Tools and Guidelines

The present WHO Consolidated Guidelines on Tuberculosis, Module 4: Treatment - Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Treatment includes a comprehensive set of WHO recommendations for the treatment and care of DR-TB. The document includes two new recommendations, one on the composition of shorter regimens and one on the use of the BPaL regimen (i.e. bedaquiline, pretomanid and linezolid). In addition, the consolidated guidelines include existing recommendations on treatment regimens for isoniazid-resistant TB and MDR/RR-TB, including longer regimens, culture monitoring of patients on treatment, the timing of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in MDR/RR-TB patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the use of surgery for patients receiving MDR-TB treatment, and optimal models of patient support and care. The guidelines are to be used primarily in national TB programmes, or their equivalents in Ministries of Health, and for other policy-makers and technical organizations working on TB and infectious diseases in public and private sectors and in the community.

The operational handbook provides practical information and tools that complement the recommendations in the guidelines. The strategies described in the operational handbook are based on the latest WHO recommendations which were formulated by Guideline Development Groups using the GRADE approach. In many cases however, the recommendations in their current form lacked sufficient clinical and programmatic detail, which is important for implementation. This operational handbook complements the guidelines with practical advice based on best practices and knowledge from the fields such as pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, microbiology, pharmacovigilance and clinical and programmatic management.

This is a guide for governments, aid agencies, service providers, businesses and other groups on what to do to protect women from violence during the pandemic and its associated array of lockdowns, movement restrictions, services closures, and other disease control measures.

Building on the seven Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), this COVID-19 and Gender Rapid Self-Assessment Tool enables companies to assess their COVID-19 response and ensure they are supporting women during and beyond the crisis with gender-sensitive measures throughout their value chain. An Excel-based version of this self-assessment tool can also be used to develop a personalised action plan based on business actions to date, providing a clear path forward for companies to “build back better and more gender-equal.” 

Despite increases in access to antiretroviral therapy (ART), declines in AIDS-related deaths have plateaued in recent years. Even after starting ART, patients with severe immunosuppression have a high risk of death. Implementing a package of care for patients with advanced HIV disease is critical; however, identifying those in need has remained a challenge.

Despite long-standing WHO recommendations and significant investments in building testing capacity, in 2018 only 59% of HIV-exposed infants received a virological test for HIV by 2 months of age, and testing coverage is even lower at later time points for children who are still breastfeeding. Unfortunately, however, 50% of perinatally infected infants and 25% of infants and children infected during breastfeeding will die before 2 years of age without ART.

In the health sector response to the HIV epidemic, collection, analysis and use of data are crucial at every level, from patient care and monitoring through programme management and national programme monitoring to global monitoring. This strategic information answers the questions: “How are patients doing?”, “How is the programme performing?” and “How can we do better?” Without these answers, the response to the HIV epidemic would be wandering in the dark. These guidelines – an update to the World Health Organization’s 2015 publication Consolidated strategic information guidelines – present a set of essential aggregate indicators and guidance on choosing, collecting and systematically analysing strategic information to manage and monitor the national health sector response to HIV.  Specifically, for programme management, these guidelines seek to strengthen programmes’ ability to identify and close gaps in service access, coverage and quality across the HIV services cascade, from primary prevention to knowing one’s HIV status to viral suppression. For programme monitoring, these guidelines seek to optimize and align national reporting used to assess countries’ progress toward the 2030 95–95–95 HIV Fast Track goals – 95% of HIV-positive people knowing their status; 95% of people who know their HIV-positive status on treatment; and 95% of those on treatment virally suppressed – and towards Sustainable Development Goal 3.3, which calls for ending the HIV epidemic, as indicated by reduced incidence.

This guide is written to help understand how life in prison can affect a person’s mental health, with a focus on women. It describes how to recognise the signs of poor mental health and how best to respond. The guide aims to break down the stigma and discrimination attached to poor mental health, especially for women in prison.

This guide includes detailed guidance on the clinical management of rape and intimate partner violence survivors. It is intended for use by qualified health-care providers in developing protocols for the management of rape and intimate partner violence survivors in emergencies, taking into account available resources, materials, and drugs, and national policies and procedures. It can also be used in planning health-care services and training health-care providers.

This training manual was developed by TB-affected communites and TB activists to build and strengthen the capacity of people with and affected by TB to better understand the human rights issues and abuses they encounter and be able to respond constructively. Communities affected by TB include communities of people with TB disease, those who have previously had TB disease, and key populations like children, healthcare workers, indigenous peoples, people living with HIV, people who use drugs, prisoners, miners, mobile populations, women, the urban and rural poor, and their families, and dependents and their caregivers.