WHO recommends replacing western blotting and line immunoassays with simpler tests in HIV testing services. These simpler tests include rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) that can be used at the point-of-care, and enzyme immunoassays (EIAs).
These tests get results to the client faster, produce accura...te results more often, cost less, can be performed by various cadres of health providers, and can thus facilitate greater access and uptake of HIV testing services among those who need it most.
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For thousands of years, humans have been using wildlife for commercial and subsistence purposes. Wildlife trade takes place at local, national and international levels, with different forms of wildlife, such as live animals, partly processed products and finished products. Wildlife is a vital source... of safe and nutritious food, clothing, medicine, and other products, in addition to having religious and cultural value. Wildlife trade also contributes to livelihoods, income generation and overall economic development.
However, wildlife trade can have detrimental effects on species conservation, depleting natural resources, impoverishing biodiversity and degrading ecosystems (Morton et al., 2021). Wildlife trade, whether legal or illegal, regulated or unregulated, can pose threats to animal health and welfare. It also presents opportunities for zoonotic pathogens to spill over between wildlife and domestic animals, and for diseases to emerge with serious consequences for public or animal health and profound economic impacts (IPBES, 2020; Swift et al., 2007; Smith et al., 2009; Gortazar et al., 2014; Stephen, 2021; Stephen et al., 2022; FAO, 2020). The risk of pathogen spillover and disease emergence is amplified with increased interaction between humans, wildlife and domestic animals. The risk of pathogen spillover has also been exacerbated by climate change, intensified agriculture and livestock production, deforestation, and other land-use changes. Wildlife trade is also a risk to ecosystem biodiversity via the introduction of invasive species (Wikramanayake et al., 2021). Therefore, increased effort must be put into understanding the potential consequences of the wildlife trade, mapping and analysing the adjacent risks, and implementing strategies to manage those risks. Reducing wildlife-trade risks not only helps to limit disease but also minimises the negative effects of invasive species. Between 1960 and 2021, invasive alien species caused estimated cumulative damage of around 116 billion euros across 39 countries in the European Union alone, despite strict import regulations (Haubrock et al., 2021). The effect of invasive species is extremely apparent.
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WHO Guideline. Since 2010, countries in the meningitis belt have started to introduce a new serogroup A meningococcal conjugate vaccine conferring individual protection and herd immunity. Following the successful roll-out of this vaccine, epidemics due to Neisseria meningitidis serogroup A (NmA) are... disappearing, but other serogroups (e.g. NmW, NmX and NmC) still cause epidemics, albeit at a lower frequency and of a smaller size. Due to these changes, WHO organized the review of the evidence to provide recommendations for epidemic control, related to operational thresholds for investigation and response to outbreaks, the use of rapid diagnostic tests, antibiotic regimens in epidemics, and prophylaxis for household contacts of cases
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WHO Model Formulary for children based on the Second Model List of Essential Medicines for Children 2009.
In 2007, the World Health Assembly passed a Resolution titled ‘Better Medicines for Children’. This resolution recognized the need for research and development into medicines for children,... including better dosage forms, better evidence and better information about how to ensure that medicines for treating the common childhood diseases are given at the right dose for children of all ages.
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The Early Essential Newborn Care Pocket Guide was developed by the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific for introducing and scaling-up Early Essential Newborn Care. This step-by-step Guide is intended to provide a portable and practical summary of the up-to-date global evidence for newborn ca...re focusing on the first hours and days of life, including infection prevention and control measures during COVID-19. This Guide can be used in all health-care settings by skilled birth attendants (midwives, nurses and doctors) who care for newborns, also by managers to ensure all system measures are put in place for optimal quality of care.
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WHO guidelines for pandemic preparedness and response in the nonhealth sector
This Training module on malaria elimination has been developed by WHO to support health professionals in planning, managing, monitoring and evaluating malaria elimination programmes.
Supporting exercises: These files are necessary for participants to complete a number of exercises listed in the man...ual. Please go to the website: http://www.who.int/malaria/publications/atoz/9789241549424/en/
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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.
This technical report presents results from the FEEDcities Project – eastern Europe and central Asia. This cross-sectional survey was conducted in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan in October 2016 to evaluate the local urban food environment. It characterized the vending sites, the food offered and the nutri...tional composition of the industrial and homemade street foods available in these settings. It also described the nutritional composition of ready-to-eat foods sold in supermarkets and at vending sites in food courts. The policy implications of the findings are outlined.
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Meeting of the Neglected Tropical Diseases Strategic and Technical Advisory
Group’s Monitoring and Evaluation Subgroup on Disease-specific Indicators
The workshop is structured around 13 learning modules. The first module (Introduction) gives an overview of WSPs. The last module (Module 12) introduces participants to the quality assurance tool for WSPs (WHO & IWA, 2012). Modules 1–11 relate explicitly to the WSP manual produced by IWA and WHO (...Bartram et al., 2009), from which the workshop is designed.
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Programmatic update
April 2012
Executive Summary
The training is targeted at all professionals involved in the management of drinking-water safety. The handbook is divided into three parts:
• Part 1 – Overview of the training approach, training structure and mode of training assessment
• Part 2 – Module learning material, which i...ncludes module objectives, delivery information, key points and exercises
• Part 3 – How the material can be adapted to different utility contexts
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