The case is intended to be used as the basis for group work and class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a Medical Peace Work situation. This is one of seven Medical Peace Work courses.
This report presents further analysis of the 2015 Nepal Health Facility Survey. Data analysis is based on the Donabedian framework for assessing quality of care in health services, which divides the indicators into three groups: structure, process, and outcome. The World Health Organization Service ...Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) indicator guideline was used to assess facility service readiness, service quality and client satisfaction with maternal health services. The study performed both bivariate and multivariate regression analysis to examine the association of maternal health service readiness and quality indicators with client satisfaction.
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The escalating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) pandemic is a global public health threat with extensive health, economic and societal implications. Resistance emerges because of selection pressure from rational and indiscriminate antimicrobial use in human health as well as in the veterinary, agricul...ture and environmental sectors. Infections caused by resistant bacteria result in longer duration of illness, higher mortality rates and increased costs associated with alternative treatment. AMR further constrains procedures that rely on antimicrobial prophylaxis, and AMR is recognized as a threat to theworld economy.
Journal of Public Health | Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 8–13 | doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdw015 | Advance Access Publication March 3 2016
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This document is a practical guide to the management of burn injuries for healthcare professionals everyhwere who are non-burn specialistsi
Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B (2010) 365, 2959–2971; doi:10.1098/rstb.2010.0143.
Agricultural ecosystems provide humans with food, forage, bioenergy and pharmaceuticals and are essential to human wellbeing. These systems rely on ecosystem services provided by natural ecosystems, including pollination, b...iological pest control, maintenance of soil structure and fertility, nutrient cycling and hydrological services. Preliminary assessments indicate that the value of these ecosystem services to agriculture is enormous and often underappreciated. Agroecosystems also produce a variety of ecosystem services, such as regulation of soil and water quality, carbon sequestration, support for biodiversity and cultural services. Depending on management practices, agriculture can also be the source of numerous disservices, including loss of wildlife habitat, nutrient runoff, sedimentation of waterways, greenhouse gas emissions, and pesticide poisoning of humans and non-target species. The tradeoffs that may occur between provisioning services and other ecosystem services and disservices should be evaluated in terms of spatial scale, temporal scale and reversibility. As more effective methods for valuing ecosystem services become available, the potential for ‘win–win’ scenarios increases. Under all scenarios, appropriate agricultural management practices are critical to realizing the benefits of ecosystem services and reducing disservices from agricultural activities.
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Creating a common approach ro regulation, educational preparation and practice: future direction for nursing & midwifery development in the African Region
The Arid and Semi-Arid lands (ASAL) constitute about 80% (467,200 sq. km) of Kenya’s total land mass and is grouped into geographical zones including the Savannah covering most of the North- eastern and South-eastern parts, the Coastal region, the North Rift Valley, the Highlands and the Lake Vict...oria Basin. The ASAL host about 35% of Kenyas population (13 million people) and over 60% of its inhabitants live below the poverty line, subsisting on less than one US dollar per day.
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Chagas disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi is a public health issue in Latin America. This highly diverse parasite is divided into at least seven discrete typing units (DTUs) TcI-TcVI and Tcbat. Some DTUs have been associated with geographical distribution in epidemiological scenarios and clinical m...anifestations, but these aspects remain poorly understood. Many studies have focused on studying the parasite and its vectors/hosts, using a wide variety of genetic markers and methods. Here, we performed a systematic review of the literature for the last 20 years to present an update of DTUs distribution in the Americas, collecting ecoepidemiological information. We found that the DTUs are widespread across the continent and that there is a whole gamma of genetic markers used for the identification and genotyping of the parasite. The data obtained in this descriptor could improve the molecular epidemiology studies of Chagas disease in endemic regions.
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Chagas disease (CD) is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, and it is endemic in Central, South America, Mexico and the
South of the United States. It is an important cause of early mortality and morbidity, and it is associated with poverty and stigma. A third of
the cases evolve into chronic... cardiomyopathy and gastrointestinal disease. The infection is transmitted vertically and by blood/organ
donation and can reactivate with immunosuppression. Case identification requires awareness and screening programmes targeting the
population at risk (women in reproductive age, donors, immunocompromised patients). Treatment with benznidazole or nifurtimox is most
effective in the acute phase and prevents progression to chronic phase when given to children. Treating women antenatally reduces but does
not eliminate vertical transmission. Treatment is poorly tolerated, contraindicated during pregnancy, and has little effect modifying the
disease in the chronic phase. Screening is easily performed with serology. Migration has brought the disease outside of the endemic
countries, where the transmission continues vertically and via blood and tissue/organ donations. There are more than 32 million migrants
from Latin America living in non-endemic countries. However, the infection is massively underdiagnosed in this setting due to the lack of
awareness by patients, health authorities and professionals. Blood and tissue donation screening policies have significantly reduced
transmission in endemic countries but are not universally established in the non-endemic setting. Antenatal screening is not commonly
done. Other challenges include difficulties accessing and retaining patients in the healthcare system and lack of specific funding for the
interventions. Any strategy must be accompanied by education and awareness campaigns directed to patients, professionals and policy
makers. The involvement of patients and their communities is central and key for success and must be sought early and actively. This review
proposes strategies to address challenges faced by non-endemic countries
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This perspective draws on the record of ancient pathogengenomes and microbiomes illuminating patterns of infectious disease over the course of the Holocene in order toaddress the following question. How did major changes inliving circumstances involving the transition to and intensification of farmi...ng alter pathogens and their distributions? Answers to this question via ancient DNA researchprovide a rapidly expanding picture of pathogen evolution and in concert with archaeological and historical data, give a temporal and behavioral context for heath in the past that is relevant for challenges facing the world today, including the rise of novel pathogens.
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Chromoblastomycosis (CBM), represents one of the primary implantation mycoses caused by melanized fungi widely found in nature. It is characterized as a Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) and mainly affects populations living in poverty with significant morbidity, including stigma and discrimination.
Based on categories related to structure, content, language, and illustrations, the present study provides an evaluation of the quality of educational materials on leishmaniasis available to health services in Brazil. The 18 publications evaluated consisted of four handbooks, four guided studies, fo...ur booklets, and six leaflets. Of the total publications assessed, nine were produced by the Brazilian National Health Foundation (FUNASA), five by State and Municipal Health Departments jointly with FUNASA, and one by the Pan-American Health Organization. The evaluations were also performed by three professionals: a physician specialized in leishmaniasis, a parasitologist, and an information/communications expert. The publications failed to specify key items such as target public, objective, and bibliography. The illustrations, especially in the booklets and leaflets, failed to clarify the text, portrayed biased concepts, and omitted credits and scale. According to this study, informative materials on leishmaniasis distributed in Brazil present major limitations which jeopardize the quality of information they contain.
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Diagnosis, Case Management Prevention and Control of Leptospirosis
Reducing the global suicide mortality rate by a third by 2030 is a target of both the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the WHO Global Mental Health Action Plan. However, an impediment to meeting this goal is the fact that suicide and suicide attempts remain illegal in at least 23 countries world...wide. Decriminalization of suicide and suicide attempts represents one critical step governments can take in their efforts to prevent suicide. The WHO Policy Brief on the health aspects of decriminalization of suicide and suicide attempts cites data and research to make a case for decriminalizing suicide globally. It also includes case examples from countries that have recently decriminalized suicide and suicide attempts — Guyana and Pakistan, Singapore,— providing important insights to policy-makers, legislators, parliamentarians and other decision-makers.
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World Vision’s Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) approach actively strives to examine, question, and change harmful social norms and power imbalances as a means of reaching gender equality and social inclusion objectives in a programme area.
This reference guide is designed to help WASH... practitioners implement GESI-transformative WASH programmes by supporting change across all five GESI domains – access, decision-making, participation, systems, and well-being. It provides information on how to design, implement, monitor and evaluate a WASH project or programme to address GESI.
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Buruli ulcer (BU) is a bacterial skin infection that is caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans and mainly affects people who reside in the rural areas of Africa and in suburban and beach resort communities in Australia.
Air pollution is a major environmental risk factor and contributor to chronic, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). However, most public health approaches to NCD prevention focus on behavioural and biomedical risk factors, rather than environmental risk factors such as air pollution. This article discus...ses the implications of such a focus. It then outlines the opportunities for those in public health and environmental science to work together across three key areas to address air pollution, NCDs and climate change: (a) acknowledging the shared drivers, including corporate determinants; (b) taking a ‘co-benefits’ approach to NCD prevention; and (c) expanding prevention research and evaluation methods through investing in systems thinking and intersectoral, cross-disciplinary collaborations.
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Asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disease (CRD) worldwide and is estimated to affect 262 million causing significant mortality and morbidity, and has emerged as an important public health problem in many Latin American (LA) countries over the last 30 or so years. LA is a highly diverse r...egion in terms of geography, climate, wealth, and ethnicity including 20 different countries with 639 million inhabitants, where 40 million are estimated to have asthma. A common feature of LA countries is the high level of social inequalities3 (Figure 1). In LA, asthma prevalence in both children and adults is highly variable and, where high, is among the highest worldwide, particularly in coastal tropical cities.
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