Community health workers (CHWs) enable marginalised communities, often experiencing structural poverty, to access healthcare. Trust, important in all patient–provider relationships, is difficult
...
to build in such
communities, particularly when stigma associated with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and now COVID-19, is widespread.
CHWs, responsible for bringing people back into care, must repair trust. In South Africa, where a national CHW programme is being rolled out, marginalised communities have high levels of unemployment, domestic violence and injury. In this complex social environment, we explored CHW workplace trust, interpersonal trust between the patient and CHW, and the institutional trust patients place in the health system
more
These guidelines are based on the 3rd Edition of the WHO Guidelines (Published 2015) World Health Organization’s Guidelines for the treatment of malaria. Additional literature surveys have been undertaken. Factors that were considered in the choic
...
e of therapeutic options included effectiveness, safety, and impact on malaria transmission and on the emergence and spread of antimalarial drug resistance. On-going surveillance is critical given the spread of artemisinin resistance in Southeast Asia, although not yet confirmed anywhere in Africa. The guidelines on the treatment of malaria in South Africa aim to facilitate effective, appropriate and timeous treatment of malaria, thereby reducing the burden of this disease in our communities. This is essential to further reduce the malaria case fatality rates currently recorded in South Africa, to decrease malaria transmission and to limit resistance to antimalarial drugs.
more
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.
more
About one fourth of the world’s population is estimated to have been infected with the tuberculosis (TB) bacilli, and about 5–10% of those infected develop TB disease in their lifetime. The risk for TB disease after infection depends on several
...
factors, the most important being the person’s immunological status. TB preventive treatment (TPT) given to people at highest risk of progressing from TB infection to disease remains a critical element to achieve the global targets of the End TB Strategy, as reiterated by the second UN High Level Meeting on TB in 2023. Delivering TPT effectively and safely necessitates a programmatic approach to implement a comprehensive package of interventions along a cascade of care: identifying individuals at highest risk, screening for TB and ruling out TB disease, testing for TB infection, and choosing the preventive treatment option that is best suited to an individual, managing adverse events, supporting medication adherence and monitoring programmatic performance
more
LEAVING NO-ONE BEHIND | “A Journey to End NTDs – Elimination and Care” records what we have achieved over the last year and where we are now. It presents our plan of action for the coming years, bringing our ‘traditional’ NTD work together
...
with ‘Disease Management Disability and Inclusion’ (DMDI), Community Based Inclusive Development (CBID) and Livelihoods. We care for those affected and we’re working to enhance community and government ownership through national
health system strengthening, community engagement and cross-sectoral action. Ultimately, we are working to free future generations from these menacing diseases, improving prevention and treatment, without forgetting those for whom prevention and treatment are too late because they already have a disability.
more
Approximately 80% of the 463 million adults worldwide with diabetes live in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). A major obstacle to designing evidence-based policies to improve diabetes
...
outcomes in LMICs is the scarce availability of nationally representative data on the current patterns of treatment coverage. The objectives of this study were to estimate the proportion of adults with diabetes in LMICs who receive coverage of recommended pharmacological and non-pharmacological diabetes treatment; and to describe country-level and individual-level characteristics that are associated with treatment.
more
Lancet Glob Health 2015; 385: e387–95. Open Access
During this work, a survey on essential medicines availability was conducted. This article was first written on this subject for sharing the poor financial availability of the essential medicines in the hospital and secondly, a call for an action to
...
be taken in improving hospital pharmacies development in each hospital in Burkina Faso.
more
Mental health is critical to personal well-being, interpersonal relationships, and successful contributions to society. Mental health conditions consequently impose a high burden not only on individ
...
uals, families and society, but also on economies. In Jamaica, mental health conditions are highly prevalent and major contributors to morbidity, disability, and premature mortality.
more
Testing men for HIV during their partner’s pregnancy can guide couples-based HIV prevention and treatment, but testing rates remain low. We investigated a combination approach, using evidence-based strategies,
...
to increase HIV testing in male partners of HIV-positive and HIV-negative pregnant women.
more
Infection prevention and control (IPC) in a CTC/ CTU IPC are all practical measures taken in the healthcare facility to prevent harm caused by infections to patients, health workers and communities.
...
The main goal of IPC in the cholera response is to
• To reduce transmission of health care-associated infections of cholera and any other infectious disease
• To enhance the safety of staff, patients and visitors
• To enhance the ability of the organization/health care facility to respond to an outbreak
• To reduce the risk of the hospital (health care facility) itself amplifying the outbreak
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
WASH are all measures taken to guarantee environmental hygiene, safe water of all used within the health facility. It encompasses water, sanitation, waste management, cleaning within the health facility which in this case is CTU/C. A complete WASH package in the CTU/CTC reduces the risk of spread of Vibrio cholerae inside and outside the CTC/CTU.
The probability of spreading or acquiring cholera through a CTC/CTU can be highly reduced when proper IPC and WASH measures are respected, followed and monitored. These measures are, in principle, valid in CTC/CTUs and ORPs, although they need to be adapted to the specific characteristics of the facility concerned.
more
About one fourth of the world’s population is estimated to have been infected with the tuberculosis (TB) bacilli, and about 5–10% of those infected develop TB disease in their lifetime. The risk for TB disease after infection depends on several
...
factors, the most important being the person’s immunological status. TB preventive treatment (TPT) given to people at highest risk of progressing from TB infection to disease remains a critical element to achieve the global targets of the End TB Strategy, as reiterated by the second UN High Level Meeting on TB in 2023. Delivering TPT effectively and safely necessitates a programmatic approach to implement a comprehensive package of interventions along a cascade of care: identifying individuals at highest risk, screening for TB and ruling out TB disease, testing for TB infection, and choosing the preventive treatment option that is best suited to an individual, managing adverse events, supporting medication adherence and monitoring programmatic performance.
more
Operational guidance for managing programme quality.
These guidelines are about implementing the programme-quality standards of the Core Humanitarian Standard in limited access humanitarian response. They have been developed using approaches and to
...
ols tested by Oxfam, other INGOs and the UN in Afghanistan, DRC, Iraq, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. The guidelines are an operational resource to help programme designers and decision makers deliver ‘good enough’ programme quality in limited access humanitarian response.
more
This assessment seeks to better understand what types of legal migration pathways and other protection services Iraqi refugees and other migrants are aware of and attempt to
...
access at different points during their migration journey. Furthermore, it highlights when, where and why Iraqi refugees and other migrants fail to access protection services.
more
Abstract: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic psychological disorder that can develop after exposure to a traumatic event. This review summarizes the literature on the epidemiology, assessment, and
...
treatment of PTSD. We provide a review of the characteristics of PTSD along with associated risk factors, and describe brief, evidence-based measures that can be used to screen for PTSD and monitor symptom changes over time. In regard to treatment, we highlight commonly used, evidence-based psychotherapies and pharmacotherapies for PTSD. Among psychotherapeutic approaches, evidence-based approaches include cognitive-behavioral therapies (e.g., Prolonged Exposure and Cognitive Processing Therapy) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. A wide variety of pharmacotherapies have received some level of research support for PTSD symptom alleviation, although selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors have the largest evidence base to date.
more
The WHO Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study measures the burden of
disease using the disability-adjusted life year metric (DALY). The DALY metric
was developed to assess the burden of disease consistently across diseases,
risk factors and region
...
s. A consistent and comparative description of the burden
of diseases and injuries and the risk factors that cause them is important as it
can inform health decision-making and health care planning.
more
Observatory report by Médecins du Monde/Doctors of the World Germany:“Deprived of the right to health. Sick and without medical care in Germany” gives a rare insight into the situation of those who have no or only limited
...
access to the German health system.
more
The purpose of the Clinical Practice Guideline for Treatment of Patients with Anxiety Disorders in Primary Care is to provide professionals with practical recommendations based on scientific evidenc
...
e to assist in the detection and effective treatment of these disorders
more
The pre-clinical pipeline shows more innovation and diversity, with 252 agents being developed to treat WHO priority pathogens.
However, these products are in the very early stages of development and still need
...
to be proven effective and safe. The optimistic scenario, the report indicates, is for the first two to five products to become available in about 10 years.
more
The WHO and UNICEF-led Hand Hygiene for All Initiative aims at ensuring implementation for WHO's global recommendations on hand hygiene to prevent and control COVID-19 pandemic, and hand hygiene improvement sustainability in countries as a mainstay
...
of wider infection prevention and control (IPC) and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) efforts.
But how can hand hygiene implementation be successful? By implementing strategies and approaches proven through the successes of the WHO Save Lives: Clean Your Hands campaign and fostering integration between hand hygiene and WASH improvements. This brief draws on learning from legacy work and the current evidence based and summarizes how joint action and collaboration are essential for successful strategies, in the context of the COVID-19 response and beyond
more