Improving access to assistive technology for everyone, everywhere.
The first WHO Priority Assistive Products List was launched in May 2016. The List includes hearing aids, wheelchairs, communication aids, spectacles, artificial limbs, pill organizers, memory aids and other essential items for many... older people and people with disabilities to be able to live a healthy, productive and dignified life.
Available in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish
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WHO, in partnership with the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has published global standards for prosthetics and orthotics. Its aim is to ensure that prosthetics and orthotics services are people-centred an...d responsive to every individual’s personal and environmental needs. The standards advocate for the integration of prosthetics and orthotics services into health services, under universal health coverage. Implementation of these standards will support countries to fulfil their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and towards the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
The standards provide guidance on the development of national policies, plans and programmes for prosthetics and orthotics services of the highest standard. The standards are divided into two documents: the standards and an implementation manual. Both documents cover four areas of the health system:
policy (governance, financing and information);
products (prostheses and orthoses);
personnel (workforce);
and provision of services.
The Standards have been developed through consultation with experts from around the globe via a steering group, development group and external review group.
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Weekly Epidemiological Record No 9, 2022, 97, 61–80
This position paper supersedes the 2016 publication, “Malaria vaccine: WHO position paper-2016.”1 It includes the updated WHO recommendations on the wider use of the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine for the reduction of malaria morbidity and mortality in ...children living in areas of moderate to high malaria transmission. It also incorporates findings from the evaluation of the WHO-coordinated Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme (MVIP), recommended by SAGE and MPAG in 2015, and from additional studies since 2015.
This paper does not include findings on vaccine efficacy in infants first vaccinated at 6–12 weeks of age. Because of the lower vaccine efficacy observed in this age category, WHO did not recommend pilot implementation or RTS,S/AS01 vaccine introduction for these young infants. Recommendations2 on the use of RTS,S/AS01 vaccine were discussed by SAGE and MPAG during a joint session in October 2021; evidence presented at the meeting can be accessed at https://terrance.who.int/mediacentre/data/ sage/SAGE_eYB_Oct2021.pdf
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While there has been real progress in addressing the burden of disease in the WHO African region, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the link between health, economics and security, as the region saw decades of progress threatened, including positive trends in decreasing inequality. In the Africa...n Region the momentum towards achieving the 2030 SDG disease burden reduction targets (SDG targets 3.3, 3.4 and 3B) has stalled.
The COVID-19 pandemic was also a major threat to gains made, such as the eradication of polio in the region, declared in 2020; reduced numbers of new HIV infections in 2021 compared to 2010; and passing the 2020 milestone of the End TB Strategy, with a 22% reduction in new cases compared with 2015. However, the pandemic also disrupted essential health services in 92% of countries globally, 22.7 million children missed basic immunization, there was an increase in malaria and TB, and global deaths from TB rose for the first time since 2015.
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Onchocerciasis used to be an important public health problem in Africa, with over 37 million people infected and millions suffering from debilitating skin disease, terrible itching, impaired vision and
blindness. But the epidemiological situation has improved dramatically over the last two decades.... Community directed treatment with ivermectin has effectively brought the disease under control in most endemic areas where onchocerciasis is no longer a public health risk.
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Little is known about asthma control in the rising number of African children who suffer from this condition. The Achieving Control of Asthma in Children in Africa (ACACIA) study is an observational study collecting evidence about paediatric asthma in urban areas of Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, South Afr...ica, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The primary objectives are: (1) to identify 3000 children aged between 12 years and 14 years with asthma symptoms; and (2) to assess their asthma control, current treatment, knowledge of and attitudes to asthma and barriers to achieving good control. Secondary objective is to develop interventions addressing identified barriers to good symptom control.
Each centre will undertake screening to identify 500 school children with asthma symptoms using questions from the Global Asthma Network’s questionnaire. Children identified to have asthma symptoms will fill in a digital survey, including: Asthma Control Test, questions on medication usage and adherence, medical care, the Brief-Illness Perception questionnaire and environmental factors. Exhaled nitric oxide testing and prebronchodilator and postbronchodilator spirometry will be performed. A subgroup of children will participate in focus group discussions. Results will be analysed using descriptive statistics and comparative analysis. Informed by these results, we will assess the feasibility of potential interventions, including the adaption of a UK-based theatre performance about asthma attitudes and digital solutions to improve asthma management.
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Every year, an estimated 15 million babies are born preterm – before 37 weeks of pregnancy. That is more than 1 in 10 live births. Approximately 1 million children die each year worldwide due to complications from their early birth. Those that survive often face a lifetime of ill-health including ...disability, learning difficulties, and visual and hearing problems.
Half of the babies born at or below 32 weeks (2 months early) die in low-income settings, due to a lack of feasible, cost-effective care, such as warmth, breastfeeding support, and basic care for infections and breathing difficulties. In high-income countries, almost all these babies survive.
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This report is the annual global monitoring report documenting progress towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 targets 2.1 and 2.2. This year’s report explores the links between urbanization and changing food systems and how these changes are impacting the availability, affordability and des...irability of healthy diets, food security and malnutrition in all its forms. It shows that understanding the ways in which urbanization is shaping food systems will require using a rural-urban continuum lens. By mapping the interlinkages across the rural-urban continuum, governments can identify challenges created by urbanization and suitable policies, technologies, investments and governance mechanisms to help address them.
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This guidance note is meant to assist humanitarian actors, youth-led organizations, and young people themselves across sectors, working at local, country, regional, and global levels in their response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. It begins diagnostically, exploring the impacts of coronavirus d...isease (COVID-19) on young people. It then proposes a series of actions that practitioners and young people can take to ensure that COVID-19 preparedness, response plans and actions, are youth-inclusive and youth-focused – with and for young people. Recommendations are structured around the five key actions of the Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action: services, participation, capacity, resources, and data. Where available, the recommended actions are accompanied by resources and concrete examples, which can inform approaches and support implementation
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Ce plan intégré de lutte contre les MNT au Burkina Faso tient compte dans une large mesure des résultats de cette enquête et des cibles principales du nouveau plan mondial de lutte contre les MNT 2013-20201
. S’inscrivant dans la logique du PNDS, il s’est voulu multisectoriel et intègre tr...ois principaux piliers de la stratégie mondiale de
lutte contre les maladies non transmissibles 2013-2020, à savoir la surveillance, la
prévention et la prestation de soins de santé dans le cadre de systèmes de santé.
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Élément culturel important, les plantes ont été utilisées pendant des siècles par les populations pour se soigner. Cependant, peu d’ethnies connaissent leur pharmacopée de par le manque d’études ethnobotaniques. La présente étude, réalisée en pays San, entité territoriale traditionn...elle (Nord-Ouest du Burkina Faso), répond à ce souci de documenter les plantes médicinales. À travers une série d’enquêtes ethnobotaniques, 75 tradithérapeutes Sananont été interviewés. Les informations recherchées ont porté sur la plante, son nom local, ses parties utilisées, les pratiques médicales et les vertus thérapeutiques afférentes. Les résultats ont montré que 94 espèces végétales sont utilisées pour combattre différentes pathologies. Les feuilles (31 %), les racines (25 %) et les écorces du tronc (23 %) sont les principales parties utilisées pour préparer les recettes. Seules ou en association, ces parties interviennent dans l’élaboration des recettes par des procédés utilisant principalement la décoction (58 %), la trituration (17 %) et la macération aqueuse (11 %). Soixante-cinq pour cent (65 %) des produits obtenus sont administrés par voie orale via la boisson et les applications externes représentent 35 %. Treize catégories d’utilisation ont été recensées. Cependant, les tradipraticiens de santé sont en désaccord sur les thérapies proposées pour traiter ces catégories. La diversité des thérapies recensées en pays San, est une richesse culturelle. Ces données de la pharmacopée san sont une base pour une étude approfondie des aptitudes sylvicoles des plantes victimes de déracinement et la création de pépinières communautaires, afin de disposer de réservoirs de plantes médicinales proches des villages.
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While the world was gripped by the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, children continued to face the same crisis they have for decades: intolerably high mortality rates and vastly inequitable chances at life. In total, more than 5.0 million children under age 5, including 2.4 million newborns, alo...ng with 2.2 million children and youth aged 5 to 24 years – 43 per cent of whom are adolescents – died in 2020. This tragic and massive loss of life, most of which was due to preventable or treatable causes, is a stark reminder of the urgent need to end preventable deaths of children and young people.
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La stratégie continentale commune africaine pour COVID-19 est sous-tendue par la nécessité de limiter la transmission, de prévenir les décès et de réduire les dommages associés. La participation des nations africaines aux essais cliniques est une étape essentielle pour garantir la productio...n de données suffisantes sur la sécurité et l'efficacité des candidats vaccins les plus prometteurs parmi les populations de la région.
Bien que l'activité actuelle des essais cliniques COVID-19 sur le continent soit limitée, l'Afrique possède une expérience et des capacités considérables pour mener des essais cliniques de vaccins préventifs contre toute une série de maladies, et de nombreuses organisations du continent travaillent sans relâche pour aider à préparer des essais supplémentaires sur des vaccins COVID-19 potentiels.
Disponible en anglais, français et portugais
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Rabies is entirely preventable, and vaccines, medicines, tools and technologies have long been available to prevent people from dying of dog-mediated rabies. Nevertheless, rabies still kills about 60 000 people a year, of whom over 40% are children under 15, mainly in rural areas of economically dis...advantaged countries in Africa and Asia. Of all human cases, up to 99% are acquired from the bite of an infected dog.
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The objective of this manual is to guide managers of schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiases control programmes towards the elimination of these diseases as public health problems informed by evidence generated through monitoring and evaluation of these programmes. The manual complements ...the objectives outlined by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021–2030 (“the road map”) (WHO, 2020a) and the monitoring and evaluation framework (WHO, 2021a), a companion document to the road map.
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Ainsi, le présent profil peint le faciès épidémiologique du pays pour l’année 2015
avec un clin d’œil sur le niveau de réalisation des Objectifs du millénaire pour le
développement (OMD) et un focus particulier sur l’appropriation des Objectifs de
développement durable (ODD). Il e...st composé de six chapitres que sont (i)
Introduction au contexte du pays ; (ii) Etat et tendance des indicateurs de santé ; (iii)
Système de santé ; (iv) Progrès des objectifs de développement durable ; (v)
Programmes et services spécifiques ; (vi) Déterminants clés de la santé.
C’est un outil recommandé par l’OMS et est indispensable pour le pays en prélude à
la mise en place de l’Observatoire national de la santé. Son élaboration a connu un
processus participatif avec l’implication des différents acteurs intervenant dans le
domaine de la santé.
Profil sanitaire complet du Burkina Faso 2015 Page 7
Le document du profil pays a été organisé en 4 modules à savoir :
Module 1 : La situation socio-sanitaire du Burkina Faso et mise en œuvre des ODD ;
Module 2 : Le Système de santé au Burkina Faso ;
Module 3 : Les programmes et services spécifiques de santé au Burkina Faso ;
Module 4 : Les déterminants clés de la santé.
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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shown that public financial management (PFM) should be an integral part of the response. Effectiveness in financing the health response depends not only on the level of funding but also on the way public funds are allocated and spent, this is determined by the PFM r...ules, and how money flows to health service providers. So far, early assessments have shown that PFM systems ranged from being a fundamental enabler to acting as a roadblock in the COVID-19 health response. While service delivery mechanisms have been extensively documented throughout the pandemic, the underlying PFM mechanisms of the response also merit attention. To highlight the importance of PFM in health emergency contexts, this rapid review analyses various country PFM experiences and identifies early lessons emerging from the financing of the health response to COVID-19. The assessment is done by stages of the budget cycle: budget allocation, budget execution, and budget oversight. Identifying lessons from the varying PFM modalities used to finance the response to COVID-19 is fundamental both for health policy-makers and for finance authorities to prepare for future health emergencies.
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Children in refugee situations face many potential dangers, such as violence, abuse, exploitation, discrimination, separation from their families, trafficking and military recruitment. The impact of these experiences can be devastating and long-lasting. Children have different needs from adults and ...these needs can only be identified and met if they are approached in a way that is specific to children.
The impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic has exacerbated the dangers faced by children in refugee situations and laid bare the need for their protection and for ensuring that all their human rights are upheld all the time.
The goal of this publication is to share examples of approaches by members of the Initiative that have proven effective for children.
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Weekly Epidemiological Record. This report summarizes application of the SAFE strategy against trachoma during 2023. It includes estimates of the global population at risk of trachoma blindness based on district-by-district data submitted to WHO by national programmes. Summarizing the epidemiologica...l situation in this way is inherently complex because, for any district, up to 3 serial estimates of prevalence may be valid at different times during a calendar year.
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This report investigates the impact of potential misclassification of samples on HIV prevalence estimates for 23 surveys conducted from 2010-2014. In addition to visual inspection of laboratory results, we examined how accounting for potential misclassification of HIV status through Bayesian latent ...class models affected the prevalence estimates. Two types of Bayesian models were specified: a model that only uses the individual dichotomous test results and a continuous model that uses the quantitative information of the EIA (i.e., the signal-to-cutoff values). Overall, we found that adjusted prevalence estimates matched the surveys’ original results, with overlapping uncertainty intervals. This suggested that misclassification of HIV status should not affect the prevalence estimates in most surveys. However, our analyses suggested that two surveys may be problematic. The prevalence could have been overestimated in the Uganda AIDS Indicator Survey 2011 and the Zambia Demographic and Health Survey 2013-14, although the magnitude of overestimation remains difficult to ascertain. Interpreting results from the Uganda survey is difficult because of the lack of internal quality control and potential violation of the multivariate normality assumption of the continuous Bayesian latent class model. In conclusion, despite the limitations of our latent class models, our analyses suggest that prevalence estimates from most of the surveys reviewed are not affected by sample misclassification.
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