Global physician groups call on profession to address environmental health threats

ABSTRACTMass gatherings (MGs) are held throughout the world. The aim of this review was to assess and identify the health threats based on the type of the MG, type of diseases, and injuries. Research platforms such as Web of Science, Medline, and Scopus were searched through June 2017. All epidemiologic studies that investigated the health threats during the MGs, such as communicable diseases, injuries, high-risk behaviors, and environmental health problems, were included in this review. Out of 1264 references, 45 articles were included in the review.Three main types of MGs include religious, festival, and sporting event; and fairs such as trade, book, and agricultural types were also reported in the selected studies. In the religious MGs, infectious diseases were the most common health threat. Road traffic accidents and environmental health problems were additional health threats. At MG sporting events, injuries were the most common health problems. Infectious diseases and alcohol and drug-related disorders were other reported public health concerns. In the festival MGs, alcohol and drug-related problems were commonly reported. This review showed that health threats vary, based on the type of mass gathering. The health organizers of MGs should consider the type of the MG and the health needs and safety of the participants to help them plan their action and provide the needed health care services.

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Digital Surveillance for Monitoring Environmental Health Threats: A Case Study Capturing Public Opinion from Twitter about the 2019 Chennai Water Crisis

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17145077 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (14) ◽

pp. 5077 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jiangmei Xiong ◽

Yulin Hswen ◽

John A. Naslund

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

Environmental Health ◽

Severe Drought ◽

Water Crisis ◽

Sustainable Solutions ◽

Digital Surveillance ◽

Health Threats ◽

Twitter Users ◽

The Impact

Globally, water scarcity has become a common challenge across many regions. Digital surveillance holds promise for monitoring environmental threats to population health due to severe drought. The 2019 Chennai water crisis in India resulted in severe disruptions to social order and daily life, with local residents suffering due to water shortages. This case study explored public opinion captured through the Twitter social media platform, and whether this information could help local governments with emergency response. Sentiment analysis and topic modeling were used to explore public opinion through Twitter during the 2019 Chennai water crisis. The latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) method identified topics that were most frequently discussed. A naïve Tweet classification method was built, and Twitter posts (called tweets) were allocated to identified topics. Topics were ranked, and corresponding emotions were calculated. A cross-correlation was performed to examine the relationship between online posts about the water crisis and actual rainfall, determined by precipitation levels. During the Chennai water crisis, Twitter users posted content that appeared to show anxiety about the impact of the drought, and also expressed concerns about the government response. Twitter users also mentioned causes for the drought and potential sustainable solutions, which appeared to be mainly positive in tone. Discussion on Twitter can reflect popular public opinion related to emerging environmental health threats. Twitter posts appear viable for informing crisis management as real-time data can be collected and analyzed. Governments and public health officials should adjust their policies and public communication by leveraging online data sources, which could inform disaster prevention measures.

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India to envision One Health movement for confronting emerging health threats: From concept to approach toward institutionalization

International Journal of One Health ◽

10.14202/ijoh.2020.165-176 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 165-176

Author(s):

Prejit Nambiar

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Environmental Health ◽

One Health ◽

National Policy ◽

World Health ◽

Accurate Information ◽

Success Stories ◽

Health Threats ◽

Future Policy ◽

Health Organization

The author's key role in advocating and leading One Health (OH) initiatives in India (especially in Kerala), review the need for and progress of OH from concept to approach and proposes its institutionalization as the way forward. India is currently facing many health threats such as antimicrobial resistance, environmental health hazards, and food safety risks and most importantly, zoonotic diseases such as Nipah, Avian Influenza, Scrub typhus, Congo fever, Kyasanur forest disease, COVID-19, and leptospirosis that grossly impact country's economy. The recent pandemics had exposed the gaps in public health policy and government is prepared to commit on the OH approach and to invest more on public health infrastructure. Further, as challenges have increased in recent years, OH approach was clearly advocated by the experts not only to cope up the pandemic but also to manage the infodemic by promoting the timely dissemination of accurate information. Right from the endorsement of OH in 2007 by India's Prime minister to the present fight against COVID-19 pandemic, the actions to control and manage the disease was ideally oriented toward a collaborative approach. Last year (2019), the representatives from relevant ministries and department had a ground-breaking dialog to develop charter and constitute a National policy on OH. Recently, Health Ministers of the Member States of the World Health Organization South-East Asia signed "Delhi declaration" where the key essence was to implement intersectoral coordination mechanisms following the "OH" approach. India's future policy intervention will emphasize on strengthening of integrated public health labs and contributing to building a national institutional platform for OH to boost research initiatives. Taking stock of OH happenings, resources, challenges, and priorities, the implementation strategy has been proposed across human, animal and environmental health. The article further highlights the key areas that need OH intervention in India, the country's progress in OH and the success stories of OH for a sustainable action to confront emerging health threats.

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Explaining environmental health behaviors: evidence from rural India on the influence of discount rates

Environment and Development Economics ◽

10.1017/s1355770x17000018 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 22 (3) ◽

pp. 229-248 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Stibniati S. Atmadja ◽

Erin O. Sills ◽

Subhrendu K. Pattanayak ◽

Jui-Chen Yang ◽

Sumeet Patil

Keyword(s):

Environmental Health ◽

Low Cost ◽

Economic Status ◽

Rural India ◽

Discount Rates ◽

Public Infrastructure ◽

Access To Credit ◽

Health Threats ◽

Individual Household ◽

Cooking Fuels

AbstractThe authors examine whether high personal discount rates help explain why and which households in developing countries under-invest in seemingly low-cost options to avert environmental health threats, including bednets, clean cooking fuels, individual household latrines, water treatment and handwashing. First, the authors elicit personal discount rates by combining a simple randomized experiment with detailed surveys of over 10,000 rural households in Maharashtra, India. Personal discount rates are lower for women, for better-off households, and for households who can access formal credit. Secondly, they show that the discount rate is negatively related to a suite of behaviors that mitigate environmental health threats, from very low-cost steps like washing hands to more significant investments like household latrines, even after controlling for socio-economic status, access to credit, public infrastructure and services, and relevant beliefs.

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