Revised and expanded version of the Guidelines
At the global, national, and regional levels, there are several guidelines and guides regarding the preparedness, prevention, surveillance, and control of diseases caused by respiratory viruses; mos
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t initiatives focus on specific virus events or cases. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, it has been found that even when there are strategies designed and planned for pandemics, it is necessary to strengthen and improve them. Planning for imminent threats, including those posed by respiratory viruses, contributes to strengthening the core capacities of the International Health Regulations (IHR [2005])
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Significant progress has been made in the eradication of three priority diseases in the African Region, as a result of extensive collaboration between the
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Regional Office, WHO country offices and countries. For example, in August 2020, the region was certified free of wild poliovirus. In the area of neglected tropical diseases, Guinea worm disease is on the verge of eradication, and 12 member states are within reach of being certified as having eradicated yaws by the end of this year.
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This guide provides a comprehensive overview of essential information related to immunization, including technical information about vaccines, a review of immunization program management best practices, guidance on the delivery of immunization servi
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ces, monitoring and evaluation, disease surveillance, and the role of behavior change.
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This document updates the 2009 ECDC guidance on chlamydia control in Europe. It was developed by a technical expert group which conducted a critical review of the scientific evidence on
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the epidemiology of chlamydia and the effectiveness of screening programmes.
The aim of this guidance is to support Member States to develop, implement or improve strategies for chlamydia control. This guidance describes the current evidence base behind the proposed options, highlights key gaps in knowledge, and suggests effective options for national chlamydia control strategies. It is directed primarily at policy advisors but should also be useful for programme managers and experts in sexual health.
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Indicators for monitoring the 2016 United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS
UNAIDS supports countries to collect information on their national HIV responses through the Global AIDS M
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onitoring (GAM) framework—an annual collection of 72 indicators on the response to HIV in a country. These data form part of the data set used to report back to the General Assembly.
Different from the HIV epidemiological estimates that countries produce for data on the state of the epidemic in a country—that is, data for making estimates on the number of people living with HIV, AIDS-related deaths, etc.—GAM collects information on HIV programmes, including the number of people living with HIV who know their HIV status and people on HIV treatment, and on stigma and discrimination. A full list of the indicators is given in the GAM guidelines.
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Guidance
Indicators for monitoring the 2016 Political Declaration on Ending AIDS
UNAIDS Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
WHO published the first COVID-19 Strategic Response and Preparedness Plan (SPRP) on 3 February, 2020. This report highlights the main points of progress that were made up to 30 June 2020 under
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the three objectives outlined in the SPRP: scaling up international coordination and support; scaling up country preparedness and response by pillar; and accelerating research and innovation. The report also discusses some of the key challenges faced so far, and provides an update on the resource requirements for the next phase of WHO’s response as part of an unprecedented whole-of-UN approach to the pandemic.
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This global guidance provided the framework for over 100 countries to develop their NDVPs. This updated (second) version supersedes the previous version published in 16 November 2020. New informati
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on has been added on the following areas:
the COVID-19 Partners Platform;
the use of COVID-19 simulation exercises to test deployment strategies;
the indemnity agreement and no-fault compensation programme for vaccines secured through the COVAX Facility in the Advance Market Commitment (AMC) eligible economies;
the availability and use of the WHO-UNICEF COVID-19 Vaccine Introduction and deployment Costing (CVIC) tool;
the COVAX Facility’s humanitarian buffer that enables allocation of vaccine to cover high-risk populations in humanitarian settings;
recommendations for vaccination of pregnant and lactating women;
supplementary information on infection prevention and control (IPC) measures to be used to deliver COVID-19 vaccines safely;
the WHO licensed COVID-19 vaccines product-specific information;
use of geospatial data and digital micro plans for equitable access and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines;
lessons learned from the development of NDVPs and early experiences in COVID-19 vaccine deployment in countries; and
updated additional resources at the end of each chapter.
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13 July 2021
The module provides an overview of factors to consider when monitoring the safety of COVID-19 vaccines administered to pregnant and breastfeeding women. It describes how national rout
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ine AEFI surveillance should be adapted to cater for this specific group of population using both passive and active surveillance methods. Specific considerations and limitations of each method are provided as well as tools for implementation.
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Outstanding child and adolescent TB priorities include the need to: find the missing children with active TB and link them to TB care; prevent TB in children who are in contact with infectious TB ca
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ses (through implementation of active contact investigation and provision of preventive treatment); and advance integration within general child health services, including maternal and child health/ reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, HIV, nutrition and other programmes.
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Previous advocacy efforts have achieved tangible goals in terms garnering political commitments
to increase financing for TB—as seen at the 2018 UN High-Level Meeting on TB. The challenge
now is
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to ensure that these commitments are actually met within a global biomedical research
ecosystem that is designed and incentivized to prioritize the health needs of wealthy populations
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This updated step by step guide aims to assist the ministries of health (MoHs) in developing the national action plans for noma prevention and control, with a view to sustainably reducing
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the incidence of noma as a public health problem through programmes that are fully integrated with national health planning, strengthening of primary health care (PHC) and attainment of universal health coverage (UHC).
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Noma (cancrum oris) is a severe gangrenous disease of the mouth and face. It mostly affects children between the ages of 2 and 6 years living in extreme poverty. In addition to
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the known factors such as malnutrition, lack of vaccination in children and poor oral hygiene, several social and environmental factors such as maternal malnutrition and close spacing of pregnancies that result in offspring with increasingly weakened immune systems are potentially related to the onset of the disease.
The aim of this guide is to assist the ministries of health (MoHs) to identify a general goal to be attained by the end of five years, with a view to sustainably reducing the incidence of noma as a public health problem through programmes that are fully integrated with national health planning, strengthening of primary health care (PHC) and attainment of UHC.
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Cholera which disproportionally impacts poor countries and the most vulnerable continues to affect at least 47 countries across the globe, resulting in an estimated 1.3 – 4 million cases, and 21,0
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00 - 143,000 deaths per year worldwide. In Ethiopia, despite major improvements seen in the increasing access to healthcare, clean water, and improvement in maternal and child health, the country continues to be significantly affected by cholera outbreaks. From 2015 – 2021 for example, several outbreaks of cholera have occurred in multiple parts of the country resulting in over 105,000 cases and thousands of deaths. Some of the risk factors associated with cholera in Ethiopia include inadequate access to clean water, practice of open defecation, poor household and environmental sanitation, unhygienic latrine and weak sanitation practise among communities.
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“2022 was an eventful year for the WHO Country Office in Ghana,” says Dr Francis Kasolo, WHO Representative to Ghana.
In 2022, WHO Ghana collaborated with partners to deliver interventions in support of
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the Government of Ghana's health sector agenda to ensure healthy lives for all towards achieving Universal Health Coverage. This 2022 annual report highlights some of the achievements that were chalked in our efforts to help promote the health and wellbeing of Ghanaians
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SHOPS and HIA finalized a scope of work with USAID Senegal in April 2015, and a team of five private sector experts conducted the onsite assessments between May and June 2015. The Private Sector Ass
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essment (PSA) team worked closely with Senegalese key stakeholders throughout the process. The PSA team interviewed more than120 individuals from approximately 78 organizations, including the government of Senegal (GOS), donors, USAID implementing partners, private sector umbrella organizations, private insurance companies, faith-based organizations (FBOs), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), private health care facilities, and private pharmacies.
Through stakeholder interviews and review of government reports and online resources, the assessment team noted the following findings by theme.
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This FY 2019 Malaria Operational Plan presents a detailed implementation plan for Burkina Faso, based on the strategies of PMI and the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP). It was developed in co
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nsultation with the NMCP and with the participation of national and international partners involved in malaria prevention and control in the country. The activities that PMI is proposing to support fit in well with the national malaria control strategy and plan and build on investments made by PMI and other partners to improve and expand malaria-related services, including malaria grants from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. This document briefly reviews the current status of malaria control policies and interventions in Burkina Faso, describes progress to date, identifies challenges and unmet needs to achieving the targets of the NMCP and PMI, and provides a description of activities that are planned with FY 2019 funding.
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Nepal has only recently started its journey on the path to an integrated response to the challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Despite this, it is notable that
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the Nepal Health Sector Strategy Plan (HSSP)-2 mentions growing antibiotic resistanceas a public health challenge.
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To guide One Health capacity building efforts in the Republic of Guinea in the wake of the 2014–2016 Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak, we sough
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t to identify and assess the existing systems and structures for zoonotic disease detection and control. We partnered with the government ministries responsible for human, animal, and environmental health to identify a list of zoonotic diseases – rabies, anthrax, brucellosis, viral hemorrhagic fevers, trypanosomiasis and highly pathogenic avian influenza – as the country's top priorities. We used each priority disease as a case study to identify existing processes for prevention, surveillance, diagnosis, laboratory confirmation, reporting and response across the three ministries. Results were used to produce disease-specific systems “maps” emphasizing linkages across the systems, as well as opportunities for improvement. We identified brucellosis as a particularly neglected condition. Past efforts to build avian influenza capabilities, which had degraded substantially in less than a decade, highlighted the challenge of sustainability. We observed a keen interest across sectors to reinvigorate national rabies control, and given the regional and global support for One Health approaches to rabies elimination, rabies could serve as an ideal disease to test incipient One Health coordination mechanisms and procedures. Overall, we identified five major categories of gaps and challenges: (1) Coordination; (2) Training; (3) Infrastructure; (4) Public Awareness; and (5) Research. We developed and prioritized recommendations to address the gaps, estimated the level of resource investment needed, and estimated a timeline for implementation. These prioritized recommendations can be used by the Government of Guinea to plan strategically for future One Health efforts, ideally under the auspices of the national One Health Platform. This work demonstrates an effective methodology for mapping systems and structures for zoonotic diseases, and the benefit of conducting a baseline review of systemic capabilities prior to embarking on capacity building efforts.
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