Nosocomial or health-facility-acquired infections are a serious issue, representing one of the most significant causes of morbidity and mortality in healthcare systems and consuming many scarce resources, especially in developing countries. Although much has been done, particularly in the hospital s...etting, to reduce the risk of these infections, the problem persists and demands innovative and cost-efficient solutions.
Although the care provided in most primary health care facilities is predominantly ambulatory with few or no inpatient beds, infection prevention is still important to minimize or eliminate the risks of facility-acquired infections and assure quality patient care.
Health facilities and hospitals should have written infection control procedures and guidelines in place and should also be monitoring that these procedures are adhered to in both inpatient and ambulatory care settings.
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The government of Rwanda conducted the 2010 Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey (RDHS) to gather up-to-date information for monitoring progress on healthcare programs and policies in Rwanda, including the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS), the Millennium Development Goals ...(MDGs),
and Vision 2020. The 2010 RDHS is a follow-up to the 1992, 2000, 2005, and 2007-08 RDHS surveys. Each survey provides data on background characteristics of the respondents, demographic and health indicators, household health expenditures, and domestic violence. The target groups in these surveys were women age 15-49 and men age 15-59
who were randomly selected from households across the country. Information about children age 5 and under also was collected, including the weight and height of the children.
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This 10th edition of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s annual Financing Global Health report provides the most up-to-date estimates of development assistance for health, domestic spending on health, health spending on two key infectious diseases – malaria and HIV/AIDS – and fut...ure scenarios of health spending. Several transitions in global health financing inform this report: the influence of economic development on the composition of health spending; the emergence of other sources of development assistance funds and initiatives; and the increased availability of disease-specific funding data for the global health community. For funders and policymakers with sights on achieving 2030 global health goals, these estimates are of critical importance. They can be used for identifying funding gaps, evaluating the allocation of scarce resources, and comparing funding across time and countries.
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The humanitarian-development-peace nexus (HDPNX) is a new way of working that offers a framework for coherent joined-up planning and implementation of shared priorities between humanitarian development and peacebuilding actors in emergency settings. To advance the HDPNx in a given country a sh...ared foundational understanding of the current situation is needed. However it can be challenging to find such a resource perpetuating poor understanding planning and operationalization. This is one of a series of country profiles that have been developed by WHO to address that need. Each profile provides an overview of health-related nexus efforts in the country and will be updated regularly.
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An estimated 1.3 billion people – or 16% of global population worldwide – experience a significant disability today. Persons with disabilities have the right to the highest attainable standard of health as those without disabilities. However, the WHO Global report on health equity for persons w...ith disabilities demonstrates that while some progress has been made in recent years, the world is still far from realizing this right for many persons with disabilities who continue to die earlier, have poorer health, and experience more limitations in everyday functioning than others. These poor health outcomes are due to unfair conditions faced by persons with disabilities in all facets of life, including in the health system itself. Countries have an obligation under international human rights law to address the health inequities faced by persons with disabilities. Furthermore, the Sustainable Development Goals and global health priorities will not progress without ensuring health for all.
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Mental health problems represent the greatest global burden of disease among children and adolescents. There is, however, lack of policy development and implementation for child and adolescent mental health (CAMH), particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where children and adolescen...ts represent up to 50% of populations. South Africa, an upper-middle income country is often regarded as advanced in health and social policy-making and implementation in comparison to other LMICs. It is, however, not clear whether this is the case for CAMH.
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The Policy Guidelines and Service Standards for National Sexual and Reproductive Health Programme document outlines the steps on how to offer and deliver services. Improving quality of care is critical to improving clients' health status as well as increasing access to, and utilization of Sexual and... Reproductive Health services. Service Standards and Guidelines are intended to be used by programme managers, implementers, trainers, surpervisors, and service providers as a tool for delivering quality care measures.
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WHO-OHCHR launch new guidance to improve laws addressing human rights abuses in mental health care
Ahead of World Mental Health Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) are jointly launching a new guidance, entitled "Mental health, h...uman rights and legislation: guidance and practice", to support countries to reform legislation in order to end human rights abuses and increase access to quality mental health care.
Human rights abuses and coercive practices in mental health care, supported by existing legislation and policies, are still far too common. Involuntary hospitalization and treatment, unsanitary living conditions and physical, psychological, and emotional abuse characterize many mental health services across the world.
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Preparedness planning is essential in order to respond effectively to outbreaks, including single case occurrences of highconsequence infectious diseases (HCID), such as the importation of a viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF) case
DHS Working Papers No. 125
Ghana is attracting global attention for efforts to provide health insurance to all citizens through the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). With the program’s strong emphasis on maternal and child health, an expectation of the program is that members will have increased use of relevant servi...ces. The NHIS does appear to enable pregnant women to access services and allow caregivers to seek care early for sick children, but both the quantitative and qualitative assessments also indicated that the poor and least educated were less likely to have insurance than their wealthier and more educated counterparts.
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The main goal of the National Health Plan (NHP) 2017-2021 is to extend access to a basic Essential Package of Health Services (EPHS) to the entire population while increasing financial protection. In order to extend service delivery to all communities, the NHP calls for all health workers (whether c...ommunity-based, outreach-based or facility-based) involved in the delivery of health promotion, prevention and treatment services to be fully recognised and institutionalized within the health system to ensure efficient use of resources, necessary oversight and quality service provision (regardless of whether the health workers are voluntary or salaried). The first year Annual Operational Plan (AOP) of the NHP 2017-2021 calls for a comprehensive literature review of the situation of all Village Based Health Workers (VBHWs) in the country to inform the development of a comprehensive, institutionalized approach to community health for the country.
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The aim of the WHO QualityRights tool kit is to support countries in assessing and
improving the quality and human rights of their mental health and social care facilities.
The tool kit is based on an extensive international review by people with mental disabilities
and their organizations. It ha...s been pilot-tested in low-, middle- and high-income
countries and is designed to be applied in all of these resource settings.
In this tool kit, the term ‘people with mental disabilities’ can include those with mental,
neurological or intellectual impairments and those with substance use disorders.
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Healthy people, healthy animals and a healthy environment worldwide with the One Health approach.
The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically demonstrated just how close the link is between humans, animals, and the environment, and has highlighted and aggravated existing challenges. The destruction of na...tural habitats and displacement of species, trade in wild animals, resource-intensive lifestyles and conditions, non-sustainable food systems and, in particular, industrial agriculture and intensive livestock farming are the causes of the emergence of zoonoses as well as numerous other communicable and non-communicable, chronic diseases.
The One Health approach focuses precisely on such interaction between humans, animals, and the environment.
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Lancet Planet Health 2020; 4: e271–79
Little is known about the patterns of development assistance (DA) for each component of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) in conflict-affected countries nor about the DA allocation in relation to the burden of disease
Ghana's attempt to regulate health care waste management started in 2002 with the development of guidelines on health care waste manage-ment by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In 2006, the Ministry of Health developed the health care waste policy and guidelines. This guidance document im...proved health care waste management in the country.
With support from the UNDP-GEF medical waste management project, the Ministry of He lth has revised the existing National Health Care Waste Management (HCWM), policy and guideline, 2006 and has produced two separate documents- A National Health Care Waste Management Policy and a National Guideline for Health Care Waste Management
countrywide. This policy is replacing the 2006 policy and introduces new technical and administrative policy issues to enhance waste management in health care facilities.
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