Addressing comorbidities and risk factors for tuberculosis (TB) is a crucial component of the World Health Organization (WHO)’s End TB Strategy. This WHO operational handbook on tuberculosis. Module 6: tuberculosis and comorbidities aims to support countries in scaling up people-centred care, based on the latest WHO recommendations on TB and key comorbidities, and drawing upon additional evidence, best practices and inputs from various experts and stakeholders obtained during WHO processes. It is intended for use by people working in ministries of health, particularly TB programmes and the relevant departments or programmes responsible for comorbidities and health-related risk factors for TB such as HIV, diabetes, undernutrition, substance use, and tobacco use, as well as programmes addressing mental health and lung health. This operational handbook is a living document and will include a separate section for each of the key TB comorbidities or health-related risk factors. The second edition includes guidance for HIV-associated TB and on mental health conditions, which are two conditions strongly associated with TB and which result in higher mortality, poorer TB treatment outcomes and negatively impact health-related quality of life. The operational handbook aims to facilitate early detection, proper assessment and adequate management of people affected by TB and comorbidities. Full implementation of this guidance is expected to have a significant impact on TB treatment outcomes and health-related quality of life for people affected by TB.

In 2019, the 72nd World Health Assembly requested the WHO Director-General to prepare a menu of policy options and cost-effective interventions for mental health. In 2020 the 73rd World Health Assembly noted the completion of the request. Yet, there is no clear WHO reference to the menu as the menu was discussed as part of an omnibus agenda point. The process and results of the development of the menu will be described in this brief document.

Self-help Plus (SH+) is a WHO developed multimedia, guided self-help stress management course delivered over a period of five weeks to groups of up to 30 people at a time. It is delivered by supervised, non-specialist facilitators who complete a short training course and use pre-recorded audio and an illustrated guide (called Doing What Matters in Times of Stress – An Illustrated Guide) to teach stress management skills. The course is suitable for anyone who experiences stress, wherever they live and whatever their circumstances. The format of SH+ also makes it well suited for use alongside other mental health interventions, as a first step in a stepped care programme, or as a community intervention delivered alongside broader community programming.

The Oxford Handbook of Humanitarian Medicine is a practical guide covering all aspects of the provision of care in humanitarian situations and complex emergencies. It includes evidence-based clinical guidance, aimed specifically at resource limited situations, as well as essential non-clinical information relevant for people working in field operations and development. The handbook provides clear recommendations, from the experts, on the unique challenges faced by health providers in humanitarian settings including clinical presentations for which conventional medical training offers little preparation. It provides guidance for syndromic management approaches, and includes practical guidance on the integration of context specific mental health care. The handbook goes beyond the clinical domain, however, and also provides detailed information on the contextual issues involved in humanitarian operations, including health systems design, priorities in displacement, security and logistics. It outlines the underlying drivers at play in humanitarian settings, including economics, gender based inequities, and violence, guiding the reader through the epidemiological approaches in varied scenarios. It details the relevance of international law, and its practical application in complex emergencies, and covers the changing picture of humanitarian operations, with increasingly complicated and chaotic contexts and the escalation of violence against humanitarian providers and facility. The Oxford Handbook of Humanitarian Medicine draws on the accumulated experience of humanitarian practitioners from a variety of disciplines and contexts to provide an easily accessible source of information to guide the reader through the complicated scenarios found in humanitarian settings.