• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• 제14권4호
• /
• pp.368-374
• /
• 2023

Background: Recognizing that access to safe and healthy working conditions is a human right, the World Health Organization (WHO) calls for specific occupational safety and health (OSH) programs for health workers (HWs). The WHO health systems' building blocks, and the International Labour Organization (ILO), highlight the importance of information as part of effective systems. This study examined how OSH stakeholders access, use, and value an occupational health information system (OHIS). Methods: A cross-sectional survey of OSH stakeholders was conducted as part of a larger quasi experimental study in four teaching hospitals. The study hospitals and participants were purposefully selected and data collected using a modified questionnaire with both closed and open-ended questions. Quantitative analysis was conducted and themes identified for qualitative analysis. Ethics approval was provided by the University of Pretoria and University of British Columbia. Results: There were 71 participants comprised of hospital managers, health and safety representatives, trade unions representatives and OSH professionals. At least 42% reported poor accessibility and poor timeliness of OHIS for decision-making. Only 50% had access to computers and 27% reported poor computer skills. When existing, OHIS was poorly organized and needed upgrades, with 85% reporting the need for significant reforms. Only 45% reported use of OHIS for decision-making in their OSH role. Conclusion: Given the gap in access and utilization of information needed to protect worker's rights to a safe and healthy workplace, more attention is warranted to OHIS development and use as well as education and training in South Africa and beyond.

• Clinical and Experimental Vaccine Research
• /
• 제12권2호
• /
• pp.97-106
• /
• 2023

Purpose: Rabies is a fatal but preventable disease with proper pre-exposure anti-rabies vaccination (ARV). Dogs, as household pets and strays, are the reservoir and vector of the disease, and dog bites have been associated with human rabies cases in Sri Lanka over the past few years. However, other susceptible species having frequent contact with humans may be a source of infection. One such species is sheep and immunity following ARV has never been tested in sheep reared in Sri Lanka. Materials and Methods: We have tested serum samples from sheep reared in the Animal Centre, Medical Research Institute of Sri Lanka for the presence of anti-rabies antibodies following ARV. Sheep serum samples were tested with Bio-Pro Rabies enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) antibody kits used for the first time in Sri Lanka and our results were verified by a seroneutralization method on cells (fluorescent antibody virus neutralization, FAVN test) currently recommended by World Organization for Animal Health and World Health Organization. Results: Sheep received annual ARV and maintained high neutralizing antibody titers in their serum. No maternal antibodies were detected in lamb around 6 months of age. Agreement between the ELISA and FAVN test, i.e., coefficient concordance was 83.87%. Conclusion: Annual vaccination in sheep has an effect on maintaining adequate protection against rabies by measurements of anti-rabies antibody response. Lambs need to be vaccinated earlier than 6 months of age to achieve protective levels of neutralizing antibodies in their serum. Introducing this ELISA in Sri Lanka will be a good opportunity to determine the level of anti-rabies antibodies in animal serum samples.

• 한국안광학회지
• /
• 제9권2호
• /
• pp.241-249
• /
• 2004

1989년 이후 한국에서 국가 면허 제도를 도입한 이후 굴절검사를 할 수 있는 안경사의 수는 증가되어왔다. 현재 그들은 4개의 대학교와 26개의 대학 그리고 3곳의 대학원 과정에서 교육을 받고 있다. 이 같은 한국에서 검안 교육의 성장은 세계검안협회(WCO), 세계보건기구, 그리고 세무역기구와 같은 전 세계적인 영향에 의해 점차적으로 발전되어온 것은 필연적인 것이다. 그러나 현재 한국에는 검안 교육을 위한 표준화된 교육과정은 없다. 따라서 한국안경광학과 교수협의회와 한국안광학회에서는 검안 교육 프로그램을 위한 교과목의 표준화를 개발해야 되고 제공되어져야 한다.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• 제41권2호
• /
• pp.84-91
• /
• 2008

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that cancer killed 7.6 million people in the world in 2005, and that 40% of all cancer deaths can be prevented. According to the WHO Global Action Plan Against Cancer (GAPAC), monitoring of cancer patients is the essential part of cancer control, and should be conducted through cancer registration. Originally, cancer registries were primarily concerned with the description of cancer patterns, trends of cancer occurrence, and etiology of cancer. In the last 20 years, cancer registries provided not only information on the incidence and characteristics of specific cancers, but also supplied the source of cancer control planning and evaluation and the care of individual cancer patients with survival. Cancer Incidence in Five Continents (CI5) presents incidence data from populations all over the world every five year. Volume IX in the series (data for 1998-2002) has recently (November 2007) been published online at International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Nine data from Korea Central Cancer Registry (National data), Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, Incheon, Daejeon, Usan, Jejudo regional cancer registries were included in that volume. In this paper, the editorial process, the characteristics of national data, and quality indices in CI5 IX are being described. In addition, cancer control activities related to cancer registration in some selected countries are also presented.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• 제17권sup1호
• /
• pp.31-36
• /
• 2016

Scientific evidence on all aspects of smoking amongst youth is very important for designing appropriate interventions to reduce smoking among this vulnerable population. This paper describes current access to anti-smoking information among school children aged 13 to 15 years in Vietnam in 2014 and examines its potential impact on preventing smoking initiation. The data used in this paper were obtained from the 2014 Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) in Vietnam. Students were asked questions about their level of awareness of anti-smoking information from various sources in the past 30 days and about lessons in school regarding the dangers of tobacco use during the last 12 months. Those who have never smoked were asked "whether or not they thought about avoiding cigarettes because of health warnings on cigarette packages" and answers were analyzed in combination with data on access to anti-smoking information from other sources. The prevalence of exposure to antismoking campaigns was high among school children in Viet Nam: 55.3% of current smokers reported thoughts of smoking cessation because of health warnings on cigarette packages; 60.5% of never smokers avoided initiating smoking because of the same health warnings. The potential impact of graphic health warnings to prevent school-aged children from smoking initiation would be stronger if there was concurrent access to anti-smoking programs on the dangers of tobacco use in schools. However, school education for tobacco prevention and control has not been as strong as expected. A more comprehensive school curriculum on tobacco prevention and control is recommended to reinforce antismoking messages among school children.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• 제46권3호
• /
• pp.118-126
• /
• 2013

We investigated the major trends in health aid financing in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) by identifying the primary donor organizations and examining several data sources to track overall health aid trends. We collected gross disbursements from bilateral donor countries and international organizations toward the DPRK according to specific health sectors by using the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development creditor reporting system database and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs financial tracking service database. We analyzed sources of health aid to the DPRK from the Republic of Korea (ROK) using the official records from the ROK's Ministry of Unification. We identified the ROK, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) as the major donor entities not only according to their level of health aid expenditures but also their growing roles within the health sector of the DPRK. We found that health aid from the ROK is comprised of funding from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund, private organizations, local governments, and South Korean branches of international organizations such as WHO and UNICEF. We also distinguished medical equipment aid from developmental aid to show that the majority of health aid from the ROK was developmental aid. This study highlights the valuable role of the ROK in the flow of health aid to the DPRK, especially in light of the DPRK's precarious international status. Although global health aid from many international organizations has decreased, organizations such as GFATM and UNFPA continue to maintain their focus on reproductive health and infectious diseases.

• 동의생리병리학회지
• /
• 제21권3호
• /
• pp.776-780
• /
• 2007

Recently World Health Organization Western Pacific Regional Office (WHO/WPRO) has developed the WHO International Standard Terminologies on Traditional Medicine in the Western Pacific Region (IST), and is developing WHO International Classification of Traditional Medicine/Western Pacific Regional Office (ICTM/WPRO). Regarding ICTM, WHO/WPRO hoped that it will be incorporated to International Classification of Disease (ICD) 11$^{th}$ edition, published in 2015. The author reports the proceedings of these two standardizations on terminologies and diseases of traditional medicine in East Asia.

• Toxicological Research
• /
• 제17권
• /
• pp.323-327
• /
• 2001

March 19, 1999, the renovation qf the runway of the Bo-Fai ai1field in Hua Hin, Prachubk-erikhan, Thailand, unearthed chemicals which were left over from the project "anch Hand Operation" held during the Vietnam war era. The chemical mixtures were analyzed by the US EPA, the Department oj Medical Sciences (DMSc), Ministry oj Public Health (MoPH) and the Pollution Control Department (PCD), the Ministry oj Science Technology and Environment (MOSTE) of Thailand, The samples were found to contain several defoliants used in the operation. They were 2,4-D, 2,4,5-T, Dicamba, Cocydelic acid, and Dioxins. Due to the complexity of the issue, the multiplicity of possible health effects, and the socio-economic implications for imports and exports, the Thai Society of Toxicology submitted a proposal to request World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva. The assistance is for the area of chemical safety and called for immediate action to explore the magnitude qf risk involved with Dioxins. In this paper we present our approach to health risk assessment which takes into an account the epidemiological studies of high-risk group exposed to the Ranch Hand operation. Dioxins are endocrine disruption chemicals which public concerns are developed due to presumption that a hazard exists (www.eva.gov/dioxins/html) for which current methodologies are deemed insufficient. The recent concepts of how oxidative stress toxicants may affect health end points and biomarkers of exposure of exposed individuals are discussed. While research activities are undergoing, The Thai Society of Toxicology do not anticipate significant risk to local residents and the environment due to our concurrence with opinion from the international experts invited by the World Health Organization proposed to the local experts at a workshop in Bangkok.n Bangkok.

• 토지주택연구
• /
• 제14권4호
• /
• pp.103-110
• /
• 2023

하루 평균 대부분을 실내에서 보내는 현대인들은 내외부적으로 발생하는 실내오염물질에 지속적으로 노출되고 있다. WHO(World Health Organization) 2022년 보고서에 따르면 매년 세계적으로 약 700만명 이상의 사망 원인이 공기오염으로 실내오염물질의 심각성을 강조하고 있다. 대기오염물질 중에는 인체에 심각한 영향을 끼치는 질소산화물(NOx), 폼알데하이드(HCHO), 휘발성 유기화합물(VOCs) 등이 포함되는데, 이러한 실내공기 오염물질을 제거할 수 있는 물질로 광촉매가 있다. 광촉매는 미세먼지 전구물질 제거 성능뿐만 아니라 향균, 살균, 탈취 성능 또한 가지고 있어, 실내공기질 개선에 효과적이다. 이에, 본 연구에서는 광촉매를 건축물에 적용할 수 있는 부위 및 방안을 제시하였다. 적용 가능한 부위로는 내외장재, 콘크리트 등을 포함한 건축자재, 유기도료, 환기장치 등이 있으며, 각 부위에 최적 적용 방안에 대한 연구를 진행하였다.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• 제52권3호
• /
• pp.179-186
• /
• 2012

Objective : Even in the patients with neurologically good outcome after intracranial aneurysm surgery, their perception of health is an important outcome issue. This study aimed to investigate the quality of life (QOL) and its predictors of patients who had a good outcome following anterior circulation aneurysm surgery as using the World Health Organization Quality of Life instrument-Korean version. Methods : We treated 280 patients with 290 intracranial aneurysms for 2 years. This questionnaire was taken and validated by 99 patients whose Glasgow Outcome Scale score was 4 and more and Global deterioration scale 3 and less at 6 months after the operation, and 85 normal persons. Each domain and facet was compared between the two groups, and a subgroup analysis was performed on the QOL values and hospital expenses of the aneurysm patients according to the type of craniotomy, approach, bleeding of the aneurysm and brain injury. Results : Aneurysm patients showed a lower quality of life compared with control patients in level of independence, psychological, environmental, and spiritual domains. In the environmental domain, there were significant intergroup differences according to the type of craniotomy and the surgical approach used on the patients (p<0.05). The hospital charges were also significantly different according to the type of craniotomy (p<0.05). Conclusion : Despite good neurological status, patients surgically treated for anterior circulation aneurysm have a low quality of life. The craniotomy size may affect the QOL of patients who underwent an anterior circulation aneurysm surgery and exhibited a good outcome.