Viral hepatitis C pandemic: Challenges and threats to its elimination.

Under the WHO plan, the global elimination of the HCV pandemic is scheduled for 2030. The burden of HCV infection in developed countries is largely borne by people who inject drugs (PWID): new infections and reinfections are related to their risky behaviour. Although safe and sensitive hepatitis C diagnostic tools and directly acting antiviral medication are widely used, major challenges to disease elimination still remain in developed countries, where the WHO plan is in progress.

Obstacles and problems in global elimination of viral hepatitis C.

The global elimination of viral hepatitis C (HCV) infection according to WHO plan 2016 is conditioned by controlling the HCV epidemic among people who inject drug (PWID). This high-risk subpopulation has no interest in prevention, diagnostic or treatment of HCV infection. The problem is not only the lack of interest in changing their behaviour pattern, but also inability of health care professionals to conduct efficient assistance to PWID.

[How should we perceive psychosomatic medicine].

Psychosomatic (behavioral) medicine is a field of medicine concerned with the development, integration, and application of knowledge in the biological, behavioral, psychological, and social sciences relevant to health and illness. It offers a broader view on the problem than EBM because in addition to disease also focuses on the patient.

[Motivation for preventive care].

This article outlines those psychological characteristics of preventive and prophylactic work that qualify it as an efficient and effective skill. The transactional analysis model is used for explaining some peculiarities of everyday contact and communication between medical professionals and patients.

[The consultant ("liaison") psychiatrist and psychologist: his position and tasks in non-psychiatric health care facilities].

The author summarizes findings assembled during his 25 years of experience as a consulting psychiatrist in medical and surgical departments. He defines the basic groups of actual problems the solution of which is most frequently needed: states of confusion, depression, crises, psychosomatic problems in the narrower sense of the word, conflicts between patients and staff, psychoprophylactic work and research. He emphasizes the demand of an integrated biopsychosocial approach.

Ethical issues in Czech renal failure.

This paper examines the provision of care for those with renal failure in Czechoslovakia, and concludes that a specific law on transplantation is needed. It was originally presented at a conference in Bratislava in January 1992.

[The psychosomatic approach in clinical practice].

The author summarizes demands essential for successful implementation of the psychosomatic, i.e. biopsychosocial approach in everyday clinical practice.

Changes in the EEG spectrum at a two-week intensive endurance training.

Marathon runners in the course of a two-week endurance training, (i.e. in the beginning, after one and after two weeks) and processed by the off-line method of fast spectral analysis.

Psychometric studies of pirenzepine.

A single dose of 10 mg of pirenzepine given i.m. to 7 healthy volunteers did not elicit local or general signs of intolerance within 6 hours after injection.