The historical epidemiology of global disease challenges

Oral diseases (OD) are a global public health problem affecting 3.5 billion people, with a global prevalence of 45%, higher than the prevalence of any other non-communicable disease (NCD). Recognizing the global public health importance, the 76th World Health Assembly (WHA) (May 2023) adopted the WHO’s Global Oral Health Action Plan (GOHAP) 2023-2030; a crucial step to bring momentum and mobilise all actors to address the burden of OD and common risk factors for all NCDs, while integrating oral health (OH) as part of general health and promoting cross-sectoral cooperation on good OH worldwide to reach UHC. Drawing insights from other successful global health action plans, this roundtable (RT) will explore key lessons learned in implementing effective strategies to improve OH outcomes at European and global levels, ensuring access to quality care for all. The objectives of the RT are: 1.To present the GOHAP 2023-2030, incl. challenges and opportunities; 2. To draw insights from other global health action plans; 3. To present good examples of civil society organization (CSO) actions supporting the GOHAP’s implementation - The Manifesto of the Platform for Better Oral Health, calling for policy actions by EU policymakers; 4. To present findings from the EU DELIVER (DELiberative ImproVEment of oRal care quality) and PRUDENT projects, funded by the European Commission, aiming to provide and implement a blueprint model for ensuring access to quality OH care for all; 5. To inform follow-up actions and collaboration across EUPHA sections, its strategy, as well as that of European Member States (MS), CSOs and other institutional partners, and to raise awareness across the European public and global health communities. The structure of the RT will include brief interactive presentations with real-time polling to maximize participant engagement and to consolidate key messages to present at the end of the session, incl. to inform follow-up actions across EUPHA. The first brief presentation on GOHAP will highlight the aims and evidence-informed actions, followed by: 1. Insights from other global health action plans, exploring lessons learned in implementing effective strategies, examining the approaches, opportunities, challenges and outcomes; 2. Good examples of actions taken by CSOs; 3. Preliminary findings from the EU DELIVER and EU PRUDENT will be presented, incl. key co-creation tools of deliberative dialogues and the development of a set of quality indicators for applicability on the practice, community and policy levels. Guided discussion will focus on opportunities and challenges in GOHAP implementation, with the targeted questions to panellists on: What can countries learn from other global health action plans? What should be the priorities of EU MS? What is the role the public health community can play? What are key steps needed to eliminate common NCD risk factors to drastically reduce the prevalence and burden of ODs? Key messages • There is an urgent need in the global and public health communities to better understand the processes involved in implementing the GOHAP, incl. challenges and opportunities. • Interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral collaboration is key to address the common risk factors of NCDs, to inform concerted action and evidence-informed policymaking to improve oral health care. Speakers/Panelists Pauline Vassallo European Association of Dental Public Health, Valletta, Malta Benoit Varenne Dental Officer, Prevention of Non Communicable Disease Department, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland Dympna Kavanagh Chief Dental Officer, Platform for Better Oral Health in Europe, Dublin, Ireland Neville Calleja Department of Health Information and Research, G’Mangia, Malta

The Year 2008: A Breakthrough Year for Health Protection from Climate Change?

The need for metrics to measure progress on racial equity in global public health and medicine

WPSAR Vol 3, No 1, 2012 | doi: 10.5365/wpsar.2012.3.1.003 www.wpro.who.int/wpsar 1 a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Submitted: 21 January 2012; Published: 27 March 2012 doi: 10.5365/wpsar.year.2012.3.1.003 The role of air travel in rapid translocation of infectious disease is indisputable.1 The global health community has long been concerned about the movement across borders of vaccinepreventable diseases, tuberculosis and other diseases of public health concern. These concerns escalated following the September 2001 terrorist attack and the anthrax bioterrorism incident in the United States of America; the worldwide spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003; and the reemergence of H5N1 avian influenza soon thereafter, which stoked fears about the possibility of a severe influenza pandemic. To better prepare and coordinate countries to respond to all-hazards health emergencies at their borders, in the past 10 years the global public health community has formed numerous domestic and international alliances.

This issue of the Journal, featuring global health, is the second this year dedicated to a single theme. The first, published in June 2001, was historic: it was the first issue the Journal had dedicated entirely to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) health. Because the June issue sold out, the American Public Health Association (APHA) reprinted it, along with additional research on LGBT health both published and forthcoming in the Journal, with a preface by Anthony Silvestre, the past chair of the LGBT Caucus of Public Health Workers. The publication date for the global health theme was selected more than 2 years ago to coincide with this month's APHA Annual Meeting & Exposition, titled “One World: Global Health.” The research and the Field Action Reports featured in this issue describe and evaluate public health interventions in diverse and often impoverished regions of the world. Notably, the first authors of most of these articles live and work in the places where the studies and interventions were conducted. The cover image of community volunteers monitoring tsetse fly traps in Tambura County, Southern Sudan, to curb sleeping sickness depicts the work of Lasu Joja and his colleagues, described in 1 of the 7 Field Action Reports featured in this month's issue. The public health needs of local communities are being met by local programs, despite minimal resources and tremendous challenges in communication. Communication difficulties are not limited to the authors in this month's issue. Mary Bassett, an international associate editor for the Journal who lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe, began a review of a research article assigned to her earlier this year with the following note: “Hard times in Zimbabwe—no fuel, no electricity, no phone. Here I am on a borrowed machine sending you this review.” The CARE–CDC Health Initiative (CCHI) sponsored this issue and provided resources as needed to ensure that the involved authors, editors, and staff were able to meet the tight publication deadlines. Patricia Riley of CDC conceived this project and, true to her training as a certified nurse midwife, did whatever was necessary to ensure a safe delivery. Luke Nkinsi of CARE helped assure that the images published here respectfully portray the participants and staff of the CCHI projects. Special mention of the process involved in bringing this issue to print is warranted. Last spring CCHI hosted a scientific writers' workshop in Atlanta, Ga, where practitioners, researchers, editors, and staff assembled to decide on the apt format for each paper, review the peer referees' comments, discuss appropriate images to accompany selected reports, and rewrite the papers for publication. Elliott Churchill, the editor of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, led a passionate and skilled team of editors who worked one-on-ond with the CCHI authors from Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Nicaragua, Peru, the Sudan, and Atlanta. To facilitate communication within the global public health community, on-line access to the Journal will be provided free to all from August 2001 through January 2002. After January, public health institutions and agencies in selected impoverished countries will continue to receive free access on-line. Our challenge is to ensure that the Journal remains relevant and useful to public health researchers and practitioners throughout the world.

Introduction: The present study aimed to explore the associations between climate change, vector-borne diseases and health outcomes. Contemporary climate change has drawn growing recognition from the global public health community as an important global public health hazard (1). Vector-borne diseases like malaria, dengue, and Lyme disease also pose significant public health threats, and we know that they, too, are sensitive to climatic changes. But the exact links among climate change, vector-borne diseases and public health outcomes remain poorly characterized.Methods: The goal of this study was to determine whether climate change, vector-borne diseases, and public health outcomes are connected in some way. However, the role climate change plays to the environment and human health made it a serious global public health threat (2). Vector-borne diseases, including malaria, dengue, and Lyme disease, are another important category of high-impact diseases and are also known to be affected by climate change. But the direct links between climate change, vector-borne diseases, and public health outcomes are poorly understood.Results: Overall, the results of the study indicate that climate change plays a very important role in the distribution, seasonality and transmission of vector borne diseases. Rising temperatures and shifting weather patterns are associated with the expansion of the geographic range of vectors, causing increased transmission of diseases like malaria, dengue fever, and Lyme disease[3]. In addition, adapting measures to control disease will be critical in response to active ecological changes driven by climate change.Conclusions: This research draws attention to the pressing need for international action on climate change to limit the impacts on vector-borne diseases and public health. Therefore, vector-borne diseases will continue to rise with little to no processes in place to quell its influence without climate change remediation measures and it would lead to dire consequences with respect to human health and well-being. Further research is needed to not only understand but also identify mechanisms to mitigate the impacts of climate change on vector-borne disease and human health.

Accounting for about 15% of the world’s population, persons with disabilities constitute a critical population. Despite a substantial knowledge base in disability and public health, persons with disabilities have been remarkably invisible within general global public health. Public health’s view of disability is shifting from regarding disability only as an outcome to prevent, to using disability as a demographic characteristic that identifies a population experiencing a range of inequities. Alternative models of disability reflect how disability has been viewed over time. These models vary in their underlying values and assumptions, whether the locus of disability is the individual or the environment or their interaction, who designates “disability,” and the focus of intervention outcomes. The United Nations flagship report on Disability and Sustainable Development Goals, 2018 documents that, as a group, the lives of persons with disabilities are marked by large disparities in Sustainable Development Goal indicators. These include increased likelihood of experiencing poverty, hunger, poor health, and unemployment, and greater likelihood of encountering barriers to education and literacy, clean water and sanitation, energy, and information technology. Overall, persons with disabilities experience greater inequalities, and this is particularly experienced by women and girls with disabilities. The COVID-19 pandemic and other disasters have highlighted the gaps in equality and consequent vulnerability of this population. Global disability data have improved dramatically during the decade from 2010 to 2020 with the advent of standardized disability question sets (Washington Group) and model surveys (Model Disability Survey). New studies from the Global South and North identify areas and strategies for interventions that can effectively advance the Sustainable Development Goals. This call-to-action outlines strategies for increasing visibility and improving wellbeing of persons with disabilities, particularly in the Global South. Increased visibility of the disability population within the global public health community can be achieved through active engagement of persons with disabilities. Improved collection of disability data and routine analysis by disability status can provide information vital to planning and policies. A twin-track approach can provide direction for interventions—inclusion in mainstream programs where possible, use of disability-specific and rehabilitation approaches where necessary. The article ends by outlining ways that multiple roles can increase the inclusion of persons with disabilities in global public health.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a potentially serious liver disease that affects approximately one-quarter of the global adult population, causing a substantial burden of ill health with wide-ranging social and economic implications. It is a multisystem disease and is considered the hepatic component of metabolic syndrome. Unlike other highly prevalent conditions, NAFLD has received little attention from the global public health community. Health system and public health responses to NAFLD have been weak and fragmented, and, despite its pervasiveness, NAFLD is largely unknown outside hepatology and gastroenterology. There is only a nascent global public health movement addressing NAFLD, and the disease is absent from nearly all national and international strategies and policies for non-communicable diseases, including obesity. In this global Delphi study, a multidisciplinary group of experts developed consensus statements and recommendations, which a larger group of collaborators reviewed over three rounds until consensus was achieved. The resulting consensus statements and recommendations address a broad range of topics - from epidemiology, awareness, care and treatment to public health policies and leadership - that have general relevance for policy-makers, health-care practitioners, civil society groups, research institutions and affected populations. These recommendations should provide a strong foundation for a comprehensive public health response to NAFLD.

An effective pandemic treaty requires accountability

The emerging field of public health ethics

Putting public health back into the global cancer agenda

Integrating journalism and public health to promote training and education on global health reporting

The Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has proved to be one of the most burdensome respiratory disease outbreaks ever. Moreover, the public health emergency of the COVID-19 outbreak has been seen by the World Health Organization (WHO) as global health concern since March 2020 and there has been a significantly increased morbidity and mortality in the community worldwide. The objective of this review is to describe and review the global public health significances and community and healthcare perception of features, treatments, prevention and control methods to slow the transmission of the outbreak. For this review, the literature has been searched by following online databases, including medRxiv, pubmed, medline and Google scholar databases. The key search terms 'COVID-19', '2019 novel coronavirus', '2019-nCoV', 'novel coronavirus' and 'Pneumonia' were used to search the literature. Scientific papers published online by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the WHO from 01 January to 06 May 2020 in the English language were included for analysis. The results of this review indicated that COVID-19 is a serious global public health problem. It affects immune compromised individuals living with chronic diseases, the elderly and pregnant women more severely. The disease spread rapidly from one country to countries worldwide. In all, 212 countries highlighted the weakened state of essential public health and emergency services. The researchers addressed the lack of perception in communities, including health professionals, with regard to COVID-19. Healthcare settings were analyzed in terms of the pandemic nature of the virus, onset and the overall characteristics of disease outbreak. Microbiogists were also used to assess the daily cumulative index of COVID-19. With regard to treatment, chloroquine phosphate and herbal medicines were shown to be promising as supportive treatments to slow COVID-19 transmission, coupled with isolation and quarantine techniques. The review indicates that COVID-19 has a high global public health significance due to its high morbidity and mortality rates. Still, there was no specific or effective vaccine or treatment, moreover, the community, including health professionals, have a low perception as regards COVID-19, even though different prevention and control methods have been conducted. Thus, there is a need for awareness creation, alongside further research applied to finding effective vaccine and treatments.

Achieving universal health coverage in France: policy reforms and the challenge of inequalities

Strengthening the BTWC: The role of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention in combating natural and deliberate disease outbreaks