Joint news release CDC/GAVI/UNICEF/WHO
26 OCTOBER 2017 | GENEVA/NEW YORK/ATLANTA – In 2016, an estimated 90 000 people died from measles – an 84% drop from more than 550 000 deaths in 2000 – according to a new report published today by leading health organizations. This marks the first time global measles deaths have fallen below 100 000 per year.

Measles elimination is defined as the absence of endemic measles virus transmission in a region or other
defined geographical area for more than 12 months, in the presence of a well-performing surveillance
system.

“Saving an average of 1.3 million lives per year through measles vaccine is an incredible achievement and makes a world free of measles seem possible, even probable, in our lifetime,” says Dr Robert Linkins, of the Measles and Rubella Initiative (MR&I) and Branch Chief of Accelerated Disease Control and Vaccine Preventable Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. M&RI is a partnership formed in 2001 of the American Red Cross, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United Nations Foundation, UNICEF, and WHO.
Since 2000, an estimated 5.5 billion doses of measles-containing vaccines have been provided to children through routine immunization services and mass vaccination campaigns, saving an estimated 20.4 million lives.
“We have seen a substantial drop in measles deaths for more than two decades, but now we must strive to reach zero measles cases,” says Dr Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele, Director of WHO’s Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals. “Measles elimination will only be reached if measles vaccines reach every child, everywhere.”
The world is still far from reaching regional measles elimination goals. Coverage with the first of two required doses of measles vaccine has stalled at approximately 85% since 2009, far short of the 95% coverage needed to stop measles infections, and coverage with the second dose, despite recent increases, was only 64% in 2016.
Far too many children – 20.8 million – are still missing their first measles vaccine dose. More than half of these unvaccinated children live in six countries: Nigeria (3.3 million), India (2.9 million), Pakistan (2.0 million), Indonesia (1.2 million), Ethiopia (0.9 million), and Democratic Republic of the Congo (0.7 million). Since measles is a highly contagious viral disease, large outbreaks continue to occur in these and other countries in Europe and North America, putting children at risk of severe health complications such as pneumonia, diarrhoea, encephalitis, blindness, and death.
Agencies noted that progress in reaching measles elimination could be reversed when polio-funded resources supporting routine immunization services, measles and rubella vaccination campaigns, and surveillance, diminish and disappear following polio eradication. Countries with the greatest number of measles deaths rely most heavily on polio-funded resources and are at highest risk of reversing progress after polio eradication is achieved.
“This remarkable drop in measles deaths is the culmination of years of hard work by health workers, governments, and development agencies to vaccinate millions of children in the world’s poorest countries,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, one of the world’s largest supporters of measles immunization programmes. “However we cannot afford to be complacent. Too many children are still missing out on lifesaving vaccines. To reach these children and set ourselves on a realistic road to measles elimination we need to dramatically improve routine immunization backed by strong health systems.”
WHO MEDIA CENTRE

October 27, 2017 0 comments

PH Important Day Public Health

The International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (22 to 28 October 2017)

by Public Health Update October 26, 2017

written by Public Health Update

The International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (22 to 28 October 2017)

The International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (ILPPW): From 22 to 28 October 2017 the international lead poisoning prevention week of action will take place, with a particular focus on eliminating lead paint.
Lead poisoning is preventable, yet the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has estimated that, based on 2015 data, lead exposure accounted for 494 550 deaths and 9.3 million disability adjusted life years (DALYs) due to long-term effects on health, with the highest burden in developing regions. Of particular concern is the role of lead exposure in the development of intellectual disability in children. Even though there is wide recognition of this problem and many countries have taken action, exposure to lead, particularly in childhood, remains of key concern to health care providers and public health officials worldwide. WHO
The International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (ILPPW) raises awareness and promotes actions to address the human health effects of lead exposure, especially for children. During the week, governments, academia, industry and civil society promote efforts to prevent childhood lead poisoning, and specifically laws to eliminate lead in paint.
While many countries have long-established bans on lead paint, it is still legal to sell lead paint for use in
homes, schools and other buildings in more than one third of the world’s countries.
Children living in low- and middle-income countries, where there are few governmental controls on lead, are disproportionately affected.
This year’s ILPPW aims to help individuals, organizations, industry and governments work together to ban lead
from paint.
The ILPPW messages to stakeholders:

Learn the Risks: Find out about the hazards of lead and, in particular, of lead paint.
Educate Your Community: Organize activities to raise awareness and promote action to prevent lead poisoning, particularly in children.
Ban Lead Paint: Encourage your national government to establish a law to eliminate lead from paint, or to ensure the effective enforcement of lead paint regulations.

''Lead paint is a serious threat to the long-term health of our children. Yet lead paint is still on sale in many 
countries and is used to decorate homes and schools. WHO calls on all countries to phase out lead paint by 
2020 to protect the health of this and future generations.
— Dr. Maria Neira, Director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health,
 World Health  Organization

Key Messages:
1. Lead exposure affects human health, especially for children.

There is no known safe level of lead exposure. Even low levels of lead exposure may cause lifelong health problems.
Lead is toxic to multiple body systems, including the central nervous system and brain, the reproductive
system, the kidneys, the cardiovascular system, and the blood and immune systems.
Lead is especially dangerous to children’s developing brains, and causes reduced intelligence quotient
(IQ) and attention span, impaired learning ability, and increased risk of behavioural problems. These health impacts also have significant economic costs to countries.

2. Lead paint is an important source of lead exposure.

Lead is added to paints to enhance colour, speed drying, or reduce corrosion on metal surfaces.
As lead paint ages, it flakes and crumbles, creating leadcontaminated dust. When used in homes, schools, and playgrounds, it can be a source of lead exposure to children, who easily ingest dust by putting their hands in their mouths.
It is more cost-effective to ban new lead paint and promote lead-safe alternatives than to remediate contaminated homes, schools and playgrounds.
The manufacture of paint without added lead does not involve significant additional cost. Many paint manufacturers have already stopped adding lead to their paints or have committed to do so.

3. We can work together to reduce human health impacts from lead paint.

Source of Info: International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week 2017 resource pack. Geneva: World Health Organization/United Nations Environment Programme; 2017. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO

The International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (22 to 28 October 2017) related Posts;

Related Links;

October 26, 2017 0 comments

PH Important Day Public Health

World Polio Day 24 October 2017- Promoting health through the life-course

by Public Health Update October 24, 2017

written by Public Health Update

World Polio Day 24 October 2017- Promoting health through the life-course

World Polio Day was established by Rotary International over a decade ago to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, who led the first team to develop a vaccine against poliomyelitis. Use of this inactivated poliovirus vaccine and subsequent widespread use of the oral poliovirus, developed by Albert Sabin, led to the establishment of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in 1988. As of 2013, GPEI had reduced polio worldwide by 99%.
Polio is a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease. There is no cure, but there are safe and effective vaccines. Polio can be prevented through immunization. Polio vaccine, given multiple times, almost always protects a child for life. The strategy to eradicate polio is therefore based on preventing infection by immunizing every child until transmission stops and the world is polio-free.

World Health Organization

Acute flaccid paralysis surveillance — The surveillance of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) has been carried out in all 75 districts since 1998 with 735 routine weekly zero reporting and 79 active surveillance sites. The two main indicators for AFP sensitivity surveillance are i) the non-polio AFP rate (which should be at least 2 per 100,000 among under 15 year olds) and ii) an adequate stool collection rate, which should be more than 80 percent of AFP cases In 2072/73, 455 AFP cases were reported from 67 districts and no cases from 8 districts. Polio (DoHS Annual Report 2072/73)

Important Links

October 24, 2017 0 comments

Guest Post PH Important Day Public Health Research & Publication

Lead content in paint colour detrimental for health

by Public Health Update October 22, 2017

written by Public Health Update

Lead content in paint colour detrimental for health

October 24, 2016 (RASTRIYA SAMACHAR SAMITI)
Do you have plans to paint your house in blazing colours to make it attractive? If you happen to be harbouring such thoughts, it is now time to shun it or else you will be risking your health according to experts, who claim that the colours used to paint the walls have harmful lead component.
If you happen to be harbouring such thoughts, it is now the time to shun it or else you will be risking your health, according to experts, who claim that the colours used to paint the walls have harmful lead component.
This crucial information was shared at the launch of an awareness programme organised jointly by the Ministry of Health, the Centre for Public Health and Environmental Development and the IPEN with an aim to make Nepal lead-free and to save people from lead poisoning here, on Sunday.
Experts have emphasised that around 853,000 people die annually in the world due to lead poisoning. As much as 6.6 per cent excess lead in the body may invite heart diseases and, in the long run, cause cancer.
The lead poisoning may be transferred from a mother to her baby during pregnancy and, in men, it can cause high blood pressure and even depleted performance of sperm production.
Meanwhile, a week-long international programme aimed at creating awareness over the issue is being held this week (October 23 to 29).
In a health survey carried out by IPEN with 312 blood samples taken from Dharan and 304 from Kathmandu, 65 per cent of the total blood samples examined showed they had the lead content. Among the children examined in Lalitpur and Bhaktapur, 90 per cent exhibited more than five mg of lead content.
In Nepal, the government has formulated a law barring the use of more than 90 PPM lead content in the colour paint, but none of the colour manufacturers were found to have mentioned the amount of lead content in their paint colour buckets.
At the programme, CEPHED Executive Director and environmentalist Ram Charitra Sah called for bringing the 90 PPM threshold to zero level for the sake of people’s good health and to protect their right to live.
Central Union of Painters, Plumbers, Electro and Construction Workers -Nepal (CUPPEC-Nepal) Chairman Krishna Baral, noted that the lead content is not only found in paint colours, but in vehicles’ brake systems and corrugated zinc sheets as well.
Original Source of Info: October 24, 2016 (RASTRIYA SAMACHAR SAMITI)

The International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (22 to 28 October 2017) related Posts;

October 22, 2017 0 comments

Guest Post PH Important Day Public Health Research & Publication

The dangers of lead

by Public Health Update October 22, 2017

written by Public Health Update

The dangers of lead

With a growing number of lead poisoning cases in children, the harmful effects of heavy metal poisoning must be addressed at the policy level and in the public

– Manish Gautam (The Kathmandu Post: PRINT EDITION – 2015-08-01 | ON SATURDAY)

Last month, a 14-month-old child from Bhaktapur was taken to Siddhi Memorial Hospital, Bhaktapur, for a routine check up when a team of government researchers approached the child’s family. After the researchers counselled the family in detail, the parents agreed to conduct a test on the child. The team carried with them a portable machine that took blood samples from a tiny prick on the child’s fingertip. The blood was processed and, in less than three minutes, the researchers had a verdict.Surprisingly, the child, who had barely started walking, had a lead level of 40.20 micrograms per decilitre in his blood, which is about 10 times higher than the level recommended by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), USA. According to the CDC, a blood lead level (BLL)of more than 5 µg/dl is harmful. The parents, of course, were completely unaware of this situation.
In a similar case at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, a 17-month-old child from Kathmandu underwent a blood test that showed that the child’s BLL was 40.30 µg/dl.
A recent government report has painted a grim picture of the current situation of BLL in children aged less than three years.The research, undertaken by the Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC), shows that over 90 percent of children in the country are exposed to the toxic heavy metal, which could significantly deter mental growth in children and has other detrimental effects on their health.
The research was conducted among 312 children visiting Tribhuvan University Teaching Hopsital, Patan Hospital and Siddhi Memorial Hospital, Bhaktapur. The researchers, apart from looking into the demographic and income details, conducted on-the-spot blood tests using said portable machine. Each of these tests cost Rs 6,000.
According to Dr Megh Nath Dhimal, chief of the research unit at the NHRC, only 10 percent of the surveyed children had a normal BLL, while the rest exceeded the national and international average. The study found that 26 percent of the children had 0.1-5 µg/dlBLL, while around 65 percent had a BLL above 5 µg/dl. “The Center for Diseases Control recommends that having a BLL of more than 5 micrograms per deciliter is harmful. Our scenario can only be described as ‘the worst case’,” says Dhimal. He says children are exposed to lead through various means such as toys, paints and lead content in the air.
Quite a few reports in the past have already established a high presence of lead in paints and children’s toys. Research in 2013 revealed that over 50 percent of children’s toys sold in the markets here contained toxins. The report stated that in Kathmandu, 54 percent of the toys were found to contain deadly toxins—28 percent contained lead, 40 percent bromine, 14 percent chromium, 9 percent cadmium and 1 percent mercury. The samples of the toys, mostly manufactured in Nepal, India and China, were collected from footpath vendors and shopping malls.
Lead enters the body through children’s inhaling toxic particles, gnawing on toys and so forth. Similarly, old houses whose coats of paint peel off also release lead in the air. Children who play often with dirt were also found to have a high BLL.
“Children belonging to ethnic groups such as Dalits, Janajatis, Tarai caste groups and religious minorities had 3.4 times higher BLL compared to children from upper-caste communities,” says Dhimal.“While this needs further analysis, it can also be assumed that parents take their children to potential sources of lead in unsafe workplaces. As children spend their entire day playing around without any oversight, they face a significant amount of exposure,” he says.
According to the World Health Organisation, at high levels of exposure, lead attacks the brain and the central nervous system, resulting in coma, convulsions and even death. Children who survive severe lead poisoning may be left with mental retardation and behavioural disruption. “Lead affects children’s brain development, resulting in a reduced intelligence quotient (IQ), behavioural changes such as shortening of the attention span, increased antisocial behaviour and reduced educational attainment,” the WHO states.
While there have been some efforts on the government’s part, experts urge a stringent implementation of provisions regarding lead content and an increasing awareness of the dangers of lead poisoning at the policy level and in the public. In December 2014, the government set a standard of 90 parts per million or 90 milligram of lead per litre paint, whether imported or produced in the country.
Dr Krishna Poudel, director of the Child Health Division, says it is past time that the government focused on lead poisoning. “Only children suspected of lead poisoning are tested at hospitals,” says Dr Poudel. “To be honest, the public still doesn’t understand that lead poisoning is a major problem.”
Poudel added that although the CHD is not currently involved with the lead poisoning cases, they will soon ask the Ministry of Health and Population to conduct an extensive follow-up on the issue.
(The Kathmandu Post: PRINT EDITION – 2015-08-01 | ON SATURDAY)

The International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (22 to 28 October 2017) related Posts;

October 22, 2017 0 comments

Guest Post PH Important Day Public Health Research & Publication

Lead exposure affecting schoolchildren’s growth

by Public Health Update October 22, 2017

written by Public Health Update

Lead exposure affecting schoolchildren’s growth

Lead exposure affecting schoolchildren’s growth: Published: May 26, 2016 (HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE)
Although some of the more reputable schools use lead-free paint in their buildings and classrooms, a majority of schools in the Kathmandu Valley have been found using bright colours, which contain high amount of lead, to paint the classrooms, ignoring their adverse impact on the health of students.
Lead is a silent killer and is taking a heavy toll on children. Lead paint may be found in home, on toys, furniture and on other objects. Decaying lead paint on walls and furniture creates contaminated dust that children easily ingest.
According to a study conducted by Leaders Nepal, most of the paints manufactured in Nepal and imported from various other countries like India, China, the United States, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Austria contain high amount of lead and children are at a higher risk of lead poisoning.
Its symptoms are too subtle to be noticed and by the time parents realise something is wrong, the damage is already done.
“Mostly, Montessori schools use bright colours to attract students but they themselves are unaware of the harmful effects of lead,” said Dhiraj Pokhrel, general secretary of the LEADERS Nepal, adding,“It causes headache, irritability, abdominal pain, vomiting, anemia, weight loss, hearing loss, noticeable learning difficulty, slow speech development and hyperactivity.”
Higher exposure to lead damages the brain and central nervous system to cause coma, convulsions and even death. Children who survive poisoning are often left with intellectual impairment.
The use of paints containing lead should be avoided, says professor at the University of California, Amod Pokhrel.

ORIGINAL LINK: HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

The International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (22 to 28 October 2017) related Posts;

October 22, 2017 0 comments

Newer Posts

Older Posts

Local level implementation guideline- MoH

Local level implementation guideline- MoH

Note: Please use your Computer or Laptop to Download Full Document) – DOWNLOAD

Local level implementation guideline- MoH

RELATED:

TOR of Health Workers at Local Level

RELATED:

Local Government Operation Act, 2074

Related Post

Program Implementation Guidelines – DoHS

Primary Health Service Revitalization Division

NATIONAL TUBERCULOSIS CENTER (STATE LEVEL)

NATIONAL TUBERCULOSIS CENTER (LOCAL LEVEL)

NATIONAL TUBERCULOSIS CENTER (DISTRICT LEVEL)

FAMILY HEALTH DIVISION

Epidemiology and Diseases Control Division

CHILD HEALTH DIVISION

National Health Education, Information and Communication Center(NHEICC)

Substantial decline in global measles deaths, but disease still kills 90 000 per year

The International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (22 to 28 October 2017)

The International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (22 to 28 October 2017) related Posts;

World Polio Day 24 October 2017- Promoting health through the life-course

Important Links

Lead content in paint colour detrimental for health

The International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (22 to 28 October 2017) related Posts;

The dangers of lead

The International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (22 to 28 October 2017) related Posts;

Lead exposure affecting schoolchildren’s growth

The International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (22 to 28 October 2017) related Posts;

PUBLIC HEALTH INITIATIVE