Following review of evidence and advice from the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on Tuberculosis (TB) Diagnostics and Laboratory Strengthening, the World Health Organization (WHO) announces that current WHO recommendations for the use of interferon-gamma release assays (IGRA) are also valid for Beij...ing Wantai’s TB-IGRA and Qiagen QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus products. This expands the range of tests available to detect TB infection. Full details are provided in this WHO policy statement.
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English Analysis on World about Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment, Epidemic and more; published on 01 Feb 2022 by Action Against Hunger
The guide is suitable and can be used for the following audiences:
1. nurses and other trained healthcare workers who can use this manual as a self-study tool and then incorporate its guidance into their practice;
2. governmental and non-governmental employers of lay and professional TB treatment ...adherence workers, who can provide training and guidance to their staff using the guidance in this manual;
3. TB clinicians, programme managers, policy makers and other leaders, to make them aware of the full range of interventions required by a person on TB treatment to complete his or her treatment and thus understand the gap that often exists in the support provided to patients;
4. people who, with enhanced capacity and support, can act as peer counsellors and supporters for people affected by TB. This can include family members who, in most contexts, play an important role in offering support to people with TB.
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This report, which involved input from across WaterAid, in particular from the Programme Support Unit (PSU) of WaterAid UK, includes case studies from a variety of countries, including Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, India and Nepal, each demonstrating what must be done now to i...mprove WASH services and address current challenges, in order to increase community resilience to climate change.
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Child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM) threaten the well-being of millions of girls around the world. Both have existed for generations, as manifestations of gender inequality, and have been propagated by discriminatory norms that devalue girls. In many countries where both child marriag...e and FGM are common, girls most at risk for each practice tend to share certain characteristics, such as low levels of education, rural residence, and living in poorer households. Yet, there are distinct differences in what drives each practice, and many communities in which one may be common, will not practice the other.
This report seeks to identify the extent to which child marriage and FGM co-exist. The intersection of these two practices – that is, the share of women who underwent FGM and were married in childhood – is reviewed over time, to determine whether girls’ likelihood of experiencing both practices has changed across generations. Lastly, the analysis identifies the characteristics that most commonly distinguish the girls who experience one practice from those who experience both.
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This Summary for Policymakers (SPM) presents key findings of the Working Group I (WGI) contribution to the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) on the physical science basis of climate change. The report builds upon the 2013 Working Group I contribution to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5...) and the 2018–2019 IPCC Special Reports of the AR6 cycle and
incorporates subsequent new evidence from climate science
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This strategy defines the World Health Organization (WHO) vision and framework for supporting Member States to accelerate the development, implementation and monitoring of their National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) from 2022 to 2026. The National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) ...are critical to ensure national capacities in health emergency prevention, preparedness, response and recovery are planned, built, strengthened and sustained in order to achieve national, regional and global health security and therefore keep the world safe, serve the vulnerable and promote health.
The strategy promotes, where existing, the use of existing national action plans for health security and not necessary the creation of an additional unique plan. This will avoid duplication and ensure maximum efficiency in domestic resourcing and operationalization efficiency while harnessing external buy-in to support national health priorities.
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The development of this target product profile (TPP) was led by the WHO Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) following standard WHO guidance for TPP development. In order to identify and prioritize diagnostic needs, a WHO NTD Diagnostics Technical Advisory Group (DTAG) was form...ed, and different subgroups were created to advise on specific NTDs, including a subgroup working on the human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) diagnostic innovation needs. This group of independent experts included leading scientists, public health officials and endemic-country end-user representatives. Standard WHO Declaration of Interest procedures were followed. A landscape analysis of the available products and of the development pipeline was conducted, and the salient areas with unmet needs were identified.
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The Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) 2023 highlights that the number of people experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity and requiring urgent food and livelihood assistance increased for the fourth consecutive year in 2022. Over a quarter of a billion people were estimated to face acute h...unger, with economic shocks and the Ukraine war contributing to the increase. In 2022, around 258 million people across 58 countries and territories faced acute food insecurity at crisis or worse levels (IPC/CH Phase 3-5), up from 193 million people in 53 countries and territories in 2021.
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Adolescence, defined as the period between 10 and 19 years of age, is a developmental stage during which many psychosocial and mental health challenges emerge. There is a well-established link between mental health and HIV outcomes. Adolescents and young adults living with HIV typically have additio...nal mental health needs linked to their experiences of living with and managing a chronic illness, along with prevailing stigma and discrimination. Mental health promotion and prevention is thus a critical priority for this group.
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Cholera remains an issue of major public health importance in Kenya. Kenya has in recent years experienced outbreaks affecting different parts of the country
This report summarizes the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global work on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) during 2022. It describes how the Organization continued to deliver its essential WASH programming as elaborated in its 2018–2025 strategy.
Climate-induced water insecurity poses one of the biggest threats to humanity and will lead to more hunger, disease and displacement
Oxfam water engineers are having to drill deeper, more expensive and harder-to-maintain water boreholes used by some of the poorest communities around the world, mo...re often now only to find dry, depleted or polluted reservoirs.
Today, during World Water Week, Oxfam publishes the first of its series of reports, “Water Dilemmas”, about the growing water crisis, in large part driven by global heating from greenhouse gas emissions. The report describes how climate change will impact water security in different regions, leading to more hunger, disease and displacement.
Carlos Calderon, Humanitarian Advocacy and Partnerships Lead for Oxfam Aotearoa said, “This new Oxfam research is focused on the global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) situation, but it paints a picture that illustrates the complexity of elements that, combined, will continue to increasingly affect women, girls, boys and men in the decades to come. Changing weather, poverty, inequality, gender-based violence, political instability and conflicts are impacting the availability and quality of adequate water systems. All governments, particularly those from rich countries, should responsively take action at a global scale. The clock is ticking. Our children will judge us for our actions today, or for the lack of them.”
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Substantial progress in the fight against HIV has been made over the past decade. Advances in HIV prevention, testing, and treatment have been matched by declines in HIV incidence and HIV-related deaths. The success of Botswana reaching the 95-95-95 targets, despite resource limitations, points to a... hopeful future. However, the recent publication of In Danger: UNAIDS Global AIDS Update 2022, the UNAIDS annual report, paints a sobering picture of the fragility of these gains.
Stagnating financing for the HIV response, alongside continued global inequities, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, jeopardises progress. Current projections indicate that neither the UNAIDS 2025 95-95-95 targets nor the goal of ending the AIDS
epidemic by 2030 will be met.
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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... 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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This UNAIDS 2024 report brings together new data and case studies which demonstrate that the decisions and policy choices taken by world leaders this year will decide the fate of millions of lives and whether the world’s deadliest pandemic is overcome.
Healthy Settings, a key component of Malawi’s Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP) 2011–2016, is the World Health Organization’s (WHO) holistic community-led approach to achieving health improvement by addressing social determinants of health, an approach which is central to the current WHO fra...mework on integrated people-centred health services. Healthy Settings projects by their construct have many different components which vary from one group and community to another depending on their priorities: from housing, hospital improvements and waste management to “softer” interventions like leadership skills training and health promotion. It can be challenging to find relevant indicators to monitor and assess the impact of such a complex holistic project, this paper explores if social capital data can provide useful impact assessment indicators at the start of such a project.
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