Revised working paper following AVAREF meeting February 2019.
WHO has published a roadmap aiming to coordinate partners’ actions and contributions to the licensing and roll-out of Merck’s Ebola vaccine (VSV-ZEBOV) in African countries. The vaccine was developed during the West Africa Ebola epi...demic of 2014-2016, during which more than 11 000 people lost their lives to the disease. The vaccine was tested in European and African countries at the time and is currently used under an “expanded access” protocol in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
WHO will expedite prequalification and licensing of the vaccine for use in countries at risk of Ebola outbreaks and will coordinate work between those countries’ regulatory authorities and the European Medicines Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration.
more
Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is aware of the media releases of the preliminary results of a large randomized clinical trial conducted in the United Kingdom, which included dexamethasone, a corticosteroid, as one of the drugs used for the treatment of COVID-19 patien...ts. The investigators reported that administration of oral or injectable dexamethasone resulted in about one-third reduction in mortality among COVID-19 patientsi that required mechanical ventilation and about one-fifth for patients requiring oxygen.
more
The COVID-19 vaccine tracker and landscape compiles detailed information of each COVID-19 vaccine candidate in development by closely monitoring their progress through the pipeline.
The COVID-19 vaccine tracker:
Provides summary tables of COVID-19 vaccine candidates in both clinical and pre-...clinical development;
Provides analysis and visualization for several COVID-19 vaccine candidate categories;
Tracks the progress of each vaccine from pre-clinical, Phase 1, Phase 2 through to Phase 3 efficacy studies and including Phase 4 registered as interventional studies;
Provides links to published reports on safety, immunogenicity and efficacy data of the vaccine candidates;
Includes information on key attributes of each vaccine candidate and
Allows users to search for COVID-19 vaccines through various criteria such as vaccine platform, schedule of vaccination, route of administration, developer, trial phase and clinical endpoints.
The database is updated regularly - twice a week (Tuesday and Friday, 17:00 CET).
more
The consolidated guidelines are complemented by an operational handbook which is designed to assist with implementation of the WHO recommendations by Member States, technical partners and others who are involved in the management of patients with DR-TB. The WHO Operational Handbook on Tuberculosis, ...Module 4: Treatment - Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Treatment provides practical guidance on how to put in place the recommendations at the scale needed to achieve national and global impact.
The document provides information on different aspects of care and support for TB patients. In particular, the handbook provides practical guidance on the implementation of the interventions that enable treatment adherence such as social support, treatment administration options, digital adherence technologies. The practical guidance also includes models of care for all TB patients, models of care for children and adolescents, integrated care for TB, HIV and comorbidities, engagement of private sector, managing of TB in health emergencies. This new practical handbook also includes two important chapters on health education and counselling, and palliative care for patients with TB.
more
Les Centres africains de contrôle et de prévention des maladies (Africa CDC) ont pris connaissance des communiqués de presse concernant les résultats préliminaires d'un vaste essai clinique randomisé mené au Royaume-Uni, qui incluait la dexaméthasone, un corticostéroïde, parmi les médicam...ents utilisés pour le traitement des patients atteints de COVID-19. Les chercheurs ont rapporté que l'administration de dexaméthasone par voie orale ou injectable a permis de réduire d'environ un tiers la mortalité chez les patients COVID-19i qui nécessitaient une ventilation mécanique et d'environ un cinquième chez les patients nécessitant de l'oxygène. Depuis la publication de ces rapports médiatiques, les autorités sanitaires du Royaume-Uni et d'Afrique du Sud ont adopté la dexaméthasone pour le traitement des patients atteints de formes graves de COVID-19
more
This document provides guidance on how to implement contact screening and chemoprophylaxis with single-dose rifampicin. The contents are logically ordered: counselling and obtaining consent, identification and listing of index case, listing of contacts, tracing of contacts, screening of contacts, ad...ministration of prophylactic drugs. Managerial aspects to undertake contact screeninig and chemoprophylaxis are also elaborated, including planning , training , supervision and drug management.
more
4 August 2021. Currently, Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine COMIRNATY® (Tozinameran) is the only COVID-19 vaccine that should be stored and transported at -60ºC to -86ºC ultra-low temperature (ULT) conditions. Prior to use the vaccine can be transferred to -20ºC freezer or +2-8ºC refrigerator at... the lower store levels and immunization service points. However, vaccine shelf life is affected when vaccine is transferred to a different storage temperature. Health workers in charge of managing the storage, transport and administration of the vaccine should be well trained to maintain vaccine quality. Good cold chain planning, strong management of vaccine supply, logistics and distribution, including installation and effective monitoring and evaluation of the performance of the storage equipment and infrastructure, are also necessary.
more
Sep 22, 2021.
In our updated analysis we find that, as of September 9, there continue to be wide disparities in access and at current rates, most low-income countries (LICs) and most countries in Africa will not reach global vaccination targets. We also find that, compared to July, the rate at whic...h vaccination would have to increase for LICs to meet global targets is even greater now, due to more ambitious goals and continued low rates of dose administration in these countries.
more
Post Graduate programme is essential to prepare nurses to improve the
quality of nursing education and practice in India. .
Post graduate programme in nursing builds upon and extends competence
acquired at the graduate levels, emphasizes application of relevant theories
into nursing practice, ed...ucation, administration and development of
research skills.
more
Our target end-users are those with limited literacy. It is a challenging task to achieve success in this group as so much of what is "obvious" to those of us with good literacy skills is totally obscure to those who have never had the opportunity to learn the meaning of e.g. an arrow shape and what... it is meant to represent. Our pictograms have been tested mainly in our local Xhosa population, so we cannot guarantee universal generalisability (as is the case for any other pictograms). Categories in the database include Dosage and frequency; Route of administration; Additional medicine instructions; Side effects or indications; Storage of medicines; Tablets, capsules, bottles, droppers; Miscellaneous; TB-related pictograms
A common application relates to their use with medicines where they may serve to convey instructions, precautions, storage requirements, warnings, as well as medicine indication or side effects to patients or consumers. Many examples of diverse application of pictograms in the health literature have been described including health promotion materials, wound care instructions, asthma prevention and treatment, injury prevention, discharge instructions, self-care guidance, paediatric anaphylaxis plan, organ and body donation, CT scan risks and benefits, driving risks, safety symbols, decision aids for treatment, and patient-reported outcomes dashboards, amongst others.
more
Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is a preventable neglected tropical disease (NTD) caused by infection with the filarial parasites Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi or B. timori. Mosquitos in the genera Culex, Anopheles, Mansonia and Aedes transmit the parasites from person to person. Lymphoedema and hyd...rocoele are the visible, chronic clinical consequences of the impairment of lymphatic vessels caused by infection with these parasites. WHO established the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (GPELF) to stop transmission of infection by mass drug administration (MDA) of anthelminthics and to alleviate the suffering of people affected by the disease through morbidity management and disability prevention (MMDP). Since the start of GPELF, the number of infections has been reduced by 74% globally. The latest estimate is that 51.4 million people are infected.
more
Surveillance mondiale de la leishmaniose: 2021, évaluation de l’impact de la pandémie de COVID-19
The aims of this report are to update the results of the GHO leishmaniasis indicators reported by Member States to WHO up to 2021, to describe specific indicators of gender and age distribution, re...lapses, the AmBisome® donation programme, selected outbreaks, case fatality rates for visceral leishmaniasis (VL, also known as kala-azar), rates of co-infection with HIV and VL and the burden of post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL). This report also describes the Kala-azar Elimination Programme in South-East Asia and adverse events after administration of antileishmanial drugs.
more
In South and Central America, lymphatic filariasis (LF) is caused by Wuchereria bancrofti, which is transmitted by Culex quinquefasciatus, the only vector species in this region. Of the seven countries considered endemic for LF in the Americas in the last decade, Costa Rica, Suriname and Trinidad a...nd Tobago were removed from the World Health Organization list in 2011. The remaining countries, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Guyana and Haiti, have achieved important progress in recent years. Brazil was the first country in the Americas to stop mass drug administration (MDA) and to establish post-MDA surveillance. Dominican Republic stopped MDA in all LF-endemic foci: La Ciénaga and Southwest passed the third Transmission Assessment Survey (TAS) and the Eastern focus passed TAS-1 in 2018. Haiti passed the TAS and interrupted transmission in >80% of endemic communes, achieving effective drug coverage. Guyana implemented effective coverage in MDAs in 2017 and 2018 and in 2019 scaled up the treatment for 100% of the geographical region, introducing ivermectin in the MDA in order to achieve LF elimination by the year 2026. The Americas region is on its way to eliminating LF transmission. However, efforts should be made to improve morbidity management to prevent disability of the already affected populations.
more
The Western Pacific Region is the largest and most diverse region in the world, made up of 37 countries and territories in the Pacific, Oceania and parts of Asia, with a population of more than 1.9 billion people stretching over an area from China and Mongolia in the north to New Zealand in the sout...h. In 1999, 22 countries and territories in the Pacific joined together and launched the Pacific Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis. Shortly after, the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis was launched in 2000. In 2004, 12 countries in the Asia subregion of the Western Pacific Region and Southeast Asian Region joined and developed the Mekong-Plus Strategic Plan for Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis. Since then, significant efforts have been made by all endemic countries, with annual mass drug administration (MDA) as a principal strategy, through strong partnership with the WHO and other donors and partners. As a result, by the end of 2019, 10 of 22 endemic countries in the region, including 8 of 16 countries in the Pacific and 2 countries in the Asia subregion, achieved WHO validation for elimination of lymphatic filariasis (LF) as a public health problem. All the other countries are either progressing with post-MDA surveillance or accelerating efforts by adoption of the new triple drug therapy strategy and enhancement of MDA campaigns to tackle persistent transmission. Some 85% of the originally endemic implementation units have stopped MDA and the number of people requiring MDA for LF in the Western Pacific Region was reduced by 72% from 2000 to 2018. This paper reviews the progress, key success factors and remaining challenges and indicates the way forward to achieve LF elimination in the Western Pacific Region.
more
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a threat to global health and development and it contributes to millions of deaths worldwide each year. Inappropriate use and overuse of antibiotics are driving an increase in AMR and have a detrimental impact on the effectiveness of these critical medicines. Throug...h the Global Action Plan on AMR, WHO is working to improve the surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and reduce inappropriate antibiotic consumption.
There is a recognized need for high-quality resources to improve antibiotic prescribing globally. To address this need, a pragmatic approach was taken by WHO to develop actionable guidance for empiric antibiotic use.
The WHO AWaRe (Access, Watch, Reserve) antibiotic book provides concise, evidence-based guidance on the choice of antibiotic, dose, route of administration, and duration of treatment for more than 30 of the most common clinical infections in children and adults in both primary health care and hospital settings. The information included in the book supports the recommendations for antibiotics listed on the WHO Model Lists of Essential Medicines and Essential Medicines Children and the WHO AWaRe classification of antibiotics.
The WHO AWaRe antibiotic book is accompanied by summary infographics for each infection for both adults and children that provide a quick-reference guide for health care workers at the point of care.
more
Since 1996, trachoma has been targeted for elimination as a public health problem worldwide. The active trachoma criterion for national elimination as a public health problem is a TF1–9 < 5%, sustained for at least two years in the absence of antibiotic mass drug administration (MDA), in each form...erly endemic EU. Using A, F and E, health ministries and their partners have made considerable progress towards achieving this criterion in formerly endemic EUs worldwide. In 2002, an estimated 1517 million people lived in EUs in which EU-wide implementation of the A, F and E components of SAFE were thought to be needed for the purposes of global elimination of trachoma as a public health problem; by June 2021, that number had fallen to 136.2 million, a 91% reduction. Approximately 85% of the 136.2 million people living in EUs needing A, F and E in June 2021 were in WHO’s African Region.
more
This document focuses on the management of patients affected by gambiense HAT and
constitutes an update to the WHO therapeutic guidance issued in 2013. The main changes in recommendations concern the criteria and methods for deciding the treatment among the new set of therapeutic options and the pa...rticular conditions that apply to treatment with fexinidazole, as outlined below. Because HAT is a serious, life-threatening disease and because the efficacy of fexinidazole depends on swallowing the medicine after an appropriate intake of food as well as on completing the full 10-day
treatment schedule, the recommendations regarding fexinidazole administration are considered key elements that must be carefully followed. When the conditions listed in these guidelines are not met for any individual patient, the alternative available treatments should be prescribed.
more
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.
more
Chagas disease (CD) is caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. When acquired, the
disease develops in stages. For diagnosis, laboratory confirmation is required, and an extensive assessment of the patient’s health should be performed. Treatment consists of the administration of trypanocidal drugs, which may... cause severe adverse effects. The objective of our systematic review was to analyze data contained in the CD published case reports to understand the challenges that patients and clinicians face worldwide.
more
To eliminate lymphatic filariasis (LF) by 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a campaign against the disease. Since the launch in 2000, significant progress has been made to achieve this ambitious goal. In this article we review the progress and status of the LF programme in Afric...a through the WHO neglected
tropical diseases preventive chemotherapy databank, the Expanded Special Project for Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (ESPEN) portal and other publications. In the African Region there are 35 countries endemic for LF. The Gambia was reclassified as not requiring preventive chemotherapy in 2015, while Togo and Malawi eliminated LF as a public health problem in 2017 and 2020, respectively. Cameroon discontinued mass drug administration (MDA) and transitioned to post-MDA surveillance to validate elimination. The trajectory of coverage continues to accelerate; treatment coverage increased from 0.1% in 2000 to 62.1% in 2018. Geographical coverage has also significantly increased, from 62.7% in 2015 to 78.5% in 2018. In 2019, 23 of 31 countries requiring MDA achieved 100% geographic coverage. Although much remains to be done, morbidity management and disability prevention services have steadily increased in recent years. Vector control interventions conducted by other programmes, particularly malaria vector control, have had a profound effect in stopping transmission in some endemic countries in the region. In conclusion, significant progress has been made in the LF programme
in the region while we identify the key remaining challenges in achieving an Africa free of LF.
more