scholarly journals COVID-19 Pandemic Planning and Preparedness for Institutions Serving People Living With Disabilities in South Africa: An Opportunity For Continued Service and Food Security

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-20
Author(s):  
Loraine Boitumelo (LB) Mzini ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
World Health ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Telephone Interviews ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Pandemic Planning ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak as pandemic just about three months after its emergence in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The outbreak of COVID-19 launched the world into a public health crisis, impacting families, schools, and communities in unprecedented ways. This paper examines the existence of pandemic planning and preparedness for institutions serving PLWD in order to ensure continued service for its users. The research also analyses the considerations applied to address the challenges that a pandemic will present. This study comes at an opportune moment when institutions serving PLWD become overwhelmed and face possible closure of their facilities. As COVID-19 continues to have wide-reaching impacts across the globe, it is important to understand how persons with disabilities are uniquely impacted by the pandemic, including health, education, and food security. Method: A qualitative study was considered complemented by telephone interviews in two facilities (Evaton and Katlehong) serving PLWD were used as a case study. Results: The paper concludes that adequate pandemic planning and preparedness in response to COVID-19 are critical to saving both lives and livelihoods and continuous service delivery. The respondents articulated a need for inclusive strategies where disabled people are involved as consultants and partners, not just as users. Conclusion: Diligent planning was found to be essential. The results highlight the role of the institutions serving PLWD in being effective and supporting service delivery and food security.

TIRYAQ-E-ARBA (A POLY HERBAL UNANI FORMULATION) IN FIGHTING AGAINST COVID 19 LIKE CONDITIONS – UNANI PERSPECTIVE

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nafisa Qibriya Khan ◽  
A. H. Farooqui ◽  
Syed Ayesha Fatima ◽  
Jalil Ahmad ◽  
Tausif S. Khan
Keyword(s):  
Respiratory Infections ◽  
Transmission Rate ◽  
Multiple Organ ◽  
World Health ◽  
Upper Respiratory Tract ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Unani Medicine ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Almost All

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic disease of modern time with unique and rapid transmission rate and affected almost all the nations without respecting any border. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is arguably the biggest health crisis the world has faced in 21st century. It is an infectious disease and declared pandemic by the World Health Organization. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, which originated in Wuhan, China, has now spread to 192 countries and administrative regions infecting nearly 800,000 individuals of all ages as of 31 March 2020. Though most infected individuals exhibit mild symptoms including fever, upper respiratory tract symptoms, shortness of breath, and diarrhoea, or are asymptomatic altogether, severe cases of infection can lead to pneumonia, multiple organ failure, and death. Globally, at least 7900 deaths have been directly attributed to COVID19, and this number is expected to rise with the ongoing epidemic. This is particularly crucial as the current outbreak involves a new pathogen (SARS-CoV-2), on which limited knowledge exists of its infectivity and clinical profile. Research is in progress on therapeutic efficacy of various agents including anti-malarials (Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine), antiviral drugs, and convalescent serum of recovered patients. Unani system of medicine is one of the traditional systems of medicine which is being explored for providing preventive, supportive and rehabilitative care to patients. Unani system of medicine has a detailed description of drugs that are utilized in many infectious diseases, including respiratory infections. Immune response is essential to eliminate virus and to preclude disease progression to severe stages. Therefore, it is important to summarize the evidence regarding the preventive measures, control options such as immune-stimulator and prophylactic treatment in Unani medicine against Covid19. This review summarizes various pharmacological actions of Unani formulation Tiryaq-e-Arba in Unani literature and various reported pharmacological activities which can possibly provide prevention, control and reduction of complications of this deadly disease.

scholarly journals Deafening silence on a vital issue: The World Health Organization has ignored the sexuality of persons with disabilities

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Peta
Keyword(s):  
World Health Organization ◽  
Well Being ◽  
World Health ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Priority ◽  
Social Welfare System ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

In 2016, the World Health Organization, through the Global Cooperation on Assistive Technology Initiative, issued the Priority Assistive Products List which is meant to be a guide to member states of the 50 assistive products needed for a basic health care and/or social welfare system; it is also a model from which nations can develop their national priority assistive products lists. The aim of this opinion paper is to share my views about the Priority Assistive Products List on the grounds that it makes no distinct mention of sexual assistive devices, yet research has indicated that sexuality is an area of great concern for persons with disabilities. In any case, sexuality forms a core part of being human, and it impacts on both the physical and mental well-being of all human beings. I conclude in part that, in its present format, the list perpetuates the myth that persons with disabilities are asexual beings who are innocent of sexual thoughts, feelings and experiences. The list also propagates the stereotype that sexuality is a sacred, private, bedroom matter that should be kept out of the public domain, to the detriment of the health and well-being of persons with disabilities.

scholarly journals Four pandemics: lessons learned, lessons lost

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
World Health ◽  
Swine Flu ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The World ◽  
Spanish Flu ◽  
Future Events ◽  
Health Organization

In the past 100 years, the world has faced four distinctly different pandemics: the Spanish flu of 1918-1919, the SARS pandemic of 2003, the H1N1 or “swine flu” pandemic of 2012, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Each public health crisis exposed specific systemic shortfalls and provided public health lessons for future events. The Spanish flu revealed a nursing shortage and led to a great appreciation of nursing as a profession. SARS showed the importance of having frontline clinicians be able to work with regulators and those producing guidelines. H1N1 raised questions about the nature of a global organization such as the World Health Organization in terms of the benefits and potential disadvantages of leading the fight against a long-term global public health threat. In the era of COVID-19, it seems apparent that we are learning about both the blessing and curse of social media.

scholarly journals The Covid infodemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Hyland ◽  
Feng (Kevin) Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Medical Research ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Highly Cited

Abstract Covid-19, the greatest global health crisis for a century, brought a new immediacy and urgency to international bio-medical research. The pandemic generated intense competition to produce a vaccine and contain the virus, creating what the World Health Organization referred to as an ‘infodemic’ of published output. In this frantic atmosphere, researchers were keen to get their research noticed. In this paper, we explore whether this enthusiasm influenced the rhetorical presentation of research and encouraged scientists to “sell” their studies. Examining a corpus of the most highly cited SCI articles on the virus published in the first seven months of 2020, we explore authors’ use of hyperbolic and promotional language to boost aspects of their research. Our results show a significant increase in hype to stress certainty, contribution, novelty and potential, especially regarding research methods, outcomes and primacy. Our study sheds light on scientific persuasion at a time of intense social anxiety.

scholarly journals Penggunaan Aplikasi Google Classroom sebagai Metode Pembelajaran Daring Selama Pandemi Covid-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-17
Author(s):  
Mirza Ghulamudin Ghulamudin ◽  
Maufur ◽  
Beni Habibi
Keyword(s):  
Distance Learning ◽  
World Health ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
The World ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
The Government ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
In The Beginning

Covid-19 has now attacked Indonesia, where the spread of the disease is very fast. Not only in Indonesia, but all corners of the world are currently experiencing a health crisis. In the beginning, the spread of Covid-19 had an impact on economic activity which began to sluggish. This also has an impact on the education system in Indonesia. Until several countries decided to close schools and universities. In an effort to prevent the spread of covid-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends temporarily stopping activities that would potentially cause crowds. Even during the outbreak, covid-19 in Indonesia, there were many ways that the government did to prevent its spread through social distancing. Kemendikbud instructed through the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud) Directorate of Higher Education Circular No. 1 of 2020 concerning the prevention of the spread of covid-19 in the world of Education to organize distance learning and advise students to learn from their homes. Teachers and students are starting to be required to follow the current situation by using technology as a distance learning medium. One of the media that is being favored by teachers as a learning medium is the Google Classroom application. This application is an application that can make it easier for students and teachers to create effective learning. Given that students today are a generation who are very familiar with the use of technology. The use of technology in learning is an alternative method used by teachers during the Covid-19 Pandemic.

scholarly journals Development and Validation of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Germophobia Questionnaire in Iran

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-316
Author(s):  
Seyed Mohammadreza Alavizadeh ◽  
◽  
Mojgan Sepahmansour ◽  
Somaye Entezari ◽  
Mohammadreza Seirafi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
World Health ◽  
Snowball Sampling ◽  
Emotion Regulation Strategies ◽  
Study Results ◽  
The World ◽  
Valid Instrument ◽  
Regulation Strategies ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Study Participants

Objective: The Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) has recently been identified as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. The outbreak of the disease has caused numerous individuals around the world to become extremely frightened and subsequently present the signs of phobia. Fear is the basic emotion of anxiety disorders and individuals cope with their emotions by different strategies. The present study aimed at developing and validating Emotion Regulation Strategies for Germophobia Questionnaire (ERS-GPQ). Methods: The study participants were 99 individuals (74 females) of the Iranian population with concerns about germs who were selected with the snowball sampling method. They completed the ERS-GPQ and GPQ in the Google Forms platform. Results: The present study results illustrated that the ERS-GPQ has acceptable internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (a=0.61), reliability coefficients with split-half (0.70), and one-week test-retest (0.92); the ERS-GPQ also presented a moderate positive correlation with the contamination obsessions checklist of GPQ (r=0.44) as the convergent coefficient. Besides, the confirmatory factor analysis indicated 2 factors of the ERS-GPQ. Finally, the ERS-GPQ has 2 components with good convergent and discriminate validities and composite reliability. Conclusion: Based on the current research findings, the ERS-GPQ has acceptable and good psychometric properties; researchers can use the ERS-GPQ as a reliable and valid instrument for assessing ER strategies concerning germophobia. Furthermore, it has some considerations for practitioners in epidemic and pandemic crises, like COVID-19.

scholarly journals Global Governance and the WHO’s Mandate Post-COVID-19 Crisis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Vilbert
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
World Health ◽  
First Year ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Democratic Principle ◽  
The World ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
Health Organization

The COVID-19 has renovated the debate about global health governance. A number of scholars have proposed that the World Health Organization should assume the position of a central coordinator with hierarchical powers, demanding nation-states to “share their sovereignty”. This article presents four main objections to this project. First, when international institutions receive leverage, they use to impose “one-size-fits-all” policies, which conflicts with the characteristic heterogeny across countries. Second, geopolitical questions and the distribution of power in multilateral institutions put developing countries in a position of vulnerability within a hierarchical order. Third, the risk of crowding out parallel initiatives, especially from non-state actors. Fourth, decisions about health can have a major impact on countries, which may thwart the internal democratic principle. A Pareto improvement would be possible by strengthening the WHO’s operational capacity and its ability to issue technical guidance and coordinate with countries. To test this hypothesis, this study analyses the possible influence of the WHO’s guidance in the first year of the coronavirus health crisis, from January 2020 to January 2021, in 37 countries reported in the World Values Survey Wave 7 (2017-2020). The OLS regression performed shows a statistically significant negative relationship between the trust in the WHO, assumed as a proxy for the level of the organization's penetration, and the number of cases of COVID-19 (per million people) in the countries of the sample. These findings reinforce the hypothesis that there is a valid case for the countries to strengthen the WHO’s mandate post-COVID-19, but they should enhance the operations of provision of reliable information and support. Nation-states, in particular the developing ones, should eschew the temptation to create a hierarchical global health structure, which may not only fail due to countries’ asymmetries but is likely to create losers in the process.

scholarly journals Exploring WHO Communication during the COVID 19 Pandemic through the WHO Website Based on W3C Guidelines: Accessible for All?

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (16) ◽  
pp. 5663
Author(s):  
Elena Fernández-Díaz ◽  
Patricia P. Iglesias-Sánchez ◽  
Carmen Jambrino-Maldonado
Keyword(s):  
The Elderly ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Digital Version ◽  
Recommendations For Action ◽  
The World ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Health Content

Health crisis situations generate greater attention and dependence on reliable and truthful information from citizens, especially from those organisations that represent authority on the subject, such as the World Health Organization (WHO). In times of global pandemics such as COVID-19, the WHO message “health for all” takes on great communicative importance, especially from the point of view of the prevention of the disease and recommendations for action. Therefore, any communication must be understandable and accessible by all types of people, regardless of their technology, language, culture or disability (physical or mental), according to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), taking on special relevance for public health content. This study analysed whether the WHO is accessible in its digital version for all groups of citizens according to the widely accepted standards in the field of the Internet. The conclusion reached was that not all the information is accessible in accordance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1, which implies that there are groups that are, to some extent, left out, especially affecting the elderly. This study can contribute to the development of proposals and suggest ways in which to improve the accessibility of health content to groups especially vulnerable in this pandemic.

scholarly journals The World Health Organization in Crisis—Lessons to be Learned Beyond the Ebola Outbreak

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadja Meisterhans
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Democratic Reform ◽  
The World ◽  
The Media ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Do So

Blaming the World Health Organization (who) for its failures in the Ebola crisis was a common reaction of the media. However, exclusively denouncing the who for the spread of Ebola falls short as it does not recognize the structural deficits of those recent governance procedures financing global health that lead to a chronic underfunding of the who. Against this background, the article reflects perspectives of a democratic reform of global health funding. It concludes that only the who can provide a leadership on global health matters, but to do so it depends on states willing to rebuild the who’s capacities to act. To address the global health crisis properly, the revitalization of who’s constitutional mandate is critically necessary. The discussion is based on normative legal theory, which argues that processes of globalization have transformed international law into a global rule of law, placing specific duties on states and international institutions.

scholarly journals Protecting Rights and Building Capacities: Challenges to Global Mental Health Policy in Light of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila Wildeman
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
International Development ◽  
Global Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Policy ◽  
Disabled Persons ◽  
World Health ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

The World Health Organization (WHO) has in the last decade identified mental health as a priority for global health promotion and international development, to be targeted through promulgation of evidence-based medical practices, health systems reform, and respect for human rights. Yet these overlapping strategies are marked by tensions as the historical primacy of expert-led initiatives is increasingly subject to challenge by new social movements — in particular, disabled persons’ organizations (DPOs). These tensions come into focus upon situating the WHO’s contributions to the analysis of global mental health in light of the negotiation and early stages of implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), particularly as it applies to persons with mental disabilities.

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