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1
Antibiotics have been a critical public health tool since the discovery of Penicillin in 1928, saving the lives of millions of people around the world. In developing country like ours, where the bur
...
den of treatable disease is very high and access to health facilities and laboratories is difficult, antibiotics have long acted as miracle drugs. Today, however, the emergence of drug
resistance in bacteria is reversing the miracles of the past eighty years, with drug choices for the treatment of many bacterial infections becoming increasingly limited, expensive, and in some cases, nonexistent. Diseases previously regarded as relatively easy to manage are much harder to treat as doctors must use “last-resort” drugs that are more costly, take longer to work
and are often unavailable or unaffordable in developing countries. Moreover, regular prescription of antibiotics, random treatment, over the counter sales, inadequate dosage, inclusion of antibiotics in animal feeds and agriculture has contributed equally to emergence of antibiotics resistance as silent epidemic within the country.
more
28 May 2021
Contact tracing is a key component of a public health response to infectious disease outbreaks. The purpose of this guidance is
...
to reinforce the place of community engagement and participation in the contact tracing process. The guidance and related products articulate best practice principles for community engagement and how they can be operationalized as part of any community-centred contact tracing strategy. The material provided can stand on its own or be used to complement other documents that support strategies, implementation plans or training and capacity building modules.
more
Responses to epidemics, emergencies and disasters raise many ethical issues for the people involved, including public health specialists and polic
...
y makers. This training manual provides material on ethical issues in research, surveillance and patient care in these difficult contexts.
more
Taking a multisectoral, One Health approach is necessary to address complex health threats at th
...
e human-animal-environment interface, such as rabies, zoonotic influenza, anthrax, and Rift Valley fever. Such zoonotic diseases continue to have major impacts on health, livelihoods, and economies, and cannot be effectively addressed by one sector alone.
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This publication outlines public health aspects of alcohol use and harm in WHO South East Asia Region Countries. It summarizes Global Regional and country specific data and also discusses aspects of
...
alcohol control that are important in the context of the Region. The possible future trend of alcohol use in the Region is also analysed and current and future barriers to effective alcohol control in countries of the Region are discussed.
more
The goal of this contingency plan for El Nino related epidemics is to contribute to the reduction in mortality and morbidity associated with El Nino epidemic
...
threats by ensuring that appropriate systems to support health emergency preparedness, timely response and post disaster recovery and mitigation are in place at the national, district, health facility and community levels in Rwanda.
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This guidance document has been produced by WHO to assist blood services in the development of national plans to respond to any emerging infectious
...
threats to the sufficiency or safety of the blood supply, whether from an existing infectious agent that is changing in incidence and spread, or from a newly identified infectious agent. It is intended that this document be followed to guide the national blood service through the process of planning how to respond in a timely, controlled and appropriate way to any specific infectious threat that may subsequently emerge. It is acknowledged that it is not only the blood supply that may be affected by such emerging infectious threats; in those countries undertaking transplantation, the supply of cell, tissues and organs may also be threatened. Increasingly, blood services are taking overall national responsibility for transplantation in their capacity as the organization responsible for the collection, processing, storage and supply of cells, tissues and organs. This approach is both sensible and appropriate, as the overall donor selection and screening processes are the same or very similar. This guidance document can therefore also be used to assist those bodies responsible for the provision of cells, tissues and organs to prepare for an emerging infectious threat.
more
Pathogen genomic surveillance has become a priority for public health systems in recent years. Genomic sequencing is increasingly being used to cha
...
racterize pathogens and monitor important public health priorities (e.g. poliovirus, influenza virus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Vibrio cholerae, antimicrobial resistance (AMR)). The decrease in cost and time of sequencing and the exponential development of bioinformatic pipelines have played a critical role in integrating pathogen genomics into routine public health surveillance. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted the role that sequencing plays in the surveillance of infectious diseases. Sequencing facilitates earlier detection, more accurate investigation of outbreaks, closer real-time monitoring of pathogen evolution and tailored development and evaluation of interventions to inform local to global public health decision-making and action. However, there remains a need to coordinate efforts, leverage and link existing surveillance and laboratory networks and capabilities, and systematically integrate genetic sequence data (GSD) with clinical and epidemiological data to strengthen its utility.
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This publication is part of WHO 75th anniversary and aims to capture key successes in public health globally and in Namibia. It includes contribut
...
ory messages from the Head of State, Prime Minister and the Minister of Health and Social Services.
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Antimicrobial resistance has become a serious public health threat for effective treatment of an ever increasing range of infections caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses and fungi. When infections
...
can no longer be treated by first-line antibiotics, other antibiotics must be used, which are both more expensive and more toxic. Treatment and hospitalization is prolonged, and patients undergoing operations and other medical procedures are more vulnerable to infections. All this imposes a huge burden on health care systems and on the economy of countries. This is a major challenge to the health system in Mauritius which provides health care free of user cost to the whole population.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes the challenges countries face for maintaining their COVID-19 response while addressing competing public hea
...
lth challenges, conflicts, climate change and economic crises. WHO continues to support countries in adjusting COVID-19 strategies to reflect successes to date and leverage what has been learned through national responses.
To assist national and global efforts to end the COVID-19 emergency worldwide, WHO updated the COVID-19 (Global Preparedness, Readiness and Response plan) in 2022 and outlined two strategic objectives.
more
The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes the challenges countries face for maintaining their COVID-19 response while addressing competing public hea
...
lth challenges, conflicts, climate change and economic crises.
It remains critical for national programmes to continue to offer testing for COVID-19 in line with three main objectives: reduce morbidity and mortality through linkage to prompt care and treatment, reduce onward transmission and track the evolution of the epidemic and the virus
itself.
more
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 animals 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.
more
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health crisis that resulted in 1.14 million deaths in 2021. According to the Institute for
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Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates, 96 416 of these deaths occurred in the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Region. All 22 countries/territories in the Eastern Mediterranean Region are enrolled in the global AMR
surveillance system, and 17 countries/territories reported data in 2024 (for the year 2023). The total number of isolates reported to the system increased sixfold between 2017 and 2022, but the proportion of blood isolates is relatively very low. Most of the data come from public sector laboratories or hospitals, although the private sector has increased its participation in some countries/territories recently. Three pathogens account for three quarters of all the reported pathogens – Escherichia coli
(26%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (23%), and Staphylococcus aureus (22%).
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The ERF provides WHO staff with essential guidance on how the Organization manages the assessment, grading and response to public health events and
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emergencies with health consequences, in support of Member States and affected communities. The ERF adopts an all-hazards approach and it is therefore applicable in all acute public health events and emergencies.
This version (2024) of the WHO ERF has been developed following extensive consultation across the three levels of the Organization and response experiences over the last five years of emergency response. Key areas have been updated to improve the accountability, predictability, timeliness and effectiveness of WHO’s response to emergencies.
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Managing epidemics
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Key facts about major deadly diseases.This manual provides concise and up-to-date knowledge on 15 infectious diseases that have the potential to become international
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threats, and tips on how to respond to each of them.
You can download an interactive version directly at the website
http://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/managing-epidemics/en/
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The increasing global trend of Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has gradually emerged as a major public health challenge for the entire world. AMR has spread
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to almost all countries and regions, including Pakistan owing to the “misuse and overuse” of Antimicrobials, contributing to the increasing burden of infections due to resistant bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi, while limiting the treatment options for managing such infections.
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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a serious public health concern with economic, social and political implications that are global in scope, and cross all environmental and ethnic bounda
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ries. As a global threat, AMR risks the achievements of modern medicine, and has the potential to impact overall global development. It is important, therefore, to elevate AMR beyond health as part of a larger development agenda in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This report provides in-depth technical discussions in areas that have direct implications to the containment of AMR as a development agenda. The report is organized in five chapters which served as the technical background documents for the Biregional Technical Consultation on AMR in Asia, 14-15 April 2016. More information from the meeting is available in the WHO Meeting Report: Biregional Technical Consultation on Antimicrobial Resistance in Asia. The meeting was the first time senior officials from the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Agriculture across Asia came together to tackle AMR
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Disinfection of drinking-water supplies has been one of the most significant public health advancements of the last century with respect to reducin
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g waterborne disease.
Although chlorine has been used as the disinfectant of choice for public drinking-water supplies for the past century, a number of emerging or alternative compounds are used or are being considered for the disinfection of drinking-water.
This series reviews the state of the knowledge on the application, efficacy and toxicity of bromine, iodine and silver as drinking-water disinfectants. more
Although chlorine has been used as the disinfectant of choice for public drinking-water supplies for the past century, a number of emerging or alternative compounds are used or are being considered for the disinfection of drinking-water.
This series reviews the state of the knowledge on the application, efficacy and toxicity of bromine, iodine and silver as drinking-water disinfectants. more
WHO supports Zambia in vaccinating 1 million people in Lusaka against cholera to combat an outbreak that began in October 2017, causing 2,672 cases and 63 deaths. Two million vaccine doses were provided by Gavi. WHO and the Zambia National
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Public Health Institute are improving water access, sanitation, and hygiene education while training medical staff. Another 1 million people in high-risk areas will be vaccinated later.
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