The Zambia Population Based HIV impact assessment of 2016, reported the prevalence of viral hepatitis in Zambia as ranging between 5.6% among adults aged 15 to 59% in the general population, and 7.1% among HIV infected individuals. It is estimated that the majority of persons with chronic hepatitis ...B and/ or hepatitis C are unware of their infection and do not benefit from promotive, preventive and curative services designed to reduce onward transmission. Zambia introduced hepatitis B virus vaccine to the routine Under 5 vaccination schedule in 2005. Preliminary results from the ZAMPHIA indicate that hundreds of infections have been abated in children since then. However, its also clear that we continue to miss key opportunities to prevent transmission, diagnose and treat infections, prevent serious disease, and in many cases cure people. In addition, high risk groups inter alia health care workers still have limited access to the vaccine.
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Emergency medical teams (EMTs) play an important role in strengthening health service networks in terms of their strategies and tactics for planning mass vaccination programs, especially in remote or under-resourced areas or those overwhelmed by COVID-19. EMTs experience deploying in remote areas an...d handling operational challenges to ensure their response even under the most austere conditions will be of great support in facing the technical and logistical challenges to timely and equitable access to vaccines at the local level.
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The Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report – Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000 - 2020 – presents estimates on household access to safely managed drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services over the past five years, and assesses progress toward achieving the s...ixth sustainable development goal (SDG) to ‘Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030’.
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Female Genital Schistosomiasis (FGS) is a gynaecological disease caused by Schistosoma haematobium, a parasitic worm that is acquired by skin contact with freshwater contaminated by schistosome cerceriae. Communities in which the infection is most endemic have limited access to clean water and healt...hcare services. Up to 150 million adolescent girls and women are estimated to be at risk of FGS and about 16–56 milion womens are living with FGS, with the majority of these in sub-Saharan Africa. The variability of these estimates points to the fact that this neglected tropical disease is not well studied and frequently not prioritized by local, regional, and global health policy makers.
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The content of these guidelines goes beyond the technicalities of medical needs with additional insights into community empowerment, possible access to welfare and economic opportunities and similar issues. If these are adequately explored, the health and quality of life of people affected and their... families would be greatly restored.
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17 February 2021
This article is part of a series of explainers on vaccine development and distribution. Learn more about vaccines – from how they work and how they’re made to ensuring safety and equitable access – in WHO’s Vaccines Explained series.
WHO’s mhGAP Intervention Guide 2.0 app, launched in October, is now available in both iOS and Android. The app provides non-specialized health-care providers with access to comprehensive information to help them diagnose and treat a range of mental, neurological and substance use (MNS) disorders i...ncluding depression, epilepsy and dementia from their tablets or mobile phones. Each module includes a description and guidance on assessment and management of priority MNS conditions. The tool can be downloaded free of charge. It is currently available in English. Other languages are expected to be available soon
Download the iOS Version under: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/mhgap-ig-2-0-app-e-mhgap/id1291414206?mt=8
The Android Version under: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.universaltools.mhgap
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The risk of communicable diseases remains a humanitarian concern with major health risks including cholera, acute watery diarrhea, bloody diarrhea, malaria and other vector borne diseases and conditions such as severe acute malnutrition.
Access to the affected districts is still conditioned due t...o the destruction of roads, the telecommunications network and the interruption of electricity.
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A key component of epidemic and pandemic preparedness is ensuring systems are in place for real-time information to flow from a trusted source to the people at risk.
In the absence of such information rumours can spread rapidly through social media, resulting in an INFODEMIC. EPI-WIN is the WHO Inf...ormation Network for Epidemics that will provide tailored information to different audiences during a public health event.
EPI-WIN seeks to give everyone access to timely, accurate, and easy-to-understand advice and information from trusted sources on public health events and outbreaks: currently the COVID-19 public health emergency.
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Curated by GOARN Partners including UN agencies, International and national NGOs, academic institutions and consortiums, the GOARN COVID-19 Information is a public platform for access to the best resources available to support your engagement in responding to this pandemic.
The Hub offers multidi...sciplinary information on COVID-19 for a variety of audiences from policy makers, to responders, to researchers, to educators, to affected communities and the general public.
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Special Focus on COVID-19
The report provides updated estimates for drinking water, sanitation and hygiene in schools including progress from 2015 to 2019. It highlights the rapid improvement needed to ensure students have access to handwashing facilities with soap and water during the COVID-19 pan...demic, and to meet associated SDG targets by 2030.
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1 March 2021
This article is part of a series of explainers on vaccine development and distribution. Learn more about vaccines – from how they work and how they’re made to ensuring safety and equitable access – in WHO’s Vaccines Explained series.
On March 1, 2021, the countries of the Americas began receiving vaccines through the COVAX Mechanism, an unprecedented global effort between CEPI, Gavi, Unicef, PAHO, and WHO to ensure equitable access to immunization throughout the world. The PAHO Revolving Fund is the mechanism designated by COVA...X to procure the vaccines on behalf of the countries in the region.
— Data on vaccine doses administered in the Americas
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The new treatment recommendations that extend the 2018 treat all recommendation for adults with chronic HCV infection to include adolescents and children down to 3 years, and to align the existing recommended pangenotypic direct-acting antiviral (DAA) regimens (SOF/DCV, SOF/VEL and G/P) for adults, ...to those for adolescents and children. This alignment is expected to simplify procurement, promote access to treatment among children in low- and middle-income countries and contribute to global efforts to eliminate the disease
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WHO promotes the inclusion of foodborne trematodiases among the targets of preventive chemotherapy interventions. With the aim of providing access to quality medicines, WHO has negotiated with Novartis Pharma AG whereby Novartis donates triclabendazole for the treatment of fascioliasis and paragonim...iasis in endemic countries. WHO collects applications from ministries of health and medicines are shipped free of charge.
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Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections are among the most common infections worldwide with an estimated 1.5 billion infected people or 24% of the world’s population. These infections affect the poorest and most deprived communities with poor access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene in tro...pical and subtropical areas, with the highest prevalence reported from sub-Saharan Africa, China, South America and Asia. They are transmitted by eggs present in human faeces, which in turn contaminate soil in areas where sanitation is poor. Over 260 million preschool-age children, 654 million school-age children,108 million adolescent girls and 138.8 million pregnant and lactating women live in areas where these parasites are intensively transmitted, and are in need of treatment and preventive interventions.
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The updates are based on evidence emerging from the: Ongoing monitoring of the disease. Protection that the population already developed against COVID-19 through previous infection or vaccination. Epidemiological situation, availability of diagnostic tests and access to therapeutic options.
This document is intended for countries, foundations, and civil society. It provides a consolidated overview of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, its goals, and the investments that partners have calculated are required to carry out its mission. Emergency responses are dynamic by natur...e. The ACT-Accelerator will regularly adjust its investment needs and update this document as understanding of COVID-19 epidemiology and additional data on the ACT tools become available. For more detailed analysis on the ACT investments for its work in diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines, please refer to the costed plans of the relevant ‘pillar’. At the time of publication, the investments required for the Health Systems Connector pillar were still under development.
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Diabetes is a chronic, metabolic disease characterized by elevated levels of blood glucose (or blood sugar), which leads over time to serious damage to the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and nerves. The most common is type 2 diabetes, usually in adults, which occurs when the body becomes resist...ant to insulin or doesn't make enough insulin. In the past three decades the prevalence of type 2 diabetes has risen dramatically in countries of all income levels. Type 1 diabetes, once known as juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes, is a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin by itself. For people living with diabetes, access to affordable treatment, including insulin, is critical to their survival. There is a globally agreed target to halt the rise in diabetes and obesity by 2025
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A systematic review of the evidence has demonstrated the key role of clean household energy in improving global health, reaffirming the importance of United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7, to achieve worldwide access to affordable, modern and clean energy by 2030.