Pervasive refusal syndrome in child asylum seekers on Nauru

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 585-588
Author(s):  
Louise Newman ◽  
Beth O’Connor ◽  
Vernon Reynolds ◽  
George Newhouse
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Patient Advocacy ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Legal Obligations ◽  
Pervasive Refusal Syndrome ◽  
Life Threatening

Objectives: Between 2013 and 2019, an estimated 200 children seeking asylum in Australia were detained on the island of Nauru. In 2018, 15 of these children developed the rare and life-threatening pervasive refusal syndrome (PRS). This paper describes the PRS case cluster, the complexities faced by clinicians managing these cases, and the lessons that can be learned from this outbreak. Conclusions: The emergence of PRS on Nauru highlighted the risks of long-term detention of children in settings that are unable to meet their physical and psycho-social needs. The case cluster also underscored (a) the difficulties faced by doctors working in conditions where their medical and legal obligations may be in direct conflict, and (b) the role of clinicians in patient advocacy.

scholarly journals Case Report: Clostridium neonatale Bacteremia in a Preterm Neonate With Necrotizing Enterocolitis

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadim Cassir ◽  
Isabelle Grandvuillemin ◽  
Manon Boxberger ◽  
Priscilla Jardot ◽  
Farid Boubred ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Necrotizing Enterocolitis ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Preterm Neonate ◽  
Gastrointestinal Disorder ◽  
Etiologic Agent ◽  
Preterm Neonates ◽  
Environmental Cleaning ◽  
Life Threatening

Necrotizing enterocolitis is a life-threatening acquired gastrointestinal disorder among preterm neonates and is associated with a high mortality rate and long-term neurodevelopmental morbidity. No etiologic agent has been definitively established; nonetheless, the most implicated bacteria include members of the Clostridium genus. We reported here on a case of Clostridium neonatale bacteremia in a preterm neonate with necrotizing enterocolitis, providing more information regarding the potential role of this bacterium in pathogenesis of necrotizing enterocolitis. We emphasized the sporulating form of C. neonatale that confers resistance to disinfectants usually applied for the hospital environmental cleaning. Further works are needed to establish the causal relationship between the occurrence of NEC and the isolation of C. neonatale, with promising perspectives in terms of diagnostic and therapeutic management.

scholarly journals Pervasive refusal syndrome in asylum-seeking children: Review of the current evidence

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 227-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thinh Ngo ◽  
Matthew Hodes
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Mental Health Disorder ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Moderating Factors ◽  
Pervasive Refusal Syndrome ◽  
Third Stage ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Threatening Condition ◽  
Life Threatening

This study reviews the current evidence in pervasive refusal syndrome (PRS) in asylum-seeking children. Refugees can experience a variety of traumas throughout the process of migration. Children can be exposed to multiple traumas such as experienced or witnessed physical or sexual violence, loss and bereavement, parental separation and the threat of persecution and/or kidnapping. The third stage of the migration journey can add further stress; children and families may experience multiple rejections of asylum application effectively living in limbo with the constant threat of deportation. High rates of mental health disorder are well documented in young asylum seekers, particularly depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PRS is less frequently described but nonetheless a severe and life-threatening condition affecting young asylum seekers. Traumatisation, cultural factors and hostile asylum processes are specific moderating factors seen in asylum-seeking children. Asylum-seeking children normally make a full recovery from PRS. This study suggests a link between prolonged asylum processes and hostile foreign policy in developing and maintaining illness; similar cases are now being reported in other countries with hostile foreign policies. These findings are therefore relevant to clinicians and politicians working with this vulnerable group.

scholarly journals Tipping the Scales: The role of responsibility- and solidarity-sharing in the situation on the Greek islands

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia-Rafaella Kafkoutsou ◽  
Spyros-Vlad Oikonomou
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
Legal Obligations ◽  
The Impact

This report assesses the impact of EU countries’ refusal to relocate asylum seekers on the Greek islands. It illustrates that they have consistently failed to show solidarity by not delivering on commitments to relocate people, either by refusing to participate in the first place or by not fulfilling their pledges. This has left thousands of people in need of assistance on the Greek islands. EU countries have also consistently tried to avoid their legal obligations by putting barriers in place to keep families apart.

The Vitality of Mortality: Being-Toward-Death and Long-Term Cancer Survivorship

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 703-724 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanette Bresson Ladegaard Knox
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Survivorship ◽  
Dynamic Component ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Modes Of Existence ◽  
Ontological Aspect ◽  
Term Survivor

Abstract Long-term cancer survivorship is an emerging field that focuses on physical late-effects and psychosocial implications for the inflicted. This study wishes to cast light on the underlying ontological aspect of long-term survivorship by philosophically exploring how being in life post cancer is perceived by survivors. Sixteen in-depth interviews with 14 Danish cancer survivors were conducted by the author. Having faced a life-threatening disease but no longer being in imminent danger of dying, survivors still considered death a defining yet dynamic component in their approach to life as a moving toward the end, sparking a sense of vitality in mortality. In order to unfold the interviewees’ renewed existential understanding post cancer, this study employs Martin Heidegger’s ontological analysis of death. In survivorship, my participants can thus be understood as being left with the perpetual choice between living in inauthenticity or in authenticity. The difference between the two modes of existence exhibits two diverging ways of relating to death, self, and being-in-the-world. At the same time, the role of death in long-term survivorship reflects back on the magnitude of the initial existential and moral upheaval triggered by the cancer diagnosis. Understanding the role of death in long-term survivorship can positively inform the field of cancer rehabilitation and long-term survivor care.

scholarly journals Humanitarian Assistance and Permanent Settlement of Asylum Seekers in Greece: The Role of Sympathy, Perceived Threat, and Perceived Contribution

2020 ◽  
pp. 019791832094982
Author(s):  
Elisavet Thravalou ◽  
Borja Martinovic ◽  
Maykel Verkuyten
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
Threat Perceptions ◽  
Permanent Settlement ◽  
Using Data

During the recent inflow of asylum seekers from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe, the native population in Greek frontier islands largely offered humanitarian assistance to these immigrants, while support for their permanent settlement in the area was low. To explain this discrepancy, we investigated whether sympathy toward asylum seekers, perceptions of threat posed by asylum seekers, and asylum seekers’ perceived societal contributions relate differently to native Greeks’ self-reported provision of humanitarian assistance and to their support for asylum seekers’ permanent settlement in Greece. Using data from a representative sample of 1,220 Greek participants, we found that Greeks who showed more sympathy toward asylum seekers were more likely to report having offered humanitarian assistance. Further, participants who felt more sympathy and those who perceived higher asylum seekers’ contributions were more positive toward asylum seekers’ permanent settlement, whereas participants who perceived more threat from asylum seekers showed less support for their permanent settlement. We conclude that policies geared toward motivating people to provide humanitarian aid to asylum seekers should focus on generating sympathy, whereas policies geared toward increasing long-term acceptance of asylum seekers need to additionally consider lowering threat perceptions and highlighting asylum seekers’ contributions.

scholarly journals Beneficial Role of Mg2+ in Prevention and Treatment of Hypertension

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea M. P. Romani
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Virtual Absence ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Dietary Magnesium ◽  
Treatment Of Hypertension ◽  
Life Threatening

Hypertension constitutes one of the most widespread pathological conditions in developed and developing countries. Currently, more than 1 billion people worldwide are affected by the condition, either as frank hypertension or as prehypertension, raising the risk for major long-term complications and life-threatening pathologies. The costs in terms of health care services, medications for the treatment of hypertension and its complications, and associated loss in productivity represent a major economic burden for the various countries. The necessity of developing treatments that are economically more sustainable and with better compliance has been increasing alongside the incidence of the pathology. Along these lines, attention has been paid to the implementation of affordable but nutritious diets that deliver appropriate levels of macro- and micronutrients as integral part of the diets themselves or as supplements. In particular, experimental and clinical evidence suggests that an appropriate intake of dietary magnesium can be beneficial in controlling blood pressure. Additional advantages of a more diffuse therapeutic and/or preventive utilization of magnesium supplements are the virtual absence of side-effects and their affordable costs. The present review will attempt to frame our knowledge of how magnesium exerts its beneficial effects on blood pressure maintenance, which may lead to the development of more effective treatments of hypertension and its main complications.

Unionizing Subcontracted Labor

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hila Shamir
Keyword(s):  
Developing Economies ◽  
Labor Law ◽  
Bargaining Unit ◽  
Collective Agreement ◽  
Relational Contract ◽  
Legal Obligations ◽  
Legal Responses ◽  
The Impact

Subcontracting — the practice of using intermediaries to contract workers, whether through temp agencies, manpower agencies, franchise, or other multilayered contracting — is an increasingly popular pattern of employment worldwide. Whether justified from a business perspective or not, subcontracting has dire implications for workers’ rights: it insulates the beneficiary of their labor from direct legal obligations to the workers’ wages and working conditions and drastically reduces their ability to effectively unionize. This Article explores the impact of subcontracting on unionization of subcontracted labor. It argues that labor law in most postindustrial developing economies is structured around the Fordist model of production and employment and therefore provides insufficient protections to workers whose employment arrangements deviate from that model.The Article maps the various hurdles subcontracting poses to unionization. It identifies three main challenges to the basic assumptions that animate traditional labor law: first, that a union has leverage and significant bargaining power vis-à-vis an employer; second, that the union and the employer are repeat players in negotiations, and that accordingly the labor contract is a relational contract in which both parties consider the short and the long term in their calculations; and third, that the bargaining unit represented by the union is relatively easily discernable and relatively stable. The Article argues that subcontracting disrupts all of these assumptions. Accordingly, in order to remain relevant to subcontracted workers, labor law requires adaptations. The Article sketches a preliminary list of existing and potential legal responses to subcontracting that better guarantee subcontracted workers’ rights to unionize. Its main suggestion is to move away from a bilateral towards a multilateral structure of collective agreement bargaining in subcontracting situations. Finally, the Article questions whether law can provide a once-and-for-all solution to the problems posed by subcontracting, and explores the dynamic role of law and unionizing in this context.

Israel’s Deportation Policy of African Migrants: Internal and External Aspects

2018 ◽  
pp. 54-68
Author(s):  
Luiza Khlebnikova
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Jewish State ◽  
East African ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Migration Strategy ◽  
Grassroots Initiatives ◽  
Socially Vulnerable Groups

In 2016 Prime Minister of Israel Benyamin Netanyahu declared its comeback to Africa and Africa’s return to the Jewish state. The key reason for a new Israeli-African cooperation (especially between Israel and East African countries) seems to be an intent to regulate crisis with illegal immigrants from Africa in Israel. The author examines the drivers of the big inflow of African asylum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan trying to find ‘safe heaven’ in the Jewish State. Netanyahu prefers to treat these African asylum seekers as economic migrants. He often stresses that Israel is too small to accept everyone who is afflicted. In the Israeli society negative sentiments towards African asylum seekers are generally prevailing. However, there are some grassroots initiatives aimed at protecting Africans and their rights. Opposition parties, Zionist Union and Meretz, are not united and have not succeeded in challenging the government’s course. The main goal of this research is to evaluate the Israeli government’s approaches, including deportation of immigrants to ‘third countries’ like Rwanda and Uganda, aimed at resolving the crisis. The deportation of African asylum seekers provoked some new debates about rights of socially vulnerable groups in Israel and, moreover, its democratic character. The critique of the Netanyahu’s policies spread well beyond the borders of the State of Israel. The United Nations tried to resolve the crisis by offering a deal that would relocate Africans from Israel to different countries, but the head of the Jewish state, first agreed to sign it, but later changed his mind. Special attention is paid to the role of the American Jewish organizations in stopping the deportation of Africans from Israel. The American liberal progressive groups, for example J street, have been openly protesting against Netanyahu’s policies. The conclusion is drawn that the way out of the crisis lays in elaborating a long-term comprehensive migration strategy.

scholarly journals The Pivotal Role of Oxidative Stress in the Pathophysiology of Cardiovascular-Renal Remodeling in Kidney Disease

Antioxidants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 1041
Author(s):  
Verdiana Ravarotto ◽  
Giovanni Bertoldi ◽  
Georgie Innico ◽  
Laura Gobbi ◽  
Lorenzo A. Calò
Keyword(s):  
Oxidative Stress ◽  
Kidney Disease ◽  
Renal Injury ◽  
Renin Angiotensin System ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
Stage Renal Disease ◽  
End Stage

The excessive activation of the renin-angiotensin system in kidney disease leads to alteration of intracellular pathways which concur altogether to the induction of cardiovascular and renal remodeling, exposing these patients since the very beginning of the renal injury to chronic kidney disease and progression to end stage renal disease, a very harmful and life threatening clinical condition. Oxidative stress plays a pivotal role in the pathophysiology of renal injury and cardiovascular-renal remodeling, the long-term consequence of its effect. This review will examine the role of oxidative stress in the most significant pathways involved in cardiovascular and renal remodeling with a focus on the detrimental effects of oxidative stress-mediated renal abnormalities on the progression of the disease and of its complications. Food for thoughts on possible therapeutic target are proposed on the basis of experimental evidences.

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