The growing understanding of how sequence information can contribute to improved public health is driving global investments in sequencing facilities and programmes. The falling cost and complexity of generating GSD provides opportunities for expanding sequencing capacity; however, challenges to wid...espread implementation remain. This document provides policy-makers and stakeholders with guidance on how to maximize the public health benefit of SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequencing activities in the short and long term as the pandemic continues to unfold. Practical considerations for the implementation of a virus genomic sequencing programme and an overview of the public health objectives of genomic sequencing are covered. This guidance focuses on SARS-CoV-2 but is applicable to other pathogens of public health concern.
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This interim guidance is aimed at assisting organizers of international meetings attended by individuals from EVD-affected countries and individuals with a travel history to EVD-affected countries within the previous 3 weeks.
The first part is intended for organizers of international meetings, to ...safely plan and conduct these events. The second part is addressed to public health authorities directly involved in supporting such international meetings.
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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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The document “Malaria Elimination Programme Review, India 2022”, published by the WHO Country Office for India, provides an in-depth assessment of India’s progress toward malaria elimination. It evaluates the structure, implementation, and effectiveness of national and subnational malaria prog...rams, focusing on surveillance, diagnosis, treatment, vector control, and community engagement. The review identifies strengths, challenges, and areas for improvement, offering evidence-based recommendations to accelerate India's efforts to eliminate malaria by 2030.
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PLoS ONE 18(5): e0285031. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285031
The study aims to integrate HPV vaccination into routine care in adolescent HIV clinics. To achieve success, we will co-design a package of implementation strategies using a previously successful implementation research approach... developed for cervical cancer prevention in LMICs: the Integrative Systems Praxis for Implementation Research (INSPIRE). INSPIRE is a novel, comprehensive approach to develop, implement, and evaluate implementation science efforts
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All malaria-endemic countries in the Region of the Americas have taken on the challenge to eliminate the disease and to put in place measures to orient their health programs and strategies in that direction. This manual explains how to implement measures to achieve malaria elimination and prevent it...s reestablishment by increasing the intensity and quality of interventions, reorienting initiatives, reducing delays that favor transmission, and ensuring adequate monitoring to adjust interventions.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) projects a global shortfall of 18 million health workers by 2030, mostly in low- and lower-middle-income countries. Contributing to the global deficit are chronic under-investment in education and training of health workers; workforce migration; an aging health wo...rkforce; rapid increases in chronic diseases; and inability to track existing human resources using health information systems. Health care worker shortages are compounded by the increased portability and virulence of infections. Rapid population growth, climate change, deforestation, international travel, migration, poverty, and social inequality have dramatically increased the risk of pandemics and highlighted the need for skilled health workforce to effectively respond to emerging health threats. This is evident now more than ever as COVID-19 exacerbates health inequity and barriers to access, and further strains the already fragile health systems in many countries.
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Zambia has completed the implementation of the National TB Strategic Plan (2017-2021) that set in motion the TB elimination agenda in Zambia through coordinated and accelerated TB response. During this period, the National TB and Leprosy Programme (NTLP) registered tremendous success.
The NTLP is ...poised to attain the ambitious goal pronounced by the government of eliminating TB by 2030, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the World Health Organization End TB Strategy. The programme exponentially increased TB notifications from as low as 35,922 people with TB in 2018 to 40,726 in 2020 and in 2021 the TB notifications rose to 50,825 (a 25% increase against 2020 performance). The NTLP also registered incredible success in sustaining high TB Preventive Treatment (TPT) initiations among persons living with HIV and a high TB treatment success rate among drug-susceptible TB cases. New and relapse TB notifications in children below 15 years increased by 43%, from 2,724 in 2020 to 3,890 in 2021. TB notifications ratio between children aged 0-4 and 5-14 was 0.9, an improvement from what we achieved in 2018 (the ratio was 0.7). The proportion of TB patients who are HIV positive continued to decrease, reaching 34% in 2021 from 39% in 2020. Sustained increases in TB notifications, treatment success rate, and TPT initiations have resulted in a rapid decrease in the TB incidence rate that reached 307 per 100,000 population in 2021 against a rate of 391 in 2015.
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2nd edition. This second edition builds on the experience of more than 10 years of SMC deployment, and reflects changes introduced in the WHO guidelines for malaria, 3 June 2022. The goal of this publication is to share these best practices to improve SMC implementation, coverage, and monitoring and... evaluation. Examples of materials and tools as well as links to resources are included to support managers and health workers in their efforts to conduct successful SMC activities and prevent malaria among vulnerable children.
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The document outlines essential steps and provides guidance to countries on the adoption and deployment of c-IPTp so that it is integrated into the existing health system. It draws upon best practices and lessons learned from pilot implementation experiences in eight African countries and targets st...akeholders at the national level that are involved in the provision of maternal and child services, including national and local policymakers and implementers of malaria, maternal health, child health, reproductive health and community health programmes, and nongovernmental and other organizations.
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This malaria case management training manual was developed by the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) of Ethiopia, in collaboration with several national and international partners. Primarily based on WHO guidelines and training materials, as well as the 2022 national malaria guidelines and various te...chnical documents, it aims to provide a standardised, simplified resource for clinical health workers in both the public and private sectors in Ethiopia. The manual aims to provide clinical health workers in both the public and private sectors in Ethiopia with a standardised, simplified resource.
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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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Climate change and variability is affecting maize (Zea mays L.) production in eastern Ethiopia but how farmers perceive the challenge and respond to it is not well documented. A study was conducted to analyze smallholder maize farmers’ perception of climate change/variability and identify their ad...aptation approaches and barriers for adaptation in the eastern highlands of
Ethiopia.
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Leptospirosis is a bacterial zoonotic disease of worldwide importance, though relatively neglected in many African countries including sub Saharan Africa that is among areas with high burden of this disease. The disease is often mistaken for other febrile illnesses such as dengue, malaria, rickettsi...oses and enteric fever. Leptospirosis is an occupational disease likely to affect people working in environments prone to infestation with rodents which are the primary reservoir hosts of this disease. Some of the populations at risk include: sugarcane plantation workers, wetland farmers, fishermen and abattoir workers. In this study we investigated the prevalence of antibodies against Leptospira among sugarcane plantation and factory workers, fishing communities as well as among rodents and shrews in domestic and peridomestic environments within the study areas.
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Previous crises, such as the Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa in 2014, indicate the direct impact movement restrictions and disease containment efforts have on food availability, access, utilization and violence – particularly gender-based violence (GBV). The importance of maintaining and ...upscaling food security interventions for the most vulnerable populations, alongside the health sector’s efforts to avert disease spread, is therefore undeniable. The COVID-19 outbreak in South Sudan threatens to paralyze an already fragile food system and negatively impact more than 6.5 million people in South Sudan who remain vulnerable. At the same time, the core national capacities for prevention, preparedness and response for public health events is limited, and the healthcare system has been weakened by years of conflict, poor governance and low investments.
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No publication year indicated.