This document accompanies the interim guidance on “Strengthening Preparedness for COVID-19 in cities and urban settings”. It provides local authorities, leaders and policy-makers in cities with a checklist tool to ensure that key areas have been covered. An excel version that local authorities m...ay wish to adapt to meet their needs is also available. It allows filtering by steps of action; suggested domains and responsible teams within local governments for each action; and phase(s) of the emergency management cycle.
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Le présent document est une mise à jour du document d’information scientifique publié le 29 mars 2020 intitulé Modes of transmission of virus causing COVID-19: implications for infection prevention and control (IPC) precaution recommendations et comprend les nouvelles don...nées scientifiques disponibles sur la transmission du SARS-COV-2, le virus responsable de la COVID-19.
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Human Mobility, Shared Opportunities recommends expanding legal pathways, reducing transaction costs on remittances, guaranteeing migrants’ rights, especially for women, fostering integration and social cohesion, and mobilizing diasporas. With forced migration doubling over the last 10 years to ar...ound 79 million people, tackling its causes will be essential for development.
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This article is part four in a series of explainers on vaccine development and distribution
Available in different languages
This article is part two in a series of explainers on vaccine development and distribution. Part one focused on how vaccines work to protect our bodies from disease-carrying germs. This article focuses on the ingredients in a vaccine and the three clinical trial phases. Part three outlines the nex...t part of the vaccine journey: the steps from completing the clinical trial phases through to distribution
Available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Russian
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Tuberculosis (TB) prevention is essential for reaching the End TB targets in the South-East Asia Region (SEAR) of World Health Organization (WHO)1. The targets of 80% reduction in TB incidence rate and 90% reduction in TB mortality by 2030 (compared to 2015 levels) can be achieved only with addition...al interventions aimed at preventing TB, according to epidemiological modelling studies commissioned by the WHO South-East Asia Regional Office (WHO SEARO). Optimal implementation of TB preventive treatment (TPT) is a critical intervention to accelerate reduction in TB burden in the SEA Region, which bears nearly 43% of the global TB burden. TPT by itself has the potential to reduce the overall annual TB incidence rates by 8.3% (95% CrI 6.5–10.8) relative to 2015.
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This technical report presents the results of a cross-sectional survey conducted in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, between June and July 2016, as part of the FEEDcities Project – Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The aim was to describe the local street food environment: the characteristics of the vending si...tes, the food offered and the nutritional composition of the industrial and homemade foods often available in these settings. The report also provides guidance for policies to translate the findings into action.
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Preferred product characteristics” (PPCs) are key tools to incentivize and guide the development of urgently needed health products. The PPC published here describes the characteristics of new types of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) to control malaria transmission in areas with insecticide-resist...ant mosquito populations. The document was developed to address the public health need caused by the evolution and spread of insecticide resistance, particularly to pyrethroids. Such resistance threatens the effectiveness of the current standard of malaria vector control in many countries, namely pyrethroid-only long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs).
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8 February 2021
This document highlights 10 well established Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) principles that have proven their power. Together they put communities at the heart of the roll out of new vaccines, treatments and tests and promote trust, the critical ingredient for al...l community action. Informed, engaged and empowered communities are the bedrock for the arrival of new vaccines, treatments and tests that will be introduced to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and save lives. With communities fully engaged and actively participating through the full cycle of planning, delivery and assessment for biomedical tools, demand for these tools can be increased, leading to widespread and effective uptake and use
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WHO has a unique combination of technical public health and scientific expertise, and a global operational footprint, with field offices in more than 150 countries. In 2020, this global, technical, and operational reach meant WHO was able to support countries around the world in every aspect of COVI...D-19 public health response, from surveillance and laboratory testing to maintaining essential health services in the most vulnerable and fragile contexts.
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In resource restriced countries
The purpose of this TPP is to communicate the minimum and ideal characteristics desired to meet the need for discriminating low levels of risk for transmission, i.e. targeted prevalence thresholds in the surveyed areas. An in vitro diagnostic test is needed for the detection of analyte(s) specific t...o Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi, and Brugia timori to aid in the surveillance of defined geographic areas as to whether infection and/or transmission potential has increased (recrudescence) or decreased (elimination of transmission).
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L’objectif de cette boîte à outils est de rassembler les enseignements et les orientations actuels comme point de départ pour que les parties prenantes entament le travail de préparation en matière de SSR. Dans le cadre de la SSR, le domaine de la préparation est relativement nouveau et en p...leine expansion. Un effort collectif plus important est nécessaire pour évaluer l’incidence de la préparation et faire avancer le domaine. Cet effort constitue la première ébauche d’un projet d’orientations de la préparation en matière de SSR, et est destiné aux essais sur le terrain. La présente boîte à outils reconnaît le travail de longue date effectué dans le domaine de la gestion des situations d’urgence et des risques de catastrophe, et s’efforce de faire le lien entre ce travail et le domaine de la santé sexuelle et reproductive, axé sur les droits humains et sur les personnes.
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Available in Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish; WHO and UNICEF policy brief, 19 April 2021
Persons with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, both directly because of infection, and indirectly because of restrictions to reduce the spread of the virus. Persons with di...sabilities are a diverse group, and the risks, barriers and impacts faced by them will vary in different contexts according to, among other factors, their age, gender identity, type of disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and migration status.
This document presents considerations and actions for the following stakeholders to ensure equity in access to vaccination against COVID‑19 for persons with disabilities
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People-centered approaches that help communities maintain protective behaviours and follow guidelines set out by public health and government agencies are more important than ever. The evidence is clear, communities play a role in preventing and controlling epidemics and they are best able to take a...ction and slow or stop the spread of disease when properly engaged and empowered. This toolbox in 2 parts offers best practice approaches to community engagement with families. Promoting individual and joint responsibilities for the safety of the family, this toolbox aims to bring families and households together to manage shared risks and agree to safe behaviours critical for their safety and the safety of their community.
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This guidance document provides basic principles for a spokesperson of any health authority on how to respond to vocal vaccine deniers. The suggestions are based on psychological research on persuasion, on research in public health, communication studies and on WHO risk communication guidelines.