What every clinician should know
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 of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN committed to ending the TB epidemic through adoption of WHO’s End TB Strateg...y 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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The World Health Organization and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria are part of a group of agencies working together to accelerate progress towards the health-related SDGs through the Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-being for All. Understanding patterns of inequal...ities in these diseases is essential for taking strategic, evidence-informed action to realize our shared vision of ending the epidemics of HIV, TB and malaria.
This report presents the first comprehensive analysis of the magnitude and patterns of socioeconomic, demographic and geographic inequalities in disease burden and access to services for prevention and treatment.
The results confirm there have been improvements in service coverage and decreased disease burden at the national level over the past decade. But they also reveal an uncomfortable reality: unfair inequalities between population subgroups within countries are widespread and have remained largely unchanged over the past decade. For some disease indicators, inequalities are even worsening.
Moreover, the report points to the persistent lack of available data to fully understand inequality patterns in HIV, TB and malaria. Collecting data to improve the monitoring of inequalities in these diseases is vital to develop targeted responses for impact.
There are, encouragingly, isolated successes in reducing inequities. Change is possible when deliberate action is taken to reach disadvantaged populations.
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This document synthesizes key elements of the World Health Organization (WHO) normative guidance on health policy and system support for community health worker (CHW) programmes and their application for HIV programmes. Building on relevant elements of HIV guidelines, tools and evidence identified b...y experts, it provides recommendations on tasks and roles that can be performed by CHWs (including for HIV), identifies the policy and system supports to optimize CHW performance, and gives examples of best practice. Its purpose is to inform the optimal design and delivery of CHW programmes targeting – either specifically or as part of a broader approach – the scale-up and sustainability of HIV services.
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Development of one or more vaccines for Neisseria gonorrhoeae is an important objective for sexual and reproductive health worldwide, and for the fight against antimicrobial resistance.
WHO preferred product characteristics (PPCs) provide strategic guidance as to WHO’s preferences for new vacci...nes in priority disease areas. PPCs are intended to encourage innovation and development of vaccines for use in settings most relevant to the global unmet public health need.
Gonococcal vaccine PPCs describe global public health goals for gonococcal vaccines and preferred parameters pertaining to vaccine indications and target populations, safety and efficacy considerations, and immunization strategies.
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The 2021 COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP) for AFR serves as a regional guide for a holistic public health response to COVID‑19 at regional, national and sub-national levels. The 2021
SPRP:
1. Builds upon the lessons learnt from the implementation of the 2020 SPRP and outl...ines a regional preparedness, response and recovery strategy for COVID‑19.
2. Has been adapted to reflect the Regional context including COVID-19 vaccination. It also considers epidemiological changes and recommen-dations emerging from the evaluation report of the 2020 SPRP4.
3. Highlights to Member States strategic preparedness and response actions to be sustained at national and sub-national levels, as well as the critical inter-agency and partner support required.
4. provides the indicative resource requirements to reinforce WHO planned interventions in the African Region to enhance countries’ capacities to suppress transmission, save lives and mitigate the impact of the pandemic on people and health systems.
5. Provides a road map for mitigating potential resurgence in the Region as economies reopen and ensure country level continuity of other essential health services.
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Recommendations on the management of diabetes mellitis during the COVID-19 pandemic
This document focus on the direct consequences of the virus (morbidity and mortality) in specific populations and on the results of measures aimed at mitigating the spread of the virus, with indirect impacts on socio-economic conditions. In this complex scenario, the gender approach has not received... due attention during the pandemic. Gender is one of the structural determinants of health, but it does not appear in analyses of the direct and indirect effects of the pandemic, despite being essential in the recognition and analysis of the differential impacts on men and women and their interaction with the different determinants of health.
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Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2021, Issue 2. Art. No.: CD009593. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD009593.pub5.
Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are the principal cause of morbidity, disability and premature mortality in Azerbaijan. The most effective way to reduce the NCD burden is to prevent NCD development, by addressing thebehavioural risk factors underlying NCDs at the population and individual leve...ls: smoking, alcohol use, excessive salt intake, low physical activity, overweight and obesity, and unhealthy diets. In Azerbaijan, a national survey of the prevalence of major NCD risk factors, aligned with the WHO-endorsed STEPwise approach to surveillance (STEPS) methodology, was conducted in 2017.
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tep 1 Competencies have been designed to provide staff with the core skills required to care for a critically ill patient safely, whilst under supervision. It is expected that Step 1 competencies will be completed prior to commencing an academic critical care programme.
Steps 2 & 3 Competencies hav...e been designed to further develop your essential critical care skills and will require enhanced theoretical knowledge to underpin your practice. It is anticipated that Steps 2 & 3 competencies will be undertaken whilst undertaking an academic critical care programme.
Step 4 Competencies have been designed to provide staff with the core skills required to take charge in a critical care unit; building management and leadership capability into your professional development, to demonstrate safe and effective coordination and prioritisation of unit workload, workforce and resources.
You can downlaod any of the Steps Competency Documents from this link
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