scholarly journals Does COVID-19 Take a Breath? The Chinese Current Situation

Author(s):  
Abdul Qadeer ◽  
Muhammad Sohail ◽  
Ayesha Younas ◽  
Haroon Iqbal ◽  
Asif Ullah ◽  
...  

Four new zoonotic coronaviruses outbreak occurred in the past two decades. The first coronavirus outbreak happened in 2003 and was named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-1 (SARS-CoV-1), followed by Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in 2013, and by Swine Acute Diarrhoea Syndrome (SADS) in 2017. In late December 2019, a patient from Wuhan Seafood Wholesale Market, China, was admitted to Huang's hospital with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) of apparently unknown etiology, which later was diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2-induced coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). SARS-CoV-2 was identified from another clade within the subgenus Sarbecovirus of the genus Betacoronavirus. This new CoV variant showed 96.2% similarity at whole-genome level to bat coronavirus. Based on genetic studies, pangolin, bats, and snakes are suspected to be a possible intermediate host of this virus, but further research is in progress to determine how this virus appeared and what is the exact source of infection. The SARS-CoV-2 outbreak has higher transmissibility, contagiosity and pathogenicity compared to that of SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV. SARS-CoV-2 swiftly spread from continent to continent and is persistently causing a shocking global public health concern albeit the rate of infected cases and mortality is relatively decreasing over time. In this review, we provide an update on the origin, transmissibility, etiology, epidemiology, and evolution of COVID-19. We also highlight the current diagnostics, therapies, and prognostics for SARS-CoV-2. Eventually, we report and provide our humble opinion about the preventive strategies to control the ongoing related pandemic situation at global and individual levels, considering the international public health emergency and possible future epidemics and pandemics.

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mr. Chris Patterson ◽  
Dr. Shona Hilton

Obesity represents a major and growing global public health concern. The mass media play an important role in shaping public understandings of health, and obesity attracts much media coverage. This study offers the first content analysis of photographs illustrating UK newspaper articles about obesity. The researchers studied 119 articles and images from five major national newspapers. Researchers coded the manifest content of each image and article and used a graphical scale to estimate the body size of each image subject. Data were analysed with regard to the concepts of the normalisation and stigmatisation of obesity. Articles’ descriptions of subjects’ body sizes were often found to differ from coders’ estimates, and subjects described as obese tended to represent the higher values of the obese BMI range, differing from the distribution of BMI values of obese adults in the UK. Researchers identified a tendency for image subjects described as overweight or obese to be depicted in stereotypical ways that could reinforce stigma. These findings are interpreted as illustrations of how newspaper portrayals of obesity may contribute to societal normalisation and the stigmatisation of obesity, two forces that threaten to harm obese individuals and undermine public health efforts to reverse trends in obesity.


Author(s):  
Calvin W. L. Ho ◽  
Tsung-Ling Lee

Abstract Recognizing that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a serious threat to global public health, the World Health Organization (WHO) has adopted a Global Action Plan (GAP) at the May 2015 World Health Assembly. Underscoring that systematic misuse and overuse of drugs in human medicine and food production is a global public health concern, the GAP-AMR urges concerted efforts across governments and private sectors, including pharmaceutical industry, medical professionals, agricultural industry, among others. The GAP has a threefold aim: (1) to ensure a continuous use of effective and safe medicines for treatment and prevention of infectious diseases; (2) to encourage a responsible use of medicines; and (3) to engage countries to develop their national actions on AMR in keeping with the recommendations. While the GAP is a necessary step to enable multilateral actions, it must be supported by effective governance in order to realize the proposed aims. This chapter has a threefold purpose: (1) To identify regulatory principles embedded in key WHO documents relating to AMR and the GAP-AMR; (2) To consider the legal and regulatory actions or interventions that countries could use to strengthen their regulatory lever for AMR containment; and (3) To highlight the crucial role of the regulatory lever in enabling other levers under a whole-of-system approach. Effective AMR containment requires a clearer understanding of how the regulatory lever could be implemented or enabled within health systems, as well as how it underscores and interacts with other levers within a whole-of-system approach.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bev John ◽  
Katy Holloway ◽  
Nyle Davies ◽  
Tom May ◽  
Marian Buhociu ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Mahmoudi ◽  
S. Agha Kuchak Afshari ◽  
S. Aghaei Gharehbolagh ◽  
H. Mirhendi ◽  
K. Makimura

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birhanu Ayelign ◽  
Markos Negash ◽  
Meaza Genetu ◽  
Tadelo Wondmagegn ◽  
Tewodros Shibabaw

The interaction between diabetes and major world infections like TB is a major public health concern because of rapidly rising levels of diabetes. The dual burden of tuberculosis (TB) and diabetes mellitus (DM) has become a major global public health problem. Diabetes mellitus is a major risk factor for the development of active and latent tuberculosis. Immune mechanisms contributing to the increased susceptibility of diabetic patients to TB are due to the defects in bacterial recognition, phagocytic activity, and cellular activation which results in impaired production of chemokines and cytokines. The initiation of adaptive immunity is delayed by impaired antigen-presenting cell (APC) recruitment and function in hyperglycemic host, which results in reduced frequencies of Th1, Th2, and Th17 cells and its secretion of cytokines having a great role in activation of macrophage and inflammatory response of tuberculosis. In addition, impaired immune response and killing of intracellular bacteria potentially increase bacterial load, chronic inflammation, and central necrosis that facilitate bacterial dissemination and miliary tuberculosis. Understanding of the immunological and biochemical basis of TB susceptibility in diabetic patients will tell us the rational development of implementation and therapeutic strategies to alleviate the dual burden of the diseases. Therefore, the aim of this review was focused on the association between diabetes and tuberculosis, focusing on epidemiology, pathogenesis, and immune dysfunction in diabetes mellitus, and its association with susceptibility, severity, and treatment outcome failure to tuberculosis.


PLoS Medicine ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. e1002004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Delan Devakumar ◽  
David Osrin

Author(s):  
Abdullah Khan

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of morbidity and death. It is the global public health concern. In Bangladesh it is related to the tradition and also consider as a taboo of the society, that’s why people are not conscious about the harmful effects of the tobacco. The women, children and aged people are in high risk of the probable effects of tobacco. The cultivation of the tobacco also damage, displaced and unfertile the soil and putting harmful effects on environment, economy and social norms. There different patterns of tobacco as smoked or smokeless tobacco consumption (SLT). The urban people a little bit concern about the smoked tobacco rather than smokeless tobacco and the rural people have no idea about the harmful effects on smoked and smokeless tobacco. In rural areas it’s the tradition of smokeless tobacco consuming. The passive smoking also put the non-smoker specially child and aged person in high health risk. To prevent such situation Bangladesh signed the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003 and ratifies in 2004 respectively and enacted laws such as “Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Act 2005 (Amendment 2013) and related rules in 2015 as “The Smoking and Tobacco products Usage (Control) Rules 2015 and also includes some other Metropolitan Acts. The HC Division also banned the advertisement of all forms of tobacco and tobacco products by the case of Pro. Nurul Islam case (2000). This dissertation analysis the harmful effects of the tobacco usages and smoked and smokeless tobacco on Public Health, Social and Environment. This dissertation analysis the present status of tobacco control in Bangladesh and existing laws regarding to the tobacco control in Bangladesh as well. This research also examines the leading case – Prof. Nurul Islam Case for the banning of the advertisement of tobacco products as well as landmark guidelines from the High Court Division. This dissertation also analysis the loopholes of existing anti-tobacco laws in Bangladesh as well as the comparison of the legal provisions existing laws with the Indian existing laws. This dissertation also examines the activities of the government and different kinds of NGOs in Bangladesh. And lastly fifth and sixth chapter deals with the findings and recommendations that need to be implemented.


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