The Lancet DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31053-9
Heat is the top killer among all types of weather hazards, including hurricanes and tornadoes. But hospitals and health care providers do not always report heat-related illnesses or heat as an underlying cause of a death, making it hard to measure the actual impact of extreme heat on health.
While many of the countries hit by the COVID-19 in the first few months of the year are now beginning to relax lockdown measures as infection and death rates fall, in the regions most affected by HIV, TB and malaria, such as Africa, South Asia and Latin America, the pandemic continues to accelerate.... In lower resource settings, lockdowns are less effective and hard to sustain, and clinical care facilities are extremely limited. In such environments, the response to COVID-19 must focus on containing the pandemic’s spread as far as possible through testing, contact tracing and isolation, protecting the health workforce through training and the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) and minimizing the knock-on impact on other diseases through shoring up fragile health systems, and adapting existing disease programs.
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The report – Global Status Report on Preventing Violence Against Children 2020 – is the first of its kind, charting progress in 155 countries against the “INSPIRE” framework, a set of seven strategies for preventing and responding to violence against children. The report signals a clear need... in all countries to scale up efforts to implement them. While nearly all countries (88%) have key laws in place to protect children against violence, less than half of countries (47%) said these were being strongly enforced.
The report includes the first ever global homicide estimates specifically for children under 18 years of age – previous estimates were based on data that included 18 to 19-year olds. It finds that, in 2017, around 40,000 children were victims of homicide.
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The outbreak of COVID-19 comes with unpredictable primary and secondary impacts on vulnerable and food-insecure populations across the world. Mortality and morbidity appear to be most acute for elderly people, and those with underlying health conditions. At the same time, the widely anti...cipated economic downturn could have a more devastating effect on the world’s poor than the virus itself
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The humanitarian crisis in Yemen is the worst in the world, with over 80 per cent of the population estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance. The protracted crisis has displaced millions of Yemenis, placing pressure on host communities with limited capacity to support displaced populations....
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Budgetary mechanisms in highly affected countries
As the Coronavirus pandemic heightens, ESCAP is sourcing guidelines, recommendations and information in various languages to help exchange knowledge on dealing with mental health in children and adolescent during this time.
Documents in multiple languages are available
Physical distancing measures are important to reduce COVID-19 transmission. However, when stringently applied, they can result in negative health and socio-economic impacts. This report draws on a rapid review of available literature, case studies from across Africa and expert knowledge to make reco...mmendations on adapting classic physical distancing measures to the contextual realities in Africa and on mitigating potential negative impacts.
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In response to the first cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) reported on the continent, many African Union Member States implemented large-scale public health and social measures (PHSM) rapidly. These measures were aimed at reducing transmission and the number of new cases being reported, p...rotecting the most vulnerable populations, and allowing time for countries to ramp up critical healthcare and diagnostic services. While these quick actions bought time for Member States, the negative socio-economic impacts are being felt widely, and countries are now exploring how best to ease these measures back while still managing the outbreak.
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Infectious diseases like COVID-19 can disrupt the environments in which children grow and develop. Disruptions to families, friendships, daily routines and the wider community can have negative consequences for children’s well-being, development and protection. In addition, measures used to preven...t and control the spread of COVID-19 can expose children to protection risks. Home-based, facility-based and zonal-based quarantine and isolation measures can all negatively impact children and their families.
The aim of this brief is to support child protection practitioners to better respond to the child protection risks during a COVID-19 pandemic. Part 1 presents the potential child protection risks COVID-19 can pose to children. Part 2 presents programmatic options in line with the 2019 Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (CPMS) and the Guidance Note: Protection of Children During Infectious Disease Outbreaks.
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COVID-19 disproportionately affects the poor and vulnerable. Community health workers are poised to play a pivotal role in fighting the pandemic, especially in countries with less resilient health systems. Drawing from practitioner expertise across four WHO regions, this article outlines the targete...d actions needed at different stages of the pandemic to achieve the following goals: (1) PROTECT healthcare workers, (2) INTERRUPT the virus, (3) MAINTAIN existing healthcare services while surging their capacity, and (4) SHIELD the most vulnerable from socioeconomic shocks. While decisive action must be taken now to blunt the impact of the pandemic in countries likely to be hit the hardest, many of the investments in the supply chain, compensation, dedicated supervision, continuous training and performance management necessary for rapid community response in a pandemic are the same as those required to achieve universal healthcare and prevent the next epidemic.
BMJ Global Health2020;5:e002550. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2020-002550
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A recent article published by NPR reporting how trusted faith leaders, in this case nuns, have a workable system to transmit health messages in local languages in Zambia. They have broadcast information on maternal & child health and COVID-19 on a Catholic radio station
This guidance note is meant to assist humanitarian actors, youth-led organizations, and young people themselves across sectors, working at local, country, regional, and global levels in their response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. It begins diagnostically, exploring the impacts of coronavirus d...isease (COVID-19) on young people. It then proposes a series of actions that practitioners and young people can take to ensure that COVID-19 preparedness, response plans and actions, are youth-inclusive and youth-focused – with and for young people. Recommendations are structured around the five key actions of the Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action: services, participation, capacity, resources, and data. Where available, the recommended actions are accompanied by resources and concrete examples, which can inform approaches and support implementation
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This guidance document addresses how physical distancing (referred to in previous guidance documents as ‘social distancing’) can help slow down transmission.
Ce document d'orientation explique comment la distance physique (désignée dans les documents d'orientation précédents sous le nom de «distance sociale») peut aider à ralentir la transmission.
Deeply concerned by the morbidity and mortality caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the negative impacts on physical and mental health and social well-being, the negative impacts on economies and societies and the consequent exacerbation of inequalities within and between countries.
In response to COVID-19, countries around the world have implemented several public health and social measures (PHSM), such as movement restrictions, closure of schools and businesses, and international travel restrictions.1 As the local epidemiology of the disease changes, countries will adjust (i....e. loosen or reinstate) these measures according to the intensity of transmission.
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