Original Research
Rev Panam Salud Publica 43, 2019 | www.paho.org/journal | https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2019.31
24 April 2020
Policy considerations
for the WHO European Region
This document provides key considerations for Member States to help them to decide on the modulation
of large-scale restrictive public health measures
(i.e. movement restrictions and large-scale physical distancing), while at the... same time strengthening core public health service capacities (to identify, isolate,
test and treat every patient and quarantine contacts) together with personal protective measures (hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette) and individual physical distancing (>1 metre distance). The transition should be informed by national, subnational or even community-level risk assessments as the transmission of COVID-19 is typically not homogeneous within a country.
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People living with HIV depend on life-saving antiretroviral therapy (ART) and access to ART must be maintained during periods of travel restrictions and lockdowns resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Information note on HIV and COVID-19 addresses common concerns people living with HIV have rega...rding the risks of COVID-19 and how to minimize them. For HIV programme managers and health facilities providing HIV services, it identifies key points related to ensuring uninterrupted provision of ART, while protecting clients and staff from the risk of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
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Infection prevention and control (IPC) practices are of critical importance in protecting the function of healthcare services at all levels and mitigating the impact on vulnerable populations. Although the management of possible COVID-19 cases is usually guided by national policies for specific heal...thcare facilities, community transmission is currently widespread in most EU/EEA countries and the UK, therefore primary healthcare providers in the community such as GPs, dentists and pharmacists are at risk of being exposed to COVID-19.
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Policy brief, 24 July 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected older people disproportionately, especially those living in long-term care facilities. In many countries, evidence shows that more than 40% of COVID-19 related deaths have been linked to long-term care facilities, with figures being as h...igh as 80% in some high-income countries. Concerted action is needed to mitigate the impact across all aspects of long-term care, including home- and community-based care, given that most users and providers of care are those who are vulnerable to severe COVID-19.
This policy brief provides 11 policy objectives and key action points to prevent and manage COVID-19 across long-term care. Its intended audience is policy makers and authorities (national, subnational and local) involved in the COVID-19 pandemic. The brief builds on currently available evidence on the measures taken to prevent, prepare for and respond to the COVID‑19 pandemic across long-term care services including care providers
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he pandemic has produced an unprecedented economic and social crisis, and it could generate a food, humanitarian, and political crisis if urgent measures are not taken. The policy options for addressing the pandemic entail consolidating national plans and achieving intersectoral consensus. The respo...nse should be structured in three nonlinear and interrelated phases—control, reactivation, and rebuilding—involving the participation of technical actors representing not only the field of health but also other social and economic areas. Measures implemented to control the pandemic as well as measures for the reactivation and rebuilding phases will require increased public investment in health until the recommended parameters are achieved.
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This document provides an overview of malaria trends in all WHO regions as contained in the World malaria report 2021.
As in past years, the report provides an up-to-date assessment of the burden of malaria at global, regional and country levels. It tracks investments in malaria programmes and re...search as well as progress across all intervention areas. This latest report draws on data from 87 countries and territories with ongoing malaria transmission.
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The micronutrient powders will be distributed at the health facilities where instructions on use will be provided by Health Care Providers. Community Health Volunteers will educate, counsel, and mobilize caregivers at the community level to visit health facilities for nutrition assessment and provis...ion of the micronutrient powders.
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The harmonized training package for Point-of-use-fortification using micronutrient powders has been developed to guide in training frontline health workers. The micronutrient powders will be distributed at the health facilities where instructions on use will be provided by Health Care Providers. Com...munity Health Volunteers will educate, counsel, and mobilize caregivers at the community level to visit health facilities for nutrition assessment and provision of the micronutrient powders.
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Many African countries were amongst the most rapid to respond to the emerging threat of COVID-19, implementing large-scale interventions at very early stages of their epidemic. As demonstrated in this document using very simple models, this rapid mobilization and timeliness of implementing control m...easures is likely to be an important determinant of their success. Indeed, as these measures were relaxed, subsequent waves of disease have been observed in many countries including South Africa, Kenya, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where such waves have severely impacted the health system by straining the supply of oxygen and ICU beds and inflicting a heavy toll on healthcare workers, often necessitating the re-imposition of control measures.
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This report presents country, regional and global estimates of low birth weight for 2000, together with a detailed description of the methods used in calculating the estimates. Some limited data on trends are also included. The limitations of low-birth-weight data are described and recommendations a...re made for further improvements in the data for this important indicator of health.
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This report is part of the gender and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) initiative launched by the WHO Regional Office for Europe, which aims to strengthen the response to NCDs through a gender approach. It is part of a series of country profiles and a synthesis report. The country profile of Ukraine ...presents a gender analysis of the WHO STEPwise survey (STEPS) data to support international commitments to reducing the burden of NCDs with evidence and knowledge exchange. A gender analysis of STEPS NCD risk-factor survey data describes how risk factors for chronic diseases differ between and among men and women by exploring and tracking the direction and magnitude of trends in risk factors and accessing services by sociodemographic variables. Important differences hide even in sex-disaggregated data that need to be unpacked through sociodemographic characteristics, because men and women are not homogenous groups. The report also recognizes gaps in evidence and calls for further analysis of the impact of gender-based inequalities.
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Executive summary On 27th and 28th April 2021, the division of Disease Control and Prevention in collaboration with Public Health England, organized a virtual consultative meeting as part of the consultations with Member States and partners for the development of the Africa CDC five years strategic ...plan for the prevention and control of Non-communicable Diseases … Report: Expert and stakeholder virtual consultation meeting to develop the Africa CDC Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health Strategy
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In 2013 the World Health Organization (WHO) published the report Protecting health from climate change:vulnerability and adaptation assessment. The aim was to provide basic and flexible guidance on conducting national or subnational assessments of current and future vulnerability (the susceptibilit...y of a population or region to harm) to the health risks of climate change, and of policies and programmes that could increase resilience, taking into account the multiple determinants of climate-sensitive health outcomes.
That guidance has been a very useful tool, applied to more than 50 countries and settings, and has helped countries to prepare their health contributions to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change national adaptation plans.
Since the launch of the guidance, WHO, technical partners such as Health Canada, and countries have learned much in terms of its applicability in different countries, at national and local levels.
At the same time, knowledge on climate change and health has increased.
WHO, the Pan American Health Organization and Health Canada have produced this updated version, which aims to better support countries in their assessments by proposing a simpler tool that incorporates
all lessons learned.
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