Mental health in the virtual world:Challenges and opportunities in the metaverse era

Current rates of mental illness are worrisome.Mental illness mainly affects females and younger age groups.The use of the internet to deliver mental health care has been growing since 2020 and includes the implementation of novel mental health treatments using virtual reality,augmented reality,and artificial intelligence.A new three dimensional digital environment,known as the metaverse,has emerged as the next version of the Internet.Artificial intelligence,augmented reality,and virtual reality will create fully immersive,experiential,and interactive online environments in the metaverse.People will use a unique avatar to do anything they do in their“real”lives,including seeking and receiving mental health care.In this opinion review,we reflect on how the metaverse could reshape how we deliver mental health treatment,its opportunities,and its challenges.

World Flu Day: Protecting Health, Keeping away from Flu Troubles

November 1,2023 marks the 6th"World Flu Day".The theme is"Preventing Influenza,Protecting Health"in this year.According to data from the World Health Organization,influenza infects approximately 5%-10%of adults and 20%-30%of children worldwide each year,resulting in up to 5million severe cases and 650,000 deaths.A recent study showed that about 88,000 people in China died from respiratory diseases caused by influenza each year,accounting for 8.2%of total respiratory disease deaths,making influenza a serious threat to public health.

中国体育学术英文期刊的画像分析:以Journal of Sport and Health Science为例

Journal of Sport and Health Science《运动与健康科学》(英文版),简称JSHS,是我国内地地区第一本英文体育学术期刊,深入分析和全面认识JSHS的期刊画像特征,对我国体育学术英文期刊国际化发展实践和建设世界一流期刊均具有重要现实意义。采集Web of Science数据库中2012-2022年755篇JSHS论文,基于科学计量的方法,系统挖掘了JSHS在时间产出、作者合作、机构分布、刊文热点与趋势等特征,还从影响因子、即年指标、被引半衰期等指标,对标对表British Journal of Sports Medicine(简称BJSM,英国运动医学杂志)进行深入分析。研究发现:JSHS作为新创的体育科学期刊和我国建设世界一流期刊的代表,总体发展势头良好。年载文量稳步增长,期刊影响因子、论文影响力显著提升。论文高产机构来自上海体育学院、北卡罗莱纳大学、卡尔加里大学等,高产作者有Walter Herzog、刘宇、于冰、陈佩杰等,作者队伍越来越壮大,且呈团队合作趋势。JSHS在不断发展中形成6大主题群,包括儿童青少年运动与健康促进、老年人群运动与健康、运动表现分析、运动损伤、运动与疾病风险以及运动与认知功能。对标对表BJSM分析,JSHS在出版周期、年发文量、论文影响力等方面亟需提升。

The Next Era:Flourish of National Health Care & Medicine with the World Leading Artificial Intelligence

MODERN medical diagnosis and practice heavily rely on biological data and information from patients’ body.The progress of biomedical sensor,material and mathematical technology provided ever-increasing methods to gather data.While providing more choices and more comprehensive picture of patients’ conditions to doctors and practitioners,these progresses also require more labor efforts to read,analyze,and make decisions based on those data.It is very difficult for the medical human resources to grow at a speed that matches such need for diagnosis-related expert knowledge.The shortage of expertise has caused long waiting time for check report and fatal misjudged diagnosis in public health system,and it will compromise our ability to move towards a more precise,more personalized and more efficient future of medicine.

Resistance to clarithromycin and gastroenterologist's persistence roles in nomination for Helicobacter pylori as high priority pathogen by World Health Organization

Due to the increasing prevalence of clarithromycin resistance, future of management of Helicobacter pylori(H. pylori) infections need to be recognized. To now, clarithromycin was the best effective, well-tolerated and safe antibiotic used in treatment of the bacterium, but, increasing trend of resistance reduced efficacy of recommended regimens. Indeed, gastroenterologists are mostly unable to start appropriate therapyaccording to the sensitivity profile-due to the certain difficulties in routine H. pylori culture procedure and being time consuming method. This announcement by World Health Organization(WHO) was an onset to reconsider current challenging dilemma about H. pylori clarithromycin resistant isolates. Therefore, investigating of various factors affecting this nomination by WHO is highly welcomed. In fact, WHO enumerated more than 16 pathogens which seriously threats human life and public health, thus better management or effective guidelines are necessary. Here for the first time, we nominated this phenomenon as ‘‘gastroenterologist's persistence'' which should be equally investigated as antibiotic resistance. The ability of gastroenterologists to win the game against H. pylori infections is highly influenced by their collaboration with diagnostic laboratories to apply susceptibility patterns before any prescription. In conclusion, closer collaboration between two important partners(gastroenterologists and microbiologists) in management of H. pylori infection may hopefully trigger an era to remedy current crisis in clarithromycin resistance, a later gastric cancer can be practically preventable.

Development of methods of male contraception: impact of the World Health Organization Task Force

Objective: To give an historical record of the research of the World Health Organization (WHO) Task Force to develop methods of male contraception; to examine the social, political, medical, pharmaceutical, funding, and other factors that influenced progress; and to suggest reasons why such methods are only now becoming available. Design: Review of basic and clinical research over 30 years. Setting: Task force of a multinational agency and collaborating agencies. Conclusion(s): Through the involvement of many international scientists, the WHO Task Force has uniquely contributed to the exploratory phases of the research in male contraception and by its multicenter contraceptive efficacy studies has accelerated progress towards the ideal hormonal method. Despite an adverse climate involving social and political attitudes, funding constraints, and pharmaceutical industry hesitations, WHO formed coalitions with governments and international agencies to sustain research with results that apply to men in culturally diverse populations and thereby to influence activities across the whole range of global reproductive health and family planning.

Assessment of Medicines Cold Chain Storage Conformity with the World Health Organization Requirements in Health Facilities in Tanzania

A descriptive study on assessment of medicines cold chain storage conformity with World Health Organization (WHO) requirements in public health facilities was carried out in Dar es Salaam and Dodoma regions. Storage conformity in selected health facilities was assessed by monitoring temperature using temperature data loggers mounted in the refrigerators for a period of 30 days. Results indicated almost half of the health facilities 48.5% visited, did not significantly (P = 0.031) comply with storage temperature (+2°C to +8°C) as per WHO requirement because all recorded Mean Kinetic temperature (MKT) > 8°C. In rural areas, 59.2% of visited health facilities adhered to the WHO recommended storage temperature while in urban areas only 31.6% complied. The study has established electricity failure in urban and lack of gas in rural areas coupled with absence of contingency plan as major challenges to WHO temperature conformity in storage of cold chain medicines in health facilities in Tanzania.

Simple approach for the histomolecular diagnosis of central nervous system gliomas based on 2021 World Health Organization Classification

The classification of central nervous system(CNS)glioma went through a sequence of developments,between 2006 and 2021,started with only histological approach then has been aided with a major emphasis on molecular signatures in the 4^(th) and 5^(th) editions of the World Health Organization(WHO).The recent reformation in the 5th edition of the WHO classification has focused more on the molecularly defined entities with better characterized natural histories as well as new tumor types and subtypes in the adult and pediatric populations.These new subclassified entities have been incorporated in the 5^(th) edition after the continuous exploration of new genomic,epigenomic and transcriptomic discovery.Indeed,the current guidelines of 2021 WHO classification of CNS tumors and European Association of Neuro-Oncology(EANO)exploited the molecular signatures in the diagnostic approach of CNS gliomas.Our current review presents a practical diagnostic approach for diffuse CNS gliomas and circumscribed astrocytomas using histomolecular criteria adopted by the recent WHO classification.We also describe the treatment strategies for these tumors based on EANO guidelines.

Mental health promotion for elderly populations in World Health Organization South-East Asia Region:Needs and resource gaps

The accelerated population growth of the elderly(individuals aged 60 years or more)across the globe has many indications,including changes in demography,health,the psycho-social milieu,and economic security.This transition has given rise to varied challenges;significant changes have been observed in regard to developing strategies for health care systems across the globe.The World Health Organization(WHO)is also engaging in initiatives and mediating processes.Furthermore,advocacy is being conducted regarding a shift toward the salutogenic model from the pathogenic model.The concept behind this move was to shift from disablement to enablement and from illness to wellness,with the notion of mental health promotion(MHP)being promoted.This article attempts to discuss the MHP of elderly individuals,with special reference to the need to disseminate knowledge and awareness in the community by utilizing the resources of the health sector available in the WHO South-East Asia Region countries.We have tried to present the current knowledge gap by exploring the existing infrastructure,human resources,and financial resources.There is much to do to promote the mental health of the elderly,but inadequate facilities are available.Based on available resources,a roadmap for MHP in elderly individuals is discussed.

World health dilemmas: Orphan and rare diseases, orphan drugs and orphan patients

According to global annual estimates hunger/malnutrition is the major cause of death(36 of 62 million). Cardiovascular diseases and cancer(5.44 of 13.43 million) are the major causes of death in developed countries, while lower respiratory tract infections, human immunodeficiency virus infection/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, diarrhoeal disease, malaria and tuberculosis(10.88 of 27.12 million) are the major causes of death in developing countries with more than 70% of deaths occurring in children. The majority of approximately 800 million people with other rare diseases, including 100000 children born with thalassaemia annually receive no treatment. There are major ethical dilemmas in dealing with global health issues such as poverty and the treatment of orphan and rare diseases. Of approximately 50000 drugs about 10% are orphan drugs, with annual sales of the latter approaching 100 billion USD. In comparison, the annual revenue in 2009 from the top 12 pharmaceutical companies in Western countrieswas 445 billion USD and the top drug, atorvastatin, reached 100 billion USD. In the same year, the total government expenditure for health in the developing countries was 410 billion USD with only 6%-7% having been received as aid from developed countries. Drugs cost the National Health Service in the United Kingdom more than 20 billion USD or 10% of the annual health budget. Uncontrollable drug prices and marketing policies affect global health budgets, clinical practice, patient safety and survival. Fines of 5.3 billion USD were imposed on two pharmaceutical companies in the United States, the regulatory authority in France was replaced and clinicians were charged with bribery in order to overcome recent illegal practises affecting patient care. High expenditure for drug development is mainly related to marketing costs. However, only 2 million USD was spent developing the drug deferiprone(L1) for thalassaemia up to the stage of multicentre clinical trials. The criteria for drug development, price levels and use needs to be readdressed to improve drug safety and minimise costs. New global health policies based on cheaper drugs can help the treatment of many categories of orphan and rare diseases and millions of orphan patients in developing and developed countries.

Pattern and Dimensions of Urban Health Hazards in the Third World:A Nigerian Example

The rapid expansion of urban systems,particularly in the third world also means a considerable challenge for the health of city residents.Owing to this expansion and a variant of social,economic and environmental forces,the city becomes a‘basket’of health hazards to which people and neighbourhoods are exposed to,albeit,differently.These hazards are various relating to housing,occupation,transport

Psycho-medical aspects on migrants health of III? world pediatric surgical patients

The constantly expanding world wide mobility and globalization within the pediatric community puts new demands on pediatric surgical health care systems worldwide. Forcing carers to pay attention not only on their best surgical and medical performance like in the past. In contrary, they are forced to pay much more attention on psycho-medical aspects like finance, rehabilitation, socialization and integration, culture, management and logistics, health edu-cation and language skills. Then, according to our opinion these aspects should be considered as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)-like syndrome and treated accordingly. Then handling this problem succesfully, would be essential for the future survival of any health care system.

The World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist Improves Post-Operative Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review

Background: The incidence of in-hospital adverse events is about 10%, with a majority of these related to surgery, and nearly half considered preventable events. In attempts to improve patient safety, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed a checklist to be used at critical perioperative moments. This meta-analysis examines the impact of the WHO surgical safety checklist (SSC) on various patient outcomes. Methods: A comprehensive search of all published studies assessing the use of the WHO SSC in patients undergoing surgery was conducted. Studies using the WHO SSC in any surgical setting, with pre-implementation and post-implementation outcome data were included. The incidence of patient outcomes (total complications, surgical site infections, unplanned return to the operating room (OR) within 30 days, and overall mortality) and adherence to safety measures were analyzed. Results: 10 studies involving 51,125 patients (27,490 prior to implementation and 23,635 after implementation of the WHO SSC) were analyzed. The implementation of the WHO SSC significantly reduced the risk of total complications by 37.9%, surgical site infections by 45.5%, unplanned return to OR by 32.1%, and mortality by 15.3%. Increased adherence to safety measures including airway evaluation, use of pulse oximetry, prophylactic antibiotics when necessary, confirmation of patient name and surgical site, and sponge count was also observed. Conclusions: The use of the WHO SSC is associated with a significant reduction in post-operative complication rates and mortality. The WHO SSC is a valuable tool that should be universally implemented in all surgical centers and utilized in all surgical patients.

THE 4th CONGRESS OF THE WORLD SOCIETY FOR BREAST HEALTH The Announcement&Call for Abstract

October 18-21, 2007 Tianjin, ChinaSponsored by World Society for Breast Health Chinese Medical Association Co-Sponsored by Department of Medicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Engineering Tianjin

Contributing to World Health

Keeping young children healthy can be challenging at the best of times, as Li Haijie, a 34-year-old mother of two knows only too well. For example, to have her first child vaccinated, she had to queue for hours in a crowded. noisy room, in her hometown of Jining, in east China＇s Shandong Province.

世界卫生组织数字健康治理决策证据研究

目的对世界卫生组织发布的数字健康文件开展科学计量分析,为提升我国数字健康治理能力和治理水平,扩大我国在全球健康决策方面的影响力提供参考。方法识别世界卫生组织发布的数字健康文件引文类型,并开展科学计量,包括统计发文机构、国别、年份并分析引文主题等。结果世界卫生组织在数字健康领域发布多个战略和指导性文件,参考文献为电子文献、期刊文献和少量专著,电子文献以国际机构发布的各类文件为主。期刊论文来自多个医学相关高水平期刊,文献具有较强时效性,研究主题包括随机对照试验、队列研究、卫生教育、行为干预、吸烟、基础设施建设等。美国、英国和瑞士机构的研究成果获得最多引用。结论应合理采纳不同类型机构研究成果,科学优化我国数字健康在重点疾病领域的规划措施,积极参与全球数字健康治理,鼓励我国有能力的社会组织、高校等机构世界卫生组织和其他国际组织研究项目并扩大成果影响力,加强国际合作。

用于国家监管体系评估的WHO全球基准工具介绍及其应用进展

目的:对世界卫生组织(World Health Organization,WHO)用于国家监管体系(National Regulatory Authorities,NRA)评估的全球基准工具(Global Benchmarking Tool,GBT)及基准流程进行介绍和深入研究,旨在帮助相关人员进一步了解WHO关于NRA评估的新的具体要求,进一步推动医疗产品检验检测和疫苗批签发管理水平提高。方法:介绍GBT框架,对GBT 9大板块进行分析汇总,研究WHO采用GBT进行NRA评估的流程和应用进展以及对我国的启示。结果与结论:GBT针对国家监管体系9大职能板块分别设置一系列指标和268个亚指标进行评估,并引入4级成熟度级别(Maturity Level,ML)的概念;正式基准过程包括提交意向书、对意向书评估、就评估范围和路线图达成协议、正式评估、宣布决定和列名等5个步骤;截至2022年10月,WHO宣布共有12个国家通过了以GBT为基准的NRA评估。我国疫苗NRA评估已达到ML3水平,但仍需深入改进,向ML4水平继续努力。

基于真实世界研究中风合剂治疗急性缺血性脑卒中的临床研究

目的基于真实世界临床数据观察中风合剂治疗急性缺血性脑卒中的临床疗效。方法采用回顾性研究方法,纳入急性缺血性脑卒中住院患者395例。根据患者是否服用中风合剂治疗,分为服用中风合剂的治疗组和未服用中风合剂的对照组,比较两组患者治疗前后美国国立卫生研究院卒中量表(NIHSS)评分变化,评估中风合剂治疗急性缺血性脑卒中的临床疗效。结果两组患者基线均衡可比(P>0.05)。治疗组治疗后NIHSS评分较治疗前下降(P<0.05)。治疗组有效率显著高于对照组,差异具有统计学意义(P<0.05)。在轻度、中度、重度神经功能缺损患者中,服用中风合剂的治疗组有效率均显著高于未服用中风合剂的对照组,差异具有统计学意义(均P<0.05)。亚组分析,男性患者中,治疗组有效率为47.00%,显著高于对照组的23.29%,差异有统计学意义(P<0.05);但是在女性患者中,有效率在两组之间的分布差异无统计学意义(P>0.05)。在合并高血压的缺血性脑卒中患者中,治疗组有效率(49.47%)显著高于对照组(23.19%),差异有统计学意义(P<0.05);在无合并高血压病患者中,治疗组与对照组有效率分布差异无统计学意义(P>0.05)。在合并糖尿病的缺血性脑卒中患者中,治疗组有效率(39.74%)显著高于对照组(15.38%),差异有统计学意义(P<0.05);无合并糖尿病的患者中,治疗组有效率(50.00%)亦显著高于对照组(28.40%),差异也有统计学意义(P<0.05)。结论真实世界临床实践中服用中风合剂能够有效改善急性缺血性脑卒中患者的神经功能缺损情况,提高临床疗效。

文化滋养与“全民健心”——兼述“世界精神卫生日”与图书馆“疗愈系”读物推广

文章基于文化滋养及心理素质培养的观点,叙述了20世纪初“心理卫生”运动在美国兴起后,对我国有关方面的积极影响,提出学生、家长、教师、图书馆馆员等,应通过阅读情绪、成长、学习、积极心理学等知识,掌握“心理卫生”知识及“情绪疗愈系导读书目”,倡导学校和公共图书馆在“4·23世界读书日”“5·25心理健康节”及“10·10世界精神卫生日”等节点,做好做实以“书方子”为抓手的阅读疗愈活动,助力有需求读者的情绪抚平、心理卫生保健,并呼吁通过“全民健心”活动的推行,大力促进和谐社会和精神文明建设。

世界卫生组织对BPaLM方案治疗耐多药结核病指南的解读

耐多药结核病仍是人类健康的重大危险因素,近期世界卫生组织推荐贝达喹啉(bedaquiline,Bdq)、普托马尼(pretomanid,Pa)、利奈唑胺(linezolid,Lzd)和莫西沙星(moxifloxacin,Mfx)的6个月方案(BPaLM)治疗耐多药结核病。新指南中短程方案适用人群扩大到耐多药结核病患者,而且适用于病变广泛的肺结核和大多数肺外结核,无疑是耐多药结核病治疗的重要事件。本文就BPaLM方案的研究历程、适用人群和注意事项作一简要介绍。