This WHO Guidance Note advocates for a comprehensive approach to cervical cancer prevention and control and is aimed at senior policy makers
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and programme managers. It describes the need to deliver effective interventions across the female life course from childhood through to adulthood. These include community education, social mobilization, HPV vaccination, screening, treatment and palliative care. It outlines the complementary strategies for comprehensive cervical cancer prevention and control, and highlights collaboration across national health programmes (particularly immunization, reproductive health, cancer control and adolescent health), organizations and partners.
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This country cooperation strategy (CCS) outlines how the World Health Organization (WHO) will wo
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rk with the Lao People’s Democratic Republic over the next five years (2024–2028), supporting the implementation of the five-year health sector development plans and the Health Sector Reform Strategy 2021–2030 to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
The Lao People’s Democratic Republic experienced substantial economic growth in the 30 years prior to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, contributing to reduced poverty and significant progress toward the SDGs. However, the COVID-19 pandemic brought this development to a halt. It was anticipated that the COVID-19 recovery and the tremendous population growth in recent years would provide opportunities for a shift toward more sustainable and inclusive development in the years ahead. In 2023, however, the contrary was the case. Rural residents, including many ethnic minorities, continued to face marginalization because of limited access to education, health care and economic opportunities.
Despite the challenges of COVID-19 and other disease outbreaks, the country has made significant improvements in health. Nonetheless, progress has been uneven and not everyone has benefited from these achievements. In the mountainous region, many people lack access to quality health care because of the unequal distribution of well-trained health-care workers. Preventable deaths due to poor-quality health care for children and newborns, infants and mothers remain a concern, as do communicable diseases such as sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis. The increasing burden of noncommunicable diseases and the health impact of worsening climate change further heighten the need for strengthened and resilient health systems, which are at risk due to an underfunded health sector and weak economy.
This CCS aims to address remaining and future challenges as well as health needs while creating an impact that is sustainable. It identifies three strategic priorities and nine deliverables (Table 1) to support the attainment of the national vision of Health for all by all, as articulated in the 9th Health Sector Development Plan 2021–2025. It contributes to the country’s goals to achieve universal health coverage, graduate from least developed country status by 2026 and attain SDGs by 2030.
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Enabling young children to achieve their full developmental potential is a human right and an essential requisite for sustainable development. Given the critical importance of enabling children to m
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ake the best start in life, the health sector, among other sectors, has an important role and responsibility to support nurturing care for early childhood development. This guideline provides direction for strengthening policies and programmes to better address early childhood development.
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This new guideline on non-clinical interventions to reduce unnecessary caesarean sections incorporates the views, fears and beliefs of both women and
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health professionals about caesarean sections. It also considers the complex dynamics and limitations of health systems and organizations and relationships between women, health professionals and organization of health care services.
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Unchecked inequality and failure to protect the rights of poorest women could undermine peace and world
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’s development goals, new UNFPA report warns:
- Only about half of the world’s women hold paid jobs
- Globally, women earn 77 per cent of what men get
- Three in five women worldwide lack maternity leave, many pay "motherhood penalty"
The report is also available in French: https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/sowp/downloads/UNFPA_PUB_2017_FR_swop_Etat_de_la_population_mondiale.pdf; in Spanish: https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/sowp/downloads/UNFPA_PUB_2017_ES_SWOP_Estado_de_la_Poblacion_Mundial.pdf; in Russian: https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/sowp/downloads/UNFPA_PUB_2017_RU_SWOP_NARODONASELENIE_MIRA_V_2017_GODU.pdf and in Arabic: https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/sowp/downloads/UNFPA_PUB_2017_AR_SWOP_Hl_skn_llm_.pdf
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The ERF provides WHO staff with essential guidance on how the Organization manages the assessment, grading and response to public
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health events and emergencies with health consequences, in support of Member States and affected communities. The ERF adopts an all-hazards approach and it is therefore applicable in all acute public health events and emergencies.
This version (2024) of the WHO ERF has been developed following extensive consultation across the three levels of the Organization and response experiences over the last five years of emergency response. Key areas have been updated to improve the accountability, predictability, timeliness and effectiveness of WHO’s response to emergencies.
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This document provides interim recommendations for the surveillance of Zika virus infection, microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome, in four different contexts
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and describes reporting requirements to WHO. Transmission refers to vector-borne transmission, unless specified differently. Autochthonous infection is considered to be an infection acquired in-country, i.e. among patients with no history of travel during the incubation period or who have travelled exclusively to non-affected areas during the incubation period. This document does not provide guidance on laboratory investigation or vector surveillance.
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This report on progress achieved in the WHO European Region and Member States in implementing the European food and nutrition action plan 2015–20
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20 presents selected epidemiological data on the nutritional status of populations throughout the Region and on implementation of policies recommended in regional and global frameworks to promote healthy nutrition and prevent obesity. The data contained in the report are derived from the responses of Member States to the WHO Global nutrition policy review questionnaire.
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The WHO Labour Care Guide is a tool that aims to support good-quality, evidence-based, respectful care during labour and childbirth, irrespective of
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the setting or level of health care. This manual has been developed to help skilled health personnel to successfully use the WHO Labour Care Guide. The manual will also be of interest to staff involved in training health care personnel, health-care facility managers, and implementers and managers of maternal and child health services.
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Notable progress has also been made on other key health indicators such as reducing maternal, infant and child deaths and malnutrition, increasing
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immunization coverage, eliminating infectious diseases such as polio and reducing the incidence of malaria, tuberculosis and diarrhoeal diseases.
But despite such substantial progress, the country now faces new and emerging new challenges such as the rising burden of noncommunicable diseases, increased risks associated with disasters, environmental threats and health emergencies during disease outbreaks including the COVID-19 pandemic that is a serious public health threat to Bangladesh. To establish a resilience system for future potential pandemics, the national capacity for emergency preparedness and early response to health emergencies needs to be bolstered considerably.
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The WHO End TB Strategy aims to end the global TB epidemic by 2030, in alignment with Goal 3 of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Member States
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of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN committed to ending the TB epidemic through adoption of WHO’s End TB Strategy and the UN SDGs in 2014 and 2015, respectivel
Almost half of the deaths worldwide caused by TB in 2019 occurred in the WHO South-East Asia Region, home to around a quarter of the global population. Maintaining robust progress in this Region is therefore essential if the global goal of ending the TB epidemic is to be realized. Despite substantial gains made in the Region, the threat to
health worldwide posed by the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to reverse these gains and eclipse the focus on the global TB emergency.
While continuing to tackle COVID-19-related challenges, countries will need to rapidly and urgently deploy supplementary measures to address the large numbers of missed cases, poor treatment outcomes and, potentially, a higher TB burden.
The Regional Strategic Plan towards Ending TB in the Region 2021–2025 clearly articulates priority interventions, analyses the challenges, bottlenecks and opportunities, and focuses on implementation considerations in the Region.
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2nd edition - Published in 2003, the first WHO/HAI medicine prices manual Medicine Prices – A
New Approach to Measurement Draft for field-testing provides a draft methodology and tools to conduc
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t national medicine prices and availability surveys. This second edition of the survey manual has been updated to reflect the wealth of practical
experience in conducting medicine prices and availability surveys garnered in the project’s first two phases.
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The United Nations Commission on Life-Saving Commodities (UNCLSC, 2012) defined 13 health products to end preventable deaths of woman and children.
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One of those 13 products is the neonatal resuscitator, is indispensable medical device to save newborns from asphyxia at birth. For the efficient use of neonatal resuscitation, training of healthcare professionals using neonatal resuscitation manikins is the most effective approach. Critical lifesaving trainings calls for the need of neonatal resuscitation manikins with the right features.
The purpose of the WHO Neonatal resuscitation manikin: technical specifications is to provide a minimum standard baseline to meet the increasing demand to procure good quality, affordable, accessible, and appropriate neonatal resuscitation manikins. Towards the development of this baseline, this document includes compilation of available scientific evidence from technical literature, international publications, expert reviews, and an industry survey which was conducted by WHO medical devices team.
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WHO published guidance for clinicians and health care decision-makers on the use of corticostero
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ids in patients with COVID-19.
We recommend systemic corticosteroids for the treatment of patients with severe and critical COVID-19. We suggest not to use corticosteroids in the treatment of patients with non-severe COVID-19 as the treatment brought no benefits, and could even prove harmful. Treatment should be under supervision of a clinician.
Corticosteroids are listed in the WHO model list of essential medicines, readily available globally at a low cost. WHO encourages countries to maintain sufficient stocks of corticosteroids to treat COVID-19 and the other disease for which they are effective, while not maintaining excessive stocks which could deny other countries access.
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Guideline
Iron deficiency is one of the most common forms of nutritional deficiencies, particularly among vulnerable groups such as women, children a
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nd low-income populations. Iron deficiency often precedes anaemia, and anaemia during pregnancy is one of the strongest predictors of anaemia during the postpartum period, beginning just after childbirth throughout the subsequent 6 weeks. The consequences of iron deficiency and anaemia during the postpartum period can be serious and have long-term health implications for the mother and her infant.
This guideline reviews the evidence on the safety and effectiveness of iron supplementation in postpartum women.
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The harmful use of alcohol causes approximately 3 million deaths every year and the overall burden of disease
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and injuries attributable to alcohol consumption remains unacceptably high. The pace of development and implementation of alcohol policies has been uneven in WHO regions, and resources and capacities for implementation of the WHO Global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol 10 years after its endorsement do not correspond to the magnitude of the problems. On this basis, the WHO Executive Board in its decision EB146 (14) called for accelerated action to reduce the harmful use of alcohol.
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Preliminary overview of refugees and migrants self-reported impact of COVID-19
The study surveyed over 30,000 refugees
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and migrants living in 170 countries. Many of the respondents had fled war or dire economic conditions in their home country only to be faced with the additional challenges posed by COVID-19. Travel restrictions including border closures, suspension of resettlement travel, and last-minute deportation left many stranded or forced to stay in cramped, makeshift shelters or detention centers. Amid these uncertain, precarious conditions, many migrants described either a lack of access to health services or a fear of seeking them out — even if they were experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
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The purpose of this publication is to facilitate the implementation of existing WHO guidelines on nutrition-specific
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and nutrition-sensitive actions required for improving health and well-being of adolescents. Implementing these actions should explicitly take into account the heterogeneity of adolescents in general (for instance, in their state of physical growth and social development), as well as the diversity within their country (for instance, in terms of the expected responsibilities in the family, the number out of school or out of work and existing social norms).
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mhGAP is based on evidence-based technical guidelines (4) and provides a set of tools and
training packages to extend service provision. The mhGAP
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Intervention Guide (mhGAP-IG)
for MNS disorders in non-specialized health settings (8) is a clinical decision-making tool
for assessing and managing priority MNS conditions (depression, psychoses, epilepsy, child
and adolescent mental and behavioural disorders, dementia, disorders due to substance
use, self-harm and suicide).
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The purpose of this Emergency Response Framework (ERF) is to clarify WHO’s roles and responsibilities in this regard
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and to provide a common approach for its work in emergencies. Ultimately, the ERF requires WHO to act with urgency and predictability to best serve and be accountable to populations affected by emergencies.
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