The publication of the of the Antimicrobial Treatment Guidelines represents the
culmination of the efforts of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program of ICMR to publish treatment guidelines for common syndromes in India. These guidelines are targeted for the health care settings. It aims to rationali...ze the usage of antibiotics on our Essential Medicines Formulary (EMF) and to establish consistency in the treatment of various infectious conditions.
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Report of a global meeting on yaws eradication surveillance, monitoring and evaluation: Geneva, 29–30 January 2018. World Health Organization.
Forests, trees and green spaces, hereinafter ‘forests and trees’ for short, provide multiple goods and services that contribute to human health. These include medicines, nutritious foods and other non-wood forest products (NWFPs). Globally, at least 3.5 billion people use NWFPs, including medici...nal plants, which are particularly important for vulnerable groups and Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs).
During periods of crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for forest products typically increases amongst these groups. Forests and trees also contribute to better health by playing a role in climate change
mitigation and adaptation, contributing to regulating the carbon cycle, but also moderating the micro-climate, filtering pollutants from the air and protecting settlements against the effects of extreme events such as droughts and flash floods.
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Rabies remains an under-reported neglected zoonosis with a case-fatality rate of almost 100% in humans and animals. Dog-mediated human rabies causes tens of thousands of human deaths annually despite being 100% preventable. More than 95% of human cases are caused by the bite of a rabies-infected dog.... Dog-mediated human rabies disproportionately affects rural communities, particularly children, and economically disadvantaged areas of Africa and Asia, where awareness of the disease and access to appropriate post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) can be limited or nonexistent.
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The application of digital health technology is growing at a rapid rate in Africa, with the goals of improving the delivery of healthcare services and more effectively reaching out to remote and underserved communities. The lack of enabling guidelines and standards across the continent, on the other... hand, makes it difficult to share data in a meaningful way across the continent.
Considering this, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) established a task force of 24 members to provide expertise and guidance in the development of AU HIE guidelines and standards. Members of the task force were subject matter experts working in Africa and internationally on the collection, analysis, and exchange of health information. Some of these experts had been involved in previous consultations on defining Africa CDC’s health information systems strategy. A chairperson, co-chairperson, and secretary were elected to engage the task force members in different technical working groups.
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The Pharmaceutical Forum of the Americas (PFA) has previously published guidelines and organised campaigns for community pharmacists on the prevention, detection and control of arbovirus infections in 2018 with a grant from the FIP Foundation for Pharmacy Education and Research. Building on that exp...ertise, FIP joined efforts with the PFA and is now publishing its first-ever handbook to support pharmacists in the
area of vector-borne diseases. As the integration of the regional forums in FIP advances, such collaborative projects are tangible results of an increasingly regionally informed and regionally targeted work by FIP.
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Africa is off track to reach the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and lags behind in building resilient health systems
and health security, against a backdrop of limited resources. The world envisaged a significant role for governments
in funding the Sustainable Development Agenda, but inadeq...uate funding for health in African countries is
persistent, despite additional continental commitments to address the problem. When commitments to global health
targets and available fiscal space do not align, innovation is warranted.
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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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The chapter Closing the Gap: The Health Disparities of Older LGBTI People in the Americas, is part of the publication series titled ‘Decade of Healthy Aging: situation and challenges’. In order to outline the current knowledge available on the situation of health and well-being of older persons ...in the Americas at the beginning of the United Nations Decade of Healthy Aging (2021-2030), this document presents data and existing evidence different forms of discrimination and mistreatment older people face due to their sexual orientation and gender identities that ultimately increase health disparities. Previous studies on LGBTI older people offer valuable information on the lived experiences of these communities and demonstrate that they face unique challenges with aging, emphasizing the difficulties related to access to care. Very few studies on older people and aging include a focus on sexual orientation or gender identity; however, it is possible to point out that HIV/AIDS is one of the most significant health disparities confronting LGBTI older persons, followed by physical and mental health problems, substance use, social isolation, poverty, and the lack of access to quality healthcare, including long-term care facilities or other institutions. Closing the gap in access and quality of health and care services is an imperative to increase longevity, health status and quality of life of LGBTI older people.
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The World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO), in accordance with recommendations from various WHO committees, has developed three flagship initiatives to support Member States in the African region to prepare for, detect and respond to public health emergencies. They are the r...esult of extensive consultations with more than 30 African government ministers, technical actors, and partners across the continent as well as regional institutions such as the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), whose contributions have shaped the priority activities. This report provides the fourth quarterly summary of progress in implementing the flagship initiatives.
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This publication is a compendium of 49 country examples highlighting efforts in improving refugees’ and migrants’ health following the adoption of the WHO Global Action Plan on Promoting the health of refugees and migrants at the seventy-second World Health Assembly, in May 2019.
Rebuilding Liberia’s health system is crucial for improving the country’s overall health outcomes. This annual report highlights key achievements, challenges,and lessons learned in implementing programmes of technical cooperation with the Government of Liberia from January to December 2022. T...he key achievements are summarized under the thematic areas of Universal Health Coverage, Health Emergencies and Corporate and Enabling Support.
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A lot has happened this year. While we continued to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, we were hit by disease outbreaks and
humanitarian crises. Yet, despite these challenges, we marched on, resolute in resolving critical health systems issues to increase
access to quality healthcare services. To furth...er our vision and bring concrete actions to reality, under
the leadership of the Government of South Sudan, we developed the Health Sector Strategic Plan to define the strategic
approaches, key interventions, mapping resource needs, and the implementation framework to strengthen the health system
to deliver essential quality health services equitably for 2023 to 2027. For WHO, this Plan will usher in a new reality -- access
to lifesaving or health-promoting interventions is doable and possible, making the health sector fairer, especially for those
unable to pay
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This document outlines PAHO’s regional priorities for the year 2023 to sustain and scale up health emergency and humanitarian assistance in the Americas, with a focus on five priority countries currently facing a prolonged humanitarian crisis and recovering from recent acute emergencies: Colombia,... El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of). These goals align with and build on the World Health Organization’s Global Health Emergency Appeal for 2023, its principles, priorities, and strategies.
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Vector-borne diseases are responsible for 17% of the global burden of communicable diseases and more than 500 000 deaths annually. The ambitious global targets for the control of vector-borne diseases come in the context of the (re-)emergence of diseases, increasing resistances to insecticides and u...ncertainty related to the financing of global vector control efforts. The United Nations 2030 Agenda with its related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the New Urban Agenda adopted at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III)
in Quito in 2016 and WHO’s Global vector control response 2017–2030 (WHO, 2017a) emphasize the value of elevating multisectoral actions and strategies that extend beyond the health sector to the core of integrated vector control.
This policy brief underlines the important role housing conditions have in the transmission of vector-borne diseases and showcases interventions and policies the housing sector can contribute to effective, integrated and intersectoral vector-borne diseases management.
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The Pandemic Influenza Pandemic (PIP) Framework's Partnership Contribution (PC) High-Level Implementation Plan III (HLIP III) outlines the strategy for strengthening global pandemic influenza preparedness from 2024 to 2030. HLIP III takes into consideration the lessons learned from the response to t...he COVID-19 pandemic, the gains made over time, including from previous HLIPs, and the broader programmatic and policy context in order to address gaps in pandemic influenza preparedness. Implementation of HLIP III will strengthen global, regional, and country-level pandemic influenza preparedness.
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The report aims to capture lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and to highlight the opportunity for more ambitious global action: expanding sustainable access to vaccines for all towards the Immunization Agenda 2030 and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response efforts. The report is organized i...n two sections: the first section provides WHO insights on global vaccine market dynamics, drawing from data provided by Member States, which are, in turn, analysed and displayed in the second section.
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The World health statistics report is the annual compilation of health and health-related indicators which has been published by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 2005. The 2023 edition reviews more than 50 health-related indicators from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and WHO’s T...hirteenth General Programme of Work (GPW 13).
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This regional summary draws on the WHO Global oral health status report (2), published in 2022, which provides a comprehensive overview of the global oral disease burden, the global health importance of oral health and the impact of oral diseases over the life course.
The summary focuses on the ...oral health status in the Western Pacific Region and is split into four sections: (a) oral diseases are global and regional health problems; (b) the burden of the main oral diseases; (c) key challenges and opportunities towards oral health for all in the Western Pacific Region; and (d) road map towards UHC for oral health 2030. This regional summary is based on the 27 Member States in the Region.
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This publication is part of WHO 75th anniversary and aims to capture key successes in public health globally and in Namibia. It includes contributory messages from the Head of State, Prime Minister and the Minister of Health and Social Services.