Simulation and Modeling Applications in Global Health Security
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Masys A
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7123972 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:ObjectiveWe conduct a first large-scale analysis of mobile health (mHealth) apps available on Google Play with the goal of providing a comprehensive view of mHealth apps' security features and gauging the associated risks for mHealth users and their data.Materials and methodsWe designed an app collection platform that discovered and downloaded more than 20 000 mHealth apps from the Medical and Health & Fitness categories on Google Play. We performed a suite of app code and traffic measurements to highlight a range of app security flaws: certificate security, sensitive or unnecessary permission requests, malware presence, communication security, and security-related concerns raised in user reviews.ResultsCompared to baseline non-mHealth apps, mHealth apps generally adopt more reliable signing mechanisms and request fewer dangerous permissions. However, significant fractions of mHealth apps expose users to serious security risks. Specifically, 1.8% of mHealth apps package suspicious codes (eg, trojans), 45.0% rely on unencrypted communication, and as much as 23.0% of personal data (eg, location information and passwords) is sent on unsecured traffic. An analysis of the app reviews reveals that mHealth app users are largely unaware of the surfaced security issues.ConclusionDespite being better aligned with security best practices than non-mHealth apps, mHealth apps are still far from ensuring robust security guarantees. App users, clinicians, technology developers, and policy makers alike should be cognizant of the uncovered security issues and weigh them carefully against the benefits of mHealth apps.
| S-EPMC8449631 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The global proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) presents a clear and present danger to global health security. Unlike conventional weapons that confine themselves to a defined and targeted area, WMD’s cross international boundaries and borders. Moreover, the release of WMDs can be achieved using a low technology approach resulting in a transformation and redefinition of the mission of global health providers. This chapter will focus on the ease of access to WMDs, the impact biological weapons and bioterrorism plays on global health security, United States global policies on public health, and the role actors and non-state actors play in the global health landscape. In addition, this chapter will focus on global WMD proliferation prevention to include international efforts, treaties, and conventions. The chapter will conclude with a discussion of ongoing research initiatives, identification of emerging threats, and additional recommended readings.
| S-EPMC7122872 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Countries, philanthropies, and private sector organizations have been actively investing in global health security around the world. However, despite the coordinated approach to funding within the Global Health Security Agenda, there is currently no well-established method to track the commitment and disbursal of funds for global health security from funders to recipients or to identify the activities supported by existing funding initiatives. To address this need, we developed the Global Health Security Tracking Dashboard. This interactive, publicly available, Web-based dashboard maps the flow of funds from funder to recipient and categorizes the target efforts of those funds, allowing users to identify patterns of influence and success in health security funding implementation. The dashboard provides an evidence-based approach for defining targets for future funding by identifying the areas in which funds have not yet been effectively allocated, showcasing successes, and providing a source of information to promote mutual accountability.
| S-EPMC6682579 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Filoviruses are negative-sense single-stranded RNA viruses often associated with severe and highly lethal hemorrhagic fever in humans and nonhuman primates, with case fatality rates as high as 90%. Of the known filoviruses, Ebola virus (EBOV), the prototype of the genus Orthoebolavirus, has been a major public health concern as it frequently causes outbreaks and was associated with an unprecedented outbreak in several Western African countries in 2013-2016, affecting 28,610 people, 11,308 of whom died. Thereafter, filovirus research mostly focused on EBOV, paying less attention to other equally deadly orthoebolaviruses (Sudan, Bundibugyo, and Taï Forest viruses) and orthomarburgviruses (Marburg and Ravn viruses). Some of these filoviruses have emerged in nonendemic areas, as exemplified by four Marburg disease outbreaks recorded in Guinea, Ghana, Tanzania, and Equatorial Guinea between 2021 and 2023. Similarly, the Sudan virus has reemerged in Uganda 10 years after the last recorded outbreak. Moreover, several novel bat-derived filoviruses have been discovered in the last 15 years (Lloviu virus, Bombali virus, Měnglà virus, and Dehong virus), most of which are poorly characterized but may display a wide host range. These novel viruses have the potential to cause outbreaks in humans. Several gaps are yet to be addressed regarding known and emerging filoviruses. These gaps include the virus ecology and pathogenicity, mechanisms of zoonotic transmission, host range and susceptibility, and the development of specific medical countermeasures. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on non-Ebola filoviruses (Bombali virus, Bundibugyo virus, Reston virus, Sudan virus, Tai Forest virus, Marburg virus, Ravn virus, Lloviu virus, Měnglà virus, and Dehong virus) and suggest some strategies to accelerate specific countermeasure development.
| S-EPMC11359311 | biostudies-literature
Project description: Not available
| S-EPMC2464486 | biostudies-literature
Project description:To reduce the health security risk and impact of outbreaks around the world, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its partners are building capabilities to prevent, detect, and contain outbreaks in 49 global health security priority countries. We examine the extent of economic vulnerability to the US export economy posed by trade disruptions in these 49 countries. Using 2015 US Department of Commerce data, we assessed the value of US exports and the number of US jobs supported by those exports. US exports to the 49 countries exceeded $308 billion and supported more than 1.6 million jobs across all US states in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, oil and gas, services, and other sectors. These exports represented 13.7% of all US export revenue worldwide and 14.3% of all US jobs supported by all US exports. The economic linkages between the United States and these global health security priority countries illustrate the importance of ensuring that countries have the public health capacities needed to control outbreaks at their source before they become pandemics.
| S-EPMC5734155 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundOne Health approach is crucial to tackling complex global public health threats at the interface of humans, animals, and the environment. As outlined in the One Health Joint Plan of Action, the international One Health community includes stakeholders from different sectors. Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, an academic community for One Health action has been proposed with the aim of promoting the understanding and real-world implementation of One Health approach and contribution towards the Sustainable Development Goals for a healthy planet.Main textThe proposed academic community would contribute to generating high-quality scientific evidence, distilling local experiences as well as fostering an interconnected One Health culture and mindset, among various stakeholders on different levels and in all sectors. The major scope of the community covers One Health governance, zoonotic diseases, food security, antimicrobial resistance, and climate change along with the research agenda to be developed. The academic community will be supported by two committees, including a strategic consultancy committee and a scientific steering committee, composed of influential scientists selected from the One Health information database. A workplan containing activities under six objectives is proposed to provide research support, strengthen local capacity, and enhance global participation.ConclusionsThe proposed academic community for One Health action is a crucial step towards enhancing communication, coordination, collaboration, and capacity building for the implementation of One Health. By bringing eminent global experts together, the academic community possesses the potential to generate scientific evidence and provide advice to local governments and international organizations, enabling the pursuit of common goals, collaborative policies, and solutions to misaligned interests.
| S-EPMC10398903 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Cuba has been largely absent in academic and policy discourse on global health security, yet Cuba's history of medical internationalism and its domestic health system have much to offer contemporary global health security debates. In this paper, we examine what we identify as key traits of Cuban health security, as they play out on both international and domestic fronts. We argue that Cuba demonstrates a strong health security capacity, both in terms of its health systems support and crisis response activities internationally, and its domestic disease control activities rooted in an integrated health system with a focus on universal healthcare. Health security in Cuba, however, also faces challenges. These concern Cuba's visibility and participation in the broader global health security architecture, the social controls exercised by the state in managing disease threats in Cuban territory, and the resource constraints facing the island-in particular, the effects of the US embargo. While Cuba does not frame its disease control activities within the discourse of health security, we argue that the Cuban case demonstrates that it is possible to make strides to improve capacity for health security in resource-constrained settings. The successes and challenges facing health security in Cuba, moreover, provide points of reflection relevant to the pursuit of health security globally and are thus worth further consideration in broader health security discussions.
| S-EPMC7232381 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Ghana Health Service (GHS) has strengthened community-based surveillance (CBS) to facilitate early detection and rapid reporting of health events of all origins. Since June 2017, GHS has employed an event-based surveillance approach at the community level in a phased manner. CBS coverage has broadened from 2 to 30 districts across Ghana. Through this effort, capacity was built across all administrative levels in these districts to detect, report, triage, and verify signals, and to perform risk assessment and investigate events. Data were collected and analyzed during an evaluation of initial 2-district implementation in March 2018 and during expanded 30-district implementation in March 2019. Between September 2018 and March 2019, 317 health events were detected through CBS. These events included vaccine-preventable disease cases, acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis outbreaks, clusters of unexpected animal deaths, and foodborne illness clusters. Eighty-nine percent of the 317 events were reported to district-level public health staff within 24 hours of detection at the community level, and 87% of all detected events were responded to within 48 hours of detection. CBS detected 26% of all suspected vaccine-preventable disease cases that were reported from implementing districts through routine disease surveillance. GHS strengthened CBS in Ghana to function as an early warning system for health events of all origins, advancing the Global Health Security Agenda.
| S-EPMC7418973 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionMany health care trainees and providers have reported feeling unprepared for the ethical dilemmas they faced while practicing in global health. Simulation is an effective teaching modality in the training of health care professionals. This resource describes the development, implementation, and assessment of an innovative simulation training program for global health ethics.MethodsWe conducted simulation training with trainees and professionals from various health care disciplines. After a didactic component in which general ethical principles were introduced, participants acted as either lead or observer in four simulations representing different ethical challenges. Participants interacted with simulated patients within a set designed to resemble a resource-constrained environment. Data on the participants' experiences and evaluations of the program's effectiveness were collected through pre-/postsession surveys and focus groups.ResultsAll 53 participants (100%) agreed that the simulations "effectively highlighted ethical dilemmas I could face abroad," and 98% agreed that the content "was useful in my preparation for an international elective." Responses from surveys and focus groups stressed the importance of the realistic and emotional nature of the simulation in increasing confidence and preparedness, as well as a preference for simulation as the modality for teaching global health ethics.DiscussionSimulation for global health ethics training can help to raise awareness of the complex ethical challenges one may face abroad. Incorporating simulation training within broader global health curricula can improve trainee preparedness and confidence in appropriately and effectively identifying, strategizing, and navigating through ethical dilemmas in the field.
| S-EPMC6338194 | biostudies-literature