21 September is World Alzheimer’s Day 

Almost everyone knows someone who has Alzheimer's disease (the most common cause of dementia) or whose life has been touched by it. Do you?

“Sometimes he forgets our names; that is what is difficult. My wife and I manage to look after him. He has looked after us, his children, so well for all these years. It gives me pleasure to look after him.”
A 28-year-old married man, looking after his father

Voice taken from “Dementia – a public health priority”, WHO, 2012: http://goo.gl/BYn4EE. Image: Integrated caregiving.

Antimicrobial resistance: “There are two main problems. First, people may have taken medicines unnecessarily, or not as they should be taken. Second, the medicines have not always been top quality.” 
– Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s Assistant Director-General overseeing WHO’s work on antimicrobial resistance
 
Read more: http://goo.gl/NWbtUH #superbugs   #antibiotics  

What’s the prevalence of overweight and obesity among 7-year-olds?
What are the risk factors for noncommunicable diseases?
Which countries have signed the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products?
What’s the total health expenditure as % of gross domestic product (GDP)?

Our Regional Office for Europe just released Core Health Indicators in the WHO European Region 2013, focusing on noncommunicable diseases: http://goo.gl/qa9nFi #RC63Izmir  

Are you cooking and heating with solid fuels?

Cooking and heating with solid fuels on open fires or traditional stoves results in high levels of indoor, or household, air pollution. This can cause lower respiratory tract infections in children and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in adults.

While 50% of the global population uses solid fuels for their energy needs, 61% of households in WHO's South-East Asia Region use solid fuels, which is second only to Africa at 77%.

Photo: WHO/TDR/Andy Crump

How to overcome disabling barriers?

Barriers to health care and specialized services for people with disability include stigma and discrimination, inability to pay and devices such as wheelchairs, hearing aids and screen readers that are unaffordable or simply not available.

To break barriers, governments can, for example:
• strengthen research and data collection;
• adopt a national strategy and plan of action;
• involve people with disability in making policies happen; and
• increase public understanding on disability.

Nine other facts on disability: http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/disability/en/index.html

1 billion people are living worldwide with some form of #disability. They have the same general health care needs, for example for immunization, cancer screening and sexual health services, as people without disability. Yet, too often they face barriers in accessing general health care and specialized care such as rehabilitation services.

Full infographic (for French, Russian, Spanish, click on the language buttons at the top of the page): http://goo.gl/ozjq8l

More than 18 million children aged under 18 years suffer from maltreatment in the WHO European region.
The abuse varies: emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse.
The abuse can be fatal, leading to 852 deaths of children under 15 years every year. 
Read more: http://goo.gl/aZI0Vi
#ChildAbuse   #RC63Izmir  
#Europe

Countries across Europe are mobilizing for
#Health2020 - the European policy for health and well-being. Some are developing national health policy, some health strategies and plans for specific health issues.

Health 2020 targets the European region’s main health challenges such as noncommunicable diseases (e.g. obesity, cancer and heart disease), increasing health inequalities and shrinking public service expenditure due to the financial crisis.

More: http://goo.gl/YsRhXT #RC63Izmir  

Measles elimination by 2020

Country efforts in the South-East Asian Region have led to a 48% decline in measles deaths between 2000 and 2011.

“An estimated 8 million children are not protected against measles in WHO’s South-East Asia Region. The measles and rubella vaccines are safe, effective and inexpensive. The administration of a combined measles rubella vaccine can eliminate both diseases cost-effectively,” said Dr Samlee Plianbangchang, WHO’s Regional Director for South-East Asia today.

Photo: WHO/SEARO/Andrew Caballero Reynolds. Men carry a cold chain box at a measles immunization site, in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh India.