One in five people in the United States had a sexually transmitted infection (STI) on any given day in 2018, totaling nearly 68 million estimated infections. STIs are often asymptomatic (especially in women) and are therefore often undiagnosed and unreported. Untreated STIs can have severe health consequences, including chronic pelvic pain, infertility, miscarriage or newborn death, and increased risk of HIV infection, genital and oral cancers, neurological and rheumatological effects. In light of this, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, through the National Association of County and City Health Officials, commissioned the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a committee to examine the prevention and control of sexually transmitted infections in the United States and provide recommendations for action. In 1997, the Institute of Medicine released a report, The Hidden Epidemic: Confronting Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Although significant scientific advances have been made since that time, many of the problems and barriers described in that report persist today; STIs remain an underfunded and comparatively neglected field of public health practice and research. The committee reviewed the current state of STIs in the United States, and the resulting report, Sexually Transmitted Infections: Advancing a Sexual Health Paradigm, provides advice on future public health programs, policy, and research.

Global health sector strategies on, respectively, HIV, viral hepatitis, and sexually transmitted infections for the period 2022-2030 guide the health sector in implementing strategically focused responses to achieve the goals of ending AIDS, viral hepatitis B and C and sexually transmitted infections by 2030. The 2022-2030 strategies recommend shared and disease-specific country actions supported by actions by the World Health Organization and partners. They consider the epidemiological, technological, and contextual shifts of recent years, foster learnings across the disease areas, and create opportunities to leverage innovations and new knowledge for effective responses to HIV, viral hepatitis, and sexually transmitted infections. The strategies call for a precise focus to reach the people most affected and at risk for each disease that addresses inequities. They promote synergies under a universal health coverage and primary health care framework and contribute to achieving the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Seventy-Fifth World Health Assembly requested progress reports on the implementation of the strategies in 2024, 2026, 2028 and 2031, noting that the 2026 report will provide a mid-term review based on the progress made in meeting the strategies’ 2025 targets.

The World Health Organization's Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016- 2030 has been developed with the aim to help countries to reduce the human suffering caused by the world's deadliest mosquito-borne disease. Adopted by the World Health Assembly in May 2015 it provides comprehensive technical guidance to countries and development partners for the next 15 years emphasizing the importance of scaling up malaria responses and moving towards elimination. It also highlights the urgent need to increase investments across all interventions - including preventive measures diagnostic testing treatment and disease surveillance- as well as in harnessing innovation and expanding research. By adopting this strategy WHO Member States have endorsed the bold vision of a world free of malaria and set the ambitious new target of reducing the global malaria burden by 90% by 2030. They also agreed to strengthen health systems address emerging multi-drug and insecticide resistance and intensify national cross-border and regional efforts to scale up malaria responses to protect everyone at risk.

This report is the first of a series of biennial progress reports on the implementation of the Global health sector strategies on HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections for the period 2022–2030. It draws attention to areas of progress and gaps in preparation for the mid-term review of the strategies in 2026.