scholarly journals Comment on “Global Access to Handwashing: Implications for COVID-19 Control in Low-Income Countries”

2020 ◽  
Vol 128 (9) ◽  
pp. 098001
Author(s):  
Matthew C. Freeman ◽  
Bethany A. Caruso
2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (8) ◽  
pp. 499-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yangzi Liu ◽  
Sanjana Salwi ◽  
Brian C Drolet

The urgent drive for vaccine development in the midst of the current COVID-19 pandemic has prompted public and private organisations to invest heavily in research and development of a COVID-19 vaccine. Organisations globally have affirmed the commitment of fair global access, but the means by which a successful vaccine can be mass produced and equitably distributed remains notably unanswered. Barriers for low-income countries include the inability to afford vaccines as well as inadequate resources to vaccinate, barriers that are exacerbated during a pandemic. Fair distribution of a pandemic vaccine is unlikely without a solid ethical framework for allocation. This piece analyses four allocation paradigms: ability to develop or purchase; reciprocity; ability to implement; and distributive justice, and synthesises their ethical considerations to develop an allocation model to fit the COVID-19 pandemic.


2020 ◽  
Vol 128 (5) ◽  
pp. 057005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Brauer ◽  
Jeff T. Zhao ◽  
Fiona B. Bennitt ◽  
Jeffrey D. Stanaway

2020 ◽  
Vol 128 (6) ◽  
pp. 069001
Author(s):  
Michael Brauer ◽  
Jeff T. Zhao ◽  
Fiona B. Bennitt ◽  
Jeffrey D. Stanaway

2020 ◽  
Vol 128 (9) ◽  
pp. 098002
Author(s):  
Michael Brauer ◽  
Jeff T. Zhao ◽  
Fiona B. Bennitt ◽  
Jeffrey D. Stanaway

Author(s):  
Michael Brauer ◽  
Jeff T Zhao ◽  
Fiona B Bennitt ◽  
Jeffrey D Stanaway

AbstractBackgroundLow-income countries have reduced health care system capacity and are therefore at risk of substantially higher COVID-19 case fatality rates than those currently seen in high-income countries. Handwashing is a key component of guidance to reduce transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior systematic reviews have indicated the effectiveness of handwashing to reduce transmission of respiratory viruses. In low-income countries, reduction of transmission is of paramount importance but social distancing is challenged by high population densities and access to handwashing facilities with soap and water is limited.ObjectivesTo estimate global access to handwashing with soap and water to inform use of handwashing in the prevention of COVID-19 transmission.MethodsWe utilized observational surveys and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression modeling in the context of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study, to estimate access to a handwashing station with available soap and water for 1062 locations from 1990 to 2019.ResultsDespite overall improvements from 1990 (33.6% [95% uncertainty interval 31.5–35.6] without access) to 2019, globally in 2019, 2.02 (1.91–2.14) billion people—26.1% (24.7–27.7) of the global population lacked access to handwashing with available soap and water. More than 50% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania were without access to handwashing in 2019, while in eight countries, more 50 million or more persons lacked access.DiscussionFor populations without handwashing access, immediate improvements in access or alternative strategies are urgently needed, while disparities in handwashing access should be incorporated into COVID-19 forecasting models when applied to low-income countries.FundingBill & Melinda Gates Foundation. MB was supported in part by the Pathways to Equitable Healthy Cities grant from the Wellcome Trust.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin L. Maikawa ◽  
Joseph L. Mann ◽  
Aadithya Kannan ◽  
Catherine M. Meis ◽  
Ben S. Ou ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThere are 150 million people with diabetes worldwide who require insulin replacement therapy and the prevalence of diabetes is rising fastest in middle and low-income countries. Current formulations require costly refrigerated transport and storage to prevent loss of insulin integrity. This study shows the development of simple “drop-in” amphiphilic copolymer excipients to maintain formulation integrity, bioactivity, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics for over 6 months when subjected to severe stressed aging conditions that cause current commercial formulation to fail in under 2 weeks. Further, when these copolymers are added to Humulin R (Eli Lilly) in original commercial packaging they prevent insulin aggregation for up to 4 days at 50 °C compared to less than 1 day for Humulin R alone. These copolymers demonstrate promise as simple formulation additives to increase the cold chain resilience of commercial insulin formulations, thereby expanding global access to these critical drugs for treatment of diabetes.


Author(s):  
Davor Petrović ◽  
Vida Čulić ◽  
Zofia Swinderek-Alsayed

AbstractJoubert syndrome (JS) is a rare congenital, autosomal recessive disorder characterized by a distinctive brain malformation, developmental delay, ocular motor apraxia, breathing abnormalities, and high clinical and genetic heterogeneity. We are reporting three siblings with JS from consanguineous parents in Syria. Two of them had the same homozygous c.2172delA (p.Trp725Glyfs*) AHI1 mutation and the third was diagnosed prenatally with magnetic resonance imaging. This pathogenic variant is very rare and described in only a few cases in the literature. Multinational collaboration could be of benefit for the patients from undeveloped, low-income countries that have a low-quality health care system, especially for the diagnosis of rare diseases.


2013 ◽  
pp. 121-136
Author(s):  
Duong Pham Bao

The objective of this article is to review the development of the rural financial system in Vietnam in recent years, especially, after Doi moi. There are two opposite schools of thought in the literature on rural credit policies in developing countries. One is the conventional supply-side (government-led) approach while the other is called “a new paradigm” that emphasizes the importance of the viability of financial providers and the well functioning of rural credit markets. Conventional theories of rural finance contend that rural finance in low-income countries is generally accompanied by many failures. Contrary to these theories, rural finance in Vietnam does not encounter the above-mentioned failures so far. Up to the present time, it is progressing well. Using a supply-side approach, methodologically, this study reviews the development of the rural financial system in Vietnam. The significance of this study is to challenge the extreme view of dichotomizing between the old and the new credit paradigms. Analysis in this study contends that a rural financial market that, (1) is initiated and spurred by government; (2) operates principally under market mechanisms; and (3) is strongly supported by rural organizations (semi-formal/informal institutions) can progress stably and well. Therefore, the extremely dichotomizing approach must be avoided.


EMJ Radiology ◽  
2020 ◽  

Retained foreign bodies have become very rare in countries where the safety rules in the operating theatre are very rigorous and follow precise guidelines. There are low-income countries where hospital structures are precarious, in which the implementation of surgical safety rules has only been effective recently. Surgical teams in these countries are not yet well trained in the observance of the guidelines concerning swab count, meaning that textilomas are not uncommon. Abdominal textiloma may be asymptomatic, or present serious gastrointestinal complications such as bowel obstruction, perforation, or fistula formation because of misdiagnosis. It may mimic abscess formation in the early stage or soft tissue masses in the chronic stage. This case report presents a 27-year-old female who underwent an emergency laparotomy in a rural surgical centre for an ectopic pregnancy. Two months later, a swelling had appeared on the left side of her abdomen, gradually increasing in size, which was not very painful but caused digestive discomfort and asthenia. Intermittent fever was described and treated with antibiotics. The patient was referred to a better equipped centre to benefit from a CT scan. A textiloma was strongly suspected on the CT but a left colic mass was not excluded. Laparotomy confirmed the diagnosis of textiloma and the postoperative course was uneventful. Prevention rules must be strengthened in these countries where patients can hardly bear the costs of iterative surgeries for complications that are avoidable.


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