A year ago, the second Special Session of the World Health Assembly (WHASS) unanimously agreed to start a diplomatic process for a new binding inst...rument aimed at ensuring the international community is better prepared for the next health emergencies. The establishment of an Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) at the WHO paved the terrain for a proper negotiation, which has started to unfold. The INB will be releasing the “conceptual zero draft” of the treaty text in early December 2022.
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Antimicrobials are precious agents for combating infectious diseases and had saved millions of lives throughout the world. However, the current trend of increasing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) ha...s become a global health problem with increased morbidity and mortality in infectious diseases. Sri Lanka is not an exemption and face many health related issues with multidrug resistant (MDR) organisms. Currently there is a global effort in combating antimicrobial resistance. WHO extends its fullest support and plays a major role in motivating the countries to combat antimicrobial resistance with national action plans in place. Sri Lanka has initiated combating AMR with multisectoral collaboration, under one health concept. The development of the National Strategic Plan (NSP) 2017-2022 provides the roadmap to combat AMR.
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The internationally recognized criteria for diagnosis of neurocysticercosis include a requirement for neuroimaging techniques, such as computerized tomography (CT) and/or magnetic resonance imaging ...(MRI), ideally supported by serology. These facilities are not available in all settings, especially in rural areas of low-income countries, making it difficult to identify and treat patients. Additionally, there is controversy about the role, type and duration of anthelmintic, antiinflammatory and antiepileptic drug (AED) treatments for different forms of neurocysticercosis.
These guidelines were developed to assist health-care providers in appropriate, evidence-based management of parenchymal neurocysticercosis. The guidelines do not address other forms of neurocysticercosis and do not include management of extraparenchymal disease (including cysticerci in the cerebral ventricles or subarachnoid space). The aim of the guidance is to improve decision-making to ensure appropriate patient care and to avoid misdiagnoses and inappropriate treatment of patients with neurocysticercosis.
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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 (DA...A) 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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The primary audience for these recommendations includes health professionals who are responsible for developing national and local ...ribute-to-highlight medbox">health-care guidelines and protocols and health workers involved in the provision of care to women and their newborns during pregnancy, labour and childbirth; this includes midwives, nurses, general medical practitioners and obstetricians. The primary audience also includes managers of maternal and child health programmes, and relevant staff in ministries of health and educational and training institutions, in all settings.
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Manual for Early Implementation
A tool for measuring alcohol policy implementation
This document provides technical guidance on concepts, definitions, indicators, criteria, milestones and tools to assist leprosy programmes in their journey towards the goals of interruption of transmission and elimination of leprosy disease and through the post-elimination period. Importantly, it p...rovides criteria with benchmarks, where possible, for all key aspects of leprosy programmes and services. Not only those related to elimination efforts, but also those related to diagnosis and management of leprosy, leprosy-related disabilities, mental wellbeing, stigma and discrimination and inclusion and participation of persons affected by leprosy. The document emphasises that the elimination of leprosy is a long-term, continuous journey on the one hand, while, on the other, clear milestones can be recognised on the way and programme implementation can be assessed against benchmarks, guiding appropriate action to keep the programme on track.
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Developing protocols for use with refugees
and internally displaced persons
This guide also draws on the standard operating procedures (SOPs) to apply for measles outbreak response
support from the Measles & Rubella Initiative Outbreak Response Fund (17) and includes a section on
measles outbreak recovery so that contribu...ting factors and potential root causes are identified and
addressed systematically after a measles outbreak. This guide does not aim to be a comprehensive guide
on measles elimination or routine immunization (RI) more broadly.
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This guide is intended for people involved in the management and operation of small- to mediumsized organized water supply systems. The content has been developed with particular consideration for o...perational-level personnel with responsibility for chlorination (for example, water treatment plant operators and technicians). The material presented within this guide may also be relevant for engineers and representatives from public health, local government, non-governmental organizations, as well as any other individuals supporting water safety planning activities for the supply of safe drinking-water.
Part 1. Chlorination principles: Describes key chlorination concepts, providing a knowledge foundation for the implementation of effective chlorination practices.
Part 2. Chlorination practices: Describes the practical application of the concepts presented in Part 1, including calculations and procedures for safe and effective chlorination of drinking-water supplies.
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This global status report on prevention and control of NCDs (2014), is framed around the nine voluntary global targets. The report provides data on the current situation, identifying bottlenecks as well as opportunities and priority actions for atta...ining the targets. The 2010 baseline estimates on NCD mortality and risk factors are provided so that countries can report on progress, starting in 2015. In addition, the report also provides the latest available estimates on NCD mortality (2012) and risk factors, 2010-2012.All ministries of health need to set national NCD targets and lead the development and implementation of policies and interventions to attain them. There is no single pathway to attain NCD targets that fits all countries, as they are at different points in their progress in the prevention and control of NCDs and at different levels of socioeconomic development. However all countries can benefit from the comprehensive response to attaining the voluntary global targets presented in this report.
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Evidence from a systematic review on antenatal zinc supplementation was evaluated as part of the World Health Organization (WHO) antenatal care (AN...C) guideline development process in 2016, and the following recommendation on zinc supplementation was made: “Zinc supplementation for pregnant women is only recommended in the context of rigorous research.” The Guideline Development Group (GDG) made this recommendation because it felt that the evidence on the intervention was incomplete and that more research was necessary.
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WHO Western Pacific Regional Strategy to Reduce Alcohol-Related Harm
This ten year global plan for measles and rubella outlines the strategy that needs to be fully implemented to achieve the measles and rubella goals endorsed by the World ...ghlight medbox">Health Assembly. The plan sets out the: vision, goals and targets for the 2011-2020 period, recommended strategies, guiding principles, priorities, costing of reaching the targets, and the challenges as well as ways to overcome them.
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Technical report
This manual aims to provide information about the methods for investigating outbreaks of hepatitis E, and measures for their prevention and control. In addition, the manual giv...es information about the causative agent – known as the hepatitis E virus (HEV) – its epidemiology, clinical manifestations of the disease and diagnosis.
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The Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-being for All (SDG3 GAP) is a set of commitments by 13 multilateral agencies to strengthen their collaboration. ...medbox">For this purpose several accelerators were created and an invitation for public comment was started. This document focuses on Accelerator Discussion Paper 1: Sustainable Financing.
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Guidelines for national programmes and other stakeholders
Annexes for webposting and CD-Rom distribution with the policy guidelines
Pneumonia and diarrhoea account for 23% of under-five mortality and were responsible for an estimated 1.17 million deaths in children under five globally. Furthermore, pneumonia and diarrhoea were r...esponsible for 18% of mortality in children 5–9 years of age, resulting in an estimated 86 000 preventable deaths globally in 2021. Existing World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on the clinical management of pneumonia and diarrhoea has mainly focused on children less than 5 years of age.
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The World Health Organization’s comprehensive antenatal care (ANC) guideline WHO recommendations on antenatal care ...light medbox">for a positive pregnancy experience was published in 2016 with the objective of improving the quality of routine health care that all women and adolescent girls receive during pregnancy. The overarching principle – to provide pregnant service users with a positive pregnancy experience – aims to encourage countries to expand their health-care agendas beyond survival, with a view to maximizing health, human rights and the potential of their populations. Recognizing that ANC provides a strategic platform for important health-care functions, including health promotion and disease prevention, 14 out of the 49 recommendations in the WHO 2016 ANC guideline relate to nutrition in pregnancy.
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