In January 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a new road map to address the burden of disease and death imposed by neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). The end of the first year of the 2021-2030 NTD road map is an opportunity to take stock of where we stand and how we plan to move fo...rward.
Considerable progress has been made since 2012 when the first road map was adopted. As of 6 June 2022, forty-six countries have eliminated at least one NTD, while 600 million people no longer require treatment because they are no longer exposed to risks associated with the pathogens that previously harmed them. In some cases, diseases that have plagued humanity for centuries, such as sleeping sickness and Guinea worm disease, are at an all-time low. Less tangible, but also important, there has been significant progress in the way NTDs are viewed. Additionally, the disruptive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on NTD programmes is evident.
This brochure is the first in a series of advocacy briefs for the new NTD road map presenting highlights of success and challenges towards attaining the 2030 goals.
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The longlist of knowledge gaps is based on existing research agendas published in 2015 or later and expert input from reviewers of the first draft of the longlist. It only includes knowledge gaps focussing on a better
understanding of the relationship between global environmental change and human h...ealth, and finding an answer to the question of how best to protect human health against these new threats.
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To assess national-level responses to NCDs, WHO has implemented NCD country capacity surveys periodically since 2001. This report is the latest in that series. Since the first survey round, the NCD Country Capacity Survey (NCD CCS) has been conducted a further seven times, most recently in 2021. In ...the survey, completed by the NCD focal point within each country’s ministry of health or similar agency, countries are asked to report on the following topics relating to NCDs: (i) public health infrastructure, partnerships and multisectoral collaboration; (ii) policies, strategies and action plans; (iii) health information systems and surveillance; (iv) health system capacity for detection, treatment and care; and, added for 2021, (v) the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on NCD-related resources and activities. The questionnaire is web-based and requires supporting documentation wherever possible. In the 2021 round, data were collected from May onwards, with the last survey responses arriving in September. Validation was carried out by WHO regional offices and WHO headquarters. Country responses to previous rounds of the survey were incorporated into the analysis to assess progress since 2010. Although all 194 Member States responded to the survey, data comparisons were restricted to the 160 countries that had responded to all rounds of the survey since 2010.
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AACAP OFFICIAL ACTION | This Practice Parameter identifies best approaches to the assessment and management of children and adolescents across all phases of a disaster. Delivered within a disaster system of care, many interventions are appropriate for implementation in the weeks and months after a d...isaster. These include psychological first aid, family outreach, psychoeducation, social support, screening, and anxiety reduction techniques. The clinician should assess and monitor risk and protective factors across all phases of a disaster. Schools are a natural site for conducting assessments and delivering services to children. Multimodal approaches using social support, psychoeducation, and cognitive behavioral techniques have the strongest evidence base. Psychopharmacologic interventions are not generally used but may be necessary as an adjunct to other interventions for children with severe reactions or coexisting psychiatric conditions
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The prevalence, availability, and use of antimalarial medicines (AMLs) were studied in six Cambodian provinces along the Thai-Cambodian border. The study was divided into two parts: the first looked at the quality of AMLs available in Pursat, Pailin, Battambang, Bantey Meanchey, Oddar Meanchey, and ...Preah Vihear and the second obtained information about the availability and use of AMLs.
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Regional Network for Equity in Health in east and southern Africa (EQUINET): Disussion Paper 111
The health services delivery system in Zambia is pyramid in structure, with primary healthcare (PHC) services at community level, at the base, followed by first and second level hospitals at distric...t and provincial levels, respectively, and third level (tertiary) services at national level. Notably, primary health services are free in Zambia and health service providers are either governmentowned or not-for-profit facilities.
Over the years, resource constraints have affected the quality and extent of healthcare services at all levels, requiring the mobilisation of additional resources for the sector. In doing so, prioritisation was high on the agenda of health sector reform. The EHB, therefore, prioritises interventions with the highest impact on the population, enabling policy makers to revisit priority diseases and conditions and to cost the services provided at each level of facility. Other key issues in developing the EHB in Zambia have included the need to have cost-effective services and cost per capita of services for more systematic budgeting, to rank interventions and to validate and cost the health benefit package as a whole.
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The primary objective of the 2015-16 MDHS project is to provide up-to-date estimates of basic demographic and health indicators. Specifically, the MDHS collected information on fertility levels, marriage, fertility preferences, awareness and use of family planning methods, breastfeeding practices, n...utrition, maternal and child health and mortality, awareness and behavior regarding HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and other health-related issues such as smoking and knowledge of tuberculosis. As the 2015-16 MDHS is the first DHS survey in the country, trend analysis is not carried out in this report.
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Scientists have known for more than half a century that patients could develop resistance to the drugs used to treat them. Alexander Fleming, who is credited with creating the first antibiotic, penicillin, in 1928, cautioned of the impending crisis while accepting his Nobel prize in 1945: “There ...is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant.” Since then antibiotics have proved one of the most effective interventions in human medicine. Sadly, the overuse and misuse of this precious resource have brought us to a global crisis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). To address this crisis nearly seven decades after Fleming’s lecture the first UN general assembly meeting on drug resistance bacteria was convened in September 2017.
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The global emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is posing a threat to human health. Putting resources into the containment of AMR – including surveillance – is one of the highest-yield investments a country can make to mitigate its impact. In 2015, WHO launched the Global Antimicrobial Re...sistance Surveillance System (GLASS), the first global collaborative effort to foster AMR surveillance in bacteria causing acute infections. As of December 2018, 71 countries are enrolled in GLASS. The aim of this report is to document participation efforts and outcomes across these countries, and highlight differences and constraints identified to date. This report follows on from the first GLASS Report – Early implementation 2016-17, published in January 2018, and drawing on data from GLASS first data call in 2017.
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Interim guidance 2 February 2021 . Available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Ukranian, Russian
Health workers are at the front line of the COVID-19 outbreak response and as such are exposed to different hazards that put them at risk. Occupational hazards include exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and othe...r pathogens, violence, harassment, stigma, discrimination, heavy workload and prolonged use of personal protective equipment (PPE). This document provides specific measures to protect occupational health and safety of health workers and highlights the duties, rights and responsibilities for health and safety at work in the context of COVID-19.
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In 2019, an estimated 10 million individuals fell ill with tuberculosis (TB) and 3 million of them were not reported to have beendiagnosed and notified. The gap is proportionately even wider for drug-resistant TB. Of the estimated 465 000 patients with rifampicin-resistant and multi-drug resistant T...B (RR/MDR-TB), only 206 030 (44%) were diagnosed and notified.For the first time, the World Health Organization (WHO) has provided global estimates of the incidence of isoniazid resistance: in 2019, there were 1.4 million incident cases of isoniazid-resistant TB, of which 1.1 million were susceptible to rifampicin. Most of these people were not diagnosed with drug-resistant TB and did not receive appropriate treatment.
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The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Georgetown University, and the United Nations University have today launched new guidelines to provide the first-ever global policy framework that will help protect, include, and empower children on the ...move in the context of climate change.
The Guiding Principles for Children on the Move in the Context of Climate Change provides a set of 9 principles that address the unique and layered vulnerabilities of children on the move both internally and across borders as a result of the adverse impacts of climate change. Currently, most child-related migration policies do not consider climate and environmental factors, while most climate change policies overlook the unique needs of children.
The guidelines note that climate change is intersecting with existing environmental, social, political, economic, and demographic conditions contributing to people’s decisions to move. In 2020 alone, nearly 10 million children were displaced in the aftermath of weather-related shocks. With around one billion children – nearly half of the world’s 2.2 billion children – living in 33 countries at high risk of the impacts of climate change, millions more children could be on the move in the coming years.
Developed in collaboration with young climate and migration activists, academics, experts, policymakers, practitioners, and UN agencies, the guiding principles are based on the globally ratified Convention on the Rights of the Child and are further informed by existing operational guidelines and frameworks.
Recommendations for safeguarding the rights and well-being of children regardless of their location or migration status.
The guiding principles provide national and local governments, international organizations and civil society groups with a foundation to build policies that protect children’s rights. The organizations and institutions are calling on governments, local and regional actors, international organizations, and civil society groups to embrace the guiding principles to help protect, include, and empower children on the move in the context of climate change.
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Comment reconnaître les maladies tropicales négligées selon les altérations de la peau : guide de formation à l’usage du
personnel sanitaire de première lignes [Recognizing neglected tropical diseases through changes on the skin: a training
guide for front-line health workers]
The WHO Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) was launched in 2015 to foster AMR surveillance and inform strategies to contain AMR. The system started with surveillance of AMR in bacteria causing common human infections and has expanded its scope to include surveillance... of antimicrobial consumption (AMC), invasive fungal infections, and a One Health surveillance model relevant to human health. To meet future challenges, it is in continuous evolution to enhance the quality and representativeness of data to inform the AMR burden accurately. As of the end of 2022, 127 countries, territories and areas participate in GLASS.
The fifth GLASS report, produced in collaboration with Member States, summarizes 2020 data on AMR rates in common bacteria from countries, territories, and areas. The report brings new features, including analyses of population testing coverage or AMR trends. For the first time, the report presents 2020 data on AMC at the national level. A new interactive dashboard allow users to explore AMR and AMC global data, country profiles and download the data.
This report marks the end of the early implementation phase of GLASS. In addition to presenting data collected through the latest data call, this report provides a summary of five years of national AMR surveillance data contributed to GLASS from its initiation, presents AMR findings in the context of progress of country participation in GLASS and in global AMR surveillance coverage and laboratory quality assurance systems at (sub)national level.
Patterns of antimicrobial consumption are presented by country with a particular focus on antibacterials. The report also presents the antimicrobial consumption according to the WHO AWaRe antibiotic classification, for penicillins and cephalosporines. From a One Health perspective, the report presents antimicrobial consumption data in the human sector expressed in tons to allow a comparison with antimicrobial consumption from other sectors (not included in this report).
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