This booklet presents key messages for action, summarized from a set of
chapters on different environmental health issues.
New data from the WHO reveal that an estimated 2.2 billion cases of malaria and 12.7 million deaths have been averted since 2000, but the disease remains a serious global health threat, particularly in the WHO African Region. According to WHO’s latest World malaria report, there were an estimated ...263 million cases and 597 000 malaria deaths worldwide in 2023. This represents about 11 million more cases in 2023 compared to 2022, and nearly the same number of deaths. Approximately 95% of the deaths occurred in the WHO African Region, where many at risk still lack access to the services they need to prevent, detect and treat the disease.
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Malaria in pregnancy is a significant health problem in malaria-endemic areas. It not only causes substantial childhood morbidity and mortality but also increases the risks of adverse events for pregnant women and their developing fetuses. Most of the burden in these areas is due to infection with P...lasmodium falciparum. Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) has been recommended as first-line treatment for uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria in all populations, including pregnant women in their second and third trimesters, since 2006. However, for women in their first trimester of pregnancy, WHO recommended as first-line treatment a combination of quinine and clindamycin.
Based on a review of the evidence conducted in 2022, WHO now recommends artemether–lumefantrine, the ACT with the most human safety data available, as the preferred treatment for uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria in the first trimester of pregnancy. This document presents all relevant evidence on the effects and safety in early pregnancy of artemisinins and partner medicines used in ACTs from both studies in experimental animals and observational studies in humans.
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This training module on malaria case management has been developed to support the staff involved in malaria control and elimination programmes in the effective organization of malaria diagnosis and case management services
Growing emergencies and displacements across the world demand increasingly complex interventions and responses. The World Health Organization (WHO) has developed Malaria control in emergencies: a field manual to provide technical guidance to help partners respond effectively to malaria in emergency ...situations. This field manual supersedes the 2013 WHO handbook.
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Provisional recommendations May 2014
The aim of this “model contingency plan” is to assist programme managers and planners in devel-oping a national, context-specific, dengue outbreak response plan in order to: (a) detect a dengue outbreak at an early stage through clearly defined and validated alarm signals; (b) precisely define w...hen a dengue outbreak has started; and (c) organize an early response to the alarm signals or an “emergency response” once an outbreak has started.
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In the area of nutrition and HIV, children deserve special attention because of their additional needs to ensure growth and development and their dependency on adults for adequate care. It was therefore proposed to first develop guidelines for children and thereafter consider a similar approach for... other specific groups.
The content of these guidelines acknowledges that wasting and undernutrition in HIV-infected children reflect a series of failures within the health system, the home and community and not just a biological process related to virus and host interactions. In trying to protect the nutritional well-being or reverse the undernutrition experienced by infected children, issues of food insecurity, food quantity and quality as well as absorption and digestion of nutrients are considered. Interventions are proposed that are practical and feasible in resource-poor settings and offer a prospect for clinical improvement.
The guidelines do not cover the feeding of infants 0 to 6 months old, because the specialised care in this age group is already addressed in other WHO guidelines and documents.
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Oral Health and Dental Services
The goal of the strategy is to prevent seasonal influenza, control the spread of influenza from animals to humans, and prepare for the next influenza pandemic.
The new strategy is the most comprehensive and far-reaching that WHO has ever developed for influenza. It outlines a path to protect popul...ations every year and helps prepare for a pandemic through strengthening routine programmes.
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Onchocerciasis used to be an important public health problem in Africa, with over 37 million people infected and millions suffering from debilitating skin disease, terrible itching, impaired vision and
blindness. But the epidemiological situation has improved dramatically over the last two decades.... Community directed treatment with ivermectin has effectively brought the disease under control in most endemic areas where onchocerciasis is no longer a public health risk.
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The WHO Effective Communications Participant Handbook was created to support WHO staff around the world in enhancing their communications skills as part of the global communications capacity-building efforts of the WHO Department of Communications (DCO)
The purpose of this Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is to describe the detailed process on how to manage discarded COVID-19 vaccine vials and associated waste after COVID-19 vaccination activities end. The SOP provides clear instructions on how to perform the appropriate treatment and safe dispos...al of these wastes to minimize any associated health risk with consideration to local context.
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This Mpox SPRP Global Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Framework, also referred to as the Framework, aims to monitor and report on global progress towards these objectives, including information about country-level response efforts and WHO support to Member States. Regular collection and analysis of da...ta on these objectives, alongside the ongoing tracking of the epidemiological situation, are key to informing decision-making, operational adjustments, as well as ensuring transparency and accountability for achieving the goal to stop the Mpox outbreak. This document suggests reporting indicators for monitoring of the global response to the Mpox PHEIC as articulated in the Mpox SPRP and Operational Planning Guidelines for countries.
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