Countries are making progress toward the global goal of 95% of people living with HIV knowing their status by 2025. However, considerable gaps remain in achieving these goals globally. Men in high HIV burden settings and men from key populations in all settings are consistently less likely to know t...heir HIV status than women. Globally, 78% of men ages 15 years and older who are living with HIV are aware of their HIV status, compared with 86% of women with HIV of these ages.
Offering HIV testing services, including HIV self-testing, at formal and informal workplaces has emerged as an effective, acceptable and feasible approach for reaching men. A 2018 World Health Organization (WHO) and International Labour Organization (ILO) policy brief provides key guiding principles for HIVST implementation at workplaces. Building on the 2018 policy brief, this brief captures early experience with HIVST implementation at workplaces and discusses emerging approaches of sustainable financing that can be adapted for HIV self-testing at workplaces.
The primary audiences for this policy brief are ministries of health and labour, national HIV programmes, employers’ organizations, workers’ organizations (labour unions), enterprises, implementing partners, including civil society organizations, and health insurance agencies.
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This report provides a review and analysis of the research landscape for three diseases – Chagas disease, human African trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis – that disproportionately afflict poor and remote populations with limited access to health services. It represents the work of the disease re...ference group on Chagas Disease, Human African Trypanosomiasis and Leishmaniasis (DRG3) which was established to identify key research priorities through review of research evidence and input from stakeholders' consultations.
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Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) are critical in the prevention and care for all of the 17 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) scheduled for intensified control or elimination by 2020.
Provision of safe water, sanitation and hygiene is one of the five key interventions within the global NTD ...roadmap. Yet to date, the WASH component of the strategy has received little attention and the potential to link efforts on WASH and NTDs has been largely untapped.
Focused efforts on WASH are urgently needed if the global NTD roadmap targets are to be met. This is especially needed for NTDs where transmission is most closely linked to poor WASH conditions such as soil-transmitted helminthiasis, schistosomiasis, trachoma and lymphatic filariasis.
This strategy aims to mobilise WASH and NTD actors to work together towards the roadmap targets.
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Addressing comorbidities and risk factors for tuberculosis (TB) is a crucial component of the World Health Organization (WHO)’s End TB Strategy. This WHO operational handbook on tuberculosis. Module 6: tuberculosis and comorbidities aims to support countries in scaling up people-centred care, base...d on the latest WHO recommendations on TB and key comorbidities, and drawing upon additional evidence, best practices and inputs from various experts and stakeholders obtained during WHO processes. It is intended for use by people working in ministries of health, particularly TB programmes and the relevant departments or programmes responsible for comorbidities and health-related risk factors for TB such as HIV, diabetes, undernutrition, substance use, and tobacco use, as well as programmes addressing mental health and lung health. This operational handbook is a living document and will include a separate section for each of the key TB comorbidities or health-related risk factors. The third edition includes guidance for HIV-associated TB, mental health conditions and diabetes, which are three conditions strongly associated with TB and which result in higher mortality, poorer TB treatment outcomes and negatively impact health-related quality of life. The operational handbook aims to facilitate early detection, proper assessment and adequate management of people affected by TB and comorbidities. Full implementation of this guidance is expected to have a significant impact on TB treatment outcomes and health-related quality of life for people affected by TB.
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The report reveals that good IPC programmes can reduce health care infections by 70 %. oday, out of every 100 patients in acute-care hospitals, seven patients in high-income countries and 15 patients in low- and middle-income countries will acquire at least one health care-associated infection (HAI)... during their hospital stay. On average, 1 in every 10 affected patients will die from their HAI.
People in intensive care and newborns are particularly at risk. And the report reveals that approximately one in four hospital-treated sepsis cases and almost half of all cases of sepsis with organ dysfunction treated in adult intensive-care units are health care-associated.
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While there has been real progress in addressing the burden of disease in the WHO African region, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the link between health, economics and security, as the region saw decades of progress threatened, including positive trends in decreasing inequality. In the Africa...n Region the momentum towards achieving the 2030 SDG disease burden reduction targets (SDG targets 3.3, 3.4 and 3B) has stalled.
The COVID-19 pandemic was also a major threat to gains made, such as the eradication of polio in the region, declared in 2020; reduced numbers of new HIV infections in 2021 compared to 2010; and passing the 2020 milestone of the End TB Strategy, with a 22% reduction in new cases compared with 2015. However, the pandemic also disrupted essential health services in 92% of countries globally, 22.7 million children missed basic immunization, there was an increase in malaria and TB, and global deaths from TB rose for the first time since 2015.
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This fourth annual report monitors global progress towards the 2023 target for global elimination of industrially produced trans-fatty acids (TFA), highlighting achievements during the past year (October 2021 – September 2022). Countries are responding to the World Health Organization (WHO) call t...o action by putting into place best-practice TFA policies. Mandatory TFA policies are currently in effect for 3.4 billion people in 60 countries (43% of the world population); of these, 43 countries have best-practice policies in effect, covering 2.8 billion people (36% of the world population).
Over the past year, several additional countries took action to eliminate industrially produced TFA: best-practice policies came into effect in India in January 2022, Uruguay in May 2022 and Oman in July 2022. Best-practice policies were passed in Bangladesh in November 2021 (to come into effect in December 2022) and in Ukraine in September 2020 (to come into effect in October 2023), best-practice TFA policies are projected to pass soon in Mexico, Nigeria and Sri Lanka.
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Los módulos que conforman el paquete técnico HEARTS están dirigidos a los formuladores de políticas públicas y gerentes, directores o coordinadores de programas a diferentes niveles dentro de los ministerios de salud cuyo trabajo influye sobre la prestación de servicios de salud a nivel primar...io para la atención de las enfermedades cardiovasculares. Dentro de cada módulo existen secciones dirigidas a actores en niveles específicos de los sistemas de salud, así como a diferentes grupos de profesionales. En ese sentido, todos los módulos requieren ser adaptados al contexto de cada país.
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Addressing comorbidities and risk factors for tuberculosis (TB) is a crucial component of the World Health Organization (WHO)’s End TB Strategy. This WHO operational handbook on tuberculosis. Module 6: tuberculosis and comorbidities aims to support countries in scaling up people-centred care, ...based on the latest WHO recommendations on TB and key comorbidities, and drawing upon additional evidence, best practices and inputs from various experts and stakeholders obtained during WHO processes. It is intended for use by people working in ministries of health, particularly TB programmes and the relevant departments or programmes responsible for comorbidities and health-related risk factors for TB such as HIV, diabetes, undernutrition, substance use, and tobacco use, as well as programmes addressing mental health and lung health.
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The KMC implementation strategy targets a broad audience. These include policy-makers and programme managers at national, regional and local levels, government and nongovernmental organizations working in the area of maternal and newborn care, global and national professional associations, public an...d private hospital management at all levels of care, and facility- and community-based maternal and infant care providers.
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In 2017, 3.6 million of the estimated 10 million people with TB worldwide were “missed” by national TB programmes (NTPs). Two thirds of them are thought to access TB treatment of questionable quality from public and private providers who are not engaged by the NTP. The quality of care provided i...n these settings is often not known or substandard. Closing these gaps and ensuring patient-centred care imply that quality-assured and affordable TB services must be made available wherever people choose to seek care.
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Kangaroo mother care (KMC) is a critical strategy to care for preterm and low birth weight infants in resource-limited settings. Despite evidence of its effectiveness and low cost, coverage has remained low, largely due to sociocultural barriers. We aimed to better understand social norms and commun...ity perceptions of preterm infants and KMC (facility-initiated and community-continued) in Malawi, a country with a high preterm birth rate, to inform a pilot social and behavior change program.
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Ebola disease and Marburg disease outbreaks continue to occur in Africa, with increased frequency. In addition to resulting in high mortality and morbidity, the outbreaks generate fear and mistrust about the response activities within the communities affected.
Infection prevention and control (IP...C) is a key pillar in the outbreak response; adherence to IPC practices can prevent and control transmission of infections to health and care workers, patients and their family members.
During the 2014-2016 West African Ebola disease outbreak, there was an urgent need for rapid IPC guidance to help support ministries of health, health-care providers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In response, WHO produced several documents related to the outbreak based on expert opinion, including IPC-specific documents and documents on clinical management that also referenced key IPC principles and practices. Since that time, many practices in the field have become institutionalized.
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This WHO laboratory manual provides the most up to date methods and procedures for the laboratory identification of yellow fever virus infection in humans. It provides guidance on the establishment and maintenance of an effective laboratory providing routine surveillance testing for yellow fever, wh...ich operates within the WHO coordinated Global Yellow Fever Laboratory Network (GYFLaN) capable of providing confirmation of yellow fever infection reliably and timely. This second edition supersedes the first edition of the 2004 WHO manual for the monitoring of yellow fever virus infection.
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The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic exacerbated pre-existing inequalities in the treatment and care of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). This report examines the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to NCD medicines, and the policies and strategies implemented by countries and health sys...tems to anticipate and mitigate stresses across NCD medicine supply chains. The full range of upstream and downstream impacts are investigated, including: manufacturing; procurement, importation and last mile delivery; patient-level effects through affordability and availability; and the effects on NCD medicine availability by category of disease. The report culminates in recommended actions and interventions for key stakeholders in the NCD pharmaceutical supply chain, including governments, regulatory authorities, manufacturers and the private sector; as well as directions for future research for improving access and supply chain access resilience.
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Since 1996, trachoma has been targeted for elimination as a public health problem worldwide. The active trachoma criterion for national elimination as a public health problem is a TF1–9 < 5%, sustained for at least two years in the absence of antibiotic mass drug administration (MDA), in each form...erly endemic EU. Using A, F and E, health ministries and their partners have made considerable progress towards achieving this criterion in formerly endemic EUs worldwide. In 2002, an estimated 1517 million people lived in EUs in which EU-wide implementation of the A, F and E components of SAFE were thought to be needed for the purposes of global elimination of trachoma as a public health problem; by June 2021, that number had fallen to 136.2 million, a 91% reduction. Approximately 85% of the 136.2 million people living in EUs needing A, F and E in June 2021 were in WHO’s African Region.
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The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic exacerbated pre-existing inequalities in the treatment and care of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). This report examines the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to NCD medicines, and the policies and strategies implemented by countries and health sys...tems to anticipate and mitigate stresses across NCD medicine supply chains. The full range of upstream and downstream impacts are investigated, including: manufacturing; procurement, importation and last mile delivery; patient-level effects through affordability and availability; and the effects on NCD medicine availability by category of disease. The report culminates in recommended actions and interventions for key stakeholders in the NCD pharmaceutical supply chain, including governments, regulatory authorities, manufacturers and the private sector; as well as directions for future research for improving access and supply chain access resilience.
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This ten year global plan for measles and rubella outlines the strategy that needs to be fully implemented to achieve the measles and rubella goals endorsed by the World Health Assembly. The plan sets out the: vision, goals and targets for the 2011-2020 period, recommended strategies, guiding princi...ples, priorities, costing of reaching the targets, and the challenges as well as ways to overcome them.
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This Training module on malaria elimination has been developed by WHO to support health professionals in planning, managing, monitoring and evaluating malaria elimination programmes.
Supporting exercises: These files are necessary for participants to complete a number of exercises listed in the man...ual. Please go to the website: http://www.who.int/malaria/publications/atoz/9789241549424/en/
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At present at least 2.2 billion people around the world have a vision impairment, of whom at least 1 billion have a vision impairment that could have been prevented or is yet to be addressed. The world faces considerable challenges in terms of eye care, including inequalities in the coverage and qua...lity of prevention, treatment and rehabilitation services; a shortage of trained eye care service providers; and poor integration of eye care services into health systems, among others. The World report on vision aims to address these challenges and galvanize action.
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