20-22 July 2015, Monrovia, Liberia
This article summarises the process involved in developing the updated guideline and includes an infographic to highlight key IPC recommendations from the guideline, following the patient care pathway from the community to a healthcare facility to discharge.
Second Edition
AIDS Medicines and diagnostics services
July 2015
The Transformation Agenda (TA) ushered in an ambitious reform process intended to transform the World Health Organization (WHO) into an organization that is proactive, results-driven, accountable and which meets stakeholder expectations, towards transforming and improving public health services in t...he African Region. It aimed to achieve a WHO that is pro-results, which optimally and creatively targets technical work as well as make operations more responsive, with greater effectiveness in both communications and partnerships. The Africa Region has been the epicentre of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic and it’s one of the leading causes of disease and death on the continent. The WHO, with partners, has worked tirelessly for many years to control the threat and reduce the negative impact of the disease. Since the early 2000s, significant progress has been made in the global fight against the scourge of HIV. However, the WCA subregion was falling concerningly behind ESA on several key indicators of progress. In 2016, the WHO joined UNAIDS, UNICEF and other partners in a call for a strong and urgent response to support WCA countries to develop catch-up plans to triple and fast-track ART coverage, to enable the region to catch up with ESA by the end of 2020. Implementation of a widespread test-and-treat strategy, coupled with the scale-up of differentiated service delivery (DSD) and mobilization of requisite funding, accelerated WCA’s progress towards this goal. The HIV treatment catch-up and fast-track plan has achieved its target of seeing the West and Central African region (WCA) catch up with the Eastern and Southern African region’s (ESA) antiretroviral coverage rate of 78% in 2021, albeit later than the 2020 target time frame. A 33% improvement was achieved in WCA, against 21% in ESA, between 2015–2020. WCA achieved a significant 42% increase, compared to ESA’s 23%, between 2015 and 2021, to see WCA draw level with ESA at 78%. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) alone, progress of up to 47% was observed between 2015 and 2020, for example. In addition, 1.6 million more People Living with HIV (PLHIV) were enrolled on antiretroviral treatment (ART) between 2015 and 2020.
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Several countries affected by COVID-19, have seen increases in levels of violence occurring in the home, including violence against children, intimate partner violence and violence against older people. Countries also face increasing challenges in maintaining support and care for survivors of violen...ce. This brief compiles key actions that the health sector can undertake within a multisectoral response to prevent or mitigate interpersonal violence based on existing WHO guidance.
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Sepsis contributes significantly to preventable mortality and is the final common pathway to death for severe infectious diseases; it can also arise as a complication of injuries and non-communicable diseases.
Technical specifications series for submission to WHO prequalification: diagnostic assessment;TSS-3
Bonchial asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disease in the world. In Kenya, it has been estimated that about 7.5% of the Kenyan population, nearly 4 million people, are currently living with asthma. Many cases tend to be underdiagnosed and undertreated which leads to high levels of morbid...ity and avoidable deaths. The consequences of poorly controlled asthma, including physical, mental, social, and economic impacts, are magnified in the poor on account of poor access to asthma services and sub-optimal quality of those services. With these guidelines, Kenya's Ministry of Health aims to work towards embedding asthma care in Universal Health Care (UHC) to ensure that quality asthma services are available in primary care settings with
referral networks strengthened for those who may require secondary and tertiary care. These national asthma guidelines will also ensure that treatment for asthma is standardized in both the public and the non-state health care sector.
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WHO would like to express its gratitude and appreciation to all Member States that provided information to the WHO survey on policies and activities at the national level in the area of antimicrobial resistance. The contribution of staff in WHO Regional and Country Offices has been invaluable: in ga...ther-ing original data and information from Member States, in supporting the process of aggregation of these data; and in reviewing the regional analysis of the findings that reflect the country situation at the point when the survey was conducted. The support and commitment of the members of the WHO Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance, comprising WHO staff from Headquarters and Regional Offices has, is also acknowledged.
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Contact tracing for COVID-19 is the process of identifying, assessing, and managing people who have been exposed to someone who has been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, while quarantine is the separation of contacts from other people after exposure to a probable or confirmed case of SARS-CoV-2 i...nfection. In the context of growing global population immunity from COVID-19 vaccination and past SARS-CoV-2 infection, WHO recommends that identification, contact, quarantine and follow-up should be prioritized for individuals at high risk who have been in contact with a confirmed or probable case of SARS-CoV-2 infection, rather than targeting all contacts. This updated guidance also introduces shorter recommended quarantine periods, including the ability to further shorten quarantine through the use of testing. National and local health authorities should use risk-based approaches to contact tracing and quarantine that include reviewing and adjusting to their local circumstances and disease epidemiology, population immunity, their health system’s capacities, and risk tolerance.
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This practical manual is designed to support implementation of the World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines on core components of infection prevention and control programmes at the national level, with special focus on countries with limited resources.
The Guidelines describe what is necessary ...(that is, recommendations) to effectively improve infection prevention and control (IPC). This practical manual outlines how to do this (that is, how to implement the Guidelines). It focuses on the development of a sustainable action plan informed by the local context to put into operation the Guideline recommendation
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The Global Strategy for Tuberculosis Research and Innovation will support the efforts of governments and other stakeholders to accelerate TB research and innovation, and improve equitable access to the benefits of research.
Availabl in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish and Russian
In the kingdom of Bahrain, the national antibiotic committee will set the framework for the national response to AMR, especially bacterial resistance to antibiotics. It will be aligned with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance, and with standards and... guidelines from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).
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