One important application of digital health in TB patient care is the support that it can lend to medication adherence. TB programmes have already been using short message service (SMS), video-supported treatment (VOT) and event monitoring device for medication support ...(EMM)1 to help patients complete treatment and health-care workers to monitor both daily dosing and treatment continuity
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The strategy recommends that AU Member States should enhance, where feasible, existing COVID-19 surveillance to include:
Community-based surveillance to detect symptomatic cases early for treatment and to avert viral transmission;
Sentinel surveillance in high-risk populations to detect ...and track both presymptomatic and asymptomatic cases; and
Wastewater surveillance to monitor early environmental signs of virus transmission and identify communities where targeted interventions can be implemented to decrease transmission.
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Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of global deaths, with the majority occurring in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). The primary and secondary prevention of CVD is suboptimal throughout the world, but the evidence-practice gaps are much more pronounced in LMIC. Barriers at the... patient, health-care provider, and health system level prevent the implementation of optimal primary and secondary prevention. Identification of the particular barriers that exist in resource-constrained settings is necessary to inform effective strategies to reduce the identified evidence-practice gaps. Furthermore, targeting modifiable factors that contribute most significantly to the global burden of CVD, including tobacco use, hypertension, and secondary prevention for CVD will lead to the biggest gains in mortality reduction. We review a select number of novel, resource-efficient strategies to reduce premature mortality from CVD, including: (1) effective measures for tobacco control; (2) implementation of simplified screening and management algorithms for those with or at risk of CVD, (3) increasing the availability and affordability of simplified and cost-effective treatment regimens including combination CVD preventive drug therapy, and (4) simplified delivery of health care through task-sharing (non-physician health workers) and optimizing self-management (treatment supporters). Developing and deploying systems of care that address barriers related to the above, will lead to substantial reductions in CVD and related mortality.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on health care systems that, in many instances, worsened the already existing assistance gaps. When it comes to Latin America and Central America, this challenge adds to the consequences mass mobilizations have had in recent years, which have exc...eeded the national capacities to provide prompt assistance and social protection, particularly in the health care field. This pandemic has a direct impact on people on the move since the movement restriction policies and the lockdown and social distancing measures have reduced their ability to insert themselves into economic activities that were already precarious in many cases. Consequently, they have less access to food, housing, medicines and other essential consumer goods, and fewer possibilities of getting to their countries of destinati
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Since 1996, trachoma has been targeted for elimination as a public health problem worldwide. The active trachoma criterion for national elimination as a public health problem is a TF1–9 < 5%, sustained for at least two years in the absence of antibiotic mass drug administration (MDA), in each form...erly endemic EU. Using A, F and E, health ministries and their partners have made considerable progress towards achieving this criterion in formerly endemic EUs worldwide. In 2002, an estimated 1517 million people lived in EUs in which EU-wide implementation of the A, F and E components of SAFE were thought to be needed for the purposes of global elimination of trachoma as a public health problem; by June 2021, that number had fallen to 136.2 million, a 91% reduction. Approximately 85% of the 136.2 million people living in EUs needing A, F and E in June 2021 were in WHO’s African Region.
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Gambiense human African trypanosomiasis is a deadly infectious disease affecting West and Central Africa, South Sudan and Uganda, and transmitted between humans by tsetse flies. The disease has caused several major epidemics, the latest one in the 1990s. Thanks to recent innovations such as rapid di...agnostic tests for population screening, a single-dose oral treatment and a highly efficient vector control strategy, interruption of transmission of the causative parasite is now within reach. If indeed gHAT has an exclusively human reservoir, this could even result in eradication of the disease. Even if there were an animal reservoir, on the basis of epidemiological data, it plays a limited role. Maintaining adequate postelimination surveillance in known historic foci, using the newly developed tools, should be sufficient to prevent any future resurgence.
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The Lancet Volume 390, Issue 10110p2397-2409November 25, 2017.
Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), also called sleeping sickness, is a parasitic infection that almost invariably progresses to death, unless treatment is provided. HAT caused devastating epidemics during the 20th century. Thanks to ...sustained and coordinated efforts during the past 15 years the number of reported cases has fallen to a historic low. Fewer than 3,000 cases were reported in 2015, and the disease is targeted for elimination by the World Health Organization. Despite recent success, HAT still poses a heavy burden on the rural communities where this highly focal disease occurs, most notably in Central Africa. Since patients are also reported from non-endemic countries outside Africa, HAT should be considered in differential diagnosis for all travellers, tourists, migrants and expatriates who have visited or lived in endemic areas. In the absence of a vaccine, disease control relies on case detection and treatment, and vector control. Available drugs are sub-optimal, but ongoing clinical trials give hope for safer and simpler treatments.
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The purpose of these guidelines is to help health workers to participate in the process of continuous surveillance of safety and efficacy of the pharmaceutical products which are used in clinical practice, thus help to achieve the ultimate goal to make safer and more effective treatment available to... patients. This guideline addresses specifically the issues on what to report, why to report, when to report, where to report and how to report.
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LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND | “A Journey to End NTDs – Elimination and Care” records what we have achieved over the last year and where we are now. It presents our plan of action for the coming years, bringing our ‘traditional’ NTD work together with ‘Disease Management Disability and Inclusio...n’ (DMDI), Community Based Inclusive Development (CBID) and Livelihoods. We care for those affected and we’re working to enhance community and government ownership through national
health system strengthening, community engagement and cross-sectoral action. Ultimately, we are working to free future generations from these menacing diseases, improving prevention and treatment, without forgetting those for whom prevention and treatment are too late because they already have a disability.
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Lancet Infectious Diseases Volume 22, Issue 11e327-e335.
In February, 2022, WHO published new guidelines with six recommendations to update the global public health strategy against schistosomiasis, including expansion of preventive chemotherapy eligibility from the predominant group of school-age...d children to all age groups (2 years and older), lowering the prevalence threshold for annual preventive chemotherapy, and increasing the frequency of treatment. This Review, written by the 2018-2022 Schistosomiasis Guidelines Development Group and its international partners, presents a summary of the new WHO guideline recommendations for schistosomiasis along with their historical context, supporting evidence, implications for public health implementation, and future research needs.
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The document “Malaria Elimination Programme Review, India 2022”, published by the WHO Country Office for India, provides an in-depth assessment of India’s progress toward malaria elimination. It evaluates the structure, implementation, and effectiveness of national and subnational malaria prog...rams, focusing on surveillance, diagnosis, treatment, vector control, and community engagement. The review identifies strengths, challenges, and areas for improvement, offering evidence-based recommendations to accelerate India's efforts to eliminate malaria by 2030.
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This course describes the health effects of war, weapons and strategies of violent conflict. Beginning with weapons of mass destruction it then moves on to other weapons and strategies of war such as the use of landmines and mass rape. The course concludes with a number of lessons which give an hist...orical and practical analysis of the response of health professional groups to war and militarisation.
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Prepared as an outcome of ICMR Subcommittee on Soft Tissue Sarcoma and Osteosarcoma | This consensus document on Management of Soft Tissue Sarcoma and Osteosarcoma summarizes the modalities of treatment including the site-specific anti-cancer therapies, supportive and palliative care and molecular ...markers and research questions. It also interweaves clinical, biochemical and epidemiological studies.
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This Manual covers all important aspects of echinococcosis, including parasite biology and life-cycles, geographic distribution and prevalence, epidemiology, clinical presentation in humans and animals, diagnosis and treatment, as well as control and prevention using newly developed tools and method...s. It also provides descriptions of important techniques and a large number of bibliographical references.
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Humanitarian emergencies result in a breakdown of critical health-care services and often make vulnerable communities dependent on external agencies for care. In resource-constrained settings, this may occur against a backdrop of extreme poverty, malnutrition, insecurity, low literacy and poor infra...structure. Under these circumstances, providing food, water and shelter and limiting communicable disease outbreaks become primary concerns. Where effective and safe vaccines are available to mitigate the risk of disease outbreaks, their potential deployment is a key consideration in meeting emergency health needs. Ethical considerations are crucial when deciding on vaccine deployment. Allocation of vaccines in short supply, target groups, delivery strategies, surveillance and research during acute humanitarian emergencies all involve ethical considerations that often arise from the tension between individual and common good. The authors lay out the ethical issues that policy-makers need to bear in mind when considering the deployment of mass vaccination during humanitarian emergencies, including beneficence (duty of care and the rule of rescue), non-maleficence, autonomy and consent, and distributive and procedural justice
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This handbook summarizes the experience of leading practitioners in the field of war surgery and is intended to help military and civilian surgical teams treat people wounded in armed conflicts. It covers first aid, admission of urgent cases and triage, skin grafts, treatment of infections, wounds a...nd burns, plastic surgery and anaesthesiology
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3 March 2022
The WHO Therapeutics and COVID-19: living guideline contains the Organization’s most up-to-date recommendations for the use of therapeutics in the treatment of COVID-19. The latest version of this living guideline is available in pdf format (via the ‘Download’ button) and via an ...online platform, and is updated regularly as new evidence emerges.
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2nd edition. These guidelines provide guidance on the diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, the use of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for treating and preventing HIV infection and the care of people living with HIV. They are structured along the continuum of HIV testing, prevention,... treatment and care
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Glaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible blindness globally. In Malawi, glaucoma accounts for 15.8% of the blindness among people aged 50 years and above. Blindness from glaucoma is preventable with early detection and timely treatment. However, glaucoma management remains a challenge to eye care... providers due to its asymptomatic progression.
These guidelines inform eye care providers about the requirements for early detection of glaucoma, and the appropriate assessment and management of glaucoma patients. The guidelines also demonstrate the need for ophthalmologists to work with secondary-level eye care providers. With
glaucoma being a permanently blinding condition, it is vital to ensure that all eye care providers are adequately equipped with skills and resources for the early detection and management of glaucoma.
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The goal of the draft global action plan is to ensure, for as long as possible, continuity of successful treatment and prevention of infectious diseases with effective and safe medicines that are quality-assured, used in a responsible way, and accessible to all who need them.