Health Equity: 05/15/08

Thursday, May 15, 2008

[EQ] International Conference on Urban Health

The 7th International Conference on Urban Health

October 29-31, 2008. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

The conference theme: Knowledge Integration: Successful Interventions in Urban Health

Website: http://www.icuh2008.com/

Abstract Deadline May 31, 2008 http://www.icuh2008.com/guidelines.htm

Abstracts should be submitted under the following tracks:

1.     Adolescent and Child Health
2.     Aging and Health in Urban Settings
3.     Best Practices in Meeting Urban Health Challenges
4.     Community Approaches to Urban Health
5.     Diversity and Urban Health
6.     Drug Use, Mental Health and the Urban Environment
7.     Enforcement, Security and Urban Health
8.     Environmental Health and Justice in Urban Settings
9.     Migration
10.   Neighbourhood-Level Influences on Health
11.   Urban Health from a Global Perspective
12.   Urban Physical Environment and Health
13.   Urban Social Environment and Health

Speakers:

Jo Ivey Boufford, President of The New York Academy of Medicine

Trudy Harpham, Professor of Urban Development and Policy at London South Bank University, Chair of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, Honorary Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, former member of the US National Academy of Science's Expert Panel on Urban Population Dynamics

Jacob Kumaresan, Director, World Health Organization Kobe Centre, which has the mission to nurture, support and sustain excellence and innovation in public health research on health in development. The WHO Kobe Centre was selected as the hub to manage the Knowledge Network on Urban Settings of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health.

Roderick Lawrence, Project Manager, Swiss Virtual Campus project SUPPREM (Sustainability and Public or Private Environmental Management) and Director of the Continuing Education course on sustainable development and Agenda 21 at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.

Julio Montaner, Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, President-Elect, International AIDS Society, Director, British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and a founding co-Director of the Canadian HIV Trials Network

Hans Rosling, Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, co-founder of Médecines sans Frontiers in Sweden and member of the International Counsel of the Swedish Academy of Science.

Anthony Zwi is Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine and Associate Dean (International) at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

Scholarship Guidelines:

Application Deadline May 31, 2008

http://www.icuh2008.com/scholarship_guidelines.htm

Anita Palepu - Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Senior Scholar, Associate Professor of Medicine
Division of Internal Medicine - University of British Columbia - Co-editor, Open Medicine

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[EQ] Blood Services in Central Asian Health Systems - Clear and Present Danger of Spreading HIV/AIDS and Other Infectious Diseases

Blood Services in Central Asian Health Systems:

A Clear and Present Danger of Spreading HIV/AIDS and Other Infectious Diseases

Patricio V. Marquez, Lead Health Specialist
Europe and Central Asia Region Human Development Unit and Central Asia Country Management Unit

The World Bank in collaboration with U.S. CDC/CAR, USAID and WHO-EURO

Global HIV/AIDS Program, World Bank – May 2008

Available online as PDF file [67p.] at:
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTECAREGTOPHEANUT/Resources/cabloodbankstudy.pdf

“…Understanding how communicable diseases spread is key to controlling them. Blood transfusions are a small contributor to communicable disease transmission compared to other well-reported modes, but ensuring the safety of the blood supply in a health system is largely within the purview of national governments…”

“…The report discusses inter-related parts of blood transfusions systems, and presents an overview of the parts that need to be strengthened in Central Asia. Numerous parts are in serious need of organizational restructuring, new investment and increased budgetary support for operation and maintenance.

This report sets them out such that each can be addressed in turn – and some simultaneously. The report also discusses the health threat posed by alarmingly low levels of blood supplies, fostered by a culture that places little value on donating blood, public fear of being infected by giving blood, and the near absence of donor promotion campaigns.

Evaluating communicable diseases rates in blood donors is essential for monitoring the safety of the blood supply and donor screening effectiveness. This assessment found that the current screening for blood borne pathogens of donated blood in Central Asia may be providing a false sense of security -- the risk of receiving an infected blood unit and acquiring a transfusion transmitted infection in the countries of the region is real. More ominous is the fact that some health facilities in Central Asia do not test blood donations at all. This means that the transmission risks indicated in this study may be conservative estimates, as they are based on a sample that excludes the blood that never reaches the existing screening system….”

Content:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PREFACE

CHAPTER I: THE BURDEN OF COMMUNICABLE DISEASES

CHAPTER II: WHY ARE BLOOD TRANSFUSION SERVICES IMPORTANT IN A HEALTH SYSTEM?

A. Clinical use of blood and its products

B. Availability of blood supplies

C. Testing for blood borne infections

D. HIV infection through blood transfusions

E. Recommended strategy for strengthening blood transfusion services

F. The challenge in Central Asia

CHAPTER III: STATE OF BLOOD TRANSFUSION SERVICES AND SAFETY OF THE BLOOD SUPPLY IN CENTRAL ASIA

A. Methodology

B. Main Findings of the Overall Assessment

1. Status of blood transfusion services in Central Asia

2. How safe is the blood supply in Central Asia?

3. Level of infection among blood donors

4. How have governments responded to the findings of this assessment?

5. Ongoing support from international agencies

CHAPTER IV: RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE BLOOD SERVICES IN CENTRAL ASIAN HEALTH SYSTEMS

A. Develop national blood program and improve its stewardship

B. Address chronic under-financing of blood transfusion services

C. Improve the quality of transfusion services and related medical practice

D. Strengthen preventive public health and primary health care programs to reduce the supply-demand gap for blood transfusion.

E. Foster regional communication and collaboration arrangements among the Central Asian countries

F. Are these interventions cost-effective?

THE WAY FORWARD

Annex 1: Status of Health-related MDGs in Central Asia

Annex 2: Methodology for Assessing Accuracy of Blood Screening in Central Asia

Annex 3: Questionnaire: Blood Donor Information

References

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[EQ] Socioeconomic status and health: The role of subjective social status

Socioeconomic status and health: The role of subjective social status

Panayotes Demakakos a,*, James Nazroo b, Elizabeth Breeze a, Michael Marmot a

a Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, United Kingdom

b Department of Sociology, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
Social Science & Medicine (2008), doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.03.040

Website: Preview - PDF (254 K)

“….Studies have suggested that subjective social status (SSS) is an important predictor of health. This study examined the link between SSS and health in old age and investigated whether SSS mediated the associations between objective indicators of socioeconomic status and health. It used cross-sectional data from the second wave (2004–2005) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, which were collected through personal interviews and nurse visits. The study population consisted of 3368 men and 4065 women aged 52 years or older.

The outcome measures included: self-rated health, long-standing illness, depression, hypertension, diabetes, central obesity, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol,

triglycerides, fibrinogen, and C-reactive protein. The main independent variable was SSS measured using a scale representing a 10-rung ladder. Wealth, education, and occupational class were employed as covariates along with age and marital status and also, in additional analyses, as the main independent variables. Gender-specific logistic and linear regression analyses were performed. In age-adjusted analyses SSS was related positively to almost all health outcomes.

Many of these relationships remained significant after adjustment for covariates. In men, SSS was significantly ( p [1] 0.05) related to self rated health, depression, and long-standing illness after adjustment for all covariates, while its association with fibrinogen became non-significant. In women, after adjusting for all covariates, SSS was significantly associated with self-rated health, depression, long-standing illness, diabetes, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, but its associations with central obesity and C-reactive protein became non-significant.

Further analysis suggested that SSS mediated fully or partially the associations between education, occupational class and self-reported and clinical health measures. On the contrary, SSS did not mediate wealth’s associations with the outcome measures, except those with self reported health measures. Our results suggest that SSS is an important correlate of health in old age, possibly because of its ability to epitomize life-time achievement and socioeconomic status….”

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