Awareness and health risk protection behaviours of scavengers in the Gbalahi landfill site, Ghana, in the era of sustainable development

Waste picking is a pivotal in achieving sustainable waste management, environment health and economic development in the era of sustainable development. The study assessed the practices, knowledge, perception and health risk protection behaviours of waste scavengers in the Gbalahi landfill site. A total of 60 scavengers were conveniently sampled and interviewed. The study revealed that 93% of the waste scavengers sort waste using hooks and their bare hands. The study also showed 62% of the respondents have ever been physically abused by other scavengers. A good number of scavengers believed they have been fortified against “dirt diseases” during their childhood and have developed natural immunity against diseases. The knowledge of scavengers was skewed towards economic benefits as they viewed waste picking as a survival strategy. Discrimination and physical abuse posed a seemingly significant psychological health risk to majority of them. Safety and protection practices are limited to the use of pieces of clothes to cover the nose, wearing of multiple clothes and worn-out boots recovered from the landfill. Most of the respondents risk being exposed to the virus and pathogens. It is recommended that education and increased sensitisation should be encouraged and implemented by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ghana Health Service and other allied institutions in order to regularise and ensure the health and safety of waste scavengers.

PAAR Proteins Are Versatile Clips That Enrich the Antimicrobial Weapon Arsenals of Prokaryotes

Infectious diseases caused by microbial pathogens are severe threats to human health and economic development. To respond to these threats, it is necessary to understand how microorganisms survive in and adapt to complex environments.

Lateral Flow Immunoassay for Visible Detection of Human Brucellosis Based on Blue Silica Nanoparticles

Brucellosis is a highly contagious zoonosis chronic infectious disease with a strong latent capability to endanger human health and economic development via direct or indirect ways. However, the existing methods for brucellosis diagnosis are time-consuming and expensive as they require a tedious experimental procedure and a sophisticated experimental device and performance. To overcome these defects, it is truly necessary to establish a real-time, on-site, and rapid detection method for human brucellosis. Here, a lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) with a rapid, sensitive, and alternative diagnostic procedure for human brucellosis with a high degree of accuracy was developed based on blue silica nanoparticles (SiNPs), Staphylococcal protein A (SPA), and surface Lipopolysaccharide of Brucella spp. (LPS), which can be applied for rapid and feasible detection of human brucellosis. To our knowledge, this is the first report that uses blue SiNPs as a signal probe of LFIA for the rapid diagnosis of human brucellosis. The precursor of blue SiNPs@SPA such as colorless SiNPs and blue SiNPs was synthesized at first and then coupled with SPA onto the surface of blue SiNPs by covalent bond to prepare blue SiNPs@SPA as a capture signal to catch the antibody in the brucellosis-positive serum. When SPA was combined with the antibodies in the brucellosis-positive serum, it was captured by LPS on the test line, forming an antigen–antibody sandwich structure, resulting in the T line turning blue. Finally, the results showed that it is acceptable to use blue SiNPs as visible labels of LFIA, and standard brucellosis serum (containing Brucella spp. antibody at 1,000 IU/ml) could be detected at a dilution of 10−5 and the detection limit of this method was 0.01 IU/ml. Moreover, it also demonstrated good specificity and accuracy for the detection of real human serum samples. Above all, the blue SiNPs-based LFIA that we developed provides a rapid, highly accurate, and inexpensive on-site diagnosis of human brucellosis, and shows great promise in clinical diagnostics for other diseases.

Electrochemical Biosensing Interface Based on Carbon Dots-Fe3O4 Nanomaterial for the Determination of Escherichia coli O157:H7

Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7 can cause many food safety incidents, which seriously affect human health and economic development. Therefore, the sensitive, accurate, and rapid determination of E. coli O157:H7 is of great significance for preventing the outbreak and spread of foodborne diseases. In this study, a carbon dots-Fe3O4 nanomaterial (CDs-Fe3O4)-based sensitive electrochemical biosensor for E. coli O157:H7 detection was developed. The CDs have good electrical conductivity, and the surface of carbon dots contains abundant carboxyl groups, which can be used to immobilize probe DNA. Meanwhile, the CDs can be used as a reducing agent to prepare CDs-Fe3O4 nanomaterial. The Fe3O4 nanomaterial can improve the performance of the electrochemical biosensor; it also can realize the recovery of CDs-Fe3O4 due to its magnetism. As expected, the electrochemical biosensor has excellent specificity of E. coli O157:H7 among other bacteria. The electrochemical biosensor also exhibited good performance for detecting E. coli O157:H7 with the detection range of 10–108 CFU/ml, and the detection limit of this electrochemical biosensor was 6.88 CFU/ml (3S/N). Furthermore, this electrochemical biosensor was successfully used for monitoring E. coli O157:H7 in milk and water samples, indicating that this electrochemical biosensor has good application prospect. More importantly, this research can provide a new idea for the detection of other bacteria and viruses.

Trade, Medicines & Human Rights: Protecting Access to Medicines in Fiji & the Pacific

<p>Restrictive provisions in international trade agreements, particularly trade related intellectual property rights (TRIPS), are impeding access to essential medicines in developing countries, making medicines unaffordable to poor people. The extent to which trade restrictions have adverse effects on health and economic development in Fiji and the Pacific region may depend critically on how Pacific Island Countries cope with the forces of regionalism and the realities of joining the global trading system, where there are pressures to make concessions in TRIPS. Yet awareness is relatively low. A central question to be asked here is what underlying factors shape how Pacific islanders view trade and access to medicines, notably in the area of trade, health, local culture, and human rights and what are the regional and national responses to mitigate potential trade impediments. By combining a public health lens with a multi-sector review of population health trends, intellectual property rights law, trade policymaking, and human rights, this research elaborates multidisciplinary findings that are usually less evident because they are conventionally researched and managed on a sector-by-sector basis. The findings suggest human rights are less significant in this debate, with challenges associated with small island developing states, local cultural preferences and pressures from regionalism, having more of a direct influence. The combined effect of these factors may be creating a unique context that is leading the Pacific region not to deal with these issues as well as some other developing countries might. This paper also discusses the emergence of two new challenges for human rights theory; to promote the collective rights of individual countries in the 'new regionalism', and the relationship with traditional knowledge.</p>

Trade, Medicines & Human Rights: Protecting Access to Medicines in Fiji & the Pacific

<p>Restrictive provisions in international trade agreements, particularly trade related intellectual property rights (TRIPS), are impeding access to essential medicines in developing countries, making medicines unaffordable to poor people. The extent to which trade restrictions have adverse effects on health and economic development in Fiji and the Pacific region may depend critically on how Pacific Island Countries cope with the forces of regionalism and the realities of joining the global trading system, where there are pressures to make concessions in TRIPS. Yet awareness is relatively low. A central question to be asked here is what underlying factors shape how Pacific islanders view trade and access to medicines, notably in the area of trade, health, local culture, and human rights and what are the regional and national responses to mitigate potential trade impediments. By combining a public health lens with a multi-sector review of population health trends, intellectual property rights law, trade policymaking, and human rights, this research elaborates multidisciplinary findings that are usually less evident because they are conventionally researched and managed on a sector-by-sector basis. The findings suggest human rights are less significant in this debate, with challenges associated with small island developing states, local cultural preferences and pressures from regionalism, having more of a direct influence. The combined effect of these factors may be creating a unique context that is leading the Pacific region not to deal with these issues as well as some other developing countries might. This paper also discusses the emergence of two new challenges for human rights theory; to promote the collective rights of individual countries in the 'new regionalism', and the relationship with traditional knowledge.</p>

VACCINATION AGAINST COVID-19: A PUBLIC HEALTH THREAT

COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the level of human health and economic development around the world. The Malaysian Government has implemented the Movement Control Order (MCO phase 1-4) from 18th March to 12th May 2020 and Conditional MCO (CMCO phase 5) from 13th May to 9th June 2020. While MCO 3.0 has come into force from 28th May to 7th June 2021 and continued until July 2021. The measure aims to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection and recover the country immediately. Next, the effort against COVID-19 was continued with the National Recovery Plan Strategy which started on 10th August 2021 by setting four phases and involving the MCO phase transition plan in stages. As of 18th August 2021, the total number of COVID-19 infections in Malaysia is 1,466,512 people and a total of 13,302 deaths have been recorded from 2020. While the number of active cases is still high at 254,484 cases. The first objective of this study is to discuss the threat of COVID-19 to human health. Second, to examine the trend of COVID-19 infection, and third, to analyze the vaccination process in Malaysia. This study uses a qualitative method that is secondary data by taking data from online. The results of the study found that C0VID-19 has threatened human health resulting in infection and death in large numbers. Therefore, as a current solution like other countries around the world, the Malaysian government also took the initiative to use vaccines in combating the COVID-19 pandemic through the National Covid-19 Immunization Program. This action is in line with SDG’s third goal which is Good Health and Well-Being.

How to Reach a Regional Cooperation Mechanism to Deal With the Epidemic: An Analysis From the Game Theory Perspective

The outbreak and persistence of COVID-19 have posed a great threat to global public health and economic development. The continuous economic deterioration has been intensified due to the continuous prevention and control measures, such as closed management. Insisting on the prevention of the epidemic or economic restart has become a dilemma for all countries. Epidemic prevention is not only the main behavior of a single country but also a common problem faced by all countries in the region. Continuous prevention measures will affect economic development, but an early restart of the economy is faced with the recurrence of the epidemic. To avoid the emergence of prisoner's dilemma in the governance of the epidemic, each country cannot make decisions with its optimization, and so it is necessary to build a regional cooperation mechanism to achieve the overall optimization of the economy and prevent the epidemic. Based on the game theory, we analyzed the behavior of countries when carrying out regional cooperation to govern the epidemic and put forward specific cooperative income distribution schemes according to the different attributes of the countries. Our results showed that in the presence of population mobility, regional cooperation to govern the epidemic can minimize the total number of infected people and maximize the overall utility of the region, which was significantly better than the overall benefits of the region in the case of non-cooperation. However, in detail, the smaller the difference of preference for preventing and controlling the epidemic between the two, the more likely it is to lead to a win-win situation. Otherwise, there will be one with damaged interests. When damaged interests appear, the appropriate distribution of cooperative income to the country with a small economic scale and low preference in preventing the epidemic is more conducive to the achievement of cooperative mechanisms and the realization of a win-win situation in the region.

Awareness and Health Risk Protection Behaviours of Scavengers in the Gbalahi Landfill Site in the Era of Sustainable Development, Ghana

Scavenging is a pivotal in achieving sustainable waste management, environment health and economic development. The purpose of the study was to assess the practices, knowledge, perception and health risk protection behaviours of waste scavengers in the Gbalahi landfill site. A total of 60 scavengers were conveniently sampled and interviewed. The study showed 83% of the respondents had an average monthly income between GH¢ 1.00 to GH¢ 100.00 whereas 17% had between GH¢ 101.00 to GH¢ 300.00. The study also revealed 93% of the respondents sort waste using hooks and their bare hands. The respondents that have ever been physically abused by other scavengers were 62%. A significant number of scavengers believed they have been fortified against “dirt diseases” during their childhood and have developed natural immunity against diseases. The knowledge of scavengers was skewed towards economic benefits as they viewed scavenging as a survival strategy. Safety and protection practices are limited to the use of pieces of clothes to cover the nose, wearing of multiple clothes and worn-out boots recovered from the landfill. Discrimination and physical abuse posed a seemingly significant psychological health risk to majority of them. Covid-19 health risks behaviours, majority of the respondents risk being exposed to the virus and pathogens. Scavengers should be provided with personal protective equipment and / or strictly made to obey safety and protection protocols.

Evaluating livestock farmers knowledge, beliefs, and management of arboviral diseases in Kenya: A multivariate fractional probit approach

Globally, arthropod-borne virus (arbovirus) infections continue to pose substantial threats to public health and economic development, especially in developing countries. In Kenya, although arboviral diseases (ADs) are largely endemic, little is known about the factors influencing livestock farmers’ knowledge, beliefs, and management (KBM) of the three major ADs: Rift Valley fever (RVF), dengue fever and chikungunya fever. This study evaluates the drivers of livestock farmers’ KBM of ADs from a sample of 629 respondents selected using a three-stage sampling procedure in Kenya’s three hotspot counties of Baringo, Kwale, and Kilifi. A multivariate fractional probit model was used to assess the factors influencing the intensity of KBM. Only a quarter of the farmers had any knowledge of ADs while over four-fifths of them could not manage any of the three diseases. Access to information (experience and awareness), income, education, religion, and distance to a health facility considerably influenced the intensity of farmers’ KBM of ADs in Kenya. Thus, initiatives geared towards improving access to information through massive awareness campaigns are necessary to mitigate behavioral barriers in ADs management among rural communities in Kenya.