scholarly journals Morbidity Management and Disability Prevention of Lymphatic Filariasis

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 24-28
Author(s):  
A Sangamithra ◽  
P Dhavamani
Keyword(s):  
Lymphatic Filariasis ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
World Health ◽  
Second Primary ◽  
Morbid Condition ◽  
Financial Loss ◽  
The World ◽  
Vector Borne

Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) vector-borne, chronically disabling parasitic contamination inflicting elephantiasis, lymphoedema, and hydrocele, is a leading public strength convenience as nicely as serious socioeconomic trouble due to its morbid condition, social stigma, and massive financial loss in many creating nations, and this sickness has been ranked as the second primary purpose of long-term continual incapacity worldwide. World Health Assembly decision in 1997 for Eliminate of Lymphatic Filariasis (ELF) via 2020 made all the filaria endemic nations in the world put efforts for its removing with the aid of regularly decreasing and finally interrupting the transmission of Lymphatic Filariasis (LF). Another lookup is wished to aid efforts to ‘scale-up morbidity manipulation and incapacity alleviation programs at the countrywide stage and to report the extent to which anti-filarial drug cure influences the direction of filariasis associated disorder.

scholarly journals The Durability, Functionality and Acceptability of Novel Screened Doors and Windows After Four Years of Use in A Gambian Village: A Cross-Sectional Survey

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona C. Shenton ◽  
Musa Jawara ◽  
Majo Carrasco-Tenezaca ◽  
Jakob Knudsen ◽  
Umberto D'Alessandro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Malaria Control ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
World Health ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The World ◽  
Trained Staff ◽  
Window Blinds ◽  
Health Organization

Abstract Background: The World Health Organization recommends house screening as a tool for malaria control, yet evidence of the long-term durability, functionality and acceptability of this intervention is lacking. Here we examined the sustainability and use of novel types of screened doors and windows four years after installation in a Gambian village. Methods: A survey of 31 houses, each with two screened doors and two screened windows, was conducted in the rainy season. There were four types of screened door and two types of screened window. Trained staff carried out the survey and interviews of room owners were conducted in the local language before translation into English.Results: Structurally, the manufactured doors and windows were highly durable and in excellent condition. Most doors shut smoothly 50/61 (82%), although only 25/61 (41%) shut fully automatically with the latch slotting into the hole on the frame and holding fast. Door locks were less robust, with only (24/61) 39% present and working. Blinds proved especially flimsy, with only 4/109 (4%) of door blinds and 10/56 (18%) of window blinds present and in working order. Householders hung curtains inside most doors 50/61 (82%) and in 26/61 (43%) of the windows. Front doors were commonly found propped open 21/31 (68%) and 23/27 (85%) of those with a front door curtain, put their curtains down at night. Doors and windows were well liked, 19/31 (61%) of respondents were happy with them because they kept mosquitoes out 14/31 (45%) and provided security 12/31 (39%). The main reason given for the use of curtains was to provide privacy 26/28 (93% of those with curtains), especially while the door was open or had ‘see-through’ panels.Conclusions: Overall, the screened doors and windows were in excellent condition after four years of use. Improvements to the lock design are needed before scale-up. Installation of screening in buildings should be accompanied with health messaging recommending that at night, doors and windows be closed and curtains lifted or drawn to one side - to improve ventilation and keep the house cool.

scholarly journals Psychometric validation of the Chinese version of the PaArticular Scales among elderly residents in long-term care facilities with joint contractures

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-chang Chen ◽  
Keh-chung Lin ◽  
Chen-Jung Chen ◽  
Shu-Hui Yeh ◽  
Ay-Woan Pan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
World Health Organization ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Chinese Version ◽  
World Health ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Joint Contractures ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

Abstract Background Joint contractures, which affect activity, participation, and quality of life, are common complications of neurological conditions among elderly residents in long-term care facilities. This study examined the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the PaArticular Scales in a population with joint contractures. Methods A cross-sectional study design was used. The sample included elderly residents older than 64 years with joint contractures in an important joint who had lived at one of 12 long-term care facilities in Taiwan for more than 6 months (N = 243). The Chinese version of the PaArticular Scales for joint contractures was generated from the English version through five stages: translation, review, back-translation, review by a panel of specialists, and a pretest. Test-retest reliability, internal consistency reliability, construct validity, and criterion validity were evaluated, and the results were compared with those for the World Health Organization Quality of Life scale and the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule. Results The Chinese version of the PaArticular Scales had excellent reliability, with a Cronbach α coefficient of 0.975 (mean score, 28.98; standard deviation, 17.34). An exploratory factor analysis showed three factors and one factor with an eigenvalue > 1 that explained 75.176 and 62.83 % of the total variance in the Activity subscale and Participation subscale, respectively. The subscale-to-total scale correlation analysis showed Pearson correlation coefficients of 0.881 for the Activity subscale and 0.843 for the Participation subscale. Pearson’s product-moment correlation revealed that the correlation coefficient (r) between the Chinese version of the PaArticular Scales and the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule was 0.770, whereas that for the World Health Organization Quality of Life scale was − 0.553; these values were interpreted as large coefficients. Conclusions The underlying theoretical model of the Chinese version of the PaArticular Scales functions well in Taiwan and has acceptable levels of reliability and validity. However, the Chinese version must be further tested for applicability and generalizability in future studies, preferably with a larger sample and in different clinical domains.

scholarly journals From the Field to the Laboratory: Quantifying Outdoor Mosquito Landing Rate to Better Evaluate Topical Repellents

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara Moreno-Gómez ◽  
Rubén Bueno-Marí ◽  
Andrea Drago ◽  
Miguel A Miranda
Keyword(s):  
World Health ◽  
Asian Tiger Mosquito ◽  
Personal Protection ◽  
Evaluation Standards ◽  
Testing Conditions ◽  
Vector Borne Diseases ◽  
Asian Tiger ◽  
The World ◽  
Vector Borne ◽  
Health Organization

Abstract Vector-borne diseases are a worldwide threat to human health. Often, no vaccines or treatments exist. Thus, personal protection products play an essential role in limiting transmission. The World Health Organization (WHO) arm-in-cage (AIC) test is the most common method for evaluating the efficacy of topical repellents, but it remains unclear whether AIC testing conditions recreate the mosquito landing rates in the field. This study aimed to estimate the landing rate outdoors, in an area of Europe highly infested with the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus (Skuse, 1894, Diptera: Culididae)), and to determine how to replicate this rate in the laboratory. To assess the landing rate in the field, 16 individuals were exposed to mosquitoes in a highly infested region of Italy. These field results were then compared to results obtained in the laboratory: 1) in a 30 m3 room where nine volunteers were exposed to different mosquito abundances (ranges: 15–20, 25–30, and 45–50) and 2) in a 0.064 m3 AIC test cage where 10 individuals exposed their arms to 200 mosquitoes (as per WHO requirements). The highest mosquito landing rate in the field was 26.8 landings/min. In the room test, a similar landing rate was achieved using 15–20 mosquitoes (density: 0.50–0.66 mosquitoes/m3) and an exposure time of 3 min. In the AIC test using 200 mosquitoes (density: 3,125 mosquitoes/m3), the landing rate was 229 ± 48 landings/min. This study provides useful reference values that can be employed to design new evaluation standards for topical repellents that better simulate field conditions.

scholarly journals Coronavirus Pandemic: Coping with the Psychological Outcomes, Mental Changes, and the “New Normal” During and After COVID-19

2020 ◽  
pp. 07-19
Author(s):  
Hiba Takieddine ◽  
Samaa AL Tabbah
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Well Being ◽  
World Health ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
New Normal ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
The Impact

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly infectious disease that has rapidly swept across the world, inducing a considerable degree of fear, worry and concern in the population at large and among certain groups in particular, such as older adults, healthcare providers and people with underlying health conditions. Authorities around the world tried to prevent the virus spread by imposing social distancing measures, quarantining citizens and isolating infected persons. Apart from its physical impact, COVID-19 pandemic has brought numerous changes to people’s lives. It changed daily routines, caused worldwide economic crisis, increased unemployment, and placed people under emotional and financial pressures. It affected people psychologically and mentally especially in terms of emotions and cognition. During the acute crisis, everyone to varying degrees experienced fear of infection, somatic concerns, worries about the pandemic’s consequences, loneliness, depression, stress, as well as increased alcohol and drug use. As part of its public health response, the World Health Organization (WHO) has worked with partners to develop a set of new guidelines and messages that can be used to prevent, manage, and support mental and psychological well-being in different vulnerable target groups during the outbreak. Whether people like it or not, the psychological sequela of this pandemic will emerge and persist for months and years to come leading to long-term consequences. New lifestyles and “New Normals” will surely emerge. The main purpose of this review is to summarize the impact of coronavirus pandemic on the psychological and mental health of people around the world especially vulnerable groups. It also presents the relevant intervention actions and recommendations to cope efficiently and effectively with the psychological short-term and long-term outcomes, mental changes, and the “New Normal” during and after COVID-19. Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus, Psychological; Mental; New Normal

scholarly journals A review of post infectious pulmonary fibrosis in the era of COVID-19 and potential treatment options

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (40) ◽  
pp. 37-46
Author(s):  
Medha Ghose ◽  
Maehali Patel
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Pulmonary Fibrosis ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
World Health ◽  
Potential Treatment ◽  
Pulmonary Injury ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Post Infectious

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a statement characterizing COVID-19 as a pandemic that has, as of October 2020, caused almost 36 million confirmed global cases and over 1 million deaths. One of the long-term complications suggested by researchers is fibrosis. It has been hypothesized that the combination of ongoing pulmonary injury caused by COVID-19 and the inability to promptly repair damage results in interstitial matrix widening and eventual compression and destruction of alveoli and capillaries. Here we focus on pathogenesis, risk factors, different infectious causes of fibrosis along with COVID-19, and potential treatment options that might reduce its effects. Key words: COVID-19, pulmonary fibrosis, mechanism, treatment

scholarly journals Political Discourse on China's Stigmatization in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-46
Author(s):  
I. I. Arsentyeva
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
World Politics ◽  
World Health ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The World ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increased interest in studying social stigma. The concept of stigma is also included in political discourse, as evidenced, among other things, by Xi Jinping’s speeches, in which the Chinese President urges to abandon further politicization and stigmatization of COVID-19. In this regard, the main aim of the article is to analyze the correlation between the novel coronavirus and stigmatization, not only from the traditional point of view (stigma associated with certain diseases), but also in terms of world politics. To explain the nature of social stigma, the author relies on evolutionary psychol- ogy, terror management theory and social identity theory. To analyze ongoing processes in international relations, some provisions of “rogue states” concept, leadership theories, and biopolitics are applied. The primary sources are documents of the World Health Organiza- tion (WHO) and the Group of Seven (G7), statements by UN and WHO officials, speeches of Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump, public opinion polls, and media publications. During the course of the study, the following scientific results were ob- tained: the works on COVID-19-related stigma have been systematized, the issues consid- ered in them and research gaps are highlighted; the consequences of stigma due the novel coronavirus have been summarized; some differences between stigma during the pandem- ic and stigma associated with other diseases are also identified; it is suggested to consider COVID-19 stigma not only at the level of interpersonal interactions, but also in international relations; the possible impact of the pandemic on the China’s role on the world stage has been revealed. It is concluded that this research approach allows to take a fresh look at the possibility of restoring ties between states and their citizens in a post-COVID-19 world, as well as to assess the likelihood of a change of global leader. In the final part of the article, possible ways of further development of the situation are predicted and prospects for study on the issue are outlined.

scholarly journals Communicative Blame in Online Communication of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Computational Approach of Stigmatizing Cues and Negative Sentiment Gauged With Automated Analytic Techniques

10.2196/21504 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. e21504
Author(s):  
Angela Chang ◽  
Peter Johannes Schulz ◽  
ShengTsung Tu ◽  
Matthew Tingchi Liu
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Ethnic Discrimination ◽  
Online News ◽  
World Health ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
The World ◽  
Negative Sentiment

Background Information about a new coronavirus emerged in 2019 and rapidly spread around the world, gaining significant public attention and attracting negative bias. The use of stigmatizing language for the purpose of blaming sparked a debate. Objective This study aims to identify social stigma and negative sentiment toward the blameworthy agents in social communities. Methods We enabled a tailored text-mining platform to identify data in their natural settings by retrieving and filtering online sources, and constructed vocabularies and learning word representations from natural language processing for deductive analysis along with the research theme. The data sources comprised of ten news websites, eleven discussion forums, one social network, and two principal media sharing networks in Taiwan. A synthesis of news and social networking analytics was present from December 30, 2019, to March 31, 2020. Results We collated over 1.07 million Chinese texts. Almost two-thirds of the texts on COVID-19 came from news services (n=683,887, 63.68%), followed by Facebook (n=297,823, 27.73%), discussion forums (n=62,119, 5.78%), and Instagram and YouTube (n=30,154, 2.81%). Our data showed that online news served as a hotbed for negativity and for driving emotional social posts. Online information regarding COVID-19 associated it with China—and a specific city within China through references to the “Wuhan pneumonia”—potentially encouraging xenophobia. The adoption of this problematic moniker had a high frequency, despite the World Health Organization guideline to avoid biased perceptions and ethnic discrimination. Social stigma is disclosed through negatively valenced responses, which are associated with the most blamed targets. Conclusions Our sample is sufficiently representative of a community because it contains a broad range of mainstream online media. Stigmatizing language linked to the COVID-19 pandemic shows a lack of civic responsibility that encourages bias, hostility, and discrimination. Frequently used stigmatizing terms were deemed offensive, and they might have contributed to recent backlashes against China by directing blame and encouraging xenophobia. The implications ranging from health risk communication to stigma mitigation and xenophobia concerns amid the COVID-19 outbreak are emphasized. Understanding the nomenclature and biased terms employed in relation to the COVID-19 outbreak is paramount. We propose solidarity with communication professionals in combating the COVID-19 outbreak and the infodemic. Finding solutions to curb the spread of virus bias, stigma, and discrimination is imperative.

Global lessons from Ebola crisis may be ignored

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Health Services ◽  
World Health Organisation ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Priorities ◽  
Local Health ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World ◽  
National Governments

Subject Lessons from the Ebola crisis. Significance The Ebola epidemic in West Africa caught national governments and international organisations off-guard. As the epidemic begins to abate in the affected countries, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has begun an internal process to learn lessons for future global health emergencies. However, many of the required responses were well-known before the Ebola outbreak but ignored. Shifting entrenched political attitudes will be a challenge. Impacts Popular distrust of local health services continues to mar comprehensive detection of Ebola infections in affected countries. Re-building local health services will be distorted if the Ebola crisis dominates planning over long-term health priorities. However, donors tend to prefer orientation towards disease-specific programmes and interventions over strengthening health systems.

scholarly journals Climate change and vector-borne diseases: what are the implications for public health research and policy?

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1665) ◽  
pp. 20130552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum ◽  
Lucien Manga ◽  
Magaran Bagayoko ◽  
Johannes Sommerfeld
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Support ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Determinants ◽  
Financial Investment ◽  
Vector Borne Diseases ◽  
Disease Rates ◽  
The World ◽  
Vector Borne

Vector-borne diseases continue to contribute significantly to the global burden of disease, and cause epidemics that disrupt health security and cause wider socioeconomic impacts around the world. All are sensitive in different ways to weather and climate conditions, so that the ongoing trends of increasing temperature and more variable weather threaten to undermine recent global progress against these diseases. Here, we review the current state of the global public health effort to address this challenge, and outline related initiatives by the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners. Much of the debate to date has centred on attribution of past changes in disease rates to climate change, and the use of scenario-based models to project future changes in risk for specific diseases. While these can give useful indications, the unavoidable uncertainty in such analyses, and contingency on other socioeconomic and public health determinants in the past or future, limit their utility as decision-support tools. For operational health agencies, the most pressing need is the strengthening of current disease control efforts to bring down current disease rates and manage short-term climate risks, which will, in turn, increase resilience to long-term climate change. The WHO and partner agencies are working through a range of programmes to (i) ensure political support and financial investment in preventive and curative interventions to bring down current disease burdens; (ii) promote a comprehensive approach to climate risk management; (iii) support applied research, through definition of global and regional research agendas, and targeted research initiatives on priority diseases and population groups.

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