The Global Health Expenditure Report delves into the intricate landscape of global economies and health systems. This year, it focuses on health spending in 2022, the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic. It shows how countries around the world responded to the health and economic shocks of the pande...mic from a financial perspective. It also considers what the future may hold as countries emerge from the pandemic. Although it is still too early to gauge whether the COVID-19 pandemic has altered long-term trends in health spending, spending appears to have peaked and is now at or below its long-term rising trend in most country income groups. Additionally, to mark the 25th anniversary of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Health Expenditure Tracking Program, the report reviews the program’s achievements and envisions a path forward. As the program’s lead technical agency, WHO is committed to working closely with partners to support countries in tracking health spending and sustaining the Global Health Expenditure Database and the Global Health Expenditure Report as global public goods.
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This study aims to provide an overview of health financing in Africa and to examine the impact of the reemergence of mpox on health financing in the region.
The document “Malaria Prophylaxis for Travellers: Guideline for Healthcare Workers” (2019) from Sri Lanka provides guidance for healthcare providers on preventing malaria among travelers to endemic areas.
It explains that since Sri Lanka was certified malaria-free in 2016, the main risk comes f...rom imported cases, mostly Sri Lankan travelers. The document emphasizes assessing travelers’ risk, advising on mosquito bite prevention, and prescribing appropriate chemoprophylaxis like chloroquine, mefloquine, atovaquone-proguanil, or doxycycline depending on destination and traveler profile.
It highlights that children, pregnant women, and immunocompromised individuals are particularly at risk, and stresses adherence to medications and protective measures. Special instructions are given on handling missed doses, long-term prophylaxis, and managing side effects. Overall, the guideline aims to maintain Sri Lanka’s malaria-free status by preventing reintroduction through well-informed traveler care.
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On Global Handwashing Day, WHO and UNICEF have released the first-ever global Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Community Settings to support governments and practitioners in promoting effective hand hygiene outside health care – across households, public spaces and institutions. Framing hand hygiene ...as a public good and a government responsibility, the Guidelines translate evidence into ready-to-adopt actions that enable sustainable access to effective hygiene services. This will reduce diarrhoeal disease, acute respiratory infections and other preventable illnesses, strengthening routine public health where people live, work, visit and study, and emergency preparedness, including outbreaks like cholera.
Despite clear benefits, 1.7 billion people still lacked basic hand hygiene services at home in 2024, including 611 million with no facility at all. Meeting the 2030 target will require accelerated progress – about a doubling in the global rate, and much faster in specific settings (up to 11-fold in least-developed countries and 8-fold in fragile contexts). Hand hygiene remains one of the most cost-effective health investments, reducing diarrhoea by 30% and acute respiratory infections by 17%, with large, measurable gains for population health.
“Clean hands save lives, but results at scale require policy, financing and accountability,” said Dr Ruediger Krech, Director a.i, Department of Environment, Climate Change, One Health & Migration at the World Health Organization. “These Guidelines help countries move beyond fragmented projects to government-led systems that make soap, water, and conditions conducive to everyday hand hygiene the norm.”
“Children and young people pay the highest price when basic hygiene is out of reach,” said Cecilia Scharp, Director, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Team, Programme Group, UNICEF. “These Guidelines provide practical steps to ensure facilities are accessible when they need to be – in homes, schools, markets, and transport hubs – so every child can learn, play and thrive with dignity.”
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Alcohol misuses
Substance use disorders
Chapter G.1
A comprehensive summary of mental health research, providing a unique handbook of key facts and figures, covering all key areas of mental health
Following review of evidence and advice from the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on Tuberculosis (TB) Diagnostics and Laboratory Strengthening, the World Health Organization (WHO) announces that current WHO recommendations for the use of interferon-gamma release assays (IGRA) are also valid for Beij...ing Wantai’s TB-IGRA and Qiagen QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus products. This expands the range of tests available to detect TB infection. Full details are provided in this WHO policy statement.
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Novel coronavirus will disproportionately impact world’s 70 million displaced people
Report recommends stopping asylum seeker deportations, prioritising hygiene and refugee camp decongestion, better communication
Displaced people must be included in prevention, mitigation efforts - for s...ake of everyone’s health
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Issue Brief No. 29:
Planetary Health is an interdisciplinary academic collective of many scientific disciplines. In addition to the fields of
environmental and social sciences, that of human health is one of many.
Because of the many disciplines involved in this topic and the large number of res...ources available, we would like to
share with you in this Issue Brief the most important documents related to Planetary Health. All of these
documents and many more can be found in the Planetary Health Toolbox
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This study identifies barriers and provides recommendations to improve asthma care in children across sub-Saharan Africa, where qualitative data is lacking despite high rates.
Translated high blood pressure information in following languages: Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Croatian, Czech, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portugüse, Punjab...i, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh.
Check: http://www.bloodpressureuk.org/HealthProfessionals/Otherlanguages#Küa
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As the world population is growing and health care resources are in high demand the pressure on medical services is becoming higher. Developing countries are already at a crisis point in health care provision, and time demands a new approach in structuring medical resources. Primary care is t...he vital pillar for fundamental health care at community level and has been deemed as a cost-effective modality. In the West the primary care physician manages chronic medical conditions in communities and therefore reduces unnecessary hospital admissions. In the West, the primary care system is extremely well organised. Low-income countries must improve teaching, training and funding in primary care. In this article the urgent need for primary care is discussed in developing countries, and ways to minimise costs and improve clinical outcomes at community level.
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Patient information leaflet on diabetes. Available in Arabic, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Polish, Punjabi, Tamil, Urdu and Welsh. For the versions in other languages go to https://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Information-in-different-languages1/
The module is currently available in English, French, Nepali, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish
The goal of this course is to provide participants with the foundational skills needed to begin the development, implementation and ongoing improvement of a congenital anomalies surveillance programme, in particular for countries with limited resources. It focuses on the methodology needed to devel...op either population-based or hospital based surveillance programmes.
A set of congenital anomalies will be used as examples throughout this course. The specific examples used are typically severe enough that they would probably be captured within the first few days after birth, have a significant public health impact and, for some of them, have the potential for primary prevention.
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