Organization Structure of Province Ministries
Organization Structure of Province Ministries
Cancer Country Profile: NEPAL – World Health Organization
DOWNLOAD World Cancer Day is celebrated every year on 4th of February all over the world to commemorate all the efforts done by the WHO, United Nations, governmental and nongovernmental health organizations towards making the strategy to fight against cancer as well as distributing the real message about this epidemic disease and its treatments including its precautionary measures by uniting all the people a day on global basis.
Cancer is a generic term for a large group of diseases that can affect any part of the body. Other terms used are malignant tumours and neoplasms. One defining feature of cancer is the rapid creation of abnormal cells that grow beyond their usual boundaries, and which can then invade adjoining parts of the body and spread to other organs, the latter process is referred to as metastasizing. Metastases are a major cause of death from cancer.
Cancer arises from the transformation of normal cells into tumour cells in a multistage process that generally progresses from a pre-cancerous lesion to a malignant tumour. These changes are the result of the interaction between a person’s genetic factors and 3 categories of external agents, including:
WHO, through its cancer research agency, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), maintains a classification of cancer-causing agents.
Ageing is another fundamental factor for the development of cancer. The incidence of cancer rises dramatically with age, most likely due to a build-up of risks for specific cancers that increase with age. The overall risk accumulation is combined with the tendency for cellular repair mechanisms to be less effective as a person grows older.
Tobacco use, alcohol use, unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity are major cancer risk factors worldwide and are also the 4 shared risk factors for other noncommunicable diseases.
Some chronic infections are risk factors for cancer and have major relevance in low- and middle-income countries. Approximately 15% of cancers diagnosed in 2012 were attributed to carcinogenic infections, including Helicobacter pylori, Human papillomavirus (HPV), Hepatitis B virus, Hepatitis C virus, and Epstein-Barr virus (3).
Hepatitis B and C virus and some types of HPV increase the risk for liver and cervical cancer, respectively. Infection with HIV substantially increases the risk of cancers such as cervical cancer.
Between 30–50% of cancers can currently be prevented by avoiding risk factors and implementing existing evidence-based prevention strategies. The cancer burden can also be reduced through early detection of cancer and management of patients who develop cancer. Many cancers have a high chance of cure if diagnosed early and treated adequately.
KEY Facts; Cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide 8.8 million People worldwide died from cancer in 2015. That is nearly 1 in 6 of all global deaths. Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally. Approximately 70% of deaths from cancer occur in low- and middle-income countries. Around one third of deaths from cancer are due to the 5 leading behavioral and dietary risks: high body mass index, low fruit and vegetable intake, lack of physical activity, tobacco use, and alcohol use. US$1.16 trillion is the estimated total annual economic cost of cancer in 2010. 30-50%of cancers could be prevented. WHO FACT SHEET
Modify and avoid risk factors
Modifying or avoiding key risk factors can significantly reduce the burden of cancer. These risk factors include:
Cancer mortality can be reduced if cases are detected and treated early. There are 2 components of early detection:
When identified early, cancer is more likely to respond to effective treatment and can result in a greater probability of surviving, less morbidity, and less expensive treatment. Significant improvements can be made in the lives of cancer patients by detecting cancer early and avoiding delays in care.
Early diagnosis consists of 3 steps that must be integrated and provided in a timely manner:
Early diagnosis is relevant in all settings and the majority of cancers. In absence of early diagnosis, patients are diagnosed at late stages when curative treatment may no longer be an option. Programmes can be designed to reduce delays in, and barriers to, care, allowing patients to access treatment in a timely manner.
Screening aims to identify individuals with abnormalities suggestive of a specific cancer or pre-cancer who have not developed any symptoms and refer them promptly for diagnosis and treatment.
Screening programmes can be effective for select cancer types when appropriate tests are used, implemented effectively, linked to other steps in the screening process and when quality is assured. In general, a screening programme is a far more complex public health intervention compared to early diagnosis.
Joint Annual Review (JAR) Meeting #JAR2018
All the best for #JAR meeting, Hope this meeting will take key decision to further strengthen health system & strategic direction to establish health as a priority development agenda in federal context. – Sagun Paudel
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News release (WHO Media Centre)
29 JANUARY 2018 | BANGKOK – WHO’s first release of surveillance data on antibiotic resistance reveals high levels of resistance to a number of serious bacterial infections in both high- and low-income countries.
WHO’s new Global Antimicrobial Surveillance System (GLASS) reveals widespread occurrence of antibiotic resistance among 500 000 people with suspected bacterial infections across 22 countries.
The most commonly reported resistant bacteria were Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus pneumoniae, followed by Salmonella spp. The system does not include data on resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes tuberculosis (TB), as WHO has been tracking it since 1994 and providing annual updates in the Global tuberculosis report.
Among patients with suspected bloodstream infection, the proportion that had bacteria resistant to at least one of the most commonly used antibiotics ranged tremendously between different countries – from zero to 82%. Resistance to penicillin – the medicine used for decades worldwide to treat pneumonia – ranged from zero to 51% among reporting countries. And between 8% to 65% of E. coli associated with urinary tract infections presented resistance to ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic commonly used to treat this condition.
“The report confirms the serious situation of antibiotic resistance worldwide,” says Dr Marc Sprenger, director of WHO’s Antimicrobial Resistance Secretariat.
“Some of the world’s most common – and potentially most dangerous – infections are proving drug-resistant,” adds Sprenger. “And most worrying of all, pathogens don’t respect national borders. That’s why WHO is encouraging all countries to set up good surveillance systems for detecting drug resistance that can provide data to this global system.”
To date, 52 countries (25 high-income, 20 middle-income and 7 low-income countries) are enrolled in WHO’s Global Antimicrobial Surveillance System. For the first report, 40 countries provided information about their national surveillance systems and 22 countries also provided data on levels of antibiotic resistance.
“The report is a vital first step towards improving our understanding of the extent of antimicrobial resistance. Surveillance is in its infancy, but it is vital to develop it if we are to anticipate and tackle one of the biggest threats to global public health,” says Dr Carmem Pessoa-Silva, who coordinates the new surveillance system at WHO.
Data presented in this first GLASS report vary widely in quality and completeness. Some countries face major challenges in building their national surveillance systems, including a lack of personnel, funds and infrastructure.
However, WHO is supporting more countries to set up national antimicrobial resistance surveillance systems that can produce reliable, meaningful data. GLASS is helping to standardize the way that countries collect data and enable a more complete picture about antimicrobial resistance patterns and trends.
Solid drug resistance surveillance programmes in TB, HIV and malaria have been functioning for many years and have helped estimate disease burden, plan diagnostic and treatment services, monitor the effectiveness of control interventions, and design effective treatment regimens to address and prevent future resistance. GLASS is expected to perform a similar function for common bacterial pathogens.
The rollout of GLASS is already making a difference in many countries. For example, Kenya has enhanced the development of its national antimicrobial resistance system; Tunisia started to aggregate data on antimicrobial resistance at national level; the Republic of Korea completely revised its national surveillance system to align with the GLASS methodology, providing data of very high quality and completeness; and countries such as Afghanistan or Cambodia that face major structural challenges have enrolled in the system and are using the GLASS framework as an opportunity for strengthening their AMR surveillance capacities. In general, national participation in GLASS is seen as a sign of growing political commitment to support global efforts to control antimicrobial resistance.
The need for a global surveillance system was highlighted by WHO in 2014 in the Antimicrobial resistance global report on surveillance. In October 2015, WHO launched the Global Antimicrobial Surveillance System (GLASS) working closely with WHO Collaborating Centres and existing antimicrobial resistance surveillance networks and based on the experience of other WHO surveillance programmes. For example, TB drug resistance surveillance has been implemented in 188 countries over the past 24 years. HIV drug resistance surveillance started in 2005 and by 2017, over 50 countries had reported data on pretreatment and acquired resistance using standardized survey methods.
LALITPUR: Despite the World Health Organisation’s target to eradicate leprosy by 2020, around 3,000 new leprosy patients are diagnosed in Nepal every year.
This year alone, altogether 3,215 new leprosy patients were identified. Increasing number of leprosy patients in Nepal has become a challenge though Nepal announced leprosy eradication in 2010, the people working in the field warned. According to training coordinator of Ananda Ban Hospital Gopal Pokharel, more women and children have become victims of this disease. This year alone, 220 new patients under 14 years of age have been identified. “This disease gets transferred to other from the patient who does not intake medicine,” Pokharel said.
The government had declared eradication of leprosy for less than one percent of prevalence out of 10,000 population seven years ago. Rabindra Banskota of Leprosy Eradication Division at the Department of Health Service said that leprosy prevalence was 0.79 in every 10,000 population some seven years ago. The leprosy prevalence rate is high in Banke, Bardia, Nawalparasi and other districts of the Tarai. It is said that the pressure of the leprosy patients is higher in Province 2.
In the fiscal year 2073/074 BS, 19.77 patients are found in every 10,000 population in this province. Director of the Leprosy Mission Nepal Shobhakar Kandel said leprosy in not only a social but an economic problem. “Collective efforts are required to resolve this problem,” he added.
According to the Division, on an average 11.23 new patients were spotted in every 100,000 population in this fiscal year.
Likewise, a total of 7,805 patients received treatment in Leprosy Mission Hospital in 2017 while 1,540 patients received the services by getting admission in the hospital.
RSS
New Delhi, 27 January 2018 – Welcoming the launch of the ‘Global Partnership to Stop Leprosy’, the World Health Organization today said a stronger force with a common vision was much needed to accelerate efforts to end leprosy.
“A collaborative approach by leading partners to address remaining challenges with innovative solutions, is expected to provide renewed energy and impetus to accelerate efforts against leprosy. This is a turning point, we must harness this energy to free the world of leprosy forever,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director for WHO South-East Asia, who also steers WHO’s Global Leprosy Programme.
The new partnership, launched ahead of the World Leprosy Day 2018, brings together leading agencies and organizations working towards zero leprosy in various parts of the world. The partnership is expected to boost collaboration between national programmes, technical partners, academic sector, patient advocates and donors as it aims to support roll-out of global policy options, scale up interventions and mainstream leprosy under the aegis of universal health coverage.
The Global Partnership to Stop Leprosy is also expected to enhance implementation of WHO Global Leprosy Strategy 2016-2020 “Accelerating towards a leprosy-free world” which focuses on stronger political ownership, enhanced disease control and eliminating stigma and discrimination.
While globally, elimination of leprosy as a public health problem was achieved in 2000 with its prevalence reduced to less than one case per 10 000 population, every year on an average more than 200 000 new cases are reported. Though there is progress, it is very slow.
Advocating for enhancing efforts against leprosy, World Leprosy Day is observed on the last Sunday of January every year. This year, the day focuses on the critical target of zero leprosy-related disabilities in girls and boys by 2020.
In 2017 as many as 18 472 new child cases of leprosy were reported to the World Health Organization worldwide. These girls and boys must be diagnosed and given multidrug therapy (MDT), provided free of cost by WHO, before visible deformities and disabilities manifest.
Dr Khetrapal Singh said, “disabilities inhibit development, limit life-long productivity and result in stigma and discrimination. Given the ongoing presence of deformities and disabilities among new cases of leprosy, including in girls and boys, decisive action must be taken to detect and treat cases earlier.”
Reaching zero leprosy-related disabilities in children means tackling stigma and discrimination head-on, the Regional Director said, adding that fear of social exclusion continues to be a major cause of delay in diagnosis and treatment. It is, therefore, a major cause of deformity and disability.
“On World Leprosy Day this year we must reflect on and renew our focus on ending leprosy-related disabilities in girls and boys and on accelerating towards a leprosy-free world. We must renew our commitment to achieving a world where no child is left behind,” Dr Khetrapal Singh said. The Global Partnership to Stop Leprosy makes us confident as togetherwe will be able to move closer to a leprosy-free world.
ORIGINAL SOURCE OF INFO: WHO SEARO
Zero Disabilities in Girls and Boys #WorldLeprosyDay2018
WHO lauds Global Partnership to Stop Leprosy; will help renew efforts for zero leprosy
Zero Disabilities in Girls and Boys#WorldLeprosyDay2018
Leprosy Control Programme in Nepal
World Leprosy Day is observed on the last Sunday of January, each year and this year, it falls on 28 January. The theme for 2018 is ‘Zero Disabilities in Girls and Boys’. By working together and through early case detection, diagnosis and treatment and social inclusion the world can closer to eliminating leprosy. (PAHO)
The World Health Organization (WHO) says national programmes should boost active case-finding, strengthen surveillance, improve contact-tracing and focus more on early detection of leprosy cases among children to ensure achievement of the global target of zero child infection by 2020.
The call comes as the world observes World Leprosy Day (annually, on the last Sunday of January) to mark the suffering of people affected by this preventable and curable disease that has eluded defeat. Leprosy was globally declared to have been “eliminated as a public health problem” 18 years ago.
Elimination of leprosy as public health problem (defined as a registered prevalence of less than 1 case per 10 000 population) was achieved globally in 2000. However, pockets of endemicity have continued in many countries. India and Brazil report the highest number of cases annually.
Leprosy is caused by infection with the bacillus Mycobacterium leprae, which multiplies very slowly in the human body. The bacterium has a long incubation period (on average five years or longer). The disease affects nerve endings and destroys the body’s ability to feel pain and injury.
Data published by WHO in 2017 show that although the overall number of cases is slowly declining, that of new cases does not align with global efforts and resources deployed to interrupt transmission.
Reports from 145 countries of WHO’s six regions show that of the total of 216 108 newly diagnosed cases of leprosy during 2016, 18 472 involved children, representing almost 9% of all new cases reported annually. Leprosy is curable and treatment provided in the early stages averts disability. (WHO)
Based on 173 358 cases at the end of 2016, prevalence rate corresponds to 0.29/10,000.
In 2016 WHO launched its “Global Leprosy Strategy 2016–2020: Accelerating towards a leprosy-free world” to reinvigorate efforts for leprosy control. The strategy focuses on avoiding disabilities, especially among children.
Key interventions
Key interventions
Key interventions
WHO lauds Global Partnership to Stop Leprosy; will help renew efforts for zero leprosy
Zero Disabilities in Girls and Boys#WorldLeprosyDay2018
Leprosy Control Programme in Nepal
Jan 25, 2018 (The Kathmandu Post)
Air quality in Nepal is the worst in the world, with the country being ranked at the bottom among the 180 countries surveyed in terms of air-quality in a global study.
The latest global Environmental Performance Index (EPI) was released on Tuesday by Yale University and Columbia University in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. The EPI report ranks the countries on 24 indicators across 10 categories, covering environmental health and ecosystem vitality. Environmental health also includes two other components of water and sanitation and exposure to heavy metals.
Nepal was ranked the last for air-quality among 180 countries, according to the EPI report which highlighted air pollution as a leading threat to public health.
The report had measured Household solid fuels, PM2.5 exposures and PM2.5 exceedance for measuring air quality of countries included in the study.
With the score of 3.94, Nepal’s air quality has been reported worse than other countries in the region like Pakistan (176th), China (177th), India (178th) and Bangladesh (179th). Australia secured the highest ranking for clean air while the United States ranked 10th.
Nearly all countries at the lower end of the global rankings for poor air quality are from Africa or Asia, said the report. The report also showed Nepal’s overall performance as “poor” in terms of environmental performance index, leaving it at the bottom of the pile.
Published: 25-01-2018 07:30 Jan 25, 2018 (The Kathmandu Post)
| AQI | Air Pollution Level | Health Implications |
| 0 – 50 | Good | Air quality is considered satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk |
| 51 -100 | Moderate | Air quality is acceptable; however, for some pollutants there may be a moderate health concern for a very small number of people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution. |
| 101-150 | Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups | Members of sensitive groups may experience health effects. The general public is not likely to be affected. |
| 151-200 | Unhealthy | Everyone may begin to experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects |
| 201-300 | Very Unhealthy | Health warnings of emergency conditions. The entire population is more likely to be affected. |
| 300+ | Hazardous | Health alert: everyone may experience more serious health effects |
Source of Info: http://aqicn.org/map/nepal/#@g/27.4457/85.3259/13z
Switzerland tops the report while India falls to the bottom tier, illustrating the challenge of sustainable
development DAVOS, Switzerland, January 23, 2018 – The 2018 Environmental Performance Index (EPI)
finds that air quality is the leading environmental threat to public health. Now in its twentieth year, the biennial report is produced by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. The tenth EPI report ranks 180 countries on 24 performance indicators across 10 issue categories covering environmental health and ecosystem vitality. Switzerland leads the world in sustainability, followed by France, Denmark, Malta, and Sweden.
Switzerland’s top ranking reflects strong performance across most issues, especially air quality and climate protection. In general, high scorers exhibit long-standing commitments to protecting public health, preserving natural resources, and decoupling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from economic activity.
India and Bangladesh come in near the bottom of the rankings, with Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Nepal rounding out the bottom five. Low scores on the EPI are indicative of the need for national sustainability efforts on a number of fronts, especially cleaning up air quality, protecting biodiversity, and reducing GHG emissions, said the researchers. Some of the lowest-ranking nations face broader challenges, such as civil unrest, but the low scores for others can be attributed to weak governance, they note.
EPI Rankings The United States places 27th in the 2018 EPI, with strong scores on some issues, such as sanitation and air quality, but weak performance on others, including deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions. This ranking puts the United States near the back of the industrialized nations, behind France (2nd), the United Kingdom (6th), Germany (13th), Italy (16th), Japan (20th), and Canada (25th). Of the emerging economies, China and India rank 120th and 177th respectively, reflecting the strain population pressures and rapid economic growth impose on the environment, note the researchers. Brazil ranks 69th, they add, suggesting that a concerted focus on sustainability as a policy priority will pay dividends – and that the level and pace of development is just one of many factors affecting environmental performance. Sustainability outcomes among emerging
economies remains highly variable.
Seychelles ranks as the most-improved country over the past decade, due largely to its commitment to combating greenhouse gas emissions. São Tomé and Príncipe, Kuwait, and Timor-Leste also increased their ranking due to several factors, including the establishment of areas protecting biodiversity and habitat. Burundi, Central African Republic, Madagascar, the Bahamas, and Latvia slipped significantly in environmental performance, largely due to sub-par performance on climate change. All trend analyses are based on backcasting this year’s EPI methods on historical data.
The 2018 EPI offers not only a snapshot of where countries stand today but also reflects important trends in environmental performance at both the national and global levels. The global community is generally improving on a number of issues, such as health outcomes related to drinking water and sanitation and protection of marine ecosystems, while on other issues significant challenges remain.
Fisheries continue to deteriorate in most countries, with significant problems in El Salvador, Papua New Guinea, and Portugal. Substantial populations still suffer from poor air quality, most notably in India, China, and Pakistan. And on some issues, a small number of countries are failing to address critical problems. Indonesia, Malaysia, and Cambodia, for example, have experienced significant deforestation over the past five years, reflecting broad policy failures, said the researchers.
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