This handbook is for health care providers involved in the care of girls and women who have been subjected to any form of female genital mutilation (FGM). This includes obstetricians and gynaecologists, surgeons, general medical practitioners, midwives, nurses and other country-specific health profe...ssionals. Health-care professionals providing mental health care, and educational and psychosocial support – such as psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and health educators – will also find this handbook helpful.
more
This document is intended for a wide audience including national and local policymakers, implementers and managers of national and local maternal and child health programmes, non-governmental and other organizations and professional societies involved in the planning and management of maternal and c...hild health services, health professionals including obstetricians, midwives, nurses, general medical practitioners, academic staff involved in training health professionals, managers of maternal and child health programmes and public health policymakers in all settings.
more
The two-year impact report for the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator details impact, case studies and timelines of key milestones for the Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Vaccines pillars, as well as the Health Systems and Response Connector.
The purpose of this publication is to to provide a practical, stepwise approach to the implementation of the national action plans on AMR within the human health sector; and to provide a process and collation of existing WHO tools to prioritize, cost, implement, monitor and evaluate national action ...plan activities. The target audience of the publication are national/subnational stakeholders working on AMR within the human health sector. This includes national health authorities, national multi-sectoral coordination groups, senior technical experts and policymakers involved in implementing AMR activities at all levels of the health system, and implementation partners to accelerate sustainable implementation and monitoring and evaluation of national action plans on AMR.
more
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.
more
We need to be concerned about mental health in the context of climate change
Mental health is critically important to everyone, everywhere. All over the world, mental health needs are high but responses are insufficient and inadequate. The World mental health report: transforming mental health for all is designed to inspire and inform better mental health for everyone everyw...here. Drawing on the latest evidence available, showcasing examples of good practice from around the world, and voicing people’s lived experience, it highlights why and where change is most needed and how it can best be achieved. It calls on all stakeholders to work together to deepen the value and commitment given to mental health, reshape the environments that influence mental health, and strengthen the systems that care for mental health.
more
The WHO Quality Toolkit: Navigating tools to improve the quality of health services helps easy identification and access to a wide range of WHO published materials to improve the quality of health services. These tools support the actions described in the Quality health services: a planning guide, w...hich outlines a structured, systems-based approach to improving quality of health services. Whether you work at the facility, sub-national or national level, or in specific communities, you will find resources within the Quality Toolkit to help you carry out essential tasks to improve quality of care
more
A global shortage of an estimated 18 million health workers is anticipated by 2030, a record 130 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, and there is the global threat of pandemics such as COVID-19. At least 400 million people worldwide lack access to the most essential health service...s, and every year 100 million people are plunged into poverty because they have to pay for healthcare out of their own pockets. There is, therefore, an urgent need to find innovative strategies that go beyond the conventional health-sector response.
more
The war in Ukraine has had devasting impact on women and girls
worldwide, widening gender gaps and increasing rates of food insecurity, malnutrition and energy poverty. This brief reviews the available evidence of that impact, recommending urgent attention to its consequences for women and girls. I...ts findings underline the global impacts on gender equality and women’s rights that have been compounded by climate change, environmental degradation and the COVID-19 pandemic,
demonstrating further entrenched inequalities and human rights violations.
more
This policy brief aims to provide a review of the current progress on implementing the Kenya national action plan on AMR, identifies critical gaps, and highlights findings to accelerate further progress in the human health sector. The target audience includes all those concerned with implementing ac...tions to combat antimicrobial resistance in Kenya.
more
Understanding and addressing violence against women
The executive summary of the WHO Global oral health status report presents a snapshot of the most recent data on major oral diseases, risk factors, health system challenges and opportunities for reform. The report’s clear conclusion is that the status of global oral health is alarming and requires... urgent action. The report will serve as a reference for policy-makers and an orientation for a wide range of stakeholders across different sectors to guide advocacy towards better prioritization of oral health in global, regional and national contexts. In addition, the report provides, as a separate online resource, the first-ever country oral health profiles for all 194 WHO Member States, giving unique insights into key areas and markers of oral health that are relevant for decision-makers.
more
This report assesses the impact of the conflict in Ukraine and its implications for organized crime and security-related issues for neighbouring countries, with a focus on Moldova.
These include:
Organized crime and illicit trafficking (including trafficking in persons, drugs, arms, illicit toba...cco, and other goods); Cybercrimes and fraud; Disinformation and propaganda; and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) threats.
more
he road map 2030 was developed by WHO through an extensive global consultation, with indicators set for measuring progress against targets and milestones. This compendium of indicators provides a comprehensive and standardized listing of recommended indicators, including the 70 core indicators prese...nted in the M&E framework. These indicators will also support reporting on strategies described in other road map companion documents to guide action against neglected tropical diseases include the sustainability framework, the global strategy on water, sanitation and hygiene, the One Health approach and the strategic framework for integrated control and elimination of skin-related neglected tropical diseases.
The purpose of this compendium is to guide monitoring and evaluation of programmes and thereby to improve their quality and effectiveness in alignment with the road map goals. It provides a standardized listing of the most widely used indicators relevant to countries, with uniformity in defining indicators to allow comparisons over time and among different programmes. Detailed metadata are provided for each of these indicators to facilitate validity, internal consistency, standardized measurement, estimation methods and comparability of data across countries.
more
Trachoma causes more vision loss and blindness than any other infection in the world. This disease is caused by Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria. Other variants or strains of these bacteria can cause a sexually transmitted infection (chlamydia) and disease in lymph nodes.
This is photomicrograph ...of a conjunctival smear that revealed the presence of what are known as, intracytoplasmic inclusions Trachoma is easily spread through direct personal contact such as from fingers, through shared towels and clothes, and through flies that have been in contact with the eyes or nose of an infected person. When left untreated, repeated Chlamydia trachomatis infections in the eye can cause severe scarring on the inside of the eyelid. This can cause the eyelashes to scratch the cornea (trichiasis). In addition to causing pain, trichiasis permanently damages the cornea and can lead to irreversible blindness.
Chlamydia trachomatis infections spread in areas that lack access to safely managed drinking water and sanitation systems. Trachoma affects the most resource-limited communities in the world. Globally, almost 1.9 million people have vision loss because of trachoma, and it causes 1.4% of all blindness worldwide.1 In 2021, 136 million people lived in trachoma-endemic areas and were at risk of trachoma blindness.
more
The sixteenth meeting of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases (STAG-NTD) was held as a hybrid meeting, 27–28 September 2022.
Dr Ren Minghui, Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage/Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases, welcomed participan...ts to the meeting. He said the World Health Organization’s Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (WHO/NTD) was in a state of transition. Following the death of the late esteemed Director Dr Mwelecele Ntuli Malecela earlier in the year, Dr Gautam Biswas had taken over as Acting Director but would soon retire; the appointment of a new Director was under way. Owing to rotation of STAG-NTD members, this would be the last meeting for some and the first meeting for several new participants. The work however would continue with the same commitment. Discussions over the next two days would focus on critical issues regarding recovery of NTD services following the disruptions caused by coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which had impacted many health services worldwide. He looked forward to receiving the advice and guidance of STAG-N
more
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.
more