Meeting report, Kampala, Uganda,
7–8 November 2023
PLOS Glob Public Health 3(7): e0001132. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.
pgph.0001132
This paper proposes a framework for strategic communications for malaria governance that involves five key elements: knowing the audience, defining the message, designing a medium, identifying a messenger, and ...selecting the timing
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The purpose of this guide is to provide updated clinical guidance on TB/HIV, with an emphasis on diagnostic aspects—including new techniques—as well as current treatment, while maintaining a public health approach. By compiling and consolidating the latest World Health Organization recommendatio...ns on the subject into a single guide, the aim is to create a reference and consultation document that is frequently used, and that unifies and standardizes the comprehensive management of TB/HIV co-infection in healthcare facilities based on the principle of “two diseases, one patient.” It also seeks to support the updating of national standards and guidelines on co-infection and to complement the coordinated work that must exist between TB and HIV prevention and control programs at all levels, within the framework of the twelve internationally recommended TB/HIV collaborative activities.
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Implementation reference guide. This Malaria Surveillance Assessment Toolkit implementation reference guide is a comprehensive reference document, as well as a step by-step guide. It aligns and adapts available tools into a single set of standardized tools, which can be used to conduct malaria surve...illance assessments across all transmission settings. Use of these standardized tools allows comparison of results between countries and within the same country over time, enabling countries to track their progress towards surveillance system strengthening.
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The purpose of the guideline is to provide information to stakeholders on the necessary requirements for a complete prequalification dossier for insecticide-treated nets (ITNs). Its aim is to establish the baseline for dossier requirements which are necessary to assess ITN products for the purposes ...of prequalification, describe the data requirements for fulfilling each dossier module, and to provide standardized information for applicants and testing facilities generating data for ITN prequalification dossiers. The document is supported by implementation guidance documents which provide specific information and considerations for how applicants may approach the generation of supporting information and compilation of a complete product dossier.
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The Ghana National Malaria Strategic Plan 2021–2025 aims to reduce malaria mortality by 90% and malaria cases by 50% (using 2019 as baseline) and to achieve pre-elimination in at least six districts by 2025. The plan focuses on scaling up prevention measures like distributing insecticide-treated n...ets, indoor residual spraying, seasonal chemoprevention, and prevention in pregnancy. It also emphasizes universal access to prompt diagnosis and effective treatment, strengthening health system governance, improving supply chains, mobilizing resources, and enhancing surveillance. Special attention is given to vulnerable groups and high-burden areas to ensure equity and sustainability in the fight against malaria.
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This document highlights the latest WHO recommendations designed to optimize health outcomes, streamline delivery and address persistent barriers to prevention and care. It especially focuses on people often left behind in service delivery, including adolescents and young people, key populations and... people with advanced HIV disease. The guidance emphasizes integration, simplification, choice and equity.
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Access to safe, effective and quality-assured health products and technologies is crucial for achieving universal health coverage and primary health care goals. The continued growth of the aging population; increasing burden of noncommunicable diseases; growing burden of mental health issues; climat...e change; shifting patterns of vector borne diseases, fungal disease and waterborne diseases; antimicrobial resistance; and new infectious hazards create an ongoing need for equitable access to safe, effective and quality-assured health products and technologies, and renewed investments in research and development for innovative health products and technologies.
The coronavirus pandemic exposed the inequalities in access to health products, highlighting the need for longer-term strategies to strengthen access to health products and technologies outside of and in emergency situations. While technological and scientific advances present an opportunity to increase access to health products and technologies, the risk of increasing inequality due to higher prices for new health products and technologies; the persisting problem of substandard and falsified medical products; a lack of skilled workforce in many low- and middle-income countries; and a lack of data for decisionmaking and for measuring progress present significant challenges.
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The Gaza Strip is experiencing one of the most severe food security crises globally, with the entire population of approximately 2.1 million people now facing crisis-level food insecurity or worse (IPC Phase 3+). As of May 2025, more than one in five Gazans—about
470,000 people—are at risk of s...tarvation (IPC Phase 5: Catastrophe), while over half are classified in Emergency (IPC Phase 4). This marks a significant deterioration compared to just one month earlier and reflects the impact of a comprehensive blockade that has
restricted all humanitarian and commercial supplies since early March. Vital goods have been depleted, food prices have skyrocketed by over 3,000 percent in some areas, and coping mechanisms have all but collapsed, forcing many to scavenge for food or go without entirely. Acute malnutrition has reached serious levels and is projected to worsen, particularly in North Gaza, Gaza, and Rafah, where critical levels are expected between May and September 2025.
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The objective of this guideline is to present the complete set of all WHO recommendations and best practice statements relating to abortion. While legal, regulatory, policy and service-delivery contexts may vary from country to country, the recommendations and best practices described in this docume...nt aim to enable evidence-based decision-making with respect to quality abortion care.
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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 Guidelines for the Use of the APCA African Palliative Outcome Scale (POS) has been developed by the APCA, in collaboration with
stakeholders, to help appropriately trained health practitioners and researchers across the region to utilise the APCA African POS in their work place (Powell et... al, 2007; Warria et al, 2007). Not only do the guidelines provide a clear rationale for measuring palliative care outcomes, but they also outline practical information on how to use the tool to collect data and analyse its results. So why is there a need for these guidelines?
Palliative care as a concept and discipline is not well understood across Africa, and its development is still embryonic in many countries. While there are many obstacles that hinder palliative care development on the continent, a key challenge is the lack of accurate information about the palliative care being provided and its outcomes. The APCA African POS is a useful tool to help us measure these outcomes and, given that
measuring palliative care outcomes remains a relatively new concept, it is important to guide people on how to use the tool. Of course, these guidelines are not intended to address everything related to the measurement of palliative care outcomes; they contain only essential information for providers. More detailed information on the use of outcome tools, and in particular within the research setting, can be gained from contacting relevantly trained professionals.
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During the reporting period, significant progress was made in strengthening the mpox response across the continent. The lessons learned and challenges identified during the joint mpox continental intra-action review (IAR), which took place successfully in December 2024 in Addis Ababa have guided the... development of the action plan for the response to the mpox epidemic in January and February 2025.
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