This document is based on currently available scientific evidence on treatment for drug use disorders and sets out a framework for the implementation of the Standards, in line with principles of public health care. The Standards identify major components and features of effective systems for the tre...atment of drug use disorders. They describe treatment modalities and interventions to match the needs of people at different stages and severities of drug use disorders, in a manner consistent with the treatment of any chronic disease or health condition. The Standards are aspirational, and such, national or local treatment services or systems need not attempt to meet all the standards and recommendations made in this document all at once. However over time, progressive quality improvement, with ‘evidence-based and ethical practice’ as an objective, can and should be expected to achieve better organized, more effective and ethical systems and services for people with drug use disorders.
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Enabling young children to achieve their full developmental potential is a human right and an essential requisite for sustainable development. Given the critical importance of enabling children to make the best start in life, the health sector, among other sectors, has an important role and responsi...bility to support nurturing care for early childhood development. This guideline provides direction for strengthening policies and programmes to better address early childhood development.
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This revision to the Disaster Management Team’s (DMT) multi-sector response plan for COVID-19 is meant to align the multi-sector plan with the Department of Health’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Plan issued on 24 April 2020.
Physical distancing measures are important to reduce COVID-19 transmission. However, when stringently applied, they can result in negative health and socio-economic impacts. This report draws on a rapid review of available literature, case studies from across Africa and expert knowledge to make reco...mmendations on adapting classic physical distancing measures to the contextual realities in Africa and on mitigating potential negative impacts.
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In response to the first cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) reported on the continent, many African Union Member States implemented large-scale public health and social measures (PHSM) rapidly. These measures were aimed at reducing transmission and the number of new cases being reported, p...rotecting the most vulnerable populations, and allowing time for countries to ramp up critical healthcare and diagnostic services. While these quick actions bought time for Member States, the negative socio-economic impacts are being felt widely, and countries are now exploring how best to ease these measures back while still managing the outbreak.
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his revision to the Disaster Management Team’s (DMT) multi-sector response plan for COVID-19 is meant to align the multi-sector plan with the Department of Health’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Plan issued on 24 April 2020. Additionally, at the time of this version, the Department of Education an...d Department for Community Development and Religion have also issued their own national COVID-19 response and recovery plans.
The Government’s plan maintains a health sector focus and plans for a ‘worst case’ scenario, articulating the process of progressing into containment and subsequently mitigation of community transmission and on to recovery. It presents an opportunity to improve the core capacities of the whole of government, to see where both health and non-health sectors fit in and respond in the immediate and medium terms, and to adapt to the ‘new normal’ that this coronavirus has inevitably presented
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This document updates the earlier version published in April 2020. In recent weeks, information on the potential use of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of people with COVID-19 has been disseminated in academic journals and public media. Although there are now ongoing clinical tri...als testing the efficacy and safety of several medicines for COVID-19, as of the date of this document, there is a lack of quality evidence to demonstrate chloroquine and/or hydroxychloroquine are effective in the treatment of COVID-19. Evidence is recently emerging via small studies with sub-optimal methodologies that are conflicting.
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This document offers guidance to Member States in the African region on the key steps used to conduct contact tracing related to the COVID-19 response. It is to be used by national and local health authorities in the implementation of tracing of contacts of probable and confirmed COVID-19 cases.
The State of the world’s nursing 2020 report provides the latest, most up-to-date evidence on and policy options for the global nursing workforce. It also presents a compelling case for considerable – yet feasible – investment in nursing education, jobs, and leadership.
The primary chapters... of the report outline the role and contributions of nurses with respect to the WHO “triple billion” targets; the health labour market and workforce policy levers to address the challenges to nurses working to their full potential; the findings from analysis of National Health Workforce Account (NHWA) data from 191 Member States and progress in relation to the projected shortfall of nurses by 2030; and forward-looking policy options for an agenda to strengthen the nursing workforce to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals, improve health for all, and strengthen the primary health care workforce on our journey towards universal health coverage.
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Using the WHO model list of essential medicines to update a national essential medicines list
Since 1977, WHO has been working with countries to design the package of essential medicines as an integral component of treatment within the continuum of care, developing and disseminating the Model List ...of Essential Medicines (Model List). WHO is committed to supporting Member States in sharing best practices in selecting
essential medicines, and in developing processes for the selection of medicines for national essential medicines lists (national EMLs, or NEMLs) consistent with the evidence-based methods used for updating the WHO Model List.
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Outline
• Welcome and objectives
• Microbiology, epidemiology and clinical presentation
• Surveillance for imported cases including case definitions
• Laboratory diagnosis • Infection prevention and hospital readiness
• Patient flow and actions required at each step
• Co-ord...inating a public health response
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22nd edition
Each of the 20 chapters deals with aspects of the UHC journey, dedicated towards an equitable and inclusive national health system that leaves no-one behind. While some authors describe the fundamental changes and practical considerations required to reconfigure the country's health sy...stem, others have reflected on specific programmatic areas and have made recommendations from a National Health Insurance (NHI)/UHC lens.
In addition, we are pleased to announce that this year's edition includes two innovations. First is the provision of concise summaries of the chapters in the form of 'chapters at a glance'. These are positioned together at the start of the publication for ease of reference and to give a quick overview. The second innovation is the introduction of our Healthcare Workers' Writing Programme (HCWWP), which provides support to first-time authors wanting to publish in the Review.
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COVID-19 outbreak is associated with the generation of many types of infectious wastes, including infected masks, gloves and other protective equipment, together with a higher volume of general waste of the same nature.
Refugee protection in the country is provided within the framework of these international and national refugee laws as well as the core international human rights treaties that have been ratified by the country. Continued insecurity within neighbouring states has resulted in sustained refugee moveme...nts, either directly as a result of internal conflict and human rights abuses or as a result of conflict related to competition for scare natural resources and drought related food insecurity.
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The purpose of this document is to provide relevant information and guidelines on
coronavirus outbreaks – and in particular the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and the
diseases it produces, COVID-19 – for pharmacists and the pharmacy workforce, both in a
primary care context (i.e. community phar...macies and primary healthcare facilities) and in
hospital settings, as well as for pharmacists working as clinical biologists in medical
analysis laboratories, for example, as clinical biologists, and offer a set of references that
may be consulted for more informationstor
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Antimalarial drug resistance has emerged as a threat to global malaria control efforts, particularly in the Greater Mekong subregion. Drawing on data collected through more than 1000 therapeutic efficacy studies as well as molecular marker studies of Plasmodium falciparum drug resistance, the Report... on antimalarial drug efficacy, resistance and response: 10 years of surveillance (2010–2019) presents a decade’s worth of data on drug efficacy and surveillance, as well as recommendations to monitor and protect the efficacy of malaria treatment in the decades to come.
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South Africa has a long history of community health workers (CHWs). It has been a journey that has required balancing constrained resources and competing priorities. CHWs form a bridge between communities and healthcare service provision within health facilities and act as the cornerstone of South A...frica’s Ward-Based Primary Healthcare Outreach Teams. This study aimed to document the CHW policy implementation landscape across six provinces in South Africa and explore the reasons for local adaptation of CHW models and to identify potential barriers and facilitators to implementation of the revised framework to help guide and inform future planning.
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