In 2017, $37.4 billion of development assistance was provided to low- and middleincome countries to maintain or improve health. This amount is down slightly compared to 2016, and since 2010, develop...ment assistance for health (DAH) has grown at an annualized rate of 1.0%. While global development assistance for health has seemingly leveled off, global health spending continues to climb, outpacing economic growth in many countries. Total health spending for 2015, the most recent year for which data are available, was estimated to be $9.7 trillion (95% uncertainty interval: 9.7–9.8)*, up 4.7% (3.9–5.6) from the prior year, and accounted for 10% of the world’s total economy. With some sources of health spending growing and other types remaining steady, and with major variations in spending from country to country, it is more important than ever to understand where resources for health come from, where they go, and how they align with health needs. This information is critical for planning and is a necessary catalyst for change as we aim to close the gap on the unfinished agenda of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and move forward toward universal health coverage (UHC) in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) era.
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24 Nov. 2021
Action against gender-based violence being pushed to the outlying margins of the global COVID-19 response
A new Oxfam report shows an undeniable increase in gender-based violence (G...BV) during the COVID-19 pandemic around the world to which too many governments and donors are not doing enough to tackle.
The report, The Ignored Pandemic: The Dual Crisis of Gender-Based Violence and COVID-19, showed the number of calls made by survivors to domestic violence hotlines in ten countries during the first months of lockdown. The data reveals a 25 – 111 percentage surge; in Argentina (25%), Colombia (79%), Tunisia (43%), China (50%), Somalia (50%), South Africa (69%), UK (25%), Cyprus (39%), Italy (73%) and the largest increase in Malaysia where calls surged by over 111%.
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A United Nations System Commitment for
Action to assist Member States delivering on
the post-2020 global biodiversity framework
The aim of these Guidelines is to provide a framework for the conservation and sustainable use of plants in medicine. To do this, ...ibute-to-highlight medbox">the Guidelines describe the various tasks that should be carried out to ensure that where medicinal plants are taken from the wild, they are taken on a basis that is sustainable.
The Guidelines conform to the principles of Caring for the Earth, prepared in partnership by IUCN, UNEP and WWF. Caring for the Earth extends the message and scope of the World Conservation Strategy to an ethic of sustainable living, and explains how to integrate conservation with development. Its message is particularly relevant to the issue of medicinal plants, which in many parts of the world are being seriously depleted due to over-exploitation and loss of habitats, resulting in a lack of essential medicines and so reducing options for the future.
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WHO’s total revenue in 2020 was US$ 4299 million and total expenses were US$ 3561 million, resulting in a surplus of US$ 824 million, which includes finance revenue (e.g. interest and investment i...ncome) of US$ 86 million, representing increases of 38% and 15% in revenue and expenses respectively. 10. The financial statements report all the Organization’s revenue and expenses. The Organization’s operations are managed under three fund groups: (1) the General Fund, which supports the programme budget, (2) Member States – other, and (3) the Fiduciary Fund (Note 2.18 gives particulars of each of the funds). This segregation of resources facilitates clearer reporting of WHO’s revenues and expenses.
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This report aims to raise awareness about the role that the reform of public health laws can play in advancing the right to health ...ribute-to-highlight medbox">and in creating the conditions for people to live healthy lives. By encouraging a better understanding of how public health law can be used to improve the health of the population, the report aims to encourage and assist governments to reform their public health laws in order to advance the right to health.
The report highlights important issues that may arise during the process of public health law reform. It provides guidance about issues and requirements to be addressed during the process of developing public health laws. It also includes case studies and examples of legislation from a variety of countries to illustrate effective law reform practices and some features of effective public health legislation.
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Since 24 February 2022, the war in Ukraine has caused widespread suffering to its people and serious damage
to the country’s infrastructure. Att...acks on the country’s health system and its power network threaten people, compromise the provision of health care, and complicate the distribution of essential medicines and equipment.
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Food and nutrition security in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is subject to the relentless... impact of conflict, epidemics and climate events that have persisted in the country for decades, further compounded by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Lack of infrastructure and investment in agriculture, health and human capital development combine to impede progress towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 17. While there are several legal instruments and policies that promote food and nutrition security, poor coordination, weak national capacity and exponential population growth present serious obstacles to the achievement of zero hunger. Political instability and siloed sectoral responses to humanitarian and development needs have also affected results to date.
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Promoting and protecting health is essential to human welfare and sustained economic and social development. This was recognized more than 30 years... ago by the Alma-Ata Declaration signatories, who noted that Health for All would contribute
both to a better quality of life and also to global peace and security
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Irresponsible pharmaceutical companies fuel the proliferation of superbugs through supply chain pollution, the European Public Health Alliance (EPH...A) reports. The advocacy group uncovered lapses such as dirty production and inadequate waste disposal in the production of antimicrobials in China and India, which supplies most of the antimicrobials consumed in Europe. In a briefing detailing the pollution, the EPHA urges major purchasers of antibiotics to blacklist irresponsible pharmaceutical companies, demand that the industry clean up its supply chain, introduce greater transparency on the origin of antibiotics, and review and revise procurement policies from an ethics perspective.
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Access to safe blood and blood products is recognized as one of the key requirements for delivery of modern health care in the journey towards heal...th for all. The foundation of safe and sustainable blood supplies depends on the collection of blood from voluntary non-remunerated and low-risk donors. Data from the WHO Global Database for Blood Safety (GDBS) brings out several inadequacies related to the supply and safety of blood and blood products. These inadequacies include a number of variations in safe blood practices across the world, including the quantity of blood donated (voluntary and replacement types), quality and adequate testing of the donated blood (immunohaematology [IH] and transfusion-transmitted infections [TTIs]), rational use of blood and blood components such as appropriate patient blood management protocols. These variations are very high in countries of the South-East Asian Region and most of them are either low- or middle-income countries (LMICs).
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The WHO Quality Toolkit: Navigating tools to improve the quality of health services helps easy identification and access to a wide range of WHO pub...lished materials to improve the quality of health services. These tools support the actions described in the Quality health services: a planning guide, which outlines a structured, systems-based approach to improving quality of health services. Whether you work at the facility, sub-national or national level, or in specific communities, you will find resources within the Quality Toolkit to help you carry out essential tasks to improve quality of care
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Myanmar is one of the world’s 22 high tuberculosis (TB) burden countries, and supporting TB control in Myanmar is a global priority. This report ...reflects the findings, discussions, conclusions and recommendations of the fourth international review mission of the Myanmar National TB Programme (NTP), which brought together international and national partners to review progress in TB control and to offer guidance on future TB control directions and efforts.
A high-quality national disease prevalence survey completed in 2010 demonstrated a TB disease burden two to three times higher than anticipated on the basis of previous surveys. In 2011 about 200 000 adults and children will have developed TB, including 20 000 HIV infected and 9000 suffering from MDR-TB, both of which will require additional care and costly treatment. TB remains among the top killers of adults, and more women die of TB than from maternal causes.
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The recommendation in this document thus supersedes the previous WHO recommendation for the prevention of PPH as published in ...e-to-highlight medbox">the 2012 guideline, WHO recommendations for the prevention and treatment of postpartum haemorrhage.
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Objectives and scope of the document
This document was developed to provide recommended management strategies for problems and disorders that are ...specifically related to the occurrence of a major stressful event. The recommended strategies will form the basis of a new module to be added to the WHO (2010) mhGAP Intervention Guide for use in non-specialized specialized health-care settings.
The scope of the problems covered by these guidelines is:
symptoms of acute stress in the first month after a potentially traumatic event, with the following subtypes:
- symptoms of acute traumatic stress (intrusion, avoidance and hyperarousal) in the first month after a potentially traumatic event;
- symptoms of dissociative (conversion) disorders in the first month after a potentially traumatic event;
- non-organic (secondary) enuresis in the first month after a potentially traumatic event (in children);
- hyperventilation in the first month after a potentially traumatic event;
- insomnia in the first month after a potentially traumatic event;
posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD);
bereavement in the absence of a mental disorder.
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[Preface]. For more than forty years Primary Health Care (PHC) has been recognized as the cornerstone of an effective and responsive health system. The...pan> Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978 reaffirmed the right to the highest attainable level of health, with equity, solidarity and the right to health as its core values. It stressed the need for comprehensive health services, not only curative but services that addressed needs in terms of health promotion, prevention, rehabilitation and treatment of common conditions. A strong resolutive first level of care is the basis for health system development [...] The Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) has supported the countries in the establishment of interprofessional PHC teams, in the transformation of health education and in building capacity in the strategic planning, and management of human resources for health. Nursing can play a critical role in advancing PHC. New profiles such as the advanced practice nurses, as discussed in this document, can be fundamental in this effort, and in particular, in health promotion, disease prevention and care, especially in rural and underserved areas.
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WHO Recommendations 2018 Update
The primary audience for these recommendations includes health professionals who are responsible for developing national and local health care guidelines ...="attribute-to-highlight medbox">and protocols (particularly those related to PPH prevention and treatment) and those involved in the provision of care to women and their newborns during labour and childbirth, including midwives, nurses, general medical practitioners and obstetricians, as well as managers of maternal and child health programmes, and relevant staff in ministries of health and training institutions, in all settings.
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