Mitigation and prediction of disease 11.4 Flashcards
What is the WHO?
The directing and co-ordinating authority on international health within the UN system.
What does the WHO do?
gathers health data
provides leadership and identifies priority areas in matters critical to health
Researches health problems
Monitors the international health situation
Supports UN member states to devise health strategies
Provides technical support during health crises
What is the WHO doing about CVD?
In 2013, WHO Member States agreed on global mechanisms to reduce the avoidable NCD burden including a “Global action plan for the prevention and control of NCDs 2013-2020”. This Plan aims to reduce the number of premature deaths from NCDs by 25% by 2025 through nine voluntary global targets. Two of the targets directly focus on preventing and controlling CVDs.
Target 6: Reduce global prevalence of raised blood pressure by 25% between 2010 and 2025.
Target 8: At least 50% of eligible people should receive drug therapy and counselling (including glycaemic control) to prevent heart attacks and strokes by 2025.
What is the WHO doing about diseased water
WHO works closely with UNICEF in a number of areas concerning water and health, including on water, sanitation, and hygiene in health care facilities.
WHO leads global efforts to prevent water-related disease, advising governments on the development of health-based targets and regulations.
WHO produces a series of water quality guidelines, including on drinking-water, safe use of wastewater, and recreational water quality.
What research does the WHO do
Influenzas, mental health and vaccines. For example it is currently in a partnership with the multi-agency Stop TB Partnership which aims to eradicate TB by 2050
How does the WHO educate people to prevent disease?
WHO Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Health (MoH) launched a community engagement intervention, which aimed to educate the community on eliminating dengue mosquito breeding sites. It led to a nearly 60% decline in hospital admissions for dengue fever in the intervention districts and prevented major outbreaks that would have otherwise required national-level interventions
How does the WHO operate in a country where there is conflict?
WHO Afghanistan together with partners have been able to invest in surveillance systems, particularly for influenza, which have been strongly leveraged for the COVID-19 pandemic. The established system and network enabled the integrated approach to surveillance which has continued following a political change leading to a freeze in external resources for the country’s health system.
How was the Amazon rainforest a barrier to disease?
Until the mid-twentieth century the rainforest of the Amazon isolated hundreds of indigenous tribes. For many tribes this isolation was a disaster as they had no immunity from common diseases.
Give an example of how the Amazon rainforest created disease related issues for tribes
In Peru half of the Nahua tribe, contacted for the first time in the early 1980s was wiped out by a disease following oil exploration on their land
How can a remote location be an issue when facing disease after a natural disaster
Remoteness can be a consequence of a natural hazard. Natural hazards often accompany outbreaks of water-borne diseases relating to poor hygiene and contamination of water supplies.
In remote regions this can assume epidemic proportions
How did remote location affect Nepal after the 2015 earthquake?
Many settlements are one or two days walk from the main village. During the 2015 earthquake they were cut off by landslides.
Inaccessibility meant it took weeks for water and medical help to arrive, giving time for epidemics to take hold
Give an example of how remoteness can be a barrier to disease?
Ebola virus appeared in Africa in the 1980s. However the communities affected were so isolated in the Congo rainforest that the disease was contained.
What was MDG 6a?
Aimed to halt and reverse the spread of disease by 2015 (HIV/AIDS). This goal has been fairly well achieved.
How has the pandemic of HIV/AIDS been reduced?
New HIV infections have been reduced by 59% since the peak in 1995
AIDS-related deaths have been reduced by 69% since the peak in 2004 and by 51% since 2010
Give an example of how there has been challenges in LIDC in reducing HIV/AIDS
In Botswana in sub-Saharan Africa. in 2013 nearly a quarter of the population (15-49) was HIV positive.
Botswana is ranked fourth country worst affected by HIV
