This document focuses on the management of patients affected by gambiense HAT and
constitutes an update to the WHO therapeutic guidance issued in 2013. The main changes in recommendations concern the criteria and methods for deciding the treatment ...among the new set of therapeutic options and the particular conditions that apply to treatment with fexinidazole, as outlined below. Because HAT is a serious, life-threatening disease and because the efficacy of fexinidazole depends on swallowing the medicine after an appropriate intake of food as well as on completing the full 10-day
treatment schedule, the recommendations regarding fexinidazole administration are considered key elements that must be carefully followed. When the conditions listed in these guidelines are not met for any individual patient, the alternative available treatments should be prescribed.
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Since 2000, concerted efforts by national programmes, supported by public–private partnerships, nongovernmental organizations, donors and academia under the auspices and coordination of the World Health<.../span> Organization (WHO), have produced important achievements in the control of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT). As a consequence, the disease was targeted for elimination as a public health problem by 2020. The Sixty-sixth World Health Assembly endorsed this goal in resolution WHA66.12 on neglected tropical diseases, adopted in 2013.
National sleeping sickness control programmes (NSSCPs) are core to progressing control of the disease and in adapting to the different epidemiological situations. The involvement of different partners, as well as the support and trust of long-term donors, has been crucial for the achievements.
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Discussion paper initially prepared in April 2015 to facilitate feedback, and finalized after the
June 2015 meeting of WHO’s Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for TB (STAG-TB).
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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This report is the first of its kind. It brings together various data sets to present the current status of hand hygiene, highlight lagging progress, and call governments and supporting agencies to ...action, offering numerous inspiring examples of change.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, hand hygiene received unprecedented attention and became a central pillar in national COVID prevention strategies. However, concern with hand hygiene should not only be as temporary public health measure in times of crisis, but as a vital everyday behaviour that contributes to health and economic resilience. Hand hygiene is a highly cost-effective investment, providing outsized health benefits for relatively little cost.
Despite efforts to promote hand hygiene, the rates of access to hand hygiene facilities remain stubbornly low. If current rates of progress continue, by the end of the SDG era in 2030, 1.9 billion people will still lack facilities to wash their hands at home.
This report presents a compelling case for investment in five key ‘accelerators’ as a pathway towards achieving hand hygiene for all – governance, financing, capacity development, data and information, and innovation. These accelerators are identified under the UN-Water SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework.
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This report reviews the current situation in relation to national capacity to address NCDs and the progress made at country level over the past decade. It highlights that, while progress is being made, there is still much work to be done to create the infrastructure, policies, surveillance and ... class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">health systems response that will allow NCDs and their contributing risk factors to be successfully contained and reversed.
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Lymphatic filariasis is a neglected tropical disease that can cause permanent disability through disruption of the lymphatic system. This disease is caused by parasitic filarial worms that are transmitted by mosquitos. Mass drug administration (MDA)... of antihelmintics is recommended by WHO to eliminate lymphatic filariasis as a public health problem. This study aims to produce the first geospatial estimates of the global prevalence of lymphatic filariasis infection over time, to quantify progress towards elimination, and to identify geographical variation in distribution of infection.
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Over 6 million people worldwide are infected with Trypanosoma cruzi, the protozoan that causes Chagas disease
(CD). T. cruzi is transmitted by triatomine insects, congenitally, through uncontrolled blood donations and organ transplants,
and via consumption ...x">of food or drink contaminated by triatomines.
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Effective malaria case management requires quick access to diagnostics and antimalarial treatments to reduce illness and death. Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) has been essential to malaria treatment since 2001, as it combines artemisinin for rapid parasite reduction with a partner drug ...to ensure complete cure. However, resistance to antimalarial drugs, where parasites survive standard doses, threatens malaria control.
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The Committee discussed the implications for preparedness for smallpox-like events reflected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Committee noted how quickly diagnostics and vaccines could be developed and deployed when resources and political will were abundant. This rapidity was also due to the f...act that the genetic sequence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) had been shared worldwide. It was noted that in one country SARS-CoV-2 had been reconstructed in a laboratory from the viral genome sequence before the first case of COVID-19 had been reported, highlighting the benefits of synthetic biology technologies for accelerated development of diagnostics as well as the oft-described potential risks. Lessons learned about clinical care during the COVID-19 pandemic were also discussed.
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The two-year impact report for the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator details impact, case studies and timelines of key milestones for the Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Vaccines pillars, as well as the ...box">Health Systems and Response Connector.
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Report of a global meeting on yaws eradication surveillance, monitoring and evaluation: Geneva, 29–30 January 2018. World Health Organization.
The objectives of the meeting were:
1. To update the current status of the disease transmission, country capacities and plans for tackling the disease.
2. To understand the epidemiology includin...g disease distribution and risk, the models
for estimating under-detection, the geographical variations of in clinical presentation,
the roles of domestic and wild animal reservoirs and the subsequent different
transmission patterns and control approaches, including vector control.
3. To update current research and development efforts for improving diagnostic and
treatment tools.
4. To define the goals for achieving the control of r-HAT, the need for a multisectoral
approach and to discuss the strategy for controlling r-HAT and the coordination
mechanisms.
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Sepsis contributes significantly to preventable mortality and is the final common pathway to death for severe infectious diseases; it can also arise as a complication of injuries and non-communicable diseases.
Globalization and Health 2012, 8:15
DHS Further Analysis Reports No. 111
This study is a theory-driven analysis of the socio-demographic determinants of maternal care seeking in Kenya. Specifically, it examines predisposing, enab...ling, and need factors potentially associated with use of antenatal care (ANC), health facility delivery, and timely postnatal care (PNC).
This study uses data from the 2014 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) conducted among women age 15-49 with a live birth in the five years preceding the survey. It includes data from all 47 counties of Kenya, grouped contiguously into 12 regions. We apply Andersen’s Behavioral Model of Health Services Use to examine socio-demographic predictors of health service use. We estimate logistic regression models for adequate use of ANC (defined as attending at least four ANC visits, starting in the first three months of pregnancy), delivery in a health facility, and PNC within 48 hours of delivery.
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DHS Working Papers No. 110 | Zimbabwe Working Papers No. 11