Colombia is characterized by a fragile and prolonged humanitarian context marked by recurrent multi-hazards affecting its territories and combined with severe structural and systemic challenges within the health system. Recent shocks, including the
COVID-19 pandemic, growing violence within the Col...ombian territories and along the border with Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), and repetitive hydro-meteorological disasters over the last 12 months aggravate such chronic challenges.
In 2022, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance increased by 300 000 due to deteriorating indicators of maternal and child mortality, pregnancy in adolescent girls, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), suicides, sexually transmitted
infections (STIs), gender-based and sexual violence, and communicable diseases. increasing population trends, primarily due to mass migration movements and the persistence of armed conflicts, create access barriers to essential health services, mobility restrictions, and forced displacement, further impacting the health, lives, and well-being of populations in vulnerable situations. In many territories, geographical distance to health facilities and attacks against medical missions hinder providing appropriate healthcare.
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COVID-19 has turned the world upside down. Everything has been impacted. How we live and interact with each other, how we work and communicate, how we move around and travel. Every aspect of our lives has been affected.
The World Health Organization Global TB Report provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic, and progress in the response, at global, regional and country levels.
The 2022 edition features data on disease trends and the response to the epidemic from 215 countries and area...s, including all 194 World Health Organization (WHO) Member States. It provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic, progress in the response at global, regional and country levels, as well as on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on TB services.
TB remains one of the top infectious killers in the world. This year’s report presents data on an increase in the number of people falling ill with TB and drug resistant TB for the first time in many years. Increases were also reported on the number of TB deaths, highlighting the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other crises on the TB response that has reversed years of progress. It also presents the status of progress towards targets set at the first-ever United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting on TB in 2018 as well as the targets of the WHO End TB Strategy and the Sustainable Development Goals.
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Core Indicators 2019: Health Trends in the Americas starts with a demographic overview of the Americas to demonstrate how the Region has changed over 25 years. These key demographic indicators provide valuable context to better understand the population’s characteristics and their impact on health.... Brief narratives accompany the graphics to highlight important information.
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The booklet starts with a general overview of how illicit drugs and the environment are linked within the bigger picture of the Sustainable Development Goals, climate change and environmental sustainability. It highlights direct and indirect linkages and gives examples of the significant local and i...ndividual-level impact that drugs can have on the environment. This is followed by a more in-depth overview of the latest scientific evidence for plant-based drugs and for synthetic drugs. For plant-based drugs, for example, this includes an analysis of the relationship between illicit crop cultivation and deforestation. For synthetic drugs, it includes an analysis of waste composition, volumes, and dumping and discharge, as well as the relation with wastewater treatment.
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Tuberculosis (TB) is the deadliest infectious disease in most low- and middle-income countries, claiming more than 4,000 lives each day. The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has seriously impacted people with pre-existing health conditions. People with TB are usually more vulnerable to other infectio...ns, including the novel coronavirus, due to pre-existing lung damage. They are also at higher risk of developing complications from COVID-19.
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The Infant and young child feeding counselling: an integrated course includes this Director’s guide, a Trainer’s guide and Participant’s manual. Additional tools include: Course handouts; Guidelines for follow-up after training; Supportive supervision/mentoring and monitoring and an accompanyi...ng toolkit; a slide set for the trainer; a set of 24 Counselling cards and Guidance on the use of counselling cards. The course includes 79 sessions arranged within 8 modules, covering a range of topics, including breastfeeding, complementary feeding, growth assessment and monitoring, HIV and infant feeding, and infant and young child feeding counselling. Course facilitators can decide which sessions to cover, depending on the specific learning needs of the health workers in your community.
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Food and nutrition security in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is subject to the relentless impact of conflict, epidemics and climate events that have persisted in the country for decades, further compounded by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Lack of infrastructure and investment in agriculture, ...health and human capital development combine to impede progress towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 17. While there are several legal instruments and policies that promote food and nutrition security, poor coordination, weak national capacity and exponential population growth present serious obstacles to the achievement of zero hunger. Political instability and siloed sectoral responses to humanitarian and development needs have also affected results to date.
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WHO has developed a clinical case definition of post COVID-19 condition by Delphi methodology that includes 12 domains, available for use in all settings. This first version was developed by patients, researchers and others, representing all WHO regions, with the understanding that the definition ma...y change as new evidence emerges and our understanding of the consequences of COVID-19 continues to evolve.
Post COVID-19 condition occurs in individuals with a history of probable or confirmed SARS CoV-2 infection, usually 3 months from the onset of COVID-19 with symptoms and that last for at least 2 months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis. Common symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath, cognitive dysfunction but also others and generally have an impact on everyday functioning. Symptoms may be new onset following initial recovery from an acute COVID-19 episode or persist from the initial illness. Symptoms may also fluctuate or relapse over time.
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12 May 2021. This third survey in the series shows that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact societies, not only in terms of health, but also social and economic conditions and day-to-day life
13 May 2021
To avoid a reversal of progress from the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, new knowledge and lessons from successful programmatic innovations are urgently needed to improve TB prevention and care. Experience can provide evidence for innovative approaches and strategies to mainta...in and scale up high-quality TB services. WHO therefore called for case studies on programmatic innovations that address emerging challenges in TB prevention and care during the pandemic in order to collect and disseminate the findings to the TB community. Between November 2020 and February 2021, a total of 23 case studies relevant to the call were accepted from 19 countries in the six regions of WHO. The lessons learnt from these country activities to ensure the continuity of essential services like TB care in the face of the crippling crisis may also inform strategies for minimizing the impact of future emerging pathogens on health services.
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31 Janaury 2021
SCORE for health data technical package. The first global assessment on the status and capacity of health information systems in 133 countries, covering 87% of the global population.
It identifies gaps and provides guidance for investment in areas that can have the greatest impact ...on the quality, availability, analysis, accessibility and use of health data.
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14 January 2021
This practical guide can be used to help countries monitor and analyse the impact of COVID-19 on essential health services to inform planning and decision-making. It provides practical recommendations on how to use key performance indicators to analyse changes in access to and deliv...ery of essential health services within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic; how to visualize and interpret these data; and how to use the findings to guide modifications for safe delivery of services and transitioning towards restoration and recovery. The guide focuses on existing indicators and data that are captured in routine reporting systems and how they can be used by national and subnational authorities to understand specific contexts, challenges and bottlenecks. This guide supports Maintaining essential health services: operational guidance for the COVID-19 context, which provides an integrated framework to guide countries in their efforts to reorganize, adapt and maintain safe delivery of high-priority essential health services within the context of the pandemic.
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A paper presented during a conference on The Catholic Social Teaching and its Social and Political impact on the Development 9thto 10th December, in Schloss Eichholz Koln/Cologne/GermanyPresented by Sr. Dr. Elizabeth Nduku
accessed July 2020
Recognizing the extent to which the COVID-19 outbreaks affects women and men differently is hugely important. Some preliminary data suggested that more men than women are dying, potentially due to sex-based immunological differences, higher rates of cardiovascular disease for men and lifestyle choic...es, such as smoking. However, the experiences and lessons learned from the Zika and Ebola outbreaks and the HIV pandemic demonstrate that robust gender analysis and informed, gender-integrated response are vital to strengthen the access and acceptability of the humanitarian services needed to meet the distinct needs of women and girls, as well as men and boy and LGBTI people.
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This Interim Guidance outlines how key public health and social measures needed to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread and the impact of the disease can be adapted for use in low capacity and humanitarian settings. The recommendations outlined here need to be adjusted to the scale of transmission, co...ntext and resources, in order to achieve the objective of managing COVID-19, namely to reduce transmission and facilitate the detection and management of infected and exposed individuals within the population. The Guidance is intended for humanitarian and development actors of all operational levels working with communities ocal authorities involved in COVID-19 preparedness and response operations in these settings, in support of national and local governments and plans. Additional considerations for support to residents of urban informal settlements and slums are available in Annex 1.
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Accessed: 07.03.2020
A Review of Community Health Worker (CHW) knowledge, attitudes and practices relating to the sexual health of MSM, including existing training materials and manuals in Europe and neighbouring countries (D5.1)
Contract 2015 71 01 A behavioural survey for HIV/AIDS and assoc...iated infections and a survey and tailored training for community based health workers to facilitate access and improve the quality of prevention, diagnosis of HIV/AIDS, STI and viral hepatitis and health care services for men who have sex with men (MSM).
Pubic Health
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BACKGROUND: Growing political attention to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) offers a rare opportunity for achieving meaningful action. Many governments have developed national AMR action plans, but most have not yet implemented policy interventions to reduce antimicrobial overuse. A systematic evidenc...e map can support governments in making evidence-informed decisions about implementing programs to reduce AMR, by identifying, describing, and assessing the full range of evaluated government policy options to reduce antimicrobial use in humans.
METHODS AND FINDINGS: Seven databases were searched from inception to January 28, 2019, (MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, PAIS Index, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, and PubMed). We identified studies that (1) clearly described a government policy intervention aimed at reducing human antimicrobial use, and (2) applied a quantitative design to measure the impact. We found 69 unique evaluations of government policy interventions carried out across 4 of the 6 WHO regions. These evaluations included randomized controlled trials (n = 4), non-randomized controlled trials (n = 3), controlled before-and-after designs (n = 7), interrupted time series designs (n = 25), uncontrolled before-and-after designs (n = 18), descriptive designs (n = 10), and cohort designs (n = 2). From these we identified 17 unique policy options for governments to reduce the human use of antimicrobials. Many studies evaluated public awareness campaigns (n = 17) and antimicrobial guidelines (n = 13); however, others offered different policy options such as professional regulation, restricted reimbursement, pay for performance, and prescription requirements. Identifying these policies can inform the development of future policies and evaluations in different contexts and health systems. Limitations of our study include the possible omission of unpublished initiatives, and that policies not evaluated with respect to antimicrobial use have not been captured in this review.
CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge this is the first study to provide policy makers with synthesized evidence on specific government policy interventions addressing AMR. In the future, governments should ensure that AMR policy interventions are evaluated using rigorous study designs and that study results are published.
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Antimicrobial resistant (AMR) organisms are increasing globally, threatening to render existing treatments ineffective against many infectious diseases. In Africa, AMR has already been documented to be a problem for HIV and the pathogens that cause malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid, cholera, meningitis..., gonorrhea, and dysentery. Recognizing the urgent need for action, the World Health Assembly adopted the Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance in May 2015. In accordance with the Global Action Plan and to meet needs specific to Africa, Africa CDC will establish the Anti-Microbial Resistance Surveillance Network (AMRSNET). AMRSNET is a network of public health institutions and leaders from human and animal health sectors who will collaborate to measure, prevent, and mitigate harms from AMR organisms.
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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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