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Displaying 15 of about 131 resultsNAIROBI/GENEVA, 13 February 2012 - In advance of critical rainfall forecasts for the Horn of Africa, the UN office for disaster risk reduction, UNISDR, today announced a partnership with the WMO-supported African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD) to ensure rapid dissemination of weather updates to disaster managers.
Pedro Ba…
GENEVA, 1 February 2012 - An insightful new report on the 2010 Haiti earthquake offers a scathing critique of an international community which “has much to learn from the response in Haiti where it has shown an ability to repeat its errors and shortcomings from past disasters.”
Two years after the event, the PAHO Report: Health response to the earthqua…
GENEVA, 25 January 2012 - Bequia is a delightful link in the chain of islands which make St. Vincent and the Grenadines such an attractive destination for sun worshipping tourists. With a population of 4,300 people and an area of just 18 km2, it is on the frontlines of the unfolding drama of climate change and Small Island Developing States. And, like m…
AbstractThe emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in late 2019 and its subsequent worldwide spread has emphasized the urgent need for better approaches for predicting and managing infectious disease outbreaks. One potential instrument in this effort is artificial intelligence (AI), and in specific, language models lik…
In recent weeks, stay-home COVID-19 mandates have pushed crowds of people to work from home, often for the first time. Workers have turned to communication platforms such as Zoom, Webex, Hangouts and Skype, as well as simpler ones like email and file sharing.
Training and experience have prepared established online professionals for cyber-attacks. But…
The newly emergent human virus SARS-CoV-2 is resulting in high fatality rates and incapacitated health systems. Preventing further transmission is a priority. The paper analyzed key parameters of epidemic spread to estimate the contribution of different transmission routes and determine requirements for case isolation and contact-tracing needed to stop…
This case study follows this collaboration from initial discussions and workshops, through to the use of SCOPE in various disaster responses in the Philippines, and to WFP’s local government capacity strengthening and its ongoing role helping the Government develop its own beneficiary management system. Providing food and cash assistance to populations…
The School of Environmental Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam is organizing the Disaster, Risk and Vulnerability Conference - 2020 (DRVC 2020). In the present COVID-19 scenario the conference will be conducted through Virtual Mode on focused themes during 9–10 October and 16–17 October 2020.
The conference is in continuation of th…
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has been catastrophic for global economies -- shutting down the world and crippling economies in ways that will change the world forever. The pandemic highlights the need for collaborative approaches to managing global crisis and, more significantly, how we need to transition as COVID-19 has rapidly trans…
Background
The COVID-19 situation reveals the challenges of managing health risks while reducing disaster risks. All countries face systemic risks, such as those associated with disease outbreaks, with the potential for very significant socio-economic impacts. A range of international instruments and frameworks exist to support countries in managing th…
The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education for Asia and the Pacific (Affiliated to the United Nations) are launching a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on “Geospatial Applications for Disaster Risk Management”. This MOOC is a free and flexible online training programme available…
By Stefano Soccorsi
The most important measure on the state of the pandemic is the R number. Also known as the reproduction rate, this is the average number of people an infected person will pass the virus on to. The R number guides government decisions, and there is no doubt it is a very intuitive way to measure the state of the pandemic.
Howeve…
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) together with WHO, through its headquarters and Regional Office for Europe, have developed the first indicator framework to evaluate the public health effectiveness of digital proximity tracing solutions.
Countries have readily employed innovative technologies throughout the COVID-19 pandemi…
By Rodrigo Pérez Ortega
Studies suggest that self-disseminating vaccines could prevent the 'spillover' of animal viruses into humans as pandemic diseases.
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Recently in Nature Ecology & Evolution, a pair of biologists at the University of Idaho argued for that approach. The idea of “self-disseminating” vaccines has floated through e…
Some 95% of COVID-19 cases have come from urban areas. Pandemic preparedness in cities and towns is more urgent than ever for reducing disaster risk, particularly in challenging situations where disease outbreaks could coincide with an extreme weather event.
The eastern Indian city of Kolkata has been devastated by Cyclone Amphan, which caused many dea…