The document by the American Thoracic Society provides an overview of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), explaining its causes, such as smoking and environmental factors, symptoms like breathlessness and chronic cough, and diagnostic methods including spirometry. It discusses treatment st...rategies, emphasizing smoking cessation, medication use, oxygen therapy, and pulmonary rehabilitation. The document also highlights that while COPD is a lifelong condition, effective management can improve symptoms and quality of life.
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This short guide to the Global Diabetes Compact explains what diabetes is and why action to improve prevention efforts, diagnosis and treatment is so urgent. It outlines the key asks associated with the Compact and emphasizes that increasing access to insulin, strengthening health systems and meanin...gfully engaging with people affected by diabetes are key to success.
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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global threat that requires urgent
collaborative action within and among countries. As a result of the worldwide reports of the increasing rates of AMR to hospital and community-acquired infections and in the agricultural sector, the Global Action Plan on AMR was... adopted in 2015. T
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Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of disability and premature death throughout the world, and contributes substantially to the escalating costs of health care. The underlying pathology is atherosclerosis, which develops over many years and is usually advanced by the time symptoms occur, genera...lly in middle age. Acute coronary and cerebrovascular events frequently occur suddenly, and are often fatal before medical care can be given. Modification of risk factors has been shown to reduce mortality and morbidity in people with diagnosed or undiagnosed cardiovascular disease.
This publication provides guidance on reducing disability and premature deaths from coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and peripheral vascular disease in people at high risk, who have not yet experienced a cardiovascular event. People with established cardiovascular disease are at very high risk of recurrent events and are not the subject of these guidelines. They have been addressed in previous WHO guidelines.
Several forms of therapy can prevent coronary, cerebral and peripheral vascular events. Decisions about whether to initiate specific preventive action, and with what degree of intensity, should be guided by estimation of the risk of any such vascular event. The risk prediction charts that accompany these guidelinesb allow treatment to be targeted accord-
ing to simple predictions of absolute cardiovascular risk.
Recommendations are made for management of major cardiovascular risk factors through changes in lifestyle and prophylactic drug therapies. The guidelines provide a framework for the development of national guidance on prevention of cardiovascular disease that takes into account the particular political, economic, social and medical circumstances.
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Mental illness can affect not only the life of the person with the illness, but also their close family, partners
and friends. Significant people in a person’s life are often a source of support with the illness.
However, family, partners and friends may be faced with a loved one’s men...tal illness without much
information on ways to deal with it and its impact on their life.
NOTE: This guide is NOT a replacement for medical advice and we strongly recommend that you or the person you care
for discuss issues related to treatment with a clinician.
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Male circumcision reduces a man’s risk of heterosexual acquisition of HIV by about 60%. This guideline provides an evidence-based recommendation on the use of adult male circumcision devices for HIV prevention in public health programmes in high HIV prevalence, resource-limited settings. It also p...resents key programmatic considerations for the introduction and use of these devices in public health HIV prevention programmes. The primary audiences are policy- and decision-makers, programme managers, health-care providers, donors and implementing agencies.
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"Helping Traumatized Children Learn is the result of an extraordinary collaboration among educators, parents, mental health professionals, community groups, and attorneys determined to help children experiencing the traumatic effects of exposure to family violence succeed in school."
Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common noncommunicable diseases worldwide. In the Eastern Mediterranean Region there has been a rapid increase in the incidence of diabetes mellitus and it is now the fourth leading cause of death. The increasing prevalence of diabetes mellitus, the emergence of ...diabetes complications as a cause of early morbidity and mortality, and the enormous and mounting burden on health care systems make diabetes a priority health concern. These guidelines provide up-to-date, reliable and balanced information for the prevention and care of diabetes mellitus in the Region. The information is evidence-based and clearly stated to facilitate the use of the guidelines in daily practice. They are intended to benefit physicians at primary, secondary and tertiary level, general practitioners, internists and family medicine specialists, clinical dieticians and nurses as well as policy-makers at ministries of health. They provide the information necessary for decision-making by health care providers and patients themselves about disease management in the most commonly encountered situations.
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This clinical management manual for Ebola Viral Disease in Liberia was developed after several ETUs were established in the country following the outbreak early this year. As the outbreak evolved, it became evident that different SOPs were being used by clinicians across these treatment facilities. ...As a result of discussions held by the National Case Management Committee of the Incident Management System, various stakeholders were brought together to contribute their time and expertise to the development of this manual.
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This handbook is an adaptation from the WHO Clinical Handbook Health care for women subjected to intimate partner violence or sexual violence developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), UN Women and United Nations Population Fund. The handbook draws on the work from professionals who are dedic...ated to preventing and responding to Gender Based Violence.
The Handbook guides health care service providers to provide comprehensive services to survivors of intimate partner violence and/or sexual violence. It also guides health professionals with respect to relevant stakeholders for referral purposes. The purpose is to ensure that relevant authorities are informed timeously in order act and ensure that those affected by violence receive speedy service as required.
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In Sierra Leone, Health care delivery is organized around a three-tier system i) primary level constituting peripheral health units (community health centers, community health posts, and maternal and child health posts secondary level constituting district hospitals tertiary level comprising region...al and national referral hospitals [Figure 3].
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The document provides quality standards for managing Type 1 diabetes in adults, emphasizing areas like structured education, continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), cardiovascular risk management, and diabetic foot assessment. It aims to improve care processes, reduce complications, and enhance patient... outcomes through evidence-based and patient-centered approaches. The guidelines also focus on supporting inpatient self-management and ensuring equality and accessibility in diabetes care.
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HAT diagnosis relies on laboratory techniques because clinical signs and symptoms are unspecific. Serodiagnostic tests exist only for Tbg and are based on the detection of specific antibodies, thus they are not confirmatory of infection. With the current low disease prevalence, the positive predicti...ve value of serological tests is particularly low. Field-applicable tools include the card agglutination test for trypanosomiasis (CATT) used mainly in active screening by specialized mobile teams, and the rapid diagnostic tests that are more suitable for individual testing at point-of-care. Confirmation of Tbg infection requires microscopic examination of body fluids necessitating specific training. The best performing methods are laborious and reach 85–95% diagnostic sensitivity when performed by skilled personnel.
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SARS-CoV-2 infections among children and adolescents cause less severe illness and fewer deaths compared to adults. While a less severe course of infection is a positive outcome, there are concerns that mild symptoms may have led to less testing, resulting in fewer identified cases of COVID-19 in ch...ildren. If children with mild or no symptoms transmit the disease, they may act as drivers of transmission within their communities. Understanding symptoms, infectivity and patterns of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in children and adolescents is essential for developing, adapting and improving control measures for COVID-19 across all ages. This is a summary of the current knowledge around SARS-CoV-2 infection acquisition and transmission and COVID-19 disease symptoms in children and adolescents. It aims to inform decisions, based on local contexts, on how to best keep schools, kindergarten and day-care facilities open and what advice to apply to intergenerational mixing.
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The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) was established by the Council of Europe. It is an independent body which ensures respect for human rights in the fight against racism, discrimination (based on "race", ethnic/national origin, colour, nationality, religion, language, sexu...al orientation and gender identity), xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance. The members of the Commission shall be independent and impartial. They shall be appointed on the basis of their moral authority and recognised expertise in matters of racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance. As part of its statutory mandate, ECRI produces country reports for each country which analyse the situation regarding racism and intolerance in each member State of the Council of Europe and make proposals to resolve the problems identified.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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The frequency of infectious disease epidemics is increasing, and the role of the health sector in the management of epidemics is crucial in terms of response. In the context of infectious disease epidemics, the use of climate-informed early warning systems (EWS) has the potential to increase the eff...ectiveness of disease control by intervening before or at the beginning of the epidemic curve, instead of during the downward slope.
Currently, the initiation of interventions is heavily reliant on routine disease surveillance systems – data that often arrive too late for preventative response. However, forecasting of disease outbreaks using surveillance and weather information shows promising potential – there also remains further scope to examine seasonal climate forecasts. By combining these elements in new EWS based on computational models, it will be possible to improve both the timeliness and impact of disease control. The World Health Organization (WHO) is strengthening existing surveillance systems for infectious diseases to enable the development of more robust and timely EWS, which has resulted in the rapid development and innovation of EWS for disease outbreaks.
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Round 3: Key informant findings from 129 countries, territories and areas - Quarter 4 2021
Countries reported disruptions in all health-care settings. In more than half of countries surveyed, many people are still unable to access care at the primary care and community care levels. Significant dis...ruptions have also been reported in emergency care, particularly concerning given the impact on people with urgent health needs. Thirty-six per cent of countries reported disruptions to ambulance services; 32% to 24-hour emergency room services; and 23% to emergency surgeries.
Elective surgeries have also been disrupted in 59% of countries, which can have accumulating consequences on health and well-being as the pandemic continues. Disruptions to rehabilitative care and palliative care were also reported in around half of the countries surveyed.
Major barriers to health service recovery include pre-existing health systems issues which have been exacerbated by the pandemic as well as decreased demand for care.
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The "National Guideline for Cholera Surveillance and Outbreak Response" by the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) provides a comprehensive approach to combating cholera outbreaks in Ethiopia. It emphasizes the importance of a multisectoral approach, including case management, WASH measures, an...d the use of cholera vaccines. A key component is the establishment of Cholera Treatment Centers (CTCs) that provide 24/7 care. Additionally, the guideline stresses water quality monitoring and hygiene practices to prevent the spread of cholera and protect public health.
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The Covid-19 pandemic has so far infected more than 30 million people in the world, having major impact on global health with collateral damage. In Mozambique, a public state of emergency was declared at the end of March 2020. This has limited people's movements and reduced public services, leading ...to a decrease in the number of people accessing health care facilities. An implementation research project, The Alert Community for a Prepared Hospital, has been promoting access to maternal and child health care, in Natikiri, Nampula, for the last four years. Nampula has the second highest incidence of Covid-19. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of Covid-19 pandemic Government restrictions on access to maternal and child healthcare services. We compared health centres in Nampula city with healthcare centres in our research catchment area. We wanted to see if our previous research interventions have led to a more resilient response from the community.
METHODS: Mixed-methods research, descriptive, cross-sectional, retrospective, using a review of patient visit documentation. We compared maternal and child health care unit statistical indicators from March-May 2019 to the same time-period in 2020. We tested for significant changes in access to maternal and child health services, using KrushKall Wallis, One-way Anova and mean and standard deviation tests. We compared interviews with health professionals, traditional birth attendants and patients in the two areas. We gathered data from a comparable city health centre and the main city referral hospital. The Marrere health centre and Marrere General Hospital were the two Alert Community for a Prepared Hospital intervention sites.
RESULTS: Comparing 2019 quantitative maternal health services access indicators with those from 2020, showed decreases in most important indicators: family planning visits and elective C-sections dropped 28%; first antenatal visit occurring in the first trimester dropped 26%; hospital deliveries dropped a statistically significant 4% (p = 0.046), while home deliveries rose 74%; children vaccinated down 20%.
CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrated the negative collateral effects of Covid-19 pandemic Government restrictions, on access to maternal and child healthcare services, and highlighted the need to improve the health information system in Mozambique.
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Over-plagued with deadly siege, the Eastern Ghota is still subject to a vicious military regime attack in an attempt to force its people to flee for their life or just die in place. The sufferings in Eastern Ghota have been continuing, unabated for more than five running years, leaving the area bere...aved of almost all basic necessities for survival with grave shortage of resources. The Syrian regime is currently making attempts to displace the civilians by wreaking havoc in the area, preventing the entry of basic foodstuffs, and denying medical access for critical cases or even their exit for treatment.
In a series of reports issued by the Information Management Unit (IMU) of the Assistance Coordination Unit (ACU) and through its network of enumerators and in coordination with the Local Council of Rural Damascus Governorate, the 2nd edition of the report ” Siege and Death in the Eastern Ghouta” is issued to sound off warning bells about the hardship situation in Eastern Ghota, much as it is intended to raise the alarm regarding the displacement enforced and the human rights violations committed by the regime. The report at the same time sheds lights on the looming catastrophe before it may occur.
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