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 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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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 health sector. The target audience includes all those concerned with implementing a...ctions to combat antimicrobial resistance in Malawi.
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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
In March 2018, they convened a global meeting with the aim of establishing an action plan to develop new diagnostic solutions for Buruli ulcer and to create a framework of collaboration to address unmet needs in diagnostics for the disease. The participants agreed to develop a target product profile (TPP) to address the need for a rapid diagnostic test for use at the primary health-care level.
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This manual is addressed to health care providers dealing with Mycobacterium ulcerans disease (Buruli ulcer). The manual aims to achieve a better understanding of the disease, its clinical presentation and its surgical management. The manual is aimed particularly at district health care providers. A... comprehensive protocol, adapted to each form and stage of the disease, is presented together with comments on the levels of resources and capabilities necessary
to shorten the length of treatment, to prevent complications and to minimize undesired sequelae and thus to obtain the best possible outcome for each patient. Some sections include advice relevant to surgeons (e.g. relating to bone infection). However, the level to which particular comments are intended to apply should be clear from the context.
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Understanding and addressing violence against women
Over 6 million people worldwide are infected with Trypanosoma cruzi, the protozoan that causes Chagas disease. Endemic in 21 Latin American countries, the disease can be transmitted by vector insects called triatomines — also known as “kissing bugs” —, foods or beverages contaminated with th...e parasite, blood transfusions, organ transplants, or congenitally during pregnancy or delivery.
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Despite the significant role of vector control in national leishmaniasis control programmes, the programmatic community perceives vector control as the weakest component of leishmaniasis control strategies in terms of resources, scientific evidence of the usefulness of interventions and capacity for... quality-assured implementation. Therefore, the main objective of this manual is to provide practical tools, techniques and procedures to strengthen sand fly control and surveillance in order to improve implementation of leishmaniasis control programmes. The manual provides a rationale for programme managers in different geographical regions on the types of vector control interventions to be used in different epidemiological and environmental settings and also how to measure their impact.
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Urogenital schistosomiasis is a common neglected tropical disease in many rural communities in African countries, with patches of infection in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Globally, an estimated 239 million people are currently infected, with burden estimated at more than 3.5 million disability...-adjusted life years (DALYs). In many endemic areas, severely infected individuals may suffer fibrosis of the bladder, kidney damage, bladder cancer, and death if untreated. This, however, depends on several factors such as host-parasite genetics, degree and length of exposure, intensity of infection, host immune response to the parasites, and coinfections with other tropical diseases such as malaria and HIV-1.
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Schistosomiasis is widely recognized as a disease that is socially determined. An understanding of the social and behavioural factors linked to disease transmission and control should play a vital role in designing policies and strategies for schistosomiasis prevention and control. To this must be a...dded the awareness that schistosomiasis is also a disease of poverty. It still survives in poverty-stricken, remote areas where there is little or no safe water or sanitation, and health care is scarce or non-existent. For a variety of complex reasons, many of which are addressed in this book, the disease is particularly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, and persists in certain areas of rural China. This concern for human behaviour in an environment of poverty echoes the concerns of the new research priority for “diseases of poverty” identified by the Special Programme for Research & Training in Tropical Diseases.
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Cholera which disproportionally impacts poor countries and the most vulnerable continues to affect at least 47 countries across the globe, resulting in an estimated 1.3 – 4 million cases, and 21,000 - 143,000 deaths per year worldwide. In Ethiopia, despite major improvements seen in the increasing... access to healthcare, clean water, and improvement in maternal and child health, the country continues to be significantly affected by cholera outbreaks. From 2015 – 2021 for example, several outbreaks of cholera have occurred in multiple parts of the country resulting in over 105,000 cases and thousands of deaths. Some of the risk factors associated with cholera in Ethiopia include inadequate access to clean water, practice of open defecation, poor household and environmental sanitation, unhygienic latrine and weak sanitation practise among communities.
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Since 2000, concerted efforts by national programmes, supported by public–private partnerships, nongovernmental organizations, donors and academia under the auspices and coordination of the World Health Organization (WHO), have produced important achievements in the control of human African trypan...osomiasis (HAT). As a consequence, the disease was targeted for elimination as a public health problem by 2020. The Sixty-sixth World Health Assembly endorsed this goal in resolution WHA66.12 on neglected tropical diseases, adopted in 2013.
National sleeping sickness control programmes (NSSCPs) are core to progressing control of the disease and in adapting to the different epidemiological situations. The involvement of different partners, as well as the support and trust of long-term donors, has been crucial for the achievements.
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This technical report presents the epidemiology of human and animal leishmaniases in the EU and its neighbouring countries and concludes that the disease remains widespread and underreported in many countries of southern Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East and that there is a need to improv...e leishmaniasis prevention and control based on robust surveillance in humans, animals, and vectors, and to increase public awareness following a one health approach.
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Schistosomiasis is widely recognized as a disease that is socially determined. An
understanding of the social and behavioural factors linked to disease transmission and
control should play a vital role in designing policies and strategies for schistosomiasis
prevention and control. To this must b...e added the awareness that schistosomiasis is
also a disease of poverty. It still survives in poverty-stricken, remote areas where there
is little or no safe water or sanitation, and health care is scarce or non-existent. For
a variety of complex reasons, many of which are addressed in this book, the disease
is particularly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, and persists in certain areas of rural
China. This concern for human behaviour in an environment of poverty echoes the
concerns of the new research priority for “diseases of poverty” identified by the
Special Programme for Research & Training in Tropical Diseases.
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World Health Organization. (2021). Minimum technical standards and recommendations for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health care for emergency medical teams. World Health Organization.
The revision of the SRHR Policy is based on the results of the analysis of the implementation process of the past policy, which has provided evidence to
ensure that the revised policy is relevant and effective. The revision has also been done with the participation of all national stakeholders who ...have
also international experience on SRHR issues. The Ministry urges all public and private institutions to use this policy as a guide in the implementation of
SRHR services in the country.
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National Guidelines on Nutrition, Care, Support, and Treatment (NCST) for Adolescents and Adults
These guidelines are intended to:
• Establish a consistent set of nutrition interventions and recommendations aimed at managing and preventing undernutrition and overnutrition in adolescents and ad...ults, with a focus on people with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) patients.
• Provide simple and clear guidance to service providers and managers on how to implement the nutrition interventions and recommendations at the various health care delivery contact points.
• Provide a framework for policymakers and development partners to use when planning nutrition interventions for adolescent and adults.
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Vector-borne diseases are responsible for 17% of the global burden of communicable diseases and more than 500 000 deaths annually. The ambitious global targets for the control of vector-borne diseases come in the context of the (re-)emergence of diseases, increasing resistances to insecticides and u...ncertainty related to the financing of global vector control efforts. The United Nations 2030 Agenda with its related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the New Urban Agenda adopted at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III)
in Quito in 2016 and WHO’s Global vector control response 2017–2030 (WHO, 2017a) emphasize the value of elevating multisectoral actions and strategies that extend beyond the health sector to the core of integrated vector control.
This policy brief underlines the important role housing conditions have in the transmission of vector-borne diseases and showcases interventions and policies the housing sector can contribute to effective, integrated and intersectoral vector-borne diseases management.
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This document puts forward the joint position and vision of an expert, global, multistakeholder working group on implementing Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) for all preterm or low birth weight (LBW) infants as the foundation for small and/or sick newborn care within maternal, newborn, and child health p...rogrammes, and spur collaborative global action. The document summarizes the background information, evidence, and rationale for making KMC available to every preterm or LBW newborn and seeks to galvanize the international maternal, newborn, and child health community and families to come together to support the implementation of KMC for all preterm or LBW infants to improve their and their mothers and families health and well-being.
This position paper is intended to be used by policy-makers (i.e. those responsible for national policy, guideline development and budget allocation), development partners, programme managers, health workforce leadership, practising clinicians, civil society leadership (e.g. parent and professional organizations) and researchers/research organizations involved in KMC implementation research.
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The KMC implementation strategy targets a broad audience. These include policy-makers and programme managers at national, regional and local levels, government and nongovernmental organizations working in the area of maternal and newborn care, global and national professional associations, public an...d private hospital management at all levels of care, and facility- and community-based maternal and infant care providers.
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