The objective of this book is to provide health workers with easily accessible information on important aspects of the medicines commonly used at primary care level in Zimbabwe. Medicines are a crucial part of the management of most of our patients, yet many medicines are potentially dangerous if no...t used correctly (by either prescriber or patient). It is important to have up-to-date information not only on the indications for, and the dose of a particular medicine, but also the contra-indications and reasons for special care, possible side effects and interactions with other medicine or medicines. The patient must also have information on how to use the preparation, what side effects may occur, and when to return for help.
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Infectious disease outbreaks are periods of
great uncertainty. Events unfold, resources
and capacities that are often limited
are stretched yet further, and decisions
for a public health response must be
made quickly, even though the evidence
for decision-making may be scant. In
such a... situation, public health officials,
policy-makers, funders, researchers, field
epidemiologists, first responders, national
ethics boards, health-care workers, and public
health practitioners need a moral compass
to guide them in their decision-making.
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Journal of Biosocial Science / Volume 34 / Issue 04 / October 2002, pp 525 - 539
DOI: DOI:10.1017/S0021932002005254, Published online: 24 September 2002
This paper examines determinants of one aspect of sexual behaviour – coital frequency – among 2188 married women in the Central African Re...public using a secondary analysis of data from the Demographic and Health Survey of 1994–95. Female genital cutting (or circumcision) is practised in the Central African Republic and self-reported circumcision status was included in the questionnaire enabling it to be examined as a possible determinant of coital frequency. Multiple logistic regression was used to find a subset of factors independently associated with coital frequency.
Decreased coital frequency was found in those who had longer duration of marriage, those who were not the most recent wife in a polygamous marriage and those who had more surviving children. Coital frequency was higher in more educated women and those not contracepting because they wanted to get pregnant. After adjusting for confounders no association between
female genital cutting and coital frequency was found. The extent to which women can control coital frequency in this culture is not known and fertility desires may override any negative effects of circumcision on sexual pleasure.
It was therefore not possible to draw conclusions about how female genital cutting affects a woman’s desire for sexual intercourse and consequently there is a need to develop research methods further to investigate this question.
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Namibia recorded its first COVID-19 case on 14 March 2020, with cumulative cases reaching 15,773 and 118 deaths by 10 December 2020. Namibia has done relatively well to contain the outbreak.
However, positivity rates have shown a consistent increase above 5 percent in quarter 4 of 2020, necessitati...ng renewed attention to surveillance and outbreak control in 2021.
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Companion to the World Report on Child Injury Prevention 2008
This child-friendly version of the World report on child injury prevention aims to inform children, aged 7 - 11 years, about various types of injuries and how these may be prevented by using a mixture of facts, puzzles,... games and other visual material.
Original file: 24 MB
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The WHO SAGE values framework for the allocation and prioritization of COVID-19 vaccination is intended to offer guidance on the prioritization of groups for vaccination when vaccine supply is limited. It provides a values foundation for the objectives of COVID-19 vaccination programmes and links t...hose to target groups for vaccination. This information is valuable to countries and globally while specific policies will be developed once vaccines become available.
This document it available in Arabic, Chinese English, French, Portuguese and Russian
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The document titled "Manual for Stratifying Malaria Risk and the Elimination of Foci" by PAHO provides guidance for countries in the Americas on how to systematically assess and classify malaria transmission risk at subnational levels. It outlines a standardized approach to stratification and the id...entification of active transmission foci, helping public health authorities prioritize interventions, allocate resources efficiently, and implement targeted strategies to accelerate progress toward malaria elimination.
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New data from the WHO reveal that an estimated 2.2 billion cases of malaria and 12.7 million deaths have been averted since 2000, but the disease remains a serious global health threat, particularly in the WHO African Region. According to WHO’s latest World malaria report, there were an estimated ...263 million cases and 597 000 malaria deaths worldwide in 2023. This represents about 11 million more cases in 2023 compared to 2022, and nearly the same number of deaths. Approximately 95% of the deaths occurred in the WHO African Region, where many at risk still lack access to the services they need to prevent, detect and treat the disease.
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In contrast to bilateral aid, aid disbursed from
multilateral institutions increased significantly at the onset
of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, at a time when a coherent
and effective multilateral response is needed most, the
COVID-19 pandemic revealed a shifting landscape of donor
agencies that... struggle with basic functions, such as crossnational coordination. While multilaterals are uniquely
positioned to transcend national priorities and respond
to pandemics, functionally we find official development
assistance (ODA) from these entities may increasingly
mimic the attributes of bilateral aid. We explore three
important, but not comprehensive, attributes of aid leading
up to and during the COVID-19 pandemic: (1) earmarking,
(2) donor concentration and (3) aid modality.
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The COVID-19 pandemic exposed critical gaps in the global response to health crises, particularly in the financing of pandemic prevention, preparedness, response, recovery, and reconstruction. This chapter presents a comprehensive framework for pandemic financing that spans the entire pandemic cycle..., emphasizing the need for timely, adequate, and effective financial resources. The framework is designed to support
policymakers in both low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and high-income nations, providing a guide to appropriate financing tools for each stage of a pandemic, from prevention and preparedness to response and recovery. Key economic concepts such as global public goods, time preference, and incentives are explored to underscore the complexities of pandemic financing.
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This Implementation Kit (I-Kit), developed by the Health Communication Capacity Collaborative (HC3), which is funded by USAID and based at the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, offers structured guidance for improving social and behavioural change communication (SBCC) strategies relat...ed to malaria in pregnancy (MiP). Designed for programme managers and stakeholders, the toolkit addresses critical communication gaps in MiP programming, particularly among service providers. It provides tools to help users integrate MiP into situation analyses, segment audiences, define behavioural objectives and draft strategic communication plans.
MiP poses a significant public health challenge, contributing to maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity in sub-Saharan Africa. Although effective interventions exist, such as the use of insecticide-treated nets, intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) and timely diagnosis and treatment, their implementation remains inconsistent. The I-Kit supports more effective SBCC planning and implementation, with the aim of increasing the uptake and impact of these interventions and ultimately reducing malaria-related deaths and illness among pregnant women and newborns.
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The purpose of this guide is to provide updated clinical guidance on TB/HIV, with an emphasis on diagnostic aspects—including new techniques—as well as current treatment, while maintaining a public health approach. By compiling and consolidating the latest World Health Organization recommendatio...ns on the subject into a single guide, the aim is to create a reference and consultation document that is frequently used, and that unifies and standardizes the comprehensive management of TB/HIV co-infection in healthcare facilities based on the principle of “two diseases, one patient.” It also seeks to support the updating of national standards and guidelines on co-infection and to complement the coordinated work that must exist between TB and HIV prevention and control programs at all levels, within the framework of the twelve internationally recommended TB/HIV collaborative activities.
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The aim of this protocol is to support the conduct of entomological comparative efficacy assessments for vector control products and the associated non-inferiority analysis. This evidence is used to inform discussions within the guidelines development context as to whether a new vector control prod...uct should be considered as covered by one or more existing WHO recommendations or not. Alternatively, the evidence may inform the extension of an existing WHO recommendation or the development of a new one, provided that non-inferiority is demonstrated
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The framework recommends expanded coverage of malaria diagnostic and treatment services, intensified vector control to drive down transmission, strengthened malaria surveillance, and increased transborder collaboration, especially in terms of efforts to control the sale and use of artemisinin monoth...erapies. Since it is unlikely that national malaria control programs will be able to implement all the activities described in this framework simultaneously, a list of suggested priority activities has been included in the Annex.
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Offering additional pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) choices has the potential to increase uptake and effective use of PrEP, and of HIV prevention overall, as it allows people to choose a method that they prefer.
In this guideline, WHO recommends an offering long-acting injectable lenacapavir (LEN...) as an additional HIV prevention choice, as part of combination HIV prevention approaches. LEN, administered twice a year as PrEP, has been shown to be highly effective at reducing the risk of HIV acquisition. In this guideline, WHO also recommends using HIV rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for individuals initiating or continuing long-acting injectable PrEP, such as LEN and long acting injectable cabotegravir (CAB-LA). Flexible HIV testing approaches are essential for ensuring that testing does not become a barrier to accessing or continuing PrEP, including long-acting injectable options.
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The right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health is enshrined in many international human rights treaties. However, studies have shown that people with mental disabilities are often marginalized and discriminated against in the fulfillment of their right to... health. The aim of this study is to identify and reach a broader understanding of barriers to the right to mental health in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. Eleven semi-structured interviews were carried out with health professionals and administrators.
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The government of Rwanda conducted the 2010 Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey (RDHS) to gather up-to-date information for monitoring progress on healthcare programs and policies in Rwanda, including the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS), the Millennium Development Goals ...(MDGs),
and Vision 2020. The 2010 RDHS is a follow-up to the 1992, 2000, 2005, and 2007-08 RDHS surveys. Each survey provides data on background characteristics of the respondents, demographic and health indicators, household health expenditures, and domestic violence. The target groups in these surveys were women age 15-49 and men age 15-59
who were randomly selected from households across the country. Information about children age 5 and under also was collected, including the weight and height of the children.
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Comprehensive public health action on population ageing is urgently needed. This will require fundamental shifts, not just in the things we do, but in how we think about ageing itself. The World report on ageing and health outlines a framework for action to foster Healthy Ageing built around the new... concept of functional ability. Making these investments will have valuable social and economic returns, both in terms of health and wellbeing of older people and in enabling their on-going participation in society
Executive summaries : Arabic; Chinese; English; French; German; Japanese; Portuguese; Russian; Spanish
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ndependent of the current conflict, the health sector in Ukraine faces several critical shortcomings. In particular, the country has an oversupply of hospitals and an undersupply of primary care and diagnostic facilities. Addressing these limitations will require substantial amounts of capital inves...tment, but constraints on public finances in the post-war context will reduce the Government’s ability to fund the needed reconfiguration. Multiple international financial institutions have stated their intention to support reconstruction in the aftermath of the war. The use of public–private partnerships (PPPs) may support the achievement of these outcomes and their use in Ukraine is likely to remain an important issue for Government policy-makers and their partners to consider in a variety of post-war scenarios.
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The aim of this paper is to map and critically analyse evidence of good practice in prevention and response to gender-based violence (GBV) in humanitarian contexts which can support humanitarian practitioners and policy makers to improve the quality of GBV programming in the field. The paper is stru...ctured as follows. Following a brief discussion of key concepts and definitions in relation to GBV, Chapter 2 presents an overview of the extent of GBV in emergencies, and some of the challenges in responding to the problem. Chapter 3 then analyses some of the literature on the evidence of GBV programming effects in humanitarian settings, and draws out key lessons with regard to good practice. Chapter 4 discusses some of the key issues emerging from this review, and Chapter 5 concludes the paper with a discussion of the implications of the findings for research, policy and programming on GBV.
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