Health care and social service systems are facing exceptional demands at this time. Evidence is emerging that the COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately impacting low-income neighborhoods, communities of color, immigrant and other economically and medically vulnerable patients. These are the patien...ts and communities Community Health Workers (CHWs) are best prepared
to serve. This workforce is defined by their connection to these populations and by their ability to communicate in linguistically and culturally appropriate ways.
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Health Care Facilities (HCFs) are primarily responsible for management of the healthcare waste generated within the facilities, including activities undertaken by them in the community. The health care facilities, while generating the waste are responsible for segregation, collection, in-house trans...portation, pre-treatment of waste and storage of waste, before such waste is collected by Common Bio-medical Waste Treatment Facility(CBWTF) Operator. Thus, for proper management of the waste in the healthcare facilities the technical requirements of waste handling are needed to be understood and practiced by each category of the staff in accordance with the BMWM.
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Tackling COVID-19 misinformation. Ensuring communities have access to lifesaving public health information from trusted sources and are not misled by misinformation is essential to ending the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an effort to empower doctors and nurses – some of the most effective and trusted... messengers of public health information – to actively address COVID-19 misinformation and build vaccine confidence globally, the WHO welcomes this social media toolkit for healthcare practitioners, developed by the Government of the United Kingdom.
This toolkit aims to provide healthcare workers with the tools, skills and content needed to effectively share authentic and reliable information online. Centered around three core vaccine confidence messages, Vaccine Safety, Vaccine Development and Vaccine Reducing Risk of Sickness; this toolkit sets out three approaches: creating your own posts, posting the images and videos provided in the toolkit, or resharing vaccine information from trusted sources.
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This document aims to describe a minimum set of surveillance activities recommended at the national level to detect and monitor the relative prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 variants and outline a set of activities for the characterization and assessment of risk posed by these variants. A set of indicators ...is also provided to standardize monitoring and public reporting of variant circulation.
The document is primarily intended for national and sub-national public health authorities and partners who support implementation of surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 variants
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The assistive technology capacity assessment (ATA-C) is a system-level tool to evaluate a country’s capacity to finance, regulate, procure and provide assistive technology. It can be used for awareness raising, policy and programme design, and ongoing monitoring and evaluation. This manual provide...s guidance and practical information on the ATA-C implementation process. The ATA-C is intended to be implemented by an experienced team, in collaboration with relevant ministries and users’ organizations.
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Countries across the world are facing diverse epidemiological situations with varying response
capacities and access to life saving tools. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that national authorities continue to apply a risk-based approach when implementing measures related to COVID-19... and international travel while respecting the dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms of travellers. This approach should consider the risk posed by travel for the importation and exportation of cases in the context of the evolving epidemiology, including the emergence and circulation of virus variants of concern; the expansion of the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out; and lessons learned while responding to the pandemic, including on the early detection and management of cases and the application of public health and social measures.
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The latest on the COVID-19 global situation & long term sequelae, March 2021
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the world beyond imagination. To date, it has infected more than 135 million people, killed over 2.9 million people, and is projected to plunge up to 115 million people into extreme poverty.1 As countries have gone into lockdown, gender-based violence has incr...eased, unemployment has soared, and access to health care for the poorest and most vulnerable has been cut. COVID-19 has made people less likely to seek health care because they are afraid of getting infected with the virus. Fear and uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 have also increased stigma and discrimination. As frontline workers without enough access to personal protective equipment (PPE) risk their lives to treat patients, the virus pushes already fragile health systems to the brink.
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September – December 2021
The funds will be used by WHO to ensure:
continued coordination with other agencies and health actors in the response to the crisis situation
continuity of health services for the population of Afghanistan
provision of life-saving medical supplies
con...tinued response to COVID-19
timely response to potential outbreaks
response to urgent trauma needs
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In 2020, the Kazakhstan Red Crescent Society developed a chatbot based on community preferences to receive information. The chatbot provides information from a trusted source in a forum that people had identified as a place they go for information on COVID-19. This case study looks at the current su...ccesses, challenges and reflection areas that the bot has generated and how the National Society is responding to them.
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Background: Cervical cancer accounts for 23% of cancer incidence and 22% of cancer mortality among women in Burkina Faso. These proportions are more than 2 and 5 times higher than those of developed countries, respectively. Before 2010, cervical cancer prevention (CECAP) services in Burkina Faso wer...e limited to temporary screening campaigns.
Program Description: Between September 2010 and August 2014, program implementers collaborated with the Ministry of Health and professional associations to implement a CECAP program focused on coupling visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) for screening with same-day cryotherapy treatment for eligible women in 14 facilities. Women with larger lesions or lesions suspect for cancer were referred for loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP). The program trained providers, raised awareness through demand generation activities, and strengthened monitoring capacity.
Methods: Data on program activities, service provision, and programmatic lessons were analyzed. Three data collection tools, an individual client form, a client registry, and a monthly summary sheet, were used to track 3 key CECAP service indicators: number of women screened using VIA, proportion of women who screened VIA positive, and proportion of women screening VIA positive who received same-day cryotherapy.
Results: Over 4 years, the program screened 13,999 women for cervical cancer using VIA; 8.9% screened positive; and 65.9% received cryotherapy in a single visit. The proportion receiving cryotherapy on the same day started at a high of 82% to 93% when services were provided free of charge, but dropped to 51% when a user fee of $10 was applied to cover the cost of supplies. After reducing the fee to $4 in November 2012, the proportion increased again to 78%. Implementation challenges included difficulties tracking referred patients, stock-outs of key supplies, difficulties with machine maintenance, and prohibitive user fees. Providers were trained to independently monitor services, identify gaps, and take corrective actions.
Conclusions: Following dissemination of the results that demonstrated the acceptability and feasibility of the CECAP program, the Burkina Faso Ministry of Health included CECAP services in its minimum service delivery package in 2016. Essential components for such programs include provider training on VIA, cryotherapy, and LEEP; provider and patient demand generation; local equipment maintenance; consistent supply stocks; referral system for LEEP; non-prohibitive fees; and a monitoring data collection system.
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The African Development Bank has launched a consultation process with health ministers and other partners as it develops a strategy to drive enhanced access to health services across Africa through 2030.
Input from ministers in the Bank’s 54 regional member countries, development partners and c...ivil society is expected to strengthen the Bank’s Strategy for Quality Health Infrastructure in Africa (2021-2030). A robust scoping study titled “Good Health and Well-being” underpins the strategy.
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The United Nations Commission on Life-Saving Commodities (UNCLSC, 2012) defined 13 health products to end preventable deaths of woman and children. One of those 13 products is the neonatal resuscitator, is indispensable medical device to save newborns from asphyxia at birth. For the efficient use of... neonatal resuscitation, training of healthcare professionals using neonatal resuscitation manikins is the most effective approach. Critical lifesaving trainings calls for the need of neonatal resuscitation manikins with the right features.
The purpose of the WHO Neonatal resuscitation manikin: technical specifications is to provide a minimum standard baseline to meet the increasing demand to procure good quality, affordable, accessible, and appropriate neonatal resuscitation manikins. Towards the development of this baseline, this document includes compilation of available scientific evidence from technical literature, international publications, expert reviews, and an industry survey which was conducted by WHO medical devices team.
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These WHO interim recommendations for use of the BBV152 COVAXIN vaccine were developed on the basis of advice issued by the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) and the evidence summary included in the background document and annexes referenced below.
This document has been ...updated: version 15 March 2022.
The vaccine is formulated from an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 antigen and is presented in single dose vials and multidose vials of 5, 10 and 20 doses.
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The case for evidence- based communication of science