The UNICEF Syria webpage titled "Cholera Resource Material" offers a collection of educational resources aimed at preventing cholera and safeguarding families. These materials, available in Arabic, include posters and flyers on topics such as handwashing, water purification, recognizing cholera symp...toms, prevention strategies, and specific guidance for pregnant and lactating women. The initiative emphasizes the importance of disseminating accurate information to effectively combat cholera outbreaks in Syria. By providing these resources, UNICEF aims to empower communities with the knowledge needed to protect themselves and their loved ones from cholera.
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India may be the world’s second largest producer of food, but it has its second largest undernourished population. Further, more than half of women in India suffer from anaemia, which is one of the reasons for the high rate of low-birth weight babies. An unbalanced diet and lack of food is directl...y linked to high rates of stunting, excessive weight, and death in children under five years of age. The Government of India has
implemented programmes for providing food security and ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food. There is a need to look at multiple strategies to combat the issue of food security. Community and nutrition gardens can play an important role in enhancing national food security and dietary diversity to combat
malnutrition.
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The WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region's Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD) Data and Statistics page offers comprehensive information on NCD surveillance, including mortality rates, morbidity, and risk factor exposures. It emphasizes the importance of monitoring NCD trends to inform prevention and control... strategies, aligning with global targets such as reducing premature NCD deaths by one-third by 2030. The page also highlights the WHO STEPwise approach to NCD risk factor surveillance, providing standardized methods for data collection and analysis.
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The WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region's Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD) Data and Statistics page offers comprehensive information on NCD surveillance, including mortality rates, morbidity, and risk factor exposures. It emphasizes the importance of monitoring NCD trends to inform prevention and control... strategies, aligning with global targets such as reducing premature NCD deaths by one-third by 2030. The page also highlights the WHO STEPwise approach to NCD risk factor surveillance, providing standardized methods for data collection and analysis.
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The WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region's Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD) Data and Statistics page offers comprehensive information on NCD surveillance, including mortality rates, morbidity, and risk factor exposures. It emphasizes the importance of monitoring NCD trends to inform prevention and control... strategies, aligning with global targets such as reducing premature NCD deaths by one-third by 2030. The page also highlights the WHO STEPwise approach to NCD risk factor surveillance, providing standardized methods for data collection and analysis.
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South Africa’s mineral resources have produced, and continue to produce, enormous economic wealth; yet decades of colonialism, apartheid, capital flight, and challenges in the neoliberal post-apartheid era have resulted in high rates of occupational lung disease and low rates of compensation for e...x-miners and their families. Given growing advocacy and activism of current and former mine workers, initiatives were launched by the South African government in 2012 to begin to address the legacy of injustice. This study aimed to assess developments over the last 5 years in providing compensation, quantify shortfalls and explore underlying challenges.
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Coronavirus disease 2019 has a mild disease course in children and adolescents. Chronic respiratory conditions, including asthma, have been suggested as risk factors; however, asthma in children is highly variable in both triggers and severity.
During the pandemic, pediatric asthma services limite...d consultations and established virtual clinics. However, respondents perceived their patients’ asthma control to be retained or even improved, while treatment adherence was considered increased. Children with asthma were not disproportionately affected by coronavirus disease 2019.
Trigger avoidance and treatment adherence can rapidly improve asthma control in children, even under lockdown pressure. Children/adolescents with asthma do not appear to need additional prophylactic measures from coronavirus disease 2019 when asthma is well-treated. This article analyses the effect of COVID-19 on Asthma in children, providing information for management guidelines.
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Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) represent the highest burden of disease globally. Medicines are a critical intervention used to prevent and treat CVD. This review describes access to medication for CVD from a health system perspective and strategies that have been used to promote access, including pro...viding medicines at lower cost, improving medication supply, ensuring medicine quality, promoting appropriate use, and managing intellectual property issues. Using key evidence in published and gray literature and systematic reviews, we summarize advances in access to cardiovascular medicines using the 5 health system dimensions of access: availability, affordability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality of medicines. There are multiple barriers to access of CVD medicines, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Low availability of CVD medicines has been reported in public and private healthcare facilities. When patients lack insurance and pay out of pocket to purchase medicines, medicines can be unaffordable. Accessibility and acceptability are low for medicines used in secondary prevention; increasing use is positively related to country income. Fixed-dose combinations have shown a positive effect on adherence and intermediate outcome measures such as blood pressure and cholesterol. We have a new opportunity to improve access to CVD medicines by using strategies such as efficient procurement of low-cost, quality-assured generic medicines, development of fixed-dose combination medicines, and promotion of adherence through insurance schemes that waive copayment for long-term medications. Monitoring progress at all levels, institutional, regional, national, and international, is vital to identifying gaps in access and implementing adequate policies.
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Demographic and epidemiological transitions are changing the age structure of the population and the most common diseases. Non-communicable respiratory diseases are an increasing problem at both ends of the age range in low-income and middle-income countries. In children, who represent a large propo...rtion of the total population, the increasing problem of asthma is a strain on health services. Improved survival of the older population is increasing the proportion of morbidity and mortality attributable to chronic lung diseases. Health services in low-resource countries are poorly adapted to treating chronic diseases. Designed to respond episodically to acute disease, almost all historical investment has focused on infectious diseases. Crucial to the successful management of chronic diseases is an infrastructure designed to support pro-active management, providing not only an accurate diagnosis, but also a secure supply of cost effective drugs at an affordable price. The absence of such an infrastructure in many countries and the market failure that makes drugs generally more expensive in low-resource regions means that many people with chronic non-communicable lung diseases are not given effective treatment. This has damaging economic consequences. The common causes of poor lung health in lowincome countries are not the same as those in richer countries, and there is a need to study why they are so common and how best to manage them.
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Asthma is a heterogeneous condition characterised by chronic inflammation and variable expiratory airflow limitation, as well as airway reversibility. The diagnosis of asthma in young children is limited by the inability to perform objective lung function testing in this group of patients and the wi...de variety of conditions that can phenotypically present with asthma-like symptoms.
This article provides an evidence-based approach for clinicians to accurately diagnose asthma in young children and to assess the level of control to guide therapeutic decisions.
The South African Childhood Asthma Working Group (SACAWG) convened in January 2017 with task groups, each headed by a section leader, constituting the editorial committee on assessment of asthma epidemiology, diagnosis, control, treatments, novel treatments and self-management plans. The asthma diagnosis and control task groups reviewed the available scientific literature and assigned evidence according to the Grades of Recommendation Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system, providing recommendations based on current evidence.
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Produced by UNICEF and IRC, with the support of the German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH (GIZ) and the generous funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Caring for Child Survivors of Sexual Abuse (CCS) Resource Package (Second Editi...on, 2023) is a revision of the original CCS Guidelines and associated Training (First Edition, 2012). The Second Edition offers an up-to-date global technical guidance on providing a model of quality care for children and families affected by sexual abuse in humanitarian settings. The new resources include both revised and content additions based on practitioner feedback, the most recent evidence and learning. In particular, the Guidelines aim to bring a stronger focus on gender inequality, intersectionality, as well as the connections between the best interests of the child and a survivor-centered approach.
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Produced by UNICEF and IRC, with the support of the German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH (GIZ) and the generous funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Caring for Child Survivors of Sexual Abuse (CCS) Resource Package (Second Editi...on, 2023) is a revision of the original CCS Guidelines and associated Training (First Edition, 2012). The Second Edition offers an up-to-date global technical guidance on providing a model of quality care for children and families affected by sexual abuse in humanitarian settings. The new resources include both revised and content additions based on practitioner feedback, the most recent evidence and learning. In particular, the Guidelines aim to bring a stronger focus on gender inequality, intersectionality, as well as the connections between the best interests of the child and a survivor-centered approach.
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Produced by UNICEF and IRC, with the support of the German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH (GIZ) and the generous funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Caring for Child Survivors of Sexual Abuse (CCS) Resource Package (Second Editi...on, 2023) is a revision of the original CCS Guidelines and associated Training (First Edition, 2012). The Second Edition offers an up-to-date global technical guidance on providing a model of quality care for children and families affected by sexual abuse in humanitarian settings. The new resources include both revised and content additions based on practitioner feedback, the most recent evidence and learning. In particular, the Guidelines aim to bring a stronger focus on gender inequality, intersectionality, as well as the connections between the best interests of the child and a survivor-centered approach.
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Globally, some 72 million children are out of school due to emergencies and
protracted crises. Of these, at least 17% are children with disabilities.1 Yet, education in a crisis context can be a
lifeline for children, providing psychosocial support, access to school feeding and health programmes, ...and a much-needed safe space where they can interact with peers and maintain the routine of learning
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The mhGAP guideline supports countries to strengthen capacity to deal with the growing burden of mental, neurological and substance use (MNS) conditions and narrow the treatment gap. This new edition includes 30 updated and 18 new recommendations, alongside 90 pre-existing recommendations. This is t...he third iteration of the guideline and reflects 15 years of investment in the mhGAP programme. The revised recommendations ensure that mhGAP continues to offer high-quality, timely, transparent, and evidence-based guidance to support non-specialist health workers in low-income and middle-income countries in providing treatment and care to individuals with MNS conditions.
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As part of its 2019–2030 global strategy for the prevention and control of snakebite envenoming, WHO is launching a new Snakebite Information and Data Platform. This is the result of collaboration between the Departments of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (WHO/NTD) and Data Delivery for Imp...act & Analytics (WHO/DDI).
With support from the WHO GIS Centre for Health, the platform is developed with a new generation of ArcGIS software. It comprises advanced tools for managing, analyzing, and visualizing updated multi-sourced data, providing an interactive and participative user experience. It includes updated range maps of all medically important venomous snakes, other relevant information, and an integrated antivenom products database.
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Visceral leishmaniasis is an important disease in East Africa where recurrent outbreaks occur. Leishmania-HIV coinfected people have high chance of developing the full-blown clinical disease, and high relapse and mortality rates. Poverty, malnutrition and population movements in endemic areas increa...se the risk of developing VL. Early diagnosis and effective prompt treatment reduce the prevalence of the disease and prevents disabilities and death. This course aims at providing health workers with the necessary knowledge to understand the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, surveillance and outbreak investigation of this important disease in East Africa.
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Course information
Yaws is targeted for eradication by WHO in the 2021-2030 NTD Roadmap. It is therefore crucial to know how to identify cases, design and implement activities to eradicate the disease at the community level.
In the context of integration of skin NTDs it is vital to learn to recogn...ize a disease targeted for eradication. At the individual level yaws lesions may mimic other skin diseases. At the community level, it is key to know how to design and implement the total community treatment strategy and monitor its impact. This course aims at providing health workers with the basic knowledge to understand the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, impact, eradication strategy and reporting of yaws.
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Course information
Yaws is targeted for eradication by WHO in the 2021-2030 NTD Roadmap. It is therefore crucial to know how to identify cases, design and implement activities to eradicate the disease at the community level.
In the context of integration of skin NTDs it is vital to learn to recogn...ize a disease targeted for eradication. At the individual level yaws lesions may mimic other skin diseases. At the community level, it is key to know how to design and implement the total community treatment strategy and monitor its impact. This course aims at providing health workers with the basic knowledge to understand the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, impact, eradication strategy and reporting of yaws.
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CTA has played a key role in asking – and answering – critical questions about the future of agriculture and sustainable development in ACP countries. Leveraging its expertise in agricultural knowledge, innovation and technology, the Centre effectively contributed to pushing these issues higher ...up the policy agenda. Providing information to 79 ACP countries is no mean feat for a relatively small organisation. Nevertheless, CTA has been on the frontline of the communications revolution in creating, sharing and disseminating information, knowledge and learning products to enrich ACP agriculture.
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