Update 2021; Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals
This guide is available in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese
This guide consolidates COVID-19 guidance for human resources for health managers and policy-makers at national, subnational and facility levels to design, manage and preserve the workforce necessary to manage the COVI...D-19 pandemic and maintain essential health services.
The guide identifies recommendations to protect, support and empower health workers at individual, management, organizational and system levels.
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Available in Russian
A detailed overview is provided of the implementation of alcohol policies described in the 10 action areas of the European Action Plan to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol 2012–2020 (EAPA), including the current status of implementation of the five action areas of the WHO-led... SAFER initiative:
Strengthen restrictions on alcohol availability;
Advance and enforce drink–driving countermeasures;
Facilitate access to screening, brief interventions and treatment;
Enforce bans or comprehensive restrictions on alcohol advertising, sponsorship and promotion; and
Raise prices on alcohol through excise taxes and pricing policies.
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The report shows that older people are not getting the healthcare treatments they desperately need. The COVID-19 response has disrupted services for non-communicable diseases such as cancer and diabetes, communicable diseases such as malaria, and much-needed services for mental health. Combined with... a loss of income, many older people are unable to get the medicines they need.
A Summary is available in Russian and Arabic
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This publication provides recommendations for the management of critically ill adult patients with COVID-19 being treated in intensive care units (ICUs) in the Americas. These clinical practice guidelines provide evidence-informed recommendations for identifying markers and mortality risk factors in... critically ill patients, as well as infection control, sample collection, supportive care (respiratory and hemodynamic), pharmacological treatment, early rehabilitation, diagnostic imaging use, prevention of complications, and discharge requirements. The recommendations are for all health care staff caring for patients in emergency departments and ICUs. These guidelines are also intended for use by decisionmakers and government entities involved in the management of patients with COVID-19 in ICUs in the Region of the Americas.
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This publication was developed in response to the need for a reference list of priority medical devices required for management of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), focusing on cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, especially for low- and middle-income countries to support universal health coverage a...ctions.
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Many African countries were amongst the most rapid to respond to the emerging threat of COVID-19, implementing large-scale interventions at very early stages of their epidemic. As demonstrated in this document using very simple models, this rapid mobilization and timeliness of implementing control m...easures is likely to be an important determinant of their success. Indeed, as these measures were relaxed, subsequent waves of disease have been observed in many countries including South Africa, Kenya, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where such waves have severely impacted the health system by straining the supply of oxygen and ICU beds and inflicting a heavy toll on healthcare workers, often necessitating the re-imposition of control measures.
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6 July 2021. The “WHO consolidated guidelines on tuberculosis. Module 3: Diagnosis - Rapid diagnostics for tuberculosis detection 2021 update” is the latest document replacing the one issued in 2020. Three new nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) classes are endorsed by WHO and included in the... latest consolidated guideline
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Pharmaceutical regulators are at the forefront of ensuring that only safe and effective medicines are authorized and available in the market. This document builds on the recommendations in the above publication and has been prepared to specifically assist national medicines regulatory authorities to... understand the nature and extent of oxytocin quality issues and to provide key technical information and quality requirements for oxytocin products in dossier assessments. Furthermore, this document also presents recommendations on other regulatory actions needed to ensure that only quality-assured oxytocin products are authorized and made available to women.
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24 May 2021; Guidance for vaccinators on how to store, prepare, draw up and administer COVID-19 vaccines Updated May 2021 · Western Cape Edition
Practical Approach to Care Kit: Vaccine
Soil-transmitted helminths are a group of intestinal worms that include Ascaris lumbricoides (giant roundworm), Trichuris trichiura (whipworm), and Ancylostoma spp. (A. duodenale, A. ceylanicum) and Necator americanus (hookworms). Despite the clear biological differences among the different species,... their transmission is characterized by the same sequence of events: (i) infected individuals excrete worm eggs through their stool in soil; (ii) under optimal conditions of moisture and temperature the excreted eggs develop into infectious stages; and (iii) finally, infection occurs through oral uptake (Ascaris, Ancylostoma and Trichuris) or skin penetration (Ancylostoma and Necator) of these infectious stages (embryonated eggs and third stage larvae) that reside in the soil and/or in the environment (referring to their common name).
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This manual describes methods for investigating clusters or outbreaks that may be of chemical origin and describes the importance of a structured, coordinated, collaborative multidisciplinary, multi-agency approach at local, regional, national and international levels.
March 2021. “A Decade of Destruction: Attacks on health care in Syria,” highlights with chilling detail how this 10-year war strategy has turned hospitals from safe havens into no-go zones where Syrian civilians now fear for their lives.
The Mtoto Mwerevu Stunting Reduction Toolkit is a resource for government and organisations involved in addressing stunting and broader nutrition issues in Tanzania. The toolkit was developed in conjunction with the Government of Tanzania (GoT) with funding from UK Aid as part of the Addressing Stun...ting in Tanzania Early (ASTUTE) programme. Its goal is to provide government, donors, non-governmental organisations, and civil society organisations (CSOs) with programming recommendations and tools to help implement successful multi-sectoral social and behaviour change (SBC) interventions aimed at preventing and reducing stunting.
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Early damage assessments indicate that at least 800,000 people could be directly exposed to minor to severe damages, including communication, access, security, loss of livelihoods, infrastructure, and health services could be impacted.
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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