This briefing paper provides an overview of the approach underlying EA, how and by whom it is applied and its problems and consequences. It concludes that policy makers, rather than be guided by its assumptions and conclusions, must instead concentrate on understand-i...ng the confounding structural causes of interdependent global challenges and aim at their long-term solution, within an overarching human rights framework.
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mhGAP Training Manual for the mhGAP Intervention Guide for mental, neurological and substance use disorders in non-specialized health settings – version 2.0 (for field testing)
Accessed 06.03.2019
International Perspectives and Future Directions
Accessed online January 2019, date of publication unknown.
This analytical report reviews and discusses the potential role and influence of political commitment in implementing endorsements and conducting policy in the field of tuberculosis (TB) prevention and care. It promotes discussion by comparing and analysing the extent to which selected international... commitments, set out in declarations and other committal documents between 2000 and 2018, may have translated into sustainable action. This reflection is relevant and timely, as the United Nations high-level meeting (UNHLM) on TB recently took place, offering countries the opportunity to take stock of progress made, refocus efforts, and step up global commitments to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of eliminating TB by 2030
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The new WHO Guidelines on Sanitation and Health summarize the evidence on the effectiveness of a range of sanitation interventions and provide a comprehensive framework for health-protecting sanitation, covering policy and governance measures, implementation of sanitation technologies, systems and b...ehavioural interventions, risk-based management, and monitoring approaches. Critically, the guidelines articulate the role of the health sector in maximizing the health impact of sanitation interventions.
The guidelines also identify gaps in the evidence-base to guide future research efforts to improve the effectiveness of sanitation interventions.
(French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic in production)
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Lancet Planet Health 2019; 3: e93–101
On Sunday 16th December 2018, some villages in the Province of Mai-Nambiar, Democratic Republic of Congo, neighboring the district of Makotimpoko in the Republic of Congo (CongoBrazzaville) were affected by inter-ethnic conflict between the Banunu and the Batende. The fighting has resulted in 400 fa...talities and the destruction of property. A large number of the population of the conflict affected areas were forced to cross the river Congo and find refuge in several localities in the Cuvette (Konda and Youmba) and Plateaux (Makotimpoko, Bouemba, Patrick) areas in Congo-Brazzaville.
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Guidance
Indicators for monitoring the 2016 Political Declaration on Ending AIDS
UNAIDS Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
Nature Reviews Microbiology Vol. 17 (2019)pp.51-62
Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) technologies help to accelerate the
initiation of targeted antimicrobial therapy for patients with infections and could potentially
extend the lifespan of current narrow- spectrum antimicrobials. Althoug...h conceptually new and
rapid AST technologies have been described, including new phenotyping methods, digital
imaging and genomic approaches, there is no single major, or broadly accepted, technological
breakthrough that leads the field of rapid AST platform development
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This report documents scores of serious abuses committed against talibé children by Quranic teachers or their assistants in 2017 and 2018, including deaths, beatings, sexual abuse, chaining and imprisonment, and numerous forms of neglect and endangerment. The abuses took place in at least eight of ...Senegal’s 14 administrative regions (Dakar, Diourbel, Fatick, Kaolack, Louga, Saint-Louis, Tambacounda, and Thiès); a Human Rights Watch researcher visited four of these regions: Dakar, Diourbel, Louga and Saint-Louis.
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Despite Pakistan's progress in reducing the number of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases to 8 in 2017 and 12 in 2018, 2019 has seen a significant rise in the number of WPV1 cases (41 cases as of July 8 2019). One of the most intractable challenges the Pakistan Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) is ...facing is refusals by parents and caregivers to immunise their children with the polio vaccine. In light of this challenge, the Pakistan programme has revisited its strategy and put forward this Extension of the National Emergency Action Plan 2018/2019 (NEAP), which will carry the programme forward from July to December 2019
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Lancet. 2019; 394: 1212-1214
Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases and their risk factors are an increasing public health and development challenge in Kazakhstan. This report provides evidence through three analyses that NCDs reduce economic output and ...discusses potential options in response, outlining details of their relative returns on investment. An economic burden analysis shows that economic losses from NCDs (direct and indirect costs) comprise 2.3 trillion tenge, equivalent to 4.5% of gross domestic product in 2017. An intervention costing analysis provides an estimate of the funding required to implement a set of policy interventions for prevention and clinical interventions. A cost–benefit analysis compares these implementation costs with the estimated health gains and identifies which policy packages would give the greatest returns on investment. For example, the salt policy package achieved a benefit-to-cost ratio of 118.4 over 15 years, a return of more than 118 tenge for every 1 tenge invested.
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This report challenges policy-makers and political leaders to tackle fossil fuel production and consumption as a health control issue, in the same way that smoking has been reduced and regulated. Fossil fuel combustion is a major source of toxic air pollution that kills 7 million people every year, ...almost the same as the number of deaths caused by tobacco smoking.
In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognised air pollution as a major health risk factor. There is widespread public discussion about the effects of fossil fuel combustion and emissions on climate change… but what about the effect on our health? Climate change poses a threat not only to the health of the planet, but also to humans.
The case studies evaluated in this report offer examples of mechanisms that can be used to restrict the production and consumption of unhealthy commodities, so that the health, air pollution and climate communities can learn from one another, using shared approaches and language. These case studies show that the connection with health is a strong argument to support sustainable change.
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These guidelines provide a framework for effective action to facilitate access to safe and ethical
testing services for different population groups. The implementation of the a comprehensive
approach, known as HIV Testing Services (HTS) is cardinal as an effective package of services
that diminis...hes the impact of the HIV epidemic in our country. All forms of HTS adhere to
the 5Cs: Confidentiality, Counselling, Consent, Correct results and Connection, or linkage
to care, with all based within a human right context. In addition to the 5Cs, however, the
MOHCDGEC emphasizes the use of a variety of approaches to HTS that will reduce the
number of missed opportunities. These include Provider-Initiated Testing and Counselling
testing, Couple counselling and testing, Index testing, and infant and children counselling and
testing in alignment to the revised WHO guidelines. Furthermore, these guidelines accentuate
on the continual provision of integrated HTS service at all levels of the public and private
health service delivery system.
The HTS Providers, managers and other stakeholders
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World Journal of Pharmaceutical and Medical Research vol. 5 (2019) 3, 129-132
BACKGROUND: Growing political attention to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) offers a rare opportunity for achieving meaningful action. Many governments have developed national AMR action plans, but most have not yet implemented policy interventions to reduce antimicrobial overuse. A systematic evidenc...e map can support governments in making evidence-informed decisions about implementing programs to reduce AMR, by identifying, describing, and assessing the full range of evaluated government policy options to reduce antimicrobial use in humans.
METHODS AND FINDINGS: Seven databases were searched from inception to January 28, 2019, (MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, PAIS Index, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, and PubMed). We identified studies that (1) clearly described a government policy intervention aimed at reducing human antimicrobial use, and (2) applied a quantitative design to measure the impact. We found 69 unique evaluations of government policy interventions carried out across 4 of the 6 WHO regions. These evaluations included randomized controlled trials (n = 4), non-randomized controlled trials (n = 3), controlled before-and-after designs (n = 7), interrupted time series designs (n = 25), uncontrolled before-and-after designs (n = 18), descriptive designs (n = 10), and cohort designs (n = 2). From these we identified 17 unique policy options for governments to reduce the human use of antimicrobials. Many studies evaluated public awareness campaigns (n = 17) and antimicrobial guidelines (n = 13); however, others offered different policy options such as professional regulation, restricted reimbursement, pay for performance, and prescription requirements. Identifying these policies can inform the development of future policies and evaluations in different contexts and health systems. Limitations of our study include the possible omission of unpublished initiatives, and that policies not evaluated with respect to antimicrobial use have not been captured in this review.
CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge this is the first study to provide policy makers with synthesized evidence on specific government policy interventions addressing AMR. In the future, governments should ensure that AMR policy interventions are evaluated using rigorous study designs and that study results are published.
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