This guideline covers diagnosing and managing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD (which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis) in people aged 16 and older. It aims to help people with COPD to receive a diagnosis earlier so that they can benefit from treatments to reduce symptoms, improve q...
Medical treatment is intended to save life and improve health, and all health workers have a responsibility to prevent transmission of health-care associated infections. Adherence to safe injection practices and related infection control is part of that responsibility it protects patients and health work...
HIV-infected infants frequently present with clinical symptoms in the first year of life. Without effective treatment, an estimated one third of infected infants will have died by one year of age, and about half will have died by two years of age. These treatment guidelines serve as a framework for selec...
Half the world’s people currently live in rural and remote areas. The problem is that most health workers live and work in cities. This imbalance is common to almost all countries and poses a major challenge to the nationwide provision of health services. This report builds on work that has already bee...
The first hours, days and weeks after childbirth are a dangerous time for both mother and newborn
infant. Among the more than 500 000 women who die each year due to complications of pregnancy
and childbirth (1), most deaths occur during or immediately after childbirth (2). Every year three
million infant...
The significance of physical activity on public health, the global mandates for the work carried out by WHO in relation to promotion of physical activity and NCDs prevention, and the limited existence of national guidelines on physical activity for health in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) make e...
For the first time, the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (MTCT) is now considered a realistic public health goal and an important part of the campaign to achieve the millennium development goals. The 2010 revised PMTCT recommendations are based on two key approaches; lifelong ART for HI...
WHO guidelines for ART for HIV infection in adults and adolescents were originally published in 2002, and were revised in 2003 and 2006. New evidence has emerged on when to initiate ART, optimal ART regimens, the management of HIV coinfection with tuberculosis and chronic viral hepatitis, and the managem...
Malnutrition is the largest single underlying cause of death worldwide and is associated with over 1/3 of all childhood deaths. The objective of the document is to provide a summary of existing WHO information regarding the principles of identification and management of communicable diseases in malnouris...
This publication summarizes current knowledge on the methods of diagnosing HIV infection in infants and children and sets out recommendations for practice and policy. Recommendations are designed to improve clinical management of the HIV-exposed and ‑infected child, and improve programme efforts at ear...
