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The Compass team undertakes an intensive search to identify and make available quality resources & tools for our users each month. Users are also encouraged to participate in the process by contributing materials & ideas for future packages.
Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy (HTSP) is an intervention to help women and families delay or space their pregnancies in order to achieve the healthiest outcomes for women, newborns, infants and children. According to WHO, qualitative studies conducted by USAID in Pakistan, India, Bolivia, and Peru showed that women and couples are interested in the healthiest time to become pregnant
Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C refers to all procedures involving partial or total removal of external portions of or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. More than 200 million women and girls alive today have undergone FGM/C according to the World Health Organization. While reports suggest that the rate at which FGM/C is practiced is dropping in some areas, as many as 30 million girls under the age of 15 may still be at risk for the procedure. The practice is most common in the western, eastern, and north-eastern regions of Africa, in some countries in Asia and the Middle East, and among migrants from these areas to North America and Europe.
[UPDATED July 2017J Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, is a medication which, when taken daily, can protect those who are not HIV positive avoid HIV infection. It is a critical prevention method for those who are at substantial risk for HIV infection.
The malaria community has made great strides in reducing morbidity and mortality in recent years – with World Health Organization reports noting that there has been a 37% global decrease in malaria incidence and a 60% global decrease in malaria deaths between 2000 and 2015.
In the last decade, child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) has affected about 58 million girls. Many of these girls are extremely young, even as young as eight, and are married against their will. In some cultures every seventh girl is married before she reaches the tender age of 15, and age when she should just be finding out about herself, her body, and her potential.
Dengue has emerged as a worldwide problem since the 1950s, and is endemic in Puerto Rico and in Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands. It is a leading cause of death in those areas.
[UPDATED JULY 2016] Tremendous strides have been made in the past several decades in saving the lives of mothers and children. The numbers of those dying has decreased dramatically, thanks to the tireless efforts of governments, international organizations, communities, and individual households. Yet, with all of this progress, the numbers are still unacceptably high.
[UPDATED JUNE 2016] As of February 2, 2016, the World Health Organization has declared Zika Virus a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
Zika virus is an emerging mosquito-borne virus, transmitted via Aedes mosquitos, that was first identified in Uganda in 1947 in rhesus monkeys through a monitoring network of sylvatic yellow fever. It was subsequently identified in humans in 1952 in Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania.*
AIDS is now the leading cause of death among adolescents (aged 10–19) in Africa and the second most common cause of death among adolescents globally. There were 250,000 new HIV infections among adolescents in 2013, two thirds of which were among adolescent girls.
[UPDATED June 2016] Young people currently comprise a larger proportion of the world’s population than ever before, including in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The World Health Organization defines young people as those between ages 10 and 24, and includes in its definition the sub-groups, adolescents (ages 10 to 19) and youth (ages 15 to 24). Unplanned or unwanted pregnancy among adolescents is a worldwide public health issue, and for unplanned pregnancies among younger women, unsafe options may become the recourse.
