Meeting Report 27-29 October 2020
The overall goal of the meeting was to discuss recent changes in treatment regimens and diagnostics for drug-resistant TB
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and to determine how these impact on the definition of XDR-TB, with a view to revising this definition. The pre-existing definition of XDR-TB was formulated in 2006 at a meeting of the Global Taskforce on XDR-TB, convened by WHO, and has been in use for clinical and surveillance purposes, since this time.
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Expert opinion of the European Tuberculosis Laboratory Initiative core group members for the WHO European Region.
This Commission report aims to contribute to a new era of multilateral cooperation based on strong UN institutions to reduce the dangers of COVID-19, forestall the next pandemic, and enable the world to achieve the agreed goals of sustainable develo
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pment, human rights, and peace that governments are committed to pursue as members of the UN. We address this Commission report to the UN member states, the UN agencies and multilateral institutions, and multilateral processes such as the G20 and the G7.
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The WHO standard: Universal access to rapid tuberculosis diagnostics sets benchmarks to achieve universal access to WHO-recommended rapid diagnostics (WRDs), increase bacteriologically confirmed tub
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erculosis and drug resistance detection, and reduce the time to diagnosis. WHO-recommended rapid diagnostics are highly accurate, cost-effective, reduce the time to treatment initiation, and impact patient-important outcomes.
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The classification of digital health interventions (DHIs) categorizes the different ways in which digital and mobile technologies are being used to support health system needs. Historically, the diverse communities working in digital health—inclu
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ding government stakeholders, technologists, clinicians, implementers, network operators, researchers, donors— have lacked a mutually understandable language with which to assess and articulate functionality. A shared and standardized vocabulary was recognized as necessary to identify gaps and duplication, evaluate effectiveness, and facilitate alignment across different digital health implementations. Targeted primarily at public health audiences, this Classification framework aims to promote an accessible and bridging language for health program planners to articulate functionalities of digital health implementations.
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World's largest Science, Technology & Medicine Open Access book publisher
Chapter 7 from the book People's Movements in the 21st Century - Risks, Challenges and Benefits
This publication aims to provide updated guidance on the specific use of yellow fever laboratory assays in the context of surveillance to be used across the Global Yellow Fever Laboratory Network fo
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r disease surveillance. In the recent years, new commercial assays became available and are now recommended for use by WHO and this publication will support national program on the use of compound laboratory assays as per the most recent recommended testing algorithms. This piece is aligned with the elimination effort set in the comprehensive global strategy to eliminate yellow fever epidemics (EYE) strategy 2017-2026 and where its advisory laboratory technical working group actively contributed to its development. The target audiences are policy-makers and health workers.
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This Tuberculosis guide has been developed jointly by Médecins Sans Frontières and Partners In Health. It aims at providing useful information to the clinicians and health staff for the comprehens
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ive management of tuberculosis. Forms of susceptible and resistant tuberculosis, tuberculosis in children, and HIV co-infection are all fully addressed.
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Rabies has an enormous impact on both agriculture and conservation biology, but its greatest burden is undeniably on public health. As such, routine methods for rapid risk assessment after human exposures to rabies as well as applications for
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laboratory-based surveillance, production of biologicals and management of this infectious disease are critical. Given its mandate to improve human health and control disease among its Member States, WHO has led the production of this fifth edition of Laboratory techniques in rabies.
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This publication is based on the list of clinical interventions selected from clinical guidelines on prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, palliative care, monitoring and end of life care. This publication addresses medical devices for six ty
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pes of cancer: breast, cervical, colorectal, leukemia, lung and prostate. The first section defines the global increase in cancer cases, the global goals to manage NCDs and the WHO activities related to these goals. The second section presents the methodology used for the selection of medical devices that support clinical interventions required to screen, diagnose, treat and monitor cancer stages, as well as the provision of palliative care, based on evidence-based information. The third section lists the priority medical devices required to manage cancer in seven different units of health care services: 1. Vaccination, clinical assessment and endoscopy, 2. Medical imaging and nuclear medicine, 3. Surgery, 4. Laboratory and pathology, 5. Radiotherapy, 6. Systemic therapy and 7. Palliative and end of life care
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The updated List of Essential Diagnostics contains 46 general tests that can be used for routine patient care as well as for the detection and diagnosis of a wide array of disease conditions,
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and 69 tests intended for the detection, diagnosis and monitoring of specific diseases.
The List is divided into two sections depending on the user and setting: one for community settings, which includes self-testing; and a second one for clinical laboratories, which can be general and specialized facilities.
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The Committee discussed the implications for preparedness for smallpox-like events reflected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Committee noted how quickly diagnostics and vaccines could be devel
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oped and deployed when resources and political will were abundant. This rapidity was also due to the fact that the genetic sequence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) had been shared worldwide. It was noted that in one country SARS-CoV-2 had been reconstructed in a laboratory from the viral genome sequence before the first case of COVID-19 had been reported, highlighting the benefits of synthetic biology technologies for accelerated development of diagnostics as well as the oft-described potential risks. Lessons learned about clinical care during the COVID-19 pandemic were also discussed.
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This brief update on tuberculosis (TB) in the African region covers the state of TB in the WHO African region, strategic priorities and targets and the impact of COVID-19 on essential services. This
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is followed by key figures for the region, the role of WHO in country support and, recognizing the importance of diagnosis and drug susceptibility testing, a focus onstrengthening laboratory networks and the regional laboratory and diagnostic objectives. A brief update of the state of the science and how this is funded across the African region is provided, before closing with challenges and opportunities,strategic directions and a brief discussion of funding concerns. Discussions around the drivers of the disease, and issues of the poverty, inequality and stigma that continue to plague those living with TB are fully recognized, but are outside the scope of this report.
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Prepared as an outcome of ICMR Expert Group on Immunophenotyping of Hematolymphoid Neoplasms | Coordinated by Division of Non Communicable Diseases | This document addresses on various issue related to good quality practices in laboratory work up of
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flow cytometric immunophenotyping and will be of use to pathologists, cytometrists, hematologists, technologists and scientists working in this field.
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The two-year impact report for the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator details impact, case studies and timelines of key milestones for the Diagnostics, Therapeutics
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and Vaccines pillars, as well as the Health Systems and Response Connector.
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Following review of the latest evidence, WHO recommends that TB-LAMP can be used as a replacement for microscopy for the diagnosis of pulmonary TB in adults with signs and symptoms of TB. It can also be considered as a follow-on test to microscopy i
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n adults with signs and symptoms of pulmonary TB, especially when further testing of sputum smear-negative specimens is necessary.
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