Safe sanitation is essential for health, from preventing infections to improving and maintaining mental and social
well-being. Lack of adequate sanitation contributes to diarrhoeal diseases, parasitic infections, and undernutrition, as
well as posing significant risks and causing anxiety, especial...ly for women and girls. Achieving universal access to safe
sanitation, which protects health, privacy, and dignity, is a global development goal and a recognized basic human right.
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The social protection landscape for people affected by TB in the WHO South-East Asia Region
Effective malaria case management requires quick access to diagnostics and antimalarial treatments to reduce illness and death. Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) has been essential to malaria treatment since 2001, as it combines artemisinin for rapid parasite reduction with a partner drug ...to ensure complete cure. However, resistance to antimalarial drugs, where parasites survive standard doses, threatens malaria control.
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interim guidance, 25 November 2024
Women and children, especially pregnant girls and women, infants and young children and postpartum women, are populations that are extremely vulnerable in emergencies. Breastfeeding provides children with hydration, comfort, connection, high quality nutrition and protection against disease, shieldin...g them from the worst of emergency conditions. This ability has been described as empowering and healing by some breastfeeding women.
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Caring for burns patients from the incident scene to definitive treatment can be a complex, resource-consuming process with the potential to overwhelm health system capacity.This document provides practical guidance for building capacity and capability for burns care from clinical, human resources a...nd operational perspectives. It is therefore recommended that guidance in this document be applied to any contexts in which the local health system might struggle to cope and require surge support.
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The “ActiveAge Handbook” is an outcome of the “ActiveAge Project, which was carried out from January 2013 until June 2014 in the frame of “2012 Preparatory Actions in the Field of Sport” of the European Commission Directory General Education and Cul-
ture (DG EAC) in cooperation with 13 E...uropean partners under the leadership of the German Gymnastic Federation (DTB). “ActiveAge” was set up as a transnational project that fosters the exchange of knowledge and experience to counteract the physical inactivity of elderly people through capacity building for physical activities and sport programs of aging people in well-
structured and wide-spread settings, with the starting point in sport-organizations.
The handbook is intended to be used as a guideline for further activities of the “European Platform Active Aging in Sport” (EPAAS), which will continue the mission of the ActiveAge Project. Furthermore the handbook should serve as well for any other stakeholder interested to promote physical activities and sport for elderly people.
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The document emphasizes integrating environmental considerations into nutrition programs. It introduces a screening tool piloted across ten projects to identify environmental risks and opportunities, fostering sustainable practices in food systems. The tool promotes collaboration, co-learning, and a...ctionable steps to align nutrition goals with environmental sustainability, ensuring long-term benefits for health and ecosystems.
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The aim of the present paper is to review capacity building in public health nutrition (PHN), the need for which has been stressed for many years by a range of academics, national and international organisations. Although great strides have been made worldwide in the science of nutrition, there rema...in many problems of undernutrition and increasingly of obesity and related chronic diseases. The main emphasis in capacity building has been on the nutrition and health workforce, but the causes of these health problems are multifactorial and require collaboration across sectors in their solution. This means that PHN capacity building has to go beyond basic nutrition and beyond the immediate health workforce to policy makers in other sectors. The present paper provides examples of capacity building activities by various organisations, including universities, industry and international agencies. Examples of web-based courses are given including an introduction to the e-Nutrition Academy. The scope is international but with a special focus on Africa. In conclusion, there remains a great need for capacity building in PHN but the advent of the internet has revolutionised the possibilities.
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HIV testing programmes need to ensure that all clients who test for HIV are provided with correct diagnoses. The accuracy of HIV testing is critical to prevent misdiagnosis, as the consequences of giving an incorrect test result can be serious for clients, HIV testing services, HIV programmes and pu...blic health.
With the evolution of global HIV epidemiology, HIV testing approaches must also evolve to maintain accuracy and efficiency in population-level diagnosis. Reports suggest that misdiagnosis of HIV status may occur when suboptimal testing algorithms and out-of-date testing strategies are used. As a result of changing epidemiology and declining HIV positivity in testing, WHO recommends all countries use a standard three-test strategy to ensure a PPV of at least 99%, minimizing false-positive misdiagnosis. The WHO-recommended HIV testing strategy, along with quality assurance measures such as retesting to verify a positive diagnosis prior to initiation of HIV treatment, is cost-effective as it prevents misdiagnosis and unnecessary initiation of costly lifelong treatment.
This implementation guide provides practical advice on switching to a three-test strategy and instituting other measures that can help national HIV programmes deliver high-quality, accurate HIV testing services and ensure that misdiagnosis is minimized.
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The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established its Financial Mechanism to facilitate the provision and transfer of resources from developed to developing countries. The Global Environment Facility became the first operating entity of the Financial Mechanism after the ...Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC, and the GEF Council agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in 1996. This agreement placed the GEF under the guidance of the COP, as Article 11 of the Convention states that the Financial Mechanism “shall function under the guidance of and be accountable to the Conference of the Parties, which shall decide on its policies, program priorities and eligibility criteria related to this Convention.”
The yearly COPs have provided an opportunity for Parties to update and renew their guidance to the GEF. To date, there have been 145 UNFCCC COP decisions and 526 paragraphs that offer guidance to the GEF (see Table 1). In addition, the Conferences of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) have issued 40 decisions and 115 paragraphs as guidance to the GEF (see Table 2). Key areas of Convention guidance have included: the GEF’s role as an operating entity of the Financial Mechanism, including the Paris Agreement; the GEF’s institutional and procedural reform; transparency and access to GEF funds; country engagement and empowerment; reporting on greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories; support for technology transfer; and ongoing programming in mitigation and adaptation.
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Mpox is an emerging zoonotic disease caused by the mpox virus, a member of the Orthopoxvirus genus closely related to the variola virus that causes smallpox. Mpox was first discovered in 1958 when outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in monkeys kept for research. The first human case was recorde...d in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during a period of intensified effort to eliminate smallpox and since then the infection has been reported in a number of African countries. Mpox can spread in humans through close contact, usually skin-to-skin contact, including sexual contact, with an infected person or animal, as well as with materials contaminated with the virus such as clothing, beddings and towels, and respiratory droplets in prolonged face to face contact. People remain infectious from the onset of symptoms until all the lesions have scabbed and healed. The virus may spread from infected animals through handling infected meat or through bites or scratches. Diagnosis is confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing of material from a lesion for the virus’s DNA. Two separate clades of the mpox virus are currently circulating in Africa: Clade I, which includes subclades Ia and Ib, and Clade II, comprising subclades IIa and IIb. Clade Ia and Clade Ib have been associated with ongoing human-to-human transmission and are presently responsible for outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), while Clade Ib is also contributing to outbreaks in Burundi and other countries.
In 2022‒2023 mpox caused a global outbreak in over 110 countries, most of which had no previous history of the disease, primarily driven by human-to-human transmission of clade II through sexual contact. In just over a year, over 90,000 cases and 150 deaths were reported to the WHO. For the second time since 2022, mpox has been declared a global health emergency as the virus spreads rapidly across the African continent. On 13 Aug 2024, Africa CDC declared the ongoing mpox outbreak a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS), marking the first such declaration by the agency since its inception in 2017.7 This declaration empowered the Africa CDC to lead and coordinate responses to the mpox outbreak across affected African countries. On August 14, 2024, the WHO declared the resurgence of mpox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) emphasizing the need for coordinated international response.
As of August 2024, Mpox has expanded beyond its traditional endemic regions, with new cases reported in countries including Sweden, Thailand, the Philippines, and Pakistan. Sweden has confirmed its first case of Clade 1 variant, which has been rapidly spreading in Africa, particularly in DRC. The emergence of this new variant raises concerns about its potential for higher lethality and transmission rates outside Africa.
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This purpose of this guide is to inform robust evaluations of the WHO training package – a package aimed at personnel whose primary role in health-care facilities is environmental cleaning, hereafter referred to as cleaners.
The WHO training package – Environmental cleaning and infection prev...ention and control in health-care facilities in low- and middle-income countries – was designed to improve the competencies of cleaners through a practical, educational approach for adult learners in low- and middle-income countries and comprises two volumes: trainer’s guide and modules and resources (1,2). An associated OpenWHO online course describes the essential preparations for trainers to deliver the WHO training package.
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The far-reaching impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic underscore the critical need for evidence-informed, transparent and inclusive decision-making. Policy-makers have grappled with complex choices amidst uncertainty. They have constantly reassessed response measures while navigating their economic impl...ications and unintended consequences on societal well-being. Effective communication of the basis for these decisions has also posed a challenge, requiring transparency and public trust.
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The risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) competency framework is a resource that details the essential behaviours and activities necessary for effective communication and engagement with communities before, during and after public health emergencies. The purpose of this framework is to... establish and promote a common understanding of behavioural competencies and how they should be applied for high-performing and community-centred health emergency programmes. It is intended to support the development of standardized training programmes, professional development and talent acquisition and to enhance the capabilities of public health professionals involved in RCCE. Its goal is to inform the establishment of a skilled, well-trained RCCE workforce that consistently understands and executes the necessary behaviours and activities required to conduct RCCE activities with competence and professionalism.
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The Government of Malawi is committed to improving health and livelihoods in Malawi through community health – the
provision of basic health services in rural and urban communities with the participation of people who live there.
Historically, Community Health has significantly contributed to im...provements in Malawi’s health outcomes in particular
attainment of MDG4. However, the community health system faces resource constraints and inconsistencies around quality
of service – which negatively affect health outcomes.
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This Birth Defect Surveillance facilitator (train-the-trainer) guide 2nd edition covers foundational skills needed to begin the development, implementation and ongoing improvement of a congenital anomaly surveillance programme, whether population-based or hospital-based, in particular for countries ...with limited resources.
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People with disabilities experience significant health inequalities. In Malawi, where most individuals live in low-income rural settings, many of these inequalities are exacerbated by restricted access to health care services. This qualitative study explores the barriers to health care access experi...enced by individuals with a mobility or sensory impairment, or both, living in rural villages in Dowa district, central Malawi. In addition, the impact of a chronic lung condition, alongside a mobility or sensory impairment, on health care accessibility is explored.
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Introduction Pharmacovigilance (PV) systems to monitor drug and vaccine safety are often inadequate in sub-Saharan
Africa. In Malawi, a PV enhancement initiative was introduced to address major barriers to PV.
Objective The objective of this initiative was to improve reporting of adverse events (A...Es) by strengthening passive safety
surveillance via PV training and mentoring of local PV stakeholders and healthcare providers (HCPs) at their own healthcare
facilities (HCFs).
Methods An 18-month PV training and mentoring programme was implemented in collaboration with national stakeholders,
and in partnership with the Ministry of Health, GSK and PATH. Two-day training was provided to Expanded Programme on
Immunisation coordinators, identified as responsible for AE reporting, and four National Regulatory Authority representa-
tives. Abridged PV training and mentoring were provided regularly to HCPs. Support was given in upgrading the national
PV system. Key performance indicators included the number of AEs reported, transmission of AE forms, completeness of
reports, serious AEs reported and timeliness of recording into VigiFlow.
Results In 18 months, 443 HCPs at 61 HCFs were trained. The number of reported AEs increased from 22 (January 2000 to
October 2016) to 228 (November 2016 to May 2018), enabling Malawi to become a member of the World Health Organization
Programme for International Drug Monitoring. Most (98%) AE report forms contained mandatory information on reporter,
event, patient and product, but under 1% were transmitted to the national PV office within 48 h.
Conclusion Regular PV training and mentoring of HCPs were effective in enhancing passive safety surveillance in Malawi,
but the transmission of reports to the national PV centre requires further improvement.
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WHO’s Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) defines the Organization’s medium-term vision for working in and with a particular country. The CCS, developed in the context of global and national health priorities, examines the overall health situation in a country, including the state of the health s...ector, socioeconomic status and the major health determinants.
This CCS sets out WHO’s strategic framework for collaboration with the Syrian Arab Republic, from June 2022 until June 2025, in light of the 12 years of crisis that have had a devastating impact on the health sector and infrastructure of basic services. It carefully considers the current and projected issues during its transition from continued humanitarian assistance to recovery, resilience and development. The consolidation of health policies and strategies and health system strengthening, based on the strengthening of primary health care (PHC), aims to contribute to the achievement of national and global development and health goals and the targets of the SDGs.
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