Burns are a global public health problem, accounting for close to 200,000 deaths annually. The majority of these occur in low- and middle-income co
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untries, where a number of constraints complicate the public health task of addressing burns. While the primary prevention of burns in low- and middle-income countries is a pressing need, the World Health Organization (WHO) also actively encourages further development of burn-care systems, including the training of health-care providers in the appropriate triage and management of people with burns.
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At present at least 2.2 billion people around the world have a vision impairment, of whom at least 1 billion have a vision impairment that could have been prevented or is yet to be addressed. The
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world faces considerable challenges in terms of eye care, including inequalities in the coverage and quality of prevention, treatment and rehabilitation services; a shortage of trained eye care service providers; and poor integration of eye care services into health systems, among others. The World report on vision aims to address these challenges and galvanize action.
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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
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long-term care facilities, with figures being as high 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 WHO continuously reviews available data on SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. For this version, the global epidemiological
situation of the COVID-19 pandemic as
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of 21 January 2022 – at a time when the Omicron VOC had been identified in 171
countries across all six WHO Regions and was rapidly replacing Delta worldwide – was considered Omicron has a substantial growth advantage, higher secondary attack rates and a higher observed reproduction number than Delta.
There is now significant evidence that immune evasion contributes to the rapid spread of Omicron. Other factors may be a shorter
serial interval (by about 0.8 to 1.2 days compared to Delta) and potential increased intrinsic transmission fitness . There is
growing evidence that with Omicron, there is lower vaccine effectiveness (VE) against infection and symptomatic disease soon after vaccination compared to Delta. There is also evidence of accelerated waning of VE over time of the primary series against infection and symptomatic disease for the studied vaccines. Further studies are required to better understand the drivers of transmission and declining incidence in various settings. These factors include the intrinsic transmission fitness properties of the virus, degree of immune evasion, vaccination coverage and level of vaccine-derived and post-infection immunity, levels of social mixing and degree of application of public health and social measures (PHSM).
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Global and regional estimates of violence against women
he report presents the first global systematic review of scientific data on the prevalence of
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two forms of violence against women: violence by an intimate partner (intimate partner violence) and sexual violence by someone other than a partner (non-partner sexual violence). It shows, for the first time, global and regional estimates of the prevalence of these two forms of violence, using data from around the world. Previous reporting on violence against women has not differentiated between partner and non-partner violence. You can download the report in different languages
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The content of these guidelines goes beyond the technicalities of medical needs with additional insights into community empowerment, possible access to welfare and economic opportunities and similar
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issues. If these are adequately explored, the health and quality of life of people affected and their families would be greatly restored.
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This document is part of the process for improving the quality of care in family planning. Medical eligibility criteria for contraceptive use (MEC), the first edition
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of which was published in 1996, prsents current World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on the safety of various contraceptive e-
methods for use in the context of specific health conditions and characteristics. This is the fifth edtion of the MEC –the latest in the series of periodic updates
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This booklet provides latest available estimates of the prevalence of depression and other common mental disorders at the global and regional level, together with data concerning the consequences
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of these disorders in terms of lost health.
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Improving the management of childhood tuberculosis within national tuberculosis programmes: research priorities based on a literature review
WHO/HTM/TB/2007.381, 07.02
Interim guidance 2 march 2021
Current use of drugs to prevent COVID-19 is variable, reflecting large-scale uncertainty. Numerous randomized trials of many different drugs are underway to inform pra
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ctice. This first version of the Drugs to prevent COVID-19: A WHO living guideline contains new information and a recommendation on hydroxychloroquine. It follows the publication of six trials synthesized in a living network meta-analysis (NMA).
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This report presents country, regional and global estimates of low birth weight for 2000, together with a detailed description of the methods used in calculating the estimates. Some limited data on
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trends are also included. The limitations of low-birth-weight data are described and recommendations are made for further improvements in the data for this important indicator of health.
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• provide scientific information on the safety, efficacy, and quality control/ quality assurance of widely used medicinal plants, in order to facilitate their appropriate use in Member States;
• provide models to assist Member States in develop
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ing their own mono- graphs or formularies for these or other herbal medicines; and
• facilitate information exchange among Member States.
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Rreport of a WHO Consultative Meeting Kolkata India 2012
A review of proactive risk assessment and risk management practices to ensure the safety of drinking-water
Based on information gathered from 118 countries representing every region
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of the globe, this report provides a picture of WSP uptake worldwide. It presents information on WSP implementation and the integration of WSPs into the policy environment. It also explores WSP benefits, challenges and future priorities.
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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 Partners
Neurology Atlas (2004)
During the past five decades, the incidence of dengue has increased 30-fold. Some 50–100 million new infections are estimated to occur annually in more than 100 endemic countries, with a documented further spread to previously unaffected areas; e
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very year hundreds of thousands of severe cases arise, including 20 000 deaths; 264 disability-adjusted life years per million population per year are lost , at an estimated cost for ambulatory and hospitalized cases of US$ 514–1394, often affecting very poor populations. The true numbers are probably far worse, since severe underreporting and misclassification of dengue cases have been documented.
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WHO Guideline. Since 2010, countries in the meningitis belt have started to introduce a new serogroup A meningococcal conjugate vaccine conferring individual protection and herd immunity. Following the successful roll-out of this vaccine, epidemics
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due to Neisseria meningitidis serogroup A (NmA) are disappearing, but other serogroups (e.g. NmW, NmX and NmC) still cause epidemics, albeit at a lower frequency and of a smaller size. Due to these changes, WHO organized the review of the evidence to provide recommendations for epidemic control, related to operational thresholds for investigation and response to outbreaks, the use of rapid diagnostic tests, antibiotic regimens in epidemics, and prophylaxis for household contacts of cases
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This module is part of the WHO series The Immunological Basis for Immunization, which was initially developed in 1993 as a set of eight modules, comprising one module on general immunology and seven
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modules each devoted to one of the vaccines recommended for the Expanded Programme on Immunization, i.e. vaccines against diphtheria, measles, pertussis, polio, tetanus, tuberculosis and yellow fever. Since then, this series has been updated and extended to include other vaccines of international importance. The main purpose of the modules is to provide national immunization managers and vaccination professionals with an overview of the scientific basis of vaccination against a range of important infectious diseases. The modules developed since 1993 continue to be vaccine-specific, reflecting the biological differences in immune responses to the individual pathogens and the differing strategies employed to create the best possible level of protection that can be provided by vaccination. The modules also serve as a record of the immunological basis for the WHO recommendations on vaccine use, published in the WHO vaccine position papers.*
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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 the effective revention and treatment
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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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