The handbook on supply chain management for HIV/AIDS commodities was written to assist program managers to plan and implement day–to-day management of all drugs and medical supplies for an HIV/AIDS program. Many of the suggested techniques described in this handbook are helpfu...l to program managers starting to plan or scale-up provision of drugs and supplies for a HIV/AIDS program. Additionally, some of the information may be helpful to readers who are implementing a new program and may not have robust logistics systems in place. For other readers, this handbook may serve as a checklist of systems and procedures that need to be in place in order to manage the many of the health commodities required for the HIV/AIDS program.
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This evaluation is the first systematic effort by UNICEF to generate evidence on how well its global as well as country level Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) strategies have worked, including their acceptance and ownership in various contexts and appropriateness of investments in c...apacity development and supply components. Overall, the evaluation recommends that UNICEF continue to promote and support CMAM as a viable approach to preventing and addressing severe acute malnutrition (SAM), with an emphasis on prevention through strengthening community outreach and integrating CMAM into national health systems and with other intervention
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Training Manual
Building on earlier EngenderHealth work in counseling, Counseling for Effective Use of Family Planning responds to an identified gap in existing materials and fills the needs expressed by those in the field. The intended audiences for this curriculum are health care providers, their... supervisors, and the managers of the programs in which they work. The counseling skills addressed here are expected to be relevant to the provision of both preventive and curative health services through the workshop participants’ national health systems. Finally, the curriculum’s participatory approach to defining terms and to generating profiles of potential clients is designed to assist trainees in addressing the realities and exploring the reproductive health priorities of their communities in a culturally appropriate manner.
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This case study examines the humanitarian response to the conflict-related crisis in the North-East of Nigeria, focusing primarily on the period from 2015 to the end of 2016. The aim is test the central hypotheses of the Emergency Gap project: that the current structure, conceptual underpinning and... prevalent mindset of the international humanitarian system limits its capacity to be effective in response to conflict-related emergencies.
As with many conflict-related crises, the emergency in north-east Nigeria has deep and complex roots in the history of the region. The conflict began in 2009 and quickly developed beyond the control of the authorities. It unfolded in the midst of pre-existing political, social and economic tensions, making an effective humanitarian response exceedingly difficult. Despite this complexity, what is clear is that the crisis has resulted in a sprawling humanitarian disaster that has killed over 25,000 people as a direct result of the violence, and continues to devastate many more lives through hunger, psychological trauma and lack of access to healthcare.
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In April 2018, Refugees International (RI) conducted a mission to Bangladesh, to research the GBV (gender-based violence) response for Rohingya women and girls. RI found that the entire humanitarian system is struggling under tremendous constraints in Bangladesh, and protection and health actors do ...deliver lifesaving services to survivors in an incredibly challenging environment. This report, however, focuses on key gaps and challenges in GBV programming, as communicated by practitioners deployed to Bangladesh at various stages of the emergency, by local organizations, and by the affected women and girls themselves.
In the analyses and recommendations provided in this report, RI draws in part from the framework of the international initiative to safeguard women and girls in emergencies — the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies — and urges the donors and humanitarian organizations that are Call to Action partners to implement it more effectively and with urgency during this emergency.
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Infectious diseases are constantly in transition. New diseases develop, known dis-eases become widespread or reemerge, and occasionally a disease is eradicated.Infectious diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis, and cholera are significant causes ofillness and death in many parts of the world. Health car...e personnel are on thefront lines, helping to protect their clients from infectious diseases and treatingthem when infections occur. During the course of their work, health care person-nel perform clinical procedures or other activities that can expose both them andtheir clients to potentially infectious microorganisms. Many of their clients aresick and thus may be more susceptible to infections or may have infections thatcan be transmitted to others. Fortunately, all staff working at health care facilities can perform simple proce-dures to minimize risk—to themselves and clients—and reduce the spread ofinfections. These practices can be integrated at minimal cost into the routineworkday at clinics and hospitals around the world. This reference booklet isspecifically designed for use at all levels of the health care system, from thelargest hospitals to the smallest dispensaries or health posts, in settings whereresources are scarce. This booklet, which was first published in 1999, has now been updated. Whilemost practices remain the same, there have been a few important changes—forexample, in recommendations related to hand hygiene and standard precautions.Nonetheless, this booklet continues to present practical recommendations forsimple and relatively low-cost procedures that can be implemented anywhere,with basic supplies and little to no high-technology equipment.
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Internationally, there is a growing concern over antimicro-bial resistance (AMR) which is currently estimated to ac-count for more than 700,000 deaths per year worldwide. If no appropriate measures are taken to halt its pro-gress, AMR will cost approximately 10 million lives andabout US$100 trillion... per year by 2050. In contrast tosome other health issues, AMR is a problem that con-cerns every country irrespective of its level of incomeand development as resistant pathogens do not respect borders.Despite the threat presented by AMR, the 2014 WorldHealth Organization (WHO) and the recent O’Neill re-port describe significant gaps in surveillance, standardmethodologies and data sharing. The 2014 WHOreport identified Africa and South East Asia as the regions without established AMR surveillance systems.
Tadesseet al. BMC Infectious Diseases (2017) 17:616 DOI 10.1186/s12879-017-2713-1
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Event-based surveillance (EBS) is defined as the organized collection, monitoring, assessment and interpretation of mainly unstructured ad hoc information regarding health events or risks, which may represent an acute risk to health. Both indicator-based and event-based surveillance components serve... the early warning and response (EWAR) function of the public health surveillance system. The Framework for Event-based Surveillance offers guidance to public health practitioners seeking to implement EBS at each administrative level in their countries.
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Version dated April 1st, 2020.
The flow of migrants and refugees from Venezuela constitutes the largest mobilization of people in the history of Latin America. By March 2020, more than 4.9 million Venezuelans have left their country and from these, more than 4.1 million have been mobilized to count...ries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The motives for this mobilization are diverse, but those related to health care issues stand out, among which is the condition of living with HIV/AIDS. In the situation of demand for medical care that COVID-19 has generated, it is much more difficult to receive attention for people who are not included in the health systems of countries that are recipient due to the limitations that their migratory status may impose.
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The Venezuelan refugee and migrant crisis is one of the biggest external displacement crises in the world today. The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded an already desperate situation for many refugees and migrants, as well as their hosts, sorely testing health and social welfare systems and the abilit...y of countries to assist the vulnerable population.
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While many of the countries hit by the COVID-19 in the first few months of the year are now beginning to relax lockdown measures as infection and death rates fall, in the regions most affected by HIV, TB and malaria, such as Africa, South Asia and Latin America, the pandemic continues to accelerate.... In lower resource settings, lockdowns are less effective and hard to sustain, and clinical care facilities are extremely limited. In such environments, the response to COVID-19 must focus on containing the pandemic’s spread as far as possible through testing, contact tracing and isolation, protecting the health workforce through training and the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) and minimizing the knock-on impact on other diseases through shoring up fragile health systems, and adapting existing disease programs.
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Previous crises, such as the Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa in 2014, indicate the direct impact movement restrictions and disease containment efforts have on food availability, access, utilization and violence – particularly gender-based violence (GBV). The importance of maintaining and ...upscaling food security interventions for the most vulnerable populations, alongside the health sector’s efforts to avert disease spread, is therefore undeniable. The COVID-19 outbreak in South Sudan threatens to paralyze an already fragile food system and negatively impact more than 6.5 million people in South Sudan who remain vulnerable. At the same time, the core national capacities for prevention, preparedness and response for public health events is limited, and the healthcare system has been weakened by years of conflict, poor governance and low investments.
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With about 24 million of Yemen’s 30 million people in need of some form of assistance, the United Nations calls Yemen the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Cholera and other disease outbreaks are common, malnutrition is widespread, water is scarce, and the healthcare system is crumbling, with o...nly half of the country’s 5,000 or so health facilities fully operational and with massive medical supply and staff shortages. In August 2020, the UN warned the country was again on the brink of full-scale famine.
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The checklist and reference list has two parts: high-level cross-cutting content (Part A) and specific programme content (Part B). Part A applies to all countries and contains situation and response analysis, the NSP development process, the goal, targets and priority-setting of the NSP and the prin...ciples of human rights and gender equity and sustainability. Part B comprises the programme requirements of prevention, treatment and care, comorbidities and integration, social protection, health systems, community engagement, human rights and gender equity, efficiency and effectiveness, governance, management and accountability, HIV and the humanitarian response
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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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WHO is working closely with our offices in Ukraine and neighbouring countries, as well as partners to rapidly respond to the health emergency triggered by the conflict and to minimize disruptions to the delivery of critical healthcare services.
WHO continues to deliver much-needed support on urge...nt health needs.
During the crisis, health must remain a priority pillar, with health workers being protected so they can continue to save lives and with health systems and facilities being protected so that they remain functional, safe and accessible to all who need essential medical services. It is imperative to ensure that life-saving medical supplies – including oxygen – reach those who need them
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Environmental Research Volume 151, November 2016, Pages 115-123
Dengue is the world’s most important arboviral disease in terms of number of people affected. Over the past 50 years, incidence increased 30-fold: there were approximately 390 million infections in 2010. Globalization, trade, travel,... demographic trends, and warming temperatures are associated with the recent spread of the primary vectors Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus and of dengue. Overall, models project that new geographic areas along the fringe of current geographic ranges for Aedes will become environmentally suitable for the mosquito’s lifecycle, and for dengue transmission. Many endemic countries where dengue is likely to spread further have underdeveloped health systems, increasing the substantial challenges of disease prevention and control. Control focuses on management of Aedes, although these efforts have typically had limited effectiveness in preventing outbreaks. New prevention and control efforts are needed to counter the potential consequences of climate change on the geographic range and incidence of dengue, including novel methods of vector control and dengue vaccines.
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Countries, partners, and donors are committed to
the global elimination of blinding trachoma by 2020.
Achieving this public health milestone requires more
than funding; it requires health personnel with the
right mix of skills, and well supported and managed
health systems. Mass drug administra...tion (MDA)
with Zithromax®, the Pfizer, Inc. donated antibiotic,
is a key component of the SAFE strategy, endorsed
by the World Health Organization. There is growing
recognition that improving all aspects of MDA, from
planning to training, recording to reporting, and
receipt of drug to distribution (the supply chain), will
be necessary if MDA programmes are going to reduce
the community burden of Chlamydia trachomatis, and
eliminate trachoma as a cause of blindness by 2020.
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Chagas disease (CD) is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, and it is endemic in Central, South America, Mexico and the
South of the United States. It is an important cause of early mortality and morbidity, and it is associated with poverty and stigma. A third of
the cases evolve into chronic... cardiomyopathy and gastrointestinal disease. The infection is transmitted vertically and by blood/organ
donation and can reactivate with immunosuppression. Case identification requires awareness and screening programmes targeting the
population at risk (women in reproductive age, donors, immunocompromised patients). Treatment with benznidazole or nifurtimox is most
effective in the acute phase and prevents progression to chronic phase when given to children. Treating women antenatally reduces but does
not eliminate vertical transmission. Treatment is poorly tolerated, contraindicated during pregnancy, and has little effect modifying the
disease in the chronic phase. Screening is easily performed with serology. Migration has brought the disease outside of the endemic
countries, where the transmission continues vertically and via blood and tissue/organ donations. There are more than 32 million migrants
from Latin America living in non-endemic countries. However, the infection is massively underdiagnosed in this setting due to the lack of
awareness by patients, health authorities and professionals. Blood and tissue donation screening policies have significantly reduced
transmission in endemic countries but are not universally established in the non-endemic setting. Antenatal screening is not commonly
done. Other challenges include difficulties accessing and retaining patients in the healthcare system and lack of specific funding for the
interventions. Any strategy must be accompanied by education and awareness campaigns directed to patients, professionals and policy
makers. The involvement of patients and their communities is central and key for success and must be sought early and actively. This review
proposes strategies to address challenges faced by non-endemic countries
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The Event-based Surveillance Framework is intended to be used by authorities and agencies responsible for
surveillance and response. This framework serves as an outline to guide stakeholders interested in implementing
event-based surveillance (EBS) using a multisectoral, One Health approach. To ...that end, the document is arranged
in interlinked chapters and annexes that can be modified and adapted, as needed, by users.
This is a revised version of the original “Framework for Event-based Surveillance” that was published in 2018. This
framework does not replace any other available EBS materials, but rather builds on existing relevant or related
documents and serves as a practical guide for the implementation of EBS in Africa. This framework is aligned with
the third edition of the WHO Joint External Evaluation for the following indicators: strengthened early warning
surveillance systems that are able to detect events of significance for public health and health security (Indicator
D2.1); improved communication and collaboration across sectors and between National, intermediate and local
public health response levels of authority regarding surveillance of events of public health significance (Indicator
D2.2); and improved national and intermediate-level capacity to analyse data (Indicator D2.3). As countries begin
to implement and demonstrate EBS functionality they will ensure an increase in JEE scores and progress towards
meeting the requirements outlined in the IHR3F
Additionally, in African Union Member States that have adopted the Integrated Disease Surveillance and
Response (IDSR) strategy, this document is a complement to and can enhance the implementation of IDSR,
especially for the 3rd edition (2019) that includes components related to EBS.
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