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  • Is Brazil moving towards a statistical blackout?
    08/06/2019 - The questionnaire that will be applied in the 2020 Demographic Census was divulged last week, amidst a debate between the technical body and the direction of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, IBGE, in Portuguese), which has been going on since the beginning of the year. Appointed by Minister of the Economy Paulo Guedes, the new president of the Institute, Susana Guerra, who took office at the end of February, was assigned the task of reducing by 25% the Census budget, which was initially of R$ 3.2 billion. The mission was then assigned to economist Ricardo Paes de Barros, from the Institute of Education and Research (Instituto de Ensino e Pesquisa, Insper, in Porutguese), and it displeased the technical body of the IBGE. Ever since the cuts were announced, the Association of IBGE Employees (Associação dos Trabalhadores do IBGE, Assibge-SN, in Portuguese) had been warning that a decrease in the questionnaire could cause a rupture in the historical series of data about the Brazilian population.
  • WHO urges countries to invest in eliminating hepatitis
    07/29/2019 - New WHO study, published July 26, estimates spending to achieve global hepatitis elimination targets. The research is based on investment calculations required to meet the 16 health-related goals of the Sustainable Development Goals in low- and middle-income countries. Read more.
  • WHO releases first guideline on digital health interventions
    07/26/2019 - The World Health Organization released this year new recommendations on 10 ways that countries can use mobile phones, tablets and computers, to improve people’s health and essential services.“Ultimately, digital technologies are not ends in themselves; they are vital tools to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable", says WHO Director-General.
  • IAS 2019: PAHO Director calls for new approach to HIV response in order to end the epidemic by 2030
    07/26/2019 - During her opening speech for the 10th IAS Conference on HIV Science (IAS 2019), organized by the International AIDS Society from the 21 to 24 July in Mexico City, the Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and Regional Director for the Americas of the World Health Organization (WHO), Carissa F. Etienne, highlighted that scientific innovation has led to significant progress against HIV/AIDS, but emphasized that the AIDS response must be rethought in order to end the epidemic. "Science has guided innovation towards an unprecedented progress in responding to a communicable disease that, until recently, represented a threat to the lives of many people,” said Etienne. However, the world is not on track to achieve the target of eliminating AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
  • Expanding access to health services with self-care interventions
    07/26/2019 - The World Health Organization launched its first guideline on self-care interventions for health, with a focus in this first volume on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Some of the interventions include self-sampling for HPV and sexually transmitted infections, self-injectable contraceptives, home-based ovulation predictor kits, HIV self-testing and self-management of medical abortion.
  • WHO ‘strongly recommends’ dolutegravir antiretroviral medication to manage HIV
    07/23/2019 - According to the World Health Organization (WHO), initial studies had highlighted a possible link between DTG and birth defects of the brain and spinal cord, that cause conditions like spina bifida in infants born to women who used the drug at the time of conception. This safety concern came from a May 2018 study in Botswana, that found four cases of such so-called neural tube defects, out of 426 women who became pregnant while taking DTG.
  • 20 million children miss out on lifesaving measles, diphtheria and tetanus vaccines in 2018
    07/15/2019 - 20 million children worldwide – more than 1 in 10 – missed out on lifesaving vaccines such as measles, diphtheria and tetanus in 2018, according to new data from WHO and UNICEF.
  • First-ever WHO global report on epilepsy highlights care gap in poorer countries
    07/02/2019 - According to a report published in the last month, three quarters of people living with epilepsy in low-income countries do not receive the treatment they need, increasing the risk of dying prematurely and condemning many to a life of stigma.
  • Two-thirds of global drug deaths now from opioids
    06/28/2019 - About 35 million people worldwide suffer from drug-induced disorders and only one in seven people receives treatment. The findings are from the World Drug Report 2019, released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC. According to the new survey, only one in seven people receives the necessary treatment.
  • One in three people do not have access to safe drinking water
    06/28/2019 - A new report on inequities in access to water, sanitation and hygiene also reveals that in over half the world there is no access to safe sanitation services. The document on the Joint Monitoring Program, Progress in Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: A special focus on inequalities, indicates that while there has been considerable progress in achieving universal access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene, there are huge gaps in the quality of services provided.

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