13 May 2021
To avoid a reversal of progress from the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, new knowledge and lessons from successful programmatic innovations are urgently needed to improve TB prevention and care. Experience can provide evidence for innovative approaches and strategies to mainta...in and scale up high-quality TB services. WHO therefore called for case studies on programmatic innovations that address emerging challenges in TB prevention and care during the pandemic in order to collect and disseminate the findings to the TB community. Between November 2020 and February 2021, a total of 23 case studies relevant to the call were accepted from 19 countries in the six regions of WHO. The lessons learnt from these country activities to ensure the continuity of essential services like TB care in the face of the crippling crisis may also inform strategies for minimizing the impact of future emerging pathogens on health services.
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The Resolution Population and Individual Approaches to the Prevention and Management of Diabetes and Obesity was approved by the 48th Directing Council of the Pan American Health Organization, September 29- October 3, 2008, in response to the epidemic of obesity and diabetes currently affecting the ...countries of the Americas. Its main goal is to call on Member States to prioritize the prevention of obesity and diabetes and their common risk factors by establishing and/or strengthening policies and programs, integrating them into public and private health systems and working to ensure adequate allocation of resources to carry out such policies and programs.
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English version - This handbook sets out a the new paradigm for pharmacy practice. Its aim is to guide pharmacy educators in pharmacy practice, to educate pharmacy students and to guide pharmacists in practice to update their skills. The handbook, which brings together practical tools and knowledge,... has been written in response to a need to define, develop and generate global understanding of pharmaceutical care at all levels.
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The South African WHO Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) 2023–2027 focuses on four key strategic priorities based on the country’s health needs and disease epidemiology, while also considering the need for building resilient health systems for UHC and health security in the post pandemic period....
These include:
1. augment health systems strengthening reforms to accelerate progress towards universal health coverage.
2. address the quadruple burden of diseases and promote well-being across the life course in view of achieving global targets.
3. build health systems resilience and strengthen health emergency preparedness and response capacities.
4. enhance multisectoral collaboration and global partnerships for concerted action on health and its determinants.
In order to harness its expertise across its three levels, namely: the WHO Country Office (WCO), WHO Regional Office for Africa, and WHO headquarters, WHO will work closely and collaboratively with the Government of South Africa to implement the 2023–2027 strategic priorities.
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Climate change has important implications for the health and futures of children and young people, yet they have little power to limit its harm, making them vulnerable to climate anxiety. This is the first large-scale investigation of climate anxiety in children and young people globally and its rel...ationship with perceived government response.
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Through technical consultations with countries and partners, WHO has led the development of Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats Module 1: Planning for respiratory pathogen pandemics. Version 1.0. The Module, currently available as an advanced draft, builds on previous pandemic lessons a...nd guidance, and has the following new elements:
It presents an integrated and efficient respiratory pathogen pandemic planning approach covering both novel pathogens and those known to have pandemic potential;
It enables coherence in addressing pathogen-agnostic and pathogen-specific elements for better preparedness;
It gives an organizing framework including operational stages and triggers for escalation and de-escalation between pandemic preparedness and response periods;
It contextualizes 12 IHR (2005) core capacities within the five components of health emergency preparedness, response and resilience (HEPR), from the respiratory threats perspective; and
It describes the critical sectors for respiratory pathogen pandemic preparedness to trigger multisectoral collaboration.
WHO will finalize and publish this Module after a global technical meeting that will be held on 24-26 April 2023.
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Notable progress has also been made on other key health indicators such as reducing maternal, infant and child deaths and malnutrition, increasing immunization coverage, eliminating infectious diseases such as polio and reducing the incidence of malaria, tuberculosis and diarrhoeal diseases.
But ...despite such substantial progress, the country now faces new and emerging new challenges such as the rising burden of noncommunicable diseases, increased risks associated with disasters, environmental threats and health emergencies during disease outbreaks including the COVID-19 pandemic that is a serious public health threat to Bangladesh. To establish a resilience system for future potential pandemics, the national capacity for emergency preparedness and early response to health emergencies needs to be bolstered considerably.
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En la Región de las Américas, las poblaciones están envejeciendo y se está experimentando una rápida transición demográfica. El índice de envejecimiento, que refleja el tamaño de los grupos de mayor edad por 100 en comparación con los menores de 15 años, demuestra claramente el aumento de... las personas de 60 años o más. En comparación con las tendencias mundiales, la Región tendrá un mayor número de personas de 60 años o más que de menores de 15 años para el 2030, aproximadamente 25 años antes que el promedio mundial. La pandemia de COVID-19 ha dado pie a una crisis de salud sin precedentes en todo el mundo. Sus efectos en las personas mayores y aquellas con enfermedades subyacentes han puesto de manifiesto los desafíos de abordar sus necesidades durante una emergencia de salud pública. Dada esta transición demográfica, es fundamental reflexionar acerca de la preparación de los sistemas y servicios con vistas a atender las necesidades de este grupo de población, incluidas la mejora de la planificación para casos de emergencia y la protección de las personas mayores.
Esta publicación forma parte de una serie titulada La Década del Envejecimiento Saludable en las Américas: situación y desafíos
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Interium guidance, 25 June 2021Timely and accurate diagnostic testing is an essential tool in preventing and controlling the spread of COVID-19. This document describes recommendations for national testing strategies and the use of PCR and rapid antigen tests in different transmission scenarios of t...he COVID-19 outbreak, including how testing might be rationalized in low resource settings. All testing should be followed by a strong public health response including isolating those who test positive and providing them care, contact tracing and quarantine of contacts.
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Conducting simulations and drills is the most effective way to evaluate and test disaster preparedness plans; these exercises are used widely by organizations and institutions working in development and in disaster response. Drills and simulations are also excellent tools for training, and for asses...sing decision making processes, teamwork, and coordination.
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The National Integrated Comprehensive Cholera Prevention and Control Plan (2017-2022) outlines Uganda's strategy to reduce cholera cases and mortality by 50% by 2022. The plan focuses on improving access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), strengthening disease surveillance, enhancing ca...se management, and implementing oral cholera vaccination (OCV) in high-risk areas. It emphasizes multi-sectoral collaboration, involving government agencies, NGOs, and local communities to ensure a sustainable response. Key interventions include community engagement, improved health services, and better outbreak preparedness, aiming for long-term cholera elimination in Uganda.
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Getting on track to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. This new Road Map charts a way forward for country-level actions to achieve an ambitious set of HIV prevention targets by 2025. Those targets emerged from the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS, which the United Nations General ...Assembly adopted in June 2021 and they are underpinned by the Global AIDS Strategy (2021–2026). The Strategy sets out the principles, approaches, priority action area and programmatic targets for the global HIV response
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No rumo certo para acabar com a SIDA como ameaca à saúde pública até 2030. This new Road Map charts a way forward for country-level actions to achieve an ambitious set of HIV prevention targets by 2025. Those targets emerged from the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS, which the United N...ations General Assembly adopted in June 2021 and they are underpinned by the Global AIDS Strategy (2021–2026). The Strategy sets out the principles, approaches, priority action area and programmatic targets for the global HIV response
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The Global Task Force on Cholera Control (GTFCC) launched Ending Cholera: A Global
Roadmap to 2030 (Global Roadmap) (1), a strategy that aims to reduce global cholera
deaths by 90% and eliminate the disease in at least 20 countries by 2030. It is
organized according to three main axes:
• E...nsuring early detection and response to contain outbreaks; (2)
• Adopting a multisectoral approach to prevent and control cholera in hotspots; and
• Establishing an effective coordination mechanism for technical support, resource
mobilization and partnership at local and global levels.
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The thirty-seventh meeting of the Programme, Budget and Administration Committee was held in Geneva from 25 to 27 January 2023 and chaired by Ms Aishath Rishmee (Maldives). The Committee adopted its agenda and agreed its programme of work. In his opening remarks, the Director-General emphasized the ...crucial work on the financial future of the Organization, most significantly implementation of the Programme budget 2022−2023 and development of the Proposed programme budget 2024−2025, which would be the first to benefit from the agreed increase in assessed contributions. He welcomed the work of the Agile Member States Task Group on Strengthening WHO’s Budgetary, Programmatic and Financing Governance with its recommendations for long-term improvements in reform, prevention of and response to sexual abuse and harassment, new web-based information portals and a new replenishment process for consideration by Member States. Efforts were also under way to improve impact at country level, and he would continue to report to Member States on progress. He was heading an agile, proactive and fast-responding WHO, committed to implementing plans approved by Member States.
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Women, the elderly, adolescents, youth, and children,
persons with disabilities, indigenous populations, refugees,
migrants, and minorities experience the highest degree
of socio-economic marginalization. Marginalized people
become even more vulnerable in emergencies.1 This is due
to factors su...ch as their lack of access to effective surveillance
and early-warning systems, and health services. The
COVID-19 outbreak is predicted to have significant impacts
on various sectors.
The populations most at risk are those that:
• depend heavily on the informal economy;
• occupy areas prone to shocks;
• have inadequate access to social services or political
influence;
• have limited capacities and opportunities to cope and
adapt and;
• limited or no access to technologies.
By understanding these issues, we can support the capacity
of vulnerable populations in emergencies. We can give
them priority assistance, and engage them in decision-making
processes for response, recovery, preparedness, and
risk reduction.
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The Plan of Action for Malaria Elimination 2021-2025 has been developed in consultation with countries and regional partners as a framework of reference to guide the efforts of countries and the contributions of donors and partners towards elimination of the disease in the Americas. The Plan subscri...bes to the goals and pillars of the WHO Global Technical Strategy against Malaria 2016-2030 (GTS), while presenting key elements to address the specific challenges of the Region. The document seeks to guide national plans and promote an inter-programmatic- intersectoral approach, and joint efforts between countries and partners. The Plan is also the reference framework for PAHO technical cooperation in malaria in the period 2021-2025. The goals to be achieved require changes in action against malaria that must occur at the operations level and for which regulatory and policy adjustments are required from the national levels. Thus, the Plan promotes a systematic action of detection, diagnosis and response, which must be massively implemented and monitored programmatically. A main element of change is action aimed at recognizing the need to address key malaria foci in each country with specific, information-based operational solutions. The Plan of Action seeks to promote these changes in malaria programs in the countries and through the interactions among all actors. The model proposed in this plan is based on a cross-functional dialogue and interconnections across the lines of action (SL). Strategic lines 1, 2 and 3, which correspond to the three pillars of the WHO/GTS, complement each other, and are not designed to function independently. The idea of the consolidated supportive elements - strengthened health systems, strategic planning, financing, partnerships, advocacy, and operational research (SL 4) is to provide the platform, operational structures and alliances for the more specific malaria interventions presented in strategic lines 1, 2 and 3.
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Nurses are key players in health promotion and disease prevention and the backbone of health care systems worldwide. Nurses work on the front lines of disease prevention, health promotion, and health management and are often the unsung heroes in health care facilities and emergency response. Despite... the critical role they play in health care, there is a nursing shortage across the world that will affect the delivery of competent nursing care. This document highlights key action points for targeted investment in the nursing workforce and calls on Member States to strengthen nursing within the context of their own country efforts.
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The Transformation Agenda (TA) ushered in an ambitious reform process intended to transform the World Health Organization (WHO) into an organization that is proactive, results-driven, accountable and which meets stakeholder expectations, towards transforming and improving public health services in t...he African Region. It aimed to achieve a WHO that is pro-results, which optimally and creatively targets technical work as well as make operations more responsive, with greater effectiveness in both communications and partnerships. The Africa Region has been the epicentre of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic and it’s one of the leading causes of disease and death on the continent. The WHO, with partners, has worked tirelessly for many years to control the threat and reduce the negative impact of the disease. Since the early 2000s, significant progress has been made in the global fight against the scourge of HIV. However, the WCA subregion was falling concerningly behind ESA on several key indicators of progress. In 2016, the WHO joined UNAIDS, UNICEF and other partners in a call for a strong and urgent response to support WCA countries to develop catch-up plans to triple and fast-track ART coverage, to enable the region to catch up with ESA by the end of 2020. Implementation of a widespread test-and-treat strategy, coupled with the scale-up of differentiated service delivery (DSD) and mobilization of requisite funding, accelerated WCA’s progress towards this goal. The HIV treatment catch-up and fast-track plan has achieved its target of seeing the West and Central African region (WCA) catch up with the Eastern and Southern African region’s (ESA) antiretroviral coverage rate of 78% in 2021, albeit later than the 2020 target time frame. A 33% improvement was achieved in WCA, against 21% in ESA, between 2015–2020. WCA achieved a significant 42% increase, compared to ESA’s 23%, between 2015 and 2021, to see WCA draw level with ESA at 78%. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) alone, progress of up to 47% was observed between 2015 and 2020, for example. In addition, 1.6 million more People Living with HIV (PLHIV) were enrolled on antiretroviral treatment (ART) between 2015 and 2020.
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The disaster and Red Cross Red Crescent response to date
9 March 2019: Tropical Cyclone Idai forms over Northern Mozambique Channel. CVM preparedness and early warning actions underway
13 March 2019: IFRC Surge Capacity is deployed to Maputo
14 March 2019: 342,562 Swiss francs allocated from th...e IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to meet the immediate shelter, WASH and health needs of 1,500 households
15 March 2019: Tropical Cyclone Idai makes landfall in Beira,
Mozambique.
17 March 2019: IFRC Surge Capacity arrival in Beira with CVM to conduct preliminary assessments.
19 March 2019: IFRC issues an Emergency Appeal for 10 million Swiss francs for 75,000 people for 12 months.
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