WHO News Update

Event Report

WHO UPDATES 07.04.2021

On the 7th of April, a WHO Newsroom Update took place at the Department of Community Medicine, FUMC. An appraisal regarding the “Living with the Times toolkit” was presented by Dr. Fatima Ali Raza Mughal, FCPS II resident, regarding a toolkit prepared by the Inter-Agency standing Community with the Reference Group on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support. This toolkit is aimed at protecting the mental health of older adults during the Covid-19 pandemic, and has been developed after testing nearly 200 adults aged 60 to 90 years, from 51 different countries.

The toolkit and its components – 5 different posters meant to address questions such as “How can I cope with grief and loss,” “Where can I get help if I need it” and “How can I get healthy”--- were discussed by department members and ideas were generated on how to use the toolkit for the benefit of the local community were generated.

Scientists Tackle Vaccine Safety, Efficacy, and Access at Global R&D Forum
Public Food Procurement and Service Policies for a Healthy Diet

EVENT REPORT
WHO NEWSROOM PRESENTATION AT THE DEPT. OF COMMUNITY MEDICINE, FUMC
On 27th January 2021, WHO Newsroom updates were presented by Dr. Fatima Ali Raza Mughal, FCPS II Resident Community Medicine to the Department. The discourse was attended by faculty members and was presided over by Prof. Brig. Naila Azam, HOD Community Medicine, FUMC.

The headline discussed was “Scientists tackle vaccine safety, efficacy and access at global R&D forum”, which referred to a virtual forum hosted by WHO on January 15 to identify knowledge gaps and set research priorities for vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, which was attended by More than 2,800 scientists from 130 countries.

The Department deliberated over these public health issues, which included the COVAX Facility and its Fair Allocation Framework to ensure equity in the distribution of the vaccines and the proposed phases in which the vaccine was to be dispensed. 

 

PUBLIC HEALTH UPDATE
Nearly 8 million annual deaths are currently caused by unhealthy diets and due to rising cases of non-communicable diseases WHO has launched an “Action Framework for developing and implementing Public food procurement and service policies for a healthy diet”. This Action Framework helps reach targets that fall under the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 which are SDG2, SDG3, and SDG12

The Framework helps reach the core principles of healthy diet defined by WHO and aims to:

1-Increase the availability of healthy food by setting nutrition criteria for food served and sold in public settings
2-To reduce preventable diseases and deaths from high consumption of sodium and salt, sugar, and fats, particularly trans fats
3-Tool for governments to develop, implement, monitor, and evaluate public food procurement and service policies that align with the core principles of healthy diets

The framework helps to achieve goals through 4 important steps which are:
1-Policy preparation
2-Policy Development
3-Policy implementation
4-Monitoring, Enforcement, and Evaluation