The Journal of Infectious Diseases, jiy435, https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiy435.
Many outbreaks reported high proportions of infected HWs. Similar HW infection rates and exposure risk factors in both past and recent EVD and MVD outbreaks emphasize the need to improve the implementation of approp...riate infection control measures consistently across all healthcare settings.
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COVID-19 Vaccines: 1 Safety Surveillance 2 Manual
While there is no indication that pregnant women have an increased susceptibility to infection with SARS-CoV-2, there is evidence that pregnancy may increase the risk of severe illness and mortality from COVID-19 disease in comparison with non-pregn...ant women of reproductive age. As seen with non-pregnant women, a high proportion of pregnant women have asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe disease is associated with recognized medical (e.g., high body-mass index (BMI), diabetes, pre-existing pulmonary or cardiac conditions) and social (e.g., social deprivation, ethnicity) risk factors. Pregnant women with symptomatic COVID-19 appear to have an increased risk of intensive care unit admission, mechanical ventilation and death in comparison with non-pregnant women of reproductive age, although the absolute risks remain low. COVID-19 may increase the risk of preterm birth, compared with pregnant women without COVID-19, although the evidence is inconclusive.
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National Tuberculosis Programme
The National Strategic Plan (NSP) for Tuberculosis (TB) 2016-2020 builds on the past experiences for the National Tuberculosis Programme and its partners. This NSP provides a roadmap for delivering quality TB prevention and care service to the entire population, ...as an integral part of the country's move toward Universal Health Coverage. Between 1990 and 2015, Myanmar reduced the prevalence of TB by 50%, meeting the targets set by the Millennium Development Goals. Going forward, the country aims to further accelerate the rate decline.
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Epidemiology
Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis) is caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, and transmitted to humans by infected triatomine bugs, and less commonly by transfusion, organ transplant, from mother to infant, and in rare instances, by ingestion of contaminated food or... drink.1-4 The hematophagous triatomine vectors defecate during or immediately after feeding on a person. The parasite is present in large numbers in the feces of infected bugs, and enters the human body through the bite wound, or through the intact conjunctiva or other mucous membrane.
Vector-borne transmission occurs only in the Americas, where an estimated 8 to 10 million people have Chagas disease.5 Historically, transmission occurred largely in rural areas in Latin America, where houses built of mud brick are vulnerable to colonization by the triatomine vectors.4 In such areas, Chagas disease usually is acquired in childhood. In the last several decades, successful vector control programs have substantially decreased transmission rates in much of Latin America, and large-scale migration has brought infected individuals to cities both within and outside of Latin America.
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Results of the first national survey, 2013–2014
COVID-19 has altered health sector capacity in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Cost data to inform evidence-based priority setting are urgently needed. Consequently, in this paper, we calculate the full economic health sector costs of COVID-19 clinical management in 79 LMICs under di...fferent epidemiological scenarios.
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The Infection prevention and control in the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a living guideline consolidates technical guidance developed and published during the COVID-19 pandemic into evidence-informed recommendations for infection prevention and control (IPC). This living guideline... is available both online and PDF.
This version of the living guideline (version 6.0) includes fifteen statements on IPC measures in health-care settings (screening and patient placement, ventilation, physical barriers, environmental cleaning, waste management, amongst others) as well as one statement on mask fit in the community context.
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This report is one of the first major products of the newly established Precision Public Health Metrics unit of the UCN cluster of the WHO Regional Office for Africa. The report presents national trends in communicable and non-communicable disease burden and control in the WHO African region. It tra...cks progress made with respect to disease burden reduction, elimination and eradication. It also highlights major emerging threats, opportunities and priorities in the fight against commu- nicable and non-communicable diseases in the region. It covers the period 2000-2022, but for some indicators, information is available only up to 2021.
The report shows the number of reported cases for malaria and vaccine preventable diseases (meningitis, measles, yellow fever, pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, and polio); disease incidence due to HIV, tuberculosis and four major noncommunicable diseases (cardiovas- cular diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic respira- tory diseases).
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Medical devices are used for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness and diseases and for rehabilitation. WHO developed guidance on medical device donation in 2011, which has been now reviewed, with new evidence, new references on considerations for medical device solicitation and provisi...on, risks associated with inappropriate donations, the responsibilities of donors and recipient, and the steps they should follow before, during and after a donation. It includes three sections: description of major problems that may be faced during the donation process, listing of best practices for donors and recipients and addressing situations requiring special attention. It also has three annexes for further reading: the criteria for the acceptability of a donation, literature review on donations of medical devices between 2010 and 2023 and a flyer. This document is intended to improve the quality of medical devices donations, including medical equipment, single-use medical devices and in-vitro diagnostics, to provide maximum benefit to all stakeholders. The considerations can be used to develop institutional or national policies and regulations for medical devices donations. This document is intended for use by any organization, expert or practitioner involved in the donation, procurement, management of medical devices, including health workers, biomedical engineers, health managers, policymakers, donors, nongovernmental organizations and academic institutions.
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HIV testing programmes need to ensure that all clients who test for HIV are provided with correct diagnoses. The accuracy of HIV testing is critical to prevent misdiagnosis, as the consequences of giving an incorrect test result can be serious for clients, HIV testing services, HIV programmes and pu...blic health.
With the evolution of global HIV epidemiology, HIV testing approaches must also evolve to maintain accuracy and efficiency in population-level diagnosis. Reports suggest that misdiagnosis of HIV status may occur when suboptimal testing algorithms and out-of-date testing strategies are used. As a result of changing epidemiology and declining HIV positivity in testing, WHO recommends all countries use a standard three-test strategy to ensure a PPV of at least 99%, minimizing false-positive misdiagnosis. The WHO-recommended HIV testing strategy, along with quality assurance measures such as retesting to verify a positive diagnosis prior to initiation of HIV treatment, is cost-effective as it prevents misdiagnosis and unnecessary initiation of costly lifelong treatment.
This implementation guide provides practical advice on switching to a three-test strategy and instituting other measures that can help national HIV programmes deliver high-quality, accurate HIV testing services and ensure that misdiagnosis is minimized.
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The HIV drug resistance report 2021 summarizes findings from 38 countries that had finalized the surveys by the time of this report and shared data with WHO.
Pretreatment HIVDR to non-nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI) can affect more than 10% of adults starting therapy and is fo...und up to 3 times more often in people who had previous exposure to antiretroviral drugs. In addition, nearly half of infants newly diagnosed with HIV has HIVDR to NNRTI before initiating treatment.The high levels of observed NNRTI pretreatment HIVDR among emphasize the need to fast-track the transition to WHO-recommended dolutegravir-based ART.
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Training materials for healthcare workers
These guidelines are designed for settings with limited resources to provide inexpensive and effective control strategies for prevention of TB transmission in health care workers (HCW).