The Mapping Antimicrobial Resistance and Antimicrobial Use Partnership (MAAP) project has conducted a multi-year, multi-country study that provides stark insights on the under-reported depth of the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis across Africa and lays out urgent policy recommendations to addr...ess the emergency.
MAAP reviewed 819,584 AMR records from 2016-2019, from 205 laboratories across Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Eswatini, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. MAAP also reviewed data from 327 hospital and community pharmacies and 16 national-level AMC datasets.
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Managing Sexual Violence against Aid Workers aims to support aid agencies in preventing, being prepared for and responding to incidents of sexual violence against their staff. It is intended as a good practice guide to help strengthen existing processes and support organisations as they set up their... own protocols.
This guide is aimed at anyone with a responsibility for staff care, safety and security, as well as anyone involved in processes aimed at preventing or responding to incidents of sexual violence against staff, such as security focal points, HR staff, project and programmes staff, and first responders to incidents of sexual violence within an aid organisation.
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South Africa reported it fist case of COVID-19 on 5 March 2020. While the first cases were imported, local transmission has led to a rapid increase in the number of cases. As of 21 April 2020, more than 3,400 cases and 58 deaths had been confirmed. On 15 March, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a n...ational state of disaster, and the government has since taken several measures to curb the spread of the virus, including closing borders, implementing strict social distancing measures and a 35-day nation-wide lockdown. These measures, along with the global economic shock caused by the pandemic, are expected to generate rising needs requiring an immediate and urgent response. Although South Africa is considered an upper-middle-income country, the amount of disparities—social, economic, and gender—make the country particularly vulnerable during this emergency.
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Addressing comorbidities and risk factors for tuberculosis (TB) is a crucial component of the World Health Organization (WHO)’s End TB Strategy. This WHO operational handbook on tuberculosis. Module 6: tuberculosis and comorbidities aims to support countries in scaling up people-centred care, ...based on the latest WHO recommendations on TB and key comorbidities, and drawing upon additional evidence, best practices and inputs from various experts and stakeholders obtained during WHO processes. It is intended for use by people working in ministries of health, particularly TB programmes and the relevant departments or programmes responsible for comorbidities and health-related risk factors for TB such as HIV, diabetes, undernutrition, substance use, and tobacco use, as well as programmes addressing mental health and lung health.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes the challenges countries face for maintaining their COVID-19 response while addressing competing public health challenges, conflicts, climate change and economic crises. WHO continues to support countries in adjusting COVID-19 strategies to reflect succ...esses to date and leverage what has been learned through national responses.
To assist national and global efforts to end the COVID-19 emergency worldwide, WHO updated the COVID-19 (Global Preparedness, Readiness and Response plan) in 2022 and outlined two strategic objectives.
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The development of the Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) was based on a consultative and participatory process with strong commitment and support from the Ministry of Health of Ghana. The CCS draws on lessons from the implementation of the first, and second generation CCSs, the country focus strate...gy, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (2023–2025).
The strategic agenda of the CCS outlines three strategic priorities, which are:
1. improving universal access to essential health services through the primary health care approach.
2. health emergency preparedness and response: addressing gaps in IHR core capacities and strengthening national capacities to prevent, detect and respond appropriately to public health emergencies through a resilient health system.
3. addressing social, economic, and environmental determinants of health; promoting high-impact interventions to address public health risks using multisectoral approaches.
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24 April 2020
Policy considerations
for the WHO European Region
This document provides key considerations for Member States to help them to decide on the modulation
of large-scale restrictive public health measures
(i.e. movement restrictions and large-scale physical distancing), while at the... same time strengthening core public health service capacities (to identify, isolate,
test and treat every patient and quarantine contacts) together with personal protective measures (hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette) and individual physical distancing (>1 metre distance). The transition should be informed by national, subnational or even community-level risk assessments as the transmission of COVID-19 is typically not homogeneous within a country.
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Bioethics 519 (online) doi:10.1111/bioe.12145 Volume 29 Number 8 2015 pp. 488–596;
Pandemic plans recommend phases of response to an emergent infectious disease (EID) outbreak, and are primarily aimed at preventing and mitigating human-to-human transmission. These plans carry presumptive weight ...and are increasingly being operationalized at the national, regional and international level with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO). The conventional focus of pandemic preparedness for EIDs of zoonotic origin has been on public health and human welfare. However, thisfocus on human populations has resulted in strategically important disciplinary silos. As the risks of zoonotic diseases have implications that reach across many domains outside traditional public health, including anthropological, environmental, and veterinary fora, a more inclusive ecological perspective is paramount for an effective response to future outbreaks.
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Available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. You can download a summary of the main report and background documents!
The report demonstrates that the current system—at both national and international levels— was not adequate to protect people from COVID-19. The time it t...ook from the reporting of a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown origin in mid-late December 2019 to a Public Health Emergency of International Concern being declared was too long. February 2020 was also a lost month when many more countries could have taken steps to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and forestall the global health, social, and economic catastrophe that continues its grip. The Panel finds that the system as it stands now is clearly unfit to prevent another novel and highly infectious pathogen, which could emerge at any time, from developing into a pandemic.
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A publication about girls escaping natural disasters and violent conflict in Eastern Africa
Children are on the move. In East Africa region, it is estimated that over 5 million children have migrated across borders or been forcibly displaced in their own country.
Forcable displacement is p...ushing more and more children out of their homes and communities, escaping the violence of war and conflict, only to fall vulnerable to other forms of violence. Girls are particularly vulnerable and need extra protection.
Every day, girls on the move in East Africa face a variety of rights violations, including:
• Exploitation and violence
• Being separated from their families
• Deprivation of essential services
• Use and recruitment by armed groups
• Sexual abuse
• Child marriage
This report highlights concerns that girls in eastern Africa face and calls on international and national decision makers to prevent and end violence that children face when they are forced to flee their homes.
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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.
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The framework responds to the demand from Member States and partners for guidance on how the health sector and its operational basis in health systems can systematically and effectively address the challenges increasingly presented by climate variability and change. This framework has been designed ...in light of the increasing evidence of climate change and its associated health risks (1); global, regional and national policy mandates to protect population health (2); and a rapidly emerging body of practical experience in building health resilience to climate change (3).
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2nd edition. The purpose of the WHO human health risk assessment toolkit: chemical hazards is to provide its users with guidance to identify, acquire and use the information needed to assess chemical hazards, exposures and the corresponding health risks in their given health risk assessment contexts... at local and/or national levels.
The Toolkit provides road maps for conducting a human health risk assessment, identifies information that must be gathered to complete an assessment and provides electronic links to international resources from which the user can obtain information and methods essential for conducting the human health risk assessment
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In recognition of the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), its increasing threat to human, animal and plant health, and the need for a One Health approach to address this issue, the 39th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) agreed it was important for the food safety comm...unity to play its part and re-established the ad hoc Codex Intergovernmental Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance (TFAMR) ). The objectives of the Task Force were
to revise the current Codex Code of Practice to Minimise and Contain Antimicrobial Resistance and to develop new guidance on surveillance programmes relevant to foodborne AMR.
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Early Childhood Matters is a journal about early childhood. It looks at specific issues regarding the development of young children, in particular from a psychosocial perspective. It is published twice per year by the Bernard van Leer Foundation.
On Page 54 of this issue the article titled: "Par...enting in times of war: supporting caregivers and children in crisis" can be found. In this article: Humanitarian interventions to support and guide parents and caregivers in times of war can mitigate the negative effects of violence and chaos on children and promote their resilience and development. This article highlights recent findings from the International Rescue Committee’s parenting programmes in Syria, underscoring the importance of such programmes not only in strengthening caregiving practices but also in addressing the psychological needs of parents.
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The Mapping Antimicrobial Resistance and Antimicrobial Use Partnership (MAAP) project has conducted a multi-year, multi-country study that provides stark insights on the under-reported depth of the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis across Africa and lays out urgent policy recommendations to addr...ess the emergency.
MAAP reviewed 819,584 AMR records from 2016-2019, from 205 laboratories across Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Eswatini, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. MAAP also reviewed data from 327 hospital and community pharmacies and 16 national-level AMC datasets.
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The aims of these guidelines are to provide guidance to health-care providers (i.e. the end-users of these guidelines: physicians, nurses, pharmacists and caregivers) on the adequate relief of pain associated with cancer. They also assist policy-makers, programme managers and public health personnel... to create and facilitate appropriately balanced policies on opioids and prescribing regulations for effective and safe cancer pain management. Proper and effective stewardship of opioid analgesics in the cancer treatment setting is essential to ensure the safety of patients and to reduce the risk of diversion of medicine into society.
The goal of cancer pain management is to relieve pain to a level that allows for an acceptable quality of life.
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For the estimated 20 million refugees and 25 million internally displaced people worldwide, well-planned settlements can help to maximise their protection and security, and support them to minimise the spread of disease, manage natural resources sustainably, and maintain good relations with their ho...sts until durable solutions to their displacement are achieved.
The result of extensive consultations with a wide range of specialist organisations, this book takes a holistic view of shelter for displaced populations, extending beyond refugee camps to consider support for all of the settlement and shelter options open to displaced people. It offers co-ordinators and specialists a common planning tool which links strategy, programmes, projects, and technical information for use in the field
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Accessed on 20.10.2020
In its fight against maternal mortality, the government of Burkina Faso is supported
by the donor community which contributes to the health budget and also supports
specific projects aimed at improving access to health care. This report acknowledges
the efforts to address ...maternal mortality undertaken by the government with the help
of the donor community, as well as projects led by international and national NGOs.
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The study sought to understand the factors that facilitate women to adhere to treatment and return to health facilities for routine care from their own perspective. The researchers focused on Malawi, Uganda and Zambia, early adopters of the global guidance to provide lifelong treatment for pregnant ...women living with HIV (Option B+) and spoke to women living with HIV, healthcare workers and programme managers to discover which factors and practices show promise in supporting women to initiate and remain in care.
This study found that women living with HIV who access these services to prevent vertical transmission have a strong sense and understanding of what factors support their retention and how health facilities, the wider community and their friends and relations can best support them. This report shares their words to describe how it feels to walk in their shoes on the path of life long treatment.
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