World Health Day

  This exhibit features photographers from six countries across Africa where neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are prevalent. In breathtakingly bold colors, it dissects social issues and challenges western representations of Africa by creating a powerful interpretation of the impact of NTDs on gender equity, mental health, mobility and access to resources. This exhibit is organized by END Fund and Reaching the Last Mile , and endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO) , in connection with World NTD Day (30 January). On display until 27 March 2024

The rehabilitation workforce is a diverse composition of occupations and specializations that provide interventions that optimize functioning and reduce disability .  The effective coverage of skilled workers in the field of rehabilitation is crucial for providing quality care to those in need . However, many countries struggle with obstacles such as lack of institutional capacity, insufficient jobs for rehabilitation workers, and ineffective incentives for health care workers. To address these challenges, the Guide for rehabilitation workforce evaluation (GROWE) was launched in July 2023. GROWE provides a comprehensive and systematic approach to collecting qualitative and quantitative data to identify context-specific challenges and develop action plans to strengthen the rehabilitation workforce at national level. The evaluation focuses on economic and political context, stakeholder influence, workforce need, supply, demand and absorption, efficiency, competency and performan...

WHO and Angolan health officials on a mission to stamp out Guinea worm disease Credit: WHO/Omotola Akindipe Contributions to WHO are being used to free communities from a range of dangerous infectious diseases. Some, like malaria, kill mainly children. Others, like the disfiguring Guinea worm and noma infections, are linked to poor access to clean water and other aspects of poverty. This week, see stories about how contributions have been translated into action in Cabo Verde, where years of persistent effort have eliminated malaria; in Panama, where community collaborators are filling a health-services gap in hard-to-reach villages; and in Paraguay, where teams are going from one neighborhood to the next, removing the breeding grounds of the mosquitoes that transmit dengue fever. Read also about work under way in Angola to eradicate Guinea worm disease, Cameroon’s significant progress in reducing HIV, success against hepatitis B in Maldives and Sri Lanka, and fighting back against cho...

Campaigns in Africa to stop polio and other diseases have a more stable, better-motivated workforce thanks to WHO’s collaboration with countries and partners to pay frontline health workers through their mobile phones instead of in cash. “Over 80 percent of workers are saying they prefer the digital payments,” said Ahmed Hamani Djibo, head of WHO’s Digital Finance Team . WHO has been leading among international organizations in moving away from the unwieldy, less-secure practice of disbursing salaries in cash. Over the past few years, the Organization launched its Digital Finance Team and joined the Better Than Cash Alliance , an 80-member United Nations partnership with a mandate to develop the digitization of payments and expand financial inclusion – activities that support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Since it was established in 2020, WHO’s Digital Finance Team has designed and implemented digital payment solutions in 24 countries in Africa, including, last y...

The Red Channel Agreement: Standards, quality assurance and coordination. A guidance document regarding the collaboration between International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Medical Emergency Response Units and the World Health Organization Emergency Medical Team Initiative. The World Health Organization and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) renews its agreement to better meet healthcare needs of populations in times of emergencies. This Memorandum of Understanding , also known as the Red Channel Agreement , is the culmination of years of collaboration between IFRC and the WHO Emergency Medical Team Initiative . Originally signed in December 2020, the agreement set out a collaborative framework to achieve better care in emergencies through heightened coordination in emergency systems and in emergency response. In the last three years, significant strides have been made through this agreement which served as a framework to bridge t...

A life of adventure and service. Born in 1919, Dr Barns graduated from Oxford University, England as a medical doctor in 1944. He was immediately drafted into the British Army during the second World War. He married while waiting for his posting, but three days into the honeymoon, he received his embarkation orders. He was stationed in India where he served as an anesthetist in a frontline mobile surgical unit. He returned to Oxford three years later to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology, gaining experience while researching his PhD in pelvic tuberculosis, which won him the Blair Bell Memorial Lecture at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in London. In 1952 he was appointed as State obstetrician and gynecologist for Johore, Malaysia, and as a personal physician to the Sultan. There, he developed the Flying Squad Service to deliver emergency obstetrics services to remote locations regardless of communist insurgency. Dr Barns' life was not without risks. Durin...

The World Health Organization ( WHO )  Director-GeneralTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the latest  World Health Statistics  check-up – covering data up to 2022 – “ sends a stark message on the threat of noncommunicable diseases, which take an immense and increasing toll on lives, livelihoods, health systems, communities, economies and societies ”. The report calls for a substantial increase in investments in health and health systems “to get back on track towards the  Sustainable Development Goals  (SDGs)”, the Director-General added. Despite overall health progress, WHO said that the increasing toll of NCDs meant that if the trend were to continue, by around 2050, chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and respiratory illnesses – will account for 86 per cent of the 90 million deaths each year: a staggering 90 per cent increase in absolute numbers, since 2019. Overall, the report underscores “a stagnation of health progress on...