This document will be continuously updated. Version as of April 27th, 2020
Migrant and displaced children are at heightened risk to the immediate and secondary impacts of COVID-19. They often li
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ve in cramped conditions with limited access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), may be in immigration detention or “left behind,” live with disabilities, unaccompanied or separated from their families, and can be hardest to reach with accurate information in a language they understand. Migrant workers and refugees can live in the most disadvantaged urban areas, where access to essential services is already limited. Refugee and migrant children may also be prevented from accessing essential services due to legal, documentation, linguistic or safety barriers. Further, the misinformation on the spread of COVID-19 exacerbates the xenophobia and discrimination that migrant and displaced children and their families already face.
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CCC and OECTA Partnership Teaching Resource
Equity and Inclusion: Through the Lens of the Catholic Social Teachings
accessed on 16 July 2020
COVID-19 has heavily emphasized how contact tracing is crucial for managing outbreaks, and as part of the strategy for adjusting, and eventually lifting, lockdowns and other stringent public health and social measures. As the pandemic develops furth
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er, it will be a core measure to manage further waves of infection. In early June 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) convened an online global consultation on contact tracing in the context of COVID-19, looking at the lessons of the pandemic to date; known and emerging best practices; and the measures necessary for urgent implementation, scale-up, maintenance and enhancement of contact tracing activities.
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9 June 2021
Since its launch, GLASS has expanded in scope and coverage and as of May 2021, 109 countries and territories worldwide have enrolled in GLASS. A key new component in GLASS is the inclusion of
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antimicrobial consumption (AMC) surveillance at the national level highlighted in this fourth GLASS report.
The fourth GLASS report summarizes the 2019 data reported to WHO in 2020. It includes data on AMC surveillance from 15 countries and AMR data on 3 106 602 laboratory-confirmed infections reported by 24 803 surveillance sites in 70 countries, compared to the 507 923 infections and 729 surveillance sites reporting to the first data call in 2017.
The report also describes developments over the past years of GLASS and other AMR surveillance programmes led by WHO, including resistance to anti-human immunodeficiency virus and anti-tuberculosis medicines, antimalarial drug efficacy.
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This South-East Asia Regional Strategy for Primary Health Care: 2022-2030 aims to accelerate progress in all countries of the Region towards universal health coverage (UHC), health security and the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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. It is intended to provide Member States with guidance on facilitating PHC-orientation through the identification of seven values and 12 strategic actions that collectively embody the philosophy and practice of PHC, enunciated in the 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata and reaffirmed in the 2018 Declaration of Astana.
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This publication presents the Agenda for the Americas on Health, Environment, and Climate Change 2021–2030 (the Agenda). The Agenda is a call to action to the health sector to lead the charge to address environmental determinants of health in the
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Americas. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) will work with Member States to achieve its goal and objective to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages using a sustainable and equitable approach that places a priority on reducing health inequity. The Agenda has been developed under the umbrella of the WHO Global Strategy on Health, Environment, and Climate Change, and builds upon the commitments set forth in the Sustainable Health Agenda for the Americas 2018–2030 and the PAHO Strategic Plan 2020–2025. The Agenda was developed in consultation with the Technical Advisory Group and through a consensus-driven decision-making process with Member States during the 2019–2020 period. Looking toward the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 3, the Agenda focuses on: improving the performance of environmental public health programs and institutions; fostering environmentally resilient and sustainable health systems; and promoting environmentally healthy and resilient cities and communities. Its implementation will be context-specific, based on the needs and realities of the countries. It will benefit countries and territories by promoting good governance practices, strengthening the leadership and coordination roles of the health sector, fostering cross-sectoral action, focusing on primary prevention, and enhancing evidence and communication. It will facilitate access to human, technical, and financial resources necessary to address environmental determinants of health and ensure that the Region is fully engaged in global health, environment, and climate change processes and agreements. The objective of the Agenda is to strengthen the capacity of health actors in the health and non-health sectors to address and adapt to environmental determinants of health (EDHs), prioritizing populations living in conditions of vulnerability, in order to meet Outcome 18 of the PAHO Strategic Plan 2020–2025 directly and several other outcomes of the Plan indirectly. To address and adapt to the challenges of EDHs in the Region, an integrated and evidence-informed approach within the health sector and across sectors will be needed, one enabled, and supported by good governance practices, adequate management mechanisms, high-level political will, and adequate human, technical, technological, and financial resources.
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FAO and WHO jointly developed a comprehensive tool to assist Member states in assessing the effectiveness of national food control system. The FAO/WHO Food Control System Assessment Tool comprises 162 assessment criteria under 25 system competencies
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over 4 Dimensions. This introductory booklet is developed to facilitate application of the assessment tool.
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Current evidence that the climate is changing is overwhelming. Impacts of climate change and variability are being observed: more intense heat-waves, fires and floods; and increased prevalence of fo
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od- water- and vector-borne diseases. Climate change will put pressure on environmental and health determinants, such as food safety, air pollution and water quantity and quality. A climate-resilient future depends fundamentally on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Limiting warming to below 2 °C requires transformational technological, institutional, political and behavioural changes: the foundations for this are laid out in the Paris Agreement of December 2015. The health sector can lead by example, shifting to environmentally friendly practices and minimizing its carbon emissions. A climate-resilient future will increasingly depend on managing and reducing climate change risks to protect health. In the near term, this can be enhanced by including climate change in national health programming and creating climate-resilient health systems.
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NFPA continues to work with partners to respond to the Ukraine emergency. Highlights from the month of January include:
- The #TrainOfHope launched between Kyiv and Chisinau is a lifeline, providing refugees, including many women with children, bot
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h a route to safety and a way back home.
- When the Government of Ukraine lost control of Kherson city, social workers at a shelter for survivors of domestic violence continued to work so that women and girls could receive essential assistance.
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The WHO Pharmaceuticals Newsletter provides you with the latest information on the safety of medicinal products and regulatory actions taken by authorities around the world.
In addition, this edition includes summary and recommendations from the vi
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rtual meeting of the members of the WHO Programme for International Drug Monitoring (PIDM) and other partners, which was held on 20 October 2022.
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The chapter Dementia in Latin America and the Caribbean: Prevalence, Incidence, Impact, and Trends over Time, is part of the publication series titled “Decade of Healthy Aging: situation and chall
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enges”. This document aims to provide an outline of the current situation in Latin America and the Caribbean in respect of the prevalence and incidence of dementia and its impact on the health status of older people. As dementia is a significant global health problem which also has social and economic impacts this document highlights the importance of monitoring dementia in the region. The document evidences that dementia is one of the main contributors to dependence and disability in older people in Latin America and the Caribbean and, although its prevalence and incidence increase exponentially with age, it is not part of normal aging. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common dementia, and there is no cure for this condition, but with timely diagnosis is possible to ameliorate symptoms. It is important to assess what are the needs of people leaving with dementia and their families and to integrate dementia risk reduction strategies in pre-existing strategies for other non-communicable diseases. As shown in the report, despite the huge burden dementia is still underdiagnosed, and it is fundamental to better monitor its prevalence, incidence and the different societal impact that dementia can have. For that, it is crucial to promote the use of harmonized methodologies to address this information in a broader number of studies and countries in the region. This can contribute to the generation of direct actions to decrease dementia risk and lead to healthier lives for people with dementia and their families.
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The KMC implementation strategy targets a broad audience. These include policy-makers and programme managers at national, regional and local levels, government and nongovernmental organizations working in the area of maternal and newborn care, globa
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l and national professional associations, public and private hospital management at all levels of care, and facility- and community-based maternal and infant care providers.
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Safe drinking-water management must consider drinking-water quality, acceptability and quantity in the context of public health protection. In this manual, the term “safety” encompasses these three elements. Although the principles in this manua
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l can be broadly applied to all types of drinking-water supplies, the guidance is primarily intended for piped water supplies that are professionally managed (by a water supplier or equivalent management entity).The guidance may be applied to existing drinking-water supplies, or adapted for water supplies that are in the planning stage before construction.
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The Country Cooperation Strategy is the World Health Organization’s corporate framework developed in response to a country’s needs and priorities. The 2022–2025 CCS is the fourth for WHO in Sierra Leone. It is a medium-term strategic document that defines a broad framework for WHO’s work, at
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all levels, with the Government of Sierra Leone and all health partners for the next four years. This document is guided by the country’s major policy and strategy documents including the 2020 National Health and Sanitation Policy (NHSP); the 2021–2025 National Health Sector Strategic Plan (NHSSP); and the 2019–2023 National Medium-term Development Plan (NMTDP). The current CCS also reflects the broad priorities of WHO as outlined in its Thirteenth General Programme of Work (2019–2023, extended to 2025) with a focus on improving access to universal health coverage, protecting people from health emergencies, and improving people’s health and well-being. The CCS priorities are also in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) in Sierra Leone and will contribute to attaining the country's SDG targets
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Adolescence, defined as the period between 10 and 19 years of age, is a developmental stage during which many psychosocial and mental health challenges emerge. There is a well-established link between mental health and HIV outcomes. Adolescents and
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young adults living with HIV typically have additional mental health needs linked to their experiences of living with and managing a chronic illness, along with prevailing stigma and discrimination. Mental health promotion and prevention is thus a critical priority for this group.
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The Abuja declaration identifies that the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and related infectious diseases must come with additional financial resources. Therefore, African governments agreed on setting the target
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of allocating at least 15 per cent of each country’s annual budget to the improvement of the health sector. Moreover, the declaration demands donor countries to assist by fulfilling the target of delivering official development assistance (ODA) in the amount of 0.7 per cent of gross national product (GNP).
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This checklist is an operational tool to help national authorities develop or revise national respiratory pathogen (inclusive of influenza and coronaviruses) pandemic preparedness plans.
The Global Asthma Report (GAR) 2022, prepared by the Global Asthma Network (GAN), is the fourth such report (others 2011, 2014, 2018). GAN builds upon the work of the International Study of Asthma a
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nd Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) and The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) to monitor asthma and improve asthma care, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
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This pan-African report describes and analyses the cultural, social, physical and other societal barriers preventing children with disabilities in Africa from realising their full human potential. It also describes the opportunities, initiatives and good practices that exist, that indicate the progr
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ess, albeit insufficient, that has been made towards realising the rights for children with disabilities in Africa. Recommendations and priorities for action are presented which promote inclusive and accessible laws, policies, and programmes for children with disabilities throughout Africa
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Lessons and best practices in empowering pastoralist communities to prevent HIV infection and reduce the impact of AIDS in Ethiopia. Briefing Paper