Lancet Planet Health 2022;6: e760–68
The emergence of COVID-19 has drawn the attention of health researchers sharply back to the role that food
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systems can play in generating human disease burden. But emerging pandemic threats are just one dimension of the complex relationship between agriculture and infectious disease, which is evolving rapidly, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) that are undergoing rapid food system transformation. This changing relationship is examined through four current disease issues.
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The majority of developing countries will fail to achieve their targets for Universal Health Coverage (UHC)1 and the health- and poverty-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) unless they take
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urgent steps to strengthen their health financing. Just over a decade out from the SDG deadline of 2030, 3.6 billion people do not receive the most essential health services they need, and 100 million are pushed into poverty from paying out-of-pocket for health services. The evidence is strong that progress towards UHC, core to SDG 3, will spur inclusive and sustainable economic growth, yet this will not happen unless countries achieve high-performance health financing, defined here as funding levels that are adequate and sustainable; pooling that is sufficient to spread the financial risks of ill-health; and spending that is efficient and equitable to assure desired levels of health service coverage, quality, and financial protection for all people— with resilience and sustainability.
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The GHS Index is intended to be a key resource in the face of increasing risks of high-consequence and globally catastrophic biological events and in light of major gaps in international financing f
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or preparedness. These risks are magnified by a rapidly changing and interconnected world; increasing political instability; urbanization; climate change; and rapid technology advances that make it easier, cheaper, and faster to create and engineer pathogens.
Key findings from the study of 195 countries:
• Out of a possible 100 points, the average GHS Index score across 195 countries was 40.2.
• The majority of high- and middle-income countries do not score above 50.
• Action is urgently needed to improve countries’ readiness for high-consequence infectious disease outbreaks.
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The pre-clinical pipeline shows more innovation and diversity, with 252 agents being developed to treat WHO priority pathogens.
However, these products are in the very early stages of development
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and still need to be proven effective and safe. The optimistic scenario, the report indicates, is for the first two to five products to become available in about 10 years.
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During the first two years of the project (2019–2020), through a ‘One Health’ approach, comprehensive engagement was established with AMR coordinating committees, WHO regional and country offi
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ces and SORT IT partners in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. Thirty-seven research studies were launched to inform AMR action plans in target country studies – local research, for local solutions, with local ownership.
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The ICAT is a simple and practical approach for assessing the adequacy of existing infection prevention and control practices and provides specific recommendations for improving practices and monito
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ring their effectiveness over time
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A Guide to the Application of the WHO Multimodal Hand HygieneImprovement Strategy and the “My Five Moments for Hand Hygiene”Αpproach
Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) are a significant burden globally, with millions of patients affected each year. These infections affect both high- and limited-resource healthcare settings, but in limited-resource settings, rates are approximately twice as high as high-resource settings (15 o
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ut of every 100 patients versus 7 out of every 100 patients). Furthermore, rates of infections within certain patient populations are significantly higher in limited-resource settings, including surgical patients, patients in intensive-care units (ICU) and neonatal units. It is well documented that environmental contamination plays a role in the transmission of HAIs in healthcare settings. Therefore, environmental cleaning is a fundamental intervention for infection prevention and control (IPC).It is a multifaceted intervention that involves cleaning and disinfection (when indicated) of the environment alongside other key program elements to support successful implementation (e.g., leadership support, training, monitoring, and feedback mechanisms). To be effective, environmental cleaning activities must be implemented within the framework of the facility IPC program, and not as a standalone intervention. It is also essential that IPC programs advocate for and work with facility administration and government officials to budget, operate and maintain adequate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure to ensure that environmental cleaning can be performed according to best practices.
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Intensive Care Med (2009) 35:9–29DOI 10.1007/s00134-008-1336-9
Although thousands of papers have been devoted tohospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP), many controversiesremain, and management of HAP is probably often sub-optimal. Several reviews or guidelines have been pub-lished rec
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ently, mostly by North American initiatives(CDC, ATS). Three European Societies (ERS, ESCMID andESICM) were interested in producing a document thatcould complement in some way the last IDSA/ATS guidelines published 3 years ago. In addition, the Helics
working group supported this initiative.
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Purpose of this document: to present eight practical steps that Member States can take at the national and sub-national level to improve WASH in health care facilities
The World Health Organization was requested by Member States to develop a global priority pathogens list (global PPL) of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to help in prioritizing the research and develo
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pment (R&D) of new and effective antibiotic treatments. To date, the selection of pathogens for R&D activities has been largely guided by small and large pharmaceutical companies according to a variety of parameters, such as perceived/unmet medical need, pressure of investors, market size, scientific discovery potential, and availability of specific technologies. Previous PPLs, issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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The roadmap highlights and advocates for the existing and potential key role of national public health institutes (NPHIs) in climate adaptation and mitigation, and how they contribute to climate pol
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icies, research and action.
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Antibiotic resistance (ABR) particularly hits resource poor countries, and is fuelled by irrational antibiotic (AB) prescribing. We surveyed knowledge, attitudes and practices of AB prescribing among medical students and doctors in Kisangani, DR Con
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go.
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