An estimated 59 000 people die from rabies each year. That’s one person every nine minutes of every day, 40% of whom are children living in Asia and Africa. As dog bites cause almost all human cases, we can prevent rabies deaths by increasing awareness, vaccinating dogs to prevent the disease at i...ts source and administering life-saving treatment after people have been bitten. We have the vaccines, medicines, tools and technologies to prevent people from dying from dog-mediated rabies. For a relatively low cost it is possible to break the disease cycle and save lives
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A stated objective of WHO’s European Mental Health Action Plan 2013–2020 is to ensure better information and knowledge for service planning, development, monitoring and evaluation, including requesting Member States to report on the indicators in the Plan.
Progress towards achieving the int...ernationally agreed mental health objectives and targets is monitored in the periodic WHO Mental Health Atlas, which collates global information on mental health policies, resources and services.
This booklet provides a snapshot of the situation in countries in the WHO European region with regard to a number of core mental health targets and indicators, derived from the WHO’s Mental Health Atlas 2017.
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Mental Health Atlas-2014 country profiles
The following protocol has been designed to investigate the extent of infection, as determined by seropositivity in the general population, in any country in which COVID-19 virus infection has been reported. Each country may need to tailor some aspects of this protocol to align with public health, l...aboratory and clinical systems, according to capacity, availability of resources and cultural appropriateness. However, using a standardized protocol such as this one below, epidemiological exposure data and biological samples can be systematically collected and shared rapidly in a format that can be easily aggregated, tabulated and analyzed across many different settings globally for timely estimates of COVID-19 virus infection severity and attack rates, as well as to inform public health responses and policy decisions. This is particularly important in the context of a novel respiratory pathogen, such as COVID-19 virus
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Contact tracing is a key component of the COVID-19 response, particularly as societies begin to lift non-pharmaceutical interventions. However, it is a time-consuming and resource-intensive effort that depends on a trained and motivated workforce. Emergent digital contact tracing and quarantine (...DCTQ) tools offer the potential to complement and strengthen conventional contact tracing initiatives on an unprecedented scale. Despite their visibility throughout the pandemic
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Co-trimoxazole is a fixed-dose combination of two antimicrobial drugs (sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim) that covers a variety of bacterial, fungal and protozoan infections. Co-trimoxazole preventive therapy is a feasible, well tolerated and inexpensive intervention for people living with HIV to re...duce HIV-related morbidity and mortality. Further, co-trimoxazole is an off-patent drug and widely available in resource-limited settings.
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This compendium represents a curated, pragmatic and non-prescriptive collection of tools and resources to support the implementation of interventions to improve quality of care in such contexts. Relevant tools and resources are listed under five areas: Ensuring access and basic infrastructure for qu...ality; shaping the system environment; reducing harm; improving clinical care; and engaging and empowering patients, families and communities.
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This global guidance provided the framework for over 100 countries to develop their NDVPs. This updated (second) version supersedes the previous version published in 16 November 2020. New information has been added on the following areas:
the COVID-19 Partners Platform;
the use of COVID...-19 simulation exercises to test deployment strategies;
the indemnity agreement and no-fault compensation programme for vaccines secured through the COVAX Facility in the Advance Market Commitment (AMC) eligible economies;
the availability and use of the WHO-UNICEF COVID-19 Vaccine Introduction and deployment Costing (CVIC) tool;
the COVAX Facility’s humanitarian buffer that enables allocation of vaccine to cover high-risk populations in humanitarian settings;
recommendations for vaccination of pregnant and lactating women;
supplementary information on infection prevention and control (IPC) measures to be used to deliver COVID-19 vaccines safely;
the WHO licensed COVID-19 vaccines product-specific information;
use of geospatial data and digital micro plans for equitable access and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines;
lessons learned from the development of NDVPs and early experiences in COVID-19 vaccine deployment in countries; and
updated additional resources at the end of each chapter.
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Globally, 311,000 women die of cervical cancer every year, 85 percent of them
in resource limited regions of the world. To address this grave threat to women,
the WHO made a call to action in 2018, resulting in accelerated plans to improve
cervical cancer control under the elimination threshold w...ith respect to cervical
cancer incidence. As part of WHO’s approach to cervical cancer control, availability of high quality,
affordable medical devices for HPV screening, and treatment of precancerous
lesions in low resource settings is indispensable.
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In 2015, to advance the global and national response to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), the World Health Assembly issued resolution WHA68.7 calling for all Member States to develop AMR national action plans that address the five objectives of the World Health Organization Global Action Plan (GAP) by... May 2017. The WHO GAP provides a framework to support countries in developing their national action plans on AMR. To operationalize and accelerate implementation of national action plans on AMR, WHO has developed a costing and budgeting tool and accompanying user guide. The purpose is to support countries in costing prioritized activities of an operational plan linked to their AMR national action plan, and identify existing funding and funding gaps to promote resource mobilization and sustainable implementation. The target audience of the publication are national policy makers and designated costing coordinators for national action plans on AMR.
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The 2021 COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP) for AFR serves as a regional guide for a holistic public health response to COVID‑19 at regional, national and sub-national levels. The 2021
SPRP:
1. Builds upon the lessons learnt from the implementation of the 2020 SPRP and outl...ines a regional preparedness, response and recovery strategy for COVID‑19.
2. Has been adapted to reflect the Regional context including COVID-19 vaccination. It also considers epidemiological changes and recommen-dations emerging from the evaluation report of the 2020 SPRP4.
3. Highlights to Member States strategic preparedness and response actions to be sustained at national and sub-national levels, as well as the critical inter-agency and partner support required.
4. provides the indicative resource requirements to reinforce WHO planned interventions in the African Region to enhance countries’ capacities to suppress transmission, save lives and mitigate the impact of the pandemic on people and health systems.
5. Provides a road map for mitigating potential resurgence in the Region as economies reopen and ensure country level continuity of other essential health services.
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This guideline aims to improve the quality of essential, routine postnatal care for women and newborns with the ultimate goal of improving maternal and newborn health and well-being. It recognizes a “positive postnatal experience” as a significant end point for all women giving birth and their n...ewborns, laying the platform for improved short- and long-term health and well-being. A positive postnatal experience is defined as one in which women, newborns, partners, parents, caregivers and families receive information, reassurance and support in a consistent manner from motivated health workers; where a resourced and flexible health system recognizes the needs of women and babies, and respects their cultural context.
This is a consolidated guideline of new and existing recommendations on routine postnatal care for women and newborns receiving facility- or community-based postnatal care in any resource setting.
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The main purpose of the meeting was to review tsetse control tools, activities and their contribution to the elimination of gHAT and the monitoring thereof. Seven endemic countries provided reports on recent and ongoing vector control interventions at the national level (Angola, Cameroon, Côte d’...Ivoire, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea and Uganda). Country reports focused on the in situations implementing and supporting vector control activities, the tools and the approaches in use, the coverage of the activities in space and time and their impacts on tsetse populations. Future perspectives for vector control in the respective countries were also discussed, including opportunities and challenges to sustainability.
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This document sets out, therefore, to explain the socioeconomic value of investing in the fight against NTDs and highlights priorities for global investment attention. Our work was guided by the need not only for
additional funding and funders but also for the need to understand the current funding... climate, in which value for money and the efficient use of resources to fill the most critical of gaps are more relevant than ever.
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Guidance module.
The QualityRights training and orientation modules have been developed to enhance the knowledge, skills and understanding of key stakeholders on how to promote the rights of people with psychosocial, intellectual or cognitive disabilities, improve the quality of services and suppo...rt provided in the field of mental health and related areas, in line with international human rights standards, in particular the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the recovery approach.
mental health and related fields, in accordance with international human rights standards, in particular the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the recovery approach.
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Skin-related neglected tropical diseases, or “skin NTDs”, are historically neglected because active case detection, individual case management, significant resources and intensive effort are required to control, eliminate and eradicate them. Integrated control and management of skin NTDs offers ...a pathway to overcome some of these past challenges.
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HIV, viral hepatitis and STI epidemics, particularly among people who inject drugs and other key populations, continue to be fuelled by laws and policies criminalizing sex work; drug use or possession; diverse forms of gender expression and sexuality; stigma and discrimination; gender discrimination...; violence; lack of community empowerment and other violations of human rights. These sociostructural factors limit access to health services, constrain how these services are
delivered and diminish their effectiveness.
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This report aims to outline the current available knowledge on the health and wellbeing of older persons in the Region of the Americas during the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021-2030). It also seeks to guide political actions towards ensuring the human rights of older persons, and desc...ribes the negotiation and drafting process behind the Inter-American Convention on Protecting the Human Rights of Older Persons. It reports on the doctrinal and legal developments that led the Region of the Americas to draft the Convention and describes its action areas and guaranteed rights, as well as the obligations assumed by the States Parties. The Convention is an essential tool to advance the strategies of the Decade of Healthy Ageing. This publication reflects on the importance of having a major legal instrument for this purpose at the international level. The demographic transition in Latin America and the Caribbean will continue to shape the ability of countries and health systems to respond to the needs of the population. Given this reality, international instruments will be needed to guarantee the full enjoyment of the human rights of older persons. In order to design inclusive and sustainable systems, accurate, updated, and effective information is required. The Decade of Healthy Ageing––the initiative that constitutes the framework for this document––is a strategic period in which to focus on data generation and monitoring.
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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global human, animal, plant and environment health threat that needs to be addressed by every country. The impacts of AMR are wide-ranging in terms of human health, animal health, food security and safety, environmental effects on ecosystems and biodiversity, and ...socioeconomic development. Just like the climate crisis, AMR poses a significant threat to the delivery of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The response to the AMR crisis has been spearheaded through the global action plan on antimicrobial resistance (GAP-AMR), developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2015, in close collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), and formally endorsed by the three organizations’ governing bodies and by the Political Declaration of the high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on AMR in 2016. In 2022, the three organizations officially became the Quadripartite by welcoming the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) into the alliance “to accelerate coordination strategy on human, animal and ecosystem health”.
The aim of the GAP-AMR is to ensure the continuity of successful treatment with effective and safe medicines.
Its strategic objectives include:
• improving the awareness and understanding of AMR;
• strengthening the knowledge and evidence base through surveillance and research;
• reducing the incidence of infection through effective sanitation, hygiene and infection prevention measures; optimizing the use of antimicrobial medicines in human and animal health; and
• developing the economic case for sustainable investment that takes account of the needs of all countries and increasing investment in new medicines, diagnostic tools, vaccines and other interventions.
With the adoption of the GAP-AMR, countries agreed to develop national action plans (NAPs) aligned with the GAP-AMR to mainstream AMR interventions nationally. Individually, the Quadripartite took action to advance AMR interventions in their respective sectors. FAO adopted a resolution on AMR recognizing that it poses an increasingly serious threat to public health and sustainable food production, and developed an AMR action plan to support the resolution’s implementation. For its part, WOAH developed a strategy on AMR aligned with the GAP-AMR, acknowledging the importance of a One Health approach to AMR. Similarly, more recently, UNEP’s governing body, the United Nations Environment Assembly, recognized that AMR is a current and increasing threat and a challenge to global health, food security and the sustainable development of all countries, and welcomed the GAP-AMR and the NAPs developed in accordance with its five overarching strategic objectives
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Trustworthy, evidence-based health guidelines form the basis of national policies affecting both patients and health-care workers. Emphasizing the link between robust evidence and people’s trust in their health systems, Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe said at the launch ev...ent, “Trust and transformation are key words for us, especially when we talk about improving and strengthening our health systems. Transformation should first and foremost serve the interests of patients and health-care workers”.
While it is not always easy to demonstrate the immediate effect of guidelines on people’s health, there is no viable alternative to utilizing guidelines based on the best available evidence.
Yet, developing robust guidelines remains a challenge for most countries. “Guidelines need to be both simple to use and timely, they need to address people’s real needs, especially at the local level, and should ultimately reflect the resources available,” said Dr Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat, Director, Country Health Policies and Systems, WHO/Europe. “This means that any successful guideline needs to be adjusted and adapted to local contexts and realities.”
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