The Council was established in late 2020 by Dr Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus (Director-General, WHO) to provide new economic thinking – reassessing how health and wellbeing are valued, produced and distributed across the economy. An all-female group of 10 distinguished economists and area experts, t...he Council has focused on reimagining how to put Health for All at the heart of government decision-making and private sector collaboration at regional, national and international levels.
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Adapted from: Standard Treatment Guidelines and Essential Medicine List PHC. The syndromic approach to Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) diagnosis
and management is to treat the signs or symptoms (syndrome) of a group of
diseases rather than treating a specific disease. This allows for the tr...eatment
of one or more conditions that often occur at the same time and has been
accepted as the management of choice.
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2nd edition. This second edition builds on the experience of more than 10 years of SMC deployment, and reflects changes introduced in the WHO guidelines for malaria, 3 June 2022. The goal of this publication is to share these best practices to improve SMC implementation, coverage, and monitoring and... evaluation. Examples of materials and tools as well as links to resources are included to support managers and health workers in their efforts to conduct successful SMC activities and prevent malaria among vulnerable children.
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Relapsing malaria caused by Plasmodium vivax parasites poses a significant challenge to global malaria elimination efforts. About one third of the population remains at risk of contracting P. vivax malaria, and 85% of P. vivax infections stem from reactivated latent parasites, leading to chronic ana...emia and increased morbidity and mortality. In addition to diagnostic tools that can detect the acute, blood-stage of P. vivax, new tools are needed to detect the dormant infections before they reactivate and contribute to morbidity and onwards transmission
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2nd edition. The purpose of this document is to present updated standardized protocols that P. falciparum-endemic countries can use to determine the prevalence of parasites with pfhrp2/3 gene deletions causing negative HRP2 RDT results among symptomatic falciparum patients. The findings should be us...ed to guide RDT selection; more specifically when to shift away from exclusive use of HRP2 to detect P. falciparum infections.
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Reprogramming examples for GC7. This document supports the introduction of climate change-related interventions
into programs to reduce transmission of malaria and protect vulnerable populations.
This global guidance was developed to support malaria-free countries and those that are close to malaria elimination to prevent re-establishment. The document outlines key concepts and principles for preventing re-establishment and provides guidance on strategies, interventions, planning and managem...ent. Country examples are included to highlight good practices and illustrate practical applications.
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These guidelines promote the delivery of people-centred health services for STIs by providing evidence-based recommendations related to decentralization, integration, task sharing and digital health. These recommendations complement existing WHO guidelines for STI testing, treatment and management, ...and other service delivery interventions, such as self-care interventions. All the recommendations will be incorporated into the forthcoming WHO consolidated guidelines on STI prevention and care.
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National tuberculosis (TB) prevalence surveys provide a nationally representative measurement of the burden of TB disease in the population, at a given point in time. Repeat surveys allow assessment of trends and tracking of progress towards national and global targets for reductions in TB disease b...urden. Survey data also provide important insights that can help national TB programmes to identify ways to improve TB diagnosis and treatment.
National TB prevalence surveys are relevant in countries that do not yet have national disease notification and vital registration systems that are of sufficiently high quality and coverage to allow reliable tracking of TB disease burden.
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This operational guidance provides a structured approach to support countries in sustaining priority services for HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections in the context of reduced external funding. The guidance is intended for national governments, public health programmes, communit...y-led organizations, civil society, technical partners and donors working to safeguard priority services, support phased adaptation, protect health outcomes and preserve hard-won gains.
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The Compendium of Solid Waste Management in Humanitarian Contexts is a comprehensive, structured and userfriendly manual and planning guide that provides a systematic overview of existing Solid Waste Management (SWM) technologies and approaches appropriate for use in humanitarian contexts.
The World Health Organization recently redefined leprosy elimination as a phased process, with the first milestone being the
interruption of transmission, achieved when no new child cases (defined as younger than 15 years) are reported for five consecutive years.
In Pakistan, the well-functioning ...leprosy programme, with effective case management, context-specific active case-finding strategies and
a robust data management system, has contributed to a decrease in new cases. Between 2001 and 2023, new adult cases dropped by 75%
(from 878 cases to 220 cases annually) and child cases by 83% (from 93 to 16). To support the country’s goal of no new child cases by 2030
and ultimately eliminate the disease, the nongovernmental organizations Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre and Aid to Leprosy Patients, with
support from the German Leprosy and Tuberculosis Relief Association, have developed a zero leprosy roadmap. As part of this roadmap,
the leprosy elimination strategy emphasizes improving active case-finding and providing post-exposure prophylaxis for contacts of leprosy
cases, who are at the highest risk
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Buruli ulcer (BU) is a skin-related neglected tropical disease (skin NTD) caused by infection with
Mycobacterium ulcerans. BU is the third most common mycobacterial disease after tuberculosis and leprosy
in people who are not immunocompromised. The infection manifests in non-ulcerative forms as no...dules,
plaques and/or oedemas, which ulcerate within 4–6 weeks and display characteristic undermined edges and yellowish-white necrotic slough . Most lesions occur on the lower limbs.
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Effective surveillance and monitoring of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and their risk factors are essential for informing evidence-based public health policies, addressing health inequities, and ensuring progress toward global and regional targets. By tracking trends in NCDs, their modifiable risk... factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, harmful use of alcohol, and air pollution, along with biological risk factors such as overweight and obesity, high blood pressure (hypertension), and elevated blood glucose (diabetes), policymakers can identify emerging threats, target vulnerable populations, allocating resources efficiently. Reliable data also enable countries to evaluate interventions, adjust policies, and strengthen health systems to reduce the burden of NCDs.
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Updated guidance on the integration of diabetes, hypertension and mental health services, and interventions to support adherence to antiretroviral therapy. The guideline offers practical implementation guidance for countries and key stakeholders as well as outlining key research gaps. As life expec...tancy for people living with HIV continues to increase, managing noncommunicable diseases, mental health, and adherence to antiretroviral therapy is essential to sustaining treatment success, quality of life, and engagement in care. A life course approach addresses these needs from childhood through older age. Service integration supports more person-centred, coordinated care across the life course.
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Wet markets have been implicated in multiple zoonotic outbreaks, including COVID-19. They are also a conduit for legal and illegal trade in wildlife, which threatens thousands of species. Yet wet markets supply food to millions of people around the world, and differ drastically in their physical com...position, the goods they sell, and the subsequent risks they pose. As such, policy makers need to know how to target their actions to efficiently safeguard human health and biodiversity without depriving people of ready access to food.
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Q 10: In adults and children with epilepsy, which psychological interventions used as adjunctive therapies with antiepileptic drugs when compared to placebo/comparator produce benefits/harm in specified outcomes?