J Glob Health Sci. 2020 Jun;2(1):e3. A group of enzootic and zoonotic protozoan infections, the leishmaniases constitute among the most severely neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and are found in all continents except Oceania. Representing the most common infectious diseases, NTDs comprise an open-...ended list of some 20 parasitic, bacterial, viral, protozoan and helminthic infections. Called “diseases of the poor,” because of their characteristic prevalence in poor populations regardless of a country's income status, they infect over one billion people in over 140 countries, with about 90% of the global burden in Africa. While NTDs do not contribute significantly to global deaths, they are debilitating and remain the most common infections among the poor worldwide, preventing them from escaping poverty by impacting livelihoods such as agriculture and livestock, and affecting cognitive, developmental and education outcomes.
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Despite the significant role of vector control in national leishmaniasis control programmes, the programmatic community perceives vector control as the weakest component of leishmaniasis control strategies in terms of resources, scientific evidence of the usefulness of interventions and capacity for... quality-assured implementation. Therefore, the main objective of this manual is to provide practical tools, techniques and procedures to strengthen sand fly control and surveillance in order to improve implementation of leishmaniasis control programmes. The manual provides a rationale for programme managers in different geographical regions on the types of vector control interventions to be used in different epidemiological and environmental settings and also how to measure their impact.
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In the Region of the Americas, the leishmaniases are a group of diseases caused by various species of Leishmania, which cause a set of clinical syndromes in infected humans that can involve the skin, mucosa, and visceral organs. The spectrum of clinical disease is varied and depends on the interacti...on of several factors related to the parasite, the vector, and the host. Cutaneous leishmaniasis is the form most frequently reported in the Region and nearly 90% of cases present single or multiple localized lesions. Other cutaneous clinical forms, such as disseminated and diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis, are more difficult to treat and relapses are common. The mucosal form is serious because it can cause disfigurement and severe disability if not diagnosed and treated early on. Visceral leishmaniasis is the most severe form, as it can cause death in up to 90% of untreated people.
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2nd edition. These guidelines include several notable changes from the first edition. For cutaneous leishmaniasis, ketoconazole has been removed from the list of treatment options; the number of Leishmania species for which there is strong evidence for the efficacy of miltefosine has increased from ...two to four; and the recommendation for intralesional antimonials is now strong. For mucosal leishmaniasis there is now a strong recommendation for use of pentavalent antimonials with or without oral pentoxifylline. For visceral leishmaniasis, the strong recommendations for use of pentavalent antimonials and amphotericin B deoxycholate are now conditional.
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An interregional meeting on leishmaniasis among neighbouring endemic
countries in the Eastern Mediterranean, African and European regions was organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern
Mediterranean in Amman, Jordan, from 23 to 25 September 2018. The meeting w...as attended by representatives from the health ministries of Albania, Georgia, Greece, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic and Tunisia. Representatives from Afghanistan, Algeria and Libya were unable to attend. The Secretariat comprised staff from WHO headquarters, WHO regional offices in the Eastern Mediterranean, Africa and Europe, WHO country offices in Iraq, Pakistan, Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen, and WHO temporary advisors from Spain and Tunisia.
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This document serves to provide interim guidance/ recommendations to carry out mpox surveillance activities mainly case investigation, contact tracing and isolation. For the development of this document WHO, UKHSA and CDC guidelines were referred to and adopted within the country context.
This document focuses on making recommendations for the diagnosis and treatment of Chagas disease, an infection caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, the protozoan agent of a systemic parasitic disease. Methodology: These clinical practice guidelines were prepared following the WHO handbook for guideline dev...elopment (5). A multidisciplinary development group was formed, comprised of thematic experts, epidemiologists, methodologists, and users. Since there were no existing guidelines that could be adapted, the guidelines were developed from scratch.
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April 2022 Volume 35 Issue 2 e00152-21
Population movements have turned Chagas disease (CD) into a global public health problem. Despite the successful implementation of subregional initiatives to control vectorial and transfusional Trypanosoma cruzi transmission in Latin American settings where t...he disease is endemic, congenital CD (cCD) remains a significant challenge. In countries where the disease is not endemic, vertical transmission plays a key role in CD expansion and is the main focus of its control. Although several health organizations provide general protocols for cCD control, its management in each geopolitical region depends on local authorities, which has resulted in a multitude of approaches. The aims of this review are to (i) describe the current global situation in CD management, with emphasis on congenital infection, and (ii) summarize the spectrum of available strategies, both official and unofficial, for cCD prevention and control in countries of endemicity and nonendemicity. From an economic point of view, the early detection and treatment of cCD are cost-effective. However, in countries where the disease is not endemic, national health policies for cCD control are nonexistent, and official regional protocols are scarce and restricted to Europe. Countries of endemicity have more protocols in place, but the implementation of diagnostic methods is hampered by economic constraints. Moreover, most protocols in both countries where the disease is endemic and those where it is not endemic have yet to incorporate recently developed technologies. The wide methodological diversity in cCD diagnostic algorithms reflects the lack of a consensus. This review may represent a first step toward the development of a common strategy, which will require the collaboration of health organizations, governments, and experts in the field.
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This fourth WHO report on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) reviews the progress made towards achieving the Roadmap targets for 2020, noting the remaining challenges, then looks beyond 2020 to evaluate the changing global health and development landscape, considering the implications of integrating... these diseases into the broader 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
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Significant progress has been made in the eradication of three priority diseases in the African Region, as a result of extensive collaboration between the Regional Office, WHO country offices and countries. For example, in August 2020, the region was certified free of wild poliovirus. In the area of... neglected tropical diseases, Guinea worm disease is on the verge of eradication, and 12 member states are within reach of being certified as having eradicated yaws by the end of this year.
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The Pharmaceutical Forum of the Americas (PFA) has previously published guidelines and organised campaigns for community pharmacists on the prevention, detection and control of arbovirus infections in 2018 with a grant from the FIP Foundation for Pharmacy Education and Research. Building on that exp...ertise, FIP joined efforts with the PFA and is now publishing its first-ever handbook to support pharmacists in the
area of vector-borne diseases. As the integration of the regional forums in FIP advances, such collaborative projects are tangible results of an increasingly regionally informed and regionally targeted work by FIP.
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Это учебное пособие содержит информацию о том, как спланировать обучение и содействовать работникам первичного звена медико-санитарной помощи с тем, чтобы они мог...ли уверенно проводить СКПК по вопросам употребления алкоголя среди своих пациентов. В пособии излагаются исходная информация и данные научных исследований, положенные в основу СКПК, и даются практические рекомендации по созданию программы внедрения, а также подробные учебные материалы для развития знаний и навыков участников организованных учебных занятий.
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The social protection landscape for people affected by TB in the WHO South-East Asia Region
Effective malaria case management requires quick access to diagnostics and antimalarial treatments to reduce illness and death. Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) has been essential to malaria treatment since 2001, as it combines artemisinin for rapid parasite reduction with a partner drug ...to ensure complete cure. However, resistance to antimalarial drugs, where parasites survive standard doses, threatens malaria control.
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Women and children, especially pregnant girls and women, infants and young children and postpartum women, are populations that are extremely vulnerable in emergencies. Breastfeeding provides children with hydration, comfort, connection, high quality nutrition and protection against disease, shieldin...g them from the worst of emergency conditions. This ability has been described as empowering and healing by some breastfeeding women.
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Caring for burns patients from the incident scene to definitive treatment can be a complex, resource-consuming process with the potential to overwhelm health system capacity.This document provides practical guidance for building capacity and capability for burns care from clinical, human resources a...nd operational perspectives. It is therefore recommended that guidance in this document be applied to any contexts in which the local health system might struggle to cope and require surge support.
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Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by the presence of hyperglycaemia in the absence of treatment. The heterogeneous aetiopathology includes defects in insulin secretion, insulin action, or both. The long-term specific complications of diabe...tes include retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy. People with diabetes are also at increased risk of other diseases, including cardiac, peripheral arterial and cerebrovascular disease, cataracts, erectile dysfunction, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. They are also at an increased risk of some infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, and are likely to experience poorer outcomes.
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Antimicrobials are medicines, including antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, and antiparasitics, that are used to prevent and treat infections in humans, animals, and plants. Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) arises when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites no longer respond to these medicines, ren...dering them ineffective and making infections more difficult to treat. This resistance increases the risk of disease spread, severe illness, disability, and death. Although AMR is a natural phenomenon driven by genetic
changes in pathogens, it is significantly accelerated by human activities such as the misuse and overuse of antimicrobials in healthcare, agriculture, and animal husbandry.
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The Government of Malawi is committed to improving health and livelihoods in Malawi through community health – the
provision of basic health services in rural and urban communities with the participation of people who live there.
Historically, Community Health has significantly contributed to im...provements in Malawi’s health outcomes in particular
attainment of MDG4. However, the community health system faces resource constraints and inconsistencies around quality
of service – which negatively affect health outcomes.
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WHO’s Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) defines the Organization’s medium-term vision for working in and with a particular country. The CCS, developed in the context of global and national health priorities, examines the overall health situation in a country, including the state of the health s...ector, socioeconomic status and the major health determinants.
This CCS sets out WHO’s strategic framework for collaboration with the Syrian Arab Republic, from June 2022 until June 2025, in light of the 12 years of crisis that have had a devastating impact on the health sector and infrastructure of basic services. It carefully considers the current and projected issues during its transition from continued humanitarian assistance to recovery, resilience and development. The consolidation of health policies and strategies and health system strengthening, based on the strengthening of primary health care (PHC), aims to contribute to the achievement of national and global development and health goals and the targets of the SDGs.
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