Tools and Guidelines

This regional partnership meeting will examine the current state of transgender affairs, from health, to human rights, to policies, and discover models and strategies for advancing where we are, to where we want to be, leading to collective building.

Many women and girls worldwide continue to face rejection, prejudice, economic insecurity, rights violations and violence from partners, family members, communities and institutions as a harsh consequence of HIV-related stigma and discrimination and persistent gender inequalities. Using a feature film ‘Pili’ about a woman living with HIV in rural Tanzania, making difficult choices, fighting against stigma and building her agency, this Toolkit for Action aims to support national efforts in identifying key issues women living with and affected by HIV face and actions that are required to address these challenges and existing gaps in the HIV response. The toolkit will be used by national governments, civil society, various UN and development partners in their efforts to improve gender equality in the HIV context.

The WHO HIV Drug Resistance Network (HIVResNet) HIV drug resistance laboratory operational framework describes how WHO HIVResNet laboratories function to support national, regional and global HIV drug resistance surveillance by providing accurate genotyping results in a standardized format according to WHO specifications. The aim of the operational framework is to ensure 1) accurate collection, handling, shipment and storage of specimens collected in countries implementing HIV drug resistance surveillance; and 2) the availability of quality-assured HIV genotyping laboratory services producing comparable and reliable results at the national, regional and global levels. This publication updates the WHO HIVResNet HIV drug resistance laboratory operational framework published in 2017 and reflects technical and strategic developments over the past three years.

This practical Guide serves as a companion to the “WHO guideline: recommendations on digital interventions for health system strengthening” and provides a systematic process for countries to develop a costed implementation plan for digital health within one or more health programme areas, drawing guidance from the WHO guideline–recommended digital health interventions, providing direction to ensure investments are needs-based and contribute effective and interoperable systems  aligned with national digital architecture, country readiness, health system and policy goals.

In this guideline, WHO updates recommendation on HIV self-testing (HIVST) and provides new recommendations on social network-based HIV testing approaches and western blotting. This guideline seeks to provide support to Member States, programme managers, health workers and other stakeholders seeking to achieve national and international goals to end the HIV epidemic as a public health threat by 2030. These guidelines also provide operational guidance on HTS demand creation and messaging; implementation considerations for priority populations; HIV testing strategies for diagnosis HIV; optimizing the use of dual HIV/syphilis rapid diagnostic tests; and considerations for strategic planning and rationalizing resources such as optimal time points for maternal retesting.

The Guidelines on promotive and preventive mental health interventions for adolescents - Helping Adolescents thrive (HAT), provide evidence-informed recommendations on psychosocial interventions to promote mental health, prevent mental disorders, and reduce self-harm and other risk behaviours among adolescents.  The HAT Guidelines  aims to inform policy development, service planning and the strengthening of health and education systems, and facilitate mainstreaming of adolescent mental health promotion and prevention strategies across sectors and delivery platforms. 

The rise in the global female prison population, women’s unique vulnerabilities to HIV infection and insufficient provision and inequitable access to HIV services places the prevention of motherto-child transmission (PMTCT) in prisons high on the agenda of HIV prevention among key populations. This technical guide is intended to support countries in their efforts to increase their capacity to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV in prison, and achieve the ultimate goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, “leaving no one behind”.

Since 2007 the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) have recommended voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) as an important strategy for the prevention of heterosexually acquired HIV in men in settings where the prevalence of heterosexually transmitted HIV is high. Over 25 million men and adolescent boys in East and Southern Africa have been reached with VMMC services. These new guidelines update earlier WHO recommendations to maximize the HIV prevention impact of safe VMMC services and aim to guide the transition to the sustained provision of interventions with a focus on the health and well-being of both adolescent boys and men.  

All health workers who care for women and children during the postnatal period and beyond have a key role to play in establishing and sustaining breastfeeding. Many health workers cannot fulfil this role effectively because they have not been trained to do so. This updated training course is built upon the revised 2018 Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, the latest version of the guidance for implementing the Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) in facilities providing maternity and newborn services. The materials in this training course complement existing courses and can be used as part of the pre-service education of health workers.

WHO estimates that in 2015, 257 million people were living with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection worldwide, and that 900 000 had died from HBV infection, mostly as a result of cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma. Most HBV-associated deaths among adults are secondary to infections acquired at birth or in the first five years of life. In May 2016, the World Health Assembly endorsed the Global health sector strategy on viral hepatitis, which calls for the elimination of viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030 (defined as a 90% reduction in incidence of new infections and a 65% reduction in mortality). Elimination of HBV infection as a public health threat requires a reduction in the prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) to below 0.1% in children 5 years of age. This can be achieved through universal immunization of newborns against hepatitis B and other interventions to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HBV. These guidelines provide evidence-based guidance on the use of peripartum antiviral prophylaxis in HBsAg-positive pregnant women for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HBV.