Archive for August, 2019
Wildfire rages on the island of Evia generating clouds of smoke that have reached Athens, 70 miles away.
Thursday, August 15th, 20191,300 or more children of European fighters and followers of the self-professed caliphate remain trapped in Syria and Iraq. What to do?
Thursday, August 15th, 2019“….The issue is politically charged across Europe. ISIS survivors, even children, are seen as a threat, no matter how reformed they appear……”
At a California prison a “large-scale riot” Wednesday
Thursday, August 15th, 2019“……..The fight in the yard at a prison in Soledad broke out just after 11 a.m., and staff fired nine warning shots from a rifle and used chemical agents and non-lethal rounds to break up the brief incident……
No one on staff at the Correctional Training Facility was hurt……..
Eight inmates required outside hospitalization with injuries that included cuts, puncture wounds and bruises, and all were stable. About 50 other inmates were treated for minor injuries……..
6 cops were shot in a Philadelphia neighborhood but they’ve all since been released from area hospitals. At least one suspect is still armed and barricaded inside a house.
Thursday, August 15th, 2019Residents of Nenoksa, the village closest to the site of the recent Russian nuclear accident incident, were told to leave on a special train that would be sent to their community. Why?
Wednesday, August 14th, 2019Nourishing Lives and Building the Future: the History of Nutrition at USAID
Wednesday, August 14th, 2019Nourishing Lives and Building the Future: the History of Nutrition at USAID
For more than 50 years, USAID has worked to address the devastating effects of malnutrition, continually learning and adapting our response to ever-evolving nutrition needs and understanding. This resource describes the Agency’s investments and contributions to global progress to improve nutrition, achieved through close collaboration with implementing partners, host countries, civil society, the private sector, researchers, and other key stakeholders.
Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview
USAID’s nutrition programming was established in the 1960s, and the U.S government was providing food assistance even earlier through Title II, or the Food for Peace Act, which built the foundation for nutrition at USAID. In addition to detailing the origins of nutrition at USAID, this chapter also outlines the evolution of USAID’s nutrition programming and investments over time.
Chapter 2: Improving Nutrition for Women and Young Children
Improving the dietary practices and nutritional status of women and children has always been at the core of USAID’s nutrition and health programs. This chapter presents the history of USAID’s advancements to cross-cutting approaches for improving the delivery of nutrition services and enhance maternal, infant and young child nutrition, including the Agency’s community-based focus and its innovations in social and behavior change.
Chapter 3: From Vitamin A to Zinc: Addressing Micronutrient Malnutrition
Micronutrients are essential for good nutrition, proper growth and development, and overall health. As this chapter details, USAID has worked for decades to ensure individuals in need receive the nutrients they lack– particularly vitamin A, iron, iodine, and zinc which have a direct impact on maternal and child survival.
Chapter 4: Combating the HIV Epidemic through Food and Nutrition
Poor nutrition magnifies HIV infection for affected individuals, including increasing the risk of infection, hospitalization, and mortality. Since the early 2000s, USAID has supported critical research on nutrition and HIV, developed country guidance and training materials, strengthened health systems, and provided HIV-affected families with food commodities and nutrition support to meet the nutritional needs of individuals living with HIV.
Chapter 5: Multi-sectoral Nutrition and Food Security
In the early 1970s, USAID and other global actors recognized the need for a multi-sectoral approach to reducing malnutrition— working across sectors to address the many causes and consequences of inadequate nutrition. Working closely with partners, USAID has played a key role in identifying the causes of malnutrition, addressing them through a multi-sectoral lens, and exploring how to improve nutrition through agriculture and food security efforts.
Chapter 6: Research and Measurement for Understanding and Reducing Malnutrition
Findings from nutrition research are critical to advancing the work of country governments, foundations, international organizations, partners, and the entire nutrition community. For decades, USAID has supported cutting-edge research, translated key findings into practice, and invested to improve how nutritional status is measured, examples of which are described throughout this chapter.
Spotlight: Capacity Building and Knowledge Management
Long-term support for the development of country-level human and institutional capacity is a vital component of sustaining the results of USAID’s investments beyond the end of external assistance. Capacity building and knowledge management are therefore important elements of our nutrition investments, and this spotlight section offers examples of the Agency’s support.
Chapter 7: Adapting to a Changing World
Nutrition programming will need to seek creative new ways to improve food systems, food quality, nutrition behaviors, and social norms around eating, in addition to continuing to implement and scale up established approaches to improve nutrition. To achieve this, USAID will seek out strategic and innovative ways to support partner countries in becoming more self-reliant and capable of leading their own development journeys.
WHO: Eliminate human rabies by 2030
Tuesday, August 13th, 2019
United Against Rabies launches global plan to achieve zero rabies human deaths
18 June 2018 | Paris | Geneva | Rome | Manhattan (KS) −− Investing approximately US$ 50 million between now and 2030 can support the elimination of dog-mediated human rabies. A strategic plan that provides a phased, all-inclusive, intersectoral approach to eliminate human deaths from rabies has just been launched by United Against Rabies, a collaboration of four partners: the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC).
Zero by 30: the global strategic plan to end human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030 was prepared following a global call in 2015 to “end human rabies deaths by 2030”.
The plan, finalized in consultation with relevant global, regional and country stakeholders, builds on the current international momentum to eliminate rabies.
In alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and health for all, Zero by 30 advocates for investment to strengthen human and animal health systems and save lives.
A summary of the plan was made available on the last World Rabies Day (28 September).
The plan provides a coordinated response to rabies prevention, integrated with strengthening of human and veterinary health systems, in order to reach the world’s most underserved populations by engaging, empowering and enabling all countries to lead and strengthen elimination efforts.
In up to 99% of cases, domestic dogs are responsible for transmission of rabies virus to humans, which occurs mostly through bites or scratches, usually via saliva. Rabies is 100% vaccine-preventable, yet the disease kills almost 59 000 people every year – or one person every nine minutes, 40% of whom are children living in Asia and Africa.
The world has the knowledge, technology and vaccines that are needed to eliminate rabies. The plan supported by the four partners aims to:
- prevent and respond to dog-transmitted rabies by improving awareness and education, reducing human rabies risk through expanded dog vaccinations, and improving access to healthcare, medicines and vaccines for populations at risk;
- generate and measure impact by implementing proven effective guidance for rabies control, and encouraging the use of innovative surveillance technologies to monitor progress towards Zero by 30; and
- demonstrate the impact of the United Against Rabies collaboration in national, regional and global rabies elimination programmes, in order to ensure continued stakeholder engagement at all levels and sustained financing to achieve Zero by 30.
A trial of two Ebola drugs showed significantly improved survival rates
Tuesday, August 13th, 2019“……Four drugs were trialled on patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where there is a major outbreak of the virus.
More than 90% of infected people can survive if treated early with the most effective drugs…….”
