2nd edition. The interagency field handbook on malaria control was developed to set out effective malaria control responses in humanitarian emergencies, particularly during the acute phase when reliance on international humanitarian assistance is greatest. This second edition represents a thorough u...pdating and revision of the first edition. The structure remains similar, but includes an additional chapter on humanitarian coordination. All chapters have been revised to reflect changes in best practices, improvements in technologies, availability of new tools, and changes in WHO recommendations.
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This Tuberculosis guide has been developed jointly by Médecins Sans Frontières and Partners In Health. It aims at providing useful information to the clinicians and health staff for the comprehensive management of tuberculosis. Forms of susceptible and resistant tuberculosis, tuberculosis in child...ren, and HIV co-infection are all fully addressed.
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• provide scientific information on the safety, efficacy, and quality control/ quality assurance of widely used medicinal plants, in order to facilitate their appropriate use in Member States;
• provide models to assist Member States in developing their own mono- graphs or formularies for these... or other herbal medicines; and
• facilitate information exchange among Member States.
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In this document, recommendations are provided on designing and implementing
a cross-sectional serosurvey using school-based sampling to estimate age-specific
DENV seroprevalence to inform a country’s national dengue vaccination program.
The document includes recommendations for methods for ...planning and conducting
serosurveys, including survey design, specimen collection, laboratory testing, data
analysis, and the interpretation and reporting of results.
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Interim Guidance October 2022. This addendum addresses some of the methodological aspects of VE evaluations that have been learned during the past year, as well as those that have become relevant in the current epidemiological setting of the COVID-19 pandemic. For some of the COVID-19 vaccine method...ology issues there are still insufficient data to make a recommendation, in which case different options for approaching VE evaluations are presented.
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Any individual that meets the suspected case definition of monkeypox should be offered testing in appropriately equipped laboratories by staff trained in the relevant technical and safety procedures. Confirmation of monkeypox virus infection is based on nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT), usi...ng real-time or conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR), for detection of unique sequences of viral DNA. PCR can be used alone, or in combination with sequencing. The recommended specimen type for laboratory confirmation of monkeypox is skin lesion material, including swabs of lesion surface and/or exudate, roofs from more than one lesion, or lesion crusts.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes the challenges countries face for maintaining their COVID-19 response while addressing competing public health challenges, conflicts, climate change and economic crises.
It remains critical for national programmes to continue to offer testing for COVI...D-19 in line with three main objectives: reduce morbidity and mortality through linkage to prompt care and treatment, reduce onward transmission and track the evolution of the epidemic and the virus
itself.
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The World Health Organization Global TB Report provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic, and progress in the response, at global, regional and country levels.
The 2022 edition features data on disease trends and the response to the epidemic from 215 countries and area...s, including all 194 World Health Organization (WHO) Member States. It provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic, progress in the response at global, regional and country levels, as well as on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on TB services.
TB remains one of the top infectious killers in the world. This year’s report presents data on an increase in the number of people falling ill with TB and drug resistant TB for the first time in many years. Increases were also reported on the number of TB deaths, highlighting the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other crises on the TB response that has reversed years of progress. It also presents the status of progress towards targets set at the first-ever United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting on TB in 2018 as well as the targets of the WHO End TB Strategy and the Sustainable Development Goals.
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The meeting was held from 26 to 27 March 2018 to review and discuss the following topics:
Advances and challenges in the use of fTLC, and new approaches to detecting mycolactone using monoclonal antibodies (mAbs).
The status of development of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) targeting the M...UL_3720 protein.
The role of PCR as a reference test, and hurdles in providing a confirmatory diagnosis and in establishing a quality assurance programme.
New molecular tools with potential for implementation at a level lower than in the national or regional reference laboratory, such as loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA).
The need to harmonize and standardize methods for collection and preparation of specimens, so samples can be referred for diagnosis and stored for evaluation of new diagnostic tests in optimal conditions.
Barriers to accessing early diagnosis and treatment, including coordination at the programme level, and lack of adequate diagnostic tools.
Defining target product profiles (TPPs) to guide the development of new diagnostic tools that can be applied at different levels of the health system. Participants agreed that two TPPs would be developed to address the current gaps: (i) a rapid test for BU diagnosis at the primary health-care level; and (ii) a test for diagnosis of BU that can also assist in treatment monitoring and differential diagnosis at the district hospital or reference centre.
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GDF is the largest global provider of quality-assured tuberculosis (TB)
medicines, diagnostics, and laboratory supplies to the public sector.
Since 2001, GDF has facilitated access to high-quality TB care in over 130
countries, providing treatments to over 30 million people with TB and procuring
...
and delivering more than $200 million worth of diagnostic equipment
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WHO’s sentinel surveys of acquired HIV resistance to dolutegravir among people receiving dolutegravir-containing antiretroviral therapy is intended for easy and frequent implementation. Results from sentinel surveys provide insight into the prevalence and year-over-year trends of dolutegravir resi...stance in adults, children and adolescents receiving dolutegravir-based ART.
This sentinel method is implemented complementary to WHO-recommended methods for estimating nationally representative levels of acquired HIV drug resistance.
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Pharmaceutical News
Evaluation of Saccharide Content of the WHO 2nd International Standard for Haemophilus Influenzae Polysaccharide Polyribosyl Ribitol Phosphate (PRP) by HPAECPAD Analysis Following Acid Hydrolysis
Consultation Documents
Lamivudine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate tablets (lami...vudini et tenofoviri disoproxili fumarati compressi)
Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate tablets (tenofoviri disoproxili fumarati compressi)
ATC/DDD Classification
Temporary
Final
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About six to seven million people worldwide, mostly in Latin America, are estimated to be infected with
Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas disease (WHO data from 2021). Chagas disease is
found mainly in endemic areas of 21 Latin American countries. Chagas disease was once entirely
...
confined to rural areas but in the last decades, due to population movements, most infected people live
in urban settings and the disease has spread to other continents. The burden of disease is due to its
chronic progression with people still suffering years later after initial infection.
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Epidemiology
Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) is caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, and transmitted to humans by infected triatomine bugs, and less commonly by transfusion, organ transplant, from mother to infant, and in rare instances, by ingestion of contaminated food or... drink.1-4 The hematophagous triatomine vectors defecate during or immediately after feeding on a person. The parasite is present in large numbers in the feces of infected bugs, and enters the human body through the bite wound, or through the intact conjunctiva or other mucous membrane.
Vector-borne transmission occurs only in the Americas, where an estimated 8 to 10 million people have Chagas disease.5 Historically, transmission occurred largely in rural areas in Latin America, where houses built of mud brick are vulnerable to colonization by the triatomine vectors.4 In such areas, Chagas disease usually is acquired in childhood. In the last several decades, successful vector control programs have substantially decreased transmission rates in much of Latin America, and large-scale migration has brought infected individuals to cities both within and outside of Latin America.
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Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) is caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, and transmitted to humans by infected triatomine bugs, and less commonly by transfusion, organ transplant, from mother to infant, and in rare instances, by ingestion of contaminated food or drink.1-4 The... hematophagous triatomine vectors defecate during or immediately after feeding on a person. The parasite is present in large numbers in the feces of infected bugs, and enters the human body through the bite wound, or through the intact conjunctiva or other mucous membrane.
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• Leptospirosis is a disease that is caused by
spirochete bacteria in the genus Leptospira.
There are 10 pathogenic species, and more
than 250 pathogenic serovars.
• While leptospirosis occurs worldwide, it is
more common in tropical or sub-tropical
climates.
Rabies has an enormous impact on both agriculture and conservation biology, but its greatest burden is undeniably on public health. As such, routine methods for rapid risk assessment after human exposures to rabies as well as applications for laboratory-based surveillance, production of biologicals ...and management of this infectious disease are critical. Given its mandate to improve human health and control disease among its Member States, WHO has led the production of this fifth edition of Laboratory techniques in rabies.
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Neglected tropical diseases tend to cluster in the same poor populations, and to make progress with their control, they will have to be dealt with in an integrated manner. Peptide microarrays may be a solution to tese problems, where diagnosis for co-infection can be detected simultaneously using th...e one tool.
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