The global burden of neurological and neurodevelopmental conditions is high, with approximately 70% of the burden in low- and middle-income countries. Neurological conditions are the leading cause of disability adjusted life years (DALYs) and the second leading cause of death globally, accounting for 9 million deaths per year.

Brain Health is an emerging and growing concept that encompasses neural development, plasticity, functioning, and recovery across the life course.

Donated blood is used in many ways beyond whole blood transfusions. Processing can convert it into plasma, red cell concentrates, platelet concentrates and more, with each used for specific cases in health-care delivery. In some cases, this allows a unit of donated blood to meet the needs of more than one patient and is an important aspect of the transfusion train. However, not all countries have facilities to process blood in this way, and only 50 of 173 reporting countries produce plasma-derived medicinal products domestically.

Nearly 120 million units of blood are donated every year. However, this is not sufficient to meet the global need many patients requiring a transfusion do not have timely access to safe blood. Blood cannot be stored indefinitely, meaning there is a constant need for donations. Regular donations are required to ensure there is always a supply for those in need. Despite global need, donation rates differ around the world and some high-income countries see up to seven times more donations than low-income countries. 

The WHO Action framework to advance universal access to safe, effective and quality-assured blood products 2020–2023 aims to provide strategic direction to global efforts to address present barriers to the safety and availability of blood products.

Working with Member States and partners, WHO aims to achieve universal access to safe, effective and quality assured blood products through the Framework’s 6 strategic objectives. The objectives focus on:

Blood products contribute to the saving of millions of lives every year, improve dramatically life expectancy and the quality of life of patients suffering from life-threatening conditions, and support complex medical and surgical procedures.

A blood product is any therapeutic substance derived from human blood, including whole blood and other blood components for transfusion, and plasma-derived medicinal products.

Medicinal (medical therapeutic) products derived from human donations of blood and plasma play a critical role in health care. Safe, effective and quality-assured blood products contribute to improving and saving millions of lives every year, as they:

Eye conditions that can be targeted effectively with preventive strategies include myopia, ocular trauma and the majority of infectious eye diseases. In addition, the prevention or management of systemic disease, such as diabetes, can be effective in reducing the risk of ocular diseases.

For example, preventative lifestyle changes among children, including a combination of increased time spent outdoors and decreased near-work activities, can delay the onset and slow the progression of myopia which reduces the risk of high myopia and its complications

WHO works with Member States, Collaborating Centres, partners and experts through its biological standardization programme to develop and revise guidance on biotherapeutic products and to establish international reference standards. The guidelines produced are promoted through their publication on the WHO website, as well as through workshops and training sessions to facilitate their implementation. This outreach has proved valuable in promoting WHO recommendations that promote international harmonization of guidance for biological therapeutics.

Biological therapeutics, also referred to as Biologicals, are those class of medicines which are grown and then purified from large-scale cell cultures of bacteria or yeast, or plant or animal cells. Biologicals are a diverse group of medicines which includes vaccines, growth factors, immune modulators, monoclonal antibodies, as well as products derived from human blood and plasma.

WHO focuses on the possible public health consequences of an incident, regardless of whether it is characterized as a deliberate act or a naturally occurring event. 

When a Member State is concerned and wants to be prepared, WHO advises strengthening public health surveillance and response activities, with an emphasis on: 

Biological weapons are microorganisms like virus, bacteria, fungi, or other toxins that are produced and released deliberately to cause disease and death in humans, animals or plants. 

Biological agents, like anthrax, botulinum toxin and plague can pose a difficult public health challenge causing large numbers of deaths in a short amount of time while being difficult to contain. Bioterrorism attacks could also result in an epidemic, for example if Ebola or Lassa viruses were used as the biological agents.