The Manual for Indoor Residual Spraying in Urban Areas for Aedes aegypti Control is intended not only for operational personnel and middle and senior management of programs responsible for the prevention and control of Aedes-borne diseases, but also for the academic community involved in Aedes resea...rch, private pest control personnel, and the general public.
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This global guidance was developed to support malaria-free countries and those that are close to malaria elimination to prevent re-establishment. The document outlines key concepts and principles for preventing re-establishment and provides guidance on strategies, interventions, planning and managem...ent. Country examples are included to highlight good practices and illustrate practical applications.
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This toolkit is a comprehensive set of practical tools and resources designed to support country-level risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) practitioners, decision-makers and partners to plan and implement readiness and response activities for Ebola disease outbreaks. The toolkit conta...ins: information about Ebola disease; RCCE considerations on how to approach key issues during Ebola disease outbreaks; tools for understanding the context in which Ebola disease outbreaks occur; methods for collecting data to inform strategy development and bring evidence into the planning and implementation of activities; guidance to support prevention and response interventions; and links to existing RCCE tools and training. It is one of a suite of toolkits on RCCE readiness and response to a range of disease and response areas.
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This toolkit is a comprehensive set of practical tools and resources designed to support country-level risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) practitioners, decision-makers, and partners to plan and implement readiness and response activities for yellow fever outbreaks. The toolkit conta...ins: information about yellow fever; RCCE considerations for how to approach key issues during yellow fever outbreaks; tools for understanding the context in which yellow fever outbreaks occur; methods for collecting data to inform strategy development and bring evidence into planning and implementation of activities; guidance to support vector control and immunization campaigns; and links to existing RCCE tools and training. It is one of a suite of toolkits on RCCE readiness and response to a range of disease and response areas.
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The Compendium of Solid Waste Management in Humanitarian Contexts is a comprehensive, structured and userfriendly manual and planning guide that provides a systematic overview of existing Solid Waste Management (SWM) technologies and approaches appropriate for use in humanitarian contexts.
Buruli ulcer (BU) is a skin-related neglected tropical disease (skin NTD) caused by infection with
Mycobacterium ulcerans. BU is the third most common mycobacterial disease after tuberculosis and leprosy
in people who are not immunocompromised. The infection manifests in non-ulcerative forms as no...dules,
plaques and/or oedemas, which ulcerate within 4–6 weeks and display characteristic undermined edges and yellowish-white necrotic slough . Most lesions occur on the lower limbs.
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Malaria remains a significant public health concern in the SADC region, accounting for 20% of childhood deaths, as well as prompting numerous outpatient visits and hospitalisations. Around three-quarters of the population, including 35 million children under the age of five and 8.5 million pregnant ...women, are at risk. Transmission patterns vary from high and stable in the north to malaria-free in the south, with low, unstable and seasonal zones in between. Although interventions such as indoor residual spraying (IRS), insecticide-treated nets (ITNs/LLINs), intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp), rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs), and artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) have reduced the malaria burden, challenges persist in terms of funding, human resources, surveillance, and cross-border coordination. Achieving malaria elimination in the SADC region requires harmonised regional standards, strengthened surveillance, and improved access to quality treatment and policy prioritisation.
Accessed on 27/08/2025.
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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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For education to be competency-based and effective, appropriate training methodologies have to be used to support the learner to have the appropriate knowledge and to translate this knowledge into skills and competencies. Such education and training should lead to a change in attitudes, beliefs a...nd values, thus making the palliative care graduate able to do their job very effectively. To that end, APCA has developed this new resource, which is a guide to effective teaching methodologies in palliative care, targeting educators and trainers across Africa. This guide has been developed to enable educators and trainers to acquire knowledge and skills for using effective, practical, participatory and experiential teaching methods, and to use these in extending learning to all health care providers in Africa. The methods presented in this guide are based on existing practical and documented evidence of effective palliative care education.
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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
20 YEARS OF STRATEGIC HIV AND PUBLIC HEALTH DATA . beThe completion of the 6th South African National HIV Prevalence, Incidence and Behaviour Survey (SABSSM) report, coincides with the celebration of 30 years of democracy in South Africa; and marks 20 years of conducting nationally representative ho...usehold-based surveys by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), its collaborators and donors. Since its inception in 2002, the SABSSM series has emerged as one of the HSRC’s leading scientific contributions to the country’s HIV and AIDS response (1), providing essential data to monitor the HIV epidemic, the impact of the HIV program in South Africa, and to inform strategies for epidemic control in the National Strategic Plan for HIV, TB and STIs (NSP), now in its fifth edition. Using scientific evidence from SABSSM and other key sources, the NSP guides the country’s response, under the leadership of the South African AIDS Council (SANAC) and the National Department of Health (NDoH), with focus on equitable access to biomedical interventions, addressing the structural and social behavioural drivers of the epidemic, and targeting populations disproportionately affected by HIV; such as, black Africans, key populations and adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) aged 15–24 years (2).
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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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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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These Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) have been developed by the Infant Feeding in Emergencies (IFE) Core Group Infectious Disease Working Group based on the most recent recommendations, collective knowledge and evidence on cholera. The FAQs also draw on infant and young child feeding (IYCF) recom...mendations from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Infant Feeding in Emergencies Core Group (IFE CG). These FAQs are intended to provide answers to health workers and the public – including mothers who are breastfeeding or expressing milk – on breastfeeding during a cholera outbreak.
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Ces questions fréquemment posées (FAQs) ont été élaborées par le Groupe de travail sur les maladies infectieuses du Groupe l'alimentation central sur des nourrissons en situation d'urgence (IFE) en se basant sur les recommandations les plus récentes, les connaissances collectives et les donn...es probantes relatives au choléra. Les questions fréquemment posées (FAQs) s'appuient également sur les recommandations de l'Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS) et du Groupe central sur l'alimentation des nourrissons en situation d'urgence (IFE CG) en matière d'alimentation des nourrissons et des jeunes enfants (IYCF). Ces FAQs ont pour objectif de fournir des réponses aux professionnels de santé ainsi qu’au grand public- y compris aux mères qui allaitent ou qui tirent leur lait- au sujet de l'allaitement maternel lors d'une épidémie de choléra.
Cesquestions fréquentesreflètent:
•Les preuves disponibles et les derniers outils de lutte contre le choléra du Groupe de travail mondial sur la lutte contre le choléra (2025) et de l'UNICEF (2013)
•Les effets protecteurs du lait maternel et de l'allaitement
•Les effets néfastes liés à l'utilisation inappropriée de substituts de lait maternel
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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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Current HIV/AIDS Reports (2022) 19:358–374. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11904-022-00615-z.
MINDSPACE is an acronym developed by the UK's behavioural insights team to summarise nine key influences on human behaviour: Messenger, Incentives, Norms, Default, Salience, Priming, Affect, Commitment, and E...go. These effects have been used in various settings to design interventions that encourage positive behaviours. Currently, over 200 institutionalised behavioural insight teams exist internationally, which may draw upon the MINDSPACE framework to inform policy and improve public services.
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This document, with a focus on the built environment and health care facilities, intends to guide the audience in preparing for and responding to SARI pandemics caused by existing and novel pathogens. It provides technical guidance on designing, establishing, and managing health care facilities for ...severe acute respiratory infections (SARI), covering point of entry, treatment centers, entry to health system facilities, quarantine and community facilities, and home care and quarantine.
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Epidemics and pandemics are some of the biggest threats to a safe and healthy world. But with effective preparedness and response measures, we can reduce their impacts and even stop them in their tracks.
Through the Programmatic Partnership with the European Union, 24 local Red Cross and Red Cres...cent Societies have been working to keep communities healthy and safe from epidemics and pandemics with technical assistance, advocacy support and coordination from IFRC and European National Societies. They do so by equipping communities with knowledge and tools to stop the spread of diseases and by setting up systems so they can report outbreaks quickly, enabling a rapid response from authorities. National Societies have also significantly developed their own epidemic preparedness and response capacity.
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The document provides a standardized protocol for evaluating the Early Warning Alert and Response Network (EWARN), a surveillance system used during humanitarian emergencies when regular national health surveillance may be disrupted. The purpose of EWARN is to detect outbreaks of communicable diseas...es early and enable rapid public health response. The guidance explains how the system should be assessed in terms of its structure, implementation, effectiveness, and usefulness. It outlines the key steps of evaluation: preparation, system description, data collection, and post-evaluation reporting. The protocol highlights common challenges observed in previous EWARN implementations, such as delays in establishing the system, limited data quality, weak outbreak response, and lack of clear transition plans back to routine surveillance systems. It emphasizes the need to evaluate both weekly disease reporting and alert verification processes, and to review attributes such as simplicity, data quality, timeliness, sensitivity, and stability. The document also provides templates for interviews, data review forms, and laboratory assessment, as well as guidance on conducting remote evaluations when access is limited. The overall goal of the protocol is to ensure that EWARN functions effectively to detect and respond to outbreaks and that practical recommendations are developed to improve the system’s performance and sustainability in emergency settings.
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