The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes the challenges countries face for maintaining their COVID-19 response while addressing competing public health challenges, conflicts, climate change and economic crises.
It remains critical for national programmes to continue to offer testing for COVI...D-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
March - December 2018
The Government of Bangladesh has kept its borders open to Rohingya refugees and leads the humanitarian response. The people of Bangladesh continue to show tremendous generosity and hospitality in the face of a massive influx. In keeping with its policies, the Government of Ban...gladesh refers to the Rohingya as “Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals”, in the present context. The UN system refers to this population as refugees, in line with the applicable international framework for protection and solutions, and the resulting accountabilities for the country of origin and asylum as well as the international community as a whole. In support of these efforts, the humanitarian community has rapidly scaled up its operations as well. Over a two-month period, the refugee population in Cox’s Bazar more than quadrupled.
more
Recommended practices booklet (April 2020)
The set includes 10 Counselling Cards and a Recommended Practices Booklet. Infant and young child feeding (IYCF) counselling in the context of COVID-19 remains a critical nutrition intervention for the protection and support of pregnant women, caregivers, ...and their young children. WHO and UNICEF advise caregivers and families with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 to continue the recommended IYCF practices with the necessary hygiene precautions. It is therefore vital to ensure that communities and families around the world adopt these recommendations to help prevent the spread of the virus and care for those who are infected.
more
This manual was designed to support the GRN-UNICEF Youth Health and Development Programme with the aim of sustaining My Future is My Choice graduates and other young people’s peer education activities. It was written and reviewed in a three-day workshop in November 1999 and in the following weeks ...with assistance from participating organizations including AIDS Care Trust, Catholic AIDS Action, Ella Du Plessis High School AIDS Awareness Club, the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation, NACAMA, the National Youth Council of Namibia, PEDI/PECP, Polytechnic of Namibia, the University of Namibia and UNICEF. It was revised by Jennifer Lentfer of the Youth Health and Development Program of UNICEF Namibia in July of 2001.
more
23 February 2022
A summary of the commitments and targets within the United Nations General Assembly’s 2021 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS.The United Nations General Assembly’s 2021 Political Declaration on AIDS features bold global commitments and targets for 2025 that are ambitious but... achievable if countries and communities follow the evidence-informed guidance within the Global AIDS Strategy 2021–2026. This UNAIDS publication provides a summary of those commitments and targets to get every country and every community on-track to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030
more
The purpose of this guide is to provide basic information for Federal disaster responders and other service providers who may be deployed or otherwise assigned to provide or coordinate services in American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities.
This guide is intended to serve as a general briefi...ng to enhance cultural competence while providing services to AI/AN communities. (Cultural competence is defined as the ability to function effectively in the context of cultural differences.) A more specific orientation or training should be provided by a member of the particular AI/AN community
more
These guidelines provide updated evidence-based recommendations on the priority HCV-related topics from the 2018 WHO Guidelines for the care and treatment of persons diagnosed with chronic hepatitis C infection and the 2017 WHO Guidelines on hepatitis B and C testing. These priority areas are:
... direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatment of adolescents and children ages ≥3 years of age
simplified HCV service delivery (decentralization, integration and task sharing)
HCV diagnostics – use of point-of-care (POC) HCV ribonucleic acid (RNA) assays and reflex HCV RNA testing.
These guidelines also update existing chapters without new recommendations, such as the inclusion of new manufacturers’ protocols on the use of dried blood spot (DBS) for HCV RNA testing and new data to inform the limit of detection for HCV RNA assays as a test of cure, in addition to their use for diagnosis.
more
9 April 2020
WHO has published the guidance “Clinical management of severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) when COVID-19 disease is suspected” This document is intended for clinicians taking care of hospitalized adult and paediatric patients with severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) whe...n COVID-19 infection is suspected. Optimized supportive care should be provided to ensure the best possible chance for survival of COVID-19 patients as described in the WHO guidance:
1. Management of severe COVID-19 requires oxygen therapy and monitoring. Supplemental oxygen therapy should be given immediately to patients with SARI and respiratory distress, hypoxaemia or shock.
2. Management of critical COVID-19 (acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)) requires advanced oxygen/ventilatory support.
more
Female genital mutilation is a harmful traditional practice that violates girls’ right to health
and overall well-being. Most research cites social acceptance, marriageability, community
belonging, proof of virginity, curbing promiscuity, hygiene, and religion as motivations for the
practice. I...t is generally assumed that individual attitudes of parents and other family mem-
bers have an impact on decisions related to the cutting of girls, and that such attitudes are
influenced by social norms. The aim of this study is to understand how parental attitudes
towards the practice of female genital mutilation influence decision making related to the cut-
ting of girls.
more
The purpose of this study was to document a technical assessment of a sample of these existing shelters on their functionality, accessibility, operation and management, community perspectives in Myanmar; identify gaps, needs and further the linkages with community-based disaster risk reduction (CDBR...R) activities. The study also aims at a wider assessment: looking at broader recovery in terms of shelter and livelihood aspects with clear linkages and strategic direction for future cyclone shelter support activities.
No publication year indicated.
more
On January 14-16, 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) held a communications roundtable in Atlanta, Georgia, to explore hospitals' challenges in communicating with internal and external audiences in communitywide emergencies involving radioactive materials. The roundtable, Hosp...ital Communications in a Mass Casualty Radiological Incident, is part of CDC's effort to help prepare the nation's public health community for threats of terrorism.
more
The purpose of this document is to present and promote the minimum requirements for IPC programmes at the national and health care facility level, identified by expert consensus according to available evidence and in the context of the WHO core components.
The minimum requirements are defined as: I...PC standards that should be in place at the national and facility level to provide minimum protection and safety to patients, HCWs and visitors, based on the WHO core components for IPC programmes.
more
Bolkan HA, Bash-Taqi DA, Samai M, Gerdin M, von Schreeb J. Ebola and Indirect Effects on Health Service Function in Sierra Leone. PLOS Currents Outbreaks. 2014 Dec 19. Edition 1. doi: 10.1371/currents.outbreaks.0307d588df619f9c9447f8ead5b72b2d.
Inpatient health services have been severely affecte...d by the Ebola outbreak. The dramatic documented decline in facility inpatient admissions and major surgery is likely to be an underestimation. Reestablishing such care is urgent and must be a priority.
more
Training Manual
Building on earlier EngenderHealth work in counseling, Counseling for Effective Use of Family Planning responds to an identified gap in existing materials and fills the needs expressed by those in the field. The intended audiences for this curriculum are health care providers, their... supervisors, and the managers of the programs in which they work. The counseling skills addressed here are expected to be relevant to the provision of both preventive and curative health services through the workshop participants’ national health systems. Finally, the curriculum’s participatory approach to defining terms and to generating profiles of potential clients is designed to assist trainees in addressing the realities and exploring the reproductive health priorities of their communities in a culturally appropriate manner.
more
The SAMHSA-HRSA Center for Integrated Health Solutions (CIHS) promotes the development of integrated primary and behavioral health services to better address the needs of individuals with mental health and substance use conditions, whether seen in specialty behavioral health or primary care provider... settings. CIHS is funded jointly by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration(SAMHSA) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and run by the National Council for Behavioral Health.
Despite the high prevalence of mental health and substance use problems, too many Americans go without treatment — in part because their disorders go undiagnosed. Regular screenings in primary care and other healthcare settings enables earlier identification of mental health and substance use disorders, which translates into earlier care. Screenings should be provided to people of all ages, even the young and the elderly
more
Q 4: Is behavioural activation better (more effective than/as safe as) than treatment as usual in adults with depressive episode/disorder?brief, structured psychological treatment in non-specialist health care settings better (more effective than/as safe as) than treatment as usual in people with de...pressive episode/disorder?
more
Lessons from three African Countries.
Achieving Health for All, and in particular universal health coverage (UHC), will not happen without fully functioning basic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services in all health care facilities. Such services are needed to provide quality care, ensure ad...herence to infection prevention and control (IPC) norms and standards and guarantee that facilities are able to provide environments that respect the dignity and human rights of all care seekers, especially mothers, newborns and children. WHO undertook a series of national situational analyses in three countries (Ghana, Ethiopia and Rwanda) to understand current barriers to change, accountability structures and measures to strengthen WASH in health care facilities and more broadly, the quality of health service delivery.
more
BMJ Open2018;8:e020423. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2017-02042
EC has been increasingly used in the evaluation of maternal and child health programmes.12–15 For instance, Nesbitt et al compared crude coverage and EC of pregnant women with facility-based obstetric services in Ghana and estimated that alth...ough 68% of the women studied had service access only 18% received high-quality care provided by a skilled birth attendant.16 Similarly, by comparing EC of young children receiving Strengths and limitation of this study. Using multiple data sources (direct observation, vignettes, facility inventories) this study comprehensively assessed under 5-year-old child service
performance of first-line health facilities. We conducted this study in around 500 primary-level health facilities and within 7000 households
across six regions in Burkina Faso.
more
The New England Journal of Medicine has a perspective on Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa — Clinical Manifestations and Management, written by authors who have cared for more than 700 patients with EVD between August 23 and October 4, 2014, in the largest Ebola treatment unit in Monrovia, Liberi...a (Free Access) NEJm, November 5, 2014DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1413084
more
[Updated 2015]
Scoping question: What is the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions, including caregiver skills training, for emotional disorders in children and adolescents?