World Health Organization’s (WHO) presence in Sierra Leone throughout 2023 has been fulfilling.... Out attention has been focused on advancing Universal Health Coverage and strengthening emergency preparedness and response. Collaborating closely with the Ministry of Health, our donor partners, and various stakeholders, WHO supported capacities for Health Systems strengthening and delivery of impactful interventions, particularly towards improving maternal and child health outcomes, as well as the overall well-being of the population.
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The Annual Report summarizes what has been achieved in the year 2022, how WHO supported the country priority, how WHO took the lead in health ... class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">in bringing together partners to help the country achieve its strategic goals as a result be on track on its commitment on the SDG goals. The report also highlights what were the gaps in the year there by subsequent planning years should consider the challenges for better results.
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The military offensive by the Russian Federation in Ukraine which began February 2022 has triggered one of the world’s fastest-growing displacement and humanitarian crisis, with geopolitical and e...conomic ripples felt across the globe. The ongoing war has caused large-scale disruptions to the delivery of health services and a near-collapse of the health system. But the crisis also saw an extraordinary mobilization and crisis response to a health emergency by WHO and its more than 100 partners.
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Through technical consultations with countries and partners, WHO has led the development of Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats Module 1: Planning for respiratory pathogen pandemics. Version 1.0. The Module, currently available as an ad...vanced draft, builds on previous pandemic lessons and guidance, and has the following new elements:
It presents an integrated and efficient respiratory pathogen pandemic planning approach covering both novel pathogens and those known to have pandemic potential;
It enables coherence in addressing pathogen-agnostic and pathogen-specific elements for better preparedness;
It gives an organizing framework including operational stages and triggers for escalation and de-escalation between pandemic preparedness and response periods;
It contextualizes 12 IHR (2005) core capacities within the five components of health emergency preparedness, response and resilience (HEPR), from the respiratory threats perspective; and
It describes the critical sectors for respiratory pathogen pandemic preparedness to trigger multisectoral collaboration.
WHO will finalize and publish this Module after a global technical meeting that will be held on 24-26 April 2023.
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This guidance is intended for use in developing standalone TB strategic plans, or TB interventions as part of multidisease or health sector plans. It describes key considerations and steps for strat...egic planning for TB in line with the World Health Organization’s End TB strategy, and the proposed structure of the NSP. The target audience of this publication are all stakeholders involved in national strategic planning for TB (e.g., ministry of health, other government ministries, private sector, civil society, affected communities, academic and research institutions, and technical and funding partners).
The current document is an update to the 2015 Toolkit to develop a national strategic plan for TB prevention, care and control.
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The report focuses on antibacterial resistance (ABR) in common bacterial pathogens. There is a major gap in knowledge about the magnitude of this problem. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens th...e effective revention and treatment of an ever-increasing range of infections caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses and fungi. This WHO report, produced in collaboration with Member States and other partners, provides for the first time, as accurate a picture as is presently possible of the magnitude of AMR and the current state of surveillance globally. It examines the information on AMR, in particular antibacterial resistance (ABR), at country level worldwide.
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The Priority medicines for mothers and children 2011 list was updated following the 18th Expert Committee Meeting
on Selection and Use of Medicines, the release of new treatment guidelines and feedback from partners following
the 2011 version.... In alignment with the UN Global strategy for women’s and children’s health; and the recently
launched UN Commission on life‐saving commodities for women and children, the title of this updated list is
renamed as Priority Life‐Saving Medicines for Women and Children.
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Policy brief.
Globally, one in five people with HIV are unaware of their status, despite considerable scale up of HIV testing, treatment and prevention services. Many of those unreached by HIV testing services (HTS) are from key populations, ...class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">partners of people with HIV and, in Eastern and southern Africa, men and young people. Improving the availability, accessibility, friendliness and quality of services is important to address these testing gaps.
At the same time, tools and interventions that increase the demand for HTS are needed to reach people who are uninformed about HTS options and advances in treatment and prevention, people who are not motivated to seek HTS and those who are hesitant to test because of fear of an HIV diagnosis or other reasons.
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A module from the suite of health service capacity assessments in the context of the COVID-19 pandemicINTERIM GUIDANCE5 February2021
The Community needs, perceptions and demand: community assessmen...t toolcan be used by countries to conduct a rapid pulse survey of community health needs and perceptions around effective use of essential health services during the COVID-19 outbreak. The assessment helps to establish an early warning system on the need to implement coping strategies to continue to respond to communities’ health needs throughout the course of the pandemic. This assessment tool is informed by WHO and partner tools and guidance on community health needs, continuity of essential health services and readiness planning for COVID-19
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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 offices and SORT IT ... medbox">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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Brief review of selected topics
The following pages provide a focus on selected areas in relation to neurology. The specialists who contributed the reviews are listed in the Project Team and ... class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">Partners
Neurology Atlas (2004)
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31 Oct 2022 his plan outlines how the ACT-Accelerator will support countries as the world transitions to long-term COVID-19 control.
Recognizing the evolving nature of the COVID-19 virus and pandemic, the plan outlines changes to ACT-A’s... set-up and ways of working, to ensure countries continue to have access to COVID-19 tools in the longer term, while maintaining the coalition’s readiness to help address future disease surges.
Developed through a consultative process with ACT-A agencies, donors, industry partners, civil society organizations (CSOs) and Facilitation Council members, the plan summarizes priority areas of focus for the partnership’s pillars, coordination mechanisms and other core functions, and highlights the work to be maintained, transitioned, sunset, or kept on standby.
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Since 1996, trachoma has been targeted for elimination as a public health problem worldwide. The active trachoma criterion for national elimination as a public health problem is a TF1–9 < 5%, sust...ained for at least two years in the absence of antibiotic mass drug administration (MDA), in each formerly endemic EU. Using A, F and E, health ministries and their partners have made considerable progress towards achieving this criterion in formerly endemic EUs worldwide. In 2002, an estimated 1517 million people lived in EUs in which EU-wide implementation of the A, F and E components of SAFE were thought to be needed for the purposes of global elimination of trachoma as a public health problem; by June 2021, that number had fallen to 136.2 million, a 91% reduction. Approximately 85% of the 136.2 million people living in EUs needing A, F and E in June 2021 were in WHO’s African Region.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) organized the first global meeting on skin-related neglected tropical diseases (skin NTDs) at its headquarters ...in Geneva, Switzerland on 27–31 March 2023. This 5-day hybrid meeting brought together more than 800 global experts, stakeholders and partners from 86 countries to consider a wide range of topics and enable participants to share best practices in implementing integrated skin NTD activities at country level. The theme of the meeting was “integration for greater impact”.
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The Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) is a document to guide WHO’s work in countries. CCS is a medium-term vision for WHO’s technical cooperation with a given Member State, and supports the country's national ... medbox">health policy, strategy or plan. The CCS time frame is flexible to align with national cycles and processes. It is the basis for aligning WHO’s collaboration with other United Nations bodies and development partners at the country level.
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On August 13, 2024, the Africa CDC declared the mpox outbreak a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS). The following day, the WHO declared it a Public Health Emergency of Internati...onal Concern (PHEIC). A coordinated, continent-wide response is essential, co-led by the African Union (AU) through the Africa CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO), in close collaboration with global partners working under a unified plan, budget, and monitoring framework.
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The aim of the framework is to provide guidance to Member States and partners on region-specific priority actions towards the goals, targets and milestones of the GTS. The central pillar of the framework is the adoption of programme phasing and tran...sitioning, aimed at facilitating a tailored approach to malaria control/elimination. This is in response to the increasing heterogeneity of malaria epidemiology among and within countries of the region.
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The Global status report on violence prevention 2014, which reflects data from 133 countries, is the first report of its kind to assess national efforts to address interpersonal violence, namely child maltreatment, youth violence, intimate partner a...nd sexual violence, and elder abuse. Jointly published by WHO, the United Nations Development Programme, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the report reviews the current status of violence prevention efforts in countries, and calls for a scaling up of violence prevention programmes; stronger legislation and enforcement of laws relevant for violence prevention; and enhanced services for victims of violence.
You can download summaries in different languages, single chapters and graphics
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WHO commissioned a survey, carried out in September/October 2015, among some 10 000 members of the public in 12 countries (2 per WHO Region: Barbados, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria..., the Russian Federation, Serbia, South Africa, Sudan and Viet Nam) on their use of antibiotics, knowledge of antibiotics and of antibiotic resistance. While not claiming to be exhaustive, this and other surveys will help WHO and partners to ensure efforts are focused on tackling some of the biggest gaps in understanding and the most prevalent misconceptions
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Several countries affected by COVID-19, have seen increases in levels of violence occurring in the home, including violence against children, intimate par...tner violence and violence against older people. Countries also face increasing challenges in maintaining support and care for survivors of violence. This brief compiles key actions that the health sector can undertake within a multisectoral response to prevent or mitigate interpersonal violence based on existing WHO guidance.
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