of their activities, their progress towards achieving their targets, and contribution towards the national response. This guideline is designed to improve the quality and consistency of data collected at the township level, which will enhance the accuracy of conclusions drawn when the data are aggregated.
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Suicides take a high toll. Over 800 000 people die by suicide every year and it is the second leading cause of
death in 15-29-year-olds. Most suicides occur in low- and middle-income countries where resources
and services, if they do exist, are often scarce and limited for early identification, tr...eatment and support of
people in need. These striking facts and the lack of implemented timely interventions make suicide a serious
global public health problem that needs to be tackled urgently.
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The Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) has been coordinating sector wide reforms that aim to improve equity and quality of maternal and child health services. As part of these efforts, the ministry is also exerting concerted efforts to improve availability and use of quality... RMNCH pharmaceuticals. Management of RMNCH pharmaceuticals has had significant challenges such as poor availability of essential pharmaceuticals and wastages of valuable resources as pharmacy professionals were not demonstrating the required knowledge, skill and attitude towards availing the pharmaceuticals and ensuring their rational medicine use.
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With the recent advances in medicine, the survival rate of clients with
severe burns has improved. This has resulted in greater demand for rehabilitation services. One of the major goals for rehabilitation programmes is to restore these clients to their pre-trauma activity levels. However, there is... not much research on the subject.
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Information note.
This information note provides a strategic overview of key implementation considerations for diagnostic integration using these devices, and is primarily intended for use by national laboratory services and TB, HIV, and hepatitis programme managers.
It may also be of inte...rest to managers of maternal, newborn and child health programmes and sexual and reproductive health programmes, international and bilateral agencies, and organizations that provide financial and technical support to the relevant national health programmes.
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WHO, in partnership with the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has published global standards for prosthetics and orthotics. Its aim is to ensure that prosthetics and orthotics services are people-centred an...d responsive to every individual’s personal and environmental needs. The standards advocate for the integration of prosthetics and orthotics services into health services, under universal health coverage. Implementation of these standards will support countries to fulfil their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and towards the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
The standards provide guidance on the development of national policies, plans and programmes for prosthetics and orthotics services of the highest standard. The standards are divided into two documents: the standards and an implementation manual. Both documents cover four areas of the health system:
policy (governance, financing and information);
products (prostheses and orthoses);
personnel (workforce);
and provision of services.
The Standards have been developed through consultation with experts from around the globe via a steering group, development group and external review group.
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As detailed in MSF’s report Confronting the mental health emergency on Samos and Lesbos, the scale of the needs for mental healthcare and the severity of patients’ conditions have overwhelmed the capacity of mental health services on the islands.
Review of International, Regional and National Policies and Legal Frameworks that Promote Migrants and Mobile Populations' Access to Health and Malaria Services in the Greater Mekong Subregion (Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam)
Migrants and mobile popul...ations face many obstacles in accessing equitable essential health care services due to factors such as living and working conditions, education level, gender, irregular migration status, language and cultural barriers, anti-migrant sentiments, and lack of migrant-inclusive health policies among others. Despite significant progress having been made in the context of malaria control in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), human movements can impact malaria transmission patterns and potentially introduce drug-resistant parasites. This legal framework review therefore serves as a guidance document on approaches to address malaria and malaria elimination for migrant and mobile populations (MMPs) in five countries of the GMS.
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Bioethics - Medical, Ethical and Legal Perspectives
There’s evidence that implementing the four medical ethics principles may be challenging especially in low income country contexts with extreme resource scarcity and limited capacity to facilitate deliberations on the different ethical dilemmas.... These challenges can partly be explained by the social, economic, and political contexts in which the decisions are made, as well as the limited time, training and guidance to facilitate ethical decision making. Based on current literature, and using the example of bedside rationing; this chapter synthesizes the challenges clinicians face when operationalizing the four principle; identifying the opportunities to address them. We suggest that clinicians’ ability to implement the four principles are constrained by meso‐ and macro‐level decision making as well as their lack of training, explicit guidelines, and peer support. To ameliorate this situation, current efforts to strengthen the clinicians’ capacity to make ethical decisions should be complimented with developing of context relevant guidelines for ethical clinical decision making. The renewed global commitment to the sustainable development goals and universal healthcare coverage should be recognized as an opportunity to leverage resources and champion the integration of equity and justice as a core value in resource allocation at the bedside, meso-, macro- and global levels.
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One important application of digital health in TB patient care is the support that it can lend to medication adherence. TB programmes have already been using short message service (SMS), video-supported treatment (VOT) and event monitoring device for medication support ...(EMM)1 to help patients complete treatment and health-care workers to monitor both daily dosing and treatment continuity
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The guidelines reiterate that the general principles of ethics for biomedical research involving human participants shall also be applicable. In addition, the guidelines specify unique provisions for stem cells, because of their inherent property for unlimited proliferation, differentiation to cells... of the germ layers, oncogenic potential, unrecognised toxicities and possible involvement in pre-implantation stages of human development. The guideline therefore focuses on: 1. Monitoring mechanism and regulatory pathway for basic, clinical research and product development based on categories of research and level of manipulation. 2. Procurement of gametes, embryos and somatic cells for derivation and propagation of any stem cell lines, their banking and distribution. 3. Other important areas like international collaboration, exchange of cell/lines and education for stakeholders and advertisement.
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This manual aims to provide an overview of this subject to health care professionals, paramedics and other voluntary services involved in health care promotion