220 research outputs found
Sexual and reproductive health of Syrian refugee adolescent girls: a qualitative study using focus group discussions in an urban setting in Lebanon
No full textPlain language summary After almost 10 years of war, Syria’s neighboring countries are hosting millions of Syrians who were forcibly displaced. Most prominent among these countries is Lebanon. Adolescent refugee girls are exposed to precarious conditions, which make them more prone to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) problems. This qualitative study was performed in Bourj Hammoud, an urban setting in Lebanon, in order to explore Syrian refugee adolescent girls’ SRH perceptions and experiences. The agenda of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in addition to the Inter-Agency Field Manual on Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Settings (IAFM) and its Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Toolkit for Humanitarian Settings issued by the Inter-Agency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crises (IAWG) formed the framework of this study. Focus group discussions were performed with 40 Syrian Arab and Syrian Kurdish adolescent girls, each group consisting of five participants aged 13 to 17 years. Different themes were discussed within the groups including menstruation, puberty, and sexual harassment. The participants talked about the social stigma related to menstruation and the social link between puberty, a girl’s readiness for marriage, and her need to be careful about sexual harassment. Most of the girls had insufficient information about the female reproductive system. The girls consulted their mothers to learn about SRH issues; however, they expressed a wish to receive well-informed advice from specialists in a safe atmosphere. All the girls reported incidents of sexual harassment, which happened either to them or to other girls they know; however, they were discouraged to report them because they feared other consequences, such as being blamed or not being allowed to go to school anymore. The outcomes of the study show the girls’ urgent need to have adequate information about SRH issues and appropriate interventions to prevent sexual and gender-based violence within complex urban settings
Adapting teaching and learning in times of COVID-19: a comparative assessment among higher education institutions in a global health network in 2020.
No full textFrom PubMed via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2021-08-02, accepted 2022-06-15Publication status: epublishThis research examines the ways in which higher education institutions (HEIs) across the tropEd Network for Education in International Health (tropEd) began to adapt their teaching and learning approaches in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Already during this early phase of the pandemic HEIs' responses demonstrate global health approaches emphasising cooperation and communication, rather than national health driven strategies that emphasise quarantine and control. Key lessons learnt for multiple dimensions of teaching and learning in global health are thus identified, and challenges and opportunities discussed. Data collection includes a cross-sectional online survey among tropEd member institutions (n = 19) in mid-2020, and a complementary set of open-ended questions generating free-text responses (n = 9). Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, textual data were analysed using a Framework Analysis approach. While early on in the pandemic the focus was on a quick emergency switch to online teaching formats to ensure short-term continuity, and developing the administrative and didactic competence and confidence in digital teaching, there is already recognition among HEIs of the necessity for more fundamental quality and longer-term reforms in higher education in global health. Alongside practical concerns about the limitations of digital teaching, and declines in student numbers, there is a growing awareness of opportunities in terms of inclusivity, the necessity of cross-border cooperation, and a global health approach. The extent to which the lack of physical mobility impacts HEI programmes in global health is debated. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about preventive measures that have had a considerable impact on various dimensions of academic teaching in global health. Going forward, international HEIs' experiences and response strategies can help generate important lessons for academic institutions across different settings worldwide. [Abstract copyright: © 2022. The Author(s).
The new administration in the USA: impact of policy changes in development assistance on low- and middle-income countries, with the example of Nepal
No full textInvesting in health drives individual wellbeing, productivity, educational achievements, and economic growth. Collective global efforts have historically eradicated diseases like smallpox and are making progress against others, such as polio and malaria. In many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), public health spending is insufficient, with per capita expenditure far below what is needed to deliver and sustain essential health services. High-income countries, such as the United States, are contributing to LMICs to bridge these gaps through bilateral and multilateral development assistance. The United States Government’s longstanding support in Nepal has helped to strengthen the health systems and resulted remarkable achievements. However, the new United States administration’s abrupt decisions to halt the development assistance and closure of most of the projects will significantly impact global health initiatives, jeopardize health gains, and pose a risk to global health security. This call-for-action urge stakeholders to evaluate the current and potential impact of these decisions and adopt a cohesive approach to maintain development cooperation. LMICs also must reassess their health investments and implement reforms to build resilient, self-sustaining health systems
Case report: Pox-like lesions and haemorrhagic fever in two concurrent cases in the Central African Republic: case investigation and management in difficult circumstances
No full textCases of monkeypox in humans are frequently reported from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The few reports from the Central African Republic have been limited to cases in the far South closely bordering the Congos. Team members of an international medical organisation have suspected clinically two human cases of MPX, associated with clinical signs of coagulopathy and haemorrhage in the North of the country. Key findings were history of a squirrel, fever and vesicular dermal eruptions. Subsequently patients developed profuse epistaxis and hematemesis, associated with clinical signs of shock. Both patients were isolated and treated symptomatically. Samples were sent to a regional reference laboratory, who initially issued a confirmation of the suspected diagnosis of MPX in both cases. The result was later revised, and additional analyses of samples could not confirm the diagnosis.Key words: Pox-like lesions, monkeypox, Central African Republic, haemorrhage, feve
Short text authorship attribution via sequence kernels, Markov chains and author unmasking: An investigation
No full textWe present an investigation of recently proposed character and word sequence kernels for the task of authorship attribution based on relatively short texts. Performance is compared with two corresponding probabilistic approaches based on Markov chains. Several configurations of the sequence kernels are studied on a relatively large dataset (50 authors), where each author covered several topics. Utilising Moffat smoothing, the two probabilistic approaches obtain similar performance, which in turn is comparable to that of character sequence kernels and is better than that of word sequence kernels. The results further suggest that when using a realistic setup that takes into account the case of texts which are not written by any hypothesised authors, the amount of training material has more influence on discrimination performance than the amount of test material. Moreover, we show that the recently proposed author unmasking approach is less useful when dealing with short texts
Short Text Authorship Attribution via Sequence Kernels, Markov Chains and Author Unmasking: An Investigation
No full textWe present an investigation of recently proposed character and word sequence kernels for the task of authorship attribution based on relatively short texts. Performance is compared with two corresponding probabilistic approaches based on Markov chains. Several configurations of the sequence kernels are studied on a relatively large dataset (50 authors), where each author covered several topics. Utilising Moffat smoothing, the two probabilistic approaches obtain similar performance, which in turn is comparable to that of character sequence kernels and is better than that of word sequence kernels. The results further suggest that when using a realistic setup that takes into account the case of texts which are not written by any hypothesised authors, the amount of training material has more influence on discrimination performance than the amount of test material. Moreover, we show that the recently proposed author unmasking approach is less useful when dealing with short texts.
Short text authorship attribution via sequence kernels, Markov chains and author unmasking: An investigation
No full textWe present an investigation of recently proposed character and word sequence kernels for the task of authorship attribution based on relatively short texts. Performance is compared with two corresponding probabilistic approaches based on Markov chains. Several configurations of the sequence kernels are studied on a relatively large dataset (50 authors), where each author covered several topics. Utilising Moffat smoothing, the two probabilistic approaches obtain similar performance, which in turn is comparable to that of character sequence kernels and is better than that of word sequence kernels. The results further suggest that when using a realistic setup that takes into account the case of texts which are not written by any hypothesised authors, the amount of training material has more influence on discrimination performance than the amount of test material. Moreover, we show that the recently proposed author unmasking approach is less useful when dealing with short texts
Strongyloides stercoralis infection: an underlying cause of invasive bacterial infections of enteric origin. Results from a prospective cross-sectional study of a northern Italian tertiary hospital
No full textPurpose of the studyWe assessed the prevalence of S. stercoralis in a cohort of inpatients with invasive bacterial infections of enteric origin to investigate whether the parasite may facilitate these bacterial infections even in the absence of larval hyperproliferation.MethodsWe performed a prospective cross-sectional study in a hospital in northern Italy. Subjects admitted due to invasive bacterial infection of enteric origin and potential previous exposure to S. stercoralis were systematically enrolled over a period of 10 months. S. stercoralis infection was investigated with an in-house PCR on a single stool sample and with at least one serological method (in-house IFAT and/or ELISA Bordier). Univariate, bi-variate and logistic regression analyses were performed.ResultsStrongyloidiasis was diagnosed in 14/57 patients (24.6%; 95% confidence interval 14.1-37.8%) of which 10 were Italians (10/49, 20.4%) and 4 were migrants (4/8, 50.0%). Stool PCR was performed in 43/57 patients (75.4%) and no positive results were obtained.Strongyloidiasis was found to be significantly associated (p & LE; 0.05) with male gender, long international travels to areas at higher endemicity, deep extra-intestinal infectious localization and solid tumors. In the logistic regression model, increased risk remained for the variables deep extra-intestinal infectious localization and oncologic malignancy.ConclusionsOur findings suggest a new role of chronic strongyloidiasis in favoring invasive bacterial infections of enteric origin even in the absence of evident larval dissemination outside the intestinal lumen. Further well-designed studies should be conducted to confirm our results, and possibly establish the underlying mechanisms
A Cross-Sectional Quantitative Study on Sexual and Reproductive Health Knowledge and Access to Services of Arab and Kurdish Syrian Refugee Young Women Living in an Urban Setting in Lebanon
No full textSince data on the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) of young refugee women living in urban settings in Lebanon are particularly scarce, we aim through this exploratory study to assess the SRH knowledge and access to services of Arab and Kurdish Syrian refugee young women living in Bourj Hammoud. From January to March 2020, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among 297 Syrian Arab and Kurdish participants and aged 18–30 years old. It was found that participants coming from Syrian urban areas or who completed an education above secondary level have higher overall knowledge on SRH issues. Only a total of 148 out of the 297 participants (49.8%) knew a health facility in Bourj Hammoud that provides SRH services and among them 36.4% did not know which type of services are available there. The Syrian refugee young women’s access to SRH services is inadequate due to different obstacles. The overall knowledge level on different SRH topics is limited. The context of multiple crises in Lebanon should be taken into consideration when delivering future SRH services
Balancing Equity and Global Health Security Towards a Fair and Effective Pandemic Agreement
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