Health Organization Action Plan Research Articles

Demographic and clinical profile of patients utilising a transitional care intervention in the Western Cape, South Africa.

BackgroundThe World Health Organization’s action plan for 2020 has identified the need for service-based data to motivate for more appropriate community-based services. To date, there is no published data from step-up or step-down facilities in South Africa.AimTo describe the demographic and clinical profile of all patients admitted to New Beginnings between 01 January 2011 and 31 December 2015.SettingNew Beginnings is an intermediary care facility focused on psychosocial rehabilitation and accommodates 40 patients in a step-up or step-down setting.MethodsIn this retrospective audit, we reviewed the medical records of all patients (N = 730) admitted to New Beginnings between 01 January 2011 and 31 December 2015.ResultsMost admissions were male (n = 600; 82.2%), unmarried (92.1%) and unemployed (92.7%) patients with a mean age of 28 years. Only 20.7% had completed their schooling and 37.9% were receiving a disability grant. Most patients lived in the Cape Town Metro area (89%) with their families (94.7%), and 75.6% had no children. Schizophrenia (53.7%) was the most common primary psychiatric diagnosis, and most patients were on a combination of oral and depot treatment (46.8%). Illicit substances were used by 75.9% of patients with 30% using both cannabis and methamphetamine. Most patients (74.9%) had only one admission to New Beginnings.ConclusionsThese baseline data could inform improved service delivery. Further research is needed to evaluate the success of New Beginnings and highlight the need for more of these facilities in the Western Cape and across South Africa.

Success of 2013-2020 World Health Organization action plan to control non-communicable diseases would require pollutants control.

To control diabetes epidemic and NCDs, WHO has been promoting its action plans since 2000, but diabetes epidemic is continuing. New action plan for 2013-2020 aim to reduce shared risk factors of NCDs, such as tobacco use, unhealthy (i.e., high fat) diet, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol and is strengthening the risk reduction measures, such as taxing on tobacco, alcohol and sugary beverages, banning advertisements of unhealthy foods. However it might fail because it did not consider the contribution of environmental pollution on the pathogenesis of diabetes and NCDs.

The World Health Organization's action plan on the road traffic injury pandemic: is there any action for orthopaedic trauma surgeons?

Road traffic crash-related death, injury, and chronic disability continue to be a major worldwide burden to drivers, pedestrians, and users of mass transit, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Projections predict worsening of this burden, and while motorization of LMIC increases exponentially, a corresponding improvement in prehospital and acute in-hospital trauma care has not been seen. The WHO now has 2 programs that address different elements of this challenge, namely, the Violence and Injury Prevention department (prevention) and the Emergency and Essential Surgical Care project (treatment). Activities of Violence and Injury Prevention have included developing guidelines for prehospital and essential trauma care, whereas activities of the Emergency and Essential Surgical Care have included developing the Integrated Management of Emergency and Essential Surgical Care toolkit and a textbook, "Surgical Care at the District Hospital." Organized surgical institutions in high-income countries-trauma associations, university departments, surgical nongovernmental organizations, etc.-can benefit from the infrastructure and tools the WHO has developed to better address the deficits in surgical services to improve the equitable distribution of surgical care services and resources to LMIC.