UNFPA has been implementing programming for women and girls through Women Friendly Health Spaces (WFHSs), which provide access to critical services, information and support. The WFHS is providing: psychosocial counseling services; awareness raising sessions on PSS in the community; and life skills &... vocational training opportunities. The WFHS also facilitates referral to other services including Psychosocial Counseling Centers (PSCCs).
The aim of this guidance note is to provide an overview of approaches on how to successfully integrate adolescent and youth (A&Y) programming into the WFHSs. UNFPA activities for women’s and girl’s protection in health facilities aim to protect women and girls including child marriage. Given that vulnerable women and girls in Afghanistan continue to access health facilities, particularly for reproductive health and maternal health services, it is crucial to provide support for survivors in the same location to improve access to essential psychosocial and protection support for women and girls. To support the integration of A&Y in the WFHS programming each WFHS will be supported by two full time Youth Educators. A female Youth Educator who will be working within the WFHS and a male Youth Educator who will be working in the community. The role of the Youth educators is to increase A&Y awareness and knowledge on living healthy lifestyles and ensuring a referral system to services in existing facilities.
more
The duration of breastfeeding and support from health services to improve feeding practices among mothers living with HIV
This operational guidance, developed by WHO, UNICEF and ENN, outlines the duration of breastfeeding and support from health services to improve infant feeding practices amon...g mothers living with HIV. It is intended to be used to complement emergency and sectoral guidelines on health, nutrition and HIV, including specifically infant feeding, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and paediatric antiretroviral treatment.
more
In this entry we are looking at smoking, alcohol consumption and the use of illicit drugs. We are studying who is using these substances, how their use has changed over time, and we are presenting the estimates of their impact on health. Collectively, smoking, alcohol and illicit drug use kills 11.8... million people each year. This is more than the number of deaths from all cancers
more
The Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) 2023 highlights that the number of people experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity and requiring urgent food and livelihood assistance increased for the fourth consecutive year in 2022. Over a quarter of a billion people were estimated to face acute h...unger, with economic shocks and the Ukraine war contributing to the increase. In 2022, around 258 million people across 58 countries and territories faced acute food insecurity at crisis or worse levels (IPC/CH Phase 3-5), up from 193 million people in 53 countries and territories in 2021.
more
There has been important progress for the rights of adolescent girls and women in recent decades, yet millions still struggle to
access the nutritious diets, essential nutrition services and nutrition and care practices they need to prevent malnutrition.
Undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies ...and anaemia amplify gender inequalities by lowering learning potential, wages and life opportunities for adolescent girls and women, weakening their immunity to infections, and increasing their risk of lifethreatening complications during pregnancy and childbirth.
more
As a high-burden neglected tropical disease, soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections remain a major problem in the world, especially among children under five years of age. Since young children are at high risk of being infected, STH infection can have a long-term negative impact on their life, i...ncluding impaired growth and development. Stunting, a form of malnutrition in young children, has been long assumed as one of the risk factors in acquiring the STH infections. However, the studies on STH infection in children under five with stunting have been lacking, resulting in poor identification of the risk. Accordingly, we collected and reviewed existing related research articles to provide an overview of STH infection in a susceptible population of stunted children under five years of age in terms of prevalence and risk factors. There were 17 studies included in this review related to infection with Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, hookworm, and Strongyloides stercoralis from various countries. The prevalence of STH infection in stunted children ranged from 12.5% to 56.5%. Increased inflammatory markers and intestinal microbiota dysbiosis might have increased the intensity of STH infection in stunted children that caused impairment in the immune system. While the age from 2 to 5 years along with poor hygiene and sanitation has shown to be the most common risk factors of STH infections in stunted children; currently there are no studies that show direct results of stunting as a risk factor for STH infection. While stunting itself may affect the pathogenesis of STH infection, further research on stunting as a risk factor for STH infection is encouraged.
more
This report presents further analysis of the 2015 Nepal Health Facility Survey. Data analysis is based on the Donabedian framework for assessing quality of care in health services, which divides the indicators into three groups: structure, process, and outcome. The World Health Organization Service ...Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) indicator guideline was used to assess facility service readiness, service quality and client satisfaction with maternal health services. The study performed both bivariate and multivariate regression analysis to examine the association of maternal health service readiness and quality indicators with client satisfaction.
more
The importance of growing up in a nurturing and supportive family environment cannot be underestimated. Raising children in a warm, loving environment sets them on a positive developmental trajectory for later life success (Biglan et al, 2012). Conversely, children raised in homes with inconsistent ...and harsh parenting or with high levels of conflict can be adversely impacted.
Introduction - Chapter A.12
more
World Health Organization. (2021). Minimum technical standards and recommendations for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health care for emergency medical teams. World Health Organization.
Snakebite is an acute life threatening time limiting medical emergency. It is a preventable public
health hazard often faced by rural population in tropical and subtropical countries with heavy
rainfall and humid climate.
The product of all this work is the Standard Treatment Guideline and Essential Medicines List of Common Medical Conditions in the Kingdom of Swaziland. These systematically developed statements are designed to assist practitioners in making decisions about appropriate treatment for specific clinical... conditions. They are meant to reflect expert consensus based on a review of current and published scientific evidence of acceptable approaches to diagnosis, man-agement, or prevention of specific conditions.It is enlightening to note that section A of the document contains the STG, and effort has been made to have the conditions commonly encountered in Swaziland classified according to systems. Written in simple, clear language, each section consists of a short definition followed by common symptoms and signs of the disease or condition and then management (pharmacological and nonpharmacological)
more
Antimicrobial agents play an indispensable role in animal health and welfare management. At the same time, the need for prudent use is obvious to ensure good food safety outcomes and to manage the potential risk of antimicrobial resistance. The emergence of multi-resistant bacteria is posing challen...ges to health professionals and communities around the world for both human and animal health. These bacteria are not destroyed by the common antimicrobial agents and so pose a risk to people, particularly children, the elderly and those with poorly functioning immune systems, as well as to animals.
Throughout the years, the dairy sector has been very much aware of the need for responsible use and has, in many countries, implemented adequate measures throughout the dairy supply chain.
more
To enhance health co-benefits across urban policies which tackle air pollution and climate change, WHO, in cooperation with various international, national, and local partners, implemented the Urban Health Initiative (UHI) pilot project in Accra, Ghana. The Initiative prompted the health sector to u...se its influential position to demonstrate to decision-makers and the public the full range of health, environmental and economic benefits that can be achieved from implementing local emission reduction and energy access policies and strategies. Policy tracking, although not always considered, is a fundamental component of this procedure. It assesses the planning, implementation and progress of a policy to refine or adjust policies with the final objective of increasing the likelihood of the policy being successful. This report is an outcome of the last component of the UHI model process, Policy tracking and monitoring outcomes. The report proposes a framework for tracking urban health policies, with a special focus on the impacts of air quality and energy access on human health and well-being in African countries, giving some examples from the pilot project in Accra. The report also provides resources to survey air quality in cities and other tools to assess public health and the environmental impacts of urban policies and monitor or track their effects.
more
The conditionality of this recommendation is largely driven by the current higher unit cost of pyrethroid-PBO ITNs compared
to pyrethroid-only LLINs and therefore the uncertainty of their cost-effectiveness. Furthermore, as PBO is less wash-resistant
than pyrethroids, its bioavailability declines ...faster over the three-year estimated life of an ITN; therefore, the added impact of
pyrethroid-PBO ITNs over that of pyrethroid-only LLINs may decline over time. The evidence comes from two sites in
eastern Africa with pyrethroid resistance and not from other geographies where transmission levels and vector characteristics
may vary. PBO acts by inhibiting certain metabolic enzymes, primarily oxidases, and so are likely to provide greater protection
than pyrethroid-only LLINs where mosquitoes display mono-oxygenase-based insecticide resistance mechanisms.
more
In the last decade, Timor-Leste has made remarkable progress in strengthening its health system and improving the health status of its population. This has resulted in an increased life expectancy, and the achievement of Millennium Development Goals such as a reduction in infant and under-five morta...lity, an improvement in maternal and child health outcomes, and an increase in immunization coverage. Further, the country has successfully eliminated infectious diseases such as polio, measles, and maternal and neonatal tetanus. There is full political commitment to reducing the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) by 80% and the number of deaths due to TB by 90% by 2030. The country has made great progress in the context of the pandemic, having established numerous quarantine facilities/isolation centres; trained health-care workers; streamlined the procurement and supply of medicines, consumables, personal protective equipment and other equipment; and strengthened the capacity in critical care across secondary and tertiary health care, to better respond to future pandemics and other disaster situations.
more
In this document, recommendations are provided on designing and implementing
a cross-sectional serosurvey using school-based sampling to estimate age-specific
DENV seroprevalence to inform a country’s national dengue vaccination program.
The document includes recommendations for methods for ...planning and conducting
serosurveys, including survey design, specimen collection, laboratory testing, data
analysis, and the interpretation and reporting of results.
more
Yaws is a disfiguring non-venereal disease caused by infection with the spirochaete. Treponema pallidum subspecies pertenue which is closely related to the causative agent of syphilis and those of the other endemic treponematoses, bejel and pinta. The disease is endemic in certain areas of the World... Health Organization (WHO) African, South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions. Of the neglected tropical diseases identified for elimination and eradication, yaws is one of two diseases targeted for eradication. In 1949, the Second World Health Assembly adopted resolution WHA2.36, which addresses yaws, bejel and pinta as major public health problems that need attention.
more
The Return Counselling Toolkit is a capacity-building instrument aimed at providing a harmonized and coherent approach to return counselling, based on key migrant-centred principles while protecting migrants’ rights. Mindful of the specific needs and rights pertaining to children, this additional ...module on counselling children and families further complements the first five modules of the Return Counselling Toolkit. It provides specialized guidance on how to prepare and deliver return counselling to accompanied, unaccompanied and separated children while upholding child rights and safeguards.
more
This document focuses on making recommendations for the diagnosis and treatment of Chagas disease, an infection caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, the protozoan agent of a systemic parasitic disease. Methodology: These clinical practice guidelines were prepared following the WHO handbook for guideline dev...elopment (5). A multidisciplinary development group was formed, comprised of thematic experts, epidemiologists, methodologists, and users. Since there were no existing guidelines that could be adapted, the guidelines were developed from scratch.
more
Countries, partners, and donors are committed to
the global elimination of blinding trachoma by 2020.
Achieving this public health milestone requires more
than funding; it requires health personnel with the
right mix of skills, and well supported and managed
health systems. Mass drug administra...tion (MDA)
with Zithromax®, the Pfizer, Inc. donated antibiotic,
is a key component of the SAFE strategy, endorsed
by the World Health Organization. There is growing
recognition that improving all aspects of MDA, from
planning to training, recording to reporting, and
receipt of drug to distribution (the supply chain), will
be necessary if MDA programmes are going to reduce
the community burden of Chlamydia trachomatis, and
eliminate trachoma as a cause of blindness by 2020.
more