A Public Health EOC (PHEOC) serves as a hub for coordinating the preparation for, response to, and recovery from public health emergencies. The preparation includes planning, such as risk and resource mapping, development of plans and procedures, and training and exercising. The response includes al...l activities related to investigation, response and recovery. The PHEOC also serves as a hub for coordinating resources and information to support response actions during a public health emergency and enhances communication and collaboration among relevant stakeholders.
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Bangladesh Health Systems in Transition
A public health emergency operation center (PHEOC) serves as a hub for better coordinating the preparation, response, and recovery for public health emergencies. A functional PHEOC is critical for the implementation of the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005). The Framework for a Public Healt...h Emergency Operations Centre provides high-level guidance for establishing or strengthening a PHEOC. To establish and/or strengthen a PHEOC, it is vital for Member States to align with standardized policies, guidelines, and tools.
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Self-care interventions are among the most promising and exciting new approaches to improve health and well-being, both from a health systems perspective and for people who use these interventions.
The World Health Organization (WHO) uses the following working definition of self-care: Self-care i...s the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health worker. The scope of self-care as described in this definition includes health promotion; disease prevention and control; self-medication; providing care to dependent persons; seeking hospital/specialist/primary care if necessary; and rehabilitation, including palliative care. It includes a range of self-care modes and approaches. While this is a broad definition that includes many activities, it is important for health policy to recognize the importance of self-care, especially where it intersects with health systems and health professionals.
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An estimated 1.3 billion people – or 16% of global population worldwide – experience a significant disability today. Persons with disabilities have the right to the highest attainable standard of health as those without disabilities. However, the WHO Global report on health equity for persons w...ith disabilities demonstrates that while some progress has been made in recent years, the world is still far from realizing this right for many persons with disabilities who continue to die earlier, have poorer health, and experience more limitations in everyday functioning than others. These poor health outcomes are due to unfair conditions faced by persons with disabilities in all facets of life, including in the health system itself. Countries have an obligation under international human rights law to address the health inequities faced by persons with disabilities. Furthermore, the Sustainable Development Goals and global health priorities will not progress without ensuring health for all.
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Mental health problems represent the greatest global burden of disease among children and adolescents. There is, however, lack of policy development and implementation for child and adolescent mental health (CAMH), particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where children and adolescen...ts represent up to 50% of populations. South Africa, an upper-middle income country is often regarded as advanced in health and social policy-making and implementation in comparison to other LMICs. It is, however, not clear whether this is the case for CAMH.
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BMJ Global Health 2022;7:e008007. doi:10.1136/ bmjgh-2021-00800
The threat climate change poses to health, equity, and development has been rigorously documented. However, in an era marked by economic crisis, regional conflicts, natural disasters and growing disparities between rich and poor, the joint global actions required to address climate change have been ...vigorously debated – and critical decisions postponed.
This document, part of WHO’s Health in the Green Economy series, describes how many climate change measures can be “win-wins” for people and the planet.
These policies yield large, immediate public health benefits while reducing the upward trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions. Many of these policies can improve the health and equity of people in poor countries and assist developing countries in adapting to climate change that is already occurring, as evidenced by more extreme storms, flooding, drought and heatwaves.
WHO’s Department of Public Health and Environment launched the Health in the Green Economy initiative in 2010 to review potential health and equity “co-benefits” of proposed climate change measures – as well as relevant risks.
This review examines mitigation strategies discussed in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which constitutes the most broad-based global review of mitigation options by scientific experts.
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Health Statistics in the Western Pacific Region 2023: Monitoring health for the SDGs is the third biennial report providing an overview of the progress of the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Region towards the health-related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets. Thi...s edition also serves as a baseline assessment for the implementation of the global WHO Fourteenth General Programme of Work 2025–2028 (GPW14) within the Western Pacific Region and the for the Regional Vision “Weaving Health for Families, Communities, and Societies of the Western Pacific Region: Working Together to Improve Health, Well-Being and Save Lives”.
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Regional situation analysis, practices, experiences, lessons learned and ways forward.
WHO's Health in the Green Economy sector briefings examine the health impacts of climate change mitigation strategies considered by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in their Fourth Assessment Report (Climate Change, 2007). Large, immediate health benefits from some climate change strate...gies are to be expected.
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Lessons learned from recent public health events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Ebola virus disease, Zika virus disease outbreaks, and other public health threats, including earthquakes and floods, have highlighted the need for countries to continuously develop, strengthen, and maintain capacities r...equired under the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR (2005)).
Developing capacities for health security in a country requires the engagement of public and private entities across a broad range of sectors, including human and animal health, agriculture, environment, finance, security, emergency management, education, and transportation. The World Health Organization (WHO) is mandated through various resolutions, decisions, and reports of the World Health Assembly, and through the IHR (2005), to provide technical guidance and support to its Member States in developing, strengthening, and maintaining their health systems, including capacities required under the IHR (2005).
For countries to better prevent, prepare for, detect, notify, respond to, and recover from public health emergencies, they must build and maintain IHR core capacities and support the strengthening of health emergency prevention, preparedness, response, and resilience (HEPR) capacities. National Action Plans for Health Security (NAPHS), as capacity development plans, provide the tasks and resources needed to ensure adequate capacities are in place to prevent, detect, respond to, and recover from public health events in a sustainable manner. Investing in the resilience of these capacities within national health systems at national and local levels not only improves national health security but also helps safeguard economic, social, and political developments.
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As part of the Mental Health Gap Action Programme, WHO has developed training manuals (Training of trainers and supervisors training manual and Training of health-care providers training manual) to support implementation of the mhGAP Intervention Guide for mental, neurological and substance use (MNS...) disorders in non-specialized health settings, version 2.0. These manuals can be used to build capacity among non-specialist health-care providers in the assessment and management of people with priority MNS conditions in low resource settings.
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This policy brief aims to provide a review of the current progress on implementing the Mali national action plan on AMR, identifies critical gaps, and highlights findings to accelerate further progress in the human health sector. The target audience includes all those concerned with implementing act...ions to combat antimicrobial resistance in Mali.
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The Panorama Perspectives: Conversations on Planetary Health report series aims to inspire new thinking, conversations, and engagement with planetary health and other integrated concepts. Collaboration and open knowledge sharing across sectors are necessary to solve the complex global health and dev...elopment problems of today. These reports are intended as practical tools, presenting actionable opportunities to advance planetary health.Each report expands on knowledge gathered from many sources, including analysis of publicly available reports and data; forums and events; group discussions; and individual conversations
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