Tools and Guidelines

The indicators and questions in this document are designed for use by national AIDS programmes and partners to assess the state of a country’s HIV and AIDS response, and to measure progress towards achieving national HIV targets. Countries are encouraged to integrate these indicators and questions into their ongoing monitoring efforts and to report comprehensive national data through the Global AIDS Monitoring (GAM) process. In this way, they will contribute to improving understanding of the global response to the HIV epidemic, including progress that has been made towards achieving the commitments and global targets set out in the most recent United Nations Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Ending Inequalities and Getting on Track to End AIDS by 2030, adopted in June 2021, and the linked Sustainable Development Goals.

Infection prevention and control consists of evidence-based measures intended to prevent exposure and reduce the risk of transmission of infectious agents. The revised guidelines contain recommendations for specific administrative, environmental controls and respiratory protection, following the assessment made by an external group of experts convened as members of the Guideline Development Group. Moreover, these guidelines focus on interventions specific to preventing transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis bridging with the core components of infection prevention and control programmes at the national and acute health care facility level.

Infection prevention and control activities are amongst the key components envisaged by the End TB Strategy to curb the tuberculosis (TB) burden worldwide. The WHO operational handbook on tuberculosis. Module 1: prevention - infection prevention and control provides practical advice on how to implement the WHO recommendations on TB infection prevention and control, within the clinical and programmatic management of TB, using a public health approach. It is part of a modular series of practical guides meant for the implementers of various aspects of the programmatic management TB. The handbook emphasizes the importance of building integrated, well-coordinated, multisectoral actions across all levels of health care and other settings where there is a high risk of M. tuberculosis transmission.

In this guideline, WHO recommends that long-acting injectable cabotegravir (CAB-LA) may be offered as an additional HIV prevention option for people at substantial risk of HIV infection. CAB-LA is an injectable form of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) that has been shown to be highly effective at reducing the risk of HIV acquisition. This guideline provides implementation considerations to support Member States, programme managers, policy makers, researchers, health workers, communities, and other stakeholders in the implementation of projects and programmes for CAB-LA. It also outlines critical research gaps for CAB-LA.

This guidelines is an updated version of the pervious “National Consolidated Guidelines on Strategic Information of HIV Response in Nepal 2016-2021”. This guidelines has been updated to serve for monitoring the priorities set by NHSP 2021-2026 and is inline with international and national strategies and plans. With restructuring of the country, the SI system should also address all three tiers of health governanace. This guidelines has aimed to become a hands-on document, with organizational/project system and other emerging issues incorporated.

The objective of the guidelines is to provide updated, evidence-informed clinical and practical recommendations on case management of people with symptoms of STI. The national guidelines recommend a syndromic approach for the management of the STI.  

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major public health problem and cause of chronic liver disease that leads to approximately 399 000 deaths annually. In 2019, only 21% of the 58 million persons with chronic HCV infection had been diagnosed, and 13%, treated. These guidelines provide updated evidence-based recommendations on the priority HCV-related topics from the 2018 WHO Guidelines for the care and treatment of persons diagnosed with chronic hepatitis C infection and the 2017 WHO Guidelines on hepatitis B and C testing.

National Guideline on HIV testing and treatment 2022 introduces new standards for viral load testing and viral load suppression. The guidelines also stress on community-based care of PLHIV with differentiated care approach which means less hospital visits for healthy PLHIV and more time to provide for critical patients.

The Updated guidelines on Management of tuberculosis in children and adolescents include new recommendations that cover diagnostic approaches for TB, shorter treatment for children with non-severe drug-susceptible TB, a new option for the treatment of TB meningitis, the use of bedaquiline and delamanid in young children with multidrug- and rifampicin-resistant TB and decentralized and family-centred, integrated models of care for TB case detection and prevention in children and adolescents.

The “WHO consolidated guidelines on tuberculosis. Module 3: Diagnosis – Tests for tuberculosis infection” is a new consolidated policy guideline on tests for TB infection. The policy includes, for the first-time recommendations on a new class of Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigen-based skin tests (TBSTs) and consolidates all currently existing recommendations for the diagnosis of TB infection, including the traditional tuberculin skin test (TST) and interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs). IGRAs and TBSTs use Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex specific antigens and represent a significant advancement to TST which has been used for over half a century.