Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) represents an increasing burden throughout the world. COPD-related mortality is probably underestimated because of the difficulties associated with identifying the precise cause of death. Respiratory failure is considered the major cause of death in advan...ced COPD. Comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease and lung cancer are also major causes and, in mild-to-moderate COPD, are the leading causes of mortality.
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Prior research has considered donor funding for developing world health by recipient and donor country but not by disease. Examining funding by disease is critical since diseases may be in competition with one another for priority and donors may be making allocation decisions in ways that do not cor...respond to developing world need. In this study I calculate donor funding for 20 historically high-burden communicable diseases for the years 1996 to 2003 and examine factors that may explain variance in priority levels among diseases. I consider funding for developing world health from 42 major donors, classifying grants according to the communicable disease targeted. Data show that funding does not correspond closely with burden. Acute respiratory infections comprise more than a quarter of the burden among these diseases but receive less than 3% of direct aid. Malaria also stands out as a high-burden neglected disease.
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Background: Timely reliable data on aid flows to maternal, newborn, and child health are essential for assessing the adequacy of current levels of funding, and to promote accountability among donors for attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for child and maternal health. We provide g...lobal estimates of official development assistance (ODA) to maternal, newborn, and child health in 2003 and 2004, drawing on data reported by high-income donor countries and aid agencies to the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation.
Methods: ODA was tracked on a project-by-project basis to 150 developing countries. We applied a standard definition of maternal, newborn, and child health across donors, and included not only funds specific to these areas, but also integrated health funds and disease-specific funds allocated on a proportional distribution basis, using appropriate factors.
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Allergic rhinitis (AR) and asthma are inflammatory conditions of the airways that often occur concomitantly. This global survey was undertaken to understand patient perspectives regarding symptoms, treatments, and the impact on their well-being of comorbid AR and asthma.
Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common noncommunicable diseases worldwide. In the Eastern Mediterranean Region there has been a rapid increase in the incidence of diabetes mellitus and it is now the fourth leading cause of death. The increasing prevalence of diabetes mellitus, the emergence of ...diabetes complications as a cause of early morbidity and mortality, and the enormous and mounting burden on health care systems make diabetes a priority health concern. These guidelines provide up-to-date, reliable and balanced information for the prevention and care of diabetes mellitus in the Region. The information is evidence-based and clearly stated to facilitate the use of the guidelines in daily practice. They are intended to benefit physicians at primary, secondary and tertiary level, general practitioners, internists and family medicine specialists, clinical dieticians and nurses as well as policy-makers at ministries of health. They provide the information necessary for decision-making by health care providers and patients themselves about disease management in the most commonly encountered situations.
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[Antecedentes] En el año 2005, un brote registrado en un área turística del sur de Brasil, concitó la atención internacional en función de haber afectado a un grupo de turistas internacionales y haber registrado alta morbilidad y mortalidad. La importancia que reviste este tema emergente, y la...s recomendaciones relacionadas al estudio del tema emanadas de la 1ª. y 2ª. Reunión de la Iniciativa de Prevención y Vigilancia de la Enfermedad de Chagas en la Amazonia AMCHA (Manaos, 2004 y Cayenne, 2005), estimulan a desarrollar entre técnicos e investigadores dedicados a enfermedad de Chagas e inocuidad de alimentos, la presente consulta técnica para
trazar un posicionamiento sobre la naturaleza y prevención/control de esta variable de transmisión de Chagas de alta morbilidad y mortalidad.
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The aim of the present study was to predict which patients with severe or difficult-to-treat asthma are at highest risk for healthcare utilisation can be predicted so as to optimise clinical management. Data were derived from 2,821 adults with asthma enrolled in The Epidemiology and Natural History ...of Asthma: Outcomes and Treatment Regimens (TENOR) study. Multiple potential predictors were assessed at baseline using a systematic algorithm employing stepwise logistic regression. Outcomes were asthma-related hospitalisations or emergency department (ED) visits within 6 months following baseline.
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The Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ) was developed to measure the primary goals of asthma management as identified by international guidelines. All guidelines indicate that to achieve good control, treatment should minimise day- and night-time symptoms, activity limitation, airway narrowing and re...scue bronchodilator use and thus reduce the risk of life-threatening exacerbations and long-term morbidity. Three independent studies have provided evidence that the ACQ is valid for measuring asthma control and has strong measurement properties for use both in clinical practice and research. In addition, the smallest change in score that can be considered clinically important has been determined.
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Considerable energy has been expended over the last two decades in developing methods for identifying the presence of asthma among participants in population studies. The objective of this endeavour has commonly been to enable epidemiological research on risk factors for asthma, with the ultimate ai...m of preventing the disease. However, there are other reasons for measuring the prevalence of asthma in populations, including the desire to assess the burden of disease attributable to asthma, to track changes over time, and to compare the prevalence among population groups defined by geographical, demographic or social factors. Two major international collaborative studies arising from this work have made major contributions to our knowledge about asthma
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Buruli ulcer is a disease of skin and soft tissue with the potential to leave sufferers scarred and disabled. It is caused by an environmental pathogen, Mycobacterium
ulcerans, that produces a destructive toxin. The exact mode of transmission is unclear. The main burden of disease falls on childre...n living in sub-Saharan Africa, but healthy people of all ages, races, and socioeconomic classes are susceptible.
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Health economics is receiving more attention as decisionmakers — including purchasers, physicians and patients seek a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of adopting new health care strategies in developed and developing countries. Formal economic evaluation is playing an increasingly i...mportant role in health care decision-making, including that related to asthma.
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The Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ)1 was developed and validated to measure the primary clinical goal of asthma management as identified by international guidelines. They indicate that to achieve good control, treatment should minimise day and night time symptoms, activity limitation, airway narr...owing and rescue bronchodilator use and thus reduce the risk of life-threatening exacerbations and long-term morbidity. The importance of including all aspects of control in the assessment of individual patients was emphasised by a recent factor analysis which showed that clinical asthma is composed of distinct components which are not closely correlated with each other.6 However, in some studies it may not be possible to collect airway calibre or short-acting β2-agonists data. Previous analysis of non-clinical trial data suggested that when ACQ scores are analysed as group data, the heterogeneity of the way in which individual patients present with inadequate control is lost in the estimation of the mean and the need to measure each individual component of asthma control may become unnecessary. In this analysis, ACQ data from a clinical trial was used to evaluate the measurement properties (reliability, responsiveness, validity and interpretability), of three shortened versions of the ACQ. In addition, we have examined whether the precision and accuracy of estimating the effect of the intervention on asthma control was maintained when the two questions concerning airway calibre and short-acting β2-agonists use were omitted from the trial analysis.
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It is estimated that as many as 300 million people of all ages, and all ethnic backgrounds, suffer from asthma and the burden of this disease to governments, health care systems, families, and patients is increasing worldwide. In 1989 the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) program was initiated in ...an effort to raise awareness among public health and government officials, health care workers, and the general public that asthma was on the increase. The GINA program recommends a management program based on the best available scientific evidence to provide effective medical care for asthma tailored to local health care systems and resources.
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Asthma guidelines indicate that the goal of treatment should be optimum asthma control. In a busy clinic practice with limited time and resources, there is need for a simple method for assessing asthma control with or without lung function testing.
The new Global Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) guidelines advice to focus treatment in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) on improvement of functional state, prevention of disease progression and minimization of symptoms. So far no validated questionnaires are available to measure symptom ...and functional state in daily clinical practice. The aim of this study was to develop and validate the Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ).
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The prevalance of asthma an allergy, defined as immunologically mediated hypersensitivity, is increasing. It is estimated that over 20% of the world population suffers from IgE-mediated allergic disease, such as allergic asthma, allergic rhinitis and allergic conjunctivitis, atopic eczema/atopic der...matitis, and anaphylaxis. Asthma, which in more than 50% of adults and in at least 80% of affected children is allergic, occurs in around 5-15% in the paediatric population. Asthma it estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO) to affect about 150 million people worldwide, placing an enormous strain on health resources in many countries, and is a major cause of hospitalizations for chronic diseases in children in the western wolrd.
Information may be derived from areas where a rapid increase in disease has occured, to from the basis for prevention strategies in areas where the prevalence of these diseases is still low. Where current expert opinion is still divided, where future research is required, or studies have provided negative results, the available information may prevent the implementation of unnecessary, restrictive, and costly avoidance strategies.
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Infographic about Filariasis - WHO
Fold-out - Pamphlet
Occupational exposures to respirable crystalline silica occur in a variety of
industries and occupations because of its extremely common natural occurrence and the wide uses of materials and products that contain it. At least 1.7 million U.S. workers are potentially exposed to respirable crystallin...e silica [NIOSH 1991], and many are exposed to concentrations that exceed limits defined by current regulations and standards.
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The Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (CMH) was established by World Health Organization Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland in January 2000 to assess the place of health in global economic development. Although health is widely understood to be both a central goal and an important outcome ...of development, the importance of investing in health to promote economic development and poverty reduction has been much less appreciated. We have found that extending the coverage of crucial health services, including a relatively small number of specific interventions, to the world’s poor could save millions of lives each year, reduce poverty, spur economic development, and promote global security.
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The increasing prevalence of childhood asthma in the developed world is a cause for concern. A so-called Western lifestyle has been the factor most commonly cited to explain this worrying increase in asthma prevalence. Early studies in a limited number of African countries showed a very low rural pr...evalence of childhood asthma, especially where children lived according to a traditional lifestyle. These same studies showed that asthma was not uncommon in urbanized African children. There has been an
increasing tendency over the past 20 years for those in rural communities to move to the large urban centers. This article analyses the urban-rural differences and factors that influence the development of asthma in susceptible children.
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