11 august 2022, updated version
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 ...in 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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Contact tracing for COVID-19 is the process of identifying, assessing, and managing people who have been exposed to someone who has been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, while quarantine is the separation of contacts from other people after exposure to a probable or confirmed case of SARS-CoV-2 i...nfection. In the context of growing global population immunity from COVID-19 vaccination and past SARS-CoV-2 infection, WHO recommends that identification, contact, quarantine and follow-up should be prioritized for individuals at high risk who have been in contact with a confirmed or probable case of SARS-CoV-2 infection, rather than targeting all contacts. This updated guidance also introduces shorter recommended quarantine periods, including the ability to further shorten quarantine through the use of testing. National and local health authorities should use risk-based approaches to contact tracing and quarantine that include reviewing and adjusting to their local circumstances and disease epidemiology, population immunity, their health system’s capacities, and risk tolerance.
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The pandemic has emphasized the high risk of avoidable harm to patients, health workers, and the general public, and has identified a range of safety gaps across all core components of health systems at all levels.
The rapid review ‘Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for patient safety’ ex...plores impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic did have on patient safety in terms of risks and avoidable harm, specifically in terms of diagnostic, treatment and care management related issues as well as highlights the main patterns of these implications within the broader health system context.
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Patient safety standards are critical for the establishment and assessment of patient safety programmes within hospitals. This third edition of the Patient safety assessment manual provides an updated set of standards and assessment criteria that reflect current best practice and WHO guidance. The m...anual will support the implementation of patient safety assessments and improvement programmes within hospitals as part of the Patient Safety Friendly Hospital Framework to ensure that patient safety is prioritized and facilities and staff implement best practices. The manual is a key tool for use by professional associations regulatory accrediting or oversight bodies and ministries of health to improve patient safety.
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The project was developed by the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA), in line with the Federation’s statement “a world in which students are equipped with knowledge, skills and value to take on health leadership roles locally and globally so to... shape a sustainable future”. This was supported by an ongoing and vital engagement from the World Health Organization (WHO) and their work the United Nations Alliance on Climate Change Education, Training and Public Awareness. The overall objective was to create a “all in one” type of resource to bring together climate change, health and youth advocacy.
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Lymphatic filariasis: managing morbidity and preventing disability: an aide-mémoire for national programme managers, second edition: web annex A: protocol for evaluating minimum package of care of morbidity management and disability prevention for lymphoedema management in designated health facilit...ies.
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The purpose of this TPP is to communicate the minimum and ideal characteristics desired to meet the need for discriminating low levels of risk for transmission, i.e. targeted prevalence thresholds in the surveyed areas. An in vitro diagnostic test is needed for the detection of analyte(s) specific t...o Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi, and Brugia timori to aid in the surveillance of defined geographic areas as to whether infection and/or transmission potential has increased (recrudescence) or decreased (elimination of transmission).
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This is the seventeenth annual publication of the Global Hunger Index (GHI), a report jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.
The 2022 Global Hunger Index (GHI) brings us face to face with a grim reality. The toxic cocktail of conflict, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemi...c had already left millions exposed to food price shocks and vulnerable to further crises. Now the conflict in Ukraine—with its knock-on effects on global supplies of and prices for food, fertilizer, and fuel—is turning a crisis into a catastrophe.
But the speed and severity of the global food crisis reflects the fact that millions of people were already living on the precarious edge of hunger—a legacy of past failures to build more just, sustainable, and resilient food systems. This year’s report therefore focuses on food systems transformation and local governance.
According to the 2022 GHI, Hunger is at alarming levels in 5 countries—Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, and Yemen— and is provisionally considered *alarming *in 4 additional countries— Burundi, Somalia, South Sudan, and Syria. In a further 35 countries, hunger is considered serious, based on 2022 GHI scores and provisional designations.
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Analysis in French on World and 9 other countries about Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment, Drought and more;
published on 13 Oct 2022 by Concern and WHH
Monitoring financial protection and utilization of health services in Mongolia 2009-2018 is based on national representative household socioeconomic surveys. The study finds that between 2009 and 2018, despite ambitious health reforms, the incidence of catastrophic health spending and impoverishing ...spending at the relative poverty line have increased. These increases were mainly driven by out-of-pocket spending on medicines and inpatient care. In the same period, inequity in access to and utilization of health services remained constant among population groups. Evidence suggests health financing policies need to be further strengthened to make progress towards universal health coverage. Continuous tracking of out-of-pocket payments and service utilization to inform policymaking is needed.
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As climate impacts intensify across the globe, nations must dramatically increase funding and implementation of actions designed to help vulnerable nations and communities adapt to the climate storm
Despite high regional demand for vaccines valued at over US$ 1 billion annually, Africa’s vaccine industry provides only 0.1% of global supply. Vaccine inequity and hoarding at the start of the pandemic, which resulted in delays in obtaining COVID-19 doses, stimulated new resolve to address future... supply security. In 2021, the AU set a target to produce and supply more than 60% of the vaccine doses on the continent by 2040.
In the last 18 months alone, more than 30 new African manufacturing projects have been announced and estimates indicate that the African vaccine market across all existing and projected novel products could range between US$ 2.8 billion and US$ 5.6 billion by 2040*, demonstrating the potential for a thriving regional industry to emerge.
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The "Questions and Answers on Prevention and control of Alcohol related harm" has been developed by WHO country office in Viet Nam with technical contribution from national and international experts in the field. This publication provides scientific evidences on harms of alcohol use to the health of... users as well as to others and society at large. It provides WHO recommendations for the most effective prevention measures in Viet Nam and will also help answer questions that policy makers may have on how to develop effective policies for prevention and control of alcohol related harms.
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The harmful use of alcohol causes approximately 3 million deaths every year and the overall burden of disease and injuries attributable to alcohol consumption remains unacceptably high. The pace of development and implementation of alcohol policies has been uneven in WHO regions, and resources and c...apacities for implementation of the WHO Global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol 10 years after its endorsement do not correspond to the magnitude of the problems. On this basis, the WHO Executive Board in its decision EB146 (14) called for accelerated action to reduce the harmful use of alcohol.
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The guidance notes describe key actions that policy-makers at national and subnational levels can take in relation to: diagnostic testing for COVID-19, clinical management of COVID-19, meeting targets for vaccination against COVID-19, maintaining infection control measures for COVID-19 in health-car...e settings, building confidence through risk communication and community involvement, and ensuring that all health-care workers are aware of the risks of COVID-19.
This guidance note focuses on the following areas: COVID-19 diagnostic testing, clinical management of COVID-19, achieving COVID-19 vaccination targets, maintaining COVID-19 infection control measures in health-care settings, building confidence through risk communication and community engagement, and managing COVID-19 infodemia. This guidance note focuses on risk communication and community engagement in the context of COVID-19.
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To improve the quality of care during labour and childbirth, facilitate effective implementation of the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations: Intrapartum care for a positive childbirth experience, published in 2018, and promote a shift towards improving the experience of childbirth, WHO d...eveloped the WHO Labour Care Guide (LCG) and an accompanying WHO labour care guide: user's manual. The WHO LCG is a tool to facilitate implementation of quality, evidence-based, woman-centred care for a positive childbirth experience within the context of a broader, rights-based approach.
The goal of this policy brief is to provide maternal and newborn health stakeholders and decision-makers with an overview of the WHO LCG and its guiding principles, key advantages of making the shift from the WHO partograph to the WHO LCG, and what is required to ensure an enabling environment that will facilitate a sustainable introduction of the WHO LCG.
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Responding to Outbreaks of Antimicrobial-resistant Pathogens in Health-care Facilities: Guidance for the Western Pacific Region is developed following requests from Member States in the Western Pacific Region for additional information and support in managing AMR outbreaks. It aims to provide: a ste...p-by-step guide for health-care facilities to respond to AMR outbreaks; a practical resource for health-care workers to support AMR outbreak response in low- and middle-income countries; and practical guidance to implement effective AMR outbreak response policies and procedures in clinical settings.
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