The World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO), in accordance with recommendations from various WHO committees, has developed three flagship initiatives to support Member States in the African region to prepare for, detect and respond to public health emergencies. They are the r...esult of extensive consultations with more than 30 African government ministers, technical actors, and partners across the continent as well as regional institutions such as the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), whose contributions have shaped the priority activities. This report provides the fourth quarterly summary of progress in implementing the flagship initiatives.
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Monkeypox virus is an orthopoxvirus that causes human monkeypox, a viral disease with symptoms similar to smallpox, including fever and rash. Following the worldwide eradication of smallpox in 1980, monkeypox emerged as the most significant orthopoxvirus infection in humans. Cases are most often rep...orted from rural areas of Central and West African countries, particularly in regions close to tropical rainforest where people may have contact with infected animals. Someone can become infected through direct contact with respiratory droplets of another person who has monkeypox in the home or in a health facility, or with contaminated materials such as bedding. Although these are the main modes of person-to-person transmission, monkeypox outbreaks tend to occur in small clusters of a few cases without leading to widespread community transmission. For this reason, outbreaks can be easily controlled when responded to rapidly. On several occasions, monkeypox has been reported in other regions due to importation by travelers or infected animals. This course provides a general introduction to the disease through a video and accompanying downloadable presentation that can be reviewed at your own pace. It is intended for health personnel responsible for prevention and control of monkeypox, and for the general public.
The content and scope of this course on monkeypox have been tailored for outbreaks in African countries where the disease is endemic. The course material was last updated in 2020 and may not reflect most recent WHO guidance issued for the multi-country outbreak in 2022.
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You can’t cure asthma. However, you can take steps to control the disease and prevent its symptoms. For example:
-Learn about your asthma and ways to control it
-Follow your written asthma action plan
-Use medicines as your doctor prescribes (Here’s how to use your inhaler device)
-Identif...y and try to avoid things that make your asthma worse
-Keep track of your asthma symptoms and level of control
-Get regular checkups for your asthma
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SARS-CoV-2 infections among children and adolescents cause less severe illness and fewer deaths compared to adults. While a less severe course of infection is a positive outcome, there are concerns that mild symptoms may have led to less testing, resulting in fewer identified cases of COVID-19 in ch...ildren. If children with mild or no symptoms transmit the disease, they may act as drivers of transmission within their communities. Understanding symptoms, infectivity and patterns of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in children and adolescents is essential for developing, adapting and improving control measures for COVID-19 across all ages. This is a summary of the current knowledge around SARS-CoV-2 infection acquisition and transmission and COVID-19 disease symptoms in children and adolescents. It aims to inform decisions, based on local contexts, on how to best keep schools, kindergarten and day-care facilities open and what advice to apply to intergenerational mixing.
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Issue Brief 33: Since 21 June 2023, 57 024 new cholera cases, including 399 new death have been reported worldwide (European Center for Disease Prevention and Control). In total, 25 countries have reported cases since the beginning of 2023. The major underlying causes of potential outbreaks are poor... environmental infastructure, lack of health care services, lack of save water and sanitation as well as increase population movement. Climate change becomes an additional trigger, as extreme climate events like cyclones,floods and droughts reduce access to clean water and create an ideal environment for cholera to thrive. The overall capacity to respond to the multiple outbreaks is obstructed by a global lack of resources.
This issue brief provides an overview of the current outbreaks, treatment guidelines, information material, countries strategies and more.
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All personnel responding to Ebola outbreaks need to have basic knowledge and skills in order to mount an effective response. The GO training package was developed for WHO deployees so they can work safely and effectively as part of the teams bringing outbreaks under control. The learning package con...sists of 7 modules, which include video lectures and downloadable presentations that have been updated with the latest information and developments. It begins with an introduction to Ebola virus disease before moving to the response strategy and essential information related to working for WHO. The GO materials are designed to complement the ePROTECT training, which is available here: https://openwho.org/courses/e-protect.
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The ACT Consortium was an international research collaboration dedicated to evaluating the effectiveness, safety and implementation of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) for treating malaria. Operating across multiple countries in Africa and Asia, the consortium conducted over 25 studies... focused on improving malaria case management, drug delivery, diagnostic practices and patient outcomes. Emphasising interdisciplinary research, the consortium generated robust evidence to inform national malaria control policies and global health strategies. This website serves as a comprehensive archive of the consortium's work, providing researchers, policymakers, and programme implementers in global health and infectious disease control with access to protocols, guidance documents, data tools, and peer-reviewed publications.
Accessed on 15/0//2025.
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The Lancet Volume 390, Issue 10110p2397-2409November 25, 2017.
Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), also called sleeping sickness, is a parasitic infection that almost invariably progresses to death, unless treatment is provided. HAT caused devastating epidemics during the 20th century. Thanks to ...sustained and coordinated efforts during the past 15 years the number of reported cases has fallen to a historic low. Fewer than 3,000 cases were reported in 2015, and the disease is targeted for elimination by the World Health Organization. Despite recent success, HAT still poses a heavy burden on the rural communities where this highly focal disease occurs, most notably in Central Africa. Since patients are also reported from non-endemic countries outside Africa, HAT should be considered in differential diagnosis for all travellers, tourists, migrants and expatriates who have visited or lived in endemic areas. In the absence of a vaccine, disease control relies on case detection and treatment, and vector control. Available drugs are sub-optimal, but ongoing clinical trials give hope for safer and simpler treatments.
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Self-care interventions are among the most promising and exciting new approaches to improve health and well-being, both from a health systems perspective and for people who use these interventions.
The World Health Organization (WHO) uses the following working definition of self-care: Self-care i...s the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health worker. The scope of self-care as described in this definition includes health promotion; disease prevention and control; self-medication; providing care to dependent persons; seeking hospital/specialist/primary care if necessary; and rehabilitation, including palliative care. It includes a range of self-care modes and approaches. While this is a broad definition that includes many activities, it is important for health policy to recognize the importance of self-care, especially where it intersects with health systems and health professionals.
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Accessed: 27.04.2020
Leaving no one behind in the Covid-19 Pandemic: a call for urgent global action to include migrants & refugees in the Covid-19 response
People on the move, whether they are economic migrants or forcibly displaced persons such asylum seekers, refugees, and internally displa...ced persons (hereafter called migrants & refugees), should be explicitly included in the responses to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. This global public health emergency brings into focus, and may exacerbate, the barriers to healthcare these populations face. Many migrant & refugee populations live in conditions where physical distancing and recommended hygiene measures are particularly challenging. The Covid-19 pandemic reveals the extent of marginalisation migrant & refugee populations face. From an enlightened self-interest perspective, the Covid-19 disease outbreak control measures will only be successful if all populations are included in the response. It is counter- productive to exclude migrant & refugee populations from the preparedness and response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Interim rapid response guidance, 10 June 2022.
It includes considerations for certain populations such as patients with mild disease with considerations for community care, patients with moderate to severe disease, sexually active persons, pregnant or breastfeeding women, children and young persons.... The guidance also addresses considerations for clinical management such as the use of therapeutics, nutritional support, mental health services, and post-infection follow-up.
The document provides guidance for clinicians, health facility managers, health workers and infection prevention and control practitioners including but not limited to those working in primary care clinics, sexual health clinics, emergency departments, infectious diseases clinics, genitourinary clinics, dermatology clinics, maternity services, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology and acute care facilities that provide care for patients with suspected or confirmed monkeypox
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Issue Brief 31: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) can occur when viruses, bacteria, parasites and fungi change over time. There is no longer a response to medicines, and the infection treatment gets really difficult which increases the risk of a disesase spread, which can lead to severe health problems.... AMR is an increasing threat to global public health worldwide that requires cross-sectional and cross-disciplinary action. It is present in every country and is spurred by several human-made factors, including over- and/or inadequate use of antibiotics, poor hygiene and infection prevention control, and excessive usage of antibiotics outside the health care sector e.g. in life stock production.
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Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a re-emerging mosquito borne alphavirus responsible
for the recent outbreak in the Americas. Immunologically naïve population in the Americas favors the spread of epidemics. Chikungunya fever is characterized by an abrupt febrile illness, polyarthralgia and maculopapul...ar rash. In chikungunya fever, shock or severe hemorrhage is very rarely observed; the onset is more acute and the duration of fever is shorter than dengue disease. The pain is much more pronounced and localized to the joints and tendons in chikungunya fever, in comparison to dengue fever. There is no specific and effective antiviral therapy and vaccines are still in trails. The only effective preventive measures consist of individual protection against mosquito bites and vector control. Disease prevention is important due to the
economic burden it entails. Clinicians need to distinguish chikungunya fever between dengue fever and other diseases to give a successful treatment and prevent disease spreading.
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Integrating neglected tropical diseases into global health and development: fourth WHO report on neglected tropical diseases evaluates the changing global public health landscape; assesses progress towards the 2020 targets; and considers the possible core elements of a strategic vision to integratin...g neglected tropical diseases into the 2030 Agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Advances have been made through expanded interventions delivered through five public health approaches: innovative and intensified disease management; preventive chemotherapy; vector ecology and management; veterinary public health services; and the provision of safe water, sanitation and hygiene. In 2015 alone nearly one billion people were treated for at least one disease and significant gains were achieved in relieving the symptoms and consequences of diseases for which effective tools are scarce; important reductions were achieved in the number of new cases of sleeping sickness, of visceral leishmaniasis in South-East Asia and also of Buruli ulcer.
The report also considers vector control strategies and discusses the importance of the draft WHO Global Vector Control Response 2017–2030. It argues that veterinary public health requires a multifaceted approach across the human–animal interface as well as a multisectoral programme of work to protect and improve the physical, mental and social well-being of humans, including veterinary, water, sanitation and hygiene.
Integration of activities and interventions into broader health systems is crucial, and despite challenges, has the potential to accelerate progress towards universal health coverage while advancing the 2030 Agenda.
In short, this report drives the message home that “no one must be left behind”.
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Mosby’s Pocket Guide to Nursing Skills and Procedures, eighth edition, is
a practical, portable reference for students and practitioners in the
clinical setting. Grouped alphabetically, 85 commonly performed skills
are presented in a clear, step-by-step format that includes:
■ Purpose for pe...rforming each skill
■ Guidelines to help students in delegating tasks to assistive
personnel
■ List of equipment required
■ Rationales to explain why specific techniques are used
■ Full-color photographs and drawings to provide visual
reinforcement
In addition, Safety Alerts are included in the skills to highlight important
information about patient safety and effective performance.
Current Standard Precautions guidelines from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention are incorporated throughout. Preprocedure
and postprocedure protocols are conveniently located on the inside
back cover.
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For decades, pollution and its harmful effects on people’s health, the environment, and the planet have been neglected both by Governments and the international development agenda. Yet, pollution is the largest environmental cause of disease and death in the world today, responsible for an estimat...ed 9 million premature deaths.
The Lancet Commission on pollution and health addresses the full health and economic costs of air, water, and soil pollution. Through analyses of existing and emerging data, the Commission reveals pollution’s severe and underreported contribution to the Global Burden of Disease. It uncovers the economic costs of pollution to low-income and middle-income countries. The Commission will inform key decision makers around the world about the burden that pollution places on health and economic development, and about available cost-effective pollution control solutions and strategies.
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This page provides open-access online parenting resources during COVID-19 on one-on-one time, keeping it positive, structure up, bad behaviour, keep calm and manage stress, and talking about COVID-19. These resources, available in 30+ languages, were developed by Parenting for Lifelong Health, who a...re working with WHO, UNICEF, the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, the Internet of Good Things, USAID and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Available in 90 languages!
Parenting for Lifelong Health provides open-access online parenting resources during COVID-19. We are working with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, UNODC, the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, USAID, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventio...n, World Without Orphans, the World Childhood Foundation, the Internet of Good Things and Clowns Without Borders South Africa.
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Accessed on 13.05.2022
The Covid-19 pandemic has become Chile’s most consequential public health challenge in a century. Chile’s measures included guidance regarding, among other items, education, health (sick leaves, diagnoses, hospital capacity, partial and spatially targeted lockdowns), ma...ss events, border controls, supply and transportation. Since then, the evolution of the disease in the country has been similar to that of other countries around the world, with periods when cases increased followed by periods when cases declined, yet without ever declining to a point when one would assume the emergency was over.
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Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak Response Plan in West Africa Annex 3