In the past two decades levels of overweight and obesity in Ireland have doubled with only 40{ddf8d179d1bf712bb2a88ff2ad95ebdf63eaa5463c845d2f093b25848387ba96} of the population having a healthy weight. This represents one of the biggest public health challenges Ireland is facing today and according to the WHO these levels are forecast to increase, so Ireland may top the European “League […]
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Lead poisoning is entirely preventable. Yet, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates that in 2013 lead exposure accounted for 853,000 deaths globally and 16.8 million disability-adjusted life years due to its long-term effects on health. Lead poisoning can lead to developmental, behavioural and neurological disorders, anaemia, tiredness and muscle weakness, as well as
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The Joint Action on Reducing Alcohol-related Harm (RARHA) has been a three year project co-financed by the EU Health Programme. It has now completed its work and published its findings which include: Monitoring of drinking patterns and alcohol-related harm, including data and survey results on heavy episodic drinking, attitudes towards alcohol policy, and harm to
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Out-of-hours (OOH) services provide urgent primary care when primary care physician (PCP) offices are closed, most often from 5pm on weekdays and all day on weekends and holidays. Based on a policy survey (covering 27 OECD countries) and the existing literature, this paper describes the current challenges associated with the organisation of OOH primary care
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The European Commission has made three new videos available to show the great potential of the Erasmus+ programme. These success stories feature the fields of: staff mobility, voluntary service higher education traineeship. The stories aim at presenting some of the Erasmus+ actions available for European citizens and the considerable advantages they can bring to all beneficiaries
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Psycho-oncological support has become increasingly recognised and used as part of breast cancer care services in recent years. According to a recent review of EU and EFTA member states’ national/regional cancer plans and certification schemes, the need for psycho-oncological services is widely recognised. However the concrete allocation of resources and personnel to provide these services
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The latest session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe has considered the Strategy on women’s health and well-being in the WHO European Region and produced a report “Women’s health and well-being in Europe: beyond the mortality advantage”. To provide background to the Strategy, the new report: presents a snapshot of women’s health in the
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Monitoring the safety of medicines throughout their life cycle (pharmacovigilance) is the responsibility of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on behalf of Member States. The European Commission has published a report, accompanied by a detailed Staff Working document, describing the activities of the collaborative EU system for monitoring and controlling the safety of human medicines.
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The European Commission has recently published a report on the prudent use of antimicrobial agents in human medicine based on questionnaires completed by EU and EEA member states in 2015. 20 out of the 29 countries providing information had a strategy to promote prudent use and contain antimicrobial resistance (AMR), 6 were in the process
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The European Core Health Indicators (ECHI) give a broad picture of the state of health and health care in the European Union. They are regularly updated and broken down by gender, age group or socio-economic status when relevant. They are grouped – into 5 main chapters: demographic and social-economic situation health status health determinants health
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