Breast cancer is the most common cancer worldwide and the leading cause of cancer deaths among women, disproportionately affecting low- and middle-income countries. The Global Breast Cancer Initiative strives to reduce breast cancer mortality by 2.5 percent per year, which over a 20-year period can ...save 2.5 million lives. The purpose of this core technical package is to outline a pathway for incremental, sustainable improvements tailored to country-specific needs based on three key strategies and objectives: health promotion for early detection; timely diagnosis; and comprehensive breast cancer management. This document provides a common framework linking policy makers, stakeholders, the clinical community, program managers and civil society to evidence-based systematic approaches that can facilitate health systems strengthening and reduce inequities in women’s health throughout their life cycles
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A lot has happened this year. While we continued to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, we were hit by disease outbreaks and
humanitarian crises. Yet, despite these challenges, we marched on, resolute in resolving critical health systems issues to increa...se
access to quality healthcare services. To further our vision and bring concrete actions to reality, under
the leadership of the Government of South Sudan, we developed the Health Sector Strategic Plan to define the strategic
approaches, key interventions, mapping resource needs, and the implementation framework to strengthen the health system
to deliver essential quality health services equitably for 2023 to 2027. For WHO, this Plan will usher in a new reality -- access
to lifesaving or health-promoting interventions is doable and possible, making the health sector fairer, especially for those
unable to pay
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The Regional Action Framework for Noncommunicable Disease Prevention and Control provides a unified vision of objectives and recommended actions to combat the noncommunicable disease (NCD) epidemic in the Western Pacific Region. Implementation should be supported by cross-sectoral coordination..., sustainable financing, evidence-based policy, and community engagement, tailored to each Member State’s unique context. In doing so, Member States are encouraged to transform a disease treatment-centered “sick system” into a “health system” in which a population’s health and well-being enable socioeconomic development.
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The Infection prevention and control in the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a living guideline consolidates technical guidance developed and published during the COVID-19 pandemic into evidence-informed recommendations for infection prevention and control (IPC). This living guideline... is available both online and PDF.
This version of the living guideline (version 6.0) includes fifteen statements on IPC measures in health-care settings (screening and patient placement, ventilation, physical barriers, environmental cleaning, waste management, amongst others) as well as one statement on mask fit in the community context.
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Key stakeholders must be involved in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of NCD plans and programmes. Within a ministry of health there will be different types of stakeholders, such as programme managers and senior managers in de...partments of prevention, health promotion, and hospital and health services. Other stakeholders may come from ministries for transport, economics, agriculture, and education, funding partners, nongovernmental organizations, civil society and community members. It is critical to ensure that there are clear and accurate descriptions of the policies, plans and programmes, so that all interventions, activities and desired outcomes are clearly understood by all involved in their evaluation.
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About one fourth of the world’s population is estimated to have been infected with the tuberculosis (TB) bacilli, and about 5–10% of those infected develop TB disease in their lifetime. The risk for TB disease after infection depends on several factors, the most important being the person’s im...munological status. TB preventive treatment (TPT) given to people at highest risk of progressing from TB infection to disease remains a critical element to achieve the global targets of the End TB Strategy, as reiterated by the second UN High Level Meeting on TB in 2023. Delivering TPT effectively and safely necessitates a programmatic approach to implement a comprehensive package of interventions along a cascade of care: identifying individuals at highest risk, screening for TB and ruling out TB disease, testing for TB infection, and choosing the preventive treatment option that is best suited to an individual, managing adverse events, supporting medication adherence and monitoring programmatic performance
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These guidelines provide new and updated recommendations on the use of point-of-care testing in children under 18 months of age and point-of-care tests to monitor treatment in people living with HIV; the treatment monitoring algorithm; and timing of antiretroviral therapy (ART) among people living w...ith HIV who are being treated for tuberculosis.
New recommendations launched today outline key new actions that countries can take to improve the delivery of HIV testing, treatment and care services by providing greater options for differentiated approaches such as, supporting HIV treatment start in the community, ensuring that children are diagnosed and treated early, and that viral load treatment monitoring is more accessible, focused and triggers clinical action
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Getting on track to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. This new Road Map charts a way forward for country-level actions to achieve an ambitious set of HIV prevention targets by 2025. Those targets emerged from the 2021 Political Declaration... on HIV and AIDS, which the United Nations General Assembly adopted in June 2021 and they are underpinned by the Global AIDS Strategy (2021–2026). The Strategy sets out the principles, approaches, priority action area and programmatic targets for the global HIV response
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The road map 2030 was developed by WHO through an extensive global consultation, with indicators set for measuring progress against targets and milestones. This compendium of indicators provides a comprehensive and standardized listing of recommended indicators, including the 70 core indicators pres...ented in the M&E framework. These indicators will also support reporting on strategies described in other road map companion documents to guide action against neglected tropical diseases include the sustainability framework, the global strategy on water, sanitation and hygiene, the One Health approach and the strategic framework for integrated control and elimination of skin-related neglected tropical diseases.
The purpose of this compendium is to guide monitoring and evaluation of programmes and thereby to improve their quality and effectiveness in alignment with the road map goals. It provides a standardized listing of the most widely used indicators relevant to countries, with uniformity in defining indicators to allow comparisons over time and among different programmes. Detailed metadata are provided for each of these indicators to facilitate validity, internal consistency, standardized measurement, estimation methods and comparability of data across countries.
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HIV, viral hepatitis and STI epidemics, particularly among people who inject drugs and other key populations, continue to be fuelled by laws and policies criminalizing sex work; drug use or possession; diverse forms of gender expression and sexuality; stigma and discrimination; gender discrimination...; violence; lack of community empowerment and other violations of human rights. These sociostructural factors limit access to health services, constrain how these services are
delivered and diminish their effectiveness.
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The goals and objectives of the Sudan National Action Plan on AMR can only be achieved through implementing strategic interventions and activities with all concerned ministries and departments joining hands with other stakeholders to collaboratively... tackle these challenges.
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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance plays an important role in the early detection of resistant strains of public health importance and prompt response to outbreaks in hospitals and the community...span>. Surveillance findings are needed to inform medical practice, antibiotic stewardship, and policy and interventions to combat AMR. Appropriate use of antimicrobials, informed by surveillance, improves patients’ treatment outcomes and reduces the emergence and spread of AMR. This protocol describes the steps and procedures to establish/enhance AMR surveillance in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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The main objective of this mission was to assess the level of preparedness of Guinea-Bissau in respect of the WHO consolidated checklist. The checklist helps countries to assess and test their level of readiness it is being used to identify concrete action to be taken and where countries will requir...e support from partners. It lists 10 key components and tasks for both countries and the international community that should be completed within 30, 60 and 90 days from the date of issue of the list, with minimal requirements for equipment, material and human resources.
The components include: overall coordination; rapid response teams; public awareness and community engagement; infection prevention and control; epidemiological and laboratory surveillance; contact tracing; points of entry; laboratory; social mobilization and risk communication; budget.
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The Rwandan Ministry of Health recognizes the threat that Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) pose to health and development in Rwanda and in 2009 articulates ...">strategies to respond to them in the Health Sector Strategic Plan 2012 - 2018 (HSSP3). Among other things, the plan calls for a national prevalence survey on NCD risk factors. This report responds to that call and summarizes the findings of the first NCD risk factor survey in Rwanda conducted from November 2012 to March 2013.
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These guidelines have been developed to provide guidance to the Ministry of Health in managing applications for registration of human pharmaceutical products in Rwanda. It was compiled by the Technical Working Group (TWG) on Medicines Evaluation and... Registration (MER) of the East African Community Medicine Regulatory Harmonization (EAC MRH) Project. The group relied on their experiences and knowledge on medicines registration requirements of their individual Countries. World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Conference on Harmonization of Technical Requirements of Medicines for Human Use (ICH) and other available literature.
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The aim of the operational framework is to ensure 1) accurate collection, handling, shipment and storage of specimens collected in countries implementing HIV drug resistance surveillance; and 2) the availability of quality-assured HIV genotyping laboratory services producing comparable and reliable ...results at the national, regional and global levels.
This publication updates the WHO HIVResNet HIV drug resistance laboratory operational framework published in 2017 and reflects technical and strategic developments over the past three years.
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In recognition of the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), its increasing threat to human, animal and plant health, and the need for a One Health approach to address this issue, the 39...th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) agreed it was important for the food safety community to play its part and re-established the ad hoc Codex Intergovernmental Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance (TFAMR) ). The objectives of the Task Force were
to revise the current Codex Code of Practice to Minimise and Contain Antimicrobial Resistance and to develop new guidance on surveillance programmes relevant to foodborne AMR.
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India reported its 1st case of COVID-19 on 30th January, 2020. It was a travel related case from Wuhan, China. Since then (as on 29th March, 2020), 979 confirmed cases and 25 deaths have been reported from 27 States/UTs. Although there is no evidence to widespread ... medbox">community transmission, 20 existing and 22 potential hotspots have been identified. The containment measures to break the cycle of transmission and clinical management of those affected would require large human resource (HR).
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Policy brief, 24 July 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected older people disproportionately, especially those living in long-term care facilities. In many countries, evidence shows that more than 40% of COVID-19 related deaths have been linked to long-term care facilities, with figures being as h...igh as 80% in some high-income countries. Concerted action is needed to mitigate the impact across all aspects of long-term care, including home- and community-based care, given that most users and providers of care are those who are vulnerable to severe COVID-19.
This policy brief provides 11 policy objectives and key action points to prevent and manage COVID-19 across long-term care. Its intended audience is policy makers and authorities (national, subnational and local) involved in the COVID-19 pandemic. The brief builds on currently available evidence on the measures taken to prevent, prepare for and respond to the COVID‑19 pandemic across long-term care services including care providers
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The Government of the Republic of Zambia has placed priority on ensuring that Zambians are healthy and productive as a catalyst to the attainment of socioeconomic development . The Vision 2030 aims to transform Zambia into a prosperous middle-income... country as articulated also in the 7th National Develop-ment Plan (7NDP) and National Health Strategic Plan 2017 – 2021 (NHSP 2017-2020). However, this aspiration is threatened by the double burden of Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseas¬es. Zambia has been recording an increase in morbidity and mortality due to Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) such as cancers, diabetes, chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. According to the 2016 WHO NCD country profiles, 29% of all deaths in Zambia are attributed to NCDs. This is unacceptably high, considering that most of these diseases can be reduced by modifying four main behavioural risk factors for NCDs which are tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diets and physical inactivity.
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