Air pollution, climate change, and reduced biodiversity are major threats to human health with detrimental effects on a variety of chronic noncommunicable diseases in particular respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The extent of air pollution both outdoor and indoor air pollution and climate change including global warming is increasing-to alarming proportions particularly in the developing world especially rapidly industrializing countries worldwide. In recent years, Asia has experienced rapid economic growth and a deteriorating environment and increase in allergic diseases to epidemic proportions. Air pollutant levels in many Asian countries especially in China and India are substantially higher than are those in developed countries. Moreover, industrial, traffic-related, and household biomass combustion, indoor pollutants from chemicals and tobacco are major sources of air pollutants, with increasing burden on respiratory allergies. Here we highlight the major components of outdoor and indoor air pollutants and their impacts on respiratory allergies associated with asthma and allergic rhinitis in the Asia-Pacific region. With Asia-Pacific comprising more than half of the world's population there is an urgent need to increase public awareness, highlight targets for interventions, public advocacy and a call to action to policy makers to implement policy changes towards reducing air pollution with interventions at a population-based level.
Administrative Personnel ; Air Pollutants ; Air Pollution ; Air Pollution, Indoor ; Allergy and Immunology ; Asia ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Asthma ; Biodiversity ; Biomass ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; China ; Climate Change ; Climate ; Consumer Advocacy ; Developed Countries ; Economic Development ; Family Characteristics ; Global Warming ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; India ; Rhinitis, Allergic ; Tobacco

Kawasaki disease is a form of vasculitis, mainly in small and medium arteries of unknown origin, occurring frequently in childhood. It is the leading form of childhood-onset acquired heart disease in developed countries and leads to complications of coronary artery aneurysms in approximately 25% of cases if left untreated. Although more than half a century has passed since Professor Tomisaku Kawasaki's first report in 1957, the cause is not yet clear. Currently, intravenous immunoglobulin therapy has been established as the standard treatment for Kawasaki disease. Various treatment strategies are still being studied under the slogan, “Ending powerful inflammation in the acute phase as early as possible and minimizing the incidence of coronary artery lesions,” as the goal of acute phase treatments for Kawasaki disease. Currently, in addition to immunoglobulin therapy, steroid therapy, therapy using infliximab, biological products, suppression of elastase secretion inside and outside the neutrophils, inactivated ulinastatin therapy and cyclosporine therapy, plasma exchange, etc. are performed. This chapter outlines the history and transition of the acute phase treatment for Kawasaki disease.
Aneurysm ; Arteries ; Biological Products ; Coronary Vessels ; Cyclosporine ; Developed Countries ; Heart Diseases ; Immunization, Passive ; Incidence ; Inflammation ; Infliximab ; Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome ; Neutrophils ; Pancreatic Elastase ; Plasma Exchange ; Prednisolone ; Vasculitis

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of allergy among Surabaya school children is currently unknown. OBJECTIVE: To identify the prevalence of the common allergic sensitization and allergic diseases among school children and undergraduate students in suburban of Surabaya by epidemiologic data collection. METHODS: A multistage simple random sampling was done to select 5 primary schools, 8 secondary schools (4 of junior high schools and senior high schools, respectively), and 1 university from 5 districts in Surabaya city. Out of 550 invited respondents, 499 (128 primary school, 221 secondary school, and 150 undergraduate) respondents gave their consent. A complete personal history, allergic symptoms, environmental exposure of common allergens was obtained from interview and the physical examinations were performed. Skin prick test (SPT) was done using 45 different allergen extracts. Total serum IgE and specific IgE radioallergosorbent test levels were measured for respondents with allergic manifestations. RESULTS: There was an increasing SPT positivity among study respondents, from primary school, secondary school, to undergraduate students (21.90%, 28.95%, to 45.30% respectively). Cockroach (42.85%) and fungi/mold spore (42.85%) were the most common allergens in primary school children. House dust mites was the most common allergen in secondary school (63.16%) and undergraduate students (58.82%). Urticaria and rhinitis were the commonest allergic diseases manifestation. History of atopy was positive in 60.79% of the allergic respondents. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of allergic sensitization among school children and undergraduate students in Surabaya suburb areas were increased compared to previous estimates in 1998. While house dust mites are known as important allergens, surprisingly cockroach was the common allergen among the younger school children.
Allergens ; Child ; Cockroaches ; Data Collection ; Developed Countries ; Environmental Exposure ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Immunoglobulin E ; Indonesia ; Physical Examination ; Prevalence ; Pyroglyphidae ; Radioallergosorbent Test ; Rhinitis ; Skin ; Spores ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Urticaria

This extensive review summarizes clinical evidence on immunotherapy and targeted therapy currently available for endometrial cancer (EC) and reports the results of the clinical trials and ongoing studies. The research was carried out collecting preclinical and clinical findings using keywords such as immune environment, tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, programmed death-1 (PD-1)/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression, immune checkpoint inhibitors, anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies and others' on PubMed. Finally, we looked for the ongoing immunotherapy trials on ClinicalTrials.gov. EC is the fourth most common malignancy in women in developed countries. Despite medical and surgical treatments, survival has not improved in the last decade and death rates have increased for uterine cancer in women. Therefore, identification of clinically significant prognostic risk factors and formulation of new rational therapeutic regimens have great significance for enhancing the survival rate and improving the outcome in patients with advanced or metastatic disease. The identification of genetic alterations, including somatic mutations and microsatellite instability, and the definition of intracellular signaling pathways alterations that have a major role in in tumorigenesis is leading to the development of new therapeutic options for immunotherapy and targeted therapy.
Antibodies ; Biological Therapy ; Carcinogenesis ; Developed Countries ; Endometrial Neoplasms ; Female ; Humans ; Immunotherapy ; Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating ; Microsatellite Instability ; Molecular Targeted Therapy ; Mortality ; Risk Factors ; Survival Rate ; Uterine Neoplasms

There remains a misperception that non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are predominantly an issue for developed countries and are not major public health problems in low-income countries. North Korea is also often considered as a country with a disease structure that is typical of a low-income country. Infectious diseases and nutritional problems, including tuberculosis and pneumonia, are still major sources of medical discussion. The authors challenge this misperception by reviewing empirical data on epidemiologic and demographic transitions of North Korea and show that the current NCD burden is the main public health issue in North Korea. In result, it can be said that epidemiologic transition and demographic transition of North Korea preceded prior to economic hardship. It is necessary for the international community, including South Korea, to advance in a new direction of medical support for North Korea.
Communicable Diseases ; Democratic People's Republic of Korea ; Developed Countries ; Korea ; Pneumonia ; Population Dynamics ; Public Health ; Tuberculosis

Cysticercosis, a parasitic disease caused by Taenia solium metacestode (TsM), has a major global public health impact in terms of disability-adjusted life years. The parasite preferentially infects subcutaneous tissue, but may invade the central nervous system, resulting in neurocysticercosis (NC). NC is an important neglected tropical disease and an emerging disease in industrialized countries due to immigration from endemic areas. The prevalence of taeniasis in Korea declined from 0.3%–12.7% during the 1970s to below 0.02% since the 2000s. A survey conducted from 1993 to 2006 revealed that the percentage of tested samples with high levels of specific anti-TsM antibody declined from 8.3% to 2.2%, suggesting the continuing occurrence of NC in Korea. Modern imaging modalities have substantially improved the diagnostic accuracy of NC, and recent advances in the molecular biochemical characterization of the TsM cyst fluid proteome also significantly strengthened NC serodiagnosis. Two glycoproteins of 150 and 120 kDa that induce strong antibody responses against sera from patients with active-stage NC have been elucidated. The 150 kDa protein showed hydrophobic-ligand binding activities and might be critically involved in the acquisition of host-derived lipid molecules. Fasciclin and endophilin B1, both of which play roles in the homeostatic functions of TsM, showed fairly high antibody responses against calcified NC cases. NC is now controllable and manageable. Further studies should focus on controlling late-onset intractable seizures and serological diagnosis of NC patients infected with few worms. This article briefly overviews diagnostic approaches and discusses current issues relating to NC serodiagnosis.
Antibody Formation ; Central Nervous System ; Cyst Fluid ; Cysticercosis ; Developed Countries ; Diagnosis ; Emigration and Immigration ; Glycoproteins ; Humans ; Immunologic Tests ; Korea ; Neurocysticercosis ; Parasites ; Parasitic Diseases ; Prevalence ; Proteome ; Public Health ; Republic of Korea ; Seizures ; Serologic Tests ; Subcutaneous Tissue ; Taenia solium ; Taenia ; Taeniasis

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to explore the enabling factors associated with readiness in Electronic Health Record (EHR) implementation and to identify the barriers related to readiness regarding the situation of primary health cares in developed and developing countries. METHODS: A narrative review of open-source literature was conducted using the ProQuest, ScienceDirect, MEDLINE, and PMC databases to identify the enabling factors and barriers to EHR readiness. The keywords applied were ‘electronic health record’, ‘readiness’, ‘primary health care’, and ‘primary care’. RESULTS: Some barriers were found that may affect readiness, specifically individual barriers and organizational barriers. In developing countries, organizational barriers such as a lack of skilled manpower, insufficient senior management, and a lack of interaction among team members were the common barriers, while in developed countries individual barriers such as unfamiliarity with new systems and a lack of time to use computers were frequently found as barriers to readiness. CONCLUSIONS: This study summarized the enabling factors and barriers with regard to EHR readiness in developed and developing countries.
Causality ; Developed Countries ; Developing Countries ; Electronic Health Records ; Primary Health Care

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to evaluate the current overall preventable trauma death rate (PTDR) in Korea and identify factors associated with preventable trauma death (PTD). METHODS: The target sample size for review was designed to be 1,131 deaths in 60 emergency medical institutions nationwide. The panels for the review comprised trauma specialists working at the regional trauma centers (RTCs); a total of 10 teams were formed. The PTDR and factors associated with PTD were analyzed statistically. RESULTS: Of the target cases, 943 were able to undergo panel review and be analyzed statistically. The PTDR was 30.5% (6.1% preventable and 24.4% possibly preventable). Those treated at a RTC showed a significantly lower PTDR than did those who were not (21.9% vs. 33.9%; P = 0.002). The PTDR was higher when patients were transferred from other hospitals than when they directly visited the last hospital (58.9% vs. 28.4%; P = 0.058; borderline significant). The PTDR increased gradually as the time from accident to death increased; a time of more than one day had a PTDR 14.99 times higher than when transferred within one hour (95% confidence interval, 4.68 to 47.98). CONCLUSION: Although the PTDR in Korea is still high compared to that in developed countries, it was lower when the time spent from the accident to the death was shorter and the final destined institution was the RTC. To reduce PTDR, it is necessary to make an effort to transfer trauma patients to RTCs directly within an appropriate time.
Developed Countries ; Emergencies ; Humans ; Korea ; Mortality ; Sample Size ; Specialization ; Trauma Centers ; Wounds and Injuries

BACKGROUND: The low prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA and mRNA in biopsy samples of Filipinos with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) has been reported previously. Here, the HPV serologic profiles of HNSCC cases were analyzed and associated with lifestyle and sexual practices. METHODS: Serum samples were collected between May 2012 and September 2013 from HNSCC patients (n = 22) in the northwest region of the Philippines, and age- and sex-matched clinically healthy controls. Antibodies to capsid and early oncoproteins of HPV16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52, 58, 6, and 11 were analyzed using multiplex serology. RESULTS: Most of the cases were males with tumors of the oral cavity or larynx. Two of the cases tested positive for at least one of the early oncoproteins (E6, E7, E1, and/or E2) of HPV16, and 11 did not display reactivity to any HPV early or late oncoproteins. Of the controls, four tested positive for at least one of the HPV16 early oncoproteins, and 10 were non-reactive to all HPV types. Titers to HPV16 E6 or E7 of the seropositive cases and controls were considerably lower than those typically observed in economically developed countries. CONCLUSIONS: The low HPV titers seen here are consistent with the results of molecular analyses for this population. Hence, the seropositivity of some of the HNSCC cases is likely an indication of prior exposure to the virus and not the presence of HPV-driven tumors.
Antibodies ; Biopsy ; Capsid ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Developed Countries ; DNA ; Epithelial Cells ; Head ; Humans ; Larynx ; Life Style ; Male ; Mouth ; Neck ; Oncogene Proteins ; Philippines ; Prevalence ; RNA, Messenger

Early childhood caries is a global healthcare concern in developing and industrialized countries. If left untreated, it leads to immediate and long-term complications that affect the well-being and quality of life of concerned families. Therefore, many preventive and treatment approaches are available to the healthcare provider to curb this virulent form of caries. After behavioral interventions, general anesthesia is used in specific settings when a young patient presents with extensive teeth damage and exhibits a lack of cooperation that is incompatible with conventional dental office care. However, without proper follow-up, any positive results might be lost over time.
Anesthesia, General ; Child, Preschool ; Delivery of Health Care ; Dental Caries ; Dental Offices ; Developed Countries ; Follow-Up Studies ; Health Personnel ; Humans ; Oral Health ; Quality of Life ; Tooth