Five years after the Paris climate agreement to limit global temperature rise to “well below 2°C” the world observed a 1.2°C temperature rise above pre-industrial levels. In order to protect human health, it is imperative that efforts are made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and keep the temperature targets agreed. The changing climate affects the conditions for human health, and the basic requirements for maintaining good health. Starting with the 2015 Lancet Commission on climate change and health that described tackling climate change as the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century, the talk will give an overview of some health impacts covered in the Lancet Countdown and end by focusing on what the Lancet Countdown in 2020 called the often “unseen” impacts of climate change on human health – the mental health impacts.

This session presents an overview of the association between water, sanitation, hygiene and human health. A particular focus upon transmission and treatment of diarrhea disease among small children. Other diseases given particular priority in the presentation include Hepatitis A and E viruses and bacteria that cause cholera or typhoid fever. Likewise, the importance of water-washed diseases, especially infectious skin and eye diseases, such as scabies and trachoma are presented. The preventive actions needed to reduce the burden of the various infectious diseases associated with water, sanitation and hygiene will be introduced.

WHO has estimated that about 100 million people are driven below the poverty line every year because of out-of-pocket payments for health services. Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is a strategy to ensure that all people can use health services of sufficient quality to be effective, while the use of these services does not expose the user to financial hardship. UHC receives increasing global attention, strongly promoted by the WHO, and the strategy is a cornerstone of the global post 2015-agenda for health. In this video lesson we will discuss three central questions for achieving UHC: How to secure adequate financing for health, how to protect the poor from financial consequences of ill health, and how to encourage optimum use of resources.

This presentation provides an introduction to the health implications of complex emergencies. In the light of research conducted in Guinea-Bissau and South Sudan, it is described how complex emergencies affects populations’ health and affected populations’ response to complex emergencies.

This presentation discusses how the political instability has an impact on health care services. It focuses upon a period in Uganda where the government health facilities were neglected resulting in the lack of adequate health care provision and access to medicines. Following the instability in the country, the development and management of its health care services was highly dependent on funding from external donors and significant international influence on national services, including health care programs.
Participants: Professor Susan Whyte.

In the past 100 years deaths from natural disasters have decreased by more than half, despite a more than 4-fold population growth during the same time. What is it that we have learnt?
Get transcript for video here: https://www.oercommons.org/courseware/module/58789/overview

The session argues for why the three main resources that humanity needs for its survival on this planet are land / soil, water resources and air. In addition, how degradation of such resources places limits health and to the quality of life for the affected human population.
Participants: Senior adviser (IWA) Robert Ros

The video introduces health challenges for the very varied group of migrants. A large part voluntarily migrated, but non-voluntary groups include refugees, IDPs, Stateless and trafficked persons. Internal migrants are both due to conflicts and disasters and general urbanisation. The different groups have very varied health issues, and also very varied protective frameworks – whether international conventions or national laws and services - and may not be able or willing to seek health care.

This presentation provides an introduction to migrant health and its importance in the global health context. We’ll look at the key concepts of migration and ethnicity and how they are related to health. Furthermore we’ll look at how barriers may arise in access to health care for migrants, and finally we’ll provide examples from a Scandinavian context on differences in health between migrants and ethnic Danes.

The number of refugees and IDPs are increasing from fragile situations around the world. Lack of protective community structures and poor reach of health systems to these people result in both groups facing a triple burden of disease: 1) communicable diseases due to e.g. poor housing and sanitary conditions, 2) NCDs, because of poor life style and refugees are today older, and 3) injury due to e.g. violence and poor working conditions.

This is an introduction to the fascinated multidisciplinary world of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). An area relevant due to the 1,5 million people annually dying of WASH-related disease, but also highly relevant during any emergency, whether it is a cholera outbreak in the slums of Dhaka Bangladesh, drought and water shortage in Kenya or hygiene-related virus outbreaks anywhere on the globe. The course ties theories of engineering, anthropology, public health, epidemiology, microbiology, disaster management, etc. with practical exercises to provide the student with the multifaceted background knowledge needed to be able to respond in an emergency actively. The course Water and sanitation in Emergencies started as a response to the Tsunami in 2004 and is now an independent elective course under the world-renowned Master of Disaster Management program, http://www.mdma.ku.dk, at University of Copenhagen. Read more and register for the course on https://globalhealth.ku.dk/studies/courses/water_supply_and_sanitation_in_emergencies.