• 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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Introducción
Capítulo A.11
Edición: Matías Irarrázaval & Andres Martin
Traducción: Fernanda Prieto-Tagle & Pablo Vidal
Zika and dengue viruses remain significant public health threats. These viruses share the same Aedes (Stegomyia) mosquito vectors and geographic distributions but infections cannot be readily distinguished clinically and need to be differentiated from each other, and from other circulating arboviral... and non-arboviral pathogens, using laboratory tests. This document provides guidance on current testing strategies for Zika and dengue virus infections with updates to the previous interim guidance for laboratory testing for ZIKV, addressing pregnant and non-pregnant patients respectively, and incorporates current guidance for dengue virus diagnostic testing. The choice of laboratory assays and interpretation of test results require careful consideration of epidemiology, patient history, and limitations of existing diagnostic tests.
This interim guidance is for use by staff of laboratories testing for Zika and dengue virus infections and for clinical practitioners and public health professionals providing clinical management or surveillance.
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A total of 18 laboratories from 13 countries participated in the four rounds of EQA: 10 laboratories from eight African endemic countries, four of which participated in all four rounds and three in three rounds. The overall results showed that the median performance of these laboratories improved ov...er the four rounds. However, the proportion of laboratories reporting false–positive cases remains high and indicates a problem of specificity probably due to contamination. The proportion of laboratories reporting both false–positive and false–negative results raises the issue of the quality of the data reported by WHO in Africa as well as the results of the studies carried out in these different laboratories in various countries.
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This bi-weekly brief details the latest developments in scientific knowledge and public health policy from around the world as well as updates to the COVID-19-related guidance from Africa CDC, WHO and other public health agencies.
In 2007, the Sixtieth World Health Assembly adopted resolution WHA60.13 on control of leishmaniasis, urging Member States, among other actions:
to strengthen prevention, active detection and treatment of cases of both cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis in order to decrease the disease burde...n; and
to strengthen the capacity of peripheral health centres to deliver primary and secondary care, so that they provide appropriate affordable diagnosis and treatment and act as sentinel surveillance sites.
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Se estima que unos 10 millones de personas contrajeron tuberculosis (TB) en el 2019 y que a unos 3 millones de ellas no se les diagnosticó ni se les notificó la enfermedad. Con el propósito de poner fin a la epidemia mundial de la tuberculosis para el 2030, sigue siendo necesario ampliar la capac...idad para analizar un gran número de muestras.
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Ethnic disparities in COVID-19 persist, with increased rates of infection, severe disease, and death among people from minority ethnic groups. COVID-19 vaccination rates also remain lowest in these communities compared with white people in the UK. Among people older than 18 years, the proportion who... have had three COVID-19 vaccinations in England in March, 2022, was lowest among Black Caribbean (38%), Black African (45%), and Pakistani (45%) ethnic groups. These disparities are likely to be attributed to the intersection of key social determinants, including socioeconomic factors such as deprivation, overcrowding, and working patterns and conditions,
alongside discrimination and structural violence in the health-care system and society.
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Cases of human monkeypox are rarely seen outside of west and central Africa. There are few data regarding viral kinetics or the duration of viral shedding and no licensed treatments. Two oral drugs, brincidofovir and tecovirimat, have been approved for treatment of smallpox and have demonstrated eff...icacy against monkeypox in animals. Our aim was to describe the longitudinal clinical course of monkeypox in a high-income setting, coupled with viral dynamics, and any adverse events related to novel antiviral therapies.
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Minimizing risk of developing antibiotic resistance and aquatic ecotoxicity in the environment resulting from the manufacturing of human antibiotic.
The Standard, facilitated by BSI Standards Limited (BSI), provides clear guidance to manufacturers in the global antibiotic supply chain to ensure t...hat their antibiotics are made responsibly, helping to minimize the risk of AMR in the environment.
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La Tripanosomiasis Americana o Enfermedad de Chagas es una antropozoonosis,
es decir una enfermedad que afecta tanto al hombre como a numerosos animales
mamíferos y que es producida por un protozoario flagelado de la sangre y de los
tejidos el Trypanosoma cruzi.
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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Since the notification of the first two confirmed cases of Vibrio cholerae O1 in the greater Port-au-Prince area on 2 October 2022, to 22 October 2022, the Haitian Ministry of Health (Ministère de la Santé Publique et de la Population, MSPP per its French acronym), reported a total of 2,243 suspec...ted cases, including 219 confirmed cases, 1,415 hospitalized suspected cases, and 55 registered deaths.
On 20 October 2022, the Dominican Republic Ministry of Public Health confirmed the first imported case of cholera in the country.
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Three classess of tests are now recommended in the latest consolidated guideles on tests for tuberculosis infection. It includes for the first-time a new class of Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigen-based skin tests (TBSTs), and the two existing classes of tests: the tuberculin skin test (TST) and t...he interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs).
IGRAs and TBSTs use Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex specific antigens and represent a significant advancement to TST which has been used for over half a century.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) convened a meeting of the Technical Advisory Group on Buruli ulcer at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on 25 to 27 March 2019
Canadian Journal of Microbiology 25 June 2021 https://doi.org/10.1139/cjm-2020-0572