This ten year global plan for measles and rubella outlines the strategy that needs to be fully implemented to achieve the measles and rubella goals endorsed by the World Health Assembly. The plan sets out the: vision, goals and targets for the 2011-2020 period, recommended strategies, guiding princi...ples, priorities, costing of reaching the targets, and the challenges as well as ways to overcome them.
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Annual report on global preparednessfor health emergencies
The next pandemic is not a question of if, but when—and the world is woefully unprepared, according to the first annual report from the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board. The WHO and the World Bank convened the independent group after ...the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Global News reports. Within 36 hours, a contagion like the 1918 flu could sweep the globe and take 50 to 80 million lives while wreaking havoc on the global economy, the report warns. And that’s just one possibility.
What would it take to get prepared? An investment of $1-$2 per person per year could create “acceptable” level of preparedness.
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AVADAR is a mobile sms-based software application designed to improve the quality and sensitivity of Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) surveillance by health workers and key informants within hospital facilities and local communities.
The idea is simple: Health workers visit remote villages to check if... local inhabitants have any symptoms of a range of life-threatening infectious diseases, including polio and measles. Then, with the mobile app, they quickly and easily alert WHO.
The AFP video component was developed by World Health Organization (WHO) and eHA, and the software design component was handled by Novel-T. To date, eHA has translated the app into 17 languages.
Informant Selection & Capacity Building
The selection of informants (including health workers) was led by the WHO and each country’s Ministry of Health team. Once selected, screening and training was jointly conducted by WHO, the Ministries of Health, and eHealth Africa team.
In several countries, “special informants” with limited literacy participate in the project via a simplified version of the app that only requires a “yes” or “no” response to having seen a child with AFP symptoms
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IN THE AMOUNT OF SDR 21.8 MILLION (US$30 MILLION EQUIVALENT) WITH AN ADDITIONAL GRANT FROM THE GLOBAL FINANCING FACILITY (GFF) IN THE AMOUNT OF US$ 10 MILLION TO THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO FOR A HUMAN DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMS STRENGTHENING PROJECT
The report provides a brief introduction to patents and licences and their effect on the market for antiretroviral (ARV) medicines. It gives an overview of the patent landscape with respect to a select number of ARV medicines in developing countries as of April 2014. The focus is primarily on those ...ARVs that are recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as new ARVs that have either recently obtained regulatory approval or are in phase III clinical trials.
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The scale of West Africa’s Ebola epidemic has been attributed to the weak health systems of affected countries,
their lack of resources, the mobility of communities and their inexperience in dealing with Ebola. This briefing for African Affairs argues that these explanations lack important contex...t. The briefing examines responses to the outbreak and offers a different set of explanations, rooted in the history of the region and the political economy of global health and development. To move past technical discussions of “weak” health systems, it highlights how structural violence has contributed to the epidemic. As part of this, local people – their beliefs, concerns and priorities – have been marginalised. Both the crisis response and post-Ebola ‘reconstruction’ will be strengthened by acknowledgment of its long term structural underpinnings and from a more collaborative inclusion of local people.
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To complement the Global Strategy progress reporting, this report provides a detailed look at country leadership and action toward the Every Newborn National Milestones by 2020. Countries have taken the initiative to show the way forward and have demonstrated significant progress. As part of monitor...ing this progress, countries have adopted the Every Newborn Tracking Tool. This report presents a compilation of the data collated by the Every Newborn Tracking Tool in 2016, when 51 countries adopted the tool; it also spotlights examples of specific country activity for each National Milestone. Finally, Global Milestones for 2020 were part of the Every Newborn Action Plan to guide global and regional work in support of country efforts and this report highlights relevant progress towards those Global Milestones.
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Key facts about major deadly diseases.This manual provides concise and up-to-date knowledge on 15 infectious diseases that have the potential to become international threats, and tips on how to respond to each of them.
You can download an interactive version directly at the website
http://www.who....int/emergencies/diseases/managing-epidemics/en/
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A Focus on the Journey to Self-Reliance for Preventing Child and Maternal Deaths . June 2018
The 2018 Acting on the Call report focuses on 25 countries’ journeys to self-reliance for preventing child and maternal deaths. Self-reliance is a country’s ability to finance and implement solution...s to its own development challenges. Understanding where countries lie on this effort - known as the journey to self-reliance - helps USAID to best partner with countries and support their efforts.
The report looks at the health status of 25 priority countries as well as the current capacity of the health system to meet the needs of women and children. In the report, we recount progress since the 2012 Call to Action as well as identify gaps in order to inform future programming and areas that need strengthening during the journey to self-reliance. For the first time ever, we’ve calculated the return on our investment to eliminate bottlenecks to improving health services.
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Histoplasmosis is a disease caused by the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum. This disease is highly endemic in some regions of North America, Central America, and South America and is also reported in certain countries of Asia and Africa. It often affects people with impaired immunity, including people ...living with HIV, among whom the most frequent clinical presentation is disseminated histoplasmosis. The symptoms of disseminated histoplasmosis are non-specific and may be indistinguishable from those of other infectious diseases, especially disseminated tuberculosis (TB), thus complicating diagnosis and treatment. Histoplasmosis is one of the most frequent opportunistic infections caused by fungal pathogens among people living with HIV in the Americas and may be responsible for 5–15% of AIDS-related deaths every year in this Region. These guidelines aim to provide recommendations for the diagnosis, treatment, and management of disseminated histoplasmosis in persons living with HIV
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The COVID-19 pandemic is a multiplier of vulnerability, compounding threats to food insecurity, while exposing weaknesses in food and health systems. It is severely undermining the capacity of communities to cope in times of crisis and has become a stress test for political and economic stability.
This manual for trainers outlines the information and materials required to undertake training in line with the WASH FIT Guide, including background documents, the content of the recommended training modules and training evaluation approaches. The modular approach outlined enables trainers to decide... on all topics that are most useful to support the delivery of targeted training at the local level. It also provides sample training schedules, evaluation forms and is linked to a full set of interactive, adult-learning focused, training slides.
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The Strategy to respond to antimalarial drug resistance in Africa is a technical and advocacy document, grounded in the best available evidence to date and aimed at minimizing the threat and impact of antimalarial drug resistance of Plasmodium falciparum parasites in Africa. Its objectives are to: i...) improve the detection of resistance to ensure a timely response; ii) delay the emergence of resistance to artemisinin and artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) partner drugs; and iii) limit the selection and spread of resistant parasites where resistance has been confirmed.
WHO Team
Global Malaria Programme
Editors
World Health Organization
Number of pages
87
Reference numbers
ISBN: 978 92 4 006026 5
Copyright
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The WHO Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) was launched in 2015 to foster AMR surveillance and inform strategies to contain AMR. The system started with surveillance of AMR in bacteria causing common human infections and has expanded its scope to include surveillance... of antimicrobial consumption (AMC), invasive fungal infections, and a One Health surveillance model relevant to human health. To meet future challenges, it is in continuous evolution to enhance the quality and representativeness of data to inform the AMR burden accurately. As of the end of 2022, 127 countries, territories and areas participate in GLASS.
The fifth GLASS report, produced in collaboration with Member States, summarizes 2020 data on AMR rates in common bacteria from countries, territories, and areas. The report brings new features, including analyses of population testing coverage or AMR trends. For the first time, the report presents 2020 data on AMC at the national level. A new interactive dashboard allow users to explore AMR and AMC global data, country profiles and download the data.
This report marks the end of the early implementation phase of GLASS. In addition to presenting data collected through the latest data call, this report provides a summary of five years of national AMR surveillance data contributed to GLASS from its initiation, presents AMR findings in the context of progress of country participation in GLASS and in global AMR surveillance coverage and laboratory quality assurance systems at (sub)national level.
Patterns of antimicrobial consumption are presented by country with a particular focus on antibacterials. The report also presents the antimicrobial consumption according to the WHO AWaRe antibiotic classification, for penicillins and cephalosporines. From a One Health perspective, the report presents antimicrobial consumption data in the human sector expressed in tons to allow a comparison with antimicrobial consumption from other sectors (not included in this report).
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Rabies is entirely preventable, and vaccines, medicines, tools and technologies have long been available to prevent people from dying of dog-mediated rabies. Nevertheless, rabies still kills about 60 000 people a year, of whom over 40% are children under 15, mainly in rural areas of economically dis...advantaged countries in Africa and Asia. Of all human cases, up to 99% are acquired from the bite of an infected dog.
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Rabies is entirely preventable, and vaccines, medicines, tools and technologies have long
been available to prevent people from dying of dog-mediated rabies. Nevertheless, rabies still
kills about 60 000 people a year, of whom over 40% are children under 15, mainly in rural areas
of economically ...disadvantaged countries in Africa and Asia. Of all human cases, up to 99% are
acquired from the bite of an infected dog.
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Promoting and protecting health is essential to human welfare and sustained economic and social development. This was recognized more than 30 years ago by the Alma-Ata Declaration signatories, who noted that Health for All would contribute
both to a better quality of life and also to global peace a...nd security
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Ebola disease and Marburg disease outbreaks continue to occur in Africa, with increased frequency. In addition to resulting in high mortality and morbidity, the outbreaks generate fear and mistrust about the response activities within the communities affected.
Infection prevention and control (IP...C) is a key pillar in the outbreak response; adherence to IPC practices can prevent and control transmission of infections to health and care workers, patients and their family members.
During the 2014-2016 West African Ebola disease outbreak, there was an urgent need for rapid IPC guidance to help support ministries of health, health-care providers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In response, WHO produced several documents related to the outbreak based on expert opinion, including IPC-specific documents and documents on clinical management that also referenced key IPC principles and practices. Since that time, many practices in the field have become institutionalized.
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The Water and Sanitation for Health Facility Improvement Tool (WASH FIT) presents a framework and acts as a guide to support multisectoral action to improve water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in health care. Central to the WASH FIT methodology is training and incremental improvements.
Implementat...ion of WASH FIT requires six preparatory steps at the national level, one of which is conducting national sensitization and training of trainers, followed by facility-level training. At the facility level, step 1 (of five) involves establishing and training a WASH FIT team.
The WASH FIT methodology is outlined in WASH FIT: A practical guide for improving quality of care through water, sanitation and hygiene in health care facilities. Second edition. (the WASH FIT guide), which includes a set of templates designed to help users with each phase of the improvement cycle.
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Small drinking-water supplies commonly experience operational, managerial, technical and resourcing challenges that impact their ability to deliver safe and reliable services. The needs and opportunities associated with these supplies therefore warrant explicit consideration in policies and regulati...ons.
These Guidelines, specifically tailored to small water supplies, build on over 60 years of guidance by the World Health Organization (WHO) on drinking-water quality and safety. They focus on establishing drinking-water quality regulations and standards that are health based and context appropriate; on proactively managing risks through water safety planning and sanitary inspections; and on carrying out independent surveillance. The guidance is intended primarily for decision-makers at national and subnational levels with responsibility for developing regulatory frameworks and support programmes related to these activities. Other stakeholders involved in water service provision will also benefit from the guidance in this document.
Designed to be practical and accessible, these Guidelines offer clear guidance that is rooted in the principle of progressive improvement. State-of-the-art recommendations and implementation guidance are provided, drawn from a comprehensive evidence review and established good practices. Additionally, case examples are provided from countries and areas around the world to demonstrate how the guidance in this publication has been implemented in practice in a wide variety of contexts.
Together with WHO’s 2024 Sanitary inspection packages – a supporting tool for the Guidelines for drinking-water quality: small water supplies, these Guidelines update and supersede WHO’s 1997 Guidelines for drinking-water quality. Volume 3: surveillance and control of community supplies. Key changes to this updated publication include a greater focus on preventive risk management and a broader range of small water supplies covered, including those managed by households, communities and professional entities.
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