Postscript Evolutionary ecology to reconcile public health, ethics and politics for infectious diseases control in low-income countries: time to move forward!

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Awa Marie Coll Seck ◽  
Ibrahima Seck
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Childhood Vaccination ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Vaccination Programs ◽  
Guinea Worm ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Public Health Challenge

Infectious diseases (IDs) remain a major public health challenge in low-income countries (LICs) despite several striking successes and improvements in their control during the last decades. This includes the eradication of smallpox and rinderpest, and several other pathogens are on the edge of eradication, such as polio or guinea worm. It also concerns other high-profile pathogens that are increasingly more controlled, such as malaria, which has strongly diminished in several regions or measles for which transmission has been strongly impacted by childhood vaccination programs....

Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Economic Resources ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Health Strategy ◽  
Pathogen Control ◽  
Effective Public Health

During the last thirty years, the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases has been studied extensively. Understanding how pathogens are transmitted in time and space, how they are evolving according to different selective pressures, and how the environment can influence their transmission, has paved the way for new approaches to the study of host/pathogen interactions. At the same time, pathogen control in low-income countries (LIC) has tended to remain largely inspired and informed by classical epidemiology, where the objective is to treat as many people as possible, despite recent findings in ecology and evolutionary biology suggesting new opportunities for improved disease control in the context of limited economic resources. The need to integrate the scientific developments in ecology and evolution of infectious diseases with public health strategy in low-income countries is clearly as important today as it has ever been. In this book, the authors provide an up to date, authoritative, and challenging review of the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases focusing on low-income countries for effective public health applications and outcomes. Accessible to students and researchers working on evolutionary ecology of infectious diseases and public health scientists working on their control in low-income countries, this book combines chapters exposing fundamental concepts in evolutionary ecology with others exploring the most recent advances in the field as well as highlighting how they can provide new innovative approach on the field. This work is concluded by an integrative chapter signed by all the authors highlighting the key missing points to improve this connection between evolutionary ecology and public health in low-income countries.

scholarly journals Parents’ Decision-making for Childhood Immunization and Prevention of Childhood Diseases – A Cross-Sectional Survey

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas KEMEUGNI NGANDJON ◽  
Alfred Laengler ◽  
Thomas Ostermann ◽  
Virgile Kenmoue
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Childhood Vaccination ◽  
World Health ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Health Seeking ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Vaccination Programs ◽  
Health Authorities

Abstract Background The childhood vaccination program (EPI) is claimed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be the most cost-effective intervention to reduce child mortality. Therefore, in low-income countries governments and health authorities invest in vaccination programs to reach herd immunity. However, despite the resources allocated to the EPI, epidemics preventable through vaccines are still reported in these countries. In Cameroon, the Foumbot district in the West region has witnessed measles epidemics since 2010 and in 2013 a polio outbreak was reported. Methods The design of this study is a cross-sectional survey. A total of 160 mothers of children between the ages of 12 to 23 months were selected by simple random sampling technique. Pre-tested structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Data was analyzed using SPSS statistical software. Results The outcome of this survey shows that 60% of the children studied were completely vaccinated, 37.75% were partially vaccinated, and 1.25% had not received any vaccine. The logistic regression analysis shows that a poor knowledge of infectious diseases (OR=0.3) was a significant predictor of partial and no vaccination status in children. Conclusion Parents’ decision-making for EPI was based on the information and experiences available in the community. Therefore, parents who are poorly educated on VPDs and living in a community with missing information and misinformation about vaccination will probably not complete the EPI. Public health authorities should invest in health education programs with the goal of developing skills for health- seeking behavior in individuals and communities.

Afterword II Fundamental knowledge in the evolutionary ecology of infectious diseases

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Roche ◽  
Hélène Broutin ◽  
Frédéric Simard
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
High Variability ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Academic Knowledge ◽  
Fundamental Knowledge ◽  
Tropical Areas

In Part II, the main academic knowledge gathered to date on the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases with relevance for infectious diseases control in low-income countries has been reviewed. We have seen that many pathogens affecting human populations rely strongly on environmental determinants, such as climate, water, abiotic characteristics and inter-specific relationships, among other factors. This is especially important for low-income countries that are mostly located in tropical areas and, therefore, are exposed to high variability in terms of climatic conditions in environments ranging from the deep evergreen equatorial forests to arid deserts....

Optimizing public health strategies in low-income countries: the challegens to apply the scientific knowledge for disease control and for which diseases

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Roche ◽  
Hélène Broutin ◽  
Frédéric Simard
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Disease Control ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Control Programs ◽  
Fundamental Knowledge ◽  
Public Health Strategies

The objective of this book is to review the fundamental knowledge in ecology and evolution of infectious disease, as well as how it can be translated into opportunities to improve public health strategies in low-income countries, as well as in accounting and prompting for multisector interactions with the fields of economics, sociology and geopolitics, among others. The chapter explores challenges to applying the scientific knowledge for disease control, and it considers which disease to target. The chapter goes over the main recommendations arising from evolutionary ecology for infectious disease–control programs in low-income settings, and it highlights some crucial points that need to be considered to facilitate and accelerate integration of this fundamental knowledge to improve the efficiency of pathogen control.

Mapping Research in Assisted Reproduction Worldwide

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. García ◽  
Francesco Alessandro Massucci ◽  
Alessandro Mosca ◽  
Ismael Ràfols ◽  
A. Rodríguez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Assisted Reproduction ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Male Factor ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Laboratory Techniques ◽  
The Uk

Study question: What are the current trends of research in Human Assisted Reproduction around the world? Summary answer: USA is the leading country, followed by the UK, China, France and Italy. The largest research area is “laboratory techniques”, although other areas such as “public health”, “quality, ethics and law” and “female factor” are gaining ground worldwide. What is known already: Scientific research, especially in health and medical sciences, aims at addressing specific needs that society (and, especially, patients) perceives as pressing. One of the main challenges for policymakers and research funders alike is therefore to align research priorities to societal needs. We can thus think of research agendas in terms of a demand side (societal needs) and a supply side (research outputs). Research output in Human Assisted Reproduction has expanded in the past years, as indicated by the increasing number of scientific publications in indexed journals in this area. Nevertheless, no map of research related to assisted reproduction has been produced so far, hindering the identification of potential areas of improvement and need. Study design, size, duration:  26,000+ scientific publications (articles, letters, and reviews) on Human Assisted Reproduction produced worldwide between 2005 and 2016 were analyzed. These publications were indexed in PubMed or obtained from reference list of indexed publications included in the analysis.Participants/materials, setting, methods: The corpus of publications was obtained by combining the MeSH terms: “Reproductive techniques”, “Reproductive medicine”, “Reproductive health”, “Fertility”, “Infertility”, and “Germ cells”. Then it was analyzed by means of text mining algorithms (Topic Modeling (TM) based on Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA)), in order to obtain the main topics of interest. Finally, these categories were analyzed across world regions and time. Main results and the role of chance:  We identified 44 main topics, which were further grouped in 11 macro categories, form larger to smaller: “laboratory techniques”, “male factor”, “quality, ethics and law”, “female factor”, “public health and infectious diseases”, “basic research and genetics”, “pregnancy complications and risks”, “general infertility and ART”, “psychosocial aspects”, “cancer”, and “research methodology”. The USA was the leading country in number of publications, followed by the UK, China, France and Italy. Interestingly, research contents in high income countries is fairly homogeneous across macro-categories, and it is dominated by “laboratory techniques” in Western and Southern Europe, and by “quality, ethics and law” in North America, Australia and New Zealand. In middle income countries we observe that research is mainly performed on “male factor”, and noticeably less on “female factor”. Finally, research on “public health and infectious diseases” predominates in low-income countries. Regarding temporal evolution of research, “laboratory techniques” is the most abundant topic on a yearly basis, and relatively constant over time. However, since production in most of the other categories is increasing, the relative contribution of this research category is actually decreasing. Publication is especially increasing in “public health and infectious diseases” (in all world regions, but especially in low income countries), “quality, ethics and law” (high income countries), and “female factor” (middle income countries). Limitations, reasons for caution: Three main factors might limit the robustness of our work: the textual corpus analyzed is based on abstract and titles, the reproducibility of the stochastic algorithms applied, which may produce slightly differing results at each run, and the interpretation of the topics obtained. Wider implications of the findings: This study should prove beneficial in the design of research strategies and policies that foster the alignment between supply (assisted reproduction research) and demand (society). Study funding/competing interest(s): PTQ-14-06718 of the Spanish MINECO Torres Quevedo programme (FAM).

scholarly journals COVID-19 pandemic: the implications of the natural history, challenges of diagnosis and management for care in sub-Saharan Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Omo-Aghoja ◽  
Emuesiri Goodies Moke ◽  
Kenneth Kelechi Anachuna ◽  
Adrian Itivere Omogbiya ◽  
Emuesiri Kohworho Umukoro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Diagnosis And Management ◽  
Severe Acute Respiratory Infection ◽  
Identification Technique ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Policies And Programs

Abstract Background Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a severe acute respiratory infection which has afflicted virtually almost all nations of the earth. It is highly transmissible and represents one of the most serious pandemics in recent times, with the capacity to overwhelm any healthcare system and cause morbidity and fatality. Main content The diagnosis of this disease is daunting and challenging as it is dependent on emerging clinical symptomatology that continues to increase and change very rapidly. The definitive test is the very expensive and scarce polymerase chain reaction (PCR) viral identification technique. The management has remained largely supportive and empirical, as there are no officially approved therapeutic agents, vaccines or antiviral medications for the management of the disease. Severe cases often require intensive care facilities and personnel. Yet there is paucity of facilities including the personnel required for diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It is against this backdrop that a review of key published reports on the pandemic in SSA and globally is made, as understanding the natural history of a disease and the documented responses to diagnosis and management is usually a key public health strategy for designing and improving as appropriate, relevant interventions. Lead findings were that responses by most nations of SSA were adhoc, paucity of public health awareness strategies and absence of legislations that would help enforce preventive measures, as well as limited facilities (including personal protective equipment) and institutional capacities to deliver needed interventions. Conclusion COVID-19 is real and has overwhelmed global health care system especially low-income countries of the sub-Sahara such as Nigeria. Suggestions for improvement of healthcare policies and programs to contain the current pandemic and to respond more optimally in case of future pandemics are made herein.

scholarly journals Personal and domiciliary hygiene practices and its association with incidence of infectious diseases among children aged 6-59 months

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 4204
Author(s):  
Md Hasanuzzaman ◽  
Md Hafizur Rahman ◽  
Md Shafiqul Islam Khan ◽  
Musammet Rasheda Begum ◽  
Farjana Alam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Hand Washing ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Child Feeding ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Hygiene Practices ◽  
Prepared Food

Background: Over 200 million under-five-children born in low-income countries are at risk of not reaching their development potential and infectious diseases are the leading cause of development deficits in these regions.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate personal and household hygiene practices among 154 mothers and their association with the incidence of infectious diseases among 167 children aged 6 months to 59 months in Patuakhali district, Bangladesh.Results: Only 13.6% of the mothers had proper hand washing knowledge. Besides, 14% and 53.9% of the mothers washed their hands with soap and only with water respectively before feeding their child. About 68.2% of mothers prepared food on the ground and half (49.5%) of the toilet did not have a hand washing location beside it. The risk of childhood infectious disease was significantly associated with hand washing of mothers before feeding a child (OR: 2.3, 95% CI: 1.5-4.1, p<0.05) and hand washing of child before eating (OR: 3.4, 95% CI: 1.8-5.7, p<0.05).Conclusions: Hand washing agents were inadequate and compliance to hand washing was poor. Therefore, the continuous focus is needed on the mother's awareness construction to increase the compliance to hand washing practice among mothers as well as their child with soap, especially during child feeding.

scholarly journals Community-based Programs for Childhood Immunization and Prevention of Childhood Diseases: Sustainable Support in Mothers’ Decision-Making – A Health Belief Model Approach

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Kemeugni Ngandjon ◽  
Alfred Laengler ◽  
Thomas Ostermann
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Health Belief Model ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Health Belief ◽  
Childhood Vaccination ◽  
World Health ◽  
Vaccination Program ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Belief Model

Abstract Background: The childhood vaccination program (EPI) is claimed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the most cost-effective intervention to reduce child mortality. Therefore, in low-income countries governments and health authorities invest in vaccination programs to reach the herd immunity. However, despite the resources allocated to the EPI, epidemics preventable through vaccines are still reported in these countries. In Cameroon, the Foumbot district in the West region has witnessed measles epidemics since 2010 and in 2013 a polio outbreak was reported. Methods: The design of this study is a cross-sectional survey. A total of 160 mothers of children between the ages of 12 to 23 months were interviewed. The Health-Belief-Model was applied to design a community-related framework regarding maternal decision-making.Results: The outcome of this survey shows that 60% of the children studied were completely vaccinated, 37.75% were partially vaccinated, and 1.25% had not received any vaccine. The logistic regression analysis shows that affiliation to Islam (OR=0.2) and a poor knowledge of infectious diseases (OR=0.3) were significant predictors of complete childhood vaccination failure. Conclusion: Starting the vaccination program at birth and a good knowledge of infectious diseases were important factors for complete childhood vaccination. Additionally, health facilities presented a shortage of qualified health personnel. Public health authorities should invest in health education programs with the goal of developing skills for health- seeking behavior in individuals and communities.

scholarly journals 1669. Trends in Authorship for Infectious Disease Research Conducted in Low-Income Countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. S610-S611
Author(s):  
Chelsea E Modlin ◽  
Kimberly Powell ◽  
Russell R Kempker
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Research Capacity ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Health Priorities ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Open Forum ◽  
Research Collaborations

Abstract Background Research capacity in low-income countries (LICs) plays an important role in strengthening national healthcare systems and addressing local health priorities. Research in infectious diseases is especially important as they comprise five of the top 10 causes of death in LICs. While academic collaborations between high-income countries (HICs) and LICs offer many benefits, they also risk structural and professional imbalances. This study explores research capacity as a function of first or last authorship and funding for research conducted in LICs that is published in high-impact infectious disease journals. Methods A literature search using the abstract database Scopus was completed for original research conducted within LICs or using samples collected from LIC subjects published between 1998 – 2017 in Clinical Infectious Diseases, Journal of Infectious Diseases, and Open Forum Infectious Diseases. Primary outcomes included the number of LIC first and last authors compared with HIC authors over time. Secondary outcomes included the geographic distribution of research and the proportion of research financed by LICs. Results A total of 1380 articles were identified of which 20% had LIC first authors and 21% had first authors with dual LIC/HIC affiliations. For last authors, 13% were affiliated with a LIC and 15% had dual LIC/HIC affiliation. HIC researchers compiled the majority of first and last authors regardless of geography (Figure 1). The number of studies conducted in LICs increased over the 20-year timeframe (Figure 2) but is attributed to an increase in articles with HIC authors. The number of LIC authors remained unchanged resulting in a decreasing proportion of LIC authors. Only 4% of articles received funding from a LIC; however, 79% of these studies were authored by LIC researchers vs. 39% of studies funded by HIC sources. Conclusion There is a growing appreciation for international HIC/LIC research collaborations with the objective to reduce the burden of infectious diseases that disproportionately affect low-income settings. However, with this increased attention comes the responsibility to improve LIC research capacity. This includes promoting LIC researchers via authorship and supporting sustainability with funding that highlights LIC priorities. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.

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