Years Of Public Health Research Articles

One Health, One Hive: A scoping review of honey bees, climate change, pollutants, and antimicrobial resistance.

Anthropogenic climate change and increasing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) together threaten the last 50 years of public health gains. Honey bees are a model One Health organism to investigate interactions between climate change and AMR. The objective of this scoping review was to examine the range, extent, and nature of published literature on the relationship between AMR and honey bees in the context of climate change and environmental pollutants. The review followed systematic search methods and reporting guidelines. A protocol was developed a priori in consultation with a research librarian. Resulting Boolean search strings were used to search Embase® via Ovid®, MEDLINE®, Scopus®, AGRICOLA™ and Web of Science™ databases. Two independent reviewers conducted two-stage screening on retrieved articles. To be included, the article had to examine honey bees, AMR, and either climate change or environmental pollution. Data, in accordance with Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines, were extracted from relevant articles and descriptively synthesized in tables, figures, and narrative form. A total of 22 articles met the inclusion criteria, with half of all articles being published in the last five years (n = 11/22). These articles predominantly investigated hive immunocompetence and multi-drug resistance transporter downregulation (n = 11/22), susceptibility to pests (n = 16/22), especially American foulbrood (n = 9/22), and hive product augmentation (n = 3/22). This review identified key themes and gaps in the literature, including the need for future interdisciplinary research to explore the link between AMR and environmental change evidence streams in honey bees. We identified three potential linkages between pollutive and climatic factors and risk of AMR. These interconnections reaffirm the necessity of a One Health framework to tackle global threats and investigate complex issues that extend beyond honey bee research into the public health sector. It is integral that we view these "wicked" problems through an interdisciplinary lens to explore long-term strategies for change.

A Litany of Saints: Remembering the Early Years of HIV/AIDS Activism in the First Year of a New Pandemic

With the emergence of COVID-19 in the U.S., many LGBTQ people found ourselves reflecting upon the early years of HIV/AIDS and how our communities responded to the lack of robust federal and state response to this preceding public health crisis. As the leaders of the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center (BSC) in eastern Pennsylvania became a central resource for our community sharing up-to-date information about COVID-19 and organizing vaccine clinics, they also recognized the historic nature of this moment as many elders in our community consistently tried to make sense of the current crisis by contemplating their past AIDS activism and organizing. In March of 2020, BSC staff and archivists received grant funding to conduct an oral history project called "40 Years of Public Health in the LGBTQ Community: Collecting and Curating Local LGBTQ Health Experiences From HIV/AIDS to COVID-19," which recorded both timely commentary on the impact of COVID-19 on LGBTQ people and memories of HIV/AIDS organizing that seemed urgent and relevant to our contemporary moment. Offering excerpts from oral histories collected in 2020, this piece explores how COVID-19 spurred LGBTQ people in the Lehigh Valley to share stories about communal grief, health inequity, political responses to pandemics, and organizing to support the health of minoritized communities.

Approaches for Ending Ineffective Programs: Strategies From State Public Health Practitioners.

Background: Public health agencies are increasingly concerned with ensuring they are maximizing limited resources by delivering evidence-based programs to enhance population-level chronic disease outcomes. Yet, there is little guidance on how to end ineffective programs that continue in communities. The purpose of this analysis is to identify what strategies public health practitioners perceive to be effective in de-implementing, or reducing the use of, ineffective programs.Methods: From March to July 2019, eight states were selected to participate in qualitative interviews from our previous national survey of US state health department (SHD) chronic disease practitioners on program decision making. This analysis examined responses to a question about “…advice for others who want to end an ineffective program.” Forty-five SHD employees were interviewed via phone. Interviews were audio-recorded, and the conversations were transcribed verbatim. All transcripts were consensus coded, and themes were identified and summarized.Results: Participants were program managers or section directors who had on average worked 11 years at their agency and 15 years in public health. SHD employees provided several strategies they perceived as effective for de-implementation. The major themes were: (1) collect and rely on evaluation data; (2) consider if any of the programs can be saved; (3) transparently communicate and discuss program adjustments; (4) be tactful and respectful of partner relationships; (5) communicate in a way that is meaningful to your audience.Conclusions: This analysis provides insight into how experienced SHD practitioners recommend ending ineffective programs which may be useful for others working at public health agencies. As de-implementation research is limited in public health settings, this work provides a guiding point for future researchers to systematically assess these strategies and their effects on public health programming.

Towards capability-adjusted life years in public health and social welfare: Results from a Swedish survey on ranking capabilities.

The aim of this study was to rank capabilities and suggest a relevant set of capabilities for the Swedish context to inform the development of capability-adjusted life years (CALYs). CALYs is a quality of life measure for policy making based on the capability approach by Amartya Sen. A Swedish governmental review proposed the following 10 relevant capabilities: time, financial situation, mental/physical health, political resources, knowledge, living environment, occupation, social relations, security, and housing. Researchers in health-related disciplines from 5 universities ranked these capabilities from 1 to 10 (most to least important) in a web-based cross-sectional survey; 115 of 171 responses were eligible. Health, social relations, and financial situation were deemed most important. Stratification by gender, research field, and age group revealed few differences. We found that it was possible to rank capabilities and that health, social relations, and financial situation were ranked highest by a non-representative sample of researchers and doctoral students from health-related disciplines at five Swedish universities. The revealed ranking is dependent on the metric and must be further explored. The findings support continued development of CALYs for monitoring and evaluating outcomes in public health and social-welfare interventions.

A tribute to some of the doctors who died from COVID-19

A tribute to some of the doctors who died from COVID-19

Aedes aegypti from Amazon Basin Harbor High Diversity of Novel Viral Species.

Viruses are the most diverse and abundant microorganisms on earth, highly adaptive to a wide range of hosts. Viral diversity within invertebrate hosts has gained notoriety in recent years in public health as several such viruses have been of medical importance. Aedes aegypti serves as a vector for several viruses that have caused epidemics within the last year throughout Brazil; including Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya. This study aimed to identify new viral agents within Aedes aegypti mosquito in a city of the Amazonian region, where it is highly endemic. Metagenomic investigation was performed on 60 mosquito pools and viral RNA sequences present in their microbiota were characterized using genomic and phylogenetic tools. In total, we identified five putative novel virus species related to the Sobemovirus genus, Iflavirus genus and Permutatetraviridae family. These findings indicate a diverse taxonomy of viruses present in the mosquito microbiota of the Amazon, the region with the greatest invertebrate diversity in the world.

Responding to the public health consequences of the Ukraine crisis: an opportunity for global health diplomacy.

IntroductionPeace and stability in Eastern Europe is now at a crossroads with the rapidly deteriorating foreign policy crisis continuing to unfold in the Ukraine. However, largely overlooked in the context of other foreign policy and diplomatic priorities are the serious public health consequences for the region following the annexation of Crimea and the subsequent decision to ban opioid substitution therapy in the disputed territory.DiscussionOn 1 May 2014, the Republic of Crimea officially announced it would end access to opioid substitution therapy, an essential harm reduction tool recognized by international organizations and virtually all other European countries. The policy development marks a critical reversal in the region’s fight against its growing HIV epidemic and also threatens years of public health gains aimed at providing evidence-based and integrated treatment approaches to combat drug dependence and HIV. Beyond these risks, the Ukrainian conflict could also negatively impact control of other infectious diseases that are converging with HIV and injection drug use, such as multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and hepatitis C virus. The continuing conflict is also likely to have a significant negative impact on Ukraine’s fragile public health system leading to even worse population health outcomes than currently experienced by the country.ConclusionsIn response to this crisis, the application of global health diplomacy principles represents a possible route of advocacy to ensure that HIV prevention, humane treatment of substance using populations, and improving public health outcomes in the region are pursued among concerned international stakeholders. In order to be effective, global health diplomacy efforts must be coordinated and advocated in all forms of diplomatic engagement, including at the core, multistakeholder and informal levels and through existing channels such as the different human rights bodies of the United Nations as well as amongst other actors. Hence, the Ukraine crisis represents a critical moment for the practice and advancement of global health diplomacy in order to ensure global public health priorities are given their rightful place in foreign policy making to hopefully help in bringing resolution to the current conflict.

La estadística en la investigación epidemiológica: El estudio de casos y controles

Los problemas más frecuentes en la investigación en epidemiología son resueltos mediante el diseño adecuado de estudios. La estadística ha contribuido a la conceptualización, desarrollo y éxito de dichos estudios. Este trabajo presenta el estudio de casos y controles, su relación con el estudio de cohortes, una revisión de los aportes en los últimos 50 años, los cuales fueron de enorme importancia en salud pública y ciencias biomédicas. También, se discute la forma de medir la asociación entre factor de riesgo y enfermedad, utilizando el parámetro razón de chances (odds ratio) y el mismo desde el aporte de Mantel y Haenszel.

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Nigerian Preclinical Students to Histology Practical

Knowledge attitude and practice (KAP) studies have been widely used and valued around the world for at least forty years in public health, water supply and sanitation, family planning, education and other programs. This study was conducted to determine previous knowledge about histology practical, emotional instabilities and unwanted practices at histology practicals. A cohort survey using interviewer-administered structured questionnaires was conducted among 217 preclinical students of Universities of Abuja and Maiduguri between from June 2009-October, 2010. The results showed that many were confused, jittered and feel that the practical was uninteresting on seeing microscopes and magnifying lens for the first time. Many of them affirmed that microscope was difficult to adjust before use; can be damaged; tissues are tiny to be visualized and identified; tissue slide can break; practical processes are tedious and time consuming; using microscope and magnifying hand lens can affect the eye. The preclinical students also admit that practical materials were not properly handled, and they make noise/gossip at practicals. We concluded that there were gross deficiencies in KAP of these students. A formal course on KAP before first histology practicals incorporated in medical curriculum and caution of students for wrong practices is advised. KAP study of histology practicals may differ from location to location and needs further evaluation.

Unreal Models of Real Behavior: The Agent-Based Modeling Experience

Like many applied anthropologists who have worked for 20 or so years in public health and drug addiction research, I have sat in more than my fair share of overly quantitative presentations on the "behaviors" of drug users that dominate conferences in the field. Like my peers in these circumstances, I am often frustrated not because the models, tables, graphs, figures, correlations, p-values, or odds ratios presented are difficult to understand or because I have an aversion to basic science, epidemiology, or survey research. Rather, it is because the numbers rarely reflect the histories, concepts, relationships, interactions, and other nuances that have shaped my fieldwork experience. The highly personal narratives of participants framed by equally complex social environments are not visible in the numbers. To epidemiologists and other like-minded health researchers, the numbers are the narrative and all that is required for informing and evaluating theories, models, interventions, treatment programs, or policy.

Overview of ICTs and Health

Community informatics links economic and social development efforts at the community level with emerging opportunities in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). In recent years in public health there has been an increased focus on the broader social determinants of health and on social inclusion, as evidenced in the 2008 Final Report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health1. Broader determinants include education, income, social connection, and other opportunities that support improved health and wellbeing.

Trends in communicable diseases in Mongolia

This paper analyzes the state-of-the-art of infectious diseases in Mongolia over 90 years of public health in Mongolia. The situation related to infectious diseases has undergone substantial changes over 90 years. Smallpox and plague occurred frequently in pre-revolutionary Mongolia. Due to mass vaccination against smallpox, the latter was eradicated in Mongolia in 1940. Systematic health-promotion and prophylactic work against plague has resulted in stable epidemic well-being over the past many past years. The high preventive vaccination coverage rates have been achieved by widely immunizing the population in the country, which could considerably reduce the incidence of infections controlled by specific preventive means. In the past 10 years, the country has not notified diphtheria and whooping cough and the incidence of measles has stabilized at a level of 0.9-1.0 per 100,000 population. At that stage, out of the infectious diseases, viral hepatitis and HIV infection have engaged special attention. Although the incidence of hepatitis B has recently stabilized owing to vaccination; that of hepatitis A has remained high as compared to that in European and North American countries and, in the past 10 years, this rate has been 162.0-391.0 per 100,000. The first case of HIV infection in Mongolia was registered in 1992; as of 2010, the country notified not more than 83 cases, of which 21 (25.3%) cases were registered in 2010, which shows a considerable deterioration in the country's epidemiological situation. The immediate task at that stage is to build on earlier successes and to prevent the emergence and spread of infectious diseases that are absent in Mongolia.

Moving Forward with Public Health in Canada

In recent years, SARS, BSE, and other communicable disease outbreaks have highlighted Canada’s neglect of public health. The 2003 federal SARS report chaired by Dr. David Naylor noted that experts have advised governments for years of public health’s problems but their warnings were disregarded. As a result, Dr. Naylor wrote, “there is much to learn from the outbreak of SARS in Canada – in large part because too many earlier lessons were ignored.” In this issue of the CJPH, Dr. Kumanan Wilson of the University of Toronto raises important questions about the governance of public health in Canada. Since Dr. Wilson submitted his article, the government of Canada has established the Public Health Agency of Canada and appointed its first chief public health officer. This commentary reviews the events of the past six months and discusses what we need to move forward.

The voice of the public in public health policy and plannning: The role of public judgement

ras X CUT C H F I E LD, Ireson and Hall's timely arguments can open an important dialogue that I believe is long overdue, and which I hope will continue and bring 3 J 3 some reality to the concepts of 'community' and 'community health planning'. ,9z,o d~Z, I should probably begin this commentary by informing the reader that my comments are probably colored by the fact that I have spent my entire 44 years of public health and public medical care management in the four largest pubic health and public medical care venues in the nation: New York City, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles County. The term 'community' has, therefore, always been a troublesome one for me. The questions are really simple in venues such as these:

'The very pests of society': the Irish and 150 years of public health in England.

In the context of efforts to reduce health inequalities, the health status of the Irish in England should be a major subject for concern. As England's longest standing and most numerous ethnic minority, the Irish have at times been regarded as a public health threat and have repeatedly been stereotyped in literature and image. There has also been a failure to recognise and celebrate the contributions to the improvement of public health made by members of the irish community such as Kitty Wilkinson. In recent years alarming evidence has emerged that the mortality of Irish people living in England appears to have worsened in successive generations. Comparison of available data on some of the key determinants of ill health shows that the Irish in England have a worse profile than the Irish living in Ireland. A concerted programme of action is needed to investigate why the Irish should have such poor health status and to develop a programme to address it.

125 years of public health in the USA.

The past 125 years of public health in the United States are viewed from the perspective of the most significant public health areas of the 20th century as developed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The long-term impacts and development of the areas include: immunizations, healthier mothers and babies, family planning, safer and healthier foods, fluoridation of drinking water, control of infectious diseases, decline in deaths from heart disease and stroke, recognition of tobacco as a health hazard, motor vehicle safety, and safer workplaces. The current and future of public health in the US is encapsulated in several developing areas, including: personal lifestyle modifications, politicalization of health, evolving knowledge base, knowledge transfer and globalization.

125 years of public health in the UK.

This paper examines four themes in public health theory and practice: all are important for the future and are illuminated by the last 125 years. First, while definitions of public health may be stable, the rationale of public health practice--'why bother?'--has altered considerably over time. A second theme revolves around personal autonomy--can we compel individuals to take health promoting measures? Third, public health practice today pays attention as never before to the use of research-based evidence, helping to answer three questions: What are the problems? What are their causes? What are the solutions? The fourth theme is the changing character, locus and focus of public health. From being predominantly locally focused within Borough Councils, albeit operating within frameworks of national legislation and one eye on global threats, it has become much more complex with emerging levels of action which encompass the neighbourhood, the strategic district, the region, nation state, Europe and finally the ever more pressing globalisation agenda as it affects the human condition. Public health has been medically dominated for the last 125 years and this is now changing. Its ties with local government are being strengthened after a break of nearly 30 years. The focus of public health has recently been strongly on health services. This reached its apogee a few years ago but is also now rapidly changing. Looking back over the last 125 years can help us identify some of the mistakes to be avoided and opportunities to be seized at this time of change.

Public health challenges and emerging diseases: the case of São Paulo

The author discusses the challenges posed by emerging infectious diseases in 100 years of public health in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. With an advanced and organized public health system, São Paulo responded to the emergence of infectious diseases by creating research institutions and control programs. The late 19th century witnessed the first modern research institution in microbiology, in response to the bubonic plague. A changing economy led to constant changes in ecosystems. The late 20th century presents a wide array of both emerging and rapidly changing infectious diseases. The present situation calls for creative solutions. Ecosystem analysis and more agile epidemiological surveillance are seen as the best alternatives.

Eighty years of public health in New York City. 1947.

Eighty years of public health in New York City. 1947.

Backing onto sacred ground.

It is widely recognized that the health of individuals and communities is determined by the interaction of physical, mental, social, and spiritual factors. Public health leaders can find precedent for the resulting holistic strategies in the collaboration with religious structures that characterized the early years of public health. The modern context is more pluralistic, democratic, and complex in terms of its institutional array of partners.