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Friday 04.30.21 | Issue 108
WHO / Andrew Quilty
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) updates
Virtual press briefings with simultaneous translation in all UN languages with the participation of the WHO Director-General are planned for this week. Media advisories with Zoom links/dial-in details will be emailed in advance. For the latest news from WHO on COVID-19 and other breaking health stories, read WHO's news updates.
Monday, 3 May
The Measurement and Monitoring of WASH Affordability
Launching Monday, The Measurement and Monitoring of Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Affordability, a new report by UNICEF and WHO, sets out recommendations for monitoring the affordability of access to water, sanitation and hygiene, as COVID-19 brings new urgency to the issue. More on WASH.
Wednesday, 5 May
World Hand Hygiene Day
On World Hand Hygiene Day, WHO calls on health care workers and facilities to achieve effective hand hygiene action at the point of care, which refers to the place where three elements come together: the patient, the health care worker, and care or treatment involving contact with the patient or their surroundings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, the right hand hygiene practices are extremely important. When used alongside other infection control practices - wearing masks, physical distancing, avoiding crowded places, keeping indoor spaces ventilated - it can stop the spread of infections. The campaign theme is: achieving hand hygiene at the point of care. And the slogan: seconds save lives – clean your hands! Find out more.
Launch of Global Sodium Benchmarks
WHO Global Sodium Benchmarks for Different Food Categories, a guide for countries and industry to reduce the sodium content in different categories of processed foods, will launch Wednesday. Around the world, consumption of processed food is a rapidly increasing source of sodium. The same or similar processed food products often contain different amounts of sodium in different countries—an indication that the food industry can reformulate products to contain less sodium while still appealing to consumers. This prompted WHO to establish harmonized global benchmarks. Countries can adapt these targets to their local food environments, requiring industry to progressively lower the sodium content in processed foods. The WHO Global Sodium Benchmarks represent an important new tool for countries to shift the sodium contained in processed foods downward and advance toward the WHO goal of 30% reduction in global salt/sodium intake by 2025. A press release will be issued Tuesday.
OneShared.World event on vaccine equity
WHO's Director-General will take part in the OneShared.World online event that will tackle the global vaccine equity challenge in the response to COVID-19 and efforts to address current and potential future pandemics. This program is part of the OneShared.World Rise or Fall Together event series. More here.
Friday, 7 May
Launch of interactive data visualization platform: prevalence of violence against women
The WHO Global Database on Prevalence of Violence against Women is a new and comprehensive database on the prevalence of the two most common forms of violence against women globally: intimate partner violence and sexual violence by someone other than a partner, referred to as non-partner sexual violence. It is linked to the biggest ever global study of the prevalence of violence against women, which WHO launched in March.
Violence against women is a grave human rights violation and public health concern affecting the lives of millions of women, children and families worldwide. National data collection on intimate partner violence has increased significantly since the previous WHO estimates in 2010.
This interactive data visualization platform presents the first global, regional and country/area estimates on intimate partner violence and global and regional estimates on non-partner sexual violence in the UN Sustainable Development Goals era (2015-2030) for 161 countries. The data platform also presents data from the 300+ surveys and studies that underpinned the latest estimates. Access the database here.
Emergency Use Listings and SAGE recommendations
Deliberations by the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on Emergency Use Listing (EUL) for Sinopharm are ongoing. Deliberations on Sinovac are scheduled to commence next week. Once conclusions have been reached, WHO will communicate them to the public.
The policy recommendations for these vaccines to be made by the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) are scheduled to be discussed in a press briefing. Details and dates will be communicated once available.
Launch of Global Health Matters: a new podcast from TDR, a research programme at WHO
What opportunities are health researchers discovering with the COVID-19 pandemic? Can we promote gender equality in global health leadership in ways that aren’t patronizing? What innovative tools are scientists using to tackle the impact of climate change on health? In the new Global Health Matters podcast, host Dr Garry Aslanyan is joined by some of the world’s leading scientists to discuss these questions, share their experiences and talk about how their work is making a real impact.
Episode 1 takes us on a journey to Somalia, Benin and India to explore how researchers have adapted to one of the greatest challenges we have ever faced — the COVID-19 pandemic. Join Garry and his expert panel of guests as they discuss the innovative approaches they have taken to continue their work amid the crisis.
Follow @TDRnews on Twitter, TDR on LinkedIn and @ghm_podcast on Instagram for updates.
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Check out the WHO series, Science in 5.
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