The aim of this “model contingency plan” is to assist programme managers and planners in devel-oping a national, context-specific, dengue outbreak response plan in order to: (a) detect a dengue outbreak at an early stage through clearly defined and validated alarm signals; (b) precisely define w...hen a dengue outbreak has started; and (c) organize an early response to the alarm signals or an “emergency response” once an outbreak has started.
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Every day in 2020, approximately 800 women died from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth - meaning that a woman dies around every two minutes.
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 3.1 is to reduce maternal mortality to less than 70 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births by ...2030.
The United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group (MMEIG) – comprising WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the World Bank Group and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (UNDESA/Population Division) has collaborated with external technical experts on a new round of estimates covering 2000 to 2020. The estimates represent the most up to date, internationally-comparable MMEIG estimates of maternal mortality, using refined input data and methods from previous rounds.
The report presents internationally comparable global, regional and country-level estimates and trends for maternal mortality between 2000 and 2020.
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The Onchocerciasis Control Programme in West Africa (OCP) undertook regional and large scale frght against onchocerciasis in West Africa in 1974 using a vector control strategy. By 2002 OCP had succeeded in eliminating the disease as a public health, socio-economic and development problem in 10 out ...of I I countries. This campaign was highly technical and expensive. ln 1987, Merck & Co.,lnc. committed themselves to provide ivermectin free of charge for as long as needed to onchocerciasis endemic countries. This made it possible to envrsage the extension of onchocerciasis control activities to the remaining endemic countries in Africa.
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Cholera which disproportionally impacts poor countries and the most vulnerable continues to affect at least 47 countries across the globe, resulting in an estimated 1.3 – 4 million cases, and 21,000 - 143,000 deaths per year worldwide. In Ethiopia, despite major improvements seen in the increasing... access to healthcare, clean water, and improvement in maternal and child health, the country continues to be significantly affected by cholera outbreaks. From 2015 – 2021 for example, several outbreaks of cholera have occurred in multiple parts of the country resulting in over 105,000 cases and thousands of deaths. Some of the risk factors associated with cholera in Ethiopia include inadequate access to clean water, practice of open defecation, poor household and environmental sanitation, unhygienic latrine and weak sanitation practise among communities.
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During the year 2022, COVID-19 continued to be a significant challenge in Eritrea as in many other countries across the world. As COVID-19 devastated communities around the world, WHO worked with the MoH to strengthen the National and Sub-National health systems in order to meet community needs and ...mitigate the devastation during the pandemic and beyond.
One of the major achievements in the year 2022 was the beginning of the journey towards validation of
the elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B. This is the culmination of years
of commitment and determination by the political leadership, national and international partnerships to
reduce the associated indices to levels that qualify for elimination.
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This document provides an overview of strategic purchasing of nutrition services within primary health care. It introduces key terms and payment methods for countries to use in preparing to transform their health financial systems to scale up nutrition services. It does so by introducing nutritional... perspectives to strategic health purchasing core areas: What to buy, From whom to buy and How to buy.
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This thematic brief accompanies the Working for Health 2022–2030 Action Plan, providing a rationale for the related actions of the Working for Health progression model (see Annex). This brief aims to inform Member States, non-state actors and other stakeholders vested in implementing the Action ...Plan to consider the context of planning and financing for the health and care workforce, including the relevant policy landscape, key challenges and future directions.
In doing so, it provides an expanded exploration of the themes beyond what is provided in the Action Plan Itself, and reflects the topical issues and considerations that shaped its design, including those issues identified in the World Health Assembly Resolution WHA74.14 to protect, safeguard and invest in the health and care workforce. The importance of these themes was again emphasized at the Seventy-fifth WHA, when Resolution WHA75.17: Human resources for health, was co-sponsored by over 100 Member States, calling for the adoption and implementation of the Working for Health 2022–2030 Action Plan and utilization of the related Global Health and Care Worker Compact.
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About six to seven million people worldwide, mostly in Latin America, are estimated to be infected with
Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas disease (WHO data from 2021). Chagas disease is
found mainly in endemic areas of 21 Latin American countries. Chagas disease was once entirely
...
confined to rural areas but in the last decades, due to population movements, most infected people live
in urban settings and the disease has spread to other continents. The burden of disease is due to its
chronic progression with people still suffering years later after initial infection.
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This was a Phase 3, multi-center, randomized, open-label, parallel-group, active control study where 273 male and female patients with first stage Trypanosoma brucei gambiense HAT were treated at six sites: one trypanosomiasis reference center in Angola, one hospital in South Sudan, and four hospita...ls in the Democratic Republic of the Congo between August 2005 and September 2009 to support the registration of pafuramidine for treatment of first stage HAT in collaboration with the United States Food and Drug Administration. Patients were treated with either 100 mg of pafuramidine orally twice a day for 10 days or 4 mg/kg pentamidine intramuscularly once daily for 7 days to assess the efficacy and safety of pafuramidine versus pentamidine. Pregnant and lactating women as well as adolescents were included.
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The Return Counselling Toolkit is a capacity-building instrument aimed at providing a harmonized and coherent approach to return counselling, based on key migrant-centred principles while protecting migrants’ rights. Mindful of the specific needs and rights pertaining to children, this additional ...module on counselling children and families further complements the first five modules of the Return Counselling Toolkit. It provides specialized guidance on how to prepare and deliver return counselling to accompanied, unaccompanied and separated children while upholding child rights and safeguards.
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These country profiles present progress on implementation of policy recommendations of the Global Action Plan on Physical Activity (GAPPA) 2018-2030 in each country. They also present an estimate of the cost to health systems of not taking action to improve physical activity levels and reinforce th...e urgency to position physical activity as a shared, whole-of-government priority, and to strengthen coordination and partnerships to promote physical activity.
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Climate change presents the single biggest threat to human development, and its widespread impacts disproportionately burden the poorest and most vulnerable households in fragile and rural developing contexts – particularly women and children.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate C...hange’s (IPCC) latest report, ‘between 2010 and 2020, droughts, floods and storms killed 15 times as many people in highly vulnerable countries, particularly in Africa — which is responsible for less than 3 percent of global emissions – than in the wealthiest countries’.
Recognising environmental degradation and climate change are key accelerators of extreme child vulnerability, World Vision (WV) approved the Environmental Stewardship Management Policy (‘the Policy’) and Guidelines (‘the Guidelines’) in 2021.
To support the implementation of the Policy and Guidelines, WV has developed this Environmental Stewardship and Climate Action Handbook (‘the Handbook’) to help offices across the WV Partnership implement best practice environmental management strategies both in the field and in our operations and facilities.
Integrating environmental stewardship and climate action into all our work – whether that be in our Area Programmes, grant projects, responses to disasters or advocacy – is critical to achieving WV’s strategy.
As a Christian organisation we are compelled to follow the ways of Jesus Christ, calling us to care for the ‘least of these’ (Matthew 25:40) – the vulnerable children who are disproportionately impacted by climate change. Our response to the degradation of the environment is not motivated by political expediency or funding – but because we are called to steward God’s creation (Genesis 1:28).
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Access to health workers who are fit for purpose, motivated and protected is a fundamental force of health service delivery and the achievement of universal health coverage and the health and health-related Sustainable Development Goals. Data and knowledge of the distribution, skill mix and future d...evelopment needs of the health workforce can mean the difference between enabling or impeding health systems performance, inclusive economic growth and global health security preparedness and response
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Investing in Child Protection
Building Inclusive, Productive and Resilient Communities in Malawi
WHO needs US$2.54 billion to provide life-saving assistance to millions of people around the world facing health emergencies. WHO’s Health Emergency Appeal is a consolidation of WHO’s priorities and financial requirements for 2023 to carry out health interventions in emergency and humanitarian r...esponses. The number of people in need of humanitarian relief has increased by almost a quarter compared to 2022, to a record 339 million. WHO is responding to an unprecedented number of intersecting health emergencies: climate change-related disasters such as flooding in Pakistan and food insecurity across the Sahel in the greater Horn of Africa; the war in Ukraine; and the health impact of conflict in Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria and north eastern Ethiopia – all of these emergencies overlapping with the health system disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and outbreaks of measles, cholera, and other killers. Contributions to the appeal can be fully flexible, flexible across a region, or flexible within a country appeal.
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The sixteenth meeting of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases (STAG-NTD) was held as a hybrid meeting, 27–28 September 2022.
Dr Ren Minghui, Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage/Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases, welcomed participan...ts to the meeting. He said the World Health Organization’s Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (WHO/NTD) was in a state of transition. Following the death of the late esteemed Director Dr Mwelecele Ntuli Malecela earlier in the year, Dr Gautam Biswas had taken over as Acting Director but would soon retire; the appointment of a new Director was under way. Owing to rotation of STAG-NTD members, this would be the last meeting for some and the first meeting for several new participants. The work however would continue with the same commitment. Discussions over the next two days would focus on critical issues regarding recovery of NTD services following the disruptions caused by coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which had impacted many health services worldwide. He looked forward to receiving the advice and guidance of STAG-N
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Countries, partners, and donors are committed to
the global elimination of blinding trachoma by 2020.
Achieving this public health milestone requires more
than funding; it requires health personnel with the
right mix of skills, and well supported and managed
health systems. Mass drug administra...tion (MDA)
with Zithromax®, the Pfizer, Inc. donated antibiotic,
is a key component of the SAFE strategy, endorsed
by the World Health Organization. There is growing
recognition that improving all aspects of MDA, from
planning to training, recording to reporting, and
receipt of drug to distribution (the supply chain), will
be necessary if MDA programmes are going to reduce
the community burden of Chlamydia trachomatis, and
eliminate trachoma as a cause of blindness by 2020.
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The MHPSS MSP is an easy-to-follow intersectoral package, which spells out the activities and actions that all humanitarian actors should put in place in all emergencies for an effective MHPSS response. It speaks to different actors at the global, regional, national, and local levels to plan, coordi...nate and implement an effective MHPSS response.
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This new guidance aims to support programme implementers, coordinators and others in humanitarian settings in their actions to counter suicide and self-harm in humanitarian contexts and to save lives.
The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization held a meeting on 3-6 October 2022. This report summarizes the discussions, conclusions and recommendations.
It covers the following items:
Global Reports
Immunization Agenda 2030 and Regional reports
Monkeypox
RSV
COVID-19 vacci...nes
Polio vaccination
Ebola (Sudan ebolavirus outbreak update)
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