Health in All Policies (HiAP) promotes health and equity. It is based on the recognition that our greatest health challenges for example, non-communicable diseases, health inequities and inequalities, climate change, and spiraling health care costs are highly complex and often linked through the soc...ial determinants of health (SDH). In this context, promoting healthy communities, and in particular health equity across different population groups, requires that we address the social determinants of health, such as public transportation, education access, access to healthy food, economic opportunities, and more. While many public policies work to achieve this, conflicts of interest may arise. Alternatively, unintended impacts of policies are not measured and addressed. This requires innovative solutions, and structures that build channels for dialogue and decision-making that work across traditional government policy siloes. Hence, HiAP could be adopted to ensure commitment from the highest decision makers within government to address the social determinants of health.
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The guide helps patients to understand their rights in relation to the care received and provides insights into the common legal and
human rights issues they may encounter, and encourages them to share these with the health care provider for support. This booklet covers key issues that you mig...ht need to understand about ethical care, human rights and legal aspects. It aims to help people with serious illness as they face these issues, and give them guidance on how they can find solutions.
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This resulting toolkit is a practical guide intended to assist users to become advocates for palliative care in a practical and effective
way. It is not necessarily a resource to read from cover to cover; rather, it can also be used selectively to each reader’s needs to engage audiences and... ensure that there is a real understanding of the need for palliative care. It should also be read in conjunction with the supplementary resources listed at the end of each of the toolkit’s sections.
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The African Palliative Care Association is pleased to publish the first edition of Palliative Care Standards for Africa. The development of these standards was achieved through wide consultation with service beneficiaries and providers, and they have been developed to suit different levels of ... service delivery, from primary to tertiary. These standards are underpinned by the World Health Organization’s definition of palliative care, and recognise that scaling up palliative care requires a public health approach with four pillars: policy, education, drug availability and implementation. In addition, the increasing need to establish specific indicators of quality and effectiveness for palliative care has been a big driving force behind these comprehensive standards. It is APCA’s wish that they will provide a framework for the development of evaluation
and performance indicators that can facilitate programme improvement and development. The standards are designed to allow the development or improvement of palliative care across the different services levels, within the organisational capacity of various service providers. They describe a relationship between primary, intermediary and tertiary level service providers, with expectations for all providers articulated through detailed criteria for each standard. It is therefore expected that these standards will influence the planning and delivery of palliative care services at all levels of health care service delivery.
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In the absence of a such a measure, and building on the success of developing the APCA African
Palliative Outcome Scale (POS) for adults, the African Palliative Care Association has developed the
APCA African Children’s POS. The tool has been validated across diseases, countries, settings and ...
languages and used in both quality improvement and research studies. Moreover, feedback on the
tool from doctors and nurses who have used it has been very supportive, with providers perceiving
it as an easy-to-use instrument that helps them undertake holistic assessments that in part entail
discussing difficult issues.
This booklet is a practical guide intended to help users employ the APCA African POS correctly.
Following a discussion of the origins and background to the APCA African PPOS, the guide discusses
the measurement of outcomes, the development of the tool and its use (including the analysis of
collected data), before finishing with illustrative examples of the use of the questionnaire.
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This document outlines the plan for a continental cholera prevention and control with the implementation framework for the Cholera IMST, detailing its governance structure, strategic priorities, and operational modalities
Drawing on the World Health Organization’s package of NCD best buys, the report demonstrates how these evidence-based measures can help countries reduce premature deaths, strengthen health systems, and advance progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. It provides policymakers, donors, ad...vocates, and partners with a clear economic and social rationale for scaling up implementation of proven solutions. By framing NCD prevention and control as both a health and development priority, the report offers a roadmap for action that delivers benefits across populations, economies, and generations. The evidence is clear: investing in WHO’s best buys is not only possible—it is imperative. The time to act is now.
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Tobacco mythbusters: tools for debunking common myths promoted by the tobacco industry
The health impacts of climate change are no longer a distant threat. They are being felt here and now and becoming more extreme.
To address these threats, the WHO Asia-Pacific Centre for Environment and Health in the Western Pacific Region (ACE) was established in 2019 through a partnership with ...the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment of the Republic of Korea and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Centre’s mission is to strengthen cooperation and drive action where environment and health meet. This focus on environmental health has created a strong foundation for system-wide change.
This strategic plan builds directly on that work. Over the next five years, the Centre will expand its reach, supporting countries to take practical, systems-based action that ensures healthier people, healthier environments and a healthier planet.
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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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Addressing TB comorbidities and risk factors is central to the World Health Organization (WHO) End TB Strategy. These guidelines consolidate the latest WHO recommendations on TB and key comorbidities. The guidelines are a living document and will include dedicated sections for each key TB comorbidit...y or health-related risk factor. The first edition focused on HIV-associated TB, updating the WHO policy on collaborative TB/HIV activities. This second edition expands on the previous edition and consolidates new and existing recommendations on interventions to address undernutrition in people with TB, to provide food assistance to households of people with TB in food-insecure settings, and to screen for TB among those who are undernourished or food insecure.
HIV and undernutrition are leading health-related drivers of TB globally, both negatively impacting on TB treatment outcomes. TB remains the top cause of death among people with HIV, and nearly half of people with TB are undernourished, which in turn increases their risk of early mortality.
These guidelines are intended for use by ministries of health, particularly TB programmes and departments addressing related health conditions and risk factors, by implementing partners, technical and funding agencies, civil society, affected communities, clinicians, and by public health practitioners.
The guidelines are complemented by an operational handbook, that provides practical advice on how to implement the recommendations at the scale needed to achieve national and global impact.
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This Climate terminology bank provides key definitions and facts related to climate and resilience for Uganda’s refugee response. Its goal is to build a common understanding among stakeholders and support the integration of climate-smart practices in humanitarian efforts.
PHSM are vital in reducing the risk and scale of infectious disease transmission and lowering hospitalization and deaths. Examples include contact tracing, quarantine and isolation, mask use, ventilation, school or workplace measures, mobility restrictions and travel requirements.
While these mea...sures are essential, decision-making on PHSM becomes particularly complex during rapidly evolving health emergencies, with incomplete information and under significant public and political pressure, especially when the pathogen is novel or poorly understood. In such contexts, guidance needs to be agile and responsive, developed and adapted based on emerging evidence and shifting epidemiological patterns. Decision-makers are frequently confronted with difficult trade-offs, having to balance measures that are:
─ effective but socially disruptive;
─ cost-effective but logistically burdensome;
─ beneficial for public health but economically disruptive; or
─ practical but inequitable or unethical
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The Best Buys for Disease Elimination is a practical, evidence-based guide to the most effective actions for countries to implement in order to eliminate communicable diseases. The guide highlights the efficient use of resources and prioritizing populations in vulnerable situations.
“The Region... of the Americas is advancing steadily towards the elimination of communicable diseases,” said Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, PAHO Director. “To achieve this, it is necessary to increase and sustain high vaccination coverage, engage communities to expand access to diagnosis and treatment, strengthen surveillance, and bring integrated services to marginalized communities, incarcerated populations, and those living in informal settlements,” he added.
For each disease and condition included in the Elimination Initiative, the Best Buys are presented as one-page documents with clear, accessible information. Each Best Buy summarizes expected impact goals, disease elimination targets, key operational indicators, and priority interventions that have proven to be cost-effective in different contexts.
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On 4 September 2025, the Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) declared an outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Kasai Province, following confirmation of Zaire ebolavirus by the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) in Bulape and Mweka Health Zones. As of 19... September, there have been 48 total cases (38 confirmed, 10 probable) with 31 deaths (21 confirmed, 10 probable) and a CFR of 64.5%. Among laboratory confirmed cases, 16 deaths were recorded (CFR: 45.7%). Four deaths occurred among health workers, underscoring the risk of nosocomial transmission. Most cases (39.7%) are among adults aged 20 years and above, in a densely populated, remote, and under-resourced area.
The outbreak is driven by multiple risk factors, including transmission in health facilities with limited infection prevention and control (IPC) measures and personal protective equipment (PPE), incomplete contact tracing, delayed detection, and unsafe burial practices. High population mobility between Bulape and Tshikapa, reliance on traditional healers, and the concurrent mpox outbreak are further straining the fragile health system and increasing the risk of geographic spread.
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This plan, approved by the Organization’s 62nd Directing Council, was shaped by extensive consultations with countries and stakeholders, and commits to transformative health outcomes over the next six years, tackling noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), mental health, health security, fragmented healt...h systems and services, and the elimination of communicable diseases, amongst others.
“The COVID-19 pandemic taught us that the Region of the Americas is stronger when we work together,” said Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, PAHO Director. “This Strategic Plan harnesses our collective strength to build resilient health systems, reduce disease burden, and improve health and well-being for all across the Americas.”
The plan builds on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed gaps in health systems while highlighting the power of joint action. It targets measurable impacts in countries, such as reducing maternal mortality, reversing rising suicide rates, and eliminating diseases like leprosy and Chagas.
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Strengthening global health security to protect the world against future epidemics and pandemics requires well-tested and decentralized capacities for the local detection and rapid containment of outbreaks of infectious disease. For such capacities to translate into effective response actions, ind...ividuals and teams must be well connected and coordinated, despite differences in the size, geography, technical focus or constituency of their parent institution.
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Key populations brief
Accessed November 2017