Context The Western Balkans (WB6: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia) went through a particularly dramatic initial COVID-19 pandemic course, with inter alia high excess mortality (direct and indirect pandemic related deaths), low vaccination rates and stressed public healthcare systems. Consequently, the risk of future waves of…
Context The treatment of tuberculosis (TB) is complex and often requires patients to follow long and extensive treatment protocols. This is especially true of drug-resistant TB (DR-TB), which is one of the most urgent problems facing TB control in Eastern Europe. As any interruption of treatment can jeopardise effective (DR-)…
Context Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and mental disorders are on the rise globally; 80% of annual deaths from NCDs occur in low and middle-income countries. In 2019, NCDs, including mental disorders, caused over 2.1 million premature deaths, and more than 204 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) were lost due to NCDs…
Context During the fight to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, many essential health services and operations have been negatively impacted. For example, progress in reducing TB-related morbidity and mortality has been significantly hindered because vital prevention and control mechanisms have been disrupted. Consequently, TB case detection and reporting decreased substantially, and…
Context In recent years, there have been efforts to upscale HIV treatment and prevention in the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, including conducting studies among men who have sex with men (MSM). One commonly used method to recruit participants for these studies has been respondent-driven sampling. However, this…
Context In the globalised world of the 21st century, public health emergencies are of international concern, as health threats spread easily and rapidly across borders and continents. To ensure the world is prepared and able to respond to potential threats, the International Health Regulations (IHR) were launched in 2005 as…
Context Genomic surveillance (GS) is crucial for monitoring known and newly emerging pathogens and for efficiently responding to infectious disease threats with epidemic or pandemic potential. It can transform public health action by providing a deeper understanding of pathogens and their evolution and circulation in the human population. Good GS…
Short Description The project strives to develop a model bacteriology laboratory with the capacities to perform blood, stool, urine and cervical swab cultures and antibiotic susceptibility testing according to the WHO Global antimicrobial resistance and use surveillance system (GLASS) guidelines. The laboratory will be fully integrated in the national antimicrobial…
Short Description The Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe (STP) is an Island state in Sub-Saharan Africa with approximately 200,000 inhabitants. Laboratory diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2 using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a crucial component in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the insufficient diagnostic capacity to detect…