This is the ninth paper in our series, “Community Health Workers at the Dawn of a New Era”. Community health workers (CHWs) are in an intermedi...ary position between the health system and the community. While this position provides CHWs with a good platform to improve community health, a major challenge in large-scale CHW programmes is the need for CHWs to establish and maintain benefcial relationships with both sets of actors, who may have diferent expectations and needs. This paper focuses on the quality of CHW relationships with actors at the local level of the national health system and with communities.
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Occupational health and safety programmes aim to prevent diseases and injuries arising out of, linked with or occurring in the course of work, whil...e improving the quality and safety of care, safeguarding the health workforce and promoting environmental sustainability in the health sector.
This guide provides an overview of the key elements of occupational health and safety programmes for health workers at national, subnational and facility levels, as well as advice for the development and implementation of such programmes. Health workers exposure risk assessment and management in the context of COVID-19 virus
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scientific brief, 2 March 2022
In 2009, WHO’s Second International Conference on Buruli Ulcer Control and Research resolved to strengthen the capacity of national laboratories to confirm cases of the disease, but advised that ...efforts are still needed to develop simple diagnostic tools usable in the field as well as disability prevention methods”.
In 2013, WHO and the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics convened a meeting of Buruli ulcer experts in Geneva, Switzerland (9) at which two priority unmet needs in diagnosis were identified:
a diagnostic test for early detection of Buruli ulcer in symptomatic patients with sufficient positive predictive value to put patients on appropriate treatment; and
a screening test at the primary health care or community level for symptomatic patients with ulcer
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A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. The Lancet Vol.399 Issue 10341 p.2129-2154
Human resources for health (HRH) include a range ...edbox">of occupations that aim to promote or improve human health. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the WHO Health Workforce 2030 strategy have drawn attention to the importance of HRH for achieving policy priorities such as universal health coverage (UHC). Although previous research has found substantial global disparities in HRH, the absence of comparable cross-national estimates of existing workforces has hindered efforts to quantify workforce requirements to meet health system goals. We aimed to use comparable and standardised data sources to estimate HRH densities globally, and to examine the relationship between a subset of HRH cadres and UHC effective coverage performance.
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This policy brief aims to provide a review of the current progress on implementing the Malawi national action plan on AMR, identifies critical gaps, and highlights findings to accelerate further progress in the human ...ght medbox">health sector. The target audience includes all those concerned with implementing actions to combat antimicrobial resistance in Malawi.
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Securing a minimum of financial resources permitting to bring the full range of critical health services to all people constitutes a fundamental hu...man right and an indispensable condition for human dignity. The model outlined here demonstrates that it is within our reach to close the financing gap even for the poorest countries by 2020 if all governments, from the privileged and underprivileged parts of the world alike, just fulfil the commitments and recommendations for financing human development and health that already were agreed many years ago.
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There is growing understanding and high-level endorsement of the importance of strong collaborative multisectoral approaches to address a broad range of...span> social, economic and governance issues for the prevention and control of noncommunicable disease (NCDs) and mental health conditions. In 2019, World Health Organization (WHO) Member States requested the WHO Director-General to provide an analysis across countries of successful approaches for the prevention and control of NCDs that used multisectoral action. This WebAnnex to the Global mapping report on multisectoral actions to strengthen the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases and mental health conditions details experiences from around the world.
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Development assistance for health (DAH) is an important part of financing healthcare in low- and middle-income countries. We estimated the gross di...sbursement of DAH of the 29 Development Assistance Committee (DAC) member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2011–2019; and clarified its flows, including aid type,
channel, target region, and target health focus area. Data from the OECD iLibrary were used. The DAH definition was based on the OECD sector classification. For core funding to non-healthspecific multilateral agencies, we estimated DAH and its flows based on the OECD methodology for
calculating imputed multilateral official development assistance (ODA).
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Since the Alma Ata Declaration in 1978, community health volunteers (CHVs) have been at the forefront, providing health services, especially to underserved communities, in low-income countries. Howe...ver, consolidation of CHVs position within formal health systems has proved to be complex and continues to challenge countries, as they devise strategies to strengthen primary healthcare. Malawi’s community health strategy, launched in 2017, is a novel attempt to harmonise the multiple health
service structures at the community level and strengthen service delivery through a team-based approach. The core community health team (CHT) consists of health surveillance assistants (HSAs), clinicians, environmental health officers and CHVs. This paper reviews Malawi’s strategy, with particular focus on the interface between HSAs, volunteers in community-based programmes and
the community health team. Our analysis identified key challenges that may impede the strategy’s implementation:
(1) inadequate training, imbalance of skill sets within CHTs and unclear job descriptions for CHVs; (2) proposed community-level interventions require expansion of pre-existing roles for most CHT members; and (3) district authorities may face challenges meeting financial obligations and filling community-level positions. For effective implementation, attention and further deliberation is needed on the appropriate forms of CHV support, CHT composition with possibilities of co-opting trained CHVs
from existing volunteer programmes into CHTs, review of CHT competencies and workload, strengthening coordination and communication across all community actors, and financing mechanisms. Policy support through the development of an addendum to the strategy, outlining opportunities for task-shifting between CHT members, CHVs’ expected duties and interactions with paid CHT personnel is recommended.
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The article "Non-communicable diseases, injuries, and mental ill-health in Africa: the role of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention" examines the role ...light medbox">of the Africa CDC in addressing non-communicable diseases (NCDs), injuries, and mental health across the continent. It highlights how Africa CDC, originally focused on communicable disease response, has expanded its mandate to include NCDs and mental health, driven by the high mortality and morbidity associated with these conditions.
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Adolescence is a critical stage in life for physical, cognitive and emotional development, shaping future health and well-being. Comprehensive measurement of adolescent ...hlight medbox">health is essential to prioritize health issues, guide interventions and track progress. However, global, regional and national adolescent health measurement has historically been inconsistent and incomplete.
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Interagency Guidelines - This revised Interagency List of Essential Medicines for Reproductive Health presents
the current international consensus on rational selection ...ighlight medbox">of essential reproductive health medicines. The list is intended to support decisions regarding the production, quality assurance, national procurement and reimbursement schemes of these medicines.
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1.HIV infections – drug therapy. 2.Anti-HIV agents – adverse effects. 3.Anti-retroviral agents. 4.Benzoxazines – adverse effects. 5.Pregnancy. 6.Disease transmission, Vertical - prevention and control. 7.Treatment outcome. I.World Health Organ...ization
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On 14 August 2024, the Director-General of the World Health Organization determined that the upsurge of mpox in a growing number ...bute-to-highlight medbox">of countries in Africa constitutes a new public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) under the International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005)
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Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Management Dissertation