To improve survival and quality of life among the 2.5 million children living with HIV, a comprehensive package of prevention, care and treatment is required. This package should include management of infections such as pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria and ear infections, as well as common opportunisti...c infections and HIV-related co-morbidities. WHO is developing a series of guidelines on each of these conditions, following the GRADE approach. The document on the management of pneumonia and diarrhoea in HIV-infected infants and children is the first of this series. The recommendations are similar to those for non infected children, but they cover specific aspects related to HIV infection.
more
This publication is based on the list of clinical interventions selected from clinical guidelines on prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, palliative care, monitoring and end of life care. This publication addresses medical devices for six types of cancer: breast, cervical, colorectal, leukem...ia, lung and prostate. The first section defines the global increase in cancer cases, the global goals to manage NCDs and the WHO activities related to these goals. The second section presents the methodology used for the selection of medical devices that support clinical interventions required to screen, diagnose, treat and monitor cancer stages, as well as the provision of palliative care, based on evidence-based information. The third section lists the priority medical devices required to manage cancer in seven different units of health care services: 1. Vaccination, clinical assessment and endoscopy, 2. Medical imaging and nuclear medicine, 3. Surgery, 4. Laboratory and pathology, 5. Radiotherapy, 6. Systemic therapy and 7. Palliative and end of life care
more
During the past five decades, the incidence of dengue has increased 30-fold. Some 50–100 million new infections are estimated to occur annually in more than 100 endemic countries, with a documented further spread to previously unaffected areas; every year hundreds of thousands of severe cases ari...se, including 20 000 deaths; 264 disability-adjusted life years per million population per year are lost , at an estimated cost for ambulatory and hospitalized cases of US$ 514–1394, often affecting very poor populations. The true numbers are probably far worse, since severe underreporting and misclassification of dengue cases have been documented.
more
Spread of resistance to antimicrobial agents (AMR) does not know national borders and has reached dimensions, which require immediate actions at the national, regional and global levels.
Antibiotic resistance is a natural biological response to improper use of antimicrobial agents (AMA); increasing... number of essential drugs, which become ineffective, contributing to selection, survival and replication of resistant strains of microorganisms. When chosen antimicrobials prove to be ineffective, the second- or third-line drugs need to be used although
in the majority of cases these drugs are more expensive, less safe and not always available.
more
In recent years, Rwanda has been on the fast track to achieve major health improvements for its entire population. With the support of government agencies and various non-governmental partners, the Ministry of Health (MoH) has endeavored to decentralize Rwanda’s health system and bring health serv...ices closer to the people. Guided by multitude of national and international development frameworks, Rwanda’s healthcare successes include the establishment of a community health insurance scheme (mutuelle de santé), a system of cooperative-financed community health workers in every village, and interventions for researching, preventing, and treating diseases like HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria.
As the MoH continues to design innovative means to reach and surpass its prescribed health outcome targets, it will hold as core principles the integration of service provision, the increase in healthcare capacity, and the attainment of sustainable funding sources. Rwanda is committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and has declared Family Planning (FP) a national priority for poverty reduction and socioeconomic development of the country. Modern contraceptive use has more than quadrupled from 2005 to 2010, rising from 10% to 45%, but the government’s Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy calls for an increase the modern contraceptive prevalence to 70% by 2016. While structural changes in health care and supply chains have led to noteworthy improvements in FP and other services, there are still many challenges that must be overcome. As such, a strategic plan is needed to coordinate FP efforts around a well-defined set of objectives and responsibilities.
more
This guide provides an overview of the major elements that must be considered before, during and after the implementation of antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs) for SARS-CoV-2. This guide is complementary to policy guidance issued by the World Health Organization (WHO). The guide may ...appeal to a range of audiences including Ministries of Health, donors, public and private organizations/agencies acting as implementing partners and community based and civil society organizations with experience working on health, especially organizations familiar with similar testing campaigns for other disease programmes like HIV and malaria
more
Cholera is an acute gastrointestinal infection caused by the bacterium Vibrio Cholerae serogroup O1 or O139, and is often linked to unsafe drinking water, lack of proper sanitation and personal hygiene. It adversely affects mostly the poor and vulnerable populations in countries, which are already d...eprived of proper health facilities and conducive environmental conditions. The disease spreads through oro-fecal transmission by the ingestion of contaminated food or water or by person-to-person contact. It has a short incubation period of 2 hours to 5 days and the number of affected cases can rapidly increase across large regions. Cholera is a significant threat to global public health leading to an estimated 3-5 million cases per year worldwide, with an annual toll of 100,000 deaths. The disease was first reported in 1817 from the Ganges Delta of India and since then the ongoing 7th pandemic has emerged from Indonesia, reached Africa in 1970 and Somalia happens to be one of the early affected countries. Over the past few decades,
Somalia has witnessed the occurrence of repeated AWD/Cholera disease outbreaks that have caused high morbidity and mortality across the country.
more
The Creditor Reporting System was analysed for official development assistance funding disbursements towards TB control in 11 conflict-affectedstates, 17 non-conflict-affected fragile states and 38 comparable non-fragile states. The amounts of funding, funding relative to burden, funding relative to... malaria and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) control, disbursements relative to commitments, sources of funding as well as funding activities were extracted and analysed.
more
Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2019 Jun; 222(5): 765–777. doi: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2019.05.004;
To develop updated estimates in response to new exposure and exposure-response data of the
burden of diarrhoea, respiratory infections, malnutrition, schistosomiasis, malaria, soil-transmitted helminth
infec...tions and trachoma from exposure to inadequate drinking-water, sanitation and hygiene behaviours
(WASH) with a focus on low- and middle-income countries.
more
People Who Inject Drugs
In addition, the following individuals of our external expert advisory committee made instrumental contributions to the initial design and content of the document: Billy Pick, USAID; Daniel Wolfe, Open Society Foundations; Dave Burrows, AIDS Projects Management Group; Fabi...enne Hariga, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; Mauro Guarinieri, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Richard Needle, Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator; and Sergey Votyagov, EHRN.
more
Interim guidance v2, 19 March 2020
This document provides WHO checklists for risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) readiness and initial response for novel coronaviruses (nCoV) recently identified in Wuhan, China (2019-nCoV). The objective of this document is to provide actionable guid...ance for countries to implement effective RCCE strategies which will help protect the public’s health in the early response to nCoV. This document includes recommended RCCE goals and actions for countries preparing for nCoV cases and for countries that have confirmed -nCoV cases.
Available in English, French and Chinese
more
Community-based strategies play a significant role in many health systems in low- and middle-income countries, especially in light of critical shortages in the health workforce. The term community health worker has been used to refer to volunteers and salaried, professional or lay health workers wit...h a wide range of training, experience, scope of practice and integration in health systems. In the context of this study, we use the term community-based practitioner (CBPs) to reflect the diverse nature of these cadres of health workers.
CBPs provide preventive, promotive, curative and palliative services across a range of areas, including reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health, HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, control of other endemic diseases, and noncommunicable diseases. Significant evidence has emerged over the past two decades on their effectiveness, which has triggered interest in the potential to use their services to expand access to care, in particular in rural and underserved areas where deployment and retention of more qualified health workers is problematic. Calls have been made to integrate CBP programmes in human resources and health strategies, and to scale up rapidly the extent and coverage of CBP initiatives.
more
Advances have been made through expanded interventions delivered through five public health approaches: innovative and intensified disease management; preventive chemotherapy; vector ecology and management; veterinary public health services; and the provision of safe water, sanitation and hygiene. I...n 2015 alone nearly one billion people were treated for at least one disease and significant gains were achieved in relieving the symptoms and consequences of diseases for which effective tools are scarce; important reductions were achieved in the number of new cases of sleeping sickness, of visceral leishmaniasis in South-East Asia and also of Buruli ulcer.
The report also considers vector control strategies and discusses the importance of the draft WHO Global Vector Control Response 2017–2030.
more
The 2007 Rwanda Service Provision Assessment (RSPA) was a national representative survey conducted in 538 health facilities throughout Rwanda. The survey covered hospitals, health centers, dispensaries and
health posts, including all public facilities such as government and government-assisted heal...th facilities. The 2007 RSPA used interviews with health service providers and clients and observations of provider client consultations to obtain information on the capacity of facilities to provide quality services and the existence of functioning systems to support quality services. The areas addressed were the overall facility
infrastructure, maternal and child health, reproductive health, tuberculosis, malaria services; and services for sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS. The objective was to assess the strengths and
weaknesses of the infrastructure and systems supporting these services, and to assess the adherence to standards in the delivery of services.
more
PLoS Neglected Tropical diseases August 16, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009697
Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a neglected tropical disease transmitted by triatomine insects, first identified in 1909. Chagas disease affects approximately 6–7 million peop...le globally and is highly prevalent in Latin America where most cases are reported. However, there is increasing evidence that Chagas disease is now an important public health issue outside the “classical” endemic countries due to population migration. Our understanding of Chagas disease, including its pathologies and factors relating to progression, remains to date limited, and is also challenged by lack of diagnosis and highly effective treatment. This systematic review aims to describe studies with Chagas patients receiving antiparasitic treatment. Databases were searched for relevant studies published after 1997, and the results of these searches were screened.
more
PEPFAR Malawi’s Country Operational Plan 2022 (COP22) embodies joint priorities from national and subnational dialogues building on the 2020-2025 National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS. The interagency team has developed a person-centered, district-tailored and Malawi Population-Based HIV Impact Ass...essment (MPHIA)-informed strategy through extensive engagement with Government of Malawi (GoM) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to sustain HIV epidemic control. At the end of COP21, PEPFAR Malawi was commended for contributing to reaching epidemic control in strong collaboration with GoM and stakeholders including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund). This includes enrollment of 88% of recipients of care on three or more months of antiretroviral treatment (ART), better outcomes for Malawian children through remarkable efforts in Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) programming and progress made towards reaching men with more intentional and focused programming.
more
This report provides an analysis of donor government funding to address the HIV response in low- and
middle-income countries in 2022, the latest year available, as well as trends over time. It includes both
bilateral funding from donors and their contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tub...erculosis and
Malaria (Global Fund), UNITAID, and UNAIDS. Overall, the analysis shows that while donor government
funding for HIV increased between 2021 and 2022, this was primarily due to the timing of payments from
the U.S. government and not actual increases in commitments.
more
The objective of this concept note and the framework it outlines is the elimination of a group of CDs and the negative health effects they generate, which together create a tangible burden on affected individuals, their families and communities, and on health care systems throughout the Region. Thou...gh there is no unified consensus on the best measures to use for the public’s health and a nation’s epidemiologic situation, it is common for the disease burden to be measured by disease rates (incidence, prevalence, etc.), disease-specific death rates, comparative morbidity and mortality rates, geographic distribution, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). The current epidemiological situation, including data on disease rates or geographic distribution for the diseases in Table 1, is discussed below in Section 4. Hotez et al. (2008) were the first to review and compare the burden of DALYs in Latin America and the Caribbean—for NTDs, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and TB—as it existed about 10 years ago. Though the regional burden of TB, malaria, and neglected infectious diseases (NIDs) is somewhat less than it was 10 years ago, work (and schooling) continue to be lost to illness and premature death or disability, and the need for stepping up disease elimination efforts is evident in all communities living in vulnerable conditions....
more
The reports bring together the latest findings and conclusions about the state of resistance to artemisinins and artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), summarize WHO’s current policy and treatment recommendations, and highlight areas of concern.
Conducted November 2011 to February 2012: Summary Report
This summary report has five sections. Following the introduction (Section 1), Section 2 sets out summary findings and recommendations of the assessment team. Section 3 describes the context in which artemisinin resistance is being tackle...d. Section 4 highlights key achievements and enabling factors for the response to artemisinin resistance, whilst Section 5 provides a more detailed discussion of major issues to be addressed.
more