Biobancos animales en Costa Rica: gobernanza, acceso a recursos genéticos y retos para el bioderecho

Together with the completion of the Human Genome Project, biomedical research has marched into the "Post-Genomic Era." In order to take advantage of these extracted gene related information extensively and precisely so as to realize the human being's biological phenomena as well as the mechanism of pathogenesis, consequentially, large scale sample collection of different geological areas and/or ethic group becomes necessary for the future population based genetic research of a country and, in turn, the construction of population-based genetic database (Biobank). In recent years, both mainland China & Taiwan have not only made great progress in information & computation technologies but have also gradually taken a close look into the quality of medicine delivery. Thus, it becomes unavoidable for both sides to create each one's population-based genetic databases (Biobank). Theoretically speaking, the Biobank development shall benefit the study on the correlation between genes and disease and, also, the solution for disease treatment. At the same time, medical diagnosis technology has also been significantly improved. It is believable that the population-based genetic database might be utilized to promote medical quality and to reduce the cost of public health delivery. Furthermore, in the near future, it might become the "raw materials" for medical research application. However, when taking the public welfare promotion as the premises for a Biobank development, severe and multi challenges occurred against traditional legal rules in terms of the privacy protection, public trust development, the compliance of informed consent principle, the implementation of a benefit-sharing doctrine and the possible discrimination concern on the population/participants selection and some other ELSI issues. In this paper, the major legal issues encountered by the Biobank development will be firstly reviewed accompanied with the background information concerning the Biobank development scenario crossing the Taiwan Strait. Also, mainly following the realm of comparative policy or legal approaches, the paper, learning from the fruits of this comparative study, tries to propose some recommendations for future legislative consideration by both mainland China & Taiwan. It's been this author's wish that, when establishing a large scale population based Biobank, the promotion of public trust shall be placed as the primary goal together with the emphasis on the supporting publicity and transparency on the administrative practices, so as to encourage the public participation in observing the principle of altruism and, in turns, benefit the future biomedicine development.

The action of a taxpayer when trusting in information concerning the content and interpretation of tax law obtained from tax authorities – between the constitutional principle of legalism and the principle of the protection of legitimate expectations

In the context of criminal law, recognition of customary law begins with a very fundamental principle, namely the principle of legality – a legal basis for declaring an act as a criminal act. This paper examines the implementation of customary law regarding the violation of Penglipuran customary, in accordance with the customary delict from the perspective of the principle of legality and the future policy formulation of the principle of legality that accommodates the existence of customary law. To answer these problems, socio-legal research methods are used, data in the form of legal documents and results of in-depth interviews, various approaches (legal, theoretical, and historical approaches) and then analyzed through deductive-inductive methods. The results show that the Criminal Code adheres to the principle of formal legality, consequently, the written law is the only source to declare an act as an offense. Whereas in the Penglipuran community, it is known that customary delict is regulated not only in awig-awigbut also unwritten ones such as pararem penyahcah awig and perarem ngele. The existence of indigenous peoples is not only found textually but also commonly, carrying out their lives based on customary law which contains applicable values, principles, and norms. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate the principle of legality that accommodates the existence of customary law as a source of criminalizing acts. This is intended to realize a criminal law that accommodates the rights of indigenous peoples to “their own institutions, laws, and customs".

This new column provides an overview of mental health reforms in Latin America and the Caribbean. Progress has been particularly visible in countries that have implemented policies with strong political support (Brazil, Chile, and Belize, among others). However, lessons may be learned from the collective experience of a region that has faced multiple obstacles to reform. Available resources are still insufficient and inequitably distributed, reform implementation is not complete in most countries, and high levels of unmet need exist. Countries face new challenges related to growing psychosocial problems affecting children and adolescents and increasing violence, which require new responses from mental health services.

ObjectiveResearch studies show that social media may be valuable tools in the disease surveillance toolkit used for improving public health professionals’ ability to detect disease outbreaks faster than traditional methods and to enhance outbreak response. A social media work group, consisting of surveillance practitioners, academic researchers, and other subject matter experts convened by the International Society for Disease Surveillance, conducted a systematic primary literature review using the PRISMA framework to identify research, published through February 2013, answering either of the following questions:Can social media be integrated into disease surveillance practice and outbreak management to support and improve public health?Can social media be used to effectively target populations, specifically vulnerable populations, to test an intervention and interact with a community to improve health outcomes?Examples of social media included are Facebook, MySpace, microblogs (e.g., Twitter), blogs, and discussion forums. For Question 1, 33 manuscripts were identified, starting in 2009 with topics on Influenza-like Illnesses (n = 15), Infectious Diseases (n = 6), Non-infectious Diseases (n = 4), Medication and Vaccines (n = 3), and Other (n = 5). For Question 2, 32 manuscripts were identified, the first in 2000 with topics on Health Risk Behaviors (n = 10), Infectious Diseases (n = 3), Non-infectious Diseases (n = 9), and Other (n = 10).ConclusionsThe literature on the use of social media to support public health practice has identified many gaps and biases in current knowledge. Despite the potential for success identified in exploratory studies, there are limited studies on interventions and little use of social media in practice. However, information gleaned from the articles demonstrates the effectiveness of social media in supporting and improving public health and in identifying target populations for intervention. A primary recommendation resulting from the review is to identify opportunities that enable public health professionals to integrate social media analytics into disease surveillance and outbreak management practice.

The article analyzes the methodological aspects of the study of the sociological concept of law in the USA. It is noted that the most important question of a methodological nature is the question of the sociological concept of law in US jurisprudence of the 20th century. as a subject of research of historical and legal science, or its constituent history of political and legal studies. Given the fact that the sociological concept of law is one way or another studied by the philosophy of law, the theory of law, the question arises about the relationship between these sciences. The subject specificity of the history of legal thought and the history of the philosophy of law is shown. The relationship between the history of legal thought and the history of the philosophy of law is revealed to be of methodological importance for the study of the sociological concept of law in the jurisprudence of the USA of the 20th century, as it allows the formation of a methodology of knowledge based on philosophical and legal approaches and principles and a special methodological toolkit (methods and techniques) of the theory of law and philosophy rights Philosophical and legal conceptual approaches and principles have a worldview character in research and allow the use of concepts of the theory of legal understanding. In other words, the category sociological concept of law and as a result of its development sociological legal understanding has a philosophical meaning. The filling of this content took place with the help of various approaches and directions of general theoretical jurisprudence, in particular anthropological, etymological and legal. approaches of legal sociology. At the same time, this content (meaning) has a specific historical layer of knowledge. The content of the category “meaning” in the history of legal thought finds its fulfillment in the fact that it is connected with the understanding of the specifics of the studied era, the identification of its peculiar properties, the understanding of the studied teaching in its modern scientific and theoretical significance and cognitive value, the clarification of objective social significance (social meaning) and personal meaning (personal meaning) in the reproduction of past historical reality, reconstruction of historical situations.

Most emerging or re-emerging infections are vector-borne or zoonotic and can be disseminated worldwide by infected humans or animals. They are a major public health problem and cause a great impact on economy. Zoonotic outbreaks began to be characterized in the 90s, after the creation of Europol and the FBI. Such investigations are carried by forensic pathologists and other specialists to determine whether an outbreak is natural or deliberate. This review will discuss ten zoonotic outbreaks nonrelated to wars focusing on forensic management. In conclusion, some points should be highlighted in the management of a zoonotic outbreak: (i) its diagnosis and detection by forensic pathologists and the coordination of efforts between other specialists are key factors; (ii) communication guidelines and an efficient healthcare system are crucial for any emergency response; (iii) biosafety of all specialists involved must be guaranteed.

Management of disease outbreak in Nepal

Ethical considerations are important in pandemic preparedness and response, however, there is a noticeable scarcity of ethical codes that are tailored to disease outbreaks and health emergencies. To document the development of guidelines for ethical management of infectious disease outbreaks in Islamic Republic of Iran, as a model for low- and middle-income countries. We conducted a non-systematic scoping review on PubMed and Google Scholar for drafting the guidelines for ethical management of infectious disease outbreaks in Islamic Republic of Iran. The draft was discussed and revised following consultations with different groups of experts and the Medical Ethics Council of the Iranian Academy of Medical Sciences. The joint assembly of the National Clinical Ethics Committee and the Supreme Council of Medical Ethics endorsed and introduced the revised document as official guidelines for ethical response to infectious disease outbreaks in Islamic Republic of Iran. The guidelines were based on a set of core values and principles: human dignity, liberty, maximizing benefits and minimizing risks, and justice and transparency. In 3 distinct sections, the document provides ethical guidance for healthcare system management and leadership; provision of health services; and for education, research and use of technology during health emergencies. The guidelines have been very useful in responding ethically to the COVID-19 pandemic, there may be a need to adapt some of the recommendations for optimum benefits in specific contexts. It is necessary to create awareness of the existence of the document and educate healthcare professionals about its importance so they can apply the recommendations in their practice.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted limitations in the current public health data infrastructure, and the need for a comprehensive, real-time, centralized, user-friendly data management system suitable for both disease surveillance and outbreak management. To address these issues, the Canadian Forces Health Services Group developed the webbased Canadian Armed Forces Surveillance and Outbreak Management System (CAF SOMS). This paper details the development of the CAF SOMS, provides formative evaluation results and includes a discussion of the lessons learned and intent to use the CAF SOMS in future to enhance the CAF's disease surveillance and outbreak management capability beyond COVID-19.

This chapter is a case study of role of human–wildlife interface in precipitating the spread of infectious diseases. Approximately three-quarters of all infectious diseases are of wildlife origin and potentially zoonotic. Pandemics such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), avian influenza, and swine flu are examples that clearly illustrate the adverse consequences of the incursion of humans into wilderness and/or inappropriate human–animal interactions. Although the role of human–animal interface in predicting emergent zoonosis is well documented, little attention has been paid to the sociocultural and policy dimensions of zoonosis. Drawing on zoonotic outbreaks in China, this chapter examines the cultural and behavioral milieu in which human consumption of wildlife species takes place, and how this contributes to the pathogenic crises in China with anthropogenic consequences worldwide. The chapter then discusses the global discourse of One World One Health, a collaborative effort at local, national, and global levels to improve the health of our ecosystem and presents how the discourse has been translated into the local level in China and wider Asia in light of emerging zoonotic disease outbreaks. The chapter concludes with suggestions for sociocultural and behavioral changes and policy development for healthier human–animal ecosystem.

Existing chronic co-morbidities in a population affect the clinical outcome of infectious diseases. In order to devise better management strategies at community level, patients related clinicopathological as well as local health care infrastructure data is required. The use of digitised, unified, multilingual surveillance tool may facilitate real-time sharing of clinicopathological data and better service delivery to the affected communities. In this article, we discuss that how digital collection, collation and sharing of health-related data may improve planning and management of disease outbreaks.

Introduction: All graduating physicians should be competent with the basic principles of contagious disease outbreak detection and management. In order to educate our students and residents on this important topic, we created a three-hour workshop that included a case-based simulation exercise, and we offered a two-week medical student course in Emerging Infections and Bioterrorism.Methods: Twenty-two emergency medicine residents and sixty-four senior medical students rotating in the emergency department of an urban university tertiary referral center participated in a three-hour workshop between July 2005 and April 2006. Pre- and post- workshop surveys given immediately before and immediately following each session were used to determine participant satisfaction and self-reported knowledge and confidence in outbreak response. In March 2006 we offered a medical student elective course in Emerging Infections and Bioterrorism. Thirteen fourth-year medical students from a variety of specialties attended the two-week course. The course focused on selected topics in emerging and re-emerging infections and addressed general principles of infection control and biological disaster planning for healthcare facilities. A survey was given to all graduating fourth-year medical students in 2005 and 2006, before and after creation of the didactic course, to evaluate their comfort and perceived knowledge of outbreak detection and containment.Results: Overall, both students who participated in the workshop and those who participated in the didactic course (with or without the workshop) showed improvement in self-reported knowledge of outbreak detection and management, although the effect was statistically significant only for those participating in the didactic course. Due to the small numbers of emergency medicine residents who completed the surveys, we cannot comment on the effectiveness of the resident workshop, although there was a trend toward improved self-reported knowledge after the workshop. Students pursuing internal medicine, pediatrics, emergency medicine, and ENT were most likely to report that outbreak education was very important. Nearly all participants felt outbreak preparedness was not covered in existing curricula, and 92% thought the workshop was beneficial.Conclusions: Most participants felt that outbreak preparedness was not adequately addressed in their curricula and almost all wanted more instruction. In addition, the didactic course and workshop improved self-reported student knowledge of the basic principles of contagious disease outbreak detection and management. Based on the results of our study, we propose integration of a three-hour simulation-based workshop with other instructional endeavors in emerging infections and biopreparedness into medical education curricula. We recommend the offering of a more comprehensive course for those pursuing emergency medicine and the primary care specialties, as they will be the most likely to encounter an outbreak. A web-based course may be a desirable alternative for institutions that could not otherwise add this training to their curriculum due to logistical reasons or time constraints. Further research is needed to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of these educational strategies.

Legal responses to novel psychoactive substances implemented by ten European countries: An analysis from legal epidemiology

Background: The development of biobanks is associated with the emergence of new ethical challenges. In Egypt, several biobanks have been established, but there are no specific local ethical guidelines to guide their work. The aim of this study is to develop recommendations for the Egyptian human biobanking ethical guidelines, which take into consideration the specific cultural and legal framework in Egypt. Methods: We searched the literature for available biobanking ethical guidelines. Six themes were the concern of search, namely; informed consent, data protection, return of results, sharing of samples and data, community engagement, and stakeholder engagement. If a document refers to another guideline, the new source is identified and the previous step is repeated. Results: Ten documents were identified, which were analyzed for the themes mentioned above. Guidelines and best practices were identified, and then compared with the published documents about ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI) related to biomedical research in Egypt to reach best recommendations. Conclusions: We have proposed, by way of recommendations, key characteristics that a national ethics framework in Egypt could have. On informed consent, the practice of broad consent may be harmonized among biobanks in Egypt. Clear policies on return of research results, training requirements and availability of genetic counseling could also be instituted through the national framework. Additionally, such a framework should facilitate community and stakeholders engagement, which is important to secure trust and build consensus on contentious issues arising from sample and data sharing across borders and commercialization, among other concerns.