scholarly journals Health Risks of Selected Mass Gatherings in the Philippines in 2015 and Implications for Public Health Preparedness

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald P. Law
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Risks ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
Public Health Preparedness ◽  
Mass Gatherings ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
Important Health ◽  
Medical Teams ◽  
Public Health Strategies

Background. Mass gatherings (MG) are events that draw together a large number of people in one or several occasions happening in single or multiple places for a definite period of time. These can lead to different public health risks through exposure to infectious diseases, trauma, and environmental factors. The Philippine Department of Health (DOH) in 2015 participated in special planned events that constituted mass gatherings namely the AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings, the Black Nazarene procession, and the Papal Visit. Objective. The study aimed to describe the different health risks arising from the three (3) identified mass gathering events in the Philippines in 2015 and relate them to public health preparedness. Methods. This was a descriptive study of the health risks arising from the MG events. Sources of data were reports submitted by deployed medical teams to the Operations Center (Opcen) that closely monitored the MG. Results. The study found infectious causes, trauma, temperature-related conditions, and noncommunicable diseases to be the important categories of health risks in the specified mass gatherings. These validated the common health risk categories observed in previously well-studied mass gatherings. Conclusion. The study highlighted important health risks and factors for consideration in public health preparedness for mass gatherings in terms of appropriate and effective public health strategies that should be established to minimize health risks and reduce health system impacts of mass gatherings.

scholarly journals Developing a Public Health Risk Assessment Toolkit for Mass Gatherings and Trialling for an International Multi-Sport Mass Gathering Event

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (s1) ◽  
pp. s116-s116
Author(s):  
Ellen Bloomer ◽  
Tina Endericks
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Health Risk Assessment ◽  
Health Risks ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
World Health ◽  
Public Health Risk ◽  
Mass Gatherings

Introduction:Risk assessment for mass gatherings (MGs) is undertaken to enable public health authorities to systematically identify and assess the generic characteristics of an MG, which introduce or enhance particular threats and develop measures to reduce or mitigate these threats. The World Health Organization Collaborating Centres on Mass Gatherings and Global Health Security (WHO CCs) produced a comprehensive guide to MGs called “Public Health for Mass Gatherings: Key Considerations” (KC2). This is being converted into an eLearning resource. A public health risk assessment toolkit is being developed by the WHO CCs to complement and guide organizers in their planning process for the health risks associated with an MG event. Preparations for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games (BCG) are underway and it is important to involve a public health element in the planning for the BCG.Aim:To develop a public health risk assessment toolkit for MGs and pilot it as part of the planning process for the BCG.Methods:Based on KC2 principles, methods included developing and finalizing a public health risk assessment toolkit for MGs. This study also piloted the toolkit for the BCG.Results:A toolkit will be developed. Key learning will be documented on how the toolkit can be improved. The pilot will identify the key public health risks for the BCG, and assess how to mitigate them.Discussion:The development of this toolkit will be an innovative contribution to the resources available for those organizing MGs. It will support organizers to conduct risk assessments and thus maximize the potential for health from the event. Piloting the toolkit for the BCG is an opportunity for validating it, and provides valuable learning for its use in future events. It will support the risk assessment process for the BCG and share learning regarding the key risks for this event.

scholarly journals Florida Department of Health Workers’ Response to 2004 Hurricanes: A Qualitative Analysis

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly B. Herberman Mash ◽  
Carol S. Fullerton ◽  
Kathleen Kowalski-Trakofler ◽  
Dori B. Reissman ◽  
Ted Scharf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Emergency Care ◽  
Work Performance ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Public Health Preparedness ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
Florida Department ◽  
Public Health Workers

AbstractObjectiveExaminations of the demands on public health workers after disaster exposure have been limited. Workers provide emergency care while simultaneously risking injury, damage to personal property, and threats to their own and their family's safety. We examined the disaster management experiences of 4323 Florida Department of Health workers 9 months after their response to 4 hurricanes and 1 tropical storm during a 7-week period in August and September of 2004.MethodsParticipants completed a self-report questionnaire focused on work performance, mental and physical health, daily functioning, sleep disturbance, physiological arousal, and injury and work demand at the time of the hurricanes, and answered open-ended questions that described their experiences in more detail.ResultsA qualitative analysis conducted from the write-in data yielded 4 domains: (1) work/life balance; (2) training for disaster response role; (3) workplace support; and (4) recovery.ConclusionsStudy findings highlighted a number of concerns that are important to public health workers who provide emergency care after a disaster and, in particular, multiple disasters such as during the 2004 hurricane season. The findings also yielded important recommendations for emergency public health preparedness. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2013;0:1–7)

scholarly journals ‘Hypertension multiple’: Patients’ experiential knowledge concept of symptoms and care required, and its implications for public health

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
J Mendoza
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Care Patient ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Experiential Knowledge ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
Hypertensive Patients ◽  
Lay Conceptions ◽  
Embodied Experiences ◽  
Focus Group Data

Abstract Patients' conceptualisations of their disease do not always correspond to the biomedical definitions. Patients make sense of conditions by drawing on embodied experiences, beliefs circulating in their environments and information gathered from a variety of sources. Discrepancy between biomedical and patients' conceptualisations is problematic as it can affect treatment adherence, access to care, patient-provider communication and quality of patient experience. This is particularly the case for hypertension, an ‘invisible disease' that gives rise to various lay conceptions and practices. We examine how the disease is made ‘real' for Filipino hypertensive patients and the role their embodied experiences play in apprehending the chronicity of hypertension and in shaping care-related practices. Drawing from interview and focus group data from hypertensive patients in low-income communities in the Philippines, and on Annemarie Mol's notion of ‘multiplicity', the ‘symptom' plays a key role in the ways in which participants self-manage ‘hypertension'. Hypertension is a ‘multiple' condition that is understood and enacted differently by people who rely on their own experiential knowledge and ‘symptoms' to define its nature and act accordingly to maintain health. Their ‘symptoms' may or may not correspond with the biomedical view of hypertension, leading to a non-chronic view of hypertension that informs the decision (not) to take maintenance medications regularly. These findings have consequences for health communications and primary care. Failing to account for this ‘multiplicity' can also negatively impact experiences of care if patients feel that their embodied experiences are dismissed as less legitimate than biomedical indicators of the disease. Clinicians and public health officials must emphasize educational efforts that aim to address divergent views of noncommunicable diseases while respecting, listening to, and accounting for patients' experiential knowledge.

scholarly journals Public health risks threatening health of people participating in mass gatherings: A qualitative study

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 242
Author(s):  
AbbasaliDehghani Tafti ◽  
Asghar Tavan ◽  
Mahmood Nekoie-Moghadam ◽  
Mohmmadhasan Ehrampoush ◽  
MohammadReza Vafaei Nasab ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Health Risks ◽  
Mass Gatherings ◽  
Public Health Risks

scholarly journals Expert opinion regarding the prevalence, health risks, obesogenic environment determinants and public health strategies on obesity. What are we still doing wrong?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pop Anca ◽  
Tatiana Onisei ◽  
Valentin Varlas ◽  
Bogdana A. Nasui
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Weight Loss ◽  
Current Approach ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Lifestyle Changes ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
Obesity Prevalence ◽  
Obesogenic Environment ◽  
Health Objectives ◽  
Public Health Strategies

The overweight and obesity, as well as their related noncommunicable diseases are preventable through lifestyle changes targeted in public health actions - but unfortunately with little or no success until now. In the present work we analysed the most important actual studies in the field - in order to provide and recommend updated strategies to target efficiently the public health objectives. We identified four main topics of high importance in the current approach towards obesity: (1) the increasing prevalence and multiple health consequences (2) current public health (PH) strategies for risk factor reduction and obesity prevention (3) the influence of the obesogenic environment on individual behavior (4) recent data on weight loss and weight loss maintenance programs. A new approach is needed towards the (1) causative factors; (2) public health measures addressed precise to the remarkable regional differences in obesity prevalence and trends drives from the ethio-patogenic factors and PH recommendations – most of them related to nutrition patterns and food quality – all together with lifestyle and environment measures.

Operationalizing Public Health Skills to Resource Poor Settings: Is This the Achilles Heel in the Ebola Epidemic Campaign?

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick M. Burkle
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Standards Of Care ◽  
Public Health Preparedness ◽  
Skill Sets ◽  
Public Health Emergencies ◽  
Resource Poor ◽  
Competency Based ◽  
Medical Teams ◽  
Disease Epidemics

AbstractSustainable approaches to crises, especially non-trauma-related public health emergencies, are severely lacking. At present, the Ebola crisis is defining the operational public health skill sets for infectious disease epidemics that are not widely known or appreciated. Indigenous and foreign medical teams will need to adapt to build competency-based curriculum and standards of care for the future that concentrate on public health emergencies. Only by adjusting and adapting specific operational public health skill sets to resource poor environments will it be possible to provide sustainable prevention and preparedness initiatives that work well across cultures and borders.(Diaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2014;0:1-3)

“An Evil Lurking Behind You”: Drivers, Experiences, and Consequences of HIV–Related Stigma Among Men Who Have Sex With Men With HIV in Manila, Philippines

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 322-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander C. Adia ◽  
Amiel Nazer C. Bermudez ◽  
Michael W. Callahan ◽  
Laufred I. Hernandez ◽  
Reynaldo H. Imperial ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Internalized Stigma ◽  
Hiv Epidemic ◽  
Related Stigma ◽  
Sex With Men ◽  
Living With Hiv ◽  
Public Health Strategies ◽  
Influence Behavior

The Philippines has a rapidly growing HIV epidemic, with men who have sex with men (MSM) accounting for a majority of known cases. Currently, there is little understanding about MSM's experiences of HIV–related stigma in the Philippines and how they influence behavior and quality of life. Twenty-one interviews with MSM living with HIV and with communitybased organization workers were conducted in Manila from June to August 2017. MSM participants were affected by the intersection of HIV–related stigma and stigma toward homosexuality that are rooted in connotations of morality, “dirtiness,” and sin. We identified specific patterns by which MSM living with HIV experienced enacted, felt, and internalized stigma and discuss implications of stigma for mental health, delays in HIV testing, and avoidance of HIV health services. Findings support the development of public health strategies in the Philippines that address stigma at societal and individual levels to reduce stigma-related harms.

scholarly journals Public health aspects of the world’s largest mass gathering: Kumbh Mela 2019 Prayagraj Uttar Pradesh, India

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 4046
Author(s):  
Anurag Gautam ◽  
S. K. Singh ◽  
Uday Mohan ◽  
Manish Manar ◽  
Kiran Gautam
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Waste Disposal ◽  
Health Risks ◽  
Uttar Pradesh ◽  
Medical Services ◽  
Clean Water ◽  
Mass Gathering ◽  
Mass Gatherings ◽  
Public Health Risks ◽  
Large Numbers

The influx of large numbers of people to mass gathering events may give rise to specific public health risks. Kumbh-Mela is internationally famous religious mass gathering. It creates the substantial challenge of creating a temporary city in which millions of pilgrims/visitors can stay for a defined period of time. The arrangements need to allow this very large number of people to reside with proper medical services, adequate supplies of food, electricity, waste disposal, clean water and transportation etc. Understanding the Kumbh-Mela can highlight the health challenges faced and provide the crucial lessons for the management of mass gatherings.  

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