Influenza research in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: the current state and the way forward.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Kayali G
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4634261 | biostudies-other | 2013 Nov
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
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Project description:Abstract Avian influenza viruses have had a significant burden of disease on animal and public health in countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region. In this review, we aimed at describing the state of avian influenza in the region from 2011 to 2021. We gathered information available through the peer‐reviewed scientific literature, public gene sequence depositories, OIE World Animal Health Information System platform, World Health Organization FluNet, Joint External Evaluation reports, and governmental, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and World Organization for Animal Health websites. We used an interdisciplinary perspective consistent with the One Health approach to perform a qualitative synthesis and making recommendations. Analysis showed that although avian influenza research in the Eastern Mediterranean Region has gained more attention during the last decade, it was limited to only few countries and to basic science research. Data highlighted the weakness in surveillance systems and reporting platforms causing underestimation of the actual burden of disease among humans and animals. Inter‐sectoral communication and collaboration for avian influenza prevention, detection, and response remain weak. Influenza surveillance at the human‐animal interface and the application of the One Health paradigm are lacking. Countries' animal health and public health sectors rarely publish their surveillance data and findings. This review suggested that surveillance at the human‐animal interface, research, and reporting capacities should be enhanced to improve understanding and control of avian influenza in the region. Implementing a rapid and comprehensive One Health approach for zoonotic influenza in the Eastern Mediterranean Region is recommended.
| S-EPMC10123394 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundDespite their importance, the number of outcomes research studies conducted in India are lesser than other countries. Information about the distribution of existing outcomes research resources and relevant expertise can benefit researchers and research groups interested in conducting outcomes research studies and policy makers interested in funding outcomes research studies in India. We have reviewed the literature to identify and map resources described in outcomes research studies conducted in India.MethodsWe reviewed the following online biomedical databases: Pubmed, SCIRUS, CINAHL, and Google scholar and selected articles that met the following criteria: published in English, conducted on Indian population, providing information about outcomes research resources (databases/registries/electronic medical records/electronic healthcare records/hospital information systems) in India and articles describing outcomes research studies or epidemiological studies based on outcomes research resources. After shortlisting articles, we abstracted data into three datasets viz. 1. Resource dataset, 2. Bibliometric dataset and 3. Researcher dataset and carried out descriptive analysis.ResultsOf the 126 articles retrieved, 119 articles were selected for inclusion in the study. The tally increased to 133 articles after a secondary search. Based on the information available in the articles, we identified a total of 91 unique research resources. We observed that most of the resources were Registries (62/91) and Databases ( 23/91) and were primarily located in Maharashtra (19/91) followed by Tamil Nadu (11/91), Chandigarh (8/91) and Kerala (7/91) States. These resources primarily collected data on Cancer (44/91), Stroke (5/91) and Diabetes (4/91). Most of these resources were Institutional (38/91) and Regional resources (35/91) located in Government owned and managed Academic Institutes/Hospitals (57/91) or Privately owned and managed non - Academic Institutes/Hospitals (14/91). Data from the Population based Cancer Registry, Mumbai was used in 41 peer reviewed publications followed by Population based Cancer Registry, Chennai (17) and Rural Cancer Registry Barshi (14). Most of the articles were published in International journals (139/193) that had an impact factor of 0-1.99 (43/91) and received an average of 0-20 citations (55/91). We identified 193 researchers who are mainly located in Maharashtra (37/193) and Tamil Nadu (24/193) states and Southern (76/193) and Western zones (47/193). They were mainly affiliated to Government owned & managed Academic Institutes /Hospitals (96/193) or privately owned and managed Academic Institutes/ Hospitals (35/193).ConclusionsGiven the importance of Outcomes research, relevant resources should be supported and encouraged which would help in the generation of important healthcare data that can guide health and research policy. Clarity about the distribution of outcomes research resources can facilitate future resource and funding allocation decisions for policy makers as well as help them measure research performance over time.
| S-EPMC3804670 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic have led to unprecedented global research activity. The Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) continues to contribute to COVID-19 research driven by the unique challenges of the region, including the protracted conflicts, already stressed health systems, and serious health and social inequalities.ObjectiveThis study aims to provide an overview of the publication activities and trends in COVID-19 research in the EMR from the onset of the disease to early 2022 using bibliometric methods.MethodsA literature search using Scopus was conducted from December 1, 2019, to January 31, 2022, using keywords relevant to COVID-19 and the World Health Organization (WHO) EMR country list. Data were exported and analyzed using Microsoft Excel and the Citation Overview function on Scopus. The quality of journals was determined using SCImago Journal Rank and CiteScore. VOSviewer software was used to visualize the relationships between authors, countries, and key terms used in the retrieved documents.ResultsA total of 6880 documents were retrieved, of which 1805 (26.24%) were from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and 1782 (25.90%) from Iran, followed by Pakistan, Egypt, and Jordan. Most published documents were affiliated with EMR universities, primarily the Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran and King Saud University in KSA (396/6880, 5.76%, and 370/6880, 5.4%, respectively), while only 407 (5.92%) of 6880 documents were associated with universities outside the EMR. For most of the identified publications (5020/6880, 72.97%), no funding source was reported, while King Saud University contributed the largest share (282/1860, 15.16%) of funded publications. Retrieved documents were cited 53,516 times, with an average of 7.78 (SD 34.30). Iran was the EMR country with the most links to other countries (77 links and total link strength of 1279). The 5 authors with the most publications were from KSA, Qatar, and Jordan. There were 290 high-frequency keywords that occurred ≥10 times and were linked in 7 different clusters. The cluster with the most linked keywords was related to epidemiology and mortality. Recent topics included vaccines, vaccination, machine learning, and online learning.ConclusionsThis is the first study to show trends in and project future developments of COVID-19 research activity in the EMR. Authors and institutions who led research on COVID-19 in the region were from Iran and KSA. There were multiple regional collaborative efforts; however, international collaboration was limited. Recently, interest has been shifting toward topics related to vaccination, machine learning, and online learning. Understanding the current state of research is instrumental to future research production, and our study will inform regional research initiatives on emerging concepts, as well as opportunities for collaboration and funding.
| S-EPMC9384956 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Waterpipe tobacco smoking (WTS) rates in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) are the highest worldwide, particularly among young people. Although fiscal policies to curb tobacco use have been recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), implementation has been suboptimal. The Eastern Mediterranean Consortium on the Economics of Waterpipe Tobacco Smoking (ECON-WTS) was formed in response to this need to produce knowledge on the economics of WTS in the EMR and apply a comprehensive Knowledge translation (KT) framework. The KT framework comprised priority setting, evidence synthesis, knowledge translation, and knowledge uptake. In this article, we discuss the approaches followed in applying the KT framework to WTS control, providing examples and noting challenges and lessons learned where possible.
| S-EPMC10797642 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundRates of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are rapidly rising in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). Systematic reviews satisfy the demand from practitioners and policy makers for prompt comprehensive evidence. The aim of this study is to review trends in NCD systematic reviews research output and quality by time and place, describe design and focus, and examine gaps in knowledge produced.MethodsUsing the Montori et al. systematic reviews filter, MeSH and keywords were applied to search Medline Ovid, Cochrane Central and Epistemonikos for publications from 1996 until 2015 in the 22 countries of the EMR. The 'Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews', AMSTAR, was used to assess the methodological quality of the papers.ResultsOur search yielded 2439 papers for abstract and title screening, and 89 papers for full text screening. A total of 39 (43.8%) studies included meta-analysis. Most of the papers were judged as being of low AMSTAR quality (83.2%), and only one paper was judged as being of high AMSTAR quality. Whilst annual number of papers increased over the years, the growth was mainly attributed to an increase in low-quality publications approaching in 2015 over four times the number of medium-quality publications. Reviews were significantly more likely to be characterized by higher AMSTAR scores (±SD) when meta-analysis was performed compared to when meta-analysis was not performed (3.4 ± 1.5 vs 2.6 ± 2.0; p-value = 0.034); and when critical appraisal of the included studies was conducted (4.3 ± 2.3 vs 2.5 ± 1.5; p-value = 0.004). Most of the reviews focused on cancer and diabetes as an outcome (25.8% and 24.7%, respectively), and on smoking, dietary habits and physical activity as exposures (15.7%, 12.4%, 9.0%, respectively). There was a blatant deficit in reviews examining associations between behaviors and physiologic factors, notably metabolic conditions.ConclusionsSystematic reviews research in the EMR region are overwhelmingly of low quality, with gaps in the literature for studies on cardiovascular disease and on associations between behavioral factors and intermediary physiologic parameters. This study raises awareness of the need for high-quality evidence guided by locally driven research agenda responsive to emerging needs in countries of the EMR.
| S-EPMC7082905 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The study provides the rationale, history and current status of the Index Medicus for the World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Region. The Index is unique in combining the geographic coverage of peer-reviewed health and biomedical journals (408 titles) from the 22 countries of the Region. Compiling and publishing the Index coupled with a document delivery service is an integral part of the WHO Regional Office's knowledge management and sharing programme. In this paper, bibliometric indicators are presented to demonstrate the distribution of journals, articles, languages, subjects and authors as well as availability in printed and electronic formats. Two countries in the Region (Egypt and Pakistan) contribute over 50% of the articles in the Index. About 90% of the articles are published in English. Epidemiology articles represent 8% of the entire Index. 15% of the journals in the Index are also indexed in MEDLINE, while 7% are indexed in EMBASE. Future developments of the Index will include covering more journals and adding other types of health and biomedical literature, including reports, theses, books and current research. The challenges and lessons learnt are discussed.
| S-EPMC2565659 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Seasonal influenza represents a huge health burden, resulting in significant mortality and morbidity. Following the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, focus has been directed on the burden of influenza globally. Country and regional disease burden estimates play important roles in helping inform decisions on national influenza intervention programmes. Despite improvements in influenza surveillance following the 2009 pandemic, many opportunities remain unexplored in the Eastern Mediterranean and North African (EMNA) region, which has a high prevalence of patients with chronic disease and thus a population at high risk of influenza complications. We conducted a systematic literature review of Embase, Medline, Scopus and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews from 1 January 1998 to 31 January 2020 covering the EMNA region with the aim to describe the epidemiology of influenza in the region and assess the influenza epidemiological surveillance research landscape. Relevant data on study characteristics, population, clinical/virology characteristics and epidemiology were extracted and summarised descriptively. Of the 112 studies identified for inclusion, 90 were conducted in the Eastern Mediterranean region, 19 in North Africa and three across the EMNA region. Data were reported on 314,058 laboratory-confirmed influenza cases, 96 of which were derived from surveillance systems. Amongst the surveillance studies, the percentage of positive cases reported ranged from 1% to 100%. The predominantly identified influenza strain was strain A; H1N1 was the most prominent circulating subtype. Typing was performed in approximately 75% and subtyping in 50% of studies, respectively. Data on those considered most at risk for influenza complications were collected in 21% of studies, highlighting a regional gap for these data. Our review reveals existing gaps in regional estimates of influenza health and economic burden, hospitalisation rates and duration, and highlights the need for robust and high-quality epidemiology data to help inform public health interventions.
| S-EPMC8742167 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundSeasonal influenza vaccine can reduce the risk of influenza-associated hospitalizations and deaths among children. Given that parents are the primary decision makers, this study examined the parental attitude toward childhood influenza vaccine and identified determinants of vaccine hesitancy (VH) in the Eastern Mediterranean region (EMR).MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted using an anonymous online survey in 14 EMR countries. Parents of children aged 6 months to 18 years were included. The Parent Attitude about Childhood Vaccines (PACV) was used to assess VH. Chi square test and independent t-test were used to test for association of qualitative and quantitative variables, respectively. A structural equations model (SEM) was used to identify direct and indirect determinants of parental VH.ResultsAlmost half of the parents were hesitant about vaccinating their children against influenza (50.8%). Parental VH was significantly higher among older mothers (37.06 ± 8.8 years, p = 0.006), rural residents (53.6%, p < 0.001), high-income countries residents (50.6%, p < 0.001), and mothers with higher educational levels (52.1%, p < 0.001). Parents of school-aged children (5-9 years) (55.6%, p < 0.001), children free from any comorbidities (52.5%, p < 0.001), children who did not receive routine vaccination at all (51.5%, p = 0.03), children who were not vaccinated against COVID-19 (54.3%, p < 0.001), in addition to parents who were not vaccinated against influenza (57.1%, p < 0.001) were significantly associated with increased likelihood of VH. Parents who were depending on healthcare provider as a source of information regarding vaccines were less likely to report VH (47.9%, p < 0.001), meanwhile those who used social media as their source of health information showed a significantly higher VH (57.2%, p < 0.001). The SEM suggested that mother's age, residence, country income level, child gender, total number of children and source of information regarding vaccines had a direct effect on VH. Meanwhile, parents vaccinated against influenza, children completely or partially vaccinated with routine vaccines and children vaccinated against Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had an indirect effect on VH.ConclusionA high proportion of included parents were hesitant to vaccinate their children against seasonal influenza. This attitude is due to many modifiable and non-modifiable factors that can be targeted to improve vaccination coverage.
| S-EPMC10086336 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background: The progress and innovation in telemedicine within the Middle Eastern countries have not been heavily monitored. Therefore, the present study aims to analyze the scholarly work conducted in the Arab world, using reproducible statistical and scientometric techniques. Methods: An electronic search of Web of Science (core database) had been conducted through use of an extensive search strategy comprising of keywords specific to the Arab region, EMRO countries, telehealth, medical conditions, and disorders. A total yield of 1,630 search results were processed, indexed through July 7, 2020. CiteSpace (5.7.R1, Drexel University, Pennsylvania, USA) is a Java-based application, a user-friendly tool for conducting scientometric analyses. Results: The present analyses found a lack of innovation in the field of digital health in the Arab countries. Many gaps in research were found in Arab countries, which will be discussed subsequently. Digital health research was clustered around themes of big data and artificial intelligence; a lack of progress was seen in telemedicine and digital health. Furthermore, only a small proportion of these publications had principal or corresponding authors from Arab countries. A clear disparity in digital health research in the Arab world was evident after comparing these insights with our previous investigation on telemedicine research in the global context. Conclusion: Telemedicine research is still in its infancy in the Middle Eastern countries. Recommendations include diversification of the research landscape and interdisciplinary collaborations in this area.
| S-EPMC8521801 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:Aedes-borne diseases as dengue, zika, chikungunya and yellow fever are an emerging problem worldwide, being transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Lack of up to date information about the distribution of Aedes species hampers surveillance and control. Global databases have been compiled but these did not capture data in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), and any models built using these datasets fail to identify highly suitable areas where one or both species may occur. The first objective of this study was therefore to update the existing Ae. aegypti (Linnaeus, 1762) and Ae. albopictus (Skuse, 1895) compendia and the second objective was to generate species distribution models targeted to the EMR. A final objective was to engage the WHO points of contacts within the region to provide feedback and hence validate all model outputs. METHODS:The Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus compendia provided by Kraemer et al. (Sci Data 2:150035, 2015; Dryad Digit Repos, 2015) were used as starting points. These datasets were extended with more recent species and disease data. In the next step, these sets were filtered using the Köppen-Geiger classification and the Mahalanobis distance. The occurrence data were supplemented with pseudo-absence data as input to Random Forests. The resulting suitability and maximum risk of establishment maps were combined into hard-classified maps per country for expert validation. RESULTS:The EMR datasets consisted of 1995 presence locations for Ae. aegypti and 2868 presence locations for Ae. albopictus. The resulting suitability maps indicated that there exist areas with high suitability and/or maximum risk of establishment for these disease vectors in contrast with previous model output. Precipitation and host availability, expressed as population density and night-time lights, were the most important variables for Ae. aegypti. Host availability was the most important predictor in case of Ae. albopictus. Internal validation was assessed geographically. External validation showed high agreement between the predicted maps and the experts' extensive knowledge of the terrain. CONCLUSION:Maps of distribution and maximum risk of establishment were created for Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus for the WHO EMR. These region-specific maps highlighted data gaps and these gaps will be filled using targeted monitoring and surveillance. This will increase the awareness and preparedness of the different countries for Aedes borne diseases.
| S-EPMC5813415 | biostudies-literature