Purpose of this document: to present eight practical steps that Member States can take at the national and sub-national level to improve WASH in health care facilities
This report presents country, regional and global estimates of low birth weight for 2000, together with a detailed description of the methods used in calculating the estimates. Some limited data on trends are also included. The limitations of low-birth-weight data are described and recommendations a...re made for further improvements in the data for this important indicator of health.
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The purpose of this document is to present and promote the minimum requirements for IPC programmes at the national and health care facility level, identified by expert consensus according to available evidence and in the context of the WHO core components.
The minimum requirements are defined as: I...PC standards that should be in place at the national and facility level to provide minimum protection and safety to patients, HCWs and visitors, based on the WHO core components for IPC programmes.
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Improving the management of childhood tuberculosis within national tuberculosis programmes: research priorities based on a literature review
WHO/HTM/TB/2007.381, 07.02
Three classess of tests are now recommended in the latest consolidated guideles on tests for tuberculosis infection. It includes for the first-time a new class of Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigen-based skin tests (TBSTs), and the two existing classes of tests: the tuberculin skin test (TST) and t...he interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs).
IGRAs and TBSTs use Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex specific antigens and represent a significant advancement to TST which has been used for over half a century.
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This year marked the beginning of the WHO biennium 2016-2017 action plan; this annual report highlights WHO’s key achievements in 2016
It also documents the extraordinary efforts by a broad coalition of government ministries, municipalities, international agencies, community groups, women’s or...ganizations, religious and traditional leaders, media, private sector and donors towards restoration and improving health indicators.
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The European Journal of Public Health, Vol. 28, No. 1, 145–149
The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http:...//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckx122 Advance Access published on 31 August 2017
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This framework has been developed with the aim of providing standard procedures, assessment and planning tools, and guidance in the delivery of case management services. As Malawi moves forward to build a holistic child protection system, case management will serve as a core anchor and a mobilizing ...force for child protection.
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TUATION UPDATE
In the early morning of 6 February 2023, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurred in southern Türkiye near the
northern border of Syria. The earthquake was followed 11 minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Many
aftershocks are still being felt across the region. Whilst the imp...act is still being assessed, initial reports evidence
significant damage in the areas of southern Türkiye and northern Syria.
In response, the Syria Ministry of Health (MoH) activated its emergency operations centre (EOC) on 6 Feb 2023
under the chairmanship of the Deputy Minister. In all affected governorates, public and private health facilities
and medical convoys have been repurposed to support the response and are being managed by the National
Ministry of Health (MoH) and Directorate of Health (DoH) at governorate level. Support has been directed to
affected areas, with medical convoys including 28 ambulances and 7 mobile clinics, deployed from the health
directorates of Damascus, Rural Damascus, Quneitra, Homs, Tartous, Aleppo and Latakia. At the same time, 4
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The toolkit is a collection of assessment tools and checklists that describe the key considerations to be taken into account when transitioning to Option B/B+. The toolkit provides a roadmap to support the planning and implementation of Option B/B+, and to help countries scale up more effective inte...rventions and programs to achieve the goals of the Global Plan Towards the Elimination of New HIV Infections among Children by 2015 and Keeping their Mothers Alive.
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About one fourth of the world’s population is estimated to have been infected with the tuberculosis (TB) bacilli, and about 5–10% of those infected develop TB disease in their lifetime. The risk for TB disease after infection depends on several factors, the most important being the person’s im...munological status. TB preventive treatment (TPT) given to people at highest risk of progressing from TB infection to disease remains a critical element to achieve the global targets of the End TB Strategy, as reiterated by the second UN High Level Meeting on TB in 2023. Delivering TPT effectively and safely necessitates a programmatic approach to implement a comprehensive package of interventions along a cascade of care: identifying individuals at highest risk, screening for TB and ruling out TB disease, testing for TB infection, and choosing the preventive treatment option that is best suited to an individual, managing adverse events, supporting medication adherence and monitoring programmatic performance.
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Humanitarian emergencies, regardless of type and cause, have a number of common risk factors for communicable diseases inextricably linked to excess risk of morbidity and mortality which can come from vaccine–preventable diseases (VPDs). The reduction of VPDs is a significant aim of public-health ...interventions during crises.
The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization carried out a comprehensive review of evidence on vaccination decision-making processes and considerations in humanitarian emergencies.
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To implement the set of recommendations on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children
With the growing obesity crisis among children, WHO and other public health advocates and consumer groups have called for restrictions on advertising of ‘unhealthy foods’ high in salt, ...sugar and fat to children. Each day, children in the South East Asia Region are exposed to large volume of marketing of unhealthy foods that may influence children’s food preferences and consumption patterns and is associated with childhood overweight and obesity.
The definition of ‘unhealthy’ is debatable, and therefore, an objective method of describing foods as healthy or unhealthy is needed. A nutrient profile model does just that and therefore, a nutrition profile model for South East Asia was developed. The model is consistent with international guidance for preventing chronic disease and is a simple system with clear cut-offs for defining which foods are not suitable for advertising to children.
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Collection of country-level good practices
The aim of the pandemic preparedness checklist is primarily to provide an outline of the essential minimum elements of preparedness, as well as elements of preparedness that are considered desirable. It is recommended that responsible authorities or institutes in countries that are in the process of... planning should consider the specific aspects of the checklist for which they are responsible. The Checkllist is available in English, Japanese, Russian and Arabic from the website http://www.who.int/influenza/resources/documents/checklist/en/
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This interagency report provides recommendations for assuring quality of medicines during key activities of country-level procurement agencies, namely prequalification of pharmaceutical products and manufacturers; purchase of pharmaceutical products; storage of pharmaceutical products; and distribut...ion of pharmaceutical products.
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The aim of the people-centred framework is to help countries to develop fully prioritized and budgeted NSPs based on a culture of making full use of the available data, which are aligned with national planning cycles and which provide the basis for a robust national response that can accelerate prog...ress towards the goal of ending TB. In addition, applying the framework for other possible applications according to the country’s planning and policy cycle encourages the culture of data utilization and evidence translation into decision making and planning.
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A review of proactive risk assessment and risk management practices to ensure the safety of drinking-water
Based on information gathered from 118 countries representing every region of the globe, this report provides a picture of WSP uptake worldwide. It presents information on WSP implementati...on and the integration of WSPs into the policy environment. It also explores WSP benefits, challenges and future priorities.
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Cryptococcal disease is one of the most common opportunistic infections among people living with advanced HIV disease and is a major contributor to severe illness, morbidity, and mortality, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
These guidelines update the recommendations that were first released i...n 2018 on diagnosing, preventing, and managing cryptococcal disease. In response to important new evidence that became available in 2021, these new guidelines strongly recommend a single high dose of liposomal amphotericin B as part of the preferred induction regimen for the treatment of cryptococcal meningitis in people living with HIV. This simplified regimen - a single high dose of liposomal amphotericin B paired with other standard medicines (flucytosine and fluconazole) - is as effective as the previous WHO standard of care, with the benefits of lower toxicity and fewer monitoring demands.
The objective of these guidelines is to provide updated, evidence-informed recommendations for treating adults, adolescents and children living with HIV who have cryptococcal disease. These guidelines are aimed at HIV programme managers, policymakers, national treatment advisory boards, implementing partners and health-care professionals providing care for people living with HIV in resource-limited settings with a high burden of cryptococcal disease.
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