Donor government disbursements to combat HIV in low- and middle-income countries totaled US$8 billion in 2018, little changed from the US$8.1 billion total in 2017 and from the levels of a decade ago, finds a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and the Joint United Nations Programme o...n HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
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The Committee discussed the implications for preparedness for smallpox-like events reflected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Committee noted how quickly diagnostics and vaccines could be developed and deployed when resources and political will were abundant. This rapidity was also due to the f...act that the genetic sequence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) had been shared worldwide. It was noted that in one country SARS-CoV-2 had been reconstructed in a laboratory from the viral genome sequence before the first case of COVID-19 had been reported, highlighting the benefits of synthetic biology technologies for accelerated development of diagnostics as well as the oft-described potential risks. Lessons learned about clinical care during the COVID-19 pandemic were also discussed.
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This document provides guidance to Member States in the WHO European Region that wish to conduct behavioural insights studies related to COVID-19. Studies can be used to monitor public knowledge, risk perceptions, behaviours and trust with the overall aim to inform national COVID-19 outbreak respons...e measures, including policies, interventions and communications.
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Mpox continues to affect people around the world. A new framework released today by WHO will guide health authorities, communities and other stakeholders in preventing and controlling mpox outbreaks, eliminating human-to-human transmission of the disease, and reducing spillover of the virus from ani...mals to humans.
Mpox is a viral illness caused by the monkeypox virus (MPXV). It can cause a painful rash, enlarged lymph nodes and fever. Most people fully recover, but some get very sick. The virus transmits from person to person through close, including sexual, contact. It also has animal reservoirs in east, central and west Africa, where spillovers from animals to humans can occasionally occur, sparking further outbreaks.
There are two different clades of the virus: clade I and clade II. Clade I outbreaks are deadlier than clade II outbreaks.
A major emergence of mpox linked to clade II began in 2017, and since 2022, has spread to all regions of the world. Between July 2022 and May 2023, the outbreak was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. While that outbreak has largely subsided, cases and deaths continue to be reported today, illustrating that low-level transmission continues around the world.
Currently, there is also a major outbreak of clade I virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where cases have been on the rise for decades. Since the beginning of the year, over 6500 cases and 345 deaths have been reported in the DRC. Almost half of these are among children under the age of 15 years.
The Strategic framework for enhancing prevention and control of mpox (2024–2027) provides a roadmap for health authorities, communities, and stakeholders worldwide to control mpox outbreaks in every context, advance mpox research and access to countermeasures, and to minimize zoonotic transmission.
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Irresponsible pharmaceutical companies fuel the proliferation of superbugs through supply chain pollution, the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) reports. The advocacy group uncovered lapses such as dirty production and inadequate waste disposal in the production of antimicrobials in China and I...ndia, which supplies most of the antimicrobials consumed in Europe. In a briefing detailing the pollution, the EPHA urges major purchasers of antibiotics to blacklist irresponsible pharmaceutical companies, demand that the industry clean up its supply chain, introduce greater transparency on the origin of antibiotics, and review and revise procurement policies from an ethics perspective.
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Chinese Medicine, (2016) 11:37
Medicinal plants are globally valuable sources of herbal products, and they are disappearing at a high speed. This article reviews global trends, developments and prospects for the strategies and methodologies concerning the conservation and sustainable use of me...dicinal plant resources to provide a reliable reference for the conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants. We emphasized that both conservation strategies (e.g. in situ and ex situ conservation and cultivation practices) and resource management (e.g. good agricultural practices and sustainable use solutions) should be adequately taken into account for the sustainable use of medicinal plant resources. We recommend that biotechnical approaches (e.g. tissue culture, micropropagation, synthetic seed technology, and molecular marker-based approaches) should be applied to improve yield and modify the potency of medicinal plants.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13020-016-0108-7
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Indicators are a representation of reality. They are just numbers on a piece of paper or on a computer screen, but they stand for something far greater – the success of your project. Indicators are usually defined in the context of project planning and show something about or give an indication of... progress towards realising the project goal, without being complete or comprehensive. Of course, there could be other representations of this reality, such as stories (Dart and Davies, 2003) or drawings (Feuerstein, 1986) or photographs (Tijm et al, 2011). However, indicators are a widely accepted way of representing what is being achieved in a programme or project.
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Catalogage à la source : Bibliothèque de l’OMS Rapport mondial sur le vieillissement et la santé.
1.Vieillissement. 2.Espérance de vie. 3.Sujet âgé. 4.Services de santé pour personnes âgées. 5.Santé mondiale. 6.Dynamique des populations. 7.Prestations des soins de santé. I.Organisation... mondiale de la Santé.
ISBN 978 92 4 256504 1 (Classification NLM : WT 104) ISBN 978 92 4 069482 8 (ePub)
ISBN 978 92 4 069483 5 (Daisy)
ISBN 978 92 4 069484 2 (PDF)
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WHO would like to express its gratitude and appreciation to all Member States that provided information to the WHO survey on policies and activities at the national level in the area of antimicrobial resistance. The contribution of staff in WHO Regional and Country Offices has been invaluable: in ga...ther-ing original data and information from Member States, in supporting the process of aggregation of these data; and in reviewing the regional analysis of the findings that reflect the country situation at the point when the survey was conducted. The support and commitment of the members of the WHO Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance, comprising WHO staff from Headquarters and Regional Offices has, is also acknowledged.
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Contact tracing for COVID-19 is the process of identifying, assessing, and managing people who have been exposed to someone who has been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, while quarantine is the separation of contacts from other people after exposure to a probable or confirmed case of SARS-CoV-2 i...nfection. In the context of growing global population immunity from COVID-19 vaccination and past SARS-CoV-2 infection, WHO recommends that identification, contact, quarantine and follow-up should be prioritized for individuals at high risk who have been in contact with a confirmed or probable case of SARS-CoV-2 infection, rather than targeting all contacts. This updated guidance also introduces shorter recommended quarantine periods, including the ability to further shorten quarantine through the use of testing. National and local health authorities should use risk-based approaches to contact tracing and quarantine that include reviewing and adjusting to their local circumstances and disease epidemiology, population immunity, their health system’s capacities, and risk tolerance.
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The practical guidance in the operational handbook aims to inform the development or revision of national policies and related implementation guidance on the management of TB in children and adolescents under programmatic circumstances and at different levels of the health system. The operational ha...ndbook can also help countries adequately plan for the uptake of interventions to better address the specific needs of children and adolescents with or at risk of TB. It can contribute to national efforts to build capacity among national and subnational programme managers and among health workers at all levels of the health care system.
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In 2007, WHO warned that infectious diseases are emerging and re-emerging at a rate that has not been seen before. The potential for infectious diseases to spread rapidly results in high morbidity and mortality, causing a potential global public health treat of major concern.
Several factors are ...contributing to the (re)emergence of infectious diseases such as population growth, living in close contact with animals, frequent travelling, poverty, destructive ecological changes due to economic development and land use and climate change result in global warming.
Especially Africa is at a threat for (re)emerging infectious diseases due to the huge population growth (expected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050) with rapid urbanisation. Additionally, people across and beyond the continent are excessively mobile which is combined with a weak health system. Moreover, the risk of (re)emerging infectious disease is further heightened by three newly adopted continental initiatives: African Continental Free Trade Area, Free Movement of Persons and African Passport and Single African Air Transport Market.
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There is a broad consensus nowadays that the Earth is warming up as a result of greenhouse gas emissions caused by anthropogenic activities. It is also clear that current trends in the fields of energy, development and population growth will lead to continuous and ever more dramatic climate change. ...This is bound to affect the fundamental prerequisites for maintaining good health: clean air and water, sufficient food and adequate housing. The planet will warm up gradually, but the consequences of the extreme weather conditions such as frequent
storms, floods, droughts and heat-waves will have sudden onset and acute repercussions. It is widely accepted that climate change will have an impact on the spread of infectious diseases in Europe, which is likely to bring about new public health risks in the majority of cases. Transmission of infectious diseases depends on a number of factors, including climate and environmental elements. Foodborne and waterborne diseases, for instance, are associated with high temperatures. Disease-transmitting vectors (e.g. mosquitoes, sandflies and ticks) are highly sensitive to climate conditions, including temperature and humidity; their geographical distribution will widen as climate conditions change, potentially allowing them to spread into regions where they are not currently able to live.
The primary purpose of this manual on climate change and infectious diseases is to raise the awareness and the level of knowledge of health workers at national, regional and local levels in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on the health risks associated with climate change and infectious diseases. This manual was devel-
oped as part of the WHO Regional Office for Europe project, Protecting health from climate change: a seven–country initiative, implemented with financial support from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.
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High meat consumption, particularly red meat and processed meat, negatively affects our health, while meat production is one of the largest contributors to global warming and environmental degradation. The aim of our study was to explore trends in meat consumption within the UK and the associated ch...anges in environmental impact. We also aimed to identify any differences in intake associated with gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and year of birth.
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As part of the UN’s data strategy—which seeks to nurture data as a strategic asset for insight, impact and integrity—UNAIDS plays an indispensable role in generating data for effective action against the AIDS pandemic. It leads the
world’s most extensive data collection on HIV epidemiology,... programme coverage, policy and finance, and it publishes the most authoritative and up-to-date information on the HIV pandemic and response. The UNAIDS database of countryreported data is a foundational pillar for global and regional AIDS programmes, research, advocacy and resource mobilization
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