The Independent and Health-Informed Tourist?
By Scinceside – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 An innocuous visit to Dubai A young friend of my extended family was recently taken seriously ill and ended up in a London hospital following a short trip to Dubai to visit a partner working abroad for a few months. The symptoms of the infection, taken together…
Universal health coverage: everyone, everywhere…what about cancer?
The World Health Organization is supporting countries moving to universal health coverage and World Health Day, April 7th is part of a year long campaign. WE consider the costs of cancer control in universal health coverage plans, and using cervical cancer as an example the importance of prevention as a cost-effective strategy for low and middle income countries.
Global health security, collaborating to stop epidemics
Global health security is defined as stopping the spread of infectious diseases and drug resistance across borders. Its a concept being put into action by the Global Health Security Agenda, a commitment by over 50 member countries, NGOs and international donors to assess and improve health systems to stop outbreaks, as happened with Ebola in West Africa, turning into epidemics. We review progress on malaria and on neglected tropical diseases as detailed in the 2017 annual report of UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases, entitled "Global Britain in the Fight against Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases".
Taking back control of opioid prescription drugs
North America is in the middle of an opioid overdose epidemic, and its moving into the over 50s as well. The opioids include heroin, synthetic opioids like fentanyl, and prescription painkillers like hydrocodone (Vicodin), codeine and morphine. 50% of opioid-related deaths are due to prescription painkillers, partly through co-prescribing with benzodiazepine, partly because they cause euphoria as well as pain relief and are used for non-medical reasons. Rural white middle aged men are typical addicts but women are catching up and Native Americans are severely affected. WE look into how we can take back control at state and personal levels.
Universal health coverage gains momentum in 2016
Universal Health Coverage (UHC) day, December 12th, focusses on achieving Health for All by expanding UHC, a key SDG, to low and middle-income countries and ensuring that it also reaches the poorest in wealthy countries. Everyone should have access to basic health services without suffering financial hardship. The G7 Ise-shima meeting linked it to achieving better health systems and the global health security agenda. WE discuss what LMIC provide as basic health services and what NGOs and the public health community would like to further include (neglected tropical diseases and provision for refugees and migrant workers in host countries).
One Health: free online course from FutureLearn features CABI authors
One Health is about connectedness: "the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally to attain optimal health for people, animals, plants and our environment”. On One Health Day, November 3rd 2016, CABI's editors held a One Health (#OneHealth) Blogathon to focus attention, contributing a total of 6 blogs to Handpicked… and Carefully Sorted, each…
Different explanations of mental illness in Jamaica: can we combine the traditional and biomedical to heal body and spirit?
Gordon Town Health Centre, Kingston, Jamaica. Image: H. Schwartz Today is World Mental Health Day [October 10th 2016], whose theme is "psychological first aid and the support people can provide to those in distress". An apt moment to publish the insights into Jamaican community mental health of our summer intern, Harpur Schwartz. In her…
Why Latin America is nearer elimination of rabies than Africa
Latin America is doing far better at controlling and ultimately eliminating rabies from the region than Africa. Latin America uses dog vaccination; Africa relies on post-exposure prophylaxis. Can the lessons learned in Latin America be applied or adapted to Africa? At RSTMH “Challenges in Disease Elimination”, [September 12-16th, 2016], Dr Katie Hampson described the PAHO surveillance & management framework operating in Mexico and Brazil, devised to support the elimination of rabies in 25 PAHO countries, which could be adapted. Tanzanian researchers have developed a targeted surveillance system to improve case detection for the African setting where resources are constrained.