In the early morning of 6 February 2023, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurred in southern Türkiye near the
northern border of Syria. The earthquake was followed 11 minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Many
aftershocks are still being felt across the region. Whilst the impact is still bei...ng assessed, initial reports evidence
significant damage in the areas of southern Türkiye and northern Syria.
In response, the Syria Ministry of Health (MoH) activated its emergency operations centre (EOC) on 6 Feb 2023
under the chairmanship of the Deputy Minister. In all affected governorates, public and private health facilities
and medical convoys have been repurposed to support the response and are being managed by the National
Ministry of Health (MoH) and Directorate of Health (DoH) at governorate level. Support has been directed to
affected areas, with medical convoys including 28 ambulances and 7 mobile clinics, deployed from the health
directorates of Damascus, Rural Damascus, Quneitra, Homs, Tartous, Aleppo and Latakia
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The document outlines strategies for reducing salt intake to combat high blood pressure, strokes, and heart disease in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. It highlights the need for progressive reductions in salt consumption, particularly in staple foods like bread, while promoting public awareness, e...ngaging stakeholders, and setting regulatory standards to achieve sustainable health benefits.
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Developmental disabilities are common. Yet, children with developmental disabilities have been neglected in health systems planning and policy provisions for health and continue to experience stigmatization, institutionalization, barriers to access health care and inequalities in health and educatio...n outcomes.
Using findings from research and practice and guided by the tenets of international human rights conventions, this WHO-UNICEF Global Report on children with developmental disabilities provides principles and approaches to intentionally include the needs and aspirations of children and young people with developmental disabilities in policy, programming and public health monitoring. It makes the case for greater accountability and proposes 10 priority actions to accelerate changes towards inclusive environments and responsive multisectoral care systems for children with developmental disabilities.
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Epidemics and pandemics of infectious diseases are occurring more often, and spreading faster and further than ever, in many different regions of the world. The background factors of this threat are biological, environmental and lifestyle changes, among others. A potentially fatal combination of new...ly-discovered diseases, and the re-emergence of many long-established ones, demands urgent responses in all countries. Planning and preparation for epidemic prevention and control are essential. The purpose of the Managing epidemics handbook is to provide expert guidance on those responses. Building on the first edition, the second edition provides concise and basic up-to-date knowledge with which public health officials can respond effectively and rapidly at the very start of an outbreak. Part I of the handbook provides insights on epidemics of the 21st century and offers context on the upsurge of recent epidemics. Part II has been updated and offers 10 key facts about 19 deadly diseases including tips on the interventions required to respond. Part III presents various Tool boxes that summarize guidance on several important topics. The handbook focuses on practical and indispensable things to know about infectious diseases that are most important for national, political and operational decision-makers; it also links readers to more exhaustive WHO guidan
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The webpage from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) discusses the heightened risk that individuals with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs)—such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer—face regarding severe illness and mortality from COVID-19. It emphasizes the necessity of informi...ng the public about these health risks and adapting healthcare services to ensure the continuity of essential NCD care during the pandemic. The page provides information and guidance for healthcare providers and the public on managing NCDs in the context of COVID-19, highlighting the importance of addressing NCDs and their risk factors with a medium- to long-term perspective.
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WEEKLY EPIDEMIOLOGICAL RECORD, NO 23, 7 JUNE 2024, pp.307-318
The most recent estimate of the global number of deaths from dog-mediatedrabies is 59 000 per year.1 Rabies is associated with a 99.9% fatality rate and severe trauma in families in which a rabies death
occurs, and remains a major publ...ic health concern in most of Africa and Asia and some parts of South America
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This practical guideline establishes definitions for “contact”, “contact person”, “contact tracing” and other associated concepts. It allows for improvement of contact tracing strategies and provides recommendations attempting to answer some, though not all, questions that arose during t...he 2019 coronavirus pandemic and other outbreaks. The use of this guideline begins once people have been diagnosed and the potential for transmission exists. It is not, however, intended to assist with case investigation. The guideline empowers health workers, governments, and public health officials with the tools to implement effective contact tracing strategies.
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This course provides information on what facilities should be doing to be prepared to respond to a case of an emerging respiratory virus such as the novel coronavirus, how to identify a case once it occurs, and how to properly implement IPC measures to ensure there is no further transmission to HCW ...or to other patients and others in the healthcare facility. This course has been updated in January 2022 and highlights the latest WHO guidance to date. Please note that our guidance is continuously being updated and the other language versions of the course will gradually be updated too.
This training is intended for healthcare workers and public health professionals, as it is focused on infection prevention and control.
This course is also available in the following languages:
русский - 日本語 - français - Bahasa Indonesia - Español - Português - Italiano - српски језик - 中文 - македонски јазик - Türkçe - język polski - Tiếng Việt - العربية - Nederlands - Tetun - বাংলা - فارسي - Soomaaliga
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5 Nov. 2020
The policy brief provides a concise summary of information and considerations to ensure optimal management of influenza during the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes a list of technical guidance and other resources to assist policy makers with monitoring the situation, preventing seasonal i...nfluenza, reducing severe complications and mortality, protecting specific populations and communicating to and engaging with the public.
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The WHO continuously reviews available data on SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. For this version, the global epidemiological
situation of the COVID-19 pandemic as of 21 January 2022 – at a time when the Omicron VOC had been identified in 171
countries across all six WHO Regions and was rapidly re...placing Delta worldwide – was considered Omicron has a substantial growth advantage, higher secondary attack rates and a higher observed reproduction number than Delta.
There is now significant evidence that immune evasion contributes to the rapid spread of Omicron. Other factors may be a shorter
serial interval (by about 0.8 to 1.2 days compared to Delta) and potential increased intrinsic transmission fitness . There is
growing evidence that with Omicron, there is lower vaccine effectiveness (VE) against infection and symptomatic disease soon after vaccination compared to Delta. There is also evidence of accelerated waning of VE over time of the primary series against infection and symptomatic disease for the studied vaccines. Further studies are required to better understand the drivers of transmission and declining incidence in various settings. These factors include the intrinsic transmission fitness properties of the virus, degree of immune evasion, vaccination coverage and level of vaccine-derived and post-infection immunity, levels of social mixing and degree of application of public health and social measures (PHSM).
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Disease epidemiology has a deeper relationship with the dynamic nature of culture. Health behaviors in general are largely shaped by the cultural norms and customs in a society. A mere identification of a behavior could be only a layer on the outer sphere of a particular disease epidemiology and the... interventional efforts to counteract such behaviors through for example public health measures could be futile and volatile, unless the deeper cultural factors are addressed.
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Addressing comorbidities and risk factors for TB is a crucial component of Pillar one of the End TB Strategy, which focuses on integrated patient-centred care and prevention, including action on TB and comorbidities. The Framework for collaborative action on TB and comorbidities aims to support coun...tries in the evidence-informed introduction and scale-up of holistic people-centred services for TB, comorbidities and health-related risk factors, with the goal of comprehensively addressing TB and other co-existing health conditions. It should be used in conjunction with relevant WHO guidelines. The Framework is intended for use by people working in ministries of health, other relevant line-ministries, policymakers, international technical and funding organizations, researchers, nongovernmental and civil society organizations, as well as primary care workers, specialist health practitioners, and community health workers who support the response to TB and comorbidities in both the public and private sectors.
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TUATION UPDATE
In the early morning of 6 February 2023, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurred in southern Türkiye near the
northern border of Syria. The earthquake was followed 11 minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Many
aftershocks are still being felt across the region. Whilst the imp...act is still being assessed, initial reports evidence
significant damage in the areas of southern Türkiye and northern Syria.
In response, the Syria Ministry of Health (MoH) activated its emergency operations centre (EOC) on 6 Feb 2023
under the chairmanship of the Deputy Minister. In all affected governorates, public and private health facilities
and medical convoys have been repurposed to support the response and are being managed by the National
Ministry of Health (MoH) and Directorate of Health (DoH) at governorate level. Support has been directed to
affected areas, with medical convoys including 28 ambulances and 7 mobile clinics, deployed from the health
directorates of Damascus, Rural Damascus, Quneitra, Homs, Tartous, Aleppo and Latakia. At the same time, 4
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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is described as a situation when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites
change over time and no longer respond to medicines, making infections harder or impossible to treat,
and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.1 AMR in recent years has... become
a global priority in public health due to its widespread consequences and increasing occurrence from
time to time. AMR has a formidable impact where the existing antibiotics and other antimicrobial
medicines become ineffective, and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat.
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This technical report contains the results from the FEEDcities Project – Eastern Europe and Central Asia, a cross-sectional survey of the local urban food environment conducted in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova between June and August 2016. It characterizes the vending sites, the food offered and... the nutritional composition of both industrial and homemade street foods. It also describes the nutritional composition of foods sold in supermarkets and fast-food outlets.
The study was conducted within a bilateral partnership between the World Health Organization and the Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto, in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences and the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Porto (WHO registration 2015/591370 and 2017/698514). The study was funded through a voluntary contribution of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.
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Weekly epidemiological recordRelevé épidémiologique hebdomadaire 3 MAY 2024, 99th YEAR / 3 MAI 2024, 99e ANNÉE
No 18, 2024, 99, 203–224
The WHO position papers are concerned primarily with the use of vaccines in large-scale vaccination programmes.
The position papers are intended for use by... national public health officials and managers of immunization programmes.
This paper focuses on the second licensed dengue vaccine, TAK-003 (Qdenga, Takeda), along with WHO’s position for its use, and provides an update on the first licensed dengue vaccine, CYD-TDV.
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A survey was conducted in countries in all six WHO regions and focused on the building blocks that are considered prerequisites to combat antimicrobial resistance: a comprehensive national plan, laboratory capacity to undertake surveillance for resistant microorganisms, access to safe, effective ant...imicrobial medicines, control of the misuse of these medicines, awareness and understanding among the general public and effective infection prevention and control programmes.
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Noma (cancrum oris) is a severe gangrenous disease of the mouth and face. It mostly affects children between the ages of 2 and 6 years living in extreme poverty. In addition to the known factors such as malnutrition, lack of vaccination in children and poor oral hygiene, several social and environme...ntal factors such as maternal malnutrition and close spacing of pregnancies that result in offspring with increasingly weakened immune systems are potentially related to the onset of the disease.
The aim of this guide is to assist the ministries of health (MoHs) to identify a general goal to be attained by the end of five years, with a view to sustainably reducing the incidence of noma as a public health problem through programmes that are fully integrated with national health planning, strengthening of primary health care (PHC) and attainment of UHC.
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This guide is intended for people involved in the management and operation of small- to mediumsized organized water supply systems. The content has been developed with particular consideration for operational-level personnel with responsibility for chlorination (for example, water treatment plant op...erators and technicians). The material presented within this guide may also be relevant for engineers and representatives from public health, local government, non-governmental organizations, as well as any other individuals supporting water safety planning activities for the supply of safe drinking-water.
Part 1. Chlorination principles: Describes key chlorination concepts, providing a knowledge foundation for the implementation of effective chlorination practices.
Part 2. Chlorination practices: Describes the practical application of the concepts presented in Part 1, including calculations and procedures for safe and effective chlorination of drinking-water supplies.
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The objective of the EMTCT Plus initiative is to achieve and sustain the elimination
of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis, Chagas, and perinatal hepatitis
B (HBV) as a public health threat. It embraces the principles and lines of action
of the Strategy for Universal Access to Health a...nd Universal Health Coverage
[2], building upon the lessons learned from the PAHO 2010 Strategy and Plan of
Action for the EMTCT of HIV and Congenital Syphilis.
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