Prepared by the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response for the WHO Executive Board, January 2021
“The world was not as prepared as it should have been, and it must do better,” concludes a WHO panel reviewing the pandemic response "
The growing understanding of how sequence information can contribute to improved public health is driving global investments in sequencing facilities and programmes. The falling cost and complexity of generating GSD provides opportunities for expanding sequencing capacity; however, challenges to wid...espread implementation remain. This document provides policy-makers and stakeholders with guidance on how to maximize the public health benefit of SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequencing activities in the short and long term as the pandemic continues to unfold. Practical considerations for the implementation of a virus genomic sequencing programme and an overview of the public health objectives of genomic sequencing are covered. This guidance focuses on SARS-CoV-2 but is applicable to other pathogens of public health concern.
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Working Paper 589 July 2021T
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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Le nombre de cas de COVID-19 augmente à nouveau, l’Afrique du Sud comptant pour près de la moitié de tous les cas confirmés de la Région africaine de l’OMS. La menace de nouveaux variants plane, et la faible couverture vaccinale soulève des questions concernant les mesures qui devront êtr...e prises pour lutter contre la COVID-19. Dans la plupart des pays d’Afrique subsaharienne, la prévention reste la stratégie clé. Dans ce document, cinq centres nationaux de la plateforme de l’Observatoire africain de la santé sur les systèmes et politiques de santé (AHOP), basés en Éthiopie, au Kenya, au Nigéria, au Rwanda et au Sénégal analysent les leçons à tirer de leurs mesures d’endiguement respectives lors despremières phases de la pandémie.
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8 January 2021
Sequencing enabled the world to rapidly identify SARS-CoV-2 and develop diagnostic tests and other tools for outbreak management. Continued genome sequencing supports the monitoring of the disease’s spread and evolution of the virus. Accelerated integration of genome sequencing int...o the practices of the global health community is required if we want to be better prepared for the future threats. This document provides guidance for laboratories on maximizing the impact of SARS-CoV-2 sequencing now and other emerging pathogens in the future.
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Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are the principal cause of morbidity, disability and premature mortality in Azerbaijan. The most effective way to reduce the NCD burden is to prevent NCD development, by addressing thebehavioural risk factors underlying NCDs at the population and individual leve...ls: smoking, alcohol use, excessive salt intake, low physical activity, overweight and obesity, and unhealthy diets. In Azerbaijan, a national survey of the prevalence of major NCD risk factors, aligned with the WHO-endorsed STEPwise approach to surveillance (STEPS) methodology, was conducted in 2017.
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The second edition of the joint WHO, WIPO and WTO
publication “Promoting Access to Medical Technologies
and Innovation: Intersections between public health,
intellectual property and trade” (the Trilateral Study),*
published in 2020, included a special insert mappi...ng the
challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in relation
to the integrated health, trade and IP policy framework set
out in the study. The Trilateral Study and the special insert
were designed to serve as background reference for policy-
makers in the widest sense – lawmakers, government
officials, delegates to international organizations, non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) and researchers
who seek a comprehensive presentation of the full range
of issues, including institutions and legal concepts with
which they may be unfamiliar. It is also designed to serve
as a factual resource for the three organizations’ technical
cooperation activities.
This update revises the information contained in that
insert in the light of more recent developments as of
30 August 2021. Further updates will be made to reflect
subsequent developments.
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The overview of findings from five Latin American countries
Guidance for clinical case management of thrombosis syndrome with thrombocytopenia (TTS) following vaccination to prevent coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
Interim guidance 19 July 2021
This report of the EFSA and ECDC presents the results of zoonoses monitoring activities carried out in 2020 in 27 EU Member States (MS) and nine non-MS. Key statistics on zoonoses and zoonotic agents in humans, food, animals and feed are provided and interpreted historically.
Wet markets have been implicated in multiple zoonotic outbreaks, including COVID-19. They are also a conduit for legal and illegal trade in wildlife, which threatens thousands of species. Yet wet markets supply food to millions of people around the world, and differ drastically in their physical com...position, the goods they sell, and the subsequent risks they pose. As such, policy makers need to know how to target their actions to efficiently safeguard human health and biodiversity without depriving people of ready access to food.
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Mortality due to enteric infections is projected to increase because of global warming; however, the different temperature sensitivities of major enteric pathogens have not yet been considered in projections on a global scale. We aimed to project global temperature-attributable enteric infection mor...tality under various future scenarios of sociodemographic development and climate change.
The Lancet Planetary Health Volume 5, ISSUE 7, e436-e445, July 01, 2021
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RÉSUMÉ D’ORIENTATION
L’objectif des présentes orientations est de renforcer la capacité des établissements de santé à protéger et à améliorer la santé des communautés desservies face à un climat instable et changeant ; et de donner aux établissements de santé les moyens d’assur...er leur durabilité environnementale, grâce à une meilleure utilisation des ressources et à une diminution du rejet de déchets dans l’environnement. En étant résilients au changement climatique et écologiquement viables, les établissements de santé peuvent offrir des soins de qualité et des services plus accessibles, et en contribuant à réduire les coûts des établissements, ils garantissent également la prestation de soins plus abordables. Ils représentent par conséquent un élément important de la couverture sanitaire universelle (CSU).
Le présent document a pour objectif de :
guider les professionnels travaillant dans des structures de soins de santé de manière à ce qu’ils comprennent les risques sanitaires supplémentaires liés au changement climatique et qu’ils s’y préparent efficacement ;
renforcer la capacité à exercer une surveillance efficace des maladies liées au climat ; et à suivre, anticiper, gérer les risques sanitaires associés au changement climatique et à s’y adapter ;
inciter les responsables des établissements de santé à collaborer avec les secteurs déterminants pour la santé (notamment l’eau et l’assainissement, l’énergie, les transports, l’alimentation, l’urbanisme, l’environnement) afin de se préparer aux risques sanitaires supplémentaires posés par le changement climatique grâce à l’adoption d’une approche de résilience, et à promouvoir des pratiques écologiquement durables dans la prestation des services ;
fournir des outils pour aider les responsables des établissements de santé à évaluer leur résilience face aux menaces liées au changement climatique et leur durabilité environnementale, sur la base de l’utilisation appropriée des ressources (en particulier l’eau et l’énergie et les achats durables), et du rejet de matières dangereuses (biologiques, chimiques, radiologiques) dans leur environnement ;
promouvoir des mesures visant à garantir que les établissements de santé soient constamment et de plus en plus solides et continuent d’être efficaces et réactifs pour améliorer la santé et contribuer à réduire les inégalités et la vulnérabilité dans leur contexte local.
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The World Health Organization organized a Consultation of National Leprosy Programme managers, partners and affected persons to discuss the draft Global Leprosy Strategy, 2021--2030. This virtual event took place from 26 to 30 October 2020. It was attended by more than 450 stakeholders. Contribution...s were shared through 70 presentations made by stake holders from all Regions. The presentations covered the key strategic approaches: global context, challenges in countries, contact tracing and post exposure prophylaxis, disability care, interruption of transmission and elimination of disease, stigma and d iscrimination, research. In addition to numerous comments received through the chat box and by email, the conclusions and recommendations of this Consultation will guide finalizing the post 2020 Global Leprosy Strategy.
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This document provides guidance on how to implement contact screening and chemoprophylaxis with single-dose rifampicin. The contents are logically ordered: counselling and obtaining consent, identification and listing of index case, listing of contacts, tracing of contacts, screening of contacts, ad...ministration of prophylactic drugs. Managerial aspects to undertake contact screeninig and chemoprophylaxis are also elaborated, including planning , training , supervision and drug management.
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