Safety Net—The Construction of Biomedical Safety in the Global ‘Traditional Medicine’ Discourse

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 121-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Kadetz
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Rockefeller Foundation ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
World Health ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Scientific Medicine ◽  
Traditional Medicines ◽  
The World ◽  
Flexner Report ◽  
Health Organization

This paper examines the social construction of the World Health Organization’s normative discourse of the safety of ‘traditional medicines’. The findings presented are based on archival research, a review of the literature, discourse analysis of who documents, semi-structured interviews with pertinent stakeholders, and participant experience at the Western Pacific Region Office of the who. This discourse of safety can be traced to the rise and global dominance of scientific medicine over plural health care and the construction of biomedical expertise. This paper argues that biomedicine’s global hegemony and construction of a dominant discourse of safety was, at least in part, influenced by the American Medical Association, The Flexner Report, The Rockefeller Foundation, the League of Nations Health Organization, the World Health Organization, and the who’s adoption of traditional Chinese medicine as a template for health care integration. This network of stakeholders influenced the construction and dissemination of the global biomedical discourse of safety and the purported ‘safe’ control, regulation, and integration of non-biomedical practices and practitioners via biomedical expertise.

scholarly journals Access barriers to visual health

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Alejandra Rodríguez-Echeverría ◽  
Angélica María Páez-Castro
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Health Care System ◽  
World Health ◽  
Local Health Authority ◽  
Barriers To Access ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Visual Health ◽  
Care System

A number of factors and conditions hinder and restrict access to the health care system and its different services; these barriers to access put at risk the health of people by affecting adequate processes. Objective: To carry out a literature review on barriers to access to the health care system and visual health services in Colombia and around the world. Methodology: A literature review was carried out based on a search of the Medline, ScienceDirect, and Pubmed databases, as well as indexed public health journals and the websites of the Local Health Authority, the World Health Organization, the Pan American Health Organization, the UNESCO, and the Brien Holden Vision Institute. Results: The main barriers related to demand, both in general services and in visual health, are the lack of perception on the need for service and lack of economic resources; at the offer level, the existing policies constitute a real obstacle. Conclusions: Awareness-raising in the population, together with the implementation of health policies that grant equal access to health care services, are fundamental to prevent people from being affected, to a large extent, by barriers related to demand or offer, regardless of their location or level of income.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Pandemic: The Lived Experiences of Older Adults in Aged Care Homes

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-317
Author(s):  
Shi Yin Chee
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Aged Care ◽  
Care Homes ◽  
World Health ◽  
Phenomenological Method ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused untold fear and suffering for older adults across the world. According to the World Health Organization, older adults in aged care homes are at a higher risk of the infection living in an enclosed environment with others. This article adopts a qualitative approach using Colaizzi’s phenomenological method to explore the lived experiences of older adults during COVID-19. Between December 2019 and June 2020, 10 in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants aged 60 years and above in two aged care homes. The lived tension that has penetrated all participants’ stories in five themes of the meanings described as ‘disconnected in a shrinking world’ filled with uncertainties. COVID-19 has brought unprecedented challenges and disproportionate threat onto older adults’ lives, relationships and well-being. The overarching message was that older adults believe that ‘this too shall pass’ and regain their freedom that was lost during the pandemic.

scholarly journals Patients’ Needs Regarding Anxiety Management in Palliative Cancer Care: A Qualitative Study in a Hospice Setting

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (11) ◽  
pp. 947-954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Zweers ◽  
Alexander de Graeff ◽  
Jette Duijn ◽  
Everlien de Graaf ◽  
Petronella O. Witteveen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Symptom Management ◽  
World Health ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Common Symptom ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Open Communication ◽  
Hospice Patients ◽  
Health Organization

Introduction: Anxiety is a common symptom in the palliative phase, and symptom management depends on the competencies of individual professionals. This study aims to get insight into the needs of anxious hospice patients with advanced cancer regarding support. Method: Semi-structured interviews were performed in admitted hospice patients with cancer. Patients admitted from May 2017 till May 2018 were eligible whether or not they were anxious. Interviews were analyzed and coded within predefined topics. Results: Fourteen patients were included: 10 females, median age 71, and median World Health Organization performance score 3. Most patients were highly educated. Thirteen patients were interviewed within 6 months before death. Information, open communication, sense of control, safety, adequate symptom management, and respect for patients’ coping strategy were the 6 main expressed needs. Conclusion: Assessing patients’ needs regarding anxiety provided important angles where health-care professionals can make a difference in order to support anxious patients in their final stage of life to realize tailored palliative care. Future research should focus on the development of a systematic approach for health-care professionals to manage anxiety in daily care of terminal patients.

César Moscoso Carrasco and Malaria Eradication in Bolivia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole L. Pacino
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Healthcare System ◽  
Rockefeller Foundation ◽  
World Health ◽  
The World ◽  
Malaria Eradication ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Health Organization

César Moscoso Carrasco (1904–1966), a central figure in Bolivia’s mid-20th-century public health system, wanted to liberate Bolivia from malaria. In a career that spanned three decades, he came close to achieving this goal, but ultimately did not live to see successful eradication. Moscoso was one of the first Bolivian public health specialists in malariology, and was recognized by the World Health Organization for his contributions to the field in 1963. At all stages of his career, he fortuitously aligned himself with the individual or organization that could help him accomplish his professional ambitions and his mission of eradicating malaria in Bolivia. He was the founder and director of the National Anti-Malaria Service in 1929, where he made a name for himself working to halt the spread of malaria in Mizque, in the Cochabamba region. In the 1940s, he secured a position with the Rockefeller Foundation, where he had access to resources beyond the scope of the Bolivian government and an international network of public health specialists. Finally, in the 1950s, he headed the newly formed National Service for Malaria Eradication, which was a Bolivian government initiative supported by international organizations, such as the World Health Organization and the Pan-American Sanitary Bureau. In the 1950s and 1960s, he came the closest to achieving his goal. Unfortunately, he died the same way he lived: fighting a disease, possibly malaria, which he contracted on a visit to Ceylon as a malaria expert and consultant. Moscoso’s life is a window into many aspects of Bolivia’s 20th-century history. First, his life story illustrates both the potential and limitations of the Bolivian healthcare system. Indeed, Moscoso often had to work with international or binational organizations to accomplish the work that he saw as necessary and important. Second, his career shows how political changes in Bolivia impacted healthcare. Since his career spans the Chaco War of 1932–1935, the politically tumultuous 1940s, and the 1952 National Revolution, it provides a personal account of how these events changed healthcare in Bolivia. His story demonstrates the hardships that Bolivian doctors faced as they worked to improve their healthcare system, including low pay, few resources, and little respect from their foreign colleagues.

Health for All and Primary Health Care, 1978–2018: A Historical Perspective on Policies and Programs Over 40 Years

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan B. Rifkin
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Primary Health Care ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Good Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
Primary Health ◽  
The World ◽  
Definition Of Health ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Health Organization

In 1978, at an international conference in Kazakhstan, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund put forward a policy proposal entitled “Primary Health Care” (PHC). Adopted by all the World Health Organization member states, the proposal catalyzed ideas and experiences by which governments and people began to change their views about how good health was obtained and sustained. The Declaration of Alma-Ata (as it is known, after the city in which the conference was held) committed member states to take action to achieve the WHO definition of health as “state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Arguing that good health was not merely the result of biomedical advances, health-services provision, and professional care, the declaration stated that health was a human right, that the inequality of health status among the world’s populations was unacceptable, and that people had a right and duty to become involved in the planning and implementation of their own healthcare. It proposed that this policy be supported through collaboration with other government sectors to ensure that health was recognized as a key to development planning. Under the banner call “Health for All by the Year 2000,” WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund set out to turn their vision for improving health into practice. They confronted a number of critical challenges. These included defining PHC and translating PHC into practice, developing frameworks to translate equity into action, experiencing both the potential and the limitations of community participation in helping to achieve the WHO definition of health, and seeking the necessary financing to support the transformation of health systems. These challenges were taken up by global, national, and nongovernmental organization programs in efforts to balance the PHC vision with the realities of health-service delivery. The implementation of these programs had varying degrees of success and failure. In the future, PHC will need to address to critical concerns, the first of which is how to address the pressing health issues of the early 21st century, including climate change, control of noncommunicable diseases, global health emergencies, and the cost and effectiveness of humanitarian aid in the light of increasing violent disturbances and issues around global governance. The second is how PHC will influence policies emerging from the increasing understanding that health interventions should be implemented in the context of complexity rather than as linear, predictable solutions.

Vaccines for Peace: An Incentive for Developing Countries

1993 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-89
Author(s):  
Graham S. Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
World Health ◽  
Natural Health ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Threats ◽  
Health Organization

The Article in the August, 1992 issue of Politics and the Life Sciences by Erhard Geissler proposing the establishment of an international Vaccines for Peace (VFP) program to undertake research on and production of vaccines against pathogens (and possible toxins) that pose natural health threats is warmly welcomed. VFP is designed to contribute to health care in developing countries and to enhance international cooperation in biotechnology; it would be administered by the World Health Organization (WHO). Such a program would bring real and tangible benefits to developing countries and encourage participation by such countries in the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention signed in 1972.

scholarly journals A Review on the Cosmeceutical and External Applications ofNigella sativa

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad M. Eid ◽  
Nagib A. Elmarzugi ◽  
Laila M. Abu Ayyash ◽  
Maher N. Sawafta ◽  
Hadeel I. Daana
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Wound Healing ◽  
Nigella Sativa ◽  
Chemical Constituents ◽  
Acne Vulgaris ◽  
World Health ◽  
Pharmacological Effects ◽  
The World ◽  
Wound Healing Effect ◽  
Health Organization

It is estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO) that most of the world’s population depends on herbal medicine for their health care.Nigella sativa (N. sativa),also known as black-caraway and as “Kalonji,” is a well-known seed all over the world. It is one of the most common medicinal plants worldwide and contains many useful chemical constituents that we can find in its fixed oil, such as thymoquinone, thymohydroquinone, dithymoquinone, thymol, nigellicine, carvacrol, nigellimine, nigellicine, nigellidine, and alpha-hederin. Due to these numerous important ingredients it was found that it affects different areas of our body and has many pharmacological effects as antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and wound healing effect and also for acne vulgaris, skin cancer, pigmentation, and many cosmeceutical applications. Based on the folklore usage ofN. sativaseeds and oil, they are used in various systems of food and medicines. The aim of this article is to provide a detailed survey of the literature of cosmeceutical and external applications ofN. sativawhich is expected to stimulate further studies on this subject.

scholarly journals Pakistan’s Response to COVID-19: Overcoming National and International Hypes to Fight the Pandemic (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hashaam Akhtar ◽  
Maham Afridi ◽  
Samar Akhtar ◽  
Hamaad Ahmad ◽  
Sabahat Ali ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Public Health Emergency ◽  
World Health ◽  
High Population ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

UNSTRUCTURED The COVID-19 outbreak started as pneumonia in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The subsequent pandemic was declared as the sixth public health emergency of international concern on January 30, 2020, by the World Health Organization. Pakistan could be a potential hotspot for COVID-19 owing to its high population of 204.65 million and its struggling health care and economic systems. Pakistan was able to tackle the challenge with relatively mild repercussions. The present analysis has been conducted to highlight the situation of the disease in Pakistan in 2020 and the measures taken by various stakeholders coupled with support from the community to abate the risk of catastrophic spread of the virus.

scholarly journals Public health fault lines in the fight against COVID-19: Lessons from Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-262
Author(s):  
Saikou Omar Sillah ◽  
Xu Yihua
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Health Care System ◽  
Virus Disease ◽  
Public Health Emergency ◽  
World Health ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

On 31st December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) was notified of a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in the Wuhan, Hubei Province of China which eventually was named to be the Corona virus disease. In response to the rapid spread of the virus, WHO declared it a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on 30th January, 2020. As per the quest to recharge the COVID-19 response power, there is seemingly little or no tangible plans to help permanently reorient Africa’s health care system. In the wake of widespread vaccine nationalism, donor countries continue to secure large quantities of vaccines from developers and manufacturers, causing global disparity in access to COVID-19 vaccines.

scholarly journals Slavoj Žižek, Pandemic! COVID-19 Shakes the World

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. xlix-l
Author(s):  
Shehzad Ali
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Global Health ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
World Health ◽  
The World ◽  
Disaster Capitalism ◽  
Global Health Care ◽  
The One ◽  
Health Organization

One of the major themes of the book is to recognize the seriousness of the situation and its possible outcomes. Žižek informs us that the only possible way to face the challenge is to realize that world leaders should unite and develop a global health care system presided over by the World Health organization. As it is obvious that almost every crisis creates opportunities of some kind Žižek seems to argue that in the current disaster there is potential for communism (though not the one of 20th century type but the one) based on human cooperation. As he says: “it should be a disaster communism as an antidote to the disaster capitalism.”

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