Humanitarian emergencies result in a breakdown of critical health-care services and often make vulnerable communities dependent on external agencies for care. In resource-constrained settings, this may occur against a backdrop of extreme poverty, ma...lnutrition, insecurity, low literacy and poor infrastructure. Under these circumstances, providing food, water and shelter and limiting communicable disease outbreaks become primary concerns. Where effective and safe vaccines are available to mitigate the risk of disease outbreaks, their potential deployment is a key consideration in meeting emergency health needs. Ethical considerations are crucial when deciding on vaccine deployment. Allocation of vaccines in short supply, target groups, delivery strategies, surveillance and research during acute humanitarian emergencies all involve ethical considerations that often arise from the tension between individual and common good. The authors lay out the ethical issues that policy-makers need to bear in mind when considering the deployment of mass vaccination during humanitarian emergencies, including beneficence (duty of care and the rule of rescue), non-maleficence, autonomy and consent, and distributive and procedural justice
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The Access to Controlled Medications Programme identified the development of treatment guidelines that cover the treatment of all types of pain as... one of the core areas of focus for improving access to opioid analgesics. Such guidelines are interesting both for health-care professionals and policy-makers. They are also important in improving access to controlled medicines for determining when those opioid medicines and when non-opioid medicines are preferred.
Based on a Delphi study, WHO planned the development of three treatment guidelines, covering chronic pain in children, chronic pain in adults and acute pain.
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This interim guidance to national health authorities and blood transfusion services outlines the steps required to collect convalescent whole blood (CWB) or plasma (CP) from Ebola virus disease (EVD) recovered patients ...hlight medbox">for transfusion to patients with early EVD, as an empirical treatment modality.
Document contents:
Guidance on donor selection, screening, donation and handling of blood and plasma units;
guidance on transfusion of convalescent whole blood or plasma;
other considerations.
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Full Report.
In response to a call by the United Nations Secretary-General and the Governments of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, an international team conducted an Ebola Recovery Assessment. ...an class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">The aim was to contribute towards laying the foundation for short-, medium- and long-term recovery while the medical emergency response continues to tackle the epidemic. This report is a contribution to ongoing efforts by the Governments of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to design their national Ebola virus disease recovery strategies
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2nd edition. This new edition provides policy-makers, programme managers and health-service providers with the latest evidence-based guidance on clinical care. It includes information on how to establish and strengthen services, and outlines a human...-rights-based approach to laws and policies on safe, comprehensive abortion care. This guidelines is available in English; French, Spanish; Japanese; Russian; Portuguese; Romanian and Ukrainian
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There is an urgent need for safer, simpler, more efficacious and accessible treatment regimens for all forms of TB. The development of Target Produ...ct Profiles for TB treatment regimens (referred to as Target Regimen Profiles or TRPs) seeks to guide the drug development process towards important regimen characteristics corresponding to the needs of end-users.
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n 2015, Member States of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its accompanying Sustainable Development Goals ...(SDGs), with the third goal of the agenda focusing on health – good health and well-being. This has the attainment of universal health coverage (UHC) as its umbrella target. Since then, the WHO Regional Office for Africa has been supporting countries plan, and monitor progress towards this goal. This report represents an analysis of the evidence so far countries are making towards this goal, and includes the effect COVID-19 has had on its attainment so far. It also makes recommendations on how countries can prioritize their health actions post COVID-19, in a manner that allows acceleration of progress towards UHC.
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This toolkit for integrated vector management (IVM) is designed to help national and regional programme managers coordinate across sectors to design and run large IVM programmes.
The toolkit pr...ovides the technical detail required to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate an IVM approach. IVM can be used when the aim is to control or eliminate vector-borne diseases and can also contribute to insecticide resistance management. This toolkit provides information on where vector-borne diseases are endemic and what interventions should be used, presenting case studies on IVM as well as relevant guidance documents for reference.
The diseases that are the focus of this toolkit are malaria, lymphatic filariasis, dengue, leishmaniasis, onchocerciasis, human African trypanosomiasis and schistosomiasis. It also includes information on other viral diseases (Rift Valley fever, West Nile fever, Chikungunya, yellow fever) and trachoma. If other vector-borne diseases appear in a country or area, vector control with an IVM approach should be adopted, as per national priorities.
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To complement the Global Strategy progress reporting, this report provides a detailed look at country leadership and action toward the Every Newborn National Milestones by 2020. Countries have taken... the initiative to show the way forward and have demonstrated significant progress. As part of monitoring this progress, countries have adopted the Every Newborn Tracking Tool. This report presents a compilation of the data collated by the Every Newborn Tracking Tool in 2016, when 51 countries adopted the tool; it also spotlights examples of specific country activity for each National Milestone. Finally, Global Milestones for 2020 were part of the Every Newborn Action Plan to guide global and regional work in support of country efforts and this report highlights relevant progress towards those Global Milestones.
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Inequality of access to palliative care and symptom relief is one of the greatest disparities in global health care (1). Currently, there is avoidable suffering on a massive scale due to lack of access to palliative care and symptom relief in low- a...nd middle-income countries (LMICs) (1). Yet basic palliative care that can prevent or relieve most suffering due to serious or life-threatening health conditions can be taught easily to generalist clinicians, can be provided in the community and requires only simple, inexpensive medicines and equipment. For these reasons, the World Health Assembly (WHA) resolved that palliative care is "an ethical responsibility of health systems"(2). Further, most patients who need palliative care are at home and prefer to remain there. Thus, it is imperative that palliative care be provided in the community as part of primary care. This document was written to assist ministries of health and health care planners, implementers and managers to integrate palliative care and symptom control into primary health care (PHC).
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This compendium collates current tools and resources on quality improvement developed by the WHO Service Delivery and Safety Department and provides examples of how the tools and resources have been... applied in country settings. The target audience for this document are ministries of health, facility quality improvement teams, researchers and development agencies. WHO technical programmes, regional and country offices can also use the document in their technical cooperation work with the identified audience. Those working to improve the quality of health service delivery can also make good use of this resource
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1. Provide treatment for mental disorders in primary care
2. Ensure wider accessibility to essential psychotropic drugs
3. Provide care in the community
4. Educate ...ight medbox">the public
5. Involve communities, families and consumers
6. Establish national policies, programmes and legislation on mental health
7. Develop human resources
8. Link with other sectors
9. Monitor community mental health
10. Support relevant research.
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Provides clinical descriptions, diagnostic guidelines, and codes for all mental and behavioural disorders commonly encountered in clinical psychiatry. The book was developed from chapter V of ...class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">the Tenth Revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10).
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Countries must invest at least 1% more of GDP on primary health care to eliminate glaring coverage gaps
At current rates of progress up to 5 billion people will miss out on health care in 2030
Countries must increase spending on primary healthcare by at least 1% of their gross domestic product (...GDP) if the world is to close glaring coverage gaps and meet health targets agreed in 2015, says this new report. They must also intensify efforts to expand services countrywide.
The world will need to double health coverage between now and 2030, according to the Universal Health Coverage Monitoring Report. It warns that if current trends continue, up to 5 billion people will still be unable to access health care in 2030 – the deadline world leaders have set for achieving universal health coverage. Most of those people are poor and already disadvantaged.
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he WHO Guidelines on Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) propose evidence-based recommendations for health care professionals to prevent, slow or reverse declines in ...ighlight medbox">the physical and mental capacities of older people. These recommendations require countries to place the needs and preferences of older adults at the centre and to coordinate care. The ICOPE Guidelines will allow countries to improve the health and well-being of their older populations, and to move closer to the achievement of universal health coverage for all at all ages
Brochure available in Russian, Arabic, Chinese, French; Japanese; Spanisch
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This interim guidance has been updated with advice on safe and appropriate home care for patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and on the public health measures related to ...ttribute-to-highlight medbox">the management of their contacts.
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First published in 2020, this toolkit is intended for clinicians working in acute care, managing adult and paediatric patients with acute respiratory infection, including severe pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis and septic shock.... The main objective is to provide key tools for use in the care of critically ill patients – from hospital entry to hospital discharge.
The 2022 updated version includes new tools and adapted algorithms, checklists, memory aids for COVID-19 and influenza, and the latest clinical evidence regarding clinical management of SARI. It is intended to help clinicians care for SARI patients: from epidemiology of severe acute respiratory infections, screening and triage, infection prevention and control, monitoring of patients, laboratory diagnosis, principles of oxygen therapy and different types of ventilation (invasive and non-invasive), as well as antimicrobial and immunomodulator therapies, to ethical and quality of care assessments.
The first edition is availbel in Ukrainian and Russian
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Interim Guidance, 12 July 2021; This tool was developed to assess present and surge capacities for the treatment of COVID-19 in health facilities. It allows health facilities to assess ...attribute-to-highlight medbox">the availability and status of stockout of critical COVID-19 medicines, equipment and supplies on site and to identify areas that need further attention to enable the facility to respond effectively to the pandemic. The tool encompasses key components that are essential to managing COVID-19 in a hospital setting, including:
health workforce (numbers, absences, COVID-19 infections, staff vaccinated for COVID-19 health workforce management, training and support);
medicines and medical supplies for management of COVID-19;
IPC capacities (protocols, safety measures, guidelines) and the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff;
diagnostic testing, imaging and patient monitoring devices and supplies
medical equipment for management of COVID-19, including O2 administration;
COVID-19 vaccine readiness ;
beds and space capacity.
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This report summarizes the results of a 2018 survey of food and beverage marketing to children via television in the Kyrgyz Republic. It explores the...n> extent and nature of children’s exposure to marketing for food high in saturated fat, free sugars and/or salt via television in the country. The study results can be used by policy-makers to restrict and regulate marketing of food high in saturated fat, free sugars and/or salt both on television and in other media.
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This technical report presents the results of a cross-sectional survey conducted in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, between June and July 2016, as part of the FEEDcities Project – Eastern Europe and Central ...Asia. The aim was to describe the local street food environment: the characteristics of the vending sites, the food offered and the nutritional composition of the industrial and homemade foods often available in these settings. The report also provides guidance for policies to translate the findings into action.
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