No images? Click here
HLH Newsletter - April 2022
Welcome to the HLH Newsletter!
The HLH is a WHO knowledge platform to share cross-country learning on maintaining essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the post-pandemic recovery. Learn more about us here.
The HLH Newsletter is a place to share up-to-date information on key knowledge products from WHO and the Network of Networks. If you have any queries or wish to contribute, please email us: hlh@who.int.
WHO Initiatives
WHO recommendations for resilient health systems
In a recent editorial published in the WHO Bulletin, WHO’s Director-General, Deputy Director-General and Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme together emphasize WHO’s seven policy recommendations to support countries in building health systems resilience to advance UHC and health security, clarifying that these are interdependent objectives. The editorial provides the direction for countries to pursue an integrated approach to health system strengthening in the context of recovery from COVID-19. This approach
would allow more synergies and efficiencies in building back better, fairer health systems in the face of ongoing fiscal constraints.
Health system resilience post-COVID: Moving towards more European cooperation
Do not miss the EuroHealth special issue on addressing resilience of the EU’s health systems!
The resilience of health systems and cooperation between EU Member States became particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic. On the occasion of the French Presidency of the European Union (which lasts six months from January to June 2022), the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, in collaboration with the Directorate-General for Healthcare Services of the French Ministry of Health (Ministère des Solidarités et de la Santé) have together produced this special issue of EuroHealth to better understand and present how health systems have responded to the health crisis and to draw lessons for improving the resilience of health systems going forward.
The ACT-Accelerator: Two years of impact
WHO has just published the two-year impact report for the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator. The report details impact, case studies and timelines of key milestones for the Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Vaccines pillars, as well as the Health Systems and Response Connector.
The ACT-Accelerator’s Health Systems & Response Connector (HSRC) pillar has had a key role in ensuring that all countries have access to the necessary technical, operational and financial resources to translate new COVID-19 tools into national response interventions to stop transmission and save lives. Critical to this has also been the safeguarding and maintaining of essential health services, such as routine childhood immunization, while scaling up COVID-19 tools. Read more about the work of the HSRC pillar here. The Health Service Learning Hub hosts the ACT-A Knowledge Bank which provides tools, guidance notes, technical briefs, and case studies produced by ACT-A partner agencies.
World Hand Hygiene Day 2022 – Unite for safety: clean your hands
The safety of health care workers has been at the centre of actions for maintaining essential health services during the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Infection prevention and control practices and appropriate use of personal protective equipment have been key to reduce and prevent transmission of the COVID-19 virus to health workers engaged in providing essential health services. Join WHO’s hand hygiene campaign and show your commitment to hand hygiene improvement in health care. Click here for more information and to get involved!
It’s time to get essential immunization back on track – World Immunization Week 2022
Disruptions in routine immunization services have been one of the major negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in many countries around the world. World Immunization Week, celebrated in the last week of April, aims to highlight the collective action needed, and to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease. Visit the campaign web site to access and download the wealth of materials, including resources, assets, videos and a brief history of vaccination.
Digital solutions to quit tobacco during the COVID-19 pandemic
When the news came out that smokers were more likely to develop severe disease with COVID-19 infection, compared to non-smokers, it triggered millions of smokers to want to quit the habit. At the same time, the pandemic has heavily disrupted cessation services along with weakening public health systems worldwide. For the 2021 World No Tobacco Day “Commit to Quit” campaign, WHO worked with countries to train health workers on brief advice, open new cessation clinics and support the establishment of national toll-free “quit” phone lines. WHO partnered with Viber, WhatsApp, FB Messenger, WeChat and Soul Machines, an AI company, to leverage digital solutions to help people quit and remain tobacco-free.
 |