Interim Guidance
This document is to help Member States build on actions taken during the COVID-19 pandemic to improve national medium- to long-term preparedness for future threats. It maps COVID-19 preparedness and response actions to the building of sustainable International Health Regulations (2...005) core capacities; locates relevant supporting WHO resources that are not specific to the pandemic; and advocates for the conscious and effective allocation of COVID-19 funds to also meet countries’ longer-term need
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The 10 recommendations in the COP26 Special Report on Climate Change and Health propose a set of priority actions from the global health community to governments and policy makers, calling on them to act with urgency on the current climate and health crises.
The recommendations were developed in ...consultation with over 150 organizations and 400 experts and health professionals. They are intended to inform governments and other stakeholders ahead of the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and to highlight various opportunities for governments to prioritize health and equity in the international climate movement and sustainable development agenda. Each recommendation comes with a selection of resources and case studies to help inspire and guide policymakers and practitioners in implementing the suggested solutions
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Q1: What are the effective maternal mental health interventions to prevent developmental problems in early infancy?
COVID-19 disproportionately affects the poor and vulnerable. Community health workers are poised to play a pivotal role in fighting the pandemic, especially in countries with less resilient health systems. Drawing from practitioner expertise across four WHO regions, this article outlines the targete...d actions needed at different stages of the pandemic to achieve the following goals: (1) PROTECT healthcare workers, (2) INTERRUPT the virus, (3) MAINTAIN existing healthcare services while surging their capacity, and (4) SHIELD the most vulnerable from socioeconomic shocks. While decisive action must be taken now to blunt the impact of the pandemic in countries likely to be hit the hardest, many of the investments in the supply chain, compensation, dedicated supervision, continuous training and performance management necessary for rapid community response in a pandemic are the same as those required to achieve universal healthcare and prevent the next epidemic.
BMJ Global Health2020;5:e002550. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2020-002550
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BMC Public Health (2021) 21:299 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10296-9
In Kenya, 12.7 percent of sick Kenyans do not seek health care when they are ill with high cost of services being one of the major barriers that accounted for upto 21 percent of those who did not seek care in 2013. Further, 2.6 million Kenyans (6.2 percent) of households were at risk of impoverishme...nt as a consequence of expenditure on health care depleting household savings and were at a risk of falling into poverty (Republic of Kenya 2015b).
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24 April 2020
Policy considerations
for the WHO European Region
This document provides key considerations for Member States to help them to decide on the modulation
of large-scale restrictive public health measures
(i.e. movement restrictions and large-scale physical distancing), while at the... same time strengthening core public health service capacities (to identify, isolate,
test and treat every patient and quarantine contacts) together with personal protective measures (hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette) and individual physical distancing (>1 metre distance). The transition should be informed by national, subnational or even community-level risk assessments as the transmission of COVID-19 is typically not homogeneous within a country.
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This training guide applies a participatory approach, reflecting the considerable evidence that adults learn best by practicing and reflecting on their experiences. It thus emphasizes exercises to improve skills in counseling that support clients to adopt optimal nutrition practices. Women’s nutri...tion and infant feeding in the context of HIV are also addressed. Guidelines to link the prevention of malnutrition with treatment via the Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition are also included. It can also be conducted with nutrition managers to equip them to provide supportive supervision to health and community workers.
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WHO‘s Global Strategy to Accelerate the Elimination of Cervical Cancer, launched today, outlines three key steps: vaccination, screening and treatment. Successful implementation of all three could reduce more than 40% of new cases of the disease and 5 million related deaths by 2050.
Overwhelming evidence shows that a range of health concerns—mental illness, substance dependence, HIV/AIDS, and noncommunicable diseases—affect prisoners disproportionately. But, while incarceration poses risks to health—including inadequate nutrition and exposure to violence—prisons also pr...esent important opportunities to promote health and risk reduction that need to be tapped.
Some recommended remedies:
Health ministries, not ministries of justice, should manage health care responsibilities
Ensure that testing is available, but not mandatory, for infectious diseases
Make prison health part of the broader public health agenda
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For many years, Community Health Care Workers (CHWs) in Tanzania and Africa in general have played significant role in community health promotion. Their specific roles have been changing from time to time. However, their key roles have over time included giving health education and dissemination of ...health information to communities, invariably moving on to include other services such as offering curative services and conducting community surveys. Deployment of CHWs has mainly been a response to the severe shortage of the human resource for health in most African countries due to brain drain for various reasons that include unattractive terms and conditions of employment. On the other hand the human resources for health (HRH) is a result of positive growing demand for health services, a situation confronted by inadequate supply of trained health personnel from training institutions to meet the demand.
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This external performance evaluation of the Malawi Girls’ Empowerment through Education and Health Activity (ASPIRE), conducted 2.5 years after ASPIRE began, establishes the activity’s progress against its objectives, proposes adaptations for the final year, and captures lessons for application ...in future girls’ empowerment, health, and education programming in Malawi.
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The Practical Approach to Emergencies in the Pregnant Mother, Newborn infant and Child. Provder Manual
This guidance note is intended primarily for health actors working in emergency and disaster risk management (hereafter 'emergency risk management') at the local, national or international level, and in governmental or nongovernmental agencies. People with disabilities, those... working in the disability sector and those working in other sectors that contribute to improved health outcomes related to emergency risk management, may also find this guidance note useful.
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First Global Patient Safety Challenge Clean Care is Safer Care
The WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care provide health-care workers (HCWs), hospital administrators and health authorities with a thorough review of evidence on hand hygiene in health care and specific recommendations to impro...ve practices and reduce transmission of pathogenic microorganisms to patients and HCWs. The present Guidelines are intended to be implemented in any situation in which health care is delivered either to a patient or to a specific group in a population. Therefore, this concept applies to all settings where health care is permanently or occasionally performed, such as home care by birth attendants.
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