The appearance of cars has raised materialistic civilization and living standard to an unprecedented level. Today, it is hard to imagine how we human beings can live without cars. Yet, motor vehicles can cause a great number of deaths and injuries as well as considerable economic losses, which have constituted the global burden. Understanding of the occurrence and development of road traffic injuries will contribute to the prevention and control of crash and to the implementation of "everybody has the right to enjoy health" proposed by WHO.
Accidents, Traffic ; prevention & control ; statistics & numerical data ; Global Health ; Humans ; Risk Factors

High-quality data are the foundation to monitor the progress and evaluate the effects of road traffic injury prevention measures. Unfortunately, official road traffic injury statistics delivered by governments worldwide, are often believed somewhat unreliable and invalid. We summarized the reported problems concerning the road traffic injury statistics through systematically searching and reviewing the literature. The problems include absence of regular data, under-reporting, low specificity, distorted cause spectrum of road traffic injury, inconsistency, inaccessibility, and delay of data release. We also explored the mechanisms behind the problematic data and proposed the solutions to the addressed challenges for road traffic statistics.
Accidental Injuries ; epidemiology ; prevention & control ; Accidents, Traffic ; prevention & control ; statistics & numerical data ; Global Health ; Humans

COVID-19/psychology* ; Global Health/statistics & numerical data* ; Health Personnel/statistics & numerical data* ; Humans ; Mental Disorders/etiology* ; Mental Health/statistics & numerical data* ; Occupational Diseases/psychology*

Betacoronavirus ; Coronavirus Infections ; epidemiology ; transmission ; Disease Transmission, Infectious ; statistics & numerical data ; Global Health ; Humans ; Incidence ; Pandemics ; Pneumonia, Viral ; epidemiology ; transmission ; Prognosis

OBJECTIVES: Low birth weight (LBW) is a major public health concern, especially in developing countries, and is frequently related to child morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to identify key determinants that influence the prevalence of LBW in selected developing countries. METHODS: Secondary data analysis was conducted using 10 recent Demography and Health Surveys from developing countries based on the availability of the required information for the years 2010 to 2013. Associations of demographic, socioeconomic, community-based, and individual factors of the mother with LBW in infants were evaluated using multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of LBW in the study countries was 15.9% (range, 9.0 to 35.1%). The following factors were shown to have a significant association with the risk of having an LBW infant in developing countries: maternal age of 35 to 49 years (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.7; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2 to 3.1; p<0.01), inadequate antenatal care (ANC) (aOR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.1 to 2.8; p<0.01), illiteracy (aOR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.1 to 2.7; p<0.001), delayed conception (aOR, 1.8; 95% CI, 1.4 to 2.5; p<0.001), low body mass index (aOR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.2 to 2.1; p<0.001) and being in the poorest socioeconomic stratum (aOR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.1 to 1.8; p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that delayed conception, advanced maternal age, and inadequate ANC visits had independent effects on the prevalence of LBW. Strategies should be implemented based on these findings with the goal of developing policy options for improving the overall maternal health status in developing countries.
Body Mass Index ; Child ; Demography ; Developing Countries* ; Fertilization ; Global Health ; Health Surveys ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Low Birth Weight* ; Infant, Newborn ; Literacy ; Logistic Models ; Maternal Age ; Maternal Health ; Mortality ; Mothers ; Odds Ratio ; Prevalence ; Public Health ; Statistics as Topic

Fears of a potential pandemic due to A(H5N1) viruses have focussed new attention on our current vaccines, their shortcomings, and concerns regarding global vaccine supply in a pandemic. The bulk of current vaccines are inactivated split virus vaccines produced from egg-grown virus and have only modest improvements compared with those first introduced over 60 years ago. Splitting, which was introduced some years ago to reduce reactogenicity, also reduces the immunogenicity of vaccines in immunologically naïve recipients. The A(H5N1) viruses have been found poorly immunogenic and present other challenges for vaccine producers which further exacerbate an already limited global production capacity. There have been some recent improvements in vaccine production methods and improvements to immunogenicity by the development of new adjuvants, however, these still fall short of providing timely supplies of vaccine for all in the face of a pandemic. New approaches to influenza vaccines which might fulfil the demands of a pandemic situation are under evaluation, however, these remain some distance from clinical reality and face significant regulatory hurdles.
Animals ; Birds ; Disease Outbreaks ; prevention & control ; statistics & numerical data ; Global Health ; History, 20th Century ; History, 21st Century ; Humans ; Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype ; isolation & purification ; Influenza Vaccines ; history ; Influenza in Birds ; epidemiology ; prevention & control ; Influenza, Human ; epidemiology ; prevention & control ; World Health Organization

The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus was first detected in 1996 in Guangdong, China. Since 2003, H5N1 outbreaks have been reported in parts of Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It is currently entrenched among poultry in parts of Asia and poses a major challenge to animal and human health. Singapore is free from HPAI. Given Singapore's need to import food, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) has adopted a pro-active risk management system to prevent the introduction of HPAI. AVA's approach maybe described as a multi-layered control strategy for the prevention and control of HPAI. The strategy includes control measures at source, border control measures, local control measures and emergency preparedness.
Animals ; Birds ; Communicable Disease Control ; methods ; Disease Outbreaks ; prevention & control ; statistics & numerical data ; Global Health ; Health Planning ; Humans ; Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype ; isolation & purification ; Influenza in Birds ; epidemiology ; prevention & control ; virology ; Poultry ; Singapore ; epidemiology

In the advent of an influenza virus pandemic it is likely that the administration of antiviral drugs will be an important first line of defence against the virus. The drugs currently in use are effective against seasonal influenza virus infection, and some cases have been used in the treatment of patients infected with the avian H5N1 influenza virus. However, it is becoming clear that the emergence of drug-resistant viruses will potentially be a major problem in the future efforts to control influenza virus infection. In addition, during a new pandemic, sufficient quantities of these agents will need to be distributed to many different parts of the world, possibly at short notice. In this review we provide an overview of some of the drugs that are currently available for the treatment and prevention of influenza virus infection. In addition, basic research on influenza virus is providing a much better understanding of the biology of the virus, which is offering the possibility of new anti-influenza virus drugs. We therefore also review some new antiviral strategies that are being reported in the scientific literature, which may form the basis of the next generation of antiviral strategies during a future influenza virus pandemic.
Amantadine ; therapeutic use ; Animals ; Antiviral Agents ; therapeutic use ; Birds ; Disease Outbreaks ; statistics & numerical data ; Global Health ; Humans ; Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype ; isolation & purification ; Influenza in Birds ; prevention & control ; Influenza, Human ; drug therapy ; prevention & control ; virology ; Oseltamivir ; therapeutic use ; RNA, Small Interfering

The national strategy against pandemic influenza essentially consists of 3 prongs: (i) effective surveillance, (ii) mitigation of the pandemic's impact, and (iii) render the population immune through vaccination. When the pandemic hits Singapore, the response plan aims to achieve the following 3 outcomes: (i) maintenance of essential services to limit social and economic disruption, (ii) reduction of morbidity and mortality through antiviral treatment, and (iii) slow and limit the spread of influenza to reduce the surge on healthcare services. The biggest challenge will come from managing the surge of demand on healthcare services. A high level of preparedness will help healthcare services better cope with the surge.
Antiviral Agents ; therapeutic use ; Communicable Disease Control ; Contact Tracing ; Disease Outbreaks ; prevention & control ; statistics & numerical data ; Global Health ; Humans ; Influenza Vaccines ; administration & dosage ; Influenza, Human ; drug therapy ; epidemiology ; Population Surveillance ; Quarantine ; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ; epidemiology ; Singapore ; epidemiology

No abstract available.
Coronavirus Infections/*diagnosis/epidemiology/*prevention & control ; Cross Infection/*diagnosis/epidemiology/*prevention & control ; Disease Outbreaks/prevention & control/*statistics & numerical data ; Global Health/*trends ; Humans ; Incidence ; Population Surveillance/methods ; Republic of Korea/epidemiology