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Introduction In accordance with its mandate to provide guidance to Member States on health policy matters, WHO issues a series of regularly updated position papers on vaccines and combinations of [...]

Introduction In accordance with its mandate to provide normative guidance to Member States on health policy matters, WHO issues a series of regularly updated position papers on vaccines and combinations [...]

Introduction In accordance with its mandate to provide normative guidance to Member States on health policy matters, WHO issues a series of regularly updated position papers on vaccines and combinations [...]

Introduction In accordance with its mandate to provide normative guidance to Member States on health policy matters, WHO issues a series of regularly updated position papers on vaccines and combinations [...]

Introduction In accordance with its mandate to provide guidance to Member States on health policy matters, WHO issues a series of regularly updated position papers on vaccines and combinations of [...]

Introduction In accordance with the WHO's mandate to provide guidance to Member States on health policy matters, the organization regularly issues position papers on vaccination, particularly when they relate to [...]

In accordance with its mandate to provide guidance to Member States on health policy matters, WHO issues a series of regularly updated position papers on vaccines and combinations of vaccines [...]

Introduction In accordance with its mandate to provide guidance to Member States on health policy matters, WHO issues a series of regularly updated position papers on vaccines and combinations of [...]

Normative leadership is a core function of the World Health Organization's (WHO) mandate, as outlined in its founding principles. (1) This leadership role is realized by developing evidence-based and ethically [...]

In accordance with its mandate to provide guidance to Member States on health policy matters, WHO regularly issues position papers on vaccines against diseases that have an international public health [...]

In accordance with its mandate to provide guidance to Member States on health policy matters, WHO issues a series of regularly updated position papers on vaccines and combinations of vaccines [...]

Introduction In accordance with its mandate to provide guidance to Member States on health policy matters, WHO issues a series of regularly updated position papers on vaccines and combinations of [...]

Introduction In accordance with its mandate to provide guidance to Member States on health policy matters, WHO issues a series of regularly updated position papers on vaccines and combinations of [...]

As of 19 March 2021, 121 million cases and over 2.6 million deaths due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had been reported to the World Health Organization. While heads of [...]

In accordance with its mandate to provide guidance to Member States on health policy matters, WHO issues a series of regularly updated position papers on vaccines and combinations of vaccines [...]

In accordance with its mandate to provide guidance to Member States on health policy matters, WHO issues a series of regularly updated position papers on vaccines and combinations of vaccines [...]

The article discusses principles underlying the position proposed by the World Health Organization Registry Platform Working Group on the Reporting of Findings of Clinical Trials which states that the findings of all clinical trials must be made publicly available. According to the authors, a significant proportion of health-care research remains unpublished and some researchers do not make all of their results available. They contend that the report is the start of a consultation process on how transparency can be achieved, with the intention that greater accessibility to the findings of clinical trials will lead to improvements in health care.

The article focuses on the innovative strategies being implemented to address various issues related to the communicable diseases in South-East Asia. It states that Multidrug-resistant malaria, including artemisinin resistance at the border of Cambodia and Thailand, threatens to jeopardize the provision of effective antimalarial treatment worldwide. According to the article, the social insurance scheme in Thailand, national rural health mission in India, and the partnership between the government and non government in Bangladesh are examples of those who are taking steps to address the concerns of the poor and to ensure equity and social justice in health area.

The authors offer observation on health impacts of climate change and geopolitics. Topics discussed include increase in global carbon dioxide emissions in 2018, direct health effects of the main drivers of climate changes like fossil fuel, and how climate change affects agriculture. It also mentions goal set by the 2015 Paris Agreement and ways geopolitics influenced the allocation of foreign assistance.

The authors provide invitation for practitioners and researchers to submit reports on the opportunities that behavioural and social sciences offer in achieving health for all. Topics mentioned include the challenge of factoring behavioural evidence into health policies and programmes, the need for global community of experts to offer easy access to evidence, tools, expertise, and examples of use, and a multidisciplinary technical advisory group for behavioural insights and sciences for health.

Despite widespread acknowledgement that trust is important in a pandemic, few concrete proposals exist on how to incorporate trust into preparing for the next health crisis. One reason is that building trust is rightly perceived as slow and challenging. Although trust in public institutions and one another is essential in preparing for a pandemic, countries should plan for the possibility that efforts to instil or restore trust may fail. Incorporating trust into pandemic preparedness means acknowledging that polarization, partisanship and misinformation may persist and engaging with communities as they currently are, not as we would wish them to be. This paper presents a practical policy agenda for incorporating mistrust as a risk factor in pandemic preparedness and response planning. We propose two sets of evidence-based strategies: (i) strategies for ensuring the trust that already exists in a community is sustained during a crisis, such as mitigating pandemic fatigue by health interventions and honest and transparent sense-making communication; and (ii) strategies for promoting cooperation in communities where people mistrust their governments and neighbours, sometimes for legitimate, historical reasons. Where there is mistrust, pandemic preparedness and responses must rely less on coercion and more on tailoring local policies and building partnerships with community institutions and leaders to help people overcome difficulties they encounter in cooperating with public health guidance. The regular monitoring of interpersonal and government trust at national and local levels is a way of enabling this context-specific pandemic preparedness and response planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change poses significant risks to health and health systems, with the greatest impacts in low- and middle-income countries - which are least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. The Conference of Parties 28 at the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference led to agreement on the need for holistic and equitable financing approaches to address the climate and health crisis. This paper provides an overview of existing climate finance mechanisms - that is, multilateral funds, voluntary market-based mechanisms, taxes, microlevies and adaptive social protection. We discuss these approaches' potential use to promote health, generate additional health sector resources and enhance health system sustainability and resilience, and also explore implementation challenges. We suggest that public health practitioners, policy-makers and researchers seize the opportunity to leverage climate funding for better health and sustainable, climate-resilient health systems. Emphasizing the wider benefits of investing in health for the economy can help prioritize health within climate finance initiatives. Meaningful progress will require the global community acknowledging the underlying political economy challenges that have so far limited the potential of climate finance to address health goals. To address these challenges, we need to restructure financing institutions to empower communities at the frontline of the climate and health crisis and ensure their needs are met. Efforts from global and national level stakeholders should focus on mobilizing a wide range of funding sources, prioritizing co-design and accessibility of financing arrangements. These stakeholders should also invest in rigorous monitoring and evaluation of initiatives to ensure relevant health and well-being outcomes are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors report on the plan of the "Bulletin of the World Health Organization" (WHO) to publish a theme issue on new ethical challenges of digital technologies, machine learning, and artificial intelligence in public health. The aim is to show ethical and governance matters that artificial intelligence applications are raising in public health. The deadline for submission is May 15, 2019. WHO Member States are said to be adopting the use of digital technologies in the health sector.

Obesity is a compelling example of the challenges of championing and mobilizing a response that involves the whole of government and all of society. This paper discusses the need for economic rationales to strengthen the case for government intervention on obesity, with a view to better engaging the expertise and resources of nonhealth sectors. The paper also briefly reviews economic theory and evidence that could support an integrated multisectoral rationale for action, noting opportunities to expand the integration of economic evidence in the Americas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction In accordance with its mandate to provide normative guidance to Member States on health policy matters, WHO issues a series of regularly updated position papers (1) on vaccines and [...]

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the Americas and raised blood pressure accounts for over 50% of CVD. In the Americas over a quarter of adult women and four in ten adult men have hypertension and the diagnosis, treatment and control are suboptimal. In 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) released an updated guideline for the pharmacological treatment of hypertension in adults. This policy paper highlights the facilitating role of the WHO Global HEARTS initiative and the HEARTS in the Americas initiative to catalyze the implementation of this guideline, provides specific policy advice for implementation, and emphasizes that an overarching strategic approach for hypertension control is needed. The authors urge health advocates and policymakers to prioritize the prevention and control of hypertension to improve the health and wellbeing of their populations and to reduce CVD health disparities within and between populations of the Americas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the Americas and raised blood pressure accounts for over 50% of CVD. In the Americas over a quarter of adult women and four in ten adult men have hypertension and the diagnosis, treatment and control are suboptimal. In 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) released an updated guideline for the pharmacological treatment of hypertension in adults. This policy paper highlights the facilitating role of the WHO Global HEARTS initiative and the HEARTS in the Americas initiative to catalyze the implementation of this guideline, provides specific policy advice for implementation, and emphasizes that an over-arching strategic approach for hypertension control is needed. The authors urge health advocates and policymakers to prioritize the prevention and control of hypertension to improve the health and wellbeing of their populations and to reduce CVD health disparities within and between populations of the Americas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To summarize the results of research conducted in Costa Rica in which mathematical and statistical methods were implemented to study the transmission dynamics of mosquito-borne diseases. Methods. Three articles with mathematical and statistical analysis on vector-borne diseases in Costa Rica were selected and reviewed. These papers show the value and relevance of using different quantitative methods to understand disease dynamics and support decision-making. Results. The results of these investigations: 1) show the impact on dengue case reports when a second pathogen emerges, such as chikungunya; 2) recover key parameters in Zika dynamics using Bayesian inference; and 3) show the use of machine learning algorithms and climatic variables to forecast the dengue relative risk in five different locations. Conclusions. Mathematical and statistical modeling enables the description of mosquito-borne disease transmission dynamics, providing quantitative information to support prevention/control methods and resource allocation planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public health policy often involves implementing cost-efficient, large-scale interventions. When mandating or forbidding a specific behaviour is not permissible, public health professionals may draw on behaviour change interventions to achieve socially beneficial policy objectives. Interventions can have two main effects: (i) a direct effect on people initially targeted by the intervention; and (ii) an indirect effect mediated by social influence and by the observation of other people's behaviour. However, people's attitudes and beliefs can differ markedly throughout the population, with the result that these two effects can interact to produce unexpected, unhelpful and counterintuitive consequences. Public health professionals need to understand this interaction better. This paper illustrates the key principles of this interaction by examining two important areas of public health policy: tobacco smoking and vaccination. The example of antismoking campaigns shows when and how public health professionals can amplify the effects of a behaviour change intervention by taking advantage of the indirect pathway. The example of vaccination campaigns illustrates how underlying incentive structures, particularly anticoordination incentives, can interfere with the indirect effect of an intervention and stall efforts to scale up its implementation. Recommendations are presented on how public health professionals can maximize the total effect of behaviour change interventions in heterogeneous populations based on these concepts and examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A robust health infrastructure in every country is the most effective long-term preparedness strategy for global health emergencies. This includes not only health systems and their human resources, but also countries' legal infrastructure for health: the laws and policies that empower, obligate and sometimes limit government and private action. The law is also an important tool in health promotion and protection. Public health professionals play important roles in health law - from the development of policies, through their enforcement, to the scientific evaluation of the health impact of laws. Member States are already mandated to communicate their national health laws and regulations to the World Health Organization (WHO). In this paper we propose that WHO has the authority and credibility to support capacity-building in the area of health law within Member States, and to make national laws easier to access, understand, monitor and evaluate. We believe a strong case can be made to donors for the funding of a public health law centre or unit, that has adequate staffing, is robustly networked with its regional counterparts and is integrated into the main work of WHO. The mission of the unit or centre would be to define and integrate scientific and legal expertise in public health law, both technical and programmatic, across the work of WHO, and to conduct and facilitate global health policy surveillance.

The World Health Organization developed the Tricycle surveillance programme to obtain a global picture of antimicrobial resistance, especially in countries with limited surveillance capacity. The programme was developed within a One Health perspective. Tricycle provides a framework for applying a standardized technical protocol to determining the prevalence of extended-spectrum [beta]-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli in three sectors: the human, animal and environment sectors. Regular use of the protocol would enable information to be obtained on time trends and on inter- and intraregional variations, thereby generating dynamic data on antibacterial resistance for decision-makers. To date, 19 countries have begun implementing the Tricycle protocol, while other countries will start implementation in the coming years. The Network for Enhancing Tricycle ESBL Surveillance Efficiency (NETESE) was established to support countries implementing the Tricycle protocol. Currently, NETESE includes representatives from 15 institutions in eight low- or middle-income countries at different stages of Tricycle protocol implementation, and from four European countries involved in devising the protocol. This paper describes the Tricycle protocol, reports the initial experiences of NETESE participants with its implementation and discusses future challenges and opportunities. L'Organisation mondiale de la Sante a developpe le programme de surveillance Tricycle afin d'avoir une vue globale de la resistance aux antimicrobiens, en particulier dans les pays oU les capacites de surveillance sont limitees. Ce programme a ete mis au point selon l'approche <>. Tricycle etablit le cadre d'application d'un protocole technique standardise qui vise a mesurer la prevalence de souches d'Escherichia coli productrices de [beta]-lactamase a spectre etendu (BLSE) dans trois secteurs: humain, animal et environnemental. Lusage regulier du protocole permettrait d'obtenir des informations sur l'evolution dans le temps et les variations inter- et intraregionales, ce qui genererait des donnees dynamiques sur la resistance aux antimicrobiens pour les decideurs. A ce jour, 19 pays se sont lances dans la mise en place du protocole Tricycle, tandis que d'autres prevoient de le faire dans les annees a venir. Le reseau NETESE (Network for Enhancing Tricycle ESBL Surveillance Efficiency) a ete cree pour les aider a appliquer ce protocole. Actuellement, le reseau NETESE reunit des representants de 15 institutions dans huit pays a revenu faible ou intermediaire a differents stades de mise en oeuvre du protocole Tricycle, ainsi que quatre pays europeens impliques dans sa conception. Le present document decrit le protocole Tricycle, partage les premieres experiences des participants au reseau NETESE en matiere de deploiement, et aborde les futurs defis et opportunites qui y sont lies. La Organizacion Mundial de la Salud desarrollo el programa de vigilancia Tricycle para obtener un panorama global de la resistencia a los antimicrobianos, especialmente en paises con una capacidad de vigilancia limitada. El programa se creo desde la perspectiva One Health. Tricycle proporciona un marco que permite aplicar un protocolo tecnico estandarizado con el fin de determinar la prevalencia de Escherichia coli productora de [beta]-lactamasa de espectro extendido (ESBL) en tres sectores: el humano, el animal y el medio ambiente. El uso habitual del protocolo permitiria obtener informacion sobre las tendencias temporales y las variaciones inter e intrarregionales, generando asi datos dinamicos sobre la resistencia a los antibacterianos que resultarian utiles para los responsables de la toma de decisiones. Hasta la fecha, 19 paises han comenzado a implementar el protocolo Tricycle, mientras que otros paises comenzaran a aplicarlo en los proximos anos. La red NETESE (Network for Enhancing Tricycle ESBL Surveillance Efficiency), se creo para apoyar a los paises que implementan el protocolo Tricycle. Actualmente, NETESE esta formada por representantes de 15 instituciones de ocho paises con ingresos medios o bajos, que se encuentran en diferentes etapas de implementacion del protocolo Tricycle. Tambien incluye a representantes de cuatro paises europeos que intervienen en el diseno del protocolo. El presente documento describe el protocolo Tricycle, recoge las primeras experiencias de los participantes de NETESE durante la implementacion de dicho protocolo, y aborda tanto los retos como las oportunidades futuras. [phrase omitted], Introduction To provide a picture of antimicrobial resistance in humans, animals and the environment in all countries, especially those with limited surveillance capacity, the World Health Organization (WHO) Advisory Group [...]

Objective: This paper presents a rapid assessment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic plans and explores the representation of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities in such plans. Four levels of pandemic plans were reviewed: regional, state, national and international. Methods: Discussions with representatives from four CALD communities informed the development of search and selection criteria for the COVID-19 plans, which were gathered and assessed using a CALD lens. Six COVID-19 pandemic plans that met the inclusion criteria were critically assessed. Results: The reviewed plans did not report any CALD community voices, views or consultations with community groups in the development phase, nor did they acknowledge the diversity of CALD populations. A few plans noted the vulnerability of CALD communities, but none discussed the challenges CALD communities face in accessing health information or health services during the pandemic, or other structural barriers (social determinants of health). Discussion: Our analysis revealed major gaps in all pandemic plans in terms of engaging with immigrant or CALD communities. Policies and plans that address and consider the complex needs and challenges of CALD communities are essential. Collaboration between public health services, multicultural services and policy-makers is vital for the inclusion of this higher-risk population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An "infodemic" is defined as "an overabundance of information - some accurate and some not - occurring during an epidemic". This paper describes the characteristics of an infodemic, which combines an inordinately high volume of information (leading to problems relating to locating the information, storage capacity, ensuring quality, visibility and validity) and rapid output (making it hard to assess its value, manage the gatekeeping process, apply results, track its history, and leading to a waste of effort). This is bound up with the collateral growth of misinformation, disinformation and malinformation. Solutions to the problems posed by an infodemic will be sought in improved technology and changed social and regulatory frameworks. One solution could be a new trusted top-level domain for health information. The World Health Organization has so far made two unsuccessful attempts to create such a domain, but it is suggested this could be attempted again, in the light of the COVID-19 infodemic experience. The vital role of reliable information in public health should also be explicitly recognized in the Sustainable Development Goals, with explicit targets. All countries should develop knowledge preparedness plans for future emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]