FEATURES

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (05) ◽  
pp. 13-23

A Glimpse into Healthcare Policies: How Cancer Control and Prevention Programmes Have Evolved Across Asia. Understanding Healthcare Policies in the Philippines: Cancer Care. Healthcare Systems and Health Policies in Thailand: Cancer Care. Cancer Care and Control in Taiwan: An Interview with Dr. Shu-Ti Chiou. An Interview with Professor Myint Han: Healthcare in Myanmar.

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
M Jelenc ◽  
T Albreht

Abstract Background Policy initiatives, proposals and projects often end up proposing solutions and/or measures that are eventually either not or only partially implemented or they are lacking a system, which would consistently evaluate their implementation and/or impact. Good solutions are often not visible enough to the broader professional community and it is important to identify certain outstanding challenges in cancer control and policy. Driven by the need to better use the outputs from projects on cancer policy, European Commission was trying to address two challenges - one was in solving the problems with the implementation and use of the solutions that have already been proposed and the other one in identifying the outstanding challenges in cancer policy. Results We have decided to follow the structure to develop a series of recommendations and examples of good practices at the national level by selected areas. These would be streamlined into a roadmap to support policymakers at the national and EU level in formulating their cancer policies. Three pairs of targeted recommendations have been identified: Cancer prevention, including health promotion, implementation of the European Code Against Cancer and the reshaping and extension of cancer registriesGenomics and immunotherapy in cancerChallenges in cancer care and governance of cancer control Conclusions Multinational collaboration can bring about important consensual solutions, which build on the existing good practices in the countries. This can be combined well with the existing work on specific areas, carried out both internationally and nationally. Consensus building on jointly defined challenges represents a task that appears to be resolved rather pragmatically. Key message It is important that advance in cancer care and control are quickly analysed and that policymakers receive up-to-date recommendations to improve their policies on cancer control.


2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 1137-1144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Clara Padoveze ◽  
Rosely Moralez de Figueiredo

Little research has been conducted to date on the role of primary health care (PHC) in the prevention of healthcare associated infections (HCAIs). The present article is a theoretical study of the principle of primum non nocere and aims to promote reflection on the role of PHC in HCAI prevention with emphasis on practical recommendations. The indirect and direct roles of PHC in HCAI prevention are debated in light of this guiding principle. With respect to the indirect role of PHC, we discuss the issues of hospital-centrism and ambulatory care-sensitive conditions. The article outlines a number of challenges faced by health services related to PHC’s direct role in HCAI prevention, highlights seven key components of HCAI prevention programmes within the PHC sphere and provides practical recommendations for HCAI control and prevention.



2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hextan Y. S. Ngan ◽  
Suzanne M. Garland ◽  
Neerja Bhatla ◽  
Sonia R. Pagliusi ◽  
Karen K. L. Chan ◽  
...  

This paper aims to provide evidence-based recommendations for health professionals, to develop a comprehensive cervical cancer program for a clinic, a community, or a country. Ensuring access to healthcare is the responsibility of all societies, and the Asia Oceania Research Organisation in Genital Infections and Neoplasia (AOGIN) is committed to working collaboratively with governments and health professionals to facilitate prevention programs, to protect girls and women from cervical cancer, a disease that globally affects 500,000 and kills nearly 300,000 women annually, just over half of whom are in the Asia Oceania region. We share the vision that a comprehensive program of vaccination, screening, and treatment should be made accessible to all girls and women in the world. The primary purpose of these guidelines is to provide information on scientific evidence on the different modalities and approaches of cervical cancer prevention programs, for high resource and low resource settings. The secondary purpose is to provide an overview of the current situation of cervical cancer control and prevention in various Asian Oceania countries: their views of an ideal program, identified obstacles, and suggestions to overcome them are discussed.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia Liu ◽  
Zhe Wang ◽  
Dingyong Sun ◽  
Xiying Wang

UNSTRUCTURED The HIV epidemic imposes a heavy burden on societal development. Presently, the protection of susceptible populations is the most feasible method for eliminating the spread of HIV. Governments and other relevant industries are actively attempting to solve the problem. In view of the unavailability of biological vaccines, the best measures that can currently be applied are identification of HIV-infected persons and provision of treatment and behavioral intervention. This paper proposes a HIV digital vaccine strategy based on blockchain technology. In the proposed strategy, a decentralized surveillance network is jointly constructed using HIV high-risk individuals as application nodes and accredited testing agencies as authentication nodes. Following testing at the authentication nodes, the results are uploaded to the blockchain, which results in HIV high-risk individuals being able to determine the HIV infection status of each other in a convenient, anonymous, and credible manner. This reduces the occurrence of high-risk sexual behavior and effectively protects susceptible populations. The proposed strategy is a promising solution to prevent the spread of HIV. The performance of the decentralized surveillance network may lead to the restructuring of current government-funded infectious disease prevention and control modes that are centered on centers for disease control and prevention and hospitals to introduce revolutionary changes in public health systems globally.


2021 ◽  
pp. 096100062110165
Author(s):  
Mohammadhiwa Abdekhoda ◽  
Fatemeh Ranjbaran ◽  
Asghar Sattari

This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the role of information and information resources in the awareness, control, and prevention of COVID-19. This study was a descriptive-analytical survey in which 450 participants were selected for the study. The data collection instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data through SPSS. The findings show that a wide range of mass media has become well known as information resources for COVID-19. Other findings indicate a significant statistical difference in the rate of using information resources during COVID-19 based on age and gender; however, this difference is not significant regarding the reliability of information resources with regard to age and gender. Health information has an undisputable role in the prevention and control of pandemic diseases such as COVID-19. Providing accurate, reliable, and evidence-based information in a timely manner for the use of resources and information channels related to COVID-19 can be a fast and low-cost strategic approach in confronting this disease.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Suhuyini Salifu ◽  
Khumbulani W. Hlongwana

Abstract Objectives To explore the mechanisms of collaboration between the stakeholders, including National Tuberculosis Control Program (NTP) and the Non-Communicable Disease Control and Prevention Program (NCDCP) at the national, regional, and local (health facility) levels of the health care system in Ghana. This is one of the objectives in a study on the “Barriers and Facilitators to the Implementation of the Collaborative Framework for the Care and Control of Tuberculosis and Diabetes in Ghana” Results The data analysis revealed 4 key themes. These were (1) Increased support for communicable diseases (CDs) compared to stagnant support for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), (2) Donor support, (3) Poor collaboration between NTP and NCDCP, and (4) Low Tuberculosis-Diabetes Mellitus (TB-DM) case detection.


Author(s):  
Eliza Lai-Yi Wong ◽  
Kin-Fai Ho ◽  
Dong Dong ◽  
Annie Wai-Ling Cheung ◽  
Peter Sen-Yung Yau ◽  
...  

Background: Standard precautions prevent the spread of infections in healthcare settings. Incompliance with infection control guidelines of healthcare workers (HCWs) may increase their risk of exposure to infectious disease, especially under pandemics. The purpose of this study was to assess the level of compliance with the infection prevention and control practices among HCWs in different healthcare settings and its relationship with their views on workplace infection control measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Nurses in Hong Kong were invited to respond to a cross-sectional online survey, in which their views on workplace infection and prevention policy, compliance with standard precautions and self-reported health during pandemics were collected. Results: The respondents were dissatisfied with workplace infection and prevention policy in terms of comprehensiveness (62%), clarity (64%), timeliness (63%), and transparency (60%). For the protective behavior, the respondents did not fully comply with the standard precautions when they were involved in medical care. Their compliance was relatively low when having proper patient handling (54%) and performing invasive procedures (46%). A multivariate analysis model proved that the level of compliance of the standard precautions was positively associated with the satisfaction on infection control and prevention policy among high risk group (0.020; 95% CI: 0.005–0.036), while older respondents had higher level of compliance among the inpatient and outpatient groups (coefficient range: 0.065–0.076). The higher level of compliance was also significantly associated with working in designated team and having chronic condition of the respondents among high-risk and inpatient groups. Conclusions: Standard precautions are the most important elements to reduce cross-transmission among HCWs and patients while the satisfaction on infection control and prevention policy would increase the compliance among the high-risk group. An overall suboptimal compliance and poor views on the infection prevention and control guidelines is a warning signal to healthcare system especially during pandemics.


Author(s):  
Ernest Osei ◽  
Ruth Francis ◽  
Ayan Mohamed ◽  
Lyba Sheraz ◽  
Fariba Soltani-Mayvan

Abstract Background: Globally, cancer is the second leading cause of death, and it is estimated that over 18·1 million new cases are diagnosed annually. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted almost every aspect of the provision and management of cancer care worldwide. The time-critical nature of COVID-19 diagnosis and the large number of patients requiring hospitalisation necessitated the rerouting of already limited resources available for cancer services and programmes to the care of COVID-19 patients. Furthermore, the stringent social distancing, restricted in-hospital visits and lockdown measures instituted by various governments resulted in the disruption of the oncologic continuum including screening, diagnostic and prevention programmes, treatments and follow-up services as well as research and clinical trial programmes. Materials and Methods: We searched several databases from October 2020 to January 2021 for relevant studies published in English between 2020 and 2021 and reporting on the impact of COVID-19 on the cancer care continuum. This narrative review paper describes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the cancer patient care continuum from screening and prevention to treatments and ongoing management of patients. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted cancer care and the management of cancer services and patients. Nevertheless, the oncology healthcare communities worldwide have done phenomenal work with joint and collaborative efforts, utilising best available evidence-based guidelines to continue to give safe and effective treatments for cancer patients while maintaining the safety of patients, healthcare professionals and the general population. Nevertheless, several healthcare centres are now faced with significant challenges with the management of the backlog of screening, diagnosis and treatment cases. It is imperative that governments, leaders of healthcare centres and healthcare professionals take all necessary actions and policies focused on minimising further system-level delays to cancer screening, diagnosis, treatment initiation and clearing of all backlogs cases from the COVID-19 pandemic in order to mitigate the negative impact on cancer outcomes.


Author(s):  
Yun-Jung Kang

Abstract As of 25 July 2021, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 1,422 new COVID-19 cases, 188,848 total cases, and 2.073 total deaths (1.10% fatality rates). Since the first SARS-CoV-2 case was reported, efforts to find a treatment and vaccine against COVID-19 have been widespread. Four vaccines are on the WHO’s emergency use listing and are approved of their usage; BNT162b2, mRNA-1273, AZD1222, and Ad26.COV2.S. Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 need at least 14 days to achieve effectiveness. Thus, people should abide by prevention and control measures, including wearing masks, washing hands, and social distancing. However, a lot of new cases were reported after vaccinations, as many people did not follow the prevention control measures before the end of the 14 days period. There is no doubt we need to break free from mask mandates. But let us not decide the timing in haste. Even if the mask mandates are eased, they should be changed depending on the number of reported cases, vaccinations, as well as prevention and control measures on how circumstances are changing under the influence of mutant coronavirus.


1999 ◽  
Vol 62 (9) ◽  
pp. 1059-1070 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOAN B. ROSE ◽  
THERESA R. SLIFKO

While the risk from pathogenic microorganisms in foods has been recognized for hundreds of years, bacterial agents are generally implicated as the contaminants. Although many outbreaks of gastroenteritis caused by protozoan pathogens have occurred, it is only in the last 3 years that attention has focused on protozoan association with foodborne transmission. Recognized as waterborne parasites, Giardia, Cryptosporidium, and Cyclospora have now been associated with several food-borne outbreaks. The oocysts and cysts of these organisms can persist and survive for long periods of time both in water and on foods. While Cyclospora oocysts require a maturation period, Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts are immediately infectious upon excretion from the previous host. As a result, these parasites have emerged as public health risks and have become a concern to the food industry. More than 200 cases of foodborne giardiasis (seven outbreaks) were reported from 1979 to 1990. Four foodborne Cryptosporidium outbreaks (with a total of 252 cases) have been documented since 1993. Cyclospora caused a series of sporadic outbreaks of cyclosporasis throughout North America that have affected over 3,038 people since 1995. Control and prevention of protozoan foodborne disease depends upon our ability to prevent, remove, or kill protozoan contaminants. This review will address the biology, foodborne and waterborne transmission, survival, and methods for detection and control of Giardia, Cryptosporidium, and Cyclospora.


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