This guidance document sets out a methodology to identify and track financing to the WASH sector in a coherent and consistent manner across several countries. It is designed to help countries track financing to the WASH sector on a regular and comparable basis and analyse this information to support... evidence-based policy-making based on useful indicators.
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Over the past 50 years, dengue has spread from nine to over a hundred countries, making it the most rapidly spreading vector-borne disease. Yet, dengue continues to have a low profile among policy-makers and donors and does not receive the media attention it deserves. While there is no vaccine or cu...re for dengue, it can be managed and prevented. We need a renewed commitment to integrated programming that includes improved management and diagnosis, increased awareness and community participation in controlling the vector and enhanced environmental sanitation
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Towards a world free of tuberculosis
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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This guideline provides evidence-based recommendations on parenting interventions for parents and caregivers of children aged 0–17 years that are designed to reduce child maltreatment and harsh parenting, enhance the parent–child relationship, and prevent poor mental health among parents and emo...tional and behavioural problems among children.
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Cancer centres are a major resource in ensuring a comprehensive approach to cancer treatment and its planning. As part of a new roadmap developed by WHO and IAEA to help countries design national cancer control programmes, this publication proposes a framework to develop a cancer centre and/or to st...rengthen the provision of services in an existing cancer centre. The publication provides the features of multidisciplinary cancer care and details the infrastructure, human resources and equipment for different services. This framework is expected to be used as a guide to implementation, taking into consideration the local context and resources.
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The purpose of these guidelines is to give practical advice to doctors so that all services and models of care used by doctors and health workers are encouraged to consider the use of telemedicine as a part of normal practice. These guidelines will assist the medical practitioner in pursuing a sound... course of action to provide effective and safe medical care founded on current information, available resources, and patient needs to ensure patient and provider safety.
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2nd edition. This second edition builds on the experience of more than 10 years of SMC deployment, and reflects changes introduced in the WHO guidelines for malaria, 3 June 2022. The goal of this publication is to share these best practices to improve SMC implementation, coverage, and monitoring and... evaluation. Examples of materials and tools as well as links to resources are included to support managers and health workers in their efforts to conduct successful SMC activities and prevent malaria among vulnerable children.
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The Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) calls for making AMR a core component of professional education and training. In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) published Competency framework for health workers’ education and training on AMR to ensure that academic institutions ...and regulatory agencies provided pre-service and in-service training to equip health workers with the adequate competencies to address AMR. This was followed by Health workers’ training and education on AMR: curricula guide, which outlines the learning objectives and expected outcomes of pre-service training of health workers to improve curricula. These tools were designed to strengthen the capacity of health workers in various settings to address the growing challenge of AMR.
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Background
Asthma education, a key component of long-term asthma management, is challenging in resource-limited settings with shortages of clinical staff. Task-shifting educational roles to lay (non-clinical) staff is a potential solution. We conducted a randomised controlled trial of an enhanced a...sthma care intervention for children in Malawi, which included reallocation of asthma education tasks to lay-educators. In this qualitative sub-study, we explored the experiences of asthmatic children, their families and lay-educators, to assess the acceptability, facilitators and barriers, and perceived value of the task-shifting asthma education intervention.
Methods
We conducted six focus group discussions, including 15 children and 28 carers, and individual interviews with four lay-educators and a senior nurse. Translated transcripts were coded independently by three researchers and key themes identified.
Results
Prior to the intervention, participants reported challenges in asthma care including the busy and sometimes hostile clinical environment, lack of access to information and the erratic supply of medication. The education sessions were well received: participants reported greater understanding of asthma and their treatment and confidence to manage symptoms. The lay-educators appreciated pre-intervention training, written guidelines, and access to clinical support. Low education levels among carers presented challenges, requiring an open, non-critical and individualised approach.
Discussion
Asthma education can be successfully delivered by lay-educators with adequate training, supervision and support, with benefits to the patients, their families and the community. Wider implementation could help address human resource shortages and support progress towards Universal Health Coverage.
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The 2014–2015 Ebola epidemic in western Africa was the longest and most deadly Ebola epidemic in history, resulting in 28,616 cases and 11,310 deaths in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The Ebola virus has been known since 1976, when two separate outbreaks were identified in the Democratic Repub...lic of Congo (then Zaire) and South Sudan (then Sudan). However, because all Ebola outbreaks prior to that in West Africa in 2014–2015 were relatively isolated and of short duration, little was known about how to best manage patients to improve survival, and there were no approved therapeutics or vaccines. When the World Heath Organization declared the 2014-2015 epidemic a public health emergency of international concern in August 2014, several teams began conducting formal clinical trials in the Ebola affected countries during the outbreak.
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1.1 Why this course is needed
The first few hours and days of a newborn baby’s life are a critical window for establishing breastfeeding and for providing mothers with the support they need to breastfeed successfully. Since 1991, the Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) has helped to motivate... facilities providing maternity and newborn baby services worldwide to better support breastfeeding. It has been adopted by many countries and organizations. The BFHI aims to provide a health-care environment that supports mothers to acquire the skills necessary to exclusively breastfeed for six months, and to continue breastfeeding for two years or beyond.
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The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic exacerbated pre-existing inequalities in the treatment and care of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). This report examines the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to NCD medicines, and the policies and strategies implemented by countries and health sys...tems to anticipate and mitigate stresses across NCD medicine supply chains. The full range of upstream and downstream impacts are investigated, including: manufacturing; procurement, importation and last mile delivery; patient-level effects through affordability and availability; and the effects on NCD medicine availability by category of disease. The report culminates in recommended actions and interventions for key stakeholders in the NCD pharmaceutical supply chain, including governments, regulatory authorities, manufacturers and the private sector; as well as directions for future research for improving access and supply chain access resilience.
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These guidelines deal specifically with water, sanitation and hygiene, and are designed to be used in schools in low-cost settings in low- and medium-resource countries to:
• assess prevailing situations and plan for required improvements;
• develop and reach essential safety standards as a f...irst goal; and
• support the development and application of national policies.
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Pakistan Global Antibiotic Resistance Partnership (GARP) was formed in the wake of international and national efforts for AMR curtailment. A group of experts from microbiology, infectious diseases and veterinary medicine formed a core group at the organizational meet...ing of GARP in Kathmandu, Nepal in July 2016. In the meeting, this core group was expanded to include other members from different sectors with the selection of the Chair and co-chairs. These were asked to serve on a voluntary basis, in their own individual capacities, with no personal gains, or gains to the institutions to which they are affiliated. The first phase of GARP took place from 2009 to 2011 and involved four countries: India, Kenya, South Africa and Vietnam. Phase one culminated in the 1st Global Forum on Bacterial Infections, held in October 2011 in New Delhi, India. In 2012, phase two of GARP was initiated with the addition of working groups in Mozambique, Tanzania, Nepal and Uganda. Phase three has added Bangladesh, Lao PDR, Nigeria, Pakistan and Zimbabwe to the network to date.
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The Interim Guidance for Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) outlines recommendations, considerations and methods to raise awareness, manage risk perception, maintain trust and proactively support people at risk to make informed decisions to protect themselves and others from monkeypo...x. The guidance includes recommendations on identifying and communicating with affected populations and key audiences and avoiding stigma in communications outreach. It also includes key messages about symptoms of monkeypox, transmission, prevention measures, and communicating about uncertainty. This document also provides RCCE guidance for managers and planners of gatherings and events, where close physical contact may create an environment conducive for the transmission of monkeypox. Additionally, this document includes a compendium of recommendations for RCCE methods and resources to support the monkeypox response.
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The WHO Living guideline: Drugs to prevent COVID-19 contains the Organization’s most up-to-date recommendations for the use of drugs to prevent COVID-19. The latest version of this living guideline is available in pdf format (via the ‘Download’ button) and via an online platform.
Guidelines ...regarding the use of drugs to treat (rather than prevent) COVID-19 are included in a separate WHO document, Therapeutics and COVID-19: living guideline, that can via an online platform and in pdf format (or click ‘PDF’ in top right corner of online platform). Guidelines regarding the clinical management of COVID-19 patients are included in a further document, COVID-19 Clinical management: Living guideline, that can be accessed via an online platform and in pdf format (or click ‘PDF’ in top right corner of online platform).
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The WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2022 provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic, and of progress in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the disease, at global, regional and country levels. This is done in the context of global TB commitments, strategies and targets.
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The 2022 edition of the report is as usual, based primarily on data gathered by WHO from national ministries of health in annual rounds of data collection. In 2022, 202 countries and territories with more than 99% of the world’s population and TB cases reported data
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The WHO Global tuberculosis report 2024 provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic, and of progress in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the disease, at global, regional and country levels. This is done in the context of global TB commitments, strategies and targets.
This checklist is an operational tool to help national authorities develop or revise national respiratory pathogen (inclusive of influenza and coronaviruses) pandemic preparedness plans.