scholarly journals Lifestyle-based health awareness using digital gadgets and online interactive platforms

2021 ◽  
pp. 295-310
Author(s):  
Iqra Khan ◽  
Salman Akhtar ◽  
Mohammad Kalim Ahmad Khan
Keyword(s):  
Human Health ◽  
International Health ◽  
Communicable Diseases ◽  
International Travel ◽  
World Health ◽  
Smart Devices ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Health Security ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Health Organization

With the transforming world, awareness of lifestyle-based variation is necessary. The availability of the locally available network and smart devices like wearable health devices (WHDs) based on artificial intelligence (AI) technology prompted us to learn about the disease, its causes, spreads, and precautions. Socioeconomic, environmental and behavioural factors, international travel and migration foster and increase the spread of communicable diseases. Vaccine-preventable, foodborne, zoonotic, healthcare-related and communicable diseases pose significant threats to human health and may sometimes threaten international health security. On the other hand, non-communicable diseases, also known as chronic diseases, are more prolonged. It could be the cause of different factors like genetic, environmental, behavioural or physiological disturbances. Smart wearables help to keep these diseases in check through different sensors installed in them. They can check for the difference in body function, but they can also help the needy consult the physician or practitioner. The data collected from these devices can also check the current health status when compiled with data collected practically. Organizations viz., World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) work collaboratively, leading global efforts to expand health coverage. WHO keeps the nation safe through connecting its people on the health and awareness interactive platforms, and FDA promotes public health through supervision and control, defending its role in human health and services.

scholarly journals Operationalisation of consensual One Health roadmaps in countries for improved IHR capacities and health security

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. e005275
Author(s):  
Stephane de la Rocque ◽  
Guillaume Belot ◽  
Kaylee Marie Myhre Errecaborde ◽  
Rajesh Sreedharan ◽  
Artem Skrypnyk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Health ◽  
One Health ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
International Health ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
Evaluation Framework ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
Health Organization

The COVID-19 pandemic is a devastating reminder that mitigating the threat of emerging zoonotic outbreaks relies on our collective capacity to work across human health, animal health and environment sectors. Despite the critical need for shared approaches, collaborative benchmarks in the International Health Regulations (IHR) Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and more specifically the Joint External Evaluation (JEE) often reveal low levels of performance in collaborative technical areas (TAs), thus identifying a real need to work on the human–animal–environment interface to improve health security. The National Bridging Workshops (NBWs) proposed jointly by the World Organisation of Animal Health and World Health Organization (WHO) provide opportunity for national human health, animal health, environment and other relevant sectors in countries to explore the efficiency and gaps in their coordination for the management of zoonotic diseases. The results, gathered in a prioritised roadmap, support the operationalisation of the recommendations made during JEE for TAs where a multisectoral One Health approach is beneficial. For those collaborative TAs (12 out of 19 in the JEE), more than two-thirds of the recommendations can be implemented through one or multiple activities jointly agreed during NBW. Interestingly, when associated with the WHO Benchmark Tool for IHR, it appears that NBW activities are often associated with lower level of performance than anticipated during the JEE missions, revealing that countries often overestimate their capacities at the human–animal–environment interface. Deeper, more focused and more widely shared discussions between professionals highlight the need for concrete foundations of multisectoral coordination to meet goals for One Health and improved global health security through IHR.

scholarly journals The Stellenbosch Consensus on Legal National Responses to Public Health Risks

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-68
Author(s):  
Roojin Habibi ◽  
Steven J. Hoffman ◽  
Gian Luca Burci ◽  
Thana Cristina de Campos ◽  
Danwood Chirwa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Global Health ◽  
International Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Public Health Emergencies ◽  
The Face ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Health Regulations

Abstract The International Health Regulations (ihr), of which the World Health Organization is custodian, govern how countries collectively promote global health security, including prevention, detection, and response to global health emergencies such as the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. Countries are permitted to exercise their sovereignty in taking additional health measures to respond to such emergencies if these measures adhere to Article 43 of this legally binding instrument. Overbroad measures taken during recent public health emergencies of international concern, however, reveal that the provision remains inadequately understood. A shared understanding of the measures legally permitted by Article 43 is a necessary step in ensuring the fulfillment of obligations, and fostering global solidarity and resilience in the face of future pandemics. In this consensus statement, public international law scholars specializing in global health consider the legal meaning of Article 43 using the interpretive framework of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.

scholarly journals Ebola and the airplane – securing mobility through regime interactions and legal adaptation

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (01) ◽  
pp. 71-89
Author(s):  
Gearóid Ó Cuinn ◽  
Stephanie Switzer
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
International Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
Civil Aviation ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
And Function ◽  
A Site

AbstractThis article concentrates on a particular controversy during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa; the mass cancellation of flights to and from affected countries. This occurred despite authoritative advice against such restrictions from the World Health Organization (WHO). During a public health emergency such as Ebola, the airplane sits at a site of regulatory uncertainty as it falls within the scope of two specialist and overlapping domains of international law; the WHO International Health Regulations (2005) and the Convention on International Civil Aviation. We explore how legal technicalities and objects, by promoting functional interactions between these two specialized regimes of law, were utilized to deal with this uncertainty. We show how the form and function of these mundane tools had a significant impact; assimilating aviation further into the system of global health security as well as instrumentalizing the aircraft as a tool of disease surveillance. This encounter of regimes was law creating, resulting in new international protocols and standards designed to enable the resumption of flights in and out of countries affected by outbreaks. This article therefore offers significant and original insights into the hidden work performed by legal techniques and tools in dealing with regime overlap. Our findings contribute to the wider international law literature on fragmentation and enrich our understanding of the significance of relational regime interactions in international law.

scholarly journals Community participation and private sector engagement are fundamental to achieving universal health coverage and health security in Africa: reflections from the second Africa health forum

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (S9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olushayo Olu ◽  
Pamela Drameh-Avognon ◽  
Emil Asamoah-Odei ◽  
Francis Kasolo ◽  
Thomas Valdez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Universal Health Coverage ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Cabo Verde ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Universal Health

Abstract Background Inadequate access to quality health care services due to weak health systems and recurrent public health emergencies are impediments to the attainment of Universal Health Coverage and health security in Africa. To discuss these challenges and deliberate on plausible solutions, the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa, in collaboration with the Government of Cabo Verde, convened the second Africa Health Forum in Praia, Cabo Verde on 26–28 March 2019, under the theme Achieving Universal Health Coverage and Health Security: The Africa We Want to See. Methods The Forum was conducted through technical sessions consisting of high-level, moderated panel discussions on specific themes, some of them preceded by keynote addresses. There were booth exhibitions by Member States, World Health Organization and other organizations to facilitate information exchanges. A Communiqué highlighting the recommendations of the Forum was issued during the closing ceremony. More than 750 participants attended. Relevant information from the report of the Forum and notes by the authors were extracted and synthesized into these proceedings. Conclusions The Forum participants agreed that the role of community engagement and participation in the attainment of Universal Health Coverage, health security and ultimately the Sustainable Development Goals cannot be overemphasized. The public sector of Africa alone cannot achieve these three interrelated goals; other partners, such as the private sector, must be engaged. Technological innovations will be a key driver of the attainment of these goals; hence, there is need to harness the comparative advantages that they offer. Attainment of the three goals is also intertwined – achieving one paves the way for achieving the others. Thus, there is need for integrated public health approaches in the planning and implementation of interventions aimed at achieving them. Recommendations To ensure that the recommendations of this Forum are translated into concrete actions in a sustainable manner, we call on African Ministers of Health to ensure their integration into national health sector policies and strategic documents and to provide the necessary leadership required for their implementation. We also call on partners to mainstream these recommendations into their ongoing support to World Health Organization African Member States.

Global Health Security Demands a Strong International Health Regulations Treaty and Leadership From a Highly Resourced World Health Organization

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 568-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick M. Burkle
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Global Health ◽  
International Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
International Health Regulations ◽  
Global Health Security ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Public Health Emergencies ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Health Regulations

AbstractIf the Ebola tragedy of West Africa has taught us anything, it should be that the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR) Treaty, which gave unprecedented authority to the World Health Organization (WHO) to provide global public health security during public health emergencies of international concern, has fallen severely short of its original goal. After encouraging successes with the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) pandemic, the intent of the legally binding Treaty to improve the capacity of all countries to detect, assess, notify, and respond to public health threats has shamefully lapsed. Despite the granting of 2-year extensions in 2012 to countries to meet core surveillance and response requirements, less than 20% of countries have complied. Today it is not realistic to expect that these gaps will be solved or narrowed in the foreseeable future by the IHR or the WHO alone under current provisions. The unfortunate failures that culminated in an inadequate response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa are multifactorial, including funding, staffing, and poor leadership decisions, but all are reversible. A rush by the Global Health Security Agenda partners to fill critical gaps in administrative and operational areas has been crucial in the short term, but questions remain as to the real priorities of the G20 as time elapses and critical gaps in public health protections and infrastructure take precedence over the economic and security needs of the developed world. The response from the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network and foreign medical teams to Ebola proved indispensable to global health security, but both deserve stronger strategic capacity support and institutional status under the WHO leadership granted by the IHR Treaty. Treaties are the most successful means the world has in preventing, preparing for, and controlling epidemics in an increasingly globalized world. Other options are not sustainable. Given the gravity of ongoing failed treaty management, the slow and incomplete process of reform, the magnitude and complexity of infectious disease outbreaks, and the rising severity of public health emergencies, a recommitment must be made to complete and restore the original mandates as a collaborative and coordinated global network responsibility, not one left to the actions of individual countries. The bottom line is that the global community can no longer tolerate an ineffectual and passive international response system. As such, this Treaty has the potential to become one of the most effective treaties for crisis response and risk reduction worldwide. Practitioners and health decision-makers worldwide must break their silence and advocate for a stronger Treaty and a return of WHO authority. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2015;9:568–580)

scholarly journals Investigating the Role of International Law in Controlling Communicable Diseases

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliasghar Kheirkhah ◽  
Manuchehr Kheirkhah ◽  
Somayeh Zabihi-Mahmoodabadi
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
International Law ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
International Health ◽  
Communicable Diseases ◽  
World Health ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
And Control

International law globally plays a key role in the surveillance and control of communicable diseases. Throughout the nineteenth century, international law played a dominant role in harmonizing the inconsistent national quarantine regulations of European nation states; facilitating the exchange of epidemiological information on infectious diseases; establishing international health organizations; and standardization of surveillance. Today, due to changed forms of infectious diseases and individuals' lifestyles as well as individuals' proximity caused by increased air travels, communicable diseases are in an international and cross-border form. In this regard, binding regulations and inconsistent rules adopted in international multilateral institutions like the World Health Organization, World Trade Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization can be of great use in surveillance and control of communicable diseases. With the globalization of public health, international law can be used as an essential tool in monitoring global health and reducing human vulnerability and mortality.

scholarly journals A new matrix for scoring the functionality of national laboratory networks in Africa: introducing the LABNET scorecard

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascale Ondoa ◽  
Tjeerd Datema ◽  
Mah-Sere Keita-Sow ◽  
Linda Oskam ◽  
Jean-Bosco Ndihokubwayo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
National Laboratory ◽  
International Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
Global Health Security ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Laboratory Capacity ◽  
Laboratory Network ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Health Regulations

Background: Functional national laboratory networks and systems are indispensable to the achievement of global health security targets according to the International Health Regulations. The lack of indicators to measure the functionality of national laboratory network has limited the efficiency of past and current interventions to enhance laboratory capacity in resourcelimited-settings.Scorecard for laboratory networks: We have developed a matrix for the assessment of national laboratory network functionality and progress thereof, with support from the African Society of Laboratory Medicine and the Association of Public Health Laboratories. The laboratory network (LABNET) scorecard was designed to: (1) Measure the status of nine overarching core capabilities of laboratory network required to achieve global health security targets, as recommended by the main normative standards; (2) Complement the World Health Organization joint external evaluation tool for the assessment of health system preparedness to International Health Regulations (2005) by providing detailed information on laboratory systems; and (3) Serve as a clear roadmap to guide the stepwise implementation of laboratory capability to prevent, detect and act upon infectious threats.Conclusions: The application of the LABNET scorecard under the coordination of the African Society of Laboratory Medicine and the Association of Public Health Laboratories could contribute to the design, monitoring and evaluation of upcoming Global Health Security Agenda-supported laboratory capacity building programmes in sub Saharan-Africa and other resource-limited settings, and inform the development of national laboratory policies and strategic plans. Endorsement by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa is foreseen.

scholarly journals Mind the gap: an analysis of core capacities of the international health regulations (2005) to respond to outbreaks in Yemen

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanan Noman ◽  
Fekri Dureab ◽  
Iman Ahmed ◽  
Abdulwahed Al Serouri ◽  
Taha Hussein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health System ◽  
International Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Staff ◽  
International Health Regulations ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Health Regulations

Abstract Background Yemen that has been devastated by war is facing various challenges to respond to the recent potential outbreaks and other public health emergencies due to lack of proper strategies and regulations, which are essential to public health security. The aim of this study is to assess the implementation of the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) core capacities under the current ongoing conflict in Yemen. Methods The study simulated the World Health Organization (WHO) Joint External Evaluation (JEE) tool to assess the IHR core capacities in Yemen. Qualitative research methods were used, including desk reviews, in-depth interviews with key informants and analysis of the pooled data. Result Based on the assessment of the three main functions of the IHR framework (prevention, detection, and response), Yemen showed a demonstrated or developed capacity to detect outbreaks, but nevertheless limited or no capacity to prevent and respond to outbreaks. Conclusion This study shows that there has been poor implementation of IHR in Yemen. Therefore, urgent interventions are needed to strengthen the implementation of the IHR core capacities in Yemen. The study recommends 1) raising awareness among national and international health staff on the importance of IHR; 2) improving alignment of INGO programs with government health programs and aligning both towards better implementation of the IHR; 3) improving programmatic coordination, planning and implementation among health stakeholders; 4) increasing funding of the global health security agenda at country level; 5) using innovative approaches to analyze and address gaps in the disrupted health system, and; 6) addressing the root cause of the collapse of the health services and overall health system in Yemen by ending the protracted conflict situation.

WHO Emergency Powers for Global Health Security

2019 ◽  
pp. 152-186
Author(s):  
Christian Kreuder-Sonnen
Keyword(s):  
Influenza Pandemic ◽  
International Health ◽  
H1n1 Influenza ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Emergency Powers ◽  
First Case ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Emergency Measures

Chapter 6 analyzes two consecutive cases of exceptionalism in the World Health Organization (WHO). In the first case study, it explains how the WHO’s assumption of emergency powers in the 2003 SARS crisis led to their legal normalization. To confront the SARS outbreak, the WHO resorted to unprecedented emergency measures infringing on states’ sovereignty. Building on arguments of functionality, the WHO managed to create a broad consensus on the general appropriateness of such measures. They were thus enshrined in the new International Health Regulations in 2005 and came to their first reuse in the second case: the adoption of emergency powers during the H1N1 influenza “pandemic” in 2009. Due to a very mild course of the outbreak, however, this time it incited a societal backlash against the WHO. The emergency measures were delegitimized as excessive and futile, forcing the WHO to accept a procedural containment of its emergency powers.

scholarly journals The burden of non-communicable diseases in relation to economic status of countries

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1967-1974
Author(s):  
Ruqiya Pervaiz ◽  
Özlem Ercantan
Keyword(s):  
Human Development ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Inverse Correlation ◽  
Premature Mortality ◽  
Communicable Diseases ◽  
World Health ◽  
Non Communicable Diseases ◽  
National Human ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Health Organization

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and national human development index (HDI) of a country, as well as investigate the correlation between premature mortality from NCDs and national HDI. Method: Data for age-standardized mortality rate (ASRM) of NCDs and premature mortality (before age 70 years) in percentage for total NCDs in 2015 were obtained from the World Health Organization (WHO) databases. National HDI data for the year 2015 were obtained from the 2015 Human Development Report. Linear regression model was used for assessment of correlation between HDI and mortality. One-way ANOVA was used to test the difference in mean mortality of various HDI group countries; P ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The results suggested an inverse correlation between HDI and ASRM for both men and women. The negative relation was also reported for percentage premature mortality and HDI. Tukey post hoc test (p < 0.001) indicated that countries with very high HDI have low ASRM and premature mortality (compared to those with high HDI and so on). The greatest mortality was observed in low HDI countries. Conclusion: Management of non-communicable diseases is one of the greatest challenges for low and middle HDI countries. In order to control the disease burden, governments should pay serious attention to their economic development.

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