Cholera remains a significant public health threat in many countries worldwide. In resource-constrained settings, it disproportionately affects thousands of poor and vulnerable population
Cholera remains an issue of major public health importance in Kenya. Kenya has in recent years experienced outbreaks affecting different parts of the country
The cholera outbreak has affected 14 countries in the WHO African Region. The climate-induced natural disasters such as cyclone and flooding in the southern African region and drought in the Horn of Africa led to increase in cases of cholera in many of the affected countries. With the rainy season c...ommencement in the west African region there is risk of more cholera outbreaks on the horizon. The trend across the region is being closely monitored and this highlights the need for Member States to enhance readiness, heighten surveillance and institute preventive and control measures in communities and around border crossings to prevent and mitigate cross border infection. Since 1 January 2022, a cumulative number of 213 443 cholera cases has been reported to the WHO Regional Office for Africa (AFRO), including 3 951 deaths with a case fatality ratio (CFR) of 1.9% as of 16 July 2023 (Table 1). Malawi accounts for 28% (58 941) of the total cases and 45% (1 766) of all deaths reported, and together with Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, and Nigeria contribute to 85% (181 300) of the overall caseload and 88% (3 464) of cumulative deaths. In Epidemiologic week 28, six countries Burundi, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Mozambique reported a total of 667 new cases.
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This report is the annual global monitoring report documenting progress towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 targets 2.1 and 2.2. This year’s report explores the links between urbanization and changing food systems and how these changes are impacting the availability, affordability and des...irability of healthy diets, food security and malnutrition in all its forms. It shows that understanding the ways in which urbanization is shaping food systems will require using a rural-urban continuum lens. By mapping the interlinkages across the rural-urban continuum, governments can identify challenges created by urbanization and suitable policies, technologies, investments and governance mechanisms to help address them.
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Strengthening rehabilitation in health emergency preparedness, response, and resilience: policy brief outlines the evidence for rehabilitation in emergencies and the need for greater preparedness of rehabilitation services. It shows how existing guidelines support the integration of rehabilitation i...n emergencies and sets out the steps that decision-makers can take to better integrate rehabilitation into health emergency preparedness and response.
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The Regional Action Framework for Noncommunicable Disease Prevention and Control provides a unified vision of objectives and recommended actions to combat the noncommunicable disease (NCD) epidemic in the Western Pacific Region. Implementation should be supported by cross-sectoral coordination..., sustainable financing, evidence-based policy, and community engagement, tailored to each Member State’s unique context. In doing so, Member States are encouraged to transform a disease treatment-centered “sick system” into a “health system” in which a population’s health and well-being enable socioeconomic development.
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The Contingency Fund for Emergencies (CFE) provides WHO with rapid and flexible resources to respond to disease outbreaks and other health emergencies. The annual report provides an overview of the use and impact of the Fund over the previous year.
“2022 was an eventful year for the WHO Country Office in Ghana,” says Dr Francis Kasolo, WHO Representative to Ghana.
In 2022, WHO Ghana collaborated with partners to deliver interventions in support of the Government of Ghana's health sector agenda to ensure healthy lives for all towards ach...ieving Universal Health Coverage. This 2022 annual report highlights some of the achievements that were chalked in our efforts to help promote the health and wellbeing of Ghanaians
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The Strategic Plan of Action and Budget 2016-2025 for the elimination of onchocerciasisin countries was prepared based on the above dlrective for the consideration of IAF 18.The vision of the plan of action is to eliminate onchocerciasis in 80 percent of Africancountries. Implementation of the plan ...will also help strengthen health systems at community level while implementing CDI wlll help scale-up interventions agalnst other NTDs to the benefit of the wider national health systems.
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The Pandemic Influenza Pandemic (PIP) Framework's Partnership Contribution (PC) High-Level Implementation Plan III (HLIP III) outlines the strategy for strengthening global pandemic influenza preparedness from 2024 to 2030. HLIP III takes into consideration the lessons learned from the response to t...he COVID-19 pandemic, the gains made over time, including from previous HLIPs, and the broader programmatic and policy context in order to address gaps in pandemic influenza preparedness. Implementation of HLIP III will strengthen global, regional, and country-level pandemic influenza preparedness.
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The emergence of multifrug-resistant malaria in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) has been identified as an emergency issue that may have catastrophic consequences on the future of malaria elimination in the GMS as well as globally. In recognition of the need for a cohesive regional response,... GMS countries have committed to a shared goal of eliminating malaria from the GMS by 2030 working within the framework of the Strategy for Malaria Elimination in the Greater Mekong Subregion 2015-2030. Population mobility has been identified as a key concern in the context of multidrug-resistant malaria; and in a region of highly porous borders where the majority of intra-Mekong migration occurs through informal channels, addressing the health needs of migrant populations has never been more critical.
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The report aims to capture lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and to highlight the opportunity for more ambitious global action: expanding sustainable access to vaccines for all towards the Immunization Agenda 2030 and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response efforts. The report is organized i...n two sections: the first section provides WHO insights on global vaccine market dynamics, drawing from data provided by Member States, which are, in turn, analysed and displayed in the second section.
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At its 48th session of Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH), the Committee noted the importance of water quality and safety in food production and processing. CCFH requested the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
(FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to provide guidan...ce for those scenarios where the use of “clean water” (i.e. water that does not compromise the safety of the food in the context of its use) was indicated in Codex texts and on
where it is appropriate to use “clean water”. In particular, guidance was sought for the use of irrigation water and “clean” seawater and on the safe reuse of processing water.
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Rebuilding Liberia’s health system is crucial for improving the country’s overall health outcomes. This annual report highlights key achievements, challenges,and lessons learned in implementing programmes of technical cooperation with the Government of Liberia from January to December 2022. T...he key achievements are summarized under the thematic areas of Universal Health Coverage, Health Emergencies and Corporate and Enabling Support.
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Despite the continuing war in Ukraine, the Government is preparing for the country’s recovery and reconstruction. Given the magnitude of the attacks on the health infrastructure and consequent disruption to health system functioning, reconstruction of the health system is integral to the country...s recovery. The immediate priorities are to restore essential services, respond to new physical and mental health needs, protect public health, and provide a secure and attractive environment for the return of both health professionals and the general population. This policy note identifies strategic directions for post-war health system recovery in the short and longer terms, while sustaining essential health services during the ongoing invasion
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The military offensive by the Russian Federation in Ukraine which began February 2022 has triggered one of the world’s fastest-growing displacement and humanitarian crisis, with geopolitical and economic ripples felt across the globe. The ongoing war has caused large-scale disruptions to the deliv...ery of health services and a near-collapse of the health system. But the crisis also saw an extraordinary mobilization and crisis response to a health emergency by WHO and its more than 100 partners.
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This publication is a compendium of 49 country examples highlighting efforts in improving refugees’ and migrants’ health following the adoption of the WHO Global Action Plan on Promoting the health of refugees and migrants at the seventy-second World Health Assembly, in May 2019.
Globally each year, millions of people suffer illness or lose their lives because the vaccines, medicines and diagnostic tests that they need are either unavailable or unaffordable – and this lack of access to medicine is acute in low- and middle-in-
come countries (LMICs). While the COVID-19 pan...demic laid this inequity bare, it also saw the pharmaceutical industry develop and bring new vaccines and treat- ments to market at unprecedented speed. As the world emerges from the worst
of this crisis, pharmaceutical companies are now at an important juncture, where lessons learned from the pandemic can prove pivotal in finding solutions to bridge long-standing gaps in access to medicine in LMICs.
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The application of digital health technology is growing at a rapid rate in Africa, with the goals of improving the delivery of healthcare services and more effectively reaching out to remote and underserved communities. The lack of enabling guidelines and standards across the continent, on the other... hand, makes it difficult to share data in a meaningful way across the continent.
Considering this, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) established a task force of 24 members to provide expertise and guidance in the development of AU HIE guidelines and standards. Members of the task force were subject matter experts working in Africa and internationally on the collection, analysis, and exchange of health information. Some of these experts had been involved in previous consultations on defining Africa CDC’s health information systems strategy. A chairperson, co-chairperson, and secretary were elected to engage the task force members in different technical working groups.
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The revision of the SRHR Policy is based on the results of the analysis of the implementation process of the past policy, which has provided evidence to
ensure that the revised policy is relevant and effective. The revision has also been done with the participation of all national stakeholders who ...have
also international experience on SRHR issues. The Ministry urges all public and private institutions to use this policy as a guide in the implementation of
SRHR services in the country.
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