WHO & Regionals [to 29 August 2015]

Call for nominations: SAGE Working Group on Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus Elimination
25 August 2015

The Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER) 28 August 2015, vol. 90, 35 (pp. 433–460) includes:
…Pertussis vaccines: WHO position paper – September 2015

Water, sanitation and hygiene to eliminate neglected tropical diseases
27 August 2015 — WHO releases a global plan today to better integrate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services with other public health interventions to accelerate progress in eliminating and eradicating neglected tropical diseases by 2020. Targeted water and sanitation interventions are expected to bolster ongoing efforts to tackle 16 neglected tropical diseases that affect more than 1 billion of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

Improving preterm birth outcomes: new guidance
August 2015 – WHO’s new guidance WHO recommendations on interventions to improve preterm birth outcomes has been launched to help prevent the complications and consequences of preterm birth. Adding to efforts worldwide to further reduce child mortality, the guidance offers recommendations on interventions which can be provided to the mother when preterm birth is imminent and to the preterm infant after birth, with the aim of improving outcomes for preterm infants.

WHO Fact Sheets:
Rabies
28 August 2015
Ebola virus disease
26 August 2015

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:: WHO Regional Offices
WHO African Region AFRO
:: Last Ebola case in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone celebrated an important milestone on Monday, 24 August 2015. For the first time in more than a year, there are no people being treated for Ebola virus disease and no confirmed cases of Ebola in the country. Surrounded by singing, dancing and clapping health-care workers, Adama Sankou, palm oil trader, was released from the Makheni Ebola treatment unit. In the ceremony held to mark the final Ebola case, the President of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma, described Madame Sankou’s release as “the beginning of the end of Ebola.” “‘Ebola nor don don” (Ebola is not yet finished), the President…
:: WHO staff on the ground essential to breaking Ebola transmission chains – 24 August 2015

WHO Region of the Americas PAHO
:: Latin American and Caribbean Countries Commit to a 75% Reduction in New HIV Infections in Adults and Young People by 2020 (08/24/2015)

WHO South-East Asia Region SEARO
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WHO European Region EURO
:: Exploring the cultural contexts of health and well-being 28-08-2015

WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region EMRO
:: Safe corridor needed to deliver health care to over 3 million people in Taiz, Yemen
Sana’a, 27 August 2015 – In Yemen, conflict and a resulting humanitarian crisis have left thousands of people in need of treatment, caused extensive damage to health facilities, and fanned a dengue fever outbreak in Taiz. The governorate has witnessed an extreme spike in cases of dengue fever in the past 2 weeks and a humanitarian corridor is needed not only to ensure access to health care for more than 3 million people in Taiz but to assess the outbreak and institute control measures. Read more about the situation in Taiz
:: Water, sanitation and hygiene to eliminate neglected tropical diseases
27 August 2015
:: Pakistan second endemic country to introduce IPV into routine immunization schedule
24 August 2015
:: WHO steps up response to the critical health needs in Taiz and Hodeida governorates as the humanitarian situation worsens
23 August 2015

WHO Western Pacific Region
:: WHO, DOH, KOICA Launch AcCESS for MNH project to improve health of mothers and newborns in Davao Region
DAVAO, Philippines, 28 August 2015 – The World Health Organization (WHO), Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), and the Department of Health (DOH) Regional Office XI launched on 18 August 2015 at SMEX Convention Center, Davao City a three-year Subnational Initiative (SNI) project called “Accelerating Convergence Efforts through Systems Strengthening for Maternal and Newborn Health” or AcCESS for MNH. The project aims to improve the health of mothers and newborns in 10 local government units (LGUs) in Davao Region.