Trachoma is an eye infection that for thousands of years caused many people to go blind across all continents. As the result of development and targeted interventions, trachoma is now limited to an estimated 57 countries, often affecting the poorest
populations of the world. Today, more than 2 mill...ion people are either blind or suffer from a very painful disability as the result of trachoma.
more
WHO needs US$2.54 billion to provide life-saving assistance to millions of people around the world facing health emergencies. WHO’s Health Emergency Appeal is a consolidation of WHO’s priorities and financial requirements for 2023 to carry out health interventions in emergency and humanitarian r...esponses. The number of people in need of humanitarian relief has increased by almost a quarter compared to 2022, to a record 339 million. WHO is responding to an unprecedented number of intersecting health emergencies: climate change-related disasters such as flooding in Pakistan and food insecurity across the Sahel in the greater Horn of Africa; the war in Ukraine; and the health impact of conflict in Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria and north eastern Ethiopia – all of these emergencies overlapping with the health system disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and outbreaks of measles, cholera, and other killers. Contributions to the appeal can be fully flexible, flexible across a region, or flexible within a country appeal.
more
This strategy defines the World Health Organization (WHO) vision and framework for supporting Member States to accelerate the development, implementation and monitoring of their National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) from 2022 to 2026. The National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) ...are critical to ensure national capacities in health emergency prevention, preparedness, response and recovery are planned, built, strengthened and sustained in order to achieve national, regional and global health security and therefore keep the world safe, serve the vulnerable and promote health.
The strategy promotes, where existing, the use of existing national action plans for health security and not necessary the creation of an additional unique plan. This will avoid duplication and ensure maximum efficiency in domestic resourcing and operationalization efficiency while harnessing external buy-in to support national health priorities.
more
This fourth annual report monitors global progress towards the 2023 target for global elimination of industrially produced trans-fatty acids (TFA), highlighting achievements during the past year (October 2021 – September 2022). Countries are responding to the World Health Organization (WHO) call t...o action by putting into place best-practice TFA policies. Mandatory TFA policies are currently in effect for 3.4 billion people in 60 countries (43% of the world population); of these, 43 countries have best-practice policies in effect, covering 2.8 billion people (36% of the world population).
Over the past year, several additional countries took action to eliminate industrially produced TFA: best-practice policies came into effect in India in January 2022, Uruguay in May 2022 and Oman in July 2022. Best-practice policies were passed in Bangladesh in November 2021 (to come into effect in December 2022) and in Ukraine in September 2020 (to come into effect in October 2023), best-practice TFA policies are projected to pass soon in Mexico, Nigeria and Sri Lanka.
more
This document provides an overview of WHO's Refugee and migrant health toolkit, a web-based one-stop comprehensive platform of tools and resources to support the global, regional, and country efforts in implementing health and migration-related activities.
To support its R&D activities on Chagas disease, DNDi launched the Chagas Clinical Research Platform (CCRP). The platform brings together partners, experts, and stakeholders to provide support for evaluation and development of new treatments for Chagas disease. The patient-centred platform aims to f...acilitate clinical research, provide a forum for technical discussions, develop a critical mass of expertise, and strengthen institutional research capacities. In addition, it identifies and reviews priority needs, works towards standardization of methodology to assess drug efficacy and reviews alternatives for using current approved drugs (new schemes, doses, combination) and special scenarios (resistance).
more
Chagas disease (CD) is endemic in the Americas, being present in 21 countries, where it affects about 6 million
people.(1) With such relevant numbers of people affected and disability adjusted life years lost, CD is a poverty-related
and poverty-promoting disease.
Although data describe a relevan...t ongoing public health problem for the American continent, significant results
in the interruption of transmission has been achieved by coordinated multi-country programs. In particular, the
Southern Cone Initiative (SCI), officially formalised in November 1991 by the Ministers of Health of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, has shown how a well-designed control program can significantly reduce
CD transmission.(2) Before this initiative, in these countries, there were 11 million infected persons and 50 million at
risk, 62% of the infected individuals of the whole continent.
more
Urogenital schistosomiasis is a common neglected tropical disease in many rural communities in African countries, with patches of infection in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Globally, an estimated 239 million people are currently infected, with burden estimated at more than 3.5 million disability...-adjusted life years (DALYs). In many endemic areas, severely infected individuals may suffer fibrosis of the bladder, kidney damage, bladder cancer, and death if untreated. This, however, depends on several factors such as host-parasite genetics, degree and length of exposure, intensity of infection, host immune response to the parasites, and coinfections with other tropical diseases such as malaria and HIV-1.
more
This sourcebook aims to detail why health needs to be part of urban and territorial planning and how to make this happen. It brings together two vital elements we need to build habitable cities on a habitable planet: 1) Processes to guide the development of human settlements – in this document ref...erred to as “urban and territorial planning (UTP)”; and 2) concern for human health, well-being and health equity at all levels – from local to global, and from human to planetary health.
This sourcebook identifies a comprehensive selection of existing resources and tools to support the incorporation of health into UTP, including advocacy frameworks, entry points and guidance, as well as tools and illustrative case studies. It does not provide prescriptions for specific scenarios – these should be determined by context, people and available resources.
more
These country profiles present progress on implementation of policy recommendations of the Global Action Plan on Physical Activity (GAPPA) 2018-2030 in each country. They also present an estimate of the cost to health systems of not taking action to improve physical activity levels and reinforce th...e urgency to position physical activity as a shared, whole-of-government priority, and to strengthen coordination and partnerships to promote physical activity.
more
The Return Counselling Toolkit is a capacity-building instrument aimed at providing a harmonized and coherent approach to return counselling, based on key migrant-centred principles while protecting migrants’ rights. Mindful of the specific needs and rights pertaining to children, this additional ...module on counselling children and families further complements the first five modules of the Return Counselling Toolkit. It provides specialized guidance on how to prepare and deliver return counselling to accompanied, unaccompanied and separated children while upholding child rights and safeguards.
more
This thematic brief accompanies the Working for Health 2022–2030 Action Plan, serving as a rationale to the related actions of the Working for Health progression model (see Annex). The brief aims to inform Member States, non-state actors and other users of the Action Plan to guide action on inves...tments on strengthening protection and performance of the health and care workforce, including the relevant policy landscape, key challenges and future directions.
In doing so, it provides an expanded exploration of the themes beyond what is provided in the Action Plan itself and reflects the topical issues and considerations that shaped its design, including those issues identified in the World Health Assembly Resolution WHA74.14 to protect, safeguard and invest in the health and care workforce (1). The importance of these themes was again emphasized at the Seventy-fifth World Health Assembly, when Resolution WHA75.17: Human resources for health was co-sponsored by over 100 Member States, calling for the adoption and implementation of the Working for Health 2022–2030 Action Plan and utilization of the related Global Health and Care Worker Compact
more
The domestic regulation of public health emergencies (PHEs) is inextricably linked to the regulation of other types of disaster. PHEs are usually governed at least partly by general disaster and emergency laws. Moreover, there is significant overlap in the legal mechanisms used to respond to PHEs an...d other types of disaster, including the declaration of a state of disaster or emergency and the use of emergency powers. Even where PHEs are regulated by separate instruments, those instruments must surmount many of the same policy and practical challenges as general disaster laws, such as finely balancing competing considerations (e.g. speedy response versus due process), facilitating the coordination of a multitude of actors, and protecting the most vulnerable within society. Finally, many contemporary developments in disaster risk management (DRM), such as a greater emphasis on risk reduction and preparedness, are just as pertinent to PHEs as to other types of disaster.
more
The development of this target product profile (TPP) was led by the WHO Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) following standard WHO guidance for TPP development. In order to identify and prioritize diagnostic needs, a WHO NTD Diagnostics Technical Advisory Group (DTAG) was form...ed, and different subgroups were created to advise on specific NTDs, including a subgroup working on the human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) diagnostic innovation needs. This group of independent experts included leading scientists, public health officials and endemic-country end-user representatives. Standard WHO Declaration of Interest procedures were followed. A landscape analysis of the available products and of the development pipeline was conducted, and the salient areas with unmet needs were identified.
more
In support of the London Declaration goals, PATH aims to catalyze engagement of the diagnostics industry and product development efforts. As part of this work, PATH conducted a diagnostic landscape analysis to identify gaps and evaluated current and nascent HAT diagnostics that may provide solutions....
We conducted literature reviews and interviews with key stakeholders to identify use cases for HAT diagnostics, understand current practices, and analyze progress toward more robust diagnostics across
different biomarkers.
more
This training module is designed to equip health workers (HWs) with
knowledge, skills, confidence and resources to help them in their role to recommend the Human Papillomavirus
(HPV) vaccine.
Cholera which disproportionally impacts poor countries and the most vulnerable continues to affect at least 47 countries across the globe, resulting in an estimated 1.3 – 4 million cases, and 21,000 - 143,000 deaths per year worldwide. In Ethiopia, despite major improvements seen in the increasing... access to healthcare, clean water, and improvement in maternal and child health, the country continues to be significantly affected by cholera outbreaks. From 2015 – 2021 for example, several outbreaks of cholera have occurred in multiple parts of the country resulting in over 105,000 cases and thousands of deaths. Some of the risk factors associated with cholera in Ethiopia include inadequate access to clean water, practice of open defecation, poor household and environmental sanitation, unhygienic latrine and weak sanitation practise among communities.
more
This handbook is intended primarily for front-line health care providers who are likely to see children (among other clients) in their day-to-day practice. These may include general practitioners, nurses, midwives, gynaecologists,
paediatricians, mental health professionals, first responders and st...aff in emergency care.
Other professionals who may find it useful include social workers, those working in social welfare institutions, providers of psychosocial support, and those working in child care facilities and the education system.
Further, the content will benefit the work of policy-makers and managers to enable and support provision of clinical care to children experiencing, or who have experienced, child maltreatment.
more
Since 2000, concerted efforts by national programmes, supported by public–private partnerships, nongovernmental organizations, donors and academia under the auspices and coordination of the World Health Organization (WHO), have produced important achievements in the control of human African trypan...osomiasis (HAT). As a consequence, the disease was targeted for elimination as a public health problem by 2020. The Sixty-sixth World Health Assembly endorsed this goal in resolution WHA66.12 on neglected tropical diseases, adopted in 2013.
National sleeping sickness control programmes (NSSCPs) are core to progressing control of the disease and in adapting to the different epidemiological situations. The involvement of different partners, as well as the support and trust of long-term donors, has been crucial for the achievements.
more
Over the past few weeks, members of the C4PTF for the Ukraine Response have started mapping the different protection risks that refugees and IDPs are facing in Ukraine and while travelling. This work has been notably built upon efforts conducted in each country, such as the GBV Risk Analysis for CVA... in Ukraine.
more