Regional Network for Equity in Health in east and southern Africa (EQUINET): Disussion Paper 110
This report compiles evidence from published, grey literature and key informants on the UNMHCP
since its introduction in Uganda’s health system, and findings were further validated during a oneda...y
national stakeholder meeting.
Three main factors motivated introduction of the UNMHCP. First, Uganda, along with other lowincome countries, was unable to implement holistically the primary healthcare (PHC) concepts as set out in the Alma Ata Declaration. Second, the macro-economic restructuring carried out in the 1990s, which was an international conditionality for low-income countries to access development financing, influenced the trend towards more stringent prioritisation of health interventions as a means of rationing and targeting use of resources. Third, the government sought to achieve equity with a service package that would be universally available for all people.
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Health Evidence Network synthesis report 53
Regional Eastern European and Central Asian project (TB-REP) Copenhagen, Denmark, 26–28 April 2016
A Provisional Document. The purpose of this manual is to provide guidance to public health professionals tasked with managing a response to viral hepatitis. As every country’s needs are different with respect to its epidemiology and the current level of response, people would use this manual in di...fferent ways
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The "Global NCD action plan" provides a road map and a menu of policy options for countries to take in order to attain the 9 voluntary global targets, including that of a 25% relative reduction in premature mortality from cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory diseases by 2...025. The main focus of this action plan is on 4 types of NCDs (cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes) which make the largest contribution to morbidity and mortality due to NCDs, and on 4 shared behavioural risk factors (tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, harmful use of alcohol).
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The overall objective of the Global Action Plan is to enhance collaboration among 12 global organizations engaged in health, development and humanitarian responses to accelerate country progress on the health-related SDG targets. The Plan presents a new approach to strengthening collaboration among ...and joint action by the organizations, building on an initial joint commitment made in October 2018. The Plan is primarily intended to be strategic but provides some operational detail to guide implementation while also allowing flexibility for adjustment based on regular reviews of progress and learning from experience. Although the purpose of the Global Action Plan is not to provide or seek additional resources, the Plan will enable better use of existing resources as a result of improved collaboration, recognizing that each agency has its own unique mandate and area of expertise.
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Poor quality health services are holding back progress on improving health in countries at all income levels.
Today, inaccurate diagnosis, medication errors, inappropriate or unnecessary treatment, inadequate or unsafe clinical facilities or practices, or providers who lack adequate training an...d expertise prevail in all countries.
The situation is worst in low and middle-income countries where 10 percent of hospitalized patients can expect to acquire an infection during their stay, as compared to seven percent in high income countries. This is despite hospital acquired infections being easily avoided through better hygiene, improved infection control practices and appropriate use of antimicrobials.. At the same time, one in ten patients is harmed during medical treatment in high income countries.
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Overview: Risk communication and community engagement are essential for any disease outbreak response. This is particularly critical during outbreaks of Ebola which may create fear in the public and frontline responders alike due to severe presentation of symptoms, misunderstanding of the causes of ...illness and high fatality rates. This document outlines some of the key considerations for risk communication and community engagement response to Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Ebola outbreaks have been associated with misinformation and false rumours. In the context of RCCE, rumours refer to unsubstantiated information, claims or beliefs about what is causing the disease or how it can be treated/cured. If not proactively addressed in culturally appropriate ways, misinformation and rumours can lead to the further rapid spread of the disease and unnecessary deaths, severe disease, suffering, and societal and economic loss.
The publication includes a 'Rumour Tracking Tool' (Annex II).
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Male circumcision reduces a man’s risk of heterosexual acquisition of HIV by about 60%. This guideline provides an evidence-based recommendation on the use of adult male circumcision devices for HIV prevention in public health programmes in high HIV prevalence, resource-limited settings. It also p...resents key programmatic considerations for the introduction and use of these devices in public health HIV prevention programmes. The primary audiences are policy- and decision-makers, programme managers, health-care providers, donors and implementing agencies.
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Since the beginning of December a significant increase in the incidence of new cases has been observed particularly along the corridor towards the large urban center of Butembo (health zones of Butembo and Katwa) and beyond in the zone of Kayna health center located about 150 km from Goma. In additi...on, active outbreaks have emerged to the north, particularly in the health zones of Komanda and Oicha.
The third strategic response plan (SRP-3), which covers February through end July 2019, considers the salient points and recommendations made during the operational review of the implementation of the SRP-2 and other guidance based on lessons learned and risk analysis.
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Despite the considerable improvement in global health, millions of people still lack access to quality health services, including access to effective antimicrobial medicines, or are impoverished as a result of health spending. At the same time, antimicrobial resistance – a consequence of overuse a...nd misuse of antimicrobials – is increasingly a barrier to accessing effective care. The declining effectiveness of antibiotics is driven by multiple factors, many of which can be addressed through well functioning primary health care. However, primary health care has not always had much attention in national health sector responses to
antimicrobial resistance, which often focus on tertiary care, laboratory detection and surveillance. The three pillars of primary health care (community engagement, front-line health services including primary care and essential public health, and multisectoral action on wider health determinants) are central not just to Universal Health Coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals, but also to an effective response to antimicrobial resistance.
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Updated 2022. This guide addresses the care pathway from presentation of the patient to a health facility to patient discharge. It considers different levels of disease severity, from asymptomatic individuals to critically ill patients. Accounting for variations in the benefits and harms of chest im...aging in different situations, remarks are provided to describe the circumstances under which each recommendation would benefit patients. The guide also includes implementation considerations for different settings, provides suggestions for impact monitoring and evaluation and identifies knowledge gaps meriting further research.
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This document presents a brief overview of how UNHCR adapts its activities for mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to the changing context of the pandemic. Staff of UNHCR and partners, in country offices in all regions of the world, have developed innovative field practices to continue pr...oviding essential MHPSS services to refugees. The examples in this document are testimony to the commitment and creativity of our staff and can serve as inspiration and encouragement for others to continue integrating MHPSS in the humanitarian work during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The frequency of infectious disease epidemics is increasing, and the role of the health sector in the management of epidemics is crucial in terms of response. In the context of infectious disease epidemics, the use of climate-informed early warning systems (EWS) has the potential to increase the eff...ectiveness of disease control by intervening before or at the beginning of the epidemic curve, instead of during the downward slope.
Currently, the initiation of interventions is heavily reliant on routine disease surveillance systems – data that often arrive too late for preventative response. However, forecasting of disease outbreaks using surveillance and weather information shows promising potential – there also remains further scope to examine seasonal climate forecasts. By combining these elements in new EWS based on computational models, it will be possible to improve both the timeliness and impact of disease control. The World Health Organization (WHO) is strengthening existing surveillance systems for infectious diseases to enable the development of more robust and timely EWS, which has resulted in the rapid development and innovation of EWS for disease outbreaks.
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The WHO continuously reviews available data on SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. For this version, the global epidemiological
situation of the COVID-19 pandemic as of 21 January 2022 – at a time when the Omicron VOC had been identified in 171
countries across all six WHO Regions and was rapidly re...placing Delta worldwide – was considered Omicron has a substantial growth advantage, higher secondary attack rates and a higher observed reproduction number than Delta.
There is now significant evidence that immune evasion contributes to the rapid spread of Omicron. Other factors may be a shorter
serial interval (by about 0.8 to 1.2 days compared to Delta) and potential increased intrinsic transmission fitness . There is
growing evidence that with Omicron, there is lower vaccine effectiveness (VE) against infection and symptomatic disease soon after vaccination compared to Delta. There is also evidence of accelerated waning of VE over time of the primary series against infection and symptomatic disease for the studied vaccines. Further studies are required to better understand the drivers of transmission and declining incidence in various settings. These factors include the intrinsic transmission fitness properties of the virus, degree of immune evasion, vaccination coverage and level of vaccine-derived and post-infection immunity, levels of social mixing and degree of application of public health and social measures (PHSM).
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Nigeria reported its first case of COVID-19 at the end of February 2020 and subsequently experienced
four waves, with peaks in June 2020 and January, August and December 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic
severely impacted the economy of Nigeria and caused disruption of health services nationwide. During... the crisis, many Nigerians failed to access routine health
services due to decreased income and lockdown
restrictions. The most significant service disruptions
were in maternal and newborn health, vaccination,
sick childcare, family planning and noncommunicable
disease treatment services (1). Pregnant women
were anxious about contracting COVID-19 during
2020, and as a result, many avoided attending health
facilities for antenatal (ANC) and postnatal care (PNC).
Disruptions in the medical supply chain and diversion
of resources to COVID-19 management impacted on
essential health services. Health workers were often
unable to go to work because of transport disruptions
or illness
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It is impossible to address the many complex needs of respiratory virus surveillance with a single surveillance system. Multiple systems, investigations and studies must each be fit-for-purpose to specific priority surveillance objectives, and only together can they provide essential information to ...policy-makers. In essence, each surveillance approach fit together as “tiles in a mosaic” that provides a complete picture of respiratory viruses and the impact of associated illnesses and interventions at the country level. This mosaic framework demonstrates how surveillance approaches may be implemented as coordinated and collaborative systems, well-matched to specific priority objectives.
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