Cyclone in Mozambique and Zimbabwe
Ebola virus disease in Democratic Republic of the Congo
Humanitarian crisis in Mali
Humanitarian crisis in Central African Republic.
Response to the tropical cyclone in southern Africa
Ebola virus disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Meningitis outbreak in Togo
Lassa fever outbreak in Liberia.
The WHO Health Emergencies Programme is currently monitoring 118 events in the region. This week’s main articles cover the following events:
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Togo
Measles in Chad
Ebola virus disease (EVD) in É...quateur Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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The meningitis road map has been designated as a flagship global strategy of the WHO’s Thirteenth General Programme of Work, 2019–2023 and is an essential component in achieving universal ...class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">health coverage.
The road map will reinforce and combine with wider initiatives, such as those aimed at strengthening primary health care and health systems, increasing immunization coverage, improving global health security, fighting antimicrobial resistance and advocating for the rights of persons with disabilities. It will complement other global control strategies, such as those addressing sepsis, pneumonia, tuberculosis and HIV. Implementation will be a challenge for all countries across the world, but especially in resource-poor settings where the burden of meningitis is greatest. The targets for the visionary and strategic goals will be adapted to regional and local contexts.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) and the global community of countries, partners, donors, technical experts, scientists and field implementation teams continue to work towards the ultimate goal <...span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">of a world free of the burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).
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Significant progress has been made in the eradication of three priority diseases in the African Region, as a result of extensive collaboration between the Regional Office, WHO country offices and co...untries. For example, in August 2020, the region was certified free of wild poliovirus. In the area of neglected tropical diseases, Guinea worm disease is on the verge of eradication, and 12 member states are within reach of being certified as having eradicated yaws by the end of this year.
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These guidelines provide new and updated recommendations on the use of point-of-care testing in children under 18 months of age and point-...ss="attribute-to-highlight medbox">of-care tests to monitor treatment in people living with HIV; the treatment monitoring algorithm; and timing of antiretroviral therapy (ART) among people living with HIV who are being treated for tuberculosis.
New recommendations launched today outline key new actions that countries can take to improve the delivery of HIV testing, treatment and care services by providing greater options for differentiated approaches such as, supporting HIV treatment start in the community, ensuring that children are diagnosed and treated early, and that viral load treatment monitoring is more accessible, focused and triggers clinical action
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Hepatitis B (HBV) infection is a major public health problem and cause of chronic liver disease.
The 2024 HBV guidelines provide updated evidence-informed recommendations on key priority topics. ...These include expanded and simplified treatment criteria for adults but now also for adolescents; expanded eligibility for antiviral prophylaxis for pregnant women to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HBV; improving HBV diagnostics through use of point-of-care HBV DNA viral load and reflex approaches to HBV DNA testing; who to test and how to test for HDV infection; and approaches to promote delivery of high-quality HBV services, including strategies to promote adherence to long-term antiviral therapy and retention in care.
The 2024 guidelines include 11 updated chapters with new recommendations and also update existing chapters without new recommendations, such as those on treatment monitoring and surveillance for liver cancer.
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1st edition.
Unitaid’s report describes a slate of new devices that can more efficiently identify dangerously ill children so that they can be treated immediately. These tools make it easier to recognize danger signs, and support integrated appr...oaches to reducing childhood deaths from the three greatest childhood killers: malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea.
The report also highlights tests that can determine whether or not a child has an illness that can be treated with antibiotics. Viral infections are a common cause of childhood fevers, but cannot be cured with antibiotics. Although many children seeking care at clinics have fever, three-quarters by some estimates, only a small fraction of those have an illness that can be treated with an antimalarial or antibiotic drug
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The plan contains the latest available evidence on the extent of insecticide resistance around the world, and puts forward a strategy for global and country levels, identifying clear roles and timelines for all stakeholders. The GPIRM also summarize...s information about innovative new products being developed and sets out the immediate research and development priorities.
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The Strategic Framework for Emergency Preparedness is a unifying framework which identifies the principles and elements of effective country health emergency preparedness. It adopts the major lesson...s of previous initiatives and lays out the planning and implementation process by which countries can determine their priorities and develop or strengthen their operational capacities. The framework capitalizes on the strengths of current initiatives and pushes for more integrated action at a time when there is both increased political will and increased funding available to support preparedness efforts.
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This research report provides results from the study on living conditions among people with disabilities in Zambia. Comparisons are made between individuals with and without disabilities and also between households with and without a disabled family member. Results obtained in Zambia are also compar...ed to those obtained in earlier studies carried out in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. The Zambian study was undertaken in 2005-2006.
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A practical approach for developing policy and strategy to improve quality of care
The handbook outlines an approach for the development of national policies and strategies to improve the quality ...of care. Such policy and strategy can help clarify the structures, roles and responsibilities within national quality efforts, support the institutionalization of a culture of quality, and secure buy-in from health system leaders and stakeholders
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28 May 2021
Contact tracing is a key component of a public health response to infectious disease outbreaks. The purpose of this guidance is to rei...nforce the place of community engagement and participation in the contact tracing process. The guidance and related products articulate best practice principles for community engagement and how they can be operationalized as part of any community-centred contact tracing strategy. The material provided can stand on its own or be used to complement other documents that support strategies, implementation plans or training and capacity building modules.
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This document is a guide defining requirements for quality and safety for malaria rapid diagnostic testing services to safeguard the quality of the results, the safety of the operators and patients ...and that of the environment for use by national malaria control programmes, regulators, implementers and rapid diagnostic providers.
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Promoting health and preventing disease is a critical component of the effort required to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC). to date, efforts... to achieve UHC have focused mostly on strengthening health systems and their capacities to provide curative care. However, experience from the COVID-19 pandemic has reaffirmed the need for resilient health systems, emphasizing primary health care, including preventive and promotive health and well-being.
Emerging from the eye of the storm as the global health lead agency during the pandemic, WHO is equipped with the required insights and actions for a holistic approach to “building back fairer and better” after COVID-19.
The Healthier Populations (UHP) Cluster in the African Region is designed to support Pillar 3 of WHO’s 13th Global Programme of Work (GPW13) which aims to make 1 billion people healthier by reducing health inequities, preventing diseases and injuries, addressing health determinants, and promoting partnerships for collaborative actions amongst all stakeholders.
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Cholera is a major health risk in many parts of the world, affecting millions of people every year. Since mid-2021, the world has been facing an ac...ute upsurge of the 7th cholera pandemic, which is characterized by the number, size and concurrence of multiple outbreaks, the spread to areas that had been free of cholera for decades and alarmingly high mortality rates. The mortality associated with these outbreaks is of particular concern as many countries have reported higher case fatality ratios (CFR) than in previous years
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While there has been real progress in addressing the burden of disease in the WHO African region, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the link between health, economics and security, as the region... saw decades of progress threatened, including positive trends in decreasing inequality. In the African Region the momentum towards achieving the 2030 SDG disease burden reduction targets (SDG targets 3.3, 3.4 and 3B) has stalled.
The COVID-19 pandemic was also a major threat to gains made, such as the eradication of polio in the region, declared in 2020; reduced numbers of new HIV infections in 2021 compared to 2010; and passing the 2020 milestone of the End TB Strategy, with a 22% reduction in new cases compared with 2015. However, the pandemic also disrupted essential health services in 92% of countries globally, 22.7 million children missed basic immunization, there was an increase in malaria and TB, and global deaths from TB rose for the first time since 2015.
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This World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) joint guidelines production aims at harnessing the contribution of employers and workers towards the control ...n class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">of TB. It covers all the practical steps involved in establishing TB control activities, including (for large employers) starting and running a workplace TB control programme. They are intended for use in all countries in which TB incidence is high and the target audience for the guidelines includes employers, employee organizations, NTP managers, and agencies providing technical support for TB control.
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Lessons and best practices in empowering pastoralist communities to prevent HIV infection and reduce the impact of AIDS in Ethiopia. Briefing Paper