This report on progress achieved in the WHO European Region and Member States in implementing the European food and nutrition action plan 2015–2020 presents selected epidemiological data on the nutritional status of populations throughout the Region and on implementation of policies recommended in... regional and global frameworks to promote healthy nutrition and prevent obesity. The data contained in the report are derived from the responses of Member States to the WHO Global nutrition policy review questionnaire.
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The main message emerging from this new comprehensive global assessment is that premature death and disease can be prevented through healthier environments – and to a significant degree. Analysing the latest data on the environment-disease nexus and the devastating impact of environmental hazards ...and risks on global health, backed up by expert opinion, this report covers more than 100 diseases and injuries.
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Journal of Tuberculosis Research, 2017, 5, 189-200
Background: In Benin, little is known about the influence of both gender and
HIV-status on diagnostic patterns and treatment outcomes of Tuberculosis
(TB) patients. Objective: To assess whether differences in gender and HIV
status affect diagn...ostic patterns and treatment outcomes of TB patients. Methods:
Retrospective cohort study of patients registered in 2013 and 2014 in
the three largest TB Basic Management Units in south Benin. Results: Of 2694
registered TB patients, 1700 (63.1%) were male. Case notification rates were
higher in males compared with females (96 vs 53/100,000 inhabitants). The
male to female ratio was 1:1 in HIV positive patients, but was 2:1 among HIV
negative cases. In HIV-positive patients, there were no differences in TB types
between men and women. In HIV-negative patients, there were significantly
higher proportions of females with clinically diagnosed pulmonary TB (p =
0.04) and extrapulmonary TB (p < 0.001). Retreatment TB was 4.65 times
higher amongst males compared with females. For New bacteriologically confirmed
pulmonary TB, no differences were observed in treatment outcomes
between genders in the HIV positive group; but significantly more unfavorable
outcomes were reported among HIV negative males, with higher rates of
failure (p < 0.001) and loss-to-follow up (p = 0.02). Conclusion: The study
has shown that overall TB notification rates were higher in males than in females
in south Benin, with more females co-infected with HIV. Unfavorable outcomes were more common in HIV-negative males.
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Policy Guidance Brief 2
• The potential health risks from climate change include: increase of waterborne and vector-borne diseases, heat-related illnesses, injuries and deaths, food insecurity and increased malnutrition. The poor, women, children and the elderly, as well as communities living... in remote high-risk areas are most vulnerable.
• The expected results to achieve this outcome are: (i) climate risk management system is well-established, robust and nationally integrated to respond efectively to increased intensity and impact of risks and hazards on people’s health and wellbeing; (ii) improved social protection, gender consideration and risk finance capacity to prepare for and recover from potential loss and damage resulting from climate change; (iii) Myanmar’s health system is improved and can deal with climate-induced health hazards and support climate-vulnerable communities to respond effectively to disaster and health hazards from climate change.
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Community health nurses have the potential to make significant contributions to meet the health care needs of various population groups in a variety of community settings. In order to assess the extent to which CHNs are achieving this potential, WHO conducted a study between 2010 and 2014 that exami...ned the status of community health nursing in 22 countries, 13 of which were experiencing a critical shortage of health care workers. The study revealed that the countries surveyed had the basic and operational framework for optimizing CHN in their health systems as evidenced by the availability of PHC structures to guide interventions. However, challenges were identified related to the education, practice and management of CHNs in these countries. The major challenges identified were: Limited availability of career opportunities; poor worker retention; low recognition for CHNs; inadequate and unsupportive working conditions and environments; absence of educational standards; varying educational entry-level requirements for CHN programmes; and a lack of consensus on the scope of practice for CHNs.
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Together we can Prevent and Control the World's Most Common Diseases
Objectives of the training manual
(1) To improve knowledge of NCD trends, burdens, as well as systems for management and monitoring of NCD services for Township Medical Officers (TMOs), Township Public Health Officers (TP...HOs), Medical Officers (MOs). The manual can also be used for training of Basic Health staff (BHS), TMOs, TPHOs and MOs,
(2) To equip trainers to train BHS to conduct PEN protocols at the primary care level health centers,
(3) To equip trainers to train in processes to conduct PEN scaling up monitoring , supervision and evaluation activities.
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Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease 2017, 2(4), 50
This is a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data in a longitudinal study on asymptomatic, LF antigen-positive and -negative young people in Myanmar. Rapid field screening was used to identify antigen-positive cases and a group of antige...n-negative controls of similar age and gender were invited to continue in the study. ... Results demonstrate that sub-clinical changes associated with infection can be detected in asymptomatic cases. Further exploration of these low-cost devices in clinical and research settings on filariasis-related lymphedema are warranted.
https://doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed2040050
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DHS Methodological Report No. 20
This study used Service Provision Assessment (SPA) and Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from Haiti, Malawi, and Tanzania to compare traditionally used additive methods with a data reduction method—principal component analysis (PCA).
We scored ...the quality of health facilities with three approaches (simple additive, weighted additive, and PCA) for two constructs: quality of services, with only facilities-level data, and quality of care, which incorporates observation and client data. We ranked facilities as high, medium, or low quality based on their scores. Our results indicated that the rankings change with the scoring methodology. There was more consistency in the rankings of facilities by the simple additive and PCA methods than the weighted additive and PCA-based rankings. This may be due to the low factor loadings and little variance explained by the first component in the PCA. We aggregated facility scores to their respective DHS clusters (Haiti, Malawi) or regions (Tanzania) and geographically linked them to women interviewed in DHS surveys to test associations between the use of family planning services and the quality environment, as measured with each index.
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Internationally, there is a growing concern over antimicro-bial resistance (AMR) which is currently estimated to ac-count for more than 700,000 deaths per year worldwide. If no appropriate measures are taken to halt its pro-gress, AMR will cost approximately 10 million lives andabout US$100 trillion... per year by 2050. In contrast tosome other health issues, AMR is a problem that con-cerns every country irrespective of its level of incomeand development as resistant pathogens do not respect borders.Despite the threat presented by AMR, the 2014 WorldHealth Organization (WHO) and the recent O’Neill re-port describe significant gaps in surveillance, standardmethodologies and data sharing. The 2014 WHOreport identified Africa and South East Asia as the regions without established AMR surveillance systems.
Tadesseet al. BMC Infectious Diseases (2017) 17:616 DOI 10.1186/s12879-017-2713-1
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Intensive Care Med (2009) 35:9–29DOI 10.1007/s00134-008-1336-9
Although thousands of papers have been devoted tohospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP), many controversiesremain, and management of HAP is probably often sub-optimal. Several reviews or guidelines have been pub-lished rec...ently, mostly by North American initiatives(CDC, ATS). Three European Societies (ERS, ESCMID andESICM) were interested in producing a document thatcould complement in some way the last IDSA/ATS guidelines published 3 years ago. In addition, the Helics
working group supported this initiative.
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The second ECDC/EFSA/EMA joint report on the integrated analysis of antimicrobial consumption (AMC) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria from humans and food-producing animals addressed data obtained by the Agencies’ EU-wide surveillance networks for 2013–2015. AMC in both sectors, exp...ressed in mg/kg of estimated biomass, were compared at country and European level. Substantial variations between countries were observed in both sectors. Estimated data on AMC for pigs and poultry were used for the first time. Univariate and multivariate analyses were applied to study associations between AMC and AMR. In 2014, the average AMC was higher in animals (152 mg/kg) than in humans (124 mg/kg), but the opposite applied to the median AMC (67 and 118 mg/kg, respectively). In 18 of 28 countries, AMC was lower in animals than in humans. Univariate analysis showed statistically-significant (p < 0.05) associations between AMC and AMR for fluoroquinolones and Escherichia coli in both sectors, for 3rd- and 4th-generation cephalosporins and E. coli in humans, and tetracyclines and polymyxins and E. coli in animals. In humans, there was a statistically-significant association between AMC and AMR for carbapenems and polymyxins in Klebsiella pneumoniae. Consumption of macrolides in animals was significantly associated with macrolide resistance in Campylobacter coli in animals and humans. Multivariate analyses provided a unique approach to assess the contributions of AMC in humans and animals and AMR in bacteria from animals to AMR in bacteria from humans. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that 3rd- and 4th-generation cephalosporin and fluoroquinolone resistance in E. coli from humans was associated with corresponding AMC in humans, whereas resistance to fluoroquinolones in Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp. from humans was related to consumption of fluoroquinolones in animals. These results suggest that from a ‘One-health’ perspective, there is potential in both sectors to further develop prudent use of antimicrobials and thereby reduce AMR.
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WHO has developed a new health kit to support treatment for chronic disease patients in emergency settings. The prevalence of NCDs is increasing worldwide, including in emergency/crisis-prone areas. Yet current humanitarian response has not accounted for this emerging burden. The NCD kit attends to ...cover this gap by providing essential medicines and medical devices for the management of hypertension and cardiac conditions, diabetes and endocrine conditions, chronic respiratory diseases, and mental health and neurological conditions and neurological conditions for outpatient care in primary health care settings.
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STUDY REPORT | This study of the impact of the Nepal earthquake of 25 April, 2015, aims to understand the impact factors leading to the exclusion of older people and persons with disabilities from humanitarian action, barriers to their inclusion, and the extent to which their skills and knowledge we...re utilised to promote inclusive humanitarian action and, using this understanding, to formulate a set of recommendations for promoting inclusion. These recommendations will be used to sensitise the broader humanitarian community to the need for inclusive disaster risk management practices in future emergency responses which pay attention to factors such as gender, age, disability and ethnicity, and build upon the capacities of older people and persons with disabilities.
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The guidelines are aimed at clinical professionals directly involved with and responsible for the care of adults with HIV infection, and at community advocates responsible for promoting the best interests and care of HIV-positive adults. They should be read in conjunction with other published BHIVA ...guidelines.
The 2016 interim update to the 2015 BHIVA antiretroviral guidelines has been published online to include tenofovir-alafenamide/emtricitabine as a preferred NRTI backbone for first-line therapy. Changes were based on new data and the consensus opinion of the writing committee. All changes to the guideline are highlighted and include updates to the chronic kidney disease and bone disease sections of special populations and some small changes to managing virological failure.
The 2019 interim statement provides updated advice on treatment with two-drug regimens
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Census Report Volume 4-A
This thematic report presents findings on fertility and nuptiality in Myanmar. The analysis hows that the total fertility rate is 2.5 children per woman at the Union level, 1.9 children per woman for urban areas, and 2.8 children per woman for rural areas. Total fertili...ty for States and Regions varies from a high of 5.0 children per woman for Chin State to a low of 1.8 children per woman for Yangon Region. Total fertility appears to have declined at a rate of at least one child per woman per decade between 1970 and 2000. This relatively rapid decline apparently ceased sometime during the 1990s or 2000s. Estimates from the 2001 and 2007 surveys suggest that the level of fertility may have fluctuated between 2000 and 2014, but with no overall trend up or down. The marital status data shows an exceptionally high proportion of women remaining never married at age 50.
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This publication provides guidance to governments, civil society organizations (nongovernmental organizations and community-based organizations) and other partners implementing HIV prevention, care and treatment programs with key populations. This guide is designed to assist these programs in the de...velopment of monitoring systems for frontline workers (such as peer outreach workers, staff outreach supervisors and program managers) to understand performance. It includes comprehensive tools and forms that various levels of staff can use to collect and analyze data to manage and improve a program.
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Afr J Tradit Complement Altern Med. (2016) 13(4):123-131
Out of 400 questionnaires distributed to the participants, 389 were returned with data acceptable for analysis. Ages of the participants ranged from 18 to 75 years (Mean=43 + 11.6). Out of the 272 (69.9%) participants who conceded that th...ey had used medicinal herbs at least once, 30 (7.7%) participants used medicinal herbs frequently while 242 (62.2 %) rarely used the herbs. At least 20 plant species belonging to 16 families were reportedly used by the participants. Asteraceae was the most common plant family reportedly used by the participants. Allium sativum and Dicoma anomala, reportedly used by 21.0% and 14.3% respectively, were the most commonly used medicinal herbs in this population. In addition, boosting the immune system and treating gastrointestinal ailments, apparently cited by 32% and 28% participants respectively, were the most commonly reported reasons for using medicinal herbs.
http://dx.doi.org/10.21010/ajtcam.v13i4.17
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A concept (leaflet)
This document outlines the concept of a stimulus package for rabies elimination. The aim of a stimulus package is to catalyse rabies control by starting community projects, building local capacity and using success to generate momentum for growth. Governments could apply for... a package, which would provide technical and material support to run small, successful rabies control projects. These in turn build evidence for the feasibility of larger scale elimination, generate enthusiasm foaction and promote investment for sustainability and up scaling. Data reporting in return for the packages would allow the documentation of successes and lessons learnt to benefit global elimination efforts more broadly.
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The semi-structured guided interviewing on ICU nurses in a medical center of southern Taiwan wasapproved by the IRB at the research department of the hospital and data collection was carried out from January toJune 2012. The investigator repeatedly read the transcribed text, and found statements rel...evant to the themes in thetranscriptions to form significant statements as the basis of data analysis. To ensure the rigor of this study, theinvestigator adopted the approach of trustworthiness of qualitative research proposed by Lincoln and Gu.
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This document aims to present an algorithm for deciding whom to test and provide guidance on the laboratory tests for Zika virus infection diagnosis in order to support clinical diagnostic and case reporting through surveillance among EU Member States. The algorithm is not intended for clinical man...agement of patients with suspected Zika virus infection.
The information is provisional and subject to revision when new information becomes available.
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