The WHO COVID-19 Clinical management: living guidance contains the most up-to-date recommendations for the clinical management of people with COVID-19. Providing guidance that is comprehensive and holistic for the optimal care of COVID-19 patients throughout their entire illness is important.
The 2021 Global monitoring report on financial protection in health shows that before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was off-track to reduce financial hardship due to health expenditures because trends in catastrophic health spending were going in the wrong direction and the number of people incur...ring impoverishing health spending remained unacceptably high (Chapter 1). Chapter 2 summarizes emerging evidence on the consequence of the pandemic and the related macroeconomic and fiscal crisis that points to the likely worsening of financial protection for households, particularly as a result of declining income and consumption, along with rising poverty and inequality
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Despite the development of point-of-care diagnostic tests for syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhoea, and trichomoniasis, none comply with all WHO criteria. This analysis overviews landscape analyses of point-of-care diagnostic technologies for Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Trichomonas vagi...nalis and syphilis, available and in the pipeline. The target audience for the target product profiles is broad and includes clinicians, researchers working on diagnostics, laboratory experts, including, microbiologists and virologists, public health experts, epidemiologists, developers, and representatives for manufactures, including biotech engineers, policy-and decision-makers as well as representatives from regulatory bodies and agencies, donor agencies and international organizations.
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Skin-related neglected tropical diseases, or “skin NTDs”, are historically neglected because active case detection, individual case management, significant resources and intensive effort are required to control, eliminate and eradicate them. Integrated control and management of skin NTDs offers ...a pathway to overcome some of these past challenges.
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The standards define 10 key competencies for health and care workers to support self-care in their clinical practice as well as the specific, measurable behaviours that demonstrate those competencies, focusing on people-centredness; decision-making; effective communication; collaboration; evidence-i...nformed practice, and personal conduct.
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There is growing international consensus that food systems transformation is important to address the challenges of malnutrition in all its forms, the burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), environmental sustainability, increasing inequality and ensuring the welfare of workers and animals. In li...ght of the urgency of these challenges, there are questions about the role of red and processed meat in healthy and sustainable food systems. Globally, production and consumption of all types of meat has increased substantially in the last 50 years, and – although red meat consumption is now plateauing in high-income countries (HICs) – is predicted to increase by a further 50% by 2050. Meat consumption remains highly unequal both between and within countries, and animal-source food intakes, including red meat, are lowest among those at most risk of undernutrition
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his publication provides an overview of social inequalities in several indicators related to the health of women, children, and adolescents in a region deemed as one with high levels of inequality: Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). In order for it to serve as a baseline for the 2030 Agenda, emp...hasis is placed on examining these inequalities around the year 2014. The analysis suggests that reducing within-country disparities is a priority, as widespread social inequalities in health are identified among LAC countries.
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The WHO Disability-Inclusive Health Services Training Package is a companion to the “WHO Disability-Inclusive Health Services Toolkit: A resource for health facilities in the Western Pacific Region” published by WHO in 2020. This package offers a range of additional training materials including ...presentations, workbooks and videos that will allow users to develop the foundational skills and understanding of the Toolkit for its implementation. Together the Toolkit and Training Package will help ensure equitable access to health services, best-quality outcomes and improved quality of life for all people with disabilities to achieve universal health coverage.
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Safe drinking-water management must consider drinking-water quality, acceptability and quantity in the context of public health protection. In this manual, the term “safety” encompasses these three elements. Although the principles in this manual can be broadly applied to all types of drinking-w...ater supplies, the guidance is primarily intended for piped water supplies that are professionally managed (by a water supplier or equivalent management entity).The guidance may be applied to existing drinking-water supplies, or adapted for water supplies that are in the planning stage before construction.
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This checklist is for any organization or person supporting the routine use of evidence in
the process of policy-making. Evidence-informed policy-making (EIPM) is essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and universal health coverage (UHC). Its importance is emphasized in WH...O’s Thirteenth General Programme of
Work 2019–2023 (GPW13). This checklist was developed by the WHO Secretariat of Evidence-Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) to assist its Member countries in institutionalizing EIPM. Government agencies (i.e. the staff of the Ministry of Health),
knowledge intermediaries and researchers focused on strengthening EIPM will find in this checklist some key steps and tools to help their work. While the health sector is a key target group for EVIPNet, this tool can be applied by stakeholders from
different social sectors
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The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is an evidence-based treaty that reaffirms the right of all people to the highest standard of health and was developed in response to the globalization of the tobacco epidemic. Member States of the WHO South-East Asia Region have made... attempts to implement the demand and supply reduction strategies for tobacco control as recommended by the treaty. While recognizing the need to accelerate implementation of the WHO FCTC in the Region, this document has been developed to support the Member States in implementing the treaty using a ‘PRACTICAL’ Approach which pertains to identified demand and supply reduction strategies under the treaty.
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The report aims to capture lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and to highlight the opportunity for more ambitious global action: expanding sustainable access to vaccines for all towards the Immunization Agenda 2030 and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response efforts. The report is organized i...n two sections: the first section provides WHO insights on global vaccine market dynamics, drawing from data provided by Member States, which are, in turn, analysed and displayed in the second section.
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The WHO standard: Universal access to rapid tuberculosis diagnostics sets benchmarks to achieve universal access to WHO-recommended rapid diagnostics (WRDs), increase bacteriologically confirmed tuberculosis and drug resistance detection, and reduce the time to diagnosis. WHO-recommended rapid diagn...ostics are highly accurate, cost-effective, reduce the time to treatment initiation, and impact patient-important outcomes.
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At its 48th session of Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH), the Committee noted the importance of water quality and safety in food production and processing. CCFH requested the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
(FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to provide guidan...ce for those scenarios where the use of “clean water” (i.e. water that does not compromise the safety of the food in the context of its use) was indicated in Codex texts and on
where it is appropriate to use “clean water”. In particular, guidance was sought for the use of irrigation water and “clean” seawater and on the safe reuse of processing water.
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This report presents a framework to link science, policy and practice for a comprehensive assessment of climate mitigation and adaptation investments and their impact on human health.The framework proposes to use weather and climate data to forecast health impacts over time, as well as biophysical a...nd economic models to quantify the outcomes of investments in climate change adaptation and mitigation for relevant sectoral indicators and health co-benefits. It provides guidance on the economic valuation of health co-benefits of climate action, for inclusion in sector-specific cost–benefit analysis (CBA), including the spatial allocation of such costs and benefits.
The framework developed and presented in this study is comprehensive, and provides various entry points for different audiences, including decision-makers in the public and private sectors, researchers and scientists, working in the health sector as well as in other thematic areas and related sectors affected by climate action.
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The overall objective of the framework is to support WHO and Members States in meaningful engagement of people living with NCDs, and mental health and neurological conditions to co-create and enhance related policies, programmes and services. This framework will contribute to advancing understanding..., knowledge and action on meaningful engagement and related participatory approaches from an evolving evidence base. It provides practical guidance and actions for transitioning from intention to action to operationalize meaningful engagement.
The aim of the framework is to guide people working at WHO and in Member States in ensuring meaningful engagement with individuals with lived experience. WHO will advocate for, provide technical assistance and operationalize implementation at its three levels (headquarters, regional and country offices) and will support Member States in implementation at national level through established processes and procedures.
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Q7. SCOPING QUESTION: In adults with moderate-severe depressive disorder, what is the effectiveness and safety of antidepressant medication (ADM) in comparison with psychological treatment?
The WHO mhGAP programme’s existing guidelines recommend that either structured brief psychological treatm...ents (e.g., interpersonal psychotherapy or cognitive behavioural therapy, including behavioural activation) or antidepressant medication (e.g., SSRIsi and tricyclic antidepressants) be considered in adults with moderate-severe depression. Health care workers need to know whether these treatments have different effects, including side-effects, in treating depressive disorder in the short and long term, in order to improve clinical decision-making.
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his first edition describes the standard operating procedures for health products for NTDs amenable to preventive chemotherapy and the medicines donated to treat them. These include albendazole for lymphatic filariasis and soil-transmitted helminthiases; azithromycin for trachoma and yaws; diethylca...rbamazine citrate for lymphatic filariasis; ivermectin for onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis; mebendazole for soil-transmitted helminthiases; praziquantel for schistosomiasis; and triclabendazole for foodborne trematodiases. Standard operating procedures for diseases amenable to case management will be covered in subsequent editions, including the application process for requesting medicines (Chapter 1). In the meantime, the procedures described in the rest of the document apply for both case management and preventive chemotherapy NTD health products.
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Tools and practical guidance for achieving high uptake
Curr Opin Pharmacol . 2022 Apr;63:102203.doi: 10.1016/j.coph.2022.102203. Epub 2022 Feb 11.
The COVID-19 pandemic has widespread economic and social effects on Latin America (LA) and the Caribbean (CA). This region, which has a high prevalence of chronic diseases, has been one of the most affected... during the pandemic. Multiple symptoms and comorbidities are related to distinct COVID-19 outcomes. However, there has been no explanation as to why different patients present with different arrays of clinical presentations. Studies report that similar to comorbidities, each country in LA and the CA has its own particular health issues.
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