Access to safe, effective and quality-assured health products and technologies is crucial for achieving universal health coverage and primary health care goals. The continued growth of the aging population; increasing burden of noncommunicable diseases; growing burden of mental health issues; climat...e change; shifting patterns of vector borne diseases, fungal disease and waterborne diseases; antimicrobial resistance; and new infectious hazards create an ongoing need for equitable access to safe, effective and quality-assured health products and technologies, and renewed investments in research and development for innovative health products and technologies.
The coronavirus pandemic exposed the inequalities in access to health products, highlighting the need for longer-term strategies to strengthen access to health products and technologies outside of and in emergency situations. While technological and scientific advances present an opportunity to increase access to health products and technologies, the risk of increasing inequality due to higher prices for new health products and technologies; the persisting problem of substandard and falsified medical products; a lack of skilled workforce in many low- and middle-income countries; and a lack of data for decisionmaking and for measuring progress present significant challenges.
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This guide aims to provide an overview of successful practice from the field for the disaster risk reduction/management practitioner interested in EWS. It presents guiding principles that will build a strong foundation for the design or strengthening of EWS at any level. It is not an operational, bu...t a strategic, guide that insists on asking the right questions and exploring all perspectives prior even to deciding whether or not early warning is the appropriate tool for a given context.
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Growing emergencies and displacements across the world demand increasingly complex interventions and responses. The World Health Organization (WHO) has developed Malaria control in emergencies: a field manual to provide technical guidance to help partners respond effectively to malaria in emergency ...situations. This field manual supersedes the 2013 WHO handbook.
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More than a quarter of the global population still cook meals over open fires and/or on simple stoves fuelled by firewood, agricultural waste, dried dung, charcoal, and coal. This practice results in the emission of harmful and dangerously high levels of household air pollution.
Exposure to this h...ousehold air pollution has been estimated to cause around 3.2 million deaths annually in 2019; these emissions also worsen ambient air quality, alter the global climate, have gendered livelihood impacts, and degrade the local environment.
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Effective surveillance and monitoring of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and their risk factors are essential for informing evidence-based public health policies, addressing health inequities, and ensuring progress toward global and regional targets. By tracking trends in NCDs, their modifiable risk... factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, harmful use of alcohol, and air pollution, along with biological risk factors such as overweight and obesity, high blood pressure (hypertension), and elevated blood glucose (diabetes), policymakers can identify emerging threats, target vulnerable populations, allocating resources efficiently. Reliable data also enable countries to evaluate interventions, adjust policies, and strengthen health systems to reduce the burden of NCDs.
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Las enfermedades no transmisibles (ENT), entre las que se incluyen lasenfermedades cardiovasculares (ECV), el cáncer, las enfermedades respiratoriascrónicas (ERC) y la diabetes, son las principales causas de muerte y discapacidaden la Región de las Américas. En el 2021, las ENT ocasionaron 6 mil...lones de muertes, de las cuales el 38% fueron prematuras.
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Malaria remains a significant public health concern, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where the majority of cases and fatalities occur, especially among children under five. Although there was a significant decline in global mortality and incidence between 2000 and 2015, progress has stalled sinc...e the late 2010s due to climate change, conflict, drug and insecticide resistance, and the ongoing effects of the pandemic. Economic modelling shows that achieving the Sustainable Development Goal target of reducing malaria incidence by 90% by 2030 could generate substantial economic benefits, including an increase in GDP of $142.7 billion in endemic countries and $80.7 billion in global trade gains. To save lives, strengthen health systems, and drive sustainable economic growth, renewed investments in malaria control and elimination programmes, vaccine deployment, and coordinated international support are essential.
Accessed on 25/08/2025.
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Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions (EASE) is an evidence-based group psychological intervention to help 10–15-year-olds affected by internalizing problems (e.g. stress and symptoms of anxiety, depression) in communities exposed to adversity. Published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and U...nited Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), EASE aims to support adolescents and their caregivers with skills to reduce distress. The EASE training manual accompanies the EASE intervention manual and is designed to be used to train EASE helpers (those who deliver the EASE intervention to adolescents and caregivers) and EASE trainers/supervisors (those who will go on to train/supervise future EASE helpers).
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This publication provides an overview of evidence and guidance on the growing challenge of workplace heat stress in the context of climate change. It highlights the health and productivity risks faced by billions of workers, especially in manual labor sectors. The report details the physiological, s...ocioeconomic, and mental health impacts of heat stress and outlines evidence-based strategies for prevention and mitigation. It emphasizes the need for occupational heat action programmes, stakeholder collaboration, and tailored interventions to protect vulnerable workers, reduce productivity losses, and support sustainable development in a warming world.
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The brief on key findings from the 2025 edition of the WHO anaemia estimates provides a snapshot of the current status of anaemia among women aged 15–49 years at the country, regional, and global levels, along with progress toward achieving the global anaemia target by 2030, in alignment with the ...Sustainable Development Goals.
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Al afrontar la amenaza común que supuso el coronavirus del síndrome respiratorio agudo severo de tipo 2 (SARS CoV 2), los países y las instituciones de todo el mundo se vieron rápidamente desbordados por la monumental tarea de responder a un problema que avanzaba rápidamente y que les obligó a... idear estructuras y alianzas ad hoc para ampliar las medidas de respuesta. En este sentido, el Grupo Independiente de Preparación y Respuesta frente a las Pandemias señaló:
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The 2022 report reviews the global malaria diagnostics market and technological landscape to support Unitaid’s 2023–2027 strategy for quality malaria case management. The report highlights the stalled progress of malaria control efforts, the gaps in access to diagnostics and the public health im...plications of P. falciparum HRP2/3 gene deletions, which compromise the accuracy of the widely used HRP2-detecting rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs). The report analyses the malaria RDT market, noting supplier diversification, price trends and production shifts resulting from the pandemic. It also addresses the emerging point-of-care G6PD testing market, which is required to ensure the safe radical cure of P. vivax infections. It surveys technological innovation, including digital microscopy, hemozoin tests, nucleic acid detection and biosensors, while emphasising that RDTs and microscopy will remain the mainstay of case management in the near term. The report identifies market shortcomings, access barriers and opportunities to improve malaria case management and diagnostic coverage.
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This guidance synthesizes current evidence on dengue laboratory testing and diagnostics and provides practical recommendations for laboratories, clinicians, public health officials, and programme managers involved in dengue diagnosis, surveillance, and control, in the context of the global emergency.... It includes a diagnostic algorithm for suspected cases, outlining appropriate testing methods based on days post symptom onset.
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To guide the provision of quality palliative care services across the African region, the African Palliative Care Association (APCA) has developed a framework of core palliative care competencies that can be used by service providers, educators and other stakeholders to guide programmes development.
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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In this guide, the African Palliative Care Association (APCA) has put together evidence‑based information on the use of specific opioids commonly used in the management of moderate‑to‑severe pain to manage both cancer and non‑cancer pain. APCA hopes that this guide will be a useful tool i...n aiding health professionals at all levels of healthcare delivery to assess and manage pain using opioids. All opioids included in this guide are listed on the WHO model list of essential medicines but we remind readers that oral morphine is the standard opioid of choice for managing moderate‑to‑severe pain and we recommend that it should be made available at all times.
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Public health challenges over the past decade have highlighted the importance of approaching health through a holistic lens of human, animal, and environmental sectors, recognizing the need for a collaborative response against shared threats. Zoonotic diseases, transmitted between humans and animals... through their shared environment, are at the forefront of the threats requiring collaborations that span human health, natural ecosystems, and food systems.
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During the reporting period, significant progress was made in strengthening the mpox response across the continent. The lessons learned and challenges identified during the joint mpox continental intra-action review (IAR), which took place successfully in December 2024 in Addis Ababa have guided the... development of the action plan for the response to the mpox epidemic in January and February 2025.
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Access to medicines is essential for attainment of universal health coverage, which is central to achievement of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals. Controlled medicines include those such as opioids, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, amphetamines and others with identified or emergent cl...inical indications. WHO recognizes that these medicines are necessary for pre- and post-operative care, for sedation, for the management of both acute and chronic pain, for palliative care, as anticonvulsants (anti-epileptics), for the management of anxiety disorders and for the management of substance use disorders, including as opioid agonist therapy (OAT).
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Updated guidance on the integration of diabetes, hypertension and mental health services, and interventions to support adherence to antiretroviral therapy. The guideline offers practical implementation guidance for countries and key stakeholders as well as outlining key research gaps. As life expec...tancy for people living with HIV continues to increase, managing noncommunicable diseases, mental health, and adherence to antiretroviral therapy is essential to sustaining treatment success, quality of life, and engagement in care. A life course approach addresses these needs from childhood through older age. Service integration supports more person-centred, coordinated care across the life course.
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