World Health Organization (WHO)

Cases of listeriosis appear to be predominantly associated with ready-to-eat products. FAO and WHO have undertaken a risk assessment of Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat foods, prepared and reviewed by an international team of scientists. Input was received from several international fora including expert consultations and Codex Alimentarius committee meetings as well as via public and peer review. This interpretative summary provides an overview of how the risk assessment was undertaken and the results. In particular, it provides information relevant to risk managers addressing problems posed by this pathogen in ready-to-eat foods. It includes answers to the specific risk management questions posed by the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene and outlines the issues to be considered when implementing control measures, including the establishment of microbiological criteria.

Evaluates carcinogenic risks associated with human exposure to solar radiation and to ultraviolet radiation from medical and cosmetic devices, general illumination, and industrial sources. The main objective of the evaluation was to determine whether enough evidence is available to decide which segments of the radiation spectrum are responsible for its adverse effects. To this end, particular attention is given to data that shed light on the distinctive carcinogenic activity of ultraviolet A, B, and C radiation. In evaluating carcinogenic potential, the report also considers the importance of human constitutional risk factors, such as skin type, hair and eye colour, and specific subtypes of exposure, such as occupational and recreational exposures. More than 1,000 studies were critically assessed. On the basis of a large body of evidence from human and experimental studies, the monograph concludes that solar radiation is carcino-genic to humans, causing cutaneous malignant melanoma and nonmelanocytic skin cancer. Evidence for the carcinogenicity of ultraviolet A, B, and C radiation was judged sufficient in experimental animals. All three segments of the radiation spectrum were classified as probably carcinogenic to humans. Use of sunlamps and sunbeds entails exposures that are probably carcinogenic to humans. The carcinogenicity of exposure to fluorescent lighting could not be determined. Studies of topical sunscreens are reviewed in an appendix, which concludes that, although effective in preventing sunburn, little is known about their protective value against harmful immuno-logical changes, photo-ageing, or skin cancer.

The World Health Report 2008 analyzes how primary health care reforms, that embody the principles of universal access, equity and social justice, are an essential response to the health challenges of a rapidly changing world and the growing expectations of countries and their citizens for health and health care. The Report identifies four interlocking sets of PHC reforms that aim to: achieve universal access and social protection, so as to improve health equity; re-organize service delivery around people's needs and expectations; secure healthier communities through better public policies; and remodel leadership for health around more effective government and the active participation of key stakeholders. - Back cover.

v, 487 p. : 30 cm

Examines the effects of lead as an environmental pollutant.

This report provides neonatal and perinatal mortality estimates by country, regional groupings and globally. For countries that do not have data, models were developed to estimate mortality. Since data on deaths come from a number of different sources, the methods used to obtain the estimates are also described. Country-specific estimates of stillbirth and early neonatal deaths are published here for the first time. Estimates of stillbirth deaths that occur during delivery (intrapartum) by regional groupings, as well as estimates of sex ratio in neonatal, early neonatal and stillbirth mortality for the developing world are also included.--Publisher's description.

Choosing a medical device is complex and requires a transparent process based on reason, evidence and assessment of prioritised public health needs. Poor choices lead to inappropriate use or non-use of medical devices and a waste of resources. This report suggests how an agenda to improve access to appropriate medical devices could be devised from applying the crucial 4 components - Availability, Accessibility, Appropriateness, and Affordability, To the 15 global high-burden diseases and some cross-cutting issues. The results of this exercise suggest several areas of research necessary to help make medical devices more available, accessible, appropriate, and affordable.^ Examples include: development of a kit containing simple and affordable technologies for measuring blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol levels, which could assess cardiovascular risk; developing portable, affordable spirometry equipment for accurate diagnosis and prognosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma in low-resource settings; And The development of more appropriate hearing aids which could potentially help people with hearing impairments whatever their age or setting. An example of a key cross-cutting issue is the need to develop simple, affordable, and reliable sensitivity tests for bacterial and viral antigens. Such tests could replace culture systems to detect the presence of pathogens and effectively and efficiently help to diagnose many high-burden infections and neglected tropical diseases.^ The Priority Medical Devices (PMD) project applied the "4 A" questions to some examples of identified key medical devices to further explore the downstream issues associated with poor access to appropriate medical devices. The PMD project hopes all players in the medical device arena can collectively use the findings of this report to help make public health a central focus of their activities, along with the work on policies, tools and innovations of the WHO Global Initiative for Health Technologies.