CHINA and Africa have been a commu- nity of shared interests and shared destiny Their collaboration benefits not only the development of China and Africa but also promotes the unity and cooperation of developing count...CHINA and Africa have been a commu- nity of shared interests and shared destiny Their collaboration benefits not only the development of China and Africa but also promotes the unity and cooperation of developing countries. Health cooperation is a powerful testimony to the friendship between Chinese and African people. Based on win-win cooperation and aiming at the well-being of the people, China and Africa have attained fruitful results through health cooperation over the last five decades.展开更多
Smoking is a worldwide problem. Research in recent years has shown us that smoking and second hand smoking can cause many diseases1. As a result of the understanding of the results of smoking, the house of legislator ...Smoking is a worldwide problem. Research in recent years has shown us that smoking and second hand smoking can cause many diseases1. As a result of the understanding of the results of smoking, the house of legislator in Israel decided to legislate a law that people under the age of 18 cannot smoke and, a couple of years later, it decided to ban smoking in public places. The problem begins when the law is affecting the person＇s autonomy and the person＇s culture. More than four decades ago when the smoking habit began in Israel, no one knew what the influence would be. Now, although that information is available, the orthodox community in Israel is not exposed to the knowledge. Smoking in this community begins from Purima or from the Bar-Mitzvah3 and from the will of the young orthodox to rebel. This law raises a question： Is it ethical to deprive the young orthodox of the right to smoke？ Alternatively, is there a better way to stop the orthodox from smoking than only the regulation？ In this paper, the author will try to show that regulation alone will not help in the orthodox community, and we need to think on more options to make the orthodox more informed to smoking problems. The author thinks that the best way will be to educate the orthodox community from young age.展开更多
Medical and health work constitutes the prerequisite to protection of the people's right to safety of lives and health. Over the past decades, the Chinese Government has spared no effort in this regard and, as a r...Medical and health work constitutes the prerequisite to protection of the people's right to safety of lives and health. Over the past decades, the Chinese Government has spared no effort in this regard and, as a result, the Chinese people's health has significantly improved. In the nationwide fight against the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic in the first half of 2003, the Government placed the health of the Chinese people and the safety of their lives above everything else. With a huge input of human, financial and material resources, the country won a decisive victory over the epidemic. Following is the full text of an interview by Human Rights with Gao Qiang, executive vice-minister of the Ministry of Health, on China's medical and health work and how it is related to protection of human rights.展开更多
EDITOR＇S NOTE： In an interview given of late to our staff reporter, Gao Qiang, Chinese Minister of Health, spoke on the achievements made by China in medical and health work during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period （...EDITOR＇S NOTE： In an interview given of late to our staff reporter, Gao Qiang, Chinese Minister of Health, spoke on the achievements made by China in medical and health work during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period （2001-2005）, the soaring medical costs that have invoked much public complaint, ways of carrying to depth the reform of the medical service system, development of the rural cooperative medical system and community-based medical services in cities, as well as prevention and control of AIDS. Following is a transcript of the interview.展开更多
Background: The Tubu are nomadic people who live in remote parts of the central Sahara, primarily in the Tibesti massif(Chad), and in both Northeastern Niger and Southern Libya. All of these areas are close to become ...Background: The Tubu are nomadic people who live in remote parts of the central Sahara, primarily in the Tibesti massif(Chad), and in both Northeastern Niger and Southern Libya. All of these areas are close to become conflict zones. However, no data about the Tubu's health and sanitary status are currently available, which would be of major concern if humanitarian interventions would become required.Methods: In 1970, the "Mission Anthropologique Belge au Niger"(MABN) investigated a Tubu tribe named Broaya that lived at Seguedine and Djado on the northeastern rim of the Tenere desert. One hundred fifty-one adult volunteers answered an oral questionnaire and underwent a medical examination, followed by the collection of blood thin films and samples of urine and stool. The environmental fauna of medical importance was also studied.Results: Albeit 43 year-old, these results have not been previously published. The estimated age of death for fathers was approximately 56 years, and that for mothers was 60 years. On average, each married woman had had 4.7 children. The overall perinatal mortality rate was 232 ‰, the overall infant mortality rate was 153 ‰, and the overall child mortality rate was 99 ‰. The mean height was 164.1 cm and 157.4 cm, the mean weight was 50.1 kg and 47.9kg, and the mean blood pressure was 131/78 mm Hg and 127/75 mm Hg for males and females, respectively. The physical examination found 6 cases of blindness(4.0%). Five subjects presented with an elevated blood pressure(3.3%), and 5(3.3%) displayed an abnormal thoracic auscultation evocative of tuberculosis or of an acute lung infection. The abdominal examination and renal palpation found 5 large masses(3.3%), and 2 subjects had a palpable enlarged spleen(1.3%). The blood thin films were fixed in methanol and subsequently examined in Toulouse. The search for blood parasites was negative. The urine samples were centrifuged and then microscopically examined in the field. No blood-fluke eggs were found. The stool samples were mixed with a preservative MIF solution and then stored to be examined later in Toulouse. Three subjects(2%) passed E. histolytica/E. dispar cysts in stools, 16(10.6%) were parasitized with Giardia sp. and 4(2.65%) were parasitized with Hymelepis nana. Two specimens of scorpions captured in the camp were subsequently identified as belonging to the harmful genus Androctonus or Leiurus. An investigation into the freshwater fauna was conducted in the marshy ponds surrounding the ghost city of Djado, and no intermediate snail hosts for schistosomiasis haematobium were found. Numerous nymphs of Ceratopogonidae, which are possible vectors for arboviruses of veterinarian importance, were collected, as were larvae and nymphs from two anopheline species, Anopheles hispaniola and An. multicolor, which are not efficient vectors for malaria.Conclusions: Infection-related blindness and trachoma, along with acute pulmonary infections and probably tuberculosis were the major health burden in this tribe. The harsh dry and hot climate may explain the low prevalence of soil-transmitted protozoan diseases or helminthiases.展开更多
Medical education is an important cornerstone for the development of healthcare,and medical humanities education,as an integral part of medical education,plays an irreplaceable role in cultivating people’s health gua...Medical education is an important cornerstone for the development of healthcare,and medical humanities education,as an integral part of medical education,plays an irreplaceable role in cultivating people’s health guardians with high medical ethics.We adopted the method of stratified random sampling to select 309 students and 107 faculty members from three independent medical colleges in Sichuan province as the research subjects and distributed questionnaire surveys investigating in three dimensions:overall cognition of medical humanities,evaluation of medical humanistic qualities,and the current situation of medical humanities education,supplemented by an in-depth literature review and interviews with subject matter experts.We found that“tech-centrism”still has a great influence,the self-evaluation of medical students’humanistic quality is generally not high,the educational concept of“emphasizing professional skills over morality”of faculty and staff is still quite prevalent,and there is still the“last mile”phenomenon in medical humanities education.In order to promote the integrated development of“new medicine”and“new liberal arts”and break the barriers of“tech-centrism”and“instrumental rationality,”it is necessary to change the educational concept and strengthen the education of all employees,break through the bottleneck of internships and strengthen the whole process of education,integrate educational resources and strengthen all-round education,improve the incentive mechanisms,strengthen the assessment methods,and provide Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions for the development of medical humanities education.展开更多
Objective To identify aspects of the health of Chinese women throughout their lifespan which may paradoxically be threatened by modernization and to suggest relevant interventions through medical practice, educat...Objective To identify aspects of the health of Chinese women throughout their lifespan which may paradoxically be threatened by modernization and to suggest relevant interventions through medical practice, education and research to meet these challenges. Data sources Six risk areas were selected as examples: infant sex ratios; tobacco use by girls; respiratory illness plus anemia; psychosocial stress; osteoporosis; and dementia. Articles and other databases, through article citations, and through consultations with Chinese medical professionals. Data selection Studies were selected which described clinical investigations, health care policy, or conditions of women in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Preference (but not exclusivity) was given to articles in internationally available publications, in English, and to authors working in the PRC. Data extraction Study quality, specific descriptive information concerning population, samples, and outcome measures were evaluated. Data synthesis Data documenting the present and future significance of these health threats are described, and current and potential interventions to address these problems through medical practice, education and research are outlined. Conclusion Important issues in women's health are currently recognized in the PRC; problems occur in assigning priorities in the face of a large population and limited resources. The Chinese medical community plays a central role in developing and carrying out interventions to protect and promote women's health.展开更多
To the Third World Integrative Medicine Congress, I am pleased to learn the opening of the Third World Integrative Medicine Congress in Guangzhou. I would like to congratulate all the experts and congress participant...To the Third World Integrative Medicine Congress, I am pleased to learn the opening of the Third World Integrative Medicine Congress in Guangzhou. I would like to congratulate all the experts and congress participants from abroad and at home for the success of organizing this conference.展开更多
This review aims at providing synthetic information with scientific evidence on the trends in the malaria events from 1960 to 2011,with the hope that it will help policy makers to take informed decisions on public hea...This review aims at providing synthetic information with scientific evidence on the trends in the malaria events from 1960 to 2011,with the hope that it will help policy makers to take informed decisions on public health issues and intervention designs on malaria control towards elimination in both Sub-Sahara Africa and in the People’s Republic of China by highlighting the achievements,progress and challenges in research on moving malaria from epidemic status towards elimination.Our findings showed that since 1960,malaria control programmes in most countries have been disjointed and not harmonized.Interestingly,during the last decade,the causal factors of the unprecedented and substantial decline in malaria morbidity and mortality rates in most vulnerable groups in these endemic areas are multifaceted,including not only the spread of malaria and its related effects but also political and financial willingness,commitment and funding by governments and international donors.The benefits of scaling up the impact of malaria coverage interventions,improvement of health system approaches and sustained commitment of stakeholders are highlighted,although considerable efforts are still necessary in Sub-Sahara Africa.Furthermore,novel integrated control strategies aiming at moving malaria from epidemic status to control towards elimination,require solid research priorities both for sustainability of the most efficient existing tools and intervention coverage,and in gaining more insights in the understanding of the epidemiology,pathogenesis,vector dynamics,and socioeconomic aspects of the disease.In conclusion,political commitment and financial investment of stakeholders in sustaining the scaling up impact of malaria control interventions,networking between African and Chinese scientists,and their Western partners are urgently needed in upholding the recent gains,and in translating lessons learnt from the Chinese malaria control achievements and successes into practical interventions in malaria endemic countries in Africa and elsewhere.展开更多
文摘CHINA and Africa have been a commu- nity of shared interests and shared destiny Their collaboration benefits not only the development of China and Africa but also promotes the unity and cooperation of developing countries. Health cooperation is a powerful testimony to the friendship between Chinese and African people. Based on win-win cooperation and aiming at the well-being of the people, China and Africa have attained fruitful results through health cooperation over the last five decades.
文摘Smoking is a worldwide problem. Research in recent years has shown us that smoking and second hand smoking can cause many diseases1. As a result of the understanding of the results of smoking, the house of legislator in Israel decided to legislate a law that people under the age of 18 cannot smoke and, a couple of years later, it decided to ban smoking in public places. The problem begins when the law is affecting the person＇s autonomy and the person＇s culture. More than four decades ago when the smoking habit began in Israel, no one knew what the influence would be. Now, although that information is available, the orthodox community in Israel is not exposed to the knowledge. Smoking in this community begins from Purima or from the Bar-Mitzvah3 and from the will of the young orthodox to rebel. This law raises a question： Is it ethical to deprive the young orthodox of the right to smoke？ Alternatively, is there a better way to stop the orthodox from smoking than only the regulation？ In this paper, the author will try to show that regulation alone will not help in the orthodox community, and we need to think on more options to make the orthodox more informed to smoking problems. The author thinks that the best way will be to educate the orthodox community from young age.
文摘Medical and health work constitutes the prerequisite to protection of the people's right to safety of lives and health. Over the past decades, the Chinese Government has spared no effort in this regard and, as a result, the Chinese people's health has significantly improved. In the nationwide fight against the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic in the first half of 2003, the Government placed the health of the Chinese people and the safety of their lives above everything else. With a huge input of human, financial and material resources, the country won a decisive victory over the epidemic. Following is the full text of an interview by Human Rights with Gao Qiang, executive vice-minister of the Ministry of Health, on China's medical and health work and how it is related to protection of human rights.
文摘EDITOR＇S NOTE： In an interview given of late to our staff reporter, Gao Qiang, Chinese Minister of Health, spoke on the achievements made by China in medical and health work during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period （2001-2005）, the soaring medical costs that have invoked much public complaint, ways of carrying to depth the reform of the medical service system, development of the rural cooperative medical system and community-based medical services in cities, as well as prevention and control of AIDS. Following is a transcript of the interview.
文摘Background: The Tubu are nomadic people who live in remote parts of the central Sahara, primarily in the Tibesti massif(Chad), and in both Northeastern Niger and Southern Libya. All of these areas are close to become conflict zones. However, no data about the Tubu's health and sanitary status are currently available, which would be of major concern if humanitarian interventions would become required.Methods: In 1970, the "Mission Anthropologique Belge au Niger"(MABN) investigated a Tubu tribe named Broaya that lived at Seguedine and Djado on the northeastern rim of the Tenere desert. One hundred fifty-one adult volunteers answered an oral questionnaire and underwent a medical examination, followed by the collection of blood thin films and samples of urine and stool. The environmental fauna of medical importance was also studied.Results: Albeit 43 year-old, these results have not been previously published. The estimated age of death for fathers was approximately 56 years, and that for mothers was 60 years. On average, each married woman had had 4.7 children. The overall perinatal mortality rate was 232 ‰, the overall infant mortality rate was 153 ‰, and the overall child mortality rate was 99 ‰. The mean height was 164.1 cm and 157.4 cm, the mean weight was 50.1 kg and 47.9kg, and the mean blood pressure was 131/78 mm Hg and 127/75 mm Hg for males and females, respectively. The physical examination found 6 cases of blindness(4.0%). Five subjects presented with an elevated blood pressure(3.3%), and 5(3.3%) displayed an abnormal thoracic auscultation evocative of tuberculosis or of an acute lung infection. The abdominal examination and renal palpation found 5 large masses(3.3%), and 2 subjects had a palpable enlarged spleen(1.3%). The blood thin films were fixed in methanol and subsequently examined in Toulouse. The search for blood parasites was negative. The urine samples were centrifuged and then microscopically examined in the field. No blood-fluke eggs were found. The stool samples were mixed with a preservative MIF solution and then stored to be examined later in Toulouse. Three subjects(2%) passed E. histolytica/E. dispar cysts in stools, 16(10.6%) were parasitized with Giardia sp. and 4(2.65%) were parasitized with Hymelepis nana. Two specimens of scorpions captured in the camp were subsequently identified as belonging to the harmful genus Androctonus or Leiurus. An investigation into the freshwater fauna was conducted in the marshy ponds surrounding the ghost city of Djado, and no intermediate snail hosts for schistosomiasis haematobium were found. Numerous nymphs of Ceratopogonidae, which are possible vectors for arboviruses of veterinarian importance, were collected, as were larvae and nymphs from two anopheline species, Anopheles hispaniola and An. multicolor, which are not efficient vectors for malaria.Conclusions: Infection-related blindness and trachoma, along with acute pulmonary infections and probably tuberculosis were the major health burden in this tribe. The harsh dry and hot climate may explain the low prevalence of soil-transmitted protozoan diseases or helminthiases.
基金funded by the Ministry of Education Demonstration Excellent Teaching and Research Team Construction Project:Research on the Effectiveness Improvement of Ideological and Political Theory Courses in Medical Universities(19JDSZK008)the Education Work Committee of Sichuan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China“All-staff,Whole-process,and All-round Education”Comprehensive Reform Pilot Colleges(Majors)Project:“Research and Practice on the Collaborative Education Mechanism of the Integration of Medical Humanistic Spirit and Ideological and Political Courses.”。
文摘Medical education is an important cornerstone for the development of healthcare,and medical humanities education,as an integral part of medical education,plays an irreplaceable role in cultivating people’s health guardians with high medical ethics.We adopted the method of stratified random sampling to select 309 students and 107 faculty members from three independent medical colleges in Sichuan province as the research subjects and distributed questionnaire surveys investigating in three dimensions:overall cognition of medical humanities,evaluation of medical humanistic qualities,and the current situation of medical humanities education,supplemented by an in-depth literature review and interviews with subject matter experts.We found that“tech-centrism”still has a great influence,the self-evaluation of medical students’humanistic quality is generally not high,the educational concept of“emphasizing professional skills over morality”of faculty and staff is still quite prevalent,and there is still the“last mile”phenomenon in medical humanities education.In order to promote the integrated development of“new medicine”and“new liberal arts”and break the barriers of“tech-centrism”and“instrumental rationality,”it is necessary to change the educational concept and strengthen the education of all employees,break through the bottleneck of internships and strengthen the whole process of education,integrate educational resources and strengthen all-round education,improve the incentive mechanisms,strengthen the assessment methods,and provide Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions for the development of medical humanities education.
文摘Objective To identify aspects of the health of Chinese women throughout their lifespan which may paradoxically be threatened by modernization and to suggest relevant interventions through medical practice, education and research to meet these challenges. Data sources Six risk areas were selected as examples: infant sex ratios; tobacco use by girls; respiratory illness plus anemia; psychosocial stress; osteoporosis; and dementia. Articles and other databases, through article citations, and through consultations with Chinese medical professionals. Data selection Studies were selected which described clinical investigations, health care policy, or conditions of women in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Preference (but not exclusivity) was given to articles in internationally available publications, in English, and to authors working in the PRC. Data extraction Study quality, specific descriptive information concerning population, samples, and outcome measures were evaluated. Data synthesis Data documenting the present and future significance of these health threats are described, and current and potential interventions to address these problems through medical practice, education and research are outlined. Conclusion Important issues in women's health are currently recognized in the PRC; problems occur in assigning priorities in the face of a large population and limited resources. The Chinese medical community plays a central role in developing and carrying out interventions to protect and promote women's health.
文摘To the Third World Integrative Medicine Congress, I am pleased to learn the opening of the Third World Integrative Medicine Congress in Guangzhou. I would like to congratulate all the experts and congress participants from abroad and at home for the success of organizing this conference.
基金This work was supported by National Institute of Parasitic Disease,Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention,Shanghai 200025,Ministry of Science and Technology,Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of P.R.ChinaP.R.China Postdoctoral Science Foundation,P.R.China-Africa Sciences and Technology Partnership Program,2011Thanks to the partial support of the Chinese National Science and Technology Major Program(2012ZX10004220)。
文摘This review aims at providing synthetic information with scientific evidence on the trends in the malaria events from 1960 to 2011,with the hope that it will help policy makers to take informed decisions on public health issues and intervention designs on malaria control towards elimination in both Sub-Sahara Africa and in the People’s Republic of China by highlighting the achievements,progress and challenges in research on moving malaria from epidemic status towards elimination.Our findings showed that since 1960,malaria control programmes in most countries have been disjointed and not harmonized.Interestingly,during the last decade,the causal factors of the unprecedented and substantial decline in malaria morbidity and mortality rates in most vulnerable groups in these endemic areas are multifaceted,including not only the spread of malaria and its related effects but also political and financial willingness,commitment and funding by governments and international donors.The benefits of scaling up the impact of malaria coverage interventions,improvement of health system approaches and sustained commitment of stakeholders are highlighted,although considerable efforts are still necessary in Sub-Sahara Africa.Furthermore,novel integrated control strategies aiming at moving malaria from epidemic status to control towards elimination,require solid research priorities both for sustainability of the most efficient existing tools and intervention coverage,and in gaining more insights in the understanding of the epidemiology,pathogenesis,vector dynamics,and socioeconomic aspects of the disease.In conclusion,political commitment and financial investment of stakeholders in sustaining the scaling up impact of malaria control interventions,networking between African and Chinese scientists,and their Western partners are urgently needed in upholding the recent gains,and in translating lessons learnt from the Chinese malaria control achievements and successes into practical interventions in malaria endemic countries in Africa and elsewhere.
