A number of EU initiatives and legislation underline the importance of regularly updating and improving the skills of health professionals through “Continuous Professional Development (CPD)” to improve quality of care and patient safety. Member States have however very diverse legislations and practices in the field. The expert group on European health workforce, with the European […]
European Workforce for Health Read More »
The Slovenian Health Ministry is proposing to tighten restrictions on tobacco products, in line with new EU rules, and also to introduce new levies to finance smoking prevention. This bill would reflect the new EU tobacco products directive and measures imposed by the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The draft bill, the first overhaul
Tobacco control in Slovenia Read More »
In the EU: More than 60{ddf8d179d1bf712bb2a88ff2ad95ebdf63eaa5463c845d2f093b25848387ba96} of people over the age of 65 suffer from one or more chronic diseases 32 million adults are living with diabetes One in four deaths are due to cancer More than 70{ddf8d179d1bf712bb2a88ff2ad95ebdf63eaa5463c845d2f093b25848387ba96} of health system budgets are spent on chronic diseases One in three children is obese or overweight
Chronic diseases in the EU Read More »
The European Commission’s Expert Group on Rare Diseases has published its recommendations to support the incorporation of rare diseases into social services and policies. Studies have demonstrated that the quality of life for someone with a rare chronic disease is worse than that of someone affected by more common chronic disorders, both physically and psycho-socially.
Rare Diseases and Social Services Read More »
European Reference Networks (ERNs) connect health care providers and centres of expertise to improve access to diagnosis, treatment and the provision of high-quality healthcare for patients with conditions requiring a particular concentration of resources or expertise no matter where they are in Europe. For clinicians who network widely already, the ERN will represent the formalisation
European Reference Networks Read More »
Nearly 800 million people are chronically undernourished and 159 million children under 5 years of age are stunted. Approximately 50 million children under 5 years are wasted and over two billion people suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. Meanwhile 1.9 billion people are overweight – of whom over 600 million are obese – and the prevalence of
Decade of Action on Nutrition Read More »
The first WHO Global report on diabetes states that the number of adults living with diabetes has almost quadrupled since 1980 to 422 million adults. Factors driving this dramatic rise include overweight and obesity. In 2012 alone diabetes caused 1.5 million deaths and its complications can lead to heart attack, stroke, blindness, kidney failure and
Global report on Diabetes Read More »
Every country that was using trivalent oral polio vaccine (OPV) (containing all three serotypes of poliovirus) has permanently withdrawn this vaccine and either replaced it with bivalent OPV – containing only types 1 and 3 – or moved to an immunization schedule with only the inactivated form of polio vaccine (IPV). Wild poliovirus type 2
Polio vaccine switch Read More »
The EU’s independent Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks (SCHER) has published its final Opinion on estimates of the amount of toy materials ingested by children. The SCHER was asked to review available data on the ingestion of the following three types of toy material by children, and evaluate whether the ingestion amounts are
Toys eaten by children Read More »
Over 142 000 new HIV infections were diagnosed in the WHO European Region in 2015, the highest number ever. The HIV epidemic is driven by cases in the eastern part of the Region, where the number of new diagnoses has more than doubled during the past decade. Over 13 million people in the Region are
Action plans on HIV/AIDS and viral hepatitis Read More »
