Pocket book of hospital care for children: Second edition

This is the second edition of the Pocket book of hospital care for children. It is for use by doctors, nurses and other health workers who are responsible for the care of young children at the first level referral hospitals. The Pocket Book is one of a series of documents and tools that support the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI). It is an update of the 2005 edition, and presents up-to-date evidence based clinical guidelines from several recently updated and published WHO guidelines and recommendations.

A new Global Action Plan launched by WHO and UNICEF has the potential to save up to 2 million children every year from deaths caused by pneumonia and diarrhoea, some of the leading killers of children under five globally. The Integrated Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea calls for closer integration of efforts to prevent and treat these two diseases and sets ambitious targets to reduce mortality rates and raise levels of children’s access to life-saving interventions.

On International Women’s Day, WHO joins UN agencies on a call to action on violence against women during the 57th Commission on Social Status of Women (CSSW), taking place in New York.

• Read about International Women’s Day

1 February 2013 -- Delegates at a United Nations-convened high-level meeting on saving the lives of mothers and children in the Eastern Mediterranean Region have agreed to urgently accelerate progress on improving maternal and child health between now and the end of 2015 and to reduce the gap between current funding levels and those required to meet MDGs 4 and 5. The commitments are laid out in the Dubai Declaration, “Saving lives, Rising to the Challenge”.

• Read the report on the high-level meeting