This position paper on polio vaccines replaces the 2016 WHO position paper, and summarizes recent developments in the field.
2nd edition.
Like the original, this second edition of the guidance aims to inform the revision of existing national guidelines and standards for managing Tuberculosis (TB), many of which include guidance on children. It includes recommendations, based on the best available evidence, for improving ...the management of children with TB and of children living in families with TB. National and regional TB control programmes may wish to adapt these recommendations according to local circumstances
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Overwhelming evidence shows that a range of health concerns—mental illness, substance dependence, HIV/AIDS, and noncommunicable diseases—affect prisoners disproportionately. But, while incarceration poses risks to health—including inadequate nutrition and exposure to violence—prisons also pr...esent important opportunities to promote health and risk reduction that need to be tapped.
Some recommended remedies:
Health ministries, not ministries of justice, should manage health care responsibilities
Ensure that testing is available, but not mandatory, for infectious diseases
Make prison health part of the broader public health agenda
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Version 10.1_5 October 2020
These Guidelines are available in different formats: As a paper booklet, a PDF, a mobile app, and now also as a website.
The 2019 version of the Guidelines introduces a new drug-drug interaction panel and now consists of six main sections, including a general overview ...table of all major issues in PLWH, recommendations on antiretroviral treatment, drug-drug interactions, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of co-morbidities, co-infections and opportunistic diseases.
Available in English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese and Japanese
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This report considers how to integrate health into urban planning, investments, and policy decisions, so as to support the implementation and achievement of the goals and objectives of the New Urban Agenda.
Symptom-based integrated approach to the adult in primary care.
Primary Care 101 is a comprehensive clinical practice guideline that aims to equip nurses and other clinicians to diagnose and manage common adult conditions at primary level.
Tb; HIV; Asthma/COPD; cardiovascular disease; diabetes; M...ental health conditions; Epilepsy; Musculoskeletal disorders; Women’s health
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Updated: 20 July 2019
Fact sheet also available in Arabic, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Russian. For other language versions go to: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/zika/en/
The report reflects on the trends, achievements and challenges in global health over the past decade during which Dr Margaret Chan has been Director-General of WHO. It discusses the role of WHO in dealing with such issues as the rise of noncommunicable diseases, leaps in life expectancy, and emergin...g threats like climate change and antimicrobial resistance.
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The Guide to operationalize HIV viral load testing HIV presents 60 lessons learnt from the project in a systemic approach including: viral load strategy, laboratories, procurement and supply management, patient care and economy.
The current SEARVAP (South-East Asia regional vaccine action plan) describes a set of regional goals and objectives for immunization and control of vaccine-preventable diseases for 2016 – 2020 and highlights priority actions, targets and indicators that address the specific needs and challenges of... countries in the Region.
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Accessed: 27.04.2020
Leaving no one behind in the Covid-19 Pandemic: a call for urgent global action to include migrants & refugees in the Covid-19 response
People on the move, whether they are economic migrants or forcibly displaced persons such asylum seekers, refugees, and internally displa...ced persons (hereafter called migrants & refugees), should be explicitly included in the responses to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. This global public health emergency brings into focus, and may exacerbate, the barriers to healthcare these populations face. Many migrant & refugee populations live in conditions where physical distancing and recommended hygiene measures are particularly challenging. The Covid-19 pandemic reveals the extent of marginalisation migrant & refugee populations face. From an enlightened self-interest perspective, the Covid-19 disease outbreak control measures will only be successful if all populations are included in the response. It is counter- productive to exclude migrant & refugee populations from the preparedness and response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Migration continues to be an essential ingredient of socioeconomic development everywhere.
Whether it is a case of people moving from the countryside to cities to find work, or people crossing seas and borders to meet host country demands for new labour, migrants are an integral part of the modern ...world. They bring with them new skills and talents, and a willingness to take on jobs that host societies have difficulty filling. Despite this, migrants tend to be overlooked by many health and social service systems. They are also vulnerable to exclusion, stigma and discrimination, particularly if “undocumented” or irregular. Today, in the context of COVID-19, a neglect of migrants will make it impossible to stem the pandemic.
These Notes are designed to remind national and local authorities that the war against COVID-19 cannot be won if migrants are forgotten; unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno”, or one for all, and all for one, must guide the fight against COVID-19.
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This report presents three scenarios on the impact of COVID-19 in Africa using economic growth forecasts, mortality and efforts to ameliorate impact through social grants. Likely effects are examined on per capita income, poverty and the attainment of selected Sustainable Development Goals targets. ...Africa’s development trajectory has suffered a severe setback, with extreme poverty rising in all the scenarios. The pandemic threatens Africa in several ways, and the report provides policy recommendations to reduce vulnerability and strengthen resilience.
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The WHO country office for Ghana, began the year 2019 with a 4-day staff retreat at the Busua Beach Resort in the Western Region from 04 to 08 March 2019. The theme for the retreat was ‘Impacting the Health and Lives of the people of Ghana through the Triple Billion Goal”. The staff outlined pri...orities and strategies to strengthen WHO’s contribution to the national health agenda during the year. Working in collaboration with the Ministry of Health/Ghana Health Service and other allied health institutions and stakeholders, the WHO country office, provided support aimed at achieving its
mission which is attaining the highest level of health by the people in the country though its six operational areas which are (i) Communicable Diseases (ii) Non-Communicable Diseases, (iii) Promoting Health through the Life Course (iv), Health Systems, (v) Preparedness, Surveillance and Response (vi) Corporate services and enabling functions.
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BMJ 2020; 371 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3086
Using infectious diseases sensitive to climate as indicators of climate change helps stimulate and inform public health responses
The marathon to eradicate polio is on its final lap: the world is more than 99% of the way to success. After millennia of living with poliovirus and suffering the paralysis it causes, today nearly all the world’s people live in polio-free countries; two of the three strains of wild poliovirus (WPV...) have been eradicated. Some 20 million people are walking who would have been paralysed had it not been for the efforts of national governments and health workers. If eradicating polio has been a marathon, the finishing line is in sight.
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The Global Task Force on Cholera Control (GTFCC) launched Ending Cholera: A Global
Roadmap to 2030 (Global Roadmap) (1), a strategy that aims to reduce global cholera
deaths by 90% and eliminate the disease in at least 20 countries by 2030. It is
organized according to three main axes:
• E...nsuring early detection and response to contain outbreaks; (2)
• Adopting a multisectoral approach to prevent and control cholera in hotspots; and
• Establishing an effective coordination mechanism for technical support, resource
mobilization and partnership at local and global levels.
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The world is not on track to end the AIDS pandemic. New infections are rising and AIDS deaths are continuing in too many communities. This report reveals why: inequalities are holding us back. In frank terms, the report calls the world’s attention to the painful reality that dangerous inequalities... are undermining the AIDS response and jeopardising the health security of everyone. The report highlights three specific areas of inequality for which concrete action is immediately possible—gender
inequalities and harmful masculinities driving HIV; marginalisation and criminalisation of key populations, which our data show is resulting in starkly little progress for those populations and undermining the overall response; and
inequalities for children whose lives must matter more than their market share. But this is not a counsel of despair, it is a call to action. Through bold action to confront these inequalities, we can end AIDS.
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Rev. Panam Salud Publica. 2017;41:e153. doi: 10.26633/RPSP.2017.153
Worldwide, over 6 million people are infected with Trypanosoma cruzi, the pathogen that causes Chagas disease (CD). In the Americas, CD creates the greatest burden in disability-adjusted life years of any parasitic infection. In Co...lombia, 437 000 people are infected with T. cruzi, of whom 131 000 suffer from cardiomyopathy. Colombia’s annual costs for treating patients with advanced CD reach US$ 175 016 000. Although timely etiological treatment can significantly delay or prevent development of cardiomyopathy—and costs just US$ 30 per patient—fewer than 1% of people with CD in Colombia and elsewhere receive it.
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Female Genital Schistosomiasis (FGS) is a gynaecological disease caused by Schistosoma haematobium, a parasitic worm that is acquired by skin contact with freshwater contaminated by schistosome cerceriae. Communities in which the infection is most endemic have limited access to clean water and healt...hcare services. Up to 150 million adolescent girls and women are estimated to be at risk of FGS and about 16–56 milion womens are living with FGS, with the majority of these in sub-Saharan Africa. The variability of these estimates points to the fact that this neglected tropical disease is not well studied and frequently not prioritized by local, regional, and global health policy makers.
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