The new WHO guidelines recommend that people living with HIV be started on antiretrovirals (ARVs) as soon as possible after being diagnosed. Currently, many people living with the virus globally must wait until their CD4 counts fall to 500 to start treatment. According to the WHO, the move to early ...treatment –or what some have dubbed the “test and treat” model –is backed by the latest research.
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Introduction, preparations to submit, submission procedure, requirements, main narrative of the protocol, definition of terms. | For Research and ethics clearance in Lesotho
Mycetoma is a specific chronic, granulomatous, inflammatory disease. It usually involves the subcutaneous tissue, most probably after traumatic inoculation of the causative organism. It has a prolonged, progressive, and indolent course, and, if untreated, it ultimately leads to destruction of the de...eper tissues and bone, resulting in deformity and disability that may necessitate amputation of the affected parts with all the social and economic implications of this. The disease is characterized by tumefaction, draining sinuses, and the presence of grains.
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Guide to monitoring and evaluating
“Preferred product characteristics” (PPCs) are key tools to incentivize and guide the development of urgently needed health products. Some of the vector control interventions deployed in complex emergencies and in response to natural disasters – namely insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and indoo...r residual spraying (IRS) – have already met identified public health needs in more stable settings; other tools such as insecticide-treated tarpaulins have been specifically designed for this use case. Given the diverse mix of existing and potential new interventions and the considerable gaps in the associated evidence base, this PPC aims to clearly articulate the unmet public health needs for tools designed to control malaria transmission in complex emergencies and in response to natural disasters.
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BMC Medicine (2015) 13:42 DOI 10.1186/s12916-014-0263-6
“towards quality health and social welfare services”
People with mental disorders in low-income countries are at risk of being left behind during efforts to expand universal health coverage. Aim is to propose context-relevant strategies for moving towards universal health coverage for people with mental disorders in Ethiopia.
Health Evidence Network synthesis report 72
The substantial burden of death and disability that results from interpersonal violence, road traffic injuries, unintentional injuries, occupational health risks, air pollution, climate change, and inadequate water and sanitation falls disproportionally on low- and middle-income countries. Injury Pr...evention and Environmental Health addresses the risk factors and presents updated data on the burden, as well as economic analyses of platforms and packages for delivering cost-effective and feasible interventions in these settings. The volume's contributors demonstrate that implementation of a range of prevention strategies-presented in an essential package of interventions and policies-could achieve a convergence in death and disability rates that would avert more than 7.5 million deaths a year.
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Mpox is an emerging zoonotic disease caused by the mpox virus, a member of the Orthopoxvirus genus closely related to the variola virus that causes smallpox. Mpox was first discovered in 1958 when outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in monkeys kept for research. The first human case was recorde...d in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during a period of intensified effort to eliminate smallpox and since then the infection has been reported in a number of African countries. Mpox can spread in humans through close contact, usually skin-to-skin contact, including sexual contact, with an infected person or animal, as well as with materials contaminated with the virus such as clothing, beddings and towels, and respiratory droplets in prolonged face to face contact. People remain infectious from the onset of symptoms until all the lesions have scabbed and healed. The virus may spread from infected animals through handling infected meat or through bites or scratches. Diagnosis is confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing of material from a lesion for the virus’s DNA. Two separate clades of the mpox virus are currently circulating in Africa: Clade I, which includes subclades Ia and Ib, and Clade II, comprising subclades IIa and IIb. Clade Ia and Clade Ib have been associated with ongoing human-to-human transmission and are presently responsible for outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), while Clade Ib is also contributing to outbreaks in Burundi and other countries.
In 2022‒2023 mpox caused a global outbreak in over 110 countries, most of which had no previous history of the disease, primarily driven by human-to-human transmission of clade II through sexual contact. In just over a year, over 90,000 cases and 150 deaths were reported to the WHO. For the second time since 2022, mpox has been declared a global health emergency as the virus spreads rapidly across the African continent. On 13 Aug 2024, Africa CDC declared the ongoing mpox outbreak a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS), marking the first such declaration by the agency since its inception in 2017.7 This declaration empowered the Africa CDC to lead and coordinate responses to the mpox outbreak across affected African countries. On August 14, 2024, the WHO declared the resurgence of mpox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) emphasizing the need for coordinated international response.
As of August 2024, Mpox has expanded beyond its traditional endemic regions, with new cases reported in countries including Sweden, Thailand, the Philippines, and Pakistan. Sweden has confirmed its first case of Clade 1 variant, which has been rapidly spreading in Africa, particularly in DRC. The emergence of this new variant raises concerns about its potential for higher lethality and transmission rates outside Africa.
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A practical guide to meaningfully engage adolescents in the AIDS response
UNAIDS 2016 reference
BMC Medicine201614:112 DOI: 10.1186/s12916-016-0660-0
Lancet Glob Health 2018 Published Online September 12, 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(18)30407-8