World Conference on Social Determinants of Health

19-21 October 2011, Rio de Janeiro

The World Health Organization is convening the World Conference on Social Determinants of Health (WCSDH), from 19-21 October 2011, in Rio de Janeiro. The Government of the Federative Republic of Brazil has kindly agreed to host and support the Conference.

The Conference will bring Member States and other actors together, by invitation, to build support for national policies to address social determinants of health to reduce health inequities. Specifically, the Conference aims both to strengthen political commitment by Member States and to share experiences and technical knowledge on how to address social determinants of health.

If you have any questions, please contact the WHO Conference Secretariat by sending an E-mail to sdh@who.int

Consultation on Draft Technical Paper
Comments welcome by Friday 3 June 2011
Subtitle:
10 May - 3 June 2011
Body text:
Conference website: www.who.int/sdhconference/
Consultation page: www.who.int/sdhconference/consultation
Draft technical paper: http://www.who.int/sdhconference/consultation/draft_WCSDH_Technical_Paper.pdf
The World Conference on Social Determinants of Health (WCSDH) is being convened by WHO and kindly hosted and supported by the Government of the Federative Republic of Brazil. The World Conference will take place in Rio de Janeiro from 19 to 21 October 2011.
WHO is currently undertaking a public consultation on the current draft of the Technical Paper for the Conference to elicit comments and feedback. The Technical Paper aims to provide policy-makers with an overview of key strategies to implement action on social determinants of health to reduce health inequities and contribute to broader development, organized by the five Conference themes. The final version of this paper will inform discussions at the Conference. Comments on this current draft are welcome by Friday 3 June 2011and can be submitted at the Consultation webpage above.
In particular, comments are sought on whether the draft fulfils its aims to inform the five themes of the Conference, and whether any major strategies for implementation of action on social determinants have been omitted.
The main themes that will be tackled during the Conference are:

• Governance to tackle the root causes of health inequities: implementing action on social determinants of health
• The role of the health sector, including public health programmes,  in reducing health inequities
• Promoting participation: community leadership for action on social determinants
• Global action on social determinants: aligning priorities and stakeholders
• Monitoring progress: measurement and analysis to inform policies on social determinants

The aim of the Conference is to bring Member States and other actors together to catalyze high level political support for national policies to address social determinants of health to reduce health inequities. Its specific objectives are to:

• strengthen political commitment by Member States to develop and implement national policies on social determinants of health to reduce health inequities;
• share experiences, challenges and technical knowledge on addressing social determinants of health, taking into account the need for strengthening governance arrangements and learning from different contexts.

For further information, please see the Conference website and Consultation page.--------------------------------------------------------------
Victoria Saint
Technical Consultant
IER/ETH
Tel. direct: +41 22 79 14926 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            +41 22 79 14926      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
E-mail: saintv@who.int

World No Tobacco Day 2011, May 31.

World No Tobacco Day 2011

WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) selects "The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control" as the theme of the next World No Tobacco Day, which will take place on Tuesday, 31 May 2011.
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The Neuroscience of the Gut

Strange but true: the brain is shaped by bacteria in the digestive tract

By Robert Martone  | April 19, 2011 | 22

• 12Next >

Researchers track the gut-brain connectionImage: dyoma

People may advise you to listen to your gut instincts: now research suggests that your gut may have more impact on your thoughts than you ever realized. Scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Genome Institute of Singapore led by Sven Pettersson recently reported in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that normal gut flora, the bacteria that inhabit our intestines, have a significant impact on brain development and subsequent adult behavior./.../

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

JAMA. 2011;305(18):1926. doi: 10.1001/jama.305.18.1926  

Sharon Parmet, MS, Writer; et al.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder ...
This Patient Page is based on one published in the October 27, 2004, issue of JAMA.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is characterized by the presence of obsessions or compulsions or (as is often the case) both of them. The obsessions or compulsions cause marked distress, are time-consuming, and interfere with the person's normal functioning.

Obsessions—unwanted, recurrent thoughts, impulses, or images that are experienced as intrusive and inappropriate

• The obsessions of OCD are not just worries about real-life problems.
• The person realizes that the obsessive thoughts are from his or her own mind.
• The person attempts to suppress or neutralize the obsessions with actions or other thoughts.
• Examples of typical obsessions include thoughts of being contaminated by dirt or germs or thoughts of having hurt someone, even though recognizing that such concerns are not realistic.

Compulsions—repetitive behaviors or "rituals" that the person feels driven to perform in a particular way

• The compulsive actions are done to reduce distress or to prevent something bad from happening, even though there is no realistic connection with preventing such an occurrence.
• Typical compulsions include excessive cleaning (such as hand washing), repetitive checking, and hoarding of useless items.
• Mental acts such as praying, counting, or repeating words silently can be compulsions for some persons./.../

Brasil Health: The Lancet

Mensagem da AMICOR
2011/5/10 Rosa Sampaio 

Prezado prof Achutti,

encaminho e peço que divulguem, os artigos do Lancet lançados hoje em um seminário com os autores aqui em Brasilia, inclusive com a presença do Ministro da Saúde no primeiro dia

http://www.thelancet.com/collections/global-health?collexcode=110

Todos os autores apresentaram seus resultados e foi mto enriquecedora a discussaão

Chamo a atenção para o artigo Chronic non-communicable diseases in Brazil: burden and current challenge 

(Prof Maria Inês Schmidt MD,  

Bruce Bartholow Duncan MD,  

Gulnar Azevedo e Silva MD,  

Ana Maria Menezes MD,  C

arlos Augusto Monteiro MD, 

Sandhi Maria Barreto MD 

and others)

Guardei uma revista em papel pra vc; saiu tb o sumário executivo

Esse número focaliza só o Brasil.

Os resultados serão sem dúvida mto importantes pra direcionar políticas públicas

• Outros espaços de divulgação tb estão sendo estudados.  

O evento ocorreu na sede da OPAS

A editora Sabine Kleinert tb estava presente

Abraço e obrigada

Rosa

Atlas of headache disorders and resources in the world 2011

Authors:

WHO, Lifting the burden

Publication detailsNumber of pages: 72Publication date: 2011Languages: EnglishISBN: 9789241564212Downloads

• Complete publication
  pdf, 4.31Mb
• Executive summary
  pdf, 568kb
• Introduction and methods
  pdf, 678kb
• Results
  pdf, 3.43Mb
• The way forward and references
  pdf, 660kb

Overview

Despite that headache is felt at some time by nearly everybody, and almost half the world’s adults at any one time have recent personal experience of one or more of the three very common headache disorders, much is unknown about the public-health impact of these conditions. It is not known how, or how much, they affect many of the populations of the world, or how healthcare and other resources are utilized to mitigate their effects.

This first global enquiry into these matters illuminates the worldwide neglect of this common health problem, and reveals the inadequacies of responses to it in countries throughout the world.

Even Short-Term NSAID Use Risky in Cardiac Patients

Megan Brooks

Authors and Disclosures

May 9, 2011 — In patients with prior myocardial infarction (MI), most nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), even when taken for as little as 1 week, are associated with an increased risk for death and recurrent MI, new observational data indicate.

Use of NSAIDs was associated with a 45% increased risk for death or recurrent MI in the first 7 days of treatment and a 55% increased risk if treatment continued to 3 months. The findings were published online May 9 in Circulation/.../.

STRATEGIES TO TACKLE CHRONIC DISEASES

There are plenty of possible actions to address chronic diseases. Each decision-maker in the healthcare field has then a wide choice of strategies and solutions that could be combined. The specific situation at local, regional or national level should be looked through: 
- the epidemiological condition of the population;
- the organizational structure, and in particular the distribution of competences among the different levels of decision makers;
- the organization, the distribution of responsibilities, the strengths and the weaknesses of the healthcare system;
- and the interaction between primary care, secondary care and social care. 
The analysis of these elements may seem to indicate that it is preferable to invest on primary and secondary prevention rather than changing treatment pathways, or reinforcing the community care system rather than investing in the hospital care. But this is a simplistic vision that needs to take into account that each strategy will have a short medium and long-term impact, and that in the long term all the elements need to be addressed comprehensively.
The conference and the presentations of the HOPE exchange programme presented the main strategies and actions implemented by governments to face chronic diseases. /.../