scholarly journals Regional event-based surveillance in WHO’s Western Pacific Region

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-19
Author(s):  
Christopher Lowbridge ◽  
May Chiew ◽  
Katherine Russel ◽  
Takuya Yamagishi ◽  
Babatunde Olowokure ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
World Health ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
Western Pacific Region ◽  
Regional Health ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Health Events ◽  
Event Based ◽  
The Western Pacific

In the World Health Organization’s Western Pacific Region, event-based surveillance has been conducted for more than a decade to rapidly detect and assess public health events. This report describes the establishment and evolution of the Western Pacific Region’s event-based surveillance system and presents an analysis of public health events in the Region. Between July 2008 and June 2017, a total of 2396 events were reported in the Western Pacific Region, an average of 266 events per year. Infectious diseases in humans and animals accounted for the largest proportion of events recorded during this period (73%, 1743 events). Maintaining and strengthening this well-established system is critical to support the rapid detection, assessment and response to public health events to sustain regional health security.

scholarly journals Public health event communication under the International Health Regulations (2005) in the Western Pacific Region, September 2006-January 2017

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-26
Author(s):  
Xi Li ◽  
Ailan Li
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
International Health ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
International Health Regulations ◽  
Western Pacific Region ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Public Health Emergencies ◽  
Health Regulations ◽  
The Western Pacific

Highlights • The International Health Regulations, or IHR (2005), establishes timely communication between the World Health Organization (WHO) and Member States to manage acute public health events and protect health security. Experiences of the WHO IHR contact point for the Western Pacific Region demonstrated the communication mechanism has achieved its functions in the Region. • Investment in IHR communication as part of the Asia Pacific Strategy for Emerging Diseases and Public Health Emergencies (APSED III) during peaceful times between public health emergencies builds capacity, confidence and trust in information sharing during emergencies. • IHR communication is integral to the national, regional and global epidemic intelligence and risk assessments system. • Regular simulation exercises (for example, IHR Exercise Crystal) play an important role in testing and strengthening IHR communication. • IHR communication continues to be vital for Member States and WHO Country Offices to advise on health security

Analysis of Water Safety Plan costs from case studies in the Western Pacific Region

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1358-1366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zai Kang Chang ◽  
Mien Ling Chong ◽  
Jamie Bartram
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
Drinking Water Supply ◽  
World Health ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Western Pacific Region ◽  
Operational Monitoring ◽  
The Western Pacific

Unsafe water remains a significant public health threat in high and low income countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) promotes Water Safety Plans (WSPs) as the most effective means of consistently ensuring the safety of a drinking-water supply. Although health benefits of WSP implementation have been shown, there is a lack of information relating water supplier characteristics to expected costs. Costing practices were adapted from food quality management studies and applied to six water suppliers from the Western Pacific Region, as designated by WHO. The explanation building procedure was used to develop understanding of relationships between drinking-water supply agency (DWSA) characteristics and WSP implementation costs. The results indicate that costs associated with WSP implementation are expected to be low for developed DWSAs; however, for developing DWSAs, there is high variability in costs which indicates further research may not improve generalized WSP cost estimations. Furthermore, developing DWSAs experience large and highly variable capital and operational monitoring costs. The capital and operational monitoring improvements are necessary to achieving a safe water supply and may require ongoing financial and technical resources to execute.

scholarly journals Together to make a difference in mental health in the Western Pacific Region

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-10
Author(s):  
Xiangdong Wang
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Disease Burden ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
World Health ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
Western Pacific Region ◽  
Mental Health Needs ◽  
Causes Of Disease ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
The Western Pacific

Mental disorders are among the leading causes of disease burden in the Western Pacific Region of the World Health Organization (WHO). Networking and partnership have been identified as the major components of key strategies to address challenges in meeting mental health needs in the region. This article provides a brief review of relevant initiatives collaboratively developed by the WHO, member states in the region and other partners.

Collaboration and “Visibility” of Health Research in the Western Pacific Region

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillermo Paraje ◽  
Ritu Sadana ◽  
Reijo Salmela
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Health Research ◽  
High Income ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
World Health ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
Western Pacific Region ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Research Production ◽  
The Western Pacific

Using more than 3.5 million bibliographic references in Thomson ISI Web of Science (health-related articles, notes, and reviews) and a broad definition of health (covering related social, medical, environmental, and physical sciences) research production, collaboration patterns and “visibility” of that production for largest producers in the Western Pacific Region of the World Health Organization are estimated for the 1992-2001 period. Two findings are of particular interest in relation to the production of relevant knowledge on health topics and equity in the access to this knowledge. The first is that intraregional collaboration is low and that large regional producers of research (ie, Japan, Australia, China, etc) collaborate more with high-income countries from other regions than among themselves within the region, or with smaller regional research producers. The second one is that “visibility” of health research in the region is relatively low, even for high-income countries. High “visibility” research is mostly done with the involvement, through collaboration, of extra-region high-income countries. Collaboration between low-income or middle-income countries is mostly in low “visibility” research.

scholarly journals The Financial Burden of Tuberculosis for Patients in the Western-Pacific Region

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerri Viney ◽  
Tauhidul Islam ◽  
Nguyen Binh Hoa ◽  
Fukushi Morishita ◽  
Knut Lönnroth
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Financial Burden ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
World Health ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Western Pacific Region ◽  
Financial Risk Protection ◽  
The Western Pacific

The End Tuberculosis (TB) Strategy has the ambitious goal of ending the global TB epidemic by the year 2030, which is aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals. One of three high level indicators of the Strategy is the “catastrophic costs” indicator, which aims to determine the proportion of TB-affected households that incur TB-care related costs equivalent to 20% or more of their annual household income. The target is that zero percentage of TB-affected households will incur catastrophic costs related to TB care by the year 2020. In the Western Pacific Region of the World Health Organization, it is a priority to determine the financial burden of TB and then act to mitigate it. To date, eight countries in the Region have conducted nationally representative TB patient cost surveys to determine the costs of TB care. The results from four countries that have completed these surveys (i.e., Fiji, Mongolia, the Philippines, and Vietnam) indicate that between 35% and 70% of TB patients face catastrophic costs related to their TB care. With these results in mind, significant additional efforts are needed to ensure financial risk protection for TB patients, expand Universal Health Coverage, and improve access to social protection interventions. A multi-sectoral approach is necessary to achieve this ambitious goal by the year 2020.

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