scholarly journals Ethical challenges in health research during global health emergencies

2020 ◽  
pp. 123-125
Author(s):  
M Haskins
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
World Health ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Difficult Situation ◽  
Emergency Situations ◽  
Ethical Guidance ◽  
Guidance Documents ◽  
Health Organization

During global health emergencies such as COVID-19, healthcare leaders and researchers need to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible, to develop new therapeutics, adjust ways of caring for people and find the best way of delivering health services in a difficult situation. Due to urgency, research in health emergencies presents complex ethical issues, and many ethical challenges have been highlighted during the current COVID-19 outbreak. This prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to publish a list of key ethical guidance documents to ensure that COVID-19 health research still complies with the internationally accepted norms of basic ethical principles such as respect for persons, beneficence and justice. The aim of this article is to identify ways to address some of the ethical challenges encountered in emergency situations by way of the above ethical guidance documents.

Ethical Challenges of Parenting Interventions in Low- to Middle-Income Countries

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilda Morelli ◽  
Naomi Quinn ◽  
Nandita Chaudhary ◽  
Marga Vicedo ◽  
Mariano Rosabal-Coto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parenting Practices ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Positive Parenting ◽  
World Health ◽  
Parenting Interventions ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Developmental Potential ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Health Organization

This article explores ethical issues raised by parenting interventions implemented in communities in low- to middle-income countries (LMICs) with rural, subsistence lifestyles. Many of these interventions foster “positive parenting practices” to improve children’s chances of fulfilling their developmental potential. The practices are derived from attachment theory and presented as the universal standard of good care. But attachment-based parenting is typical primarily of people living Western lifestyles and runs counter to the different ways many people with other lifestyles care for their children given what they want for them. Thus, such parenting interventions involve encouraging caregivers to change their practices and views, usually with little understanding of how such changes affect child, family, and community. This undermines researchers’ and practitioners’ ability to honor promises to uphold ethic codes of respect and beneficence. Support for this claim is provided by comparing positive parenting practices advocated by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF; with the world health organization [WHO]) Care for Child Development (CCD) intervention with parenting practices typical of communities with rural, subsistence lifestyles—the most common of lifestyles worldwide and largely observed in LMICs. As UNICEF has a considerable presence in these countries, the CCD intervention was selected as a case study. In addition, parenting interventions typically target people who are poor, and the issues this raises regarding ethics of fairness and justice are considered. Recommendations are made for ways change agents can be sensitive to the living conditions and worldviews of communities, and, thus, be appropriately effective and ethically sensitive to the diverse needs of different communities.

Ethical Issues Raised in Addressing the Needs of People With Serious Mental Disorders in Complex Emergencies

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence S. Wissow ◽  
Lainie Rutkow ◽  
Nancy E. Kass ◽  
Peter V. Rabins ◽  
Jon S. Vernick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Emergency Planning ◽  
World Health ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Emergency Plans ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Health Organization

ABSTRACTRecent manmade and natural disasters highlight weaknesses in the public health systems designed to protect populations from harm and minimize disruption of the social and built environments. Emergency planning and response efforts have, as a result, focused largely on ensuring populations' physical well-being during and after a disaster. Many public health authorities, including the World Health Organization, have recognized the importance of addressing both mental and physical health concerns in emergency plans. Individuals with mental disorders represent a notable proportion of the overall population, and anticipating their needs is critical to comprehensive emergency planning and response efforts. Because people with serious mental disorders historically have been stigmatized, and many individuals with mental disorders may be unable to care for themselves, ethical guidance may be of assistance to those engaged in emergency planning and response. This article considers several broad categories of ethical issues that arise during emergencies for people with serious mental disorders and offers recommendations for ways in which emergency planners and other stakeholders can begin to address these ethical challenges.(Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2012;6:72–78)

Contemporary Global Health Governance Actors

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Youde
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
Global Health Governance ◽  
Governance System ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
Current State ◽  
Funding Agencies ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Private Actors ◽  
Public Versus Private

While Chapter 3 focuses primarily on the evolution of global health governance, Chapter 4 pays more attention to its contemporary manifestation as a secondary institution within international society. This chapter discusses the current state of the global health governance architecture—who the important actors are, how they operate, how they have changed over the past twenty-five years, and how they illustrate the fundamental beliefs and attitudes within the global health governance system. In particular, the chapter discusses the relative balance between state-based and non-state actors, as well as public versus private actors. This chapter highlights five key players within contemporary global health governance: states; the World Health Organization; multilateral funding agencies; public–private partnerships; and non-state and private actors

scholarly journals Editorial for the Special Issue: “Honey Bee Products as an Alternative or Complement to Classical Antibiotics”

Antibiotics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 234
Author(s):  
Piotr Szweda
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
World Health ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Health Challenge ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Global Health Challenge

Based on World Health Organization reports, the resistance of bacteria to well-known antibiotics is becoming a major global health challenge [...]

Pharmaceutical Data Integrity: issues, challenges and proposed solutions for manufacturers and inspectors

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 171-182
Author(s):  
Sia Chong Hock ◽  
Vernon Tay ◽  
Vimal Sachdeva ◽  
Chan Lai Wah
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Data Integrity ◽  
Database Management System ◽  
World Health ◽  
Record Management ◽  
Guidance Documents ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing ◽  
The Uk

Data Integrity, which is data deemed Attributable, Legible, Contemporaneous, Original, Accurate, Complete, Consistent, Enduring, and Available (ALCOA-plus), has been the focus of the pharmaceutical industry in recent years. With the growing use of computerized systems and rising prevalence of outsourcing manufacturing processes, ensuring data integrity is becoming more challenging in an increasingly complex pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. To address this issue, multiple legislation and guidance documents such as ‘Data Integrity and Compliance with CGMP Guidance for Industry’ from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), ‘GxP’ Data Integrity Guidance and Definitions from the UK Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and ‘Guidance on Good Data and Record Management Practices’ from the World Health Organization (WHO), have been published in recent years. However, with rising data integrity issues observed by FDA, WHO, MHRA and other pharmaceutical inspectors even after these guidance documents have been published, their overall effectiveness is yet to be determined. This paper compares and evaluates the legislation and guidance currently in existence; and discusses some of the potential challenges pharmaceutical manufacturers face in maintaining data integrity with such legislation and guidance in place. It appears that these legislation and guidance are insufficient in maintaining data integrity in the industry when used alone. Last, but not least, this paper also reviews other solutions, such as the need for a company culture of integrity, a good database management system, education and training, robust quality agreements between contract givers and acceptors, and performance of effective audits and inspections, to aid in maintaining data integrity in the manufacturing industry. These proposed solutions, if successfully implemented, can address the issues associated with data integrity, and raise the standard of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical manufacturing worldwide.

scholarly journals The Covid infodemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Hyland ◽  
Feng (Kevin) Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Medical Research ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Highly Cited

Abstract Covid-19, the greatest global health crisis for a century, brought a new immediacy and urgency to international bio-medical research. The pandemic generated intense competition to produce a vaccine and contain the virus, creating what the World Health Organization referred to as an ‘infodemic’ of published output. In this frantic atmosphere, researchers were keen to get their research noticed. In this paper, we explore whether this enthusiasm influenced the rhetorical presentation of research and encouraged scientists to “sell” their studies. Examining a corpus of the most highly cited SCI articles on the virus published in the first seven months of 2020, we explore authors’ use of hyperbolic and promotional language to boost aspects of their research. Our results show a significant increase in hype to stress certainty, contribution, novelty and potential, especially regarding research methods, outcomes and primacy. Our study sheds light on scientific persuasion at a time of intense social anxiety.

scholarly journals Global Governance and the WHO’s Mandate Post-COVID-19 Crisis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Vilbert
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
World Health ◽  
First Year ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Democratic Principle ◽  
The World ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
Health Organization

The COVID-19 has renovated the debate about global health governance. A number of scholars have proposed that the World Health Organization should assume the position of a central coordinator with hierarchical powers, demanding nation-states to “share their sovereignty”. This article presents four main objections to this project. First, when international institutions receive leverage, they use to impose “one-size-fits-all” policies, which conflicts with the characteristic heterogeny across countries. Second, geopolitical questions and the distribution of power in multilateral institutions put developing countries in a position of vulnerability within a hierarchical order. Third, the risk of crowding out parallel initiatives, especially from non-state actors. Fourth, decisions about health can have a major impact on countries, which may thwart the internal democratic principle. A Pareto improvement would be possible by strengthening the WHO’s operational capacity and its ability to issue technical guidance and coordinate with countries. To test this hypothesis, this study analyses the possible influence of the WHO’s guidance in the first year of the coronavirus health crisis, from January 2020 to January 2021, in 37 countries reported in the World Values Survey Wave 7 (2017-2020). The OLS regression performed shows a statistically significant negative relationship between the trust in the WHO, assumed as a proxy for the level of the organization's penetration, and the number of cases of COVID-19 (per million people) in the countries of the sample. These findings reinforce the hypothesis that there is a valid case for the countries to strengthen the WHO’s mandate post-COVID-19, but they should enhance the operations of provision of reliable information and support. Nation-states, in particular the developing ones, should eschew the temptation to create a hierarchical global health structure, which may not only fail due to countries’ asymmetries but is likely to create losers in the process.

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