Yemen’s war has become one of the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophes . In September 2014, the Ansarallah (Houthi) movement allied with former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to seize control over the capital city Sana’a and renegotiate Yemen’s fragile power-sharing agreement, and then seve...ral months later pursued President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi south to Aden . In March 2015, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates launched a military intervention, ostensibly to restore Hadi to power . More than 1,000 days later, that war has settled into a brutal stalemate . Officially, the Houthis remain in control of Sana’a and much of the north, while the Saudi-UAE coalition controls much of the south . A comprehensive Saudi-UAE blockade and air campaign has caused incipient famine conditions, the spread of communicable diseases such as cholera and diphtheria, and a wave of internal displacement .
more
Community health nurses have the potential to make significant contributions to meet the health care needs of various population groups in a variety of community settings. In order to assess the extent to which CHNs are achieving this potential, WHO conducted a study between 2010 and 2014 that exami...ned the status of community health nursing in 22 countries, 13 of which were experiencing a critical shortage of health care workers. The study revealed that the countries surveyed had the basic and operational framework for optimizing CHN in their health systems as evidenced by the availability of PHC structures to guide interventions. However, challenges were identified related to the education, practice and management of CHNs in these countries. The major challenges identified were: Limited availability of career opportunities; poor worker retention; low recognition for CHNs; inadequate and unsupportive working conditions and environments; absence of educational standards; varying educational entry-level requirements for CHN programmes; and a lack of consensus on the scope of practice for CHNs.
more
Waste Management & Research 39(1) DOI: 10.1177/0734242X211029175
This publication summarizes the facilitators and barriers that will be encountered in the deinstitutionalization process and identifies useful and proven interventions in Latin American and Caribbean countries. Four areas of work are identified with the respective guidelines or suggestions for actio...n, which should provide an operational guide for countries that are restructuring mental health services and moving toward the deinstitutionalization of psychiatric care.
more
Countries around the world are facing the challenge of increased demand for care of people with COVID-19, compounded by fear, misinformation and limitations on movement that disrupt the delivery of health care for all conditions. Maintaining essential health services: operational guidance for the CO...VID-19 context recommends practical actions that countries can take at national, subregional and local levels to reorganize and safely maintain access to high-quality, essential health services in the pandemic context. It also outlines sample indicators for monitoring essential health services, and describes considerations on when to stop and restart services as COVID-19 transmission recedes and surges.
more
9 June 2021
Since its launch, GLASS has expanded in scope and coverage and as of May 2021, 109 countries and territories worldwide have enrolled in GLASS. A key new component in GLASS is the inclusion of antimicrobial consumption (AMC) surveillance at the national level highlighted in this fourth G...LASS report.
The fourth GLASS report summarizes the 2019 data reported to WHO in 2020. It includes data on AMC surveillance from 15 countries and AMR data on 3 106 602 laboratory-confirmed infections reported by 24 803 surveillance sites in 70 countries, compared to the 507 923 infections and 729 surveillance sites reporting to the first data call in 2017.
The report also describes developments over the past years of GLASS and other AMR surveillance programmes led by WHO, including resistance to anti-human immunodeficiency virus and anti-tuberculosis medicines, antimalarial drug efficacy.
more
March 2021. “A Decade of Destruction: Attacks on health care in Syria,” highlights with chilling detail how this 10-year war strategy has turned hospitals from safe havens into no-go zones where Syrian civilians now fear for their lives.
síntesis de hallazgos en cinco países de América Latina
The humanitarian-development-peace nexus (HDPNX) is a new way of working that offers a framework for coherent joined-up planning and implementation of shared priorities between humanitarian development and peacebuilding actors in emergency settings. To advance the HDPNx in a given country a sh...ared foundational understanding of the current situation is needed. However it can be challenging to find such a resource perpetuating poor understanding planning and operationalization. This is one of a series of country profiles that have been developed by WHO to address that need. Each profile provides an overview of health-related nexus efforts in the country and will be updated regularly.
more
Some observers have described the coronavirus pandemic as an 'Anthropocene disease,' thereby highlighting its connection with this new ecological era that is characterised by the considerable pressure human activities are exerting on ecosystems and the consequences on public health, society and the ...environment. This article focuses on the recent emergence of the 'Planetary Health' paradigm. Launched by the Rockefeller Foundation and the medical journal The Lancet, Planetary Health is one of the most ambitious attempts in recent years to systematize global health in the Anthropocene. While recognising the interest and necessity of reflecting on human health and the health of the planet, this article aims to show, however, that the Planetary Health paradigm is problematic and aporetic for two reasons. First, because it is based on a scientistic and depoliticised conception of the Anthropocene, which obscures capitalism's responsibility for the contemporary global and, especially, ecological crisis. Second, because this conception leads to a promotion of solutions that are essentially based on the financialization and technoscientific management of the living world - precisely the underlying cause of the degradation of ecosystems and living conditions that created the Anthropocene in the first place. A different kind of 'planetary health' remains possible and desirable.
more
In 2018 and early 2019, the WHO Regional Office for Europe’s cultural contexts of health and well-being project worked alongside the University of Exeter’s WHO Collaborating Centre on Culture and Health, the Minsk Regional Centre for Psychiatry and Addiction, and the Institute of Mental Health o...f the Ukrainian Catholic University to engage researchers, practitioners, health-care workers and other relevant stakeholders in a series of workshops on the cultural contexts of early life trauma in Belarus and Ukraine.
more
En 2015, el 26% de los decesos de 5,9 millones de niños que murieron antes de cumplir los cinco años podría haberse prevenido
abordando los riesgos medioambientales; una impactante oportunidad perdida. El período prenatal y de la primera infancia
representa un escenario de particular vulnerabi...lidad, donde los peligros medioambientales pueden conducir al parto prematuro y otras complicaciones, y aumentar el riesgo de desarrollar una enfermedad de por vida, como enfermedades respiratorias, enfermedades cardiovasculares y cáncer. De este modo, el medio ambiente representa un factor importante en la salud infantil, así como una gran oportunidad de implementar mejoras, con efectos observados en cada región del mundo
more
This document provides technical guidance on concepts, definitions, indicators, criteria, milestones and tools to assist leprosy programmes in their journey towards the goals of interruption of transmission and elimination of leprosy disease and through the post-elimination period. Importantly, it p...rovides criteria with benchmarks, where possible, for all key aspects of leprosy programmes and services. Not only those related to elimination efforts, but also those related to diagnosis and management of leprosy, leprosy-related disabilities, mental wellbeing, stigma and discrimination and inclusion and participation of persons affected by leprosy. The document emphasises that the elimination of leprosy is a long-term, continuous journey on the one hand, while, on the other, clear milestones can be recognised on the way and programme implementation can be assessed against benchmarks, guiding appropriate action to keep the programme on track.
more
The majority of developing countries will fail to achieve their targets for Universal Health Coverage (UHC)1 and the health- and poverty-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) unless they take urgent steps to strengthen their health financing. Just over a decade out from the SDG deadline of 20...30, 3.6 billion people do not receive the most essential health services they need, and 100 million are pushed into poverty from paying out-of-pocket for health services. The evidence is strong that progress towards UHC, core to SDG 3, will spur inclusive and sustainable economic growth, yet this will not happen unless countries achieve high-performance health financing, defined here as funding levels that are adequate and sustainable; pooling that is sufficient to spread the financial risks of ill-health; and spending that is efficient and equitable to assure desired levels of health service coverage, quality, and financial protection for all people— with resilience and sustainability.
more
Aid Delivery Methods vol.1
The guide to implementing the One Health Joint Plan of Action (OH JPA) at national level provides practical guidance on how countries can adopt and adapt the OH JPA to strengthen and support national One Health action.
Building on the OH JPA theory of change, this guide describes three pathways a...nd five key steps to implement the OH JPA at national level:
Pathway 1 -- Governance, policy, legislation, financing and advocacy
Pathway 2 -- Organizational and institutional development, implementation and sectoral integration
Pathway 3 -- Data, evidence, information systems and knowledge exchange.
The stepwise approach comprises:
Situation analysis including stakeholder mapping and review of existing assessment results
Set-up/strengthening of a multisectoral, One Health coordination mechanism
Planning for implementation, including activity prioritization and leveraging of resources
Implementation of national One Health action plans
Review, sharing and incorporation of lessons learned.
more
Facilitator's Guide. This guide is designed to assist facilitators in training community health workers (CHWs) and community volunteers (CVs) in integrating community-based TB services into their work. The training will help community workers who already provide numerous services to understand TB an...d contribute to prevention, care and support services in their communities
more
Curricula and Educational Materials to
Help Young People Achieve Better Sexual
and Reproductive Health