scholarly journals Surveillance of a Pest Through a Public Health Information System: The Case of the Blackfly (Simulium erythrocephalum) in Zaragoza (Spain) during 2009–2015

Author(s):  
Ignacio Ruiz-Arrondo ◽  
José A. Oteo ◽  
Javier Lucientes ◽  
Ana Muniesa ◽  
Ignacio de Blas

Background: Animals and people in many Spanish regions are increasingly being affected by blackfly bites in the last decade. Because of blackflies, the city of Zaragoza has become in recent years a paradigm of discomfort in Europe, with thousands of citizens affected. The OMI-AP system (Stacks, Barcelona, Spain) implemented by the Government of Aragón, a software that manages the electronic medical history of all patients, has been evaluated in order to document the increase of insect bite recorded by the primary care consultations in Zaragoza after the first outbreak of blackflies occurred in 2011. Methods: An observational, ecological and longitudinal study of insect bites recorded at the primary care consultations was carried out in primary care during the period 2009–2015. Results: The incidence of medical consultations by insect bites in Basic Health Areas (BHA) near to rivers is higher than the furthest BHA. Rural BHA are more affected by insect bites than the urban ones. The increase of medical assistance due to insect bites in Zaragoza since 2011 is correlated with the blackflies bites. Conclusions: This tool was very useful to describe the initial stage of this public health problem. It could be used for guiding public health responses in terms of surveillance and management of this pest.

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Bianca Campos Oliveira ◽  
Beatriz Guitton Renaud Baptista de Oliveira ◽  
Beatriz Laureano de Souza ◽  
Ágatha Cappella Dias ◽  
Allanna Da Costa Moura ◽  
...  

Objetive To analyze the epidemiological data and the main government measures adopted against the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Epidemiologic study built with data from the integrated Public Health Information System (iPHIS) and the official Government of Canada website in a time frame from January to July 2020. Results Toronto presents the first case of COVID 19 on January 23rd and until July 1st, 2020, it records a number of 14 468 cases, 12.574 recovered cases, 1.100 deaths and 171 institutional outbreaks. About 53,04% of the cases were female, aged 40-59 years (29,81%), followed by 20-39 years (28,37%). Contagion forms were analyzed: 56,40% had close contact with a case, 24,23% in the community, 10,30% in health services, 5,58% while traveling and 3,49% in institutions. Economic and financial actions, travel measures, support for Canadians abroad, public education, research and technology were developed. Conclusion The COVID-19 is a serious threat to public health around the world. Canada has a strong history of pandemic planning and has worked together with public health for its developed actions to become adaptable based on evolution, outbreak containment and prevention of further spread.


Author(s):  
I.E. Levchenko ◽  
◽  
A.Y. Kuznetsov ◽  
E.G. Korniltseva ◽  
◽  
...  

Antibiotics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 629
Author(s):  
António Teixeira Rodrigues ◽  
João C. F. Nunes ◽  
Marta Estrela ◽  
Adolfo Figueiras ◽  
Fátima Roque ◽  
...  

Background: Antibiotic resistance is a worldwide public health problem, leading to longer hospital stays, raising medical costs and mortality levels. As physicians’ attitudes are key factors to antibiotic prescribing, this study sought to explore their differences between primary care and hospital settings. Methods: A survey was conducted between September 2011 and February 2012 in the center region of Portugal in the form of a questionnaire to compare hospital (n = 154) and primary care (n = 421) physicians’ attitudes and knowledge regarding antibiotic prescribing. Results: More than 70% of the attitudes were statistically different (p < 0.05) between hospital physicians (HPs) and primary care physicians (PCPs). When compared to PCPs, HPs showed higher agreement with antibiotic resistances being a public health problem and ascribed more importance to microbiological tests and to the influence of prescription on the development of resistances. On the other hand, PCPs tended to agree more regarding the negative impact of self-medication with antibiotics dispensed without medical prescription and the need for rapid diagnostic tests. Seven out of nine sources of knowledge’s usefulness were statistically different between both settings, with HPs considering most of the knowledge sources to be more useful than PCPs. Conclusions: Besides the efforts made to improve both antibiotic prescribing and use, there are differences in the opinions between physicians working in different settings that might impact the quality of antibiotic prescribing. In the future, these differences must be considered to develop more appropriate interventions.


Author(s):  
Desirée Mena-Tudela ◽  
Susana Iglesias-Casás ◽  
Víctor Manuel González-Chordá ◽  
María Jesús Valero-Chillerón ◽  
Laura Andreu-Pejó ◽  
...  

Background: Obstetric violence is a worldwide public health problem, which seems greater in Spain. As no studies were found that identify the most representative healthcare professionals, times, and areas involved in obstetric violence, the objective of this work was to study at what time of maternity, with which professionals, and in what areas women identified obstetric violence. Methods: This descriptive, retrospective, and cross-sectional study was performed from January 2018 to June 2019. The main variables were the area (hospital, primary care, both), the time (pregnancy, birth, puerperium), and the professionals attending to women. Results: Our sample comprised 17,541 participants. The area identified with the most obstetric violence for the different studied variables was hospitals. Women identified more obstetric violence at time of birth. Findings such as lack of information and informed consent (74.2%), and criticism of infantile behavior and treatment (87.6%), stood out. The main identified healthcare professionals were midwives and gynecologists, and “other” professionals repeatedly appeared. Conclusions: Having identified the professionals, times, and areas of most obstetric violence in Spain, it seems necessary to reflect on not only the Spanish National Health System’s structure and management but also on healthcare professionals’ training.


Author(s):  
Hu Xianming ◽  
Deng Yongzhi ◽  
Lu Zhuxun ◽  
Li Shukai ◽  
Wang Guoping ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 245-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine Cristina Navarro ◽  
Renata Leme Goto ◽  
Isabella Silva Ricoboni ◽  
Jose Eduardo Corrente ◽  
Rita Maria Saccomano Henriques ◽  
...  

SUMMARY This study aimed at estimating the number of cases of non-negative serological reactions to Chagas disease in blood donors at the Blood Center of Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil, from 2003 to 2010 and at relating them to their cities of origin. Five hundred and seventy-four non-negative results for Chagas disease were evaluated. Of these, 371 (64.8%) were reagent, and 203 (35.4%) were inconclusive. The prevalence of Chagas disease in blood donors was 0.05%. There were, on average, 72 cases/year, and a prevalence of males was observed (64.8%). Forty-three (7.49%) individuals were 18 to 30 years old; 92 (16.02%) were 31 to 40; 147 (25.61%) 41 to 50, and 292 (50.87%) were older than 50 years. It was observed that 29.3% of females with reagent serology were at their fertile age (18 and 45 years). The majority of donors were originally from cities in the southwestern and central regions of São Paulo, but individuals from other states contributed with 20%. The provenance of most donors was the city of Botucatu/SP, followed by the city of Taquarituba/SP. Therefore, the profile of donors at this blood center favors the occurrence of a larger number of non-negative serological reactions. Although there has been a significant reduction in the number of new cases/year for this disease, it is still a public-health problem, and results suggest the need for new epidemiological assessments in the studied region.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-145
Author(s):  
Sema Tuba Özmen ◽  
Beyza Onur

Architecture, which is associated with the practice of producing space, has always rendered the powers and ideologies visible. This study investigates the government houses in the 19th century Ottoman State with regard to the notions of power and ideology and focuses on the Government House of Safranbolu. It is known that, in the specified period, government houses were important ideological interventions to urban space. This study aims to address the ideological context of the Safranbolu Government House, which is positioned with the ideal of the state. Based on this, first, the urban history of Safranbolu was examined. The importance of Safranbolu Government House in the history of the city, its relationship with the city, its ideological message to the city-dwellers and its architectural style were analyzed through a method based on archival research. All government houses of the period are the artifacts of urban-spatial structures and their architectural style as well as a shared ideology. Safranbolu Government House, which is one of the structures symbolizing the Ottoman State, was also built with a similar ideological consideration. Thus, the readability of the dominant ideology through the production style of Safranbolu Government House, one of the final period architectural artifacts of the Ottoman State, was verified.


Author(s):  
Pratibha U. Mulik ◽  
Sudam R. Suryawanshi

Background: After comparing data of NFHS-3 and 4, prevalence of overweight and obesity in women of an urban population almost doubled in 10 yr. So, the causes of increasing prevalence need to be studied as public health concern. Objective of the study is to determine prevalence of overweight and obesity among reproductive age group (15-49 years) of women in an urban slum of Mumbai.Methods: Total 220 women were selected among 11 sectors from A to K by simple random method and data collected by using validated questionnaire. WHO’s classification was used to classify as overweight and obese.Results: Out of 220 women participated in study, 14 (6.36%) were obese, 75 (34.09%) were overweight according to BMI and 17 (7.7%) were found to be obese according to waist to hip ratio. From the present study it was seen that age group of the women, socio economic class, education, history of hypothyroidism, family history of obesity, types of work women do, hours of television watching, calorie and fat intake, had a significant relationship with BMI, whereas physical exercise they used to do and tendency to sleep in the afternoon and hours of sleep in the night had non-significant relationship with BMI.Conclusions: Obesity and overweight is found to be a growing public health problem and can be preventable. Interventional measures include developing healthy eating habits, regular moderate physical exercise, sleeping habits, health camps for screening of overweight and obesity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-38
Author(s):  
Anna B. Agafonova ◽  

The article describes the history of creation and activities of sanitary guardians in the cities of the Russian Empire. The study aims to identify organizational and social contradictions in guardianships’ activities, which hindered citizens from involvement in solving local sanitary problems. Boards of sanitary guardians were established by order of local authorities to involve the population in the fight against epidemics and conducting sanitary measures. The sanitary guardians’ activities consisted of timely notification of local authorities about the emergence of epidemics, participation in sanitary inspections of households, and conducting preventive conversations with homeowners about their compliance with public health and urban improvement regulations. The practice of citizens social participation in monitoring the urban area’s cleanliness was intended to level out the contradictions between homeowners and temporary doctors and sanitary executive commissions “alien” to the city community. Still, it often provoked conflicts between sanitary guardians and homeowners who defended the rights to inviolability of their property. In general, public oversight conducted by sanitary guardians has proven ineffective in the long term.


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