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This report is the first global report on epilepsy summarising the available evidence on the burden of epilepsy and the public health response required at global, regional and national levels.

This report is a call for sustained and coordinated action to ensure that every person with epilepsy has access to the care and treatment they need, and the opportunity to live free from stigma and discrimination in all parts of the world. It is time to highlight epilepsy as a public health imperative, to strongly encourage investment in reducing its burden, and to advocate for actions to address gaps in epilepsy knowledge, care and research.

The Ensuring Inclusiveness and Service Delivery for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) project in Mongolia aims to ensure access to improved services, employment opportunities, and more support through social welfare reform for PWDs.

Estimates of disability prevalence in Mongolia tend to be underreported, especially among older people, girls, and women, thus leaving a substantial number of persons with disabilities (PWDs) without the necessary services and protection. Early identification of disability is inadequate and current disability assessments follow an outdated, narrow medical approach. Many people perceive PWDs to be incapable of living independently and a burden to society.

A brief overview is given of a project aiming to ensure access to services and employment for PWDs to increase their autonomy and contribution to the economy and society in general.

(ADB Brief, Social Protection Brief, No.91)

This is a practical manual about mental health care, aimed at community health workers, primary care nurses, social workers and primary care doctors, particularly in low resource settings. It describes more than 30 clinical problems associated with mental illness, using a problem-solving approach to guide the reader through their assessment and management. It addresses the lack of understanding of mental health among many health workers. Mental health issues as they arise in specific contexts are described - in refugee camps, in school health programmes, as well as in mental health promotion. The final section helps the reader to personalise for a particular location, for example, by entering local information on voluntary agencies, the names and costs of medicines and words in the local language for symptoms.

This product is an update of the first edition 2003. It is also available as Open Access.

Hearing loss is the fourth highest cause of disability globally, with an estimated annual cost of over 750 billion dollars. These facts are well known and have contributed to growing global consciousness on the need for accessible hearing care in all regions of the world. Looking forward however, the demand for hearing care is likely to grow significantly in coming decades. This report highlights the potential escalation of hearing loss to the middle of the century, and focusses on the factors responsible for hearing loss and the means to address them. 

WHO estimates in 2008 found that 360 million people worldwide live with disabling hearing loss, including 32 million children and 180 million older adults. The most recent estimations place this figure at over 466 million people with disabling hearing loss in 2018. The main areas of the world affected by disabling hearing loss are the South Asian, Asia Pacific and Sub-Saharan African regions, with a prevalence rate almost four times that of the high income regions.

Measures to address these concerns deal with: prevention of infections in mothers and babies; chronic ear infections; noise exposure; and ototoxic hearing loss.

Public health aspects are highlighted. 

A short overview of malaria is given, with it's symptoms and treatment and the WHO response

This study is an offshoot of the joint project of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies and the Institute of Developing Economies that focuses on the health conditions of PWDs, both adult women and children, in Mandaue City and San Remigio, Cebu, Philippines. Using primary data collected through survey and key informant interviews with various stakeholders, the study highlights the lack of access to appropriate services for PWDs and that out-of-pocket expenditures on health cover a significant portion of their income

DP 2017-60

Aim: Good practices have been documented by International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) to promote disability inclusive development and encourage the replication or scaling up of good practices that use rights based approaches. This study aimed to investigate the extent to which Core Concepts of human rights are illustrated in disability inclusive development good practices related to health.

Methods: This study analysed case studies of disability inclusive development good practices focusing on health that are available in the public domain using EquiFrame, an established content analysis framework in benchmarking health and social policies.

Results: A total of 42 health related good practices were identified from 3 different INGOs working in the field of disability inclusive development. The highest occurring human rights Core Concepts were; access 55%, individualised services 48%, capacity building 45% and participation 38%. The Core Concepts with the lowest levels of commitment were; autonomy 3%, cultural responsiveness 3%, accountability 3%, and efficiency 3%. Privacy and autonomy were not mentioned at all. The quality of reporting of the core concepts of human rights was low as they did not state specific programme actions or intentions to monitor Core Concepts.

Conclusion: Level of commitment to Core Concept coverage and quality of reporting was low. EquiFrame was successfully extended to analyse disability inclusive development good practices focusing on health. Its use in further analysis of inclusive good practice is advised.

Implications: These results can be used for advocacy in disability inclusive development and to guide programme staff training and documentation of disability inclusive development good practices.

Maternal health concerns the health and wellbeing of mothers from before pregnancy (pre-conception), during pregnancy (ante-natal), during and after childbirth (peri- and post-natal). Common impairments and activity limitations from obstetric fistulae, pelvic floor dysfunction, maternal depression and musculoskeletal disorders are outlined and examples of rehabilitation strategies are given. A case study of fistula in Burundi is reported.

"In the absence of access to real-time government-reported Zika case counts, we demonstrate the ability of Internet-based data sources to track the outbreak. Our model predictions fill a critical time-gap in existing Zika surveillance, given that early interventions and real-time surveillance are necessary to curb mosquito transmission. Official Zika case reports will likely continue to be delayed in their release; thus, it is important that health and government officials have access to real-time and future estimates of Zika activity in order to allocate resources according to potential changes in outbreak dynamics. The methodologies presented here may be expanded to any country–and perhaps finer spatial resolutions–to identify changes in Zika transmission for public health decision-makers."