Tag: WHO

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ACT-Accelerator Transition Report

The Transition Report includes a summary of achievements against each transition objective, related monitoring and coordination activities (e.g., supported by the ACT-A Tracking and Monitoring Task Force), and a Pillar-by-Pillar update on implementation progress. It reflects inputs from across the ACT-A partners as well as from recent reports and meetings, including the 3rd meeting convened by the ACT-A Council Tracking and Monitoring Task Force on 31 March 2023. 

Reflections on the way forward are provided in the final section of the report, with quarterly information (for Q4 2022 and Q1 2023) included as annexes. It also provides insights into how ACT-A partners have mainstreamed their COVID-19 work and will carry forward ongoing activities as part of their regular programmes and support.

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ACT-Accelerator Reflections Compendium

The ACT-Accelerator Reflections Compendium features voices from across the partnership, reflecting on the experiences, successes and challenges of this unprecedented global collaboration and highlighting important learnings for the future from those who were involved in a variety of capacities. Key stakeholders including Facilitation Council member countries and regional entities, partner agencies, envoys, civil society and industry representatives, donors and others share their thoughts on ACT-A. Additionally, the compendium includes six country stories that demonstrate the work of the partnership in Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Peru, Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Philippines and Mongolia, focusing on areas such as expanding access to medical oxygen, accelerating vaccine delivery and advocating for self-testing.

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Third Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator Tracking & Monitoring Taskforce Outcome Statement Report – 31 March 2023

This report is an outcome of the third meeting of the ACT-Accelerator Tracking and Monitoring Taskforce, held on 31st March 2023. This taskforce – co-chaired by India and the United States – continues key elements of the work of the Facilitation Council and its working groups. The report includes an outcome statement by the Co-Chairs and provides a briefing on the current status of the rollout of COVID-19 tools, including the institutional arrangements being put in place by ACT-A agencies to ensure ongoing access to COVID-19 tools.  More information on the taskforce can be found here.

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Update on the rollout of COVID-19 tools: a report from the ACT-A Tracking & Monitoring Task Force – 15 February 2023

This report is an outcome of the second meeting of the ACT-Accelerator Tracking and Monitoring Taskforce, held on 15th February 2023. This taskforce – co-chaired by India and the United States – continues key elements of the work of the Facilitation Council and its working groups. The report includes an outcome statement by the Co-Chairs and provides a briefing on the current status of the rollout of COVID-19 tools, including the institutional arrangements being put in place by ACT-A agencies to ensure ongoing access to COVID-19 tools.  More information on the taskforce can be found here.

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WHO Public Health Laboratories Webinar #23 – Immunity & Seroprevalance of SARS-CoV-2 infections (EN)

This WHO webinar,  part of its Health Emergencies Programme, is a public health laboratory that focuses on immunity against SARS-CoV-2 infections and seroprevalence surveys.

WHO technical officer Dr Céline Barnadas and research scientist Dr Sheick Oumar Coulibaly  introduced panelists who spoke on the following topics:

  • WHO technical officer Dr Lorenzo Subissi presented an update on COVID-19 natural immunity.
  • WHO technical officer Dr Isabel Bergeri gave an overview on the global Unity Studies WHO has conducted in 97 countries. She discussed transmission dynamics, severity, risk factors and immunity/serological surveillance.
  • WHO South Sudan country preparedness and IHR (CPI) officer Dr Joseph Wamala spoke on seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in Juba, South Sudan, 2020, highlighting the country’s experiences and lessons learnt.
  • Professor Dejan Bokonjić, of the University of East Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina, spoke on the seroprevalence of COVD-19 infection of the population of the Republika Srpska area.

Translations of the September 2021 presentation are available in Arabic, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

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Update on WHO COVID-19 testing guidance and experiences integrating antigen RDTs with testing strategies and deploying the tests

This is an overview of World Health Organization training provided in 2021, with links.

The training touches on the importance of testing and how to prioritize who must be tested within available resources. 

Guidance includes prioritizing symptomatic patients, those who are high-risk owing to COVID-19 exposure and people with frequent exposure to possible COVID-19 cases.

It also links discussions on lessons learned from the field in Ghana and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the DRC, a successful rollout of rapid antigen testing, for example, saw more people tested, with rapid tests, within 24 hours than were tested within 3 days with PCR tests.

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Key considerations for SARS-CoV-2 antigen RDT implementation

WHO and FIND have collaborated on a new online training course, Key considerations for SARS-CoV-2 antigen RDT implementation. 

This course is based on the ‘SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Detecting Rapid Diagnostic Tests, An implementation guide’, released in December 2020, and is complementary to the policy guidance issued by WHO. It provides an overview of the major elements that must be considered before, during and after the implementation of antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic tests, or antigen-RDTs, for SARS-CoV-2 in order to support the implementation of RDT testing across the diagnostic network. This course is aimed at laboratory stakeholders, notably those involved in planning at central level but also other health stakeholders as well as all relevant professionals tasked with the implementation of RDT testing, including ministries of health, donors, public and private organizations.

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The SARS-CoV-2 Antigen RDT Training Package

It is aimed at trainers and health workers who will be using the tests in the field in both the theoretical and practical components of rapid antigen testing.

This training package can be used for face-to-face or remote training.

This training does not intend to address the implementation of Antigen RDT testing across the diagnostic network.

The material is free to download.

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New online course: Implementation of SARS-CoV-2 antigen-detection rapid tests

To support the response to COVID-19 and appropriate use of diagnostics in particular, WHO developed interim guidance and technical briefs to assist policy-makers and laboratories on testing for the virus that causes COVID-19, including using SARS-CoV-2 Ag-RDTs. In addition, WHO developed training packages such as the  training package on SARS-CoV-2 Ag-RDTs, released in November 2020, in collaboration with WHO collaborating center, FIND. In addition, an online self-learning course ‘SARS-CoV-2 antigen rapid diagnostic testing’ was published on the OpenWHO training platform in July 2021.

Building on these key milestone releases, WHO and FIND are now making available an online learning course to help countries to strengthen the roll-out of Ag-RDTs. The course is based on the SARS-CoV-2 Ag-RDT implementation guide developed by WHO in partnership with global health stakeholders through the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator. The course provides an overview of the major elements that must be considered before, during and after the implementation of Ag-RDTs for SARS-CoV-2 in order to support the implementation of RDT testing across the diagnostic network

The course has been launched in English on Monday 31st January 2022 and is freely available to all interested via the OpenWHO platform.  It is hoped that this course will facilitate the roll out of Ag-RDTs by national level implementors.

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Project of COVID-19 active case finding using antigen rapid diagnostic tests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The rollout in Africa of new World Health Organization (WHO)-approved SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen test (Ag-RDTs) has significantly increased screening capacity in some African countries, like Zimbabwe and Rwanda, marking a real turning point in the fight against COVID-19 in the Africa region. Although the DRC is considered a pioneer in scaling up the use of Ag-RDTs through health facility and community-based COVID-19 active case finding, testing capacity remains very low, with a current average of 1.5 tests carried out per 10,000 population per week, against a standard of at least 10 tests per 10,000 per week. 

Given this low screening capacity, it is clear that there is under-reporting of COVID-19 cases. According to WHO AFRO estimates, only 1 in 7 cases would be detected in DRC. In an attempt to improve the case detection rate, the Ministry of Health, with the technical and financial support from the WHO DRC country office, has implemented since January 2021 an innovative pilot project for active case finding of COVID-19 using Ag-RDT screening in the community and in health facilities. This project is currently operational in 37 active health zones in 8 of the most affected provinces. 

This report presents the cumulative results obtained, lessons learned, challenges, and future prospects after 9 months of implementation (January to September 2021) of the activities of this pilot strategy of active COVID-19 case findings in the DRC community using Ag-RDTs. This report marks the official end of the GAVI (Phase I) and FIND (Phase II) funding.