This Summary for Policymakers (SPM) presents key findings of the Working Group I (WGI) contribution to the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) on the physical science basis of climate change. The report builds upon the 2013 Working Group I contribution to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5...) and the 2018–2019 IPCC Special Reports of the AR6 cycle and
incorporates subsequent new evidence from climate science
more
Version 10.1_5 October 2020
These Guidelines are available in different formats: As a paper booklet, a PDF, a mobile app, and now also as a website.
The 2019 version of the Guidelines introduces a new drug-drug interaction panel and now consists of six main sections, including a general overview ...table of all major issues in PLWH, recommendations on antiretroviral treatment, drug-drug interactions, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of co-morbidities, co-infections and opportunistic diseases.
Available in English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese and Japanese
more
To support its R&D activities on Chagas disease, DNDi launched the Chagas Clinical Research Platform (CCRP). The platform brings together partners, experts, and stakeholders to provide support for evaluation and development of new treatments for Chagas disease. The patient-centred platform aims to f...acilitate clinical research, provide a forum for technical discussions, develop a critical mass of expertise, and strengthen institutional research capacities. In addition, it identifies and reviews priority needs, works towards standardization of methodology to assess drug efficacy and reviews alternatives for using current approved drugs (new schemes, doses, combination) and special scenarios (resistance).
more
Millions of children in Yemen could be pushed to ‘the brink of starvation’ due to huge shortfalls in humanitarian aid funding amid the COVID-19 pandemic – according to a new UNICEF report marking more than five years since conflict escalated in the country.
In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by a new coronavirus, constituted a pandemic, given the speed and scale of its transmission. The Region of the Americas is characterized by its rich multi-ethnic and multicultural heritage. ...Nonetheless, indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, and other ethnic groups are often subject to discrimination and exclusion, resulting in health inequities. COVID-19 may have a greater impact on certain populations, such as indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants.
more
Anopheles stephensi is an invasive mosquito species which has been found spreading across Africa. While this species presents a new challenge for malaria control on the continent, its surveillance and management have been ongoing in Asia for many years. This document aims to summarize key lessons fr...om 3 countries – India, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Sri Lanka – that have been working to control An. stephensi. It is hoped that their experiences and insights will be valuable for countries encountering An. stephensi for the first time.
more
Getting back on track to cutting malaria by 90% could boost African economies by $127bn by 2030. This important new report shows we can save lives, boost economies and trade, creating a healthier world
The WHO Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) Clinical management: living guidance contains the Organization’s most up-to-date recommendations for the clinical management of people with EVD. Providing guidance that is comprehensive and holistic for the optimal care of patients with EVD throughout their il...lness is important.
The living guidance is available in both pdf format (via the ‘Download’ button) and via an online platform in both French and English, and is updated regularly as new evidence emerges.
This first version of the Clinical management for EVD living guidance contains four new recommendations regarding use of therapeutics for EVD, this includes two strong recommendations for the use of monoclonal antibody therapies. This new living guideline is written to accompany the optimized supportive care (oSoC) for EVD standard operating procedures (5, 6). The living guideline aims to summarize high quality evidence for EVD therapeutics and make recommendations for their use.
more
3 March 2022
The WHO Therapeutics and COVID-19: living guideline contains the Organization’s most up-to-date recommendations for the use of therapeutics in the treatment of COVID-19. The latest version of this living guideline is available in pdf format (via the ‘Download’ button) and via an ...online platform, and is updated regularly as new evidence emerges.
more
In many of Myanmar’s contested regions, healthcare services are provided through two parallel governance systems – by the government’s Ministry of Health, and by providers linked to ethnic armed organizations. Building upon efforts to build trust between these two actors following ceasefires s...igned in 2011 and 2012, the new National League for Democracy-led government offers an unprecedented opportunity to increase cooperation between these systems and to ensure health services reach Myanmar’s most vulnerable populations.
The report provides an overview of existing health service arrangements in these areas, from both the Ministry of Health and from ethnic and community-based health organizations. It then unpacks the concept of “convergence”, highlighting key opportunities and policy recommendations for both government and non-government actors.
more
Interim guidance 2 march 2021
Current use of drugs to prevent COVID-19 is variable, reflecting large-scale uncertainty. Numerous randomized trials of many different drugs are underway to inform practice. This first version of the Drugs to prevent COVID-19: A WHO living guideline contains new inform...ation and a recommendation on hydroxychloroquine. It follows the publication of six trials synthesized in a living network meta-analysis (NMA).
more
Through technical consultations with countries and partners, WHO has led the development of Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats Module 1: Planning for respiratory pathogen pandemics. Version 1.0. The Module, currently available as an advanced draft, builds on previous pandemic lessons a...nd guidance, and has the following new elements:
It presents an integrated and efficient respiratory pathogen pandemic planning approach covering both novel pathogens and those known to have pandemic potential;
It enables coherence in addressing pathogen-agnostic and pathogen-specific elements for better preparedness;
It gives an organizing framework including operational stages and triggers for escalation and de-escalation between pandemic preparedness and response periods;
It contextualizes 12 IHR (2005) core capacities within the five components of health emergency preparedness, response and resilience (HEPR), from the respiratory threats perspective; and
It describes the critical sectors for respiratory pathogen pandemic preparedness to trigger multisectoral collaboration.
WHO will finalize and publish this Module after a global technical meeting that will be held on 24-26 April 2023.
more
Nepal has performed exceptionally in improving reproductive, maternal and child health outcomes over the past two decades. In this article, we discuss these achievements and outline a vision for the future of maternal, newborn and child survival in Nepal after the era of the Millennium Development G...oals. On the pathway towards quality universal health care services for all, we propose strengthening of health information systems, gradual health system reforms, improvement of existing facility based services, development of integrated service delivery models, improved technical and managerial capacity at district and facility levels. Elimination of all preventable causes of maternal, newborn and child deaths in Nepal should be our collective aspirational goal.
more
The results of the report clearly show that in 2020, a year dominated by the emergence of COVID-19 and its associated health and economic crises, governments around the world rose to the challenge. Sharp increases in government spending on health at all country income levels underpinned the rise in ...health spending to a new high of US $9 trillion (approximately 11% of global GDP). Government health spending generally increased and offset declines in out-of-pocket spending. Importantly, the rise in government health spending was part of a much broader fiscal response to the pandemic. In high income and upper-middle income countries social protection spending also increased sharply in as governments attempted to cushion populations from the economic impacts of COVID-19. In contrast to health and social protection, growth in education spending was relatively subdued. Countries face the further challenge of sustaining increased public spending on health and other social sectors in the face of deteriorating macroeconomic conditions and rising debt servicing. This also includes the challenge of sustaining external support for low income countries, which is essential for reducing ensuring poverty, ensuring access to health services and strengthening pandemic preparedness.
more
World Report 2021, Human Rights Watch’s 31st annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.
In his introductory essay, Executive Director Kenneth Roth calls on the incoming US administration to more deeply embed respect for ...human rights as an element of domestic and foreign policy to counter the “wild oscillations in human rights policy” that in recent decades have come with each new resident of the White House. Roth emphasizes that even as the Trump administration mostly abandoned the protection of human rights, joined by China, Russia and others, other governments—typically working in coalition and some new to the cause—stepped forward to champion rights. As it works to entrench rights protections, the Biden administration should seek to join, not supplant, this new collective effort.
more
The Practical manual on laboratory strengthening, 2022 update provides practical guidance on implementation of WHO recommendations and best practices for TB laboratory strengthening. It is an updated version of the GLI Practical Guide to Laboratory Strengthening published in 2017 and provides the la...test practical guidance on use of newly recommended diagnostics as well as guidance in key technical areas, including quality assurance and quality management systems, specimen collection and registration, procurement and supply-chain management, diagnostic connectivity, biosafety, data management, human resources, strategic planning, and model algorithms. The key changes are:
inclusion of recent or updated WHO recommendations for tests to diagnose TB and detect drug resistance;
alignment with the latest WHO critical concentrations for phenotypic drug-susceptibility testing (DST) and the new definitions of pre-XDR-TB and XDR-TB;
updated information on building quality-assured TB testing and management capacity using the Stepwise Laboratory Quality Improvement Process Towards Accreditation (SLIPTA) approach (Score-TB package1);
updated information on assessing, analysing and optimising TB diagnostic networks; and
updated information on the use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) to detect mutations associated with drug resistance for surveillance purposes.
The document also provides references to resources and tools relevant for work on laboratory strengthening.
more
Continuing a worrying decade-long rising trend, the number of people forced to flee due to persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order climbed to 89.3 million by the end of 2021. This is more than double the 42.7 million people who remained f...orcibly displaced at the end of 2012 and represents a sharp 8 per cent increase of almost 7 million people in the span of just 12 months. As a result, above one per cent of the world’s population – or 1 in 88 people – were forcibly displaced at the end of 2021. This compares with 1 in 167 at the end of 2012. During 2021, some 1.7 million people crossed international borders seeking protection and 14.4 million new displacements within their countries were reported. This is a dramatic increase from the combined 11.2 million a year earlier.
more
This policy brief has been developed in response to the contemporary challenge of antibiotic resistance (ABR). ABR poses a formidable threat to global health and sustainable development. It is now increasingly recognized that the systematic neglect of cultural factors is one of the biggest obs...tacles to achieving better health outcomes and better standards of living worldwide. Using a cultural contexts of health approach, the policy brief explores the centrality of culture to the challenge of ABR. The brief examines how the prescription and use of antibacterial medicines, the transmission of resistance, and the regulation and funding of research are influenced by cultural, social and commercial, as well as biological and technological factors. The brief moves beyond the ready equation of culture with individual behaviours and demonstrates how culture serve as an enabler of health and provide new possibilities for change.
more
Pakistan Global Antibiotic Resistance Partnership (GARP) was formed in the wake of international and national efforts for AMR curtailment. A group of experts from microbiology, infectious diseases and veterinary medicine formed a core group at the organizational meet...ing of GARP in Kathmandu, Nepal in July 2016. In the meeting, this core group was expanded to include other members from different sectors with the selection of the Chair and co-chairs. These were asked to serve on a voluntary basis, in their own individual capacities, with no personal gains, or gains to the institutions to which they are affiliated. The first phase of GARP took place from 2009 to 2011 and involved four countries: India, Kenya, South Africa and Vietnam. Phase one culminated in the 1st Global Forum on Bacterial Infections, held in October 2011 in New Delhi, India. In 2012, phase two of GARP was initiated with the addition of working groups in Mozambique, Tanzania, Nepal and Uganda. Phase three has added Bangladesh, Lao PDR, Nigeria, Pakistan and Zimbabwe to the network to date.
more
This report is the first of its kind. It brings together various data sets to present the current status of hand hygiene, highlight lagging progress, and call governments and supporting agencies to action, offering numerous inspiring examples of change.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, hand hygiene ...received unprecedented attention and became a central pillar in national COVID prevention strategies. However, concern with hand hygiene should not only be as temporary public health measure in times of crisis, but as a vital everyday behaviour that contributes to health and economic resilience. Hand hygiene is a highly cost-effective investment, providing outsized health benefits for relatively little cost.
Despite efforts to promote hand hygiene, the rates of access to hand hygiene facilities remain stubbornly low. If current rates of progress continue, by the end of the SDG era in 2030, 1.9 billion people will still lack facilities to wash their hands at home.
This report presents a compelling case for investment in five key ‘accelerators’ as a pathway towards achieving hand hygiene for all – governance, financing, capacity development, data and information, and innovation. These accelerators are identified under the UN-Water SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework.
more