Hand hygiene is vital for safe health care delivery, yet practices at the point of care remain suboptimal worldwide. A comprehensive research agenda is therefore necessary to improve our understanding of factors influencing hand hygiene behaviour an...d to strengthen appropriate interventions. This agenda will provide insightful ideas for researchers to focus their projects and funding proposals and will direct donors towards the areas of hand hygiene evidence that require urgent support and innovation. It will also guide decision-makers and stakeholders at the national and international level and support country efforts in updating and strengthening hand hygiene promotion programmes. Global collaboration and investment in hand hygiene research remain essential to promote safe and effective care worldwide.
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People affected by impairments and disabilities associated with TB are even more likely to belong to marginalized segments of society and are more likely to have their human rights unprotected. The challenges faced by people affected by TB include <...span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">the consequences of impairment and disability associated with the disease, its treatment as well as with the stigma and discrimination applied to people affected by TB. There is now compelling evidence that the disease and its treatment affect quality of life and life expectancy even after successful treatment.
The WHO Global Tuberculosis Programme has produced the first policy brief on TB-associated disability, building on the increasing evidence in recent years on the unaddressed needs of people with TB who experience impairment and disability while on TB treatment and after completing TB treatment.
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Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD), mainly heart attack and stroke, is the
leading cause of premature mortality in low and middle income countries (LMICs).
Identifying and managing individuals at high risk of CVD is an important strategy to ...prevent and control CVD, in addition to multisectoral population-based interventions to reduce CVD risk factors in the entire population.
Methods: We describe key public health considerations in identifying and managing individuals at high risk of CVD in LMICs.
Results: A main objective of any strategy to identify individuals at high CVD risk is to maximize the number of CVD events averted while minimizing the numbers of
individuals needing treatment. Scores estimating the total risk of CVD (e.g. ten-year risk of fatal and non-fatal CVD) are available for LMICs, and are based on the main CVD risk factors (history of CVD, age, sex, tobacco use, blood pressure, blood cholesterol and diabetes status). Opportunistic screening of CVD risk factors enables identification of persons with high CVD risk, but this strategy can be widely applied in low resource settings only if cost effective interventions are used (e.g. the WHO Package of Essential NCD interventions for primary health care in low resource settings package) and if treatment (generally for years) can be sustained, including continued availability ofaffordable medications and funding mechanisms that allow people to purchase medications without impoverishing them (e.g. universal access to health care). Thisalso emphasises the need to re-orient health systems in LMICs towards chronic diseases management.
Conclusion: The large burden of CVD in LMICs and the fact that persons with high
CVD can be identified and managed along cost-effective interventions mean that
health systems need to be structured in a way that encourages patient registration, opportunistic screening of CVD risk factors, efficient procedures for the management of chronic conditions (e.g. task sharing) and provision of affordable treatment for those with high CVD risk. The focus needs to be in primary care because that is where most of the population can access health care and because CVD programmes can be run effectively at this level.
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Prepared as an outcome of ICMR Subcommittee on Esophageal Cancer | This consensus document on management of esophageal cancers
summarizes the modalities of treatment including the site-specific an...ti-cancer therapies, supportive and palliative care and molecular markers and research questions. It also interweaves clinical, biochemical and epidemiological studies.
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ObjetivoEl objetivodel documento es servir de guía de actuación para el manejo casos de COVID-19 en atención primaria.3.Recomendaciones generalesSe recomienda la colocación de información visual (carteles, folletos, etc.) en lugares estratégicosde los centros de atenció...n primaria (de ahora en adelante CAP)para proporcionar a la poblaciónlas instrucciones sobre higiene de manosehigiene respiratoria.Se ofrecerá una mascarilla quirúrgica a aquellos pacientes que acudan al centro sanitario con síntomas de infección respiratoria aguda.Se debedisponer de dispensadores con solución hidroalcohólica al alcance de la poblacióny el personal. Se deberá disponer de contenedores de residuos, con tapa de apertura con pedal, para la eliminación de los residuos generados.
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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 Product 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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Weekly Epidemiological Record No 9, 2022, 97, 61–80
This position paper supersedes the 2016 publication, “Malaria vaccine: WHO position paper-2016.”1 It includes the updated WHO recommendatio...ns on the wider use of the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine for the reduction of malaria morbidity and mortality in children living in areas of moderate to high malaria transmission. It also incorporates findings from the evaluation of the WHO-coordinated Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme (MVIP), recommended by SAGE and MPAG in 2015, and from additional studies since 2015.
This paper does not include findings on vaccine efficacy in infants first vaccinated at 6–12 weeks of age. Because of the lower vaccine efficacy observed in this age category, WHO did not recommend pilot implementation or RTS,S/AS01 vaccine introduction for these young infants. Recommendations2 on the use of RTS,S/AS01 vaccine were discussed by SAGE and MPAG during a joint session in October 2021; evidence presented at the meeting can be accessed at https://terrance.who.int/mediacentre/data/ sage/SAGE_eYB_Oct2021.pdf
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Known avoidable environmental risks to health cause at least 12.6 million deaths every year, and account for about one quarter of the global burden of disease (2016 data) (1). Air pollution alone causes about 7 million
deaths a year, placing it amo...ng the top global risks to health (2). Global environmental challenges are on the rise, including climate change, rapid urbanization and increased resistance to drugs.
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Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(12), 2626; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122626
Climate change is increasing risks to human health and to the health systems that seek to protect the... safety and well-being of populations. Health authorities require information about current associations between health outcomes and weather or climate, vulnerable populations, projections of future risks and adaptation opportunities in order to reduce exposures, empower individuals to take needed protective actions and build climate-resilient health systems. An increasing number of health authorities from local to national levels seek this information by conducting climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessments. While assessments can provide valuable information to plan for climate change impacts, the results of many studies are not helping to build the global evidence-base of knowledge in this area. They are also often not integrated into adaptation decision making, sometimes because the health sector is not involved in climate change policy making processes at the national level. Significant barriers related to data accessibility, a limited number of climate and health models, uncertainty in climate projections, and a lack of funding and expertise, particularly in developing countries, challenge health authority efforts to conduct rigorous assessments and apply the findings. This paper examines the evolution of climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessments, including guidance developed for such projects, the number of assessments that have been conducted globally and implementation of the findings to support health adaptation action. Greater capacity building that facilitates assessments from local to national scales will support collaborative efforts to protect health from current climate hazards and future climate change. Health sector officials will benefit from additional resources and partnership opportunities to ensure that evidence about climate change impacts on health is effectively translated into needed actions to build health resilience.
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Enabling young children to achieve their full developmental potential is a human right and an essential requisite for sustainable development. Given the critical importance of enabling children to make the... best start in life, the health sector, among other sectors, has an important role and responsibility to support nurturing care for early childhood development. This guideline provides direction for strengthening policies and programmes to better address early childhood development.
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This guideline provides global, evidence-informed recommendations on daily iron supplementation in infants and children, as a public-health intervention for the prevention of anaemia and iron deficiency. It includes recommendations for iron suppleme...ntation in countries where malaria is prevalent.
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Nepal has made substantial progress in reducing under-five mortality and is on track to achieve Millennium Development Goal 4, but advances in neonatal health are less encouraging. The objectives of this study were to assess relative and absolute in...equalities in neonatal mortality over time, and to review experience with major programs to promote neonatal health.
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WHO TRS N°1012.
Key updates include: (i) surveillance strategies, including cross-sectoral linking of systems and suitable diagnostics; (ii) the latest recommendations on human and animal immunization; (iii) palliative care in lowresource setting...s; (iv) risk assessment to guide management of bite victims; and (v) a proposed process for validation and verification of countries reaching zero human deaths from rabies.
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Q3: Can febrile seizures (simple or complex) be managed at first or second level care by non-specialist health care providers in low and middle income country settings? What is the role of diagnostic tests in ...ox">the management of febrile seizures by non-specialists in low and middle income settings? For prophylaxis to prevent recurrence of simple or complex febrile seizures, which of the pharmacological interventions when compared with placebo/comparator produce benefit/harm in specified outcomes?
- continuous anticonvulsant therapy - intermittent anticonvulsant therapy - intermittent antipyretic treatment
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Antimicrobial resistant (AMR) organisms are increasing globally, threatening to render existing treatments ineffective against many infectious diseases. In Africa, AMR has already been documented to be a problem for HIV and the pathogens that cause ...malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid, cholera, meningitis, gonorrhea, and dysentery. Recognizing the urgent need for action, the World Health Assembly adopted the Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance in May 2015. In accordance with the Global Action Plan and to meet needs specific to Africa, Africa CDC will establish the Anti-Microbial Resistance Surveillance Network (AMRSNET). AMRSNET is a network of public health institutions and leaders from human and animal health sectors who will collaborate to measure, prevent, and mitigate harms from AMR organisms.
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his document, a first of its kind, clearly sets out the standards for rehabilitation and provides guidance on building or strengthening the capacity of EMTs in this area....ass="attribute-to-highlight medbox">The importance of early rehabilitation for functional outcomes is well documented. Rehabilitation needs can persist far beyond the departure of EMTs; therefore, close, supportive collaboration must be established with local services. Emergency response presents an opportunity to rebuild devastated health systems and build local rehabilitation capacity. This document emphasizes the importance of aligning practices to the local context and maximizing opportunities for training and mentorship. The minimum standards and recommendations described will result in faster access of patients to rehabilitation services and equipment and a better transition between EMTs and local health facilities.
Available in English, German, Arabic, Chinese
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These guidelines group all recommendations on TB care and support in one document and are complemented by an operational handbook. The guidelines are to be used primarily by national TB programmes, or their equivalents in Ministries of Health, ...stakeholders and technical organizations working on TB care in the public and private sectors and in the community.
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COVID-19 has altered health sector capacity in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Cost data to inform evidence-based priority setting are urgently needed. Consequently, in this paper, we calculate the full economic health sector costs o...f COVID-19 clinical management in 79 LMICs under different epidemiological scenarios.
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This guide presents a basis for understanding how diarrhoeal diseases are currently influenced by climate and weather, and may be further exacerbated by climate change. It is a technical guide on how to conduct a Vulnerability & Adaptation assessment for diarrhoeal diseases and climate change, and p...rovides guidance on how to:
identify populations and regions vulnerable to diarrhoeal diseases and the reasons for their vulnerability;
establish relevant baselines that can be analysed and monitored;
conduct analyses to project how diarrhoeal diseases may be impacted in the future due to climate change; and
identify appropriate responses to mitigate and monitor these risks over time.
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Chapter 2 in "Latest Findings in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research" Edited by Üner Tan, ISBN 978-953-307-865-6, 404 pages, Publisher: InTech, Chapters published February 15, 2012 under CC BY 3.0 license | Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities presents reports on a wide rang...e of areas in the field of neurological and intellectual disability, including habitual human quadrupedal locomotion with associated cognitive disabilities, Fragile X syndrome, autism spectrum disorders, Down syndrome, and intellectual developmental disability among children in an African setting. Studies are presented from researchers around the world, looking at aspects as wide-ranging as the genetics behind the conditions to new and innovative therapeutic approaches. (All chapters available online: https://www.intechopen.com/books/latest-findings-in-intellectual-and-developmental-disabilities-research)
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