This guide is available in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese
This guide consolidates COVID-19 guidance for human resources for health managers and policy-makers at national, subnational and facility levels to design, manage and preserve the workforce necessary to manage the COVI...D-19 pandemic and maintain essential health services.
The guide identifies recommendations to protect, support and empower health workers at individual, management, organizational and system levels.
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13 May 2021
To avoid a reversal of progress from the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, new knowledge and lessons from successful programmatic innovations are urgently needed to improve TB prevention and care. Experience can provide evidence for innovative approaches and strategies to mainta...in and scale up high-quality TB services. WHO therefore called for case studies on programmatic innovations that address emerging challenges in TB prevention and care during the pandemic in order to collect and disseminate the findings to the TB community. Between November 2020 and February 2021, a total of 23 case studies relevant to the call were accepted from 19 countries in the six regions of WHO. The lessons learnt from these country activities to ensure the continuity of essential services like TB care in the face of the crippling crisis may also inform strategies for minimizing the impact of future emerging pathogens on health services.
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Background paper 11
The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
May 2021
A Public Health EOC (PHEOC) serves as a hub for coordinating the preparation for, response to, and recovery from public health emergencies. The preparation includes planning, such as risk and resource mapping, development of plans and procedures, and training and exercising. The response includes al...l activities related to investigation, response and recovery. The PHEOC also serves as a hub for coordinating resources and information to support response actions during a public health emergency and enhances communication and collaboration among relevant stakeholders.
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Drawing light from the pandemic: A new strategy for health and sustainable development (2021)
Available in English, French, German and Russian
Healthy people, healthy animals and a healthy environment worldwide with the One Health approach.
The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically demonstrated just how close the link is between humans, animals, and the environment, and has highlighted and aggravated existing challenges. The destruction of na...tural habitats and displacement of species, trade in wild animals, resource-intensive lifestyles and conditions, non-sustainable food systems and, in particular, industrial agriculture and intensive livestock farming are the causes of the emergence of zoonoses as well as numerous other communicable and non-communicable, chronic diseases.
The One Health approach focuses precisely on such interaction between humans, animals, and the environment.
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English Analysis on World about Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment and more; published on 29 Sep 2021 by FAO and NEPAD
This version of the glossary is substantially changed from the original. Some terms have been omitted, many have been modified in light of practical experiences and the evolution in concepts, and new terms have been added. The list of terms is not intended to be either exhaustive or exclusive, and d...raws upon the wide range of disciplines in which health promotion has its roots. Wherever possible, definitions are sourced or derived from existing, publicly accessible WHO documents. Specific sources are referenced, and where possible a web link is also provided to facilitate access to source documents. Hyperlinks were correct at the time of publication but are subject 2 Health Promotion Glossary of Terms 2021 to inevitable change. In some examples the definitions have been adapted to reflect the application of a term to the current health promotion context. Where relevant, this focus is acknowledged in individual definitions.
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Key questions
What is already known?
Critical illness is common throughout the world and COVID-19 has caused a global surge of critically ill patients.
There are large gaps in the quality of care for critically ill patients, especially in low-staffed and low-resourced settings, and mortal...ity rates are high.
Essential Emergency and Critical Care (EECC) is the effective lifesaving care of low-cost and low-complexity that all critically ill patients should receive in all wards in all hospitals in the world.
What are the new findings?
The clinical processes that comprise EECC and the essential care of critically ill patients with COVID-19 have been specified in a large consensus among clinical experts worldwide.
The resource requirements for hospitals to be ready to provide this care has been described.
What do the new findings imply?
The findings can be used across medical specialties in hospitals worldwide to prioritise and implement essential care for reducing preventable deaths.
Inclusion of the EEEC processes could increase the impact of pandemic preparedness and response programmes and policies for health systems strengthening.
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This second edition of the Infection prevention and control in the context of coronavirus disease (COVID-19): A living guideline provides the most up to date technical guidance on mask use in community settings in the context of COVID-19.
In this edition, new information includes updated mask re...commendations for children in community settings including updated age specific recommendations, statements for children with disabilities and those at high risk for complications related to COVID-19 infection. Updated implementation considerations for mask use in school settings are also included.
This living guideline is being published using the MAGICApp online publishing platform https://app.magicapp.org/#/guideline/Lr2a8L , as well as in PDF copy on the WHO website.
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A One Health Response. A Briefing Note
The Strategy provides a high-level unifying framework to leverage existing capacities, address barriers and strengthen the use of genomic surveillance in the detection, monitoring and response to public health threats. Genomic surveillance is part of the broader surveillance and laboratory system, a...nd its implementation should reinforce end-to-end capacities including sample collection, diagnostics, data sharing and analysis. The strategy aims to facilitate the connectivity between different disease control programs and surveillance networks. This interoperability will strengthen the cross-cutting essential public health laboratory functions underpinning genomics holistically. The strategy articulates the overarching goal, objectives and strategic actions needed. These are dependent on commitments from countries, partners and WHO for their implementation.
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Together for One Health. Building on the momentum of increased collaboration, the WHO, FAO, OIE and UNEP have developed a Strategic Framework for collaboration on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This Framework reflects the joint work of the four organizations to advance a One Health response to AMR ...at the global, regional and country level. It broadly supports the implementation of the five pillars of the Global Action Plan on AMR, as well as strengthening global AMR governance.
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22 April 2022, This document provides updated interim recommendations on the use of masks by health workers providing care to patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. This update is prompted by new evidence around mask use and COVID-19 transmission, as well as the emergence of variants of conc...ern including Omicron. Masks continue to be a critical tool to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These interim guidelines supersede the recommendations provided in the WHO recommendations on mask use by health workers, in light of the Omicron variant of concern published on 22 December 2022.
WHO continually evaluates the emerging evidence and will review these interim recommendations within two months and issue new guidance as needed.
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