at the national and acute health care facility level
The annual Joint Meeting of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Panel of Experts on Pesticide Residues in Food and the Environment and the World Health Organization (WHO) Core Assessment Group on Pesticide Residues (JMPR) was held in Rome, Italy, from 13 to 22 September.... The FAO panel of experts had met in preparatory sessions from 8 to 12 September. The Meeting was held in pursuance of recommendations made by previous Meetings and accepted by the governing bodies of FAO and WHO that studies should be undertaken jointly by experts to evaluate possible hazards to humans arising from the occurrence of pesticide residues in foods. During the meeting the FAO Panel of Experts was responsible for reviewing pesticide use patterns (use of good agricultural practices), data on the chemistry and composition of the pesticides and methods of analysis for pesticide residues and for estimating the maximum residue levels that might occur as a result of the use of the pesticides according to good agricultural use practices. The WHO Core Assessment Group was responsible for reviewing toxicological and related data and for estimating, where possible and appropriate, acceptable daily intakes (ADIs) and acute reference doses (ARfDs) of the pesticides for humans. This report contains information on ADIs, ARfDs, maximum residue levels, and general principles for the evaluation of pesticides. The recommendations of the Joint Meeting, including further research and information, are proposed for use by Member governments of the respective agencies and other interested parties.
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Promoting health and preventing disease is a critical component of the effort required to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC). to date, efforts to achieve UHC have focused mostly on strengthening health systems and their capacities to provide curative care. However, experience from the COVID-19 ...pandemic has reaffirmed the need for resilient health systems, emphasizing primary health care, including preventive and promotive health and well-being.
Emerging from the eye of the storm as the global health lead agency during the pandemic, WHO is equipped with the required insights and actions for a holistic approach to “building back fairer and better” after COVID-19.
The Healthier Populations (UHP) Cluster in the African Region is designed to support Pillar 3 of WHO’s 13th Global Programme of Work (GPW13) which aims to make 1 billion people healthier by reducing health inequities, preventing diseases and injuries, addressing health determinants, and promoting partnerships for collaborative actions amongst all stakeholders.
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The purpose of this document is to present and promote the minimum requirements for IPC programmes at the national and health care facility level, identified by expert consensus according to available evidence and in the context of the WHO core components.
The minimum requirements are defined as: I...PC standards that should be in place at the national and facility level to provide minimum protection and safety to patients, HCWs and visitors, based on the WHO core components for IPC programmes.
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This Mpox SPRP Global Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Framework, also referred to as the Framework, aims to monitor and report on global progress towards these objectives, including information about country-level response efforts and WHO support to Member States. Regular collection and analysis of da...ta on these objectives, alongside the ongoing tracking of the epidemiological situation, are key to informing decision-making, operational adjustments, as well as ensuring transparency and accountability for achieving the goal to stop the Mpox outbreak. This document suggests reporting indicators for monitoring of the global response to the Mpox PHEIC as articulated in the Mpox SPRP and Operational Planning Guidelines for countries.
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This brief advocacy document highlights the burden, risks and prevention of injuries and violence, which took the lives of 4.4 million people in 2019 and constitute 8% of all deaths. Among the injury-related causes of death include road traffic crashes, drowning, falls, burns, poisoning and violence... against oneself or others. For people age 5-29 years, three of the top five causes of death are injury-related, including road traffic injuries, homicide, and suicide. Injuries and violence are not evenly distributed across or within countries – some people are more vulnerable than others depending on the conditions in which they are born, grow, work, live and age; in general, being young, male and of low socioeconomic status all increase the risk of injury. This document, aimed at public health professionals; injury prevention researchers, practitioners and advocates; and donors, draws attention to specific strategies based on sound scientific evidence that are effective and cost-effective at preventing injuries and violence; it is critical that these strategies are more widely implemented.
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Manual for step-by-step risk management for safely managed sanitation systems. 2nd edition.
This Sanitation safety planning (SSP) manual provides practical, step-by-step guidance to assist in the implementation of the 2018 World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines on sanitation and health and the ...2006 WHO Guidelines for safe use of wastewater, excreta and greywater in agriculture and aquaculture. The approach and tools should be applied to all sanitary systems to ensure that they are managed to meet health objectives.
The SSP manual is targeted at a variety of users at different levels including; health authorities and regulators, local authorities, sanitation utility managers, sanitation enterprises and farmers, community-based organizations, farmers associations and nongovernmental organizations.
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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 overall goal of surveillance, case investigation and contact tracing in this context is to stop human-to-human transmission to control the outbreak. The key objectives of surveillance and case investigation are to rapidly identify cases and clusters in order to provide optimal clinical care; to ...isolate cases to prevent further transmission; to identify, manage and follow up contacts to recognize early signs of infection; to protect frontline health workers; to identify risk groups; and to tailor effective control and prevention measures.
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an approach to optimize the global impact of COVID-19 vaccines, based on public health goals, global and national equity, and vaccine access and coverage scenarios, first issued 20 October 2020, updated: 13 November 2020, updated: 16 July 2021, latest update: 21 January 2022
Available in English, F...rench, Spanish
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The United Nations Commission on Life-Saving Commodities (UNCLSC, 2012) defined 13 health products to end preventable deaths of woman and children. One of those 13 products is the neonatal resuscitator, is indispensable medical device to save newborns from asphyxia at birth. For the efficient use of... neonatal resuscitation, training of healthcare professionals using neonatal resuscitation manikins is the most effective approach. Critical lifesaving trainings calls for the need of neonatal resuscitation manikins with the right features.
The purpose of the WHO Neonatal resuscitation manikin: technical specifications is to provide a minimum standard baseline to meet the increasing demand to procure good quality, affordable, accessible, and appropriate neonatal resuscitation manikins. Towards the development of this baseline, this document includes compilation of available scientific evidence from technical literature, international publications, expert reviews, and an industry survey which was conducted by WHO medical devices team.
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This document aims to support those working in primary care to strengthen IPC, informed by existing WHO IPC guidance and implementation resources. Many of the existing WHO IPC guidance and implementation resources initially developed for acute health care facilities have a potential utility for IPC ...in primary care. However, navigating these resources to locate relevant content for IPC in primary care can be challenging as some documents can span over 100 pages. This document extracts relevant content, bringing together existing WHO IPC standards, indicators and implementation approaches that are focused on, or directly relevant to IPC in primary care. It should also be used to identify resources suitable for use in primary care that can be embedded within relevant IPC or other health programmes.
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This leaflet provides support and advice for adults who are recovering from COVID-19. It can be used by individuals after hospitalization from the illness and those in the community who did not need hospitalization. The leaflet can complement care received from health care professionals. This is the... second edition of the leaflet that was originally published mid 2020 that includes updates to sections and new topics, encompassing what we have learnt about the condition and recovery in the last year. The leaflet was written by rehabilitation professionals in consultation with people recovering from COVID-19. Although references are not shown for ease of reading, the advice is evidence-based. There is still much we don’t know about post-COVID-19 recovery, and evidence is fast emerging.
Available in different languages
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6 July 2021. The “WHO consolidated guidelines on tuberculosis. Module 3: Diagnosis - Rapid diagnostics for tuberculosis detection 2021 update” is the latest document replacing the one issued in 2020. Three new nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) classes are endorsed by WHO and included in the... latest consolidated guideline
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This global guidance provided the framework for over 100 countries to develop their NDVPs. This updated (second) version supersedes the previous version published in 16 November 2020. New information has been added on the following areas:
the COVID-19 Partners Platform;
the use of COVID...-19 simulation exercises to test deployment strategies;
the indemnity agreement and no-fault compensation programme for vaccines secured through the COVAX Facility in the Advance Market Commitment (AMC) eligible economies;
the availability and use of the WHO-UNICEF COVID-19 Vaccine Introduction and deployment Costing (CVIC) tool;
the COVAX Facility’s humanitarian buffer that enables allocation of vaccine to cover high-risk populations in humanitarian settings;
recommendations for vaccination of pregnant and lactating women;
supplementary information on infection prevention and control (IPC) measures to be used to deliver COVID-19 vaccines safely;
the WHO licensed COVID-19 vaccines product-specific information;
use of geospatial data and digital micro plans for equitable access and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines;
lessons learned from the development of NDVPs and early experiences in COVID-19 vaccine deployment in countries; and
updated additional resources at the end of each chapter.
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Updated guidance. The guidance provides useful information to staff working in prisons, as well as to health and prison authorities, explaining how to prevent and address a potential outbreak of COVID-19. In addition, it aims to protect the health and well-being of all those who live and work in, an...d visit, these settings and the general population at large. People deprived of their liberty, and living or working in enclosed environments in close proximity, are likely to be more vulnerable to the COVID-19 disease than the general population. Moreover, correctional facilities may amplify and enhance COVID-19 transmission beyond their walls.
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The latest update (28 January 2021) includes the following addition and revision:
biosafety aspects for working with antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic test;
handling new variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the laboratory;
updated assay decontamination before disposal;
personal protectiv...e equipment (PPE) for specimen collection;
addressing chemical hazards and their safe disposal; and
the fourth edition of the WHO Laboratory Biosafety Manual (LBM4) is now available and the terminology in this guidance was aligned with the LBM4.
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