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Assessment of reporting and recording system of communicable diseases in Jeddah Region.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the rate of reporting communicable diseases in Jeddah region, and to compare the recording system between the governmental and private sector. METHODS: This is a review of records study, in which the reports of communicable diseases from all hospitals and health centers (with or without cases) were studied, during the period of study; 1st to 25th international weeks 1999, and the reporting rate was calculated. A simple random sample was collected from these international weeks to evaluate the quality of recorded information. RESULTS: The reporting rate was 74%. Private hospitals have the highest rate in reporting (87%) and polyclinics have the least (67%). The recording rate was above 90% for administrative data. Personal data was complete except for patient name (76.5%), address (20%), and occupation (73%). The most prominent defect in the disease data was found to be in recording the mode of infection (13%), followed by previous vaccination (29%), date of symptoms (89%), and date of diagnosis (98%). Mode of infection was recorded in (40.5%) of cases by primary health care centers, but in polyclinics in only 1% of cases. Previous vaccination was recorded better by governmental sectors; (29%) by governmental hospital and (49%) by primary health care centers while in the private sectors the rate was (21%) by polyclinic and (25%) by private hospital. Date of symptoms was recorded in 90% of cases in all sectors except in governmental hospitals where it was only (50%). Date of diagnosis was recorded in more than (95%) in all sectors. The results show a statistical significant difference between different health sectors in recording data where government hospitals were least in recording doctor's name and in putting an official stamp in the form (p< 0.001); primary health care centers were the best in recording patient name and occupation (p< 0.001); polyclinics were least in recording mode of infection and previous vaccination (p< 0.001); for recording date of symptoms private hospitals were the best (p< 0.001). CONCLUSION: The reporting rate in Jeddah region was 74%, but its usefulness was diminished because of the incomplete, absent or incorrect personal and disease data.

Ambulatory Care Facilities↗

Roles and functions of a European Union Public Health Centre for Communicable Diseases and other threats to health.

An international consensus has been reached that a European Union (EU) Technical Coordination Structure (TCS) for communicable diseases is needed to improve Europe s future response to international communicable disease threats within and beyond its boundaries. After the American events of September 11 2001 and the deliberate releases of anthrax, the EU created a Health Security Committee, adopted a civil protection decision, and established for 18 months a team to develop responses for deliberate releases of biological and chemical agents. These two initiatives, the network s approach and health security work, must converge into a single stream addressing health protection for the people of Europe. They could be combined into a European Centre for Communicable Diseases that is planned to become active by 2005.

Communicable Disease Control↗

Reporting of non-communicable disease research in low- and middle-income countries: a pilot bibliometric analysis.

OBJECTIVE: The paper identifies the relative amount of research devoted to non-communicable disease in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). DESIGN: A bibliometric analysis of a subset of journals published in LMICs was performed. MEASUREMENTS: Seventy-six peer-reviewed journals focused on general medicine or public health published in 46 LMICs and indexed from 1998 to 2003 in MEDLINE. A total of 24 journals were selected, 4 journals from each of 6 LMIC regions. Searches were refined using 18 non-communicable disease topics with 7,012 articles identified for analysis. RESULTS: More than 40% of articles in LMIC regions focused on non-communicable disease research. The percentage was highest in Eastern Europe/Central Asia (47%) and lowest in Latin America (36%). The percentage of articles published in Sub-Saharan Africa (38%) did not differ significantly from that of Latin America or South Asia. Cardiovascular disease and cancer led the list of the top ten most-indexed published topics by region. CONCLUSIONS: Even in regions rampant with infectious diseases, some capability exists to conduct research on non-communicable diseases. Greater attention should be paid to the conduct and support of such research in LMICs, which will benefit these countries and may yield clues to lower-cost solutions to the burden of these diseases worldwide.

Bibliometrics↗

The contribution of international agencies to the control of communicable diseases.

Although inequality is often measured through three critical indicators-education, income and life expectancy-health-related differences are also essential elements for explaining levels of equality or inequality in modern societies. Investment and investigation in health also involve inequalities at the global level, and this includes insufficient North-South transfer of funds, technology and expertise in the health field, including the specific area of communicable diseases. Globally, epidemics and outbreaks in any geographic region can represent international public health emergencies, and this type of threat requires a global response. Therefore, given the need to strengthen the global capacity for dealing with threats of infectious diseases, a framework is needed for collaboration on alerting the world to epidemics and responding to public health emergencies. This is necessary to guarantee a high level of security against the dissemination of communicable diseases in an ever more globalized world. In response to these needs, international health agencies have put a number of strategies into practice in order to contribute to the control of communicable diseases in poor countries. The principle strategies include: 1) implementation of mechanisms for international epidemiologic surveillance; 2) use of international law to support the control of communicable diseases; 3) international cooperation on health matters; 4) strategies to strengthen primary care services and health systems in general; 5) promotion of the transfer of resources for research and development from the North to the South.

Communicable Disease Control↗

Importance of intersectoral co-ordination in the control of communicable diseases, with special reference to plague in Tanzania.

Human health, agriculture, including livestock, energy, education, wildlife, construction, forestry and trade sectors are inter-related and their co-ordination is an important pre-requisite for successful control of most communicable diseases including plague. Similar linkage between research, policy, training and extension activities in each sector are essential for any successful control strategy. Inadequate agricultural produce, inaccessibility of people to the available food and ignorance on proper preparation and usage of available food materials are responsible for malnutrition, and malnourished people are very vulnerable to disease. Irrigation schemes facilitate breeding of various disease vectors and transmission of some communicable diseases. Forests are ecologically favourable for some disease vectors and reservoirs for tsetse flies and rodents, while deforestation leads to soil erosion, lack of rainfall and consequently reduced productivity in agriculture which may result in poor nutrition of the population. Wildlife and livestock serve as reservoirs and/or carriers of various zoonoses including plague, trypanosomiasis and rabies. Lack of proper co-ordination of these sectors in communicable disease control programmes can result in serious and undesirable consequences. Indiscriminate killing of rodents in order to minimize food damage by these vermin forces their flea ectoparasites to seek alternative hosts, including man, a development which may result in transmission of plague from rodents to man. Similarly, avoidance of proper quarantine during plague epidemics, an undertaking which is usually aimed at maintaining economic and social links with places outside the affected focus, can result in the disease becoming widespread and consequently make any control strategies more difficult and expensive.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Agriculture↗