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Epidemiological Alerts Archives, 2003–2008
(Note: Series renamed, formerly EID Updates: Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases, Region of the Americas.)
The purpose of these alerts is to disseminate information on the latest public-health events that have been identified as risks to health, trade, and/or international travel. Most of these events are primarily due to infectious agents, while others are due to chemical or physical agents. The PAHO Epidemiological Alerts published at the regional level (for the Americas) complement the WHO Disease Outbreak News published at the global level. The latest issues can be found at the new site, 2009 onwards.
eid-eer-ew.htm
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European Antibiotic Awareness Day (18 November 2008)
The first-ever European Antibiotic Awareness Day took place across Europe on 18 November 2008. European Antibiotic Awareness Day will be an annually recurring event that will raise awareness about the risks associated with inappropriate use of antibiotics and how to take antibiotics responsibly. This year's event set focus specifically on the need for everybody to stop any unnecessary use of antibiotics.
ECDC
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Number of Cholera Cases in the Americas, 1990-2008
This data table (Excel PDF) lists the number of cholera cases in the Americas from 1990 to 2008, per country and covering all countries in the Region of the Americas.
cholera-1990-2008.pdf
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International Health Regulations (IHR)
The International Health Regulations are an international legal instrument that covers measures for preventing the transnational spread of infectious diseases. The newly adopted IHR (2005) has as purpose and scope “to prevent, protect against, control and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease in ways that are commensurate with and restricted to public health risks, and which avoid unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade”. This page provides a detailed description and information on progress of its implementation, plus relevant links.
eer-ihrs.htm
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10 Facts about Neglected Tropical Diseases
These ten facts provide a basic overview on what constitutes neglected tropical diseases and what is being done to combat them.
WHO
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Health Surveillance and Disease Prevention and Control at PAHO
This page describes the PAHO Technical Area for Health Surveillance and Disease Prevention and Control(HSD), its mission and objectives, what it does in terms of projects and activities. It contains links to the four technical groups and the Pan American Center under its umbrella. Note: Prior to June 2006, the Area was named Disease Prevention and Control.
dpc-page.htm
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Neglected Tropical Diseases: Innovative and Intensified Disease Management
This brochure tells how pro-poor and pro-active solutions against neglected tropical diseases can contribute the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It focuses on specific diseases where cost-effective tools are not available: Buruli ulcer, Chagas, Cholera (and other diarrheal diseases), Leishmaniasis, and Yaws.
WHO
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CSP27.R10: Regional Policy and Strategy for Ensuring Quality of Health Care, Including Patient Safety
This resolution from the 27th Pan American Sanitary Conference in 2007 sets forth the PAHO mandate for providing effective, safe, efficient, accessible,
appropriate, and satisfactory care for users, recognizing that policies are needed in the health sector that will impact the health care continuum, foster citizen involvement, and promote a culture of quality and safety in health care institution.
CSP27.R10
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Number of Cholera Cases in the Americas (1990–2006)
This Excel PDF table shows the number of reported cases of cholera in the Region and in the countries from 1990 to 2006.
cholera-1990-2006.pdf
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PAHO Regional Program on Food Safety: Working to Prevent and Control Food-Borne Diseases
This page describes the mission, objective, and areas of work of the PAHO Regional Program on Food Safety.
fos-program-page.htm
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Regional Program on Antimicrobial Resistance: Combatting Resistance to Antibiotics in the Americas
This page describes the mission and areas of work of the PAHO Regional Program on Antimicrobial Resistance, which deals with the topic of resistance to antibiotics and bacterial and hospital (nosocomial) infections. It contains links to the WHO Global Strategy and main PAHO and WHO websites on the topic.
amr-program-page.htm
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PAHO Regional Program on Epidemic Alert and Response: Working to Deal with Outbreaks in the Americas
This page describes the mission and areas of work of the PAHO Regional Program on Epidemic Alert and Response, mainly responsible for emerging and reemerging infectious diseases, disease outbreak management, implementation of the revised International Health Regulations (IHR [2005]), assessment of national surveillance capacity, and related issues.
ear-program-page.htm
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Food Safety and Foodborne Illness (WHO Fact Sheet No. 237)
This official WHO fact sheet provides basic information on food safety and foodborne diseases (FBDs), Food safety is an increasingly important public-health issue. Governments all over the world are intensifying their efforts to improve food safety. These efforts are in response to an increasing number of food-safety problems and rising consumer concerns. Foodborne illnesses are defined as diseases, usually either infectious or toxic in nature, caused by agents that enter the body through the ingestion of food. Every person is at risk. Foodborne diseases are a widespread and growing public-health problem, both in developed and developing countries.
WHO
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Foodborne Diseases, Emerging (WHO Fact Sheet No. 124)
This official WHO fact sheet offers basic information on emerging foodborne diseases (FBDs). Some foodborne diseases are well recognized but are considered emerging because they have recently become more common, e.g. Salmonella, Escherichia coli, Vibrio cholerae, Listeria monocytogenes, trematodes, 'mad cow disease'. New foodborne disease threats occur for a number of reasons. Causes include increase in international travel and trade, microbial adaptation and changes in the food production system, as well as human demographics and behaviour.
WHO
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Cholera (WHO Fact Sheet No. 107)
This official WHO fact sheet provides basic information on cholera, an acute intestinal infection caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It has a short incubation period, from less than one day to five days, and produces an enterotoxin that causes a copious, painless, watery diarrhea that can quickly lead to severe dehydration and death if treatment is not promptly given. Vomiting also occurs in most patients. However, most persons infected with V. cholerae do not become ill, although the bacterium is present in their faeces for 7-14 days. When illness does occur, more than 90% of episodes are of mild or moderate severity and are difficult to distinguish clinically from other types of acute diarrhea. Less than 10% of ill persons develop typical cholera with signs of moderate or severe dehydration.
WHO
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Annual Report of the Monitoring/Surveillance Network for Resistance to Antibiotics, 2004 (Brasilia, Brazil, 27-29 July 2005)
The report of this annual meeting provides country data for 2004 on antimicrobials, bacterial and hospital (nosocomial) infections, and enteric and non-enteric pathogens.
amr-2004.htm
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The 5 Key Ways Project: Adapting the WHO Manual on Food Safety for Use in Guatemalan Elementary Schools
Taking into account that schools are an important space to promote the development of healthy lifestyles in children, the manual Bringing Food Safety Home: Using the WHO Five Keys to Safer Food has been adapted for use in primary schools in Guatemala. This page describes the project and offers access to the three manuals, the poster, the INCAP fact sheet, and the progress report.
fos-5-claves-proyecto.htm
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The 5 key ways to keep your food safe (Content Manual)
The purpose of this manual is to serve as tool or educational/reference guide for the educational community (elementary-school principals, teachers, and pupils, as well as local school boards) for teaching and learning five basic ways to keep food safe and prevent it from becoming contaminated. The contents have been adapted so that those in charge of preparing school meals can be trained in this subject, with the aim of ensuring safe and healthy food for students. This page offers an executive summary in English and access to the 34-page manual in Spanish.
fos-5-claves-manual.htm
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Progress made in the Project on Adaptation and Validation of the 5 Key Ways Manual on Food Safety in Elementary Schools in Guatemala
This 20-slide presention reports on the PAHO project currently being carried out by INCAP in Guatemala. The purpose of the Project is to adapt the WHO Bringing Food Safety Home: Using the WHO Five Keys to Safer Food to local-level needs in Guatemala and later in Honduras as well. The target population is teachers, pupils, and heads of household (the educational community).
PowerPoint
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Activity Book, The 5 key ways to keep your food safe (Teacher's Guide)
The objective of this Manual is to provide materials to help teachers so that they in turn can help pupils learn the 5 key ways to keep your food safe in a more entertaining and dynamic way. It is a guide that enables participatory learning such that students can incorporate this knowledge into their daily life, bringing about changes in their behavior and that of their family in a way that will improve their health and well-being.
fos-5-claves-manual-maestros.htm
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Communicable Disease Prevention and Control at PAHO: Aims, Strategies and Lines of Action
This page summarizes the mission, objectives, strategies and lines of action of the PAHO Communicable Disease Unit and describes what it hopes to accomplish through technical cooperation.
cd-unit-page.htm
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A Guide to Healthy Food Markets
With over half of the world’s population now living in urban areas, food markets have become important sources of affordable food for many millions of people. At the same time, however, such markets have been associated with major outbreaks of diseases, including cholera, SARS and avian influenza. This link goes to the full-text 42-page guide on the WHO website.
WHO
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Foodborne Pathogens and Disease
This links is to the major online journal, which in turn also offers links to other scholarly articles on the topic.
Liebert, Inc. Publishers
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Investing in Global Health: 'Best Buys' and Priorities for Action in Developing Countries
These three new volumes from the World Bank Disease Control Priorities Project--Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries (2nd ed.), Priorities in Health, and Global Burden of Disease and Risk Factors--are part of an ongoing initiative to provide technical resources to improve the health systems, and ultimately the health of people, in developing countries.
DCP Site
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Priorities in Health
Two overarching themes emerge from the extensive research and analyses in this World Bank publication: (1) Current resources can yield substantial health gains if knowledge of cost-effective interventions were applied more fully. (2) Additional resources are needed in low-income countries to minimize the glaring inequities in health care. Increased resources would provide highly-effective interventions, expand research, and extend basic health coverage to more people. WHO contributed to this publication.
DCPP
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Management of Dead Bodies after Disasters: A Manual for First Responders
This Field Manual for First Responders presents simple recommendations for non-specialists to manage the recovery, basic identification, storage and disposal of dead bodies following disasters. It also makes suggestions about providing support to family members and communicating with the public and the media.
DeadBodiesFieldManual.htm
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Travelers' Health
This information published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States (CDC, a PAHO/WHO Collaborating Center), helps orient travelers on anything they should know and precautions they should take when travelling to a given country.
CDC
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International Travel and Health
This page links to WHO information related to international travel, helping to orient travellers as to the situation regarding disease prevalence or outbreaks in a given country and what precautions they should take. It provides an index by country, related links, and information on relevant publications.
WHO
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Cholera Outbreak: Assessing the Outbreak Response and Improving Preparedness
This document offers a framework for the assessment of a cholera outbreak response, which will help to provide a comprehensive overview of outbreak response; pinpoint the main strengths and weaknesses of said response;
improve preparedness for and response for future outbreaks; and provide accurate recommendations based on WHO official guidelines. This page offers a summary of the document and a link to the full text in PDF on the WHO site.
cholera_outbreak.htm
WHO
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Recommendations of a Group of Experts: Standards for the Use of Automated Identification Systems for Bacteria and Susceptibility to Antimicrobials (Brasilia, Brazil, 26–28 October 2004)
The general objective of the Expert Committee was to define the processes that guarantee the quality of the information generated by automated systems for identifying bacteria and testing susceptibility to antimicrobial drugs.
Specifically, they wanted to identify critical points and criteria for internal quality control, define a program for external performance evaluation, and prepare a short guide for technical evaluation visits. This page offers a summary in English and access to the full text in Spanish.
amr-GuiaAutoEvalDesemp.htm
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Regional Core Health Data System - Indicators Glossary
Definition, technical note, type, measure units, categories, and subcategories for each indicator in the Regional Core Health Data System
glossary.htm
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CD45.R8: Disaster Preparedness and Response
This report from the PAHO Directing Council lays forth the Organization's mandate for emergency and disaster preparedness and response in hospitals, clinics, and primary-care facilities in the Americas.
CD45.R8
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EID Updates: Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases, Region of the Americas, Vol. 2, No. 24—12 August 2004
This issue focuses on the recent outbreaks of cholera in Colombia and of hantavirus in Central Brazil, in the Federal District and in Goiás State.
eid-eer-2004-aug-12.htm
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Annual Report of the Monitoring/Surveillance Network for Resistance to Antibiotics 2003
The annual report on surveillance of resistance to antibiotics in participating countries of the Region of the Americas is discussed and analyzed for the purpose of taking measures for continuous quality improvement of data and its usefulness in orienting clinicians on the rational use of antibiotics. This page offers a summary with recommendations and access to the full text in Spanish (presented at the meeting in Lima in 2004).
amr-lima-2004.htm
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Frequently Asked Questions on the Proposed Revision of the International Health Regulations (IHRs)
These 21 questions have been made available to the countries for the revision process of the International Health Regulations (IHRs) currently in progress. The revisions will be discussed and ratified during the upcoming World Health Assembly in May 2005.
WHO: IHR FAQs
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EID Weekly Updates: Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases, Region of the Americas, Vol. 2, No. 16—22 April 2004
This issue is dedicated to a report on an outbreak of acute diarrheal syndrome and two identified cases of cholera in the municipality of São Bento do Una, Pernambuco State, Brazil; and to a follow-up on the recent outbreak of bat-transmitted human rabies in Pará State, Brazil.
eid-eer-22-apr-2004.htm
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EID Weekly Updates: Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases, Region of the Americas, Vol. 2, No. 4—29 January 2004
This issue offers information on the cholera outbreak in Zamora Chinchipie province, Ecuador, as well as the present situation involving human cases of avian influenza in Asia, with the corresponding WHO recommendations.
eid-eer-29-jan-2004.htm
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CD44.R6: Primary Health Care in the Americas: Lessons Learned over 25 Years and Future Challenges
This resolution from the 44th PAHO Directing Council in 2003, taking into consideration the Declaration of Alma-Ata and past PAHO resolutions, sets forth the mandate of improving the quality of primary care in the Americas: more equitable access to health services, improved surveillance and information systems in this context, improved training for healthcare workers, a health promotion approach, better policy implementation, local community-based approaches and models, working towards the Millennium Development Goals, etc.
CD44.R6
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EID Weekly Updates: Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases, Region of the Americas, Vol. 1, No. 1—10 July 2003
This issue contains updates on the following topics: SARS; Columbian outbreaks of Jungle Yellow Fever and Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis; First human case of West Nile Virus in the USA; new PAHO papers on influenza and antimicrobial resistance; PAHO PowerPoint presentations on cholera, monkeypox, and West Nile virus, and SARS training modules on preventing hospital infection.
eid-eer-10-jul-2003.htm
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WHO, List of Links on Communicable Diseases (by topic)
This list of links gives the user direct access to the main WHO pages on the various communicable diseases or on themes related to them.
cd-who-links.htm
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Cholera (Region of the Americas, 1991-2002)
This eight-slide PowerPoint presentation provides an overview of the current situation of cholera in the Americas, with tables, graphs, maps and summary information.
PowerPoint
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Cholera
This page offers the user a panoramic view of all PAHO materials on cholera, organized according to the following categories: surveillance, prevention and control, PAHO activities, Other PAHO Materials, and General Information/Links. It also contains a listing of featured items for all categories with the most important documents from each, and a side bar with links to similar PAHO materials, frequently requested items, and announcements of upcoming events and/or new books.
cholera.htm
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Annual Regional Report from Countries Participating in the Network for Monitoring and Surveillance of Resistance to Antibiotics (2002 data) (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 10–13 May 2003)
As part of the body of knowledge needed to combat the development of resistance to antimicrobials, since 1997 19 countries of the Region have been part of a network that makes yearly reports on the percentages of resistance to enteric bacteria found in the community and in hospitals. This report provides the data from 2002, by country, with maps, tables, and figures.
amr-2002.htm
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Recommendations of an Expert Committee: Performance Evaluation Standards for the Kirby-Bauer Antibiogram (Areas of Inhibition or Interpretation) (Santiago, Chile, 24–26 February 2003)
The objectives of this meeting were to define and document the standards that will be applied to the performance evaluation of laboratories participating in the Latin American Network for Monitoring Antimicrobial Resistance, document the basic quality control standards for the laboratories that participate in the national surveillance networks, and draft recommendations for maintaining performance quality in all participating countries. This page contains a summary and the full-text report.
amr-GuiaLabEvalDesemp.htm
amr-GuiaLabEvalDesemp.pdf
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WHO Disease Outbreak News
This link provides access to the latest WHO updates and archives on disease outbreaks throughout the world.
WHO
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Hurrying Toward Disaster?
This article describes how new, emerging and reemerging infectious diseases in the context of globalization, population growth and alterations to ecological systems can affect global health, and how we must prepare to combat them.
Perspectives in Health
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Annual Regional Meeting of Countries Participating in the Monitoring/Surveillance Network on Resistance to Antibiotics (Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, 17-19 April 2002)
As part of the knowledge necessary to combat the development of antimicrobial resistance, since 1997 20 countries in the Region have formed a network that reports annually on the percentages of resistance to enteric bacterias. Since 2000, surveillance has expanded to other species found in communities and in hospitals. This page offers an executive summary and a link to the full-text document in Spanish containing the country reports.
amr-santa-cruz.htm
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Technical Guidelines for Disaster Situations - Index
Practical Public Health Information for disaster situations prepared by PAHO's technical divisions.
tguidelines_menu.htm
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Antimicrobial Resistance Bibliography
This comprehensive bibliography on antimicrobial resistance, produced by the PAHO Program on Communicable Diseases with funding from USAID, covers all information on the subject found in the MEDLINE and LILACS databases. This document tells how to offer the free CD with multimedia materials and database, and also offers access to the 769-page book in downloadable PDF files with embedded links.
antimicrob-bib.htm
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WHO Global Strategy for Containment of Antimicrobial Resistance
The emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance increasingly threatens the success of infectious disease treatment and prevention in the 21st century. To respond to this threat, WHO has developed the first Global Strategy for Containment of Antimicrobial Resistance. Addressed to policy-makers and managers in a range of sectors and agencies, the Strategy aims to both persuade governments to take urgent action and then to guide this action with expert technical and practical advice.
amr-link-who-site.htm
OMS
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Annual Regional Meeting of Countries Participating in the Network for Monitoring/Surveillance of Resistance to Antibiotics (Asunción, Paraguay, 31 January–February 2001)
This HTML page offers the executive summary of and recommendations from the conference in English, with a link to the Spanish page containing the full-text document (138 pages, in PDF) with glossary, country data, performance and laboratory evaluations, quality-control systems, list of participants, bibliography, etc.
amr-resultados-2000.htm
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List of Participants (by country, and PAHO): Annual Regional Meeting of the Countries Participating in the Network for Monitoring/Surveillance of Resistance to Antibiotics (Asunción, Paraguay, 31 January–2 February 2001)
This list of regional experts in the area of antimicrobial resistance is included on the PAHO web for networking and exchange purposes. It provides full contact information, with e-mail in most cases.
amr-participantes.htm
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Drains & You: A Manual for Drainage Maintenance Workers
This manual is useful not only for drainage workers engaged in cleaning and repairing secondary drains, working for ministries and local governments, but also for the general public in making them aware of the role drains play in public health and safety. In the latter sense, it serves as a social-communication tool to raise community awareness of the general public of domestic-sanitation issues and their effect on public health. This page offers the entire manual for field use, with chapters downloadable in PDF.
drains.htm
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Prevention and Control of Antimicrobial Resistance in the Americas: Strategic Plan for Surveillance of Resistance to Antibiotics
In light of the threat to public health posed by the growing problem of drug
resistance, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) convened an expert group meeting, which was held in Asunción, Paraguay, on 27-29 January 1999 (see List of Participants in Annex 6). The participants drafted a three-year program for addressing this problem in the Region. The program's resources will support interventions aimed at the control and prevention of antimicrobial resistance in the following countries: Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Peru. The document is available in MS Word (243 KB) and pdf (193 KB).
RegionalPlanParaguay.doc
RegionalPlanParaguay.pdf
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Healthy Homes, Healthy Communities: An Environmental Health Manual for Use by your Family and Community
Many people in communities have problems getting enough water for drinking, washing and keeping the home clean. Many people also do not know how mosquitoes can cause disease, how to get rid of garbage properly or what to do if there is a fire in the home or poisonous gases in the air. This manual, available in full text for grassroots use, helps people understand how unhealthy situations can aid the spread of diseases (for example, those transmitted by vectors, parasites or rodents). It shows which areas might require changes for healthier daily practices, or in preparing for an emergency or disaster.
healthy-homes.htm
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