Liver Cancer and Risk Factors in the MENA Region: Epidemiology and Temporal Trends Based on the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Data.

Background: Liver cancer (LivCa) is a growing concern in the MENA region, driven by diverse factors, including viral hepatitis, lifestyle-related risks, and other causes.

Methods: Utilizing GBD 2019 data, we assessed LivCa patterns, emphasizing chronic viral hepatitis, non-viral factors, and health care disparities across the MENA region.

Results: Rising LivCa rates, particularly related to chronic viral hepatitis, highlight the region's health challenges.

An effectiveness-implementation hybrid trial of phone-based tobacco cessation interventions in the Lebanese primary healthcare system: protocol for project PHOENICS.

Background: Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the world. Lebanon has an exceptionally high tobacco use burden. The World Health Organization endorses smoking cessation advice integrated into primary care settings as well as easily accessible and free phone-based counseling and low-cost pharmacotherapy as standard of practice for population-level tobacco dependence treatment.

Lung Cancer and Risk Factors in Lebanon: Epidemiology, Temporal Trends, and Comparison to Countries From Different Regions in the World.

Background: Lung cancer (Lca) is the leading cause of cancer morbidity and mortality worldwide. This study examines the Lca incidence and trends in Lebanon and compares them to regional and global ones. It also discusses Lca risk factors in Lebanon.

University students' intentions to seek psychological counseling, attitudes toward seeking psychological help, and stigma.

Background: Mental health problems are prevalent among university students worldwide. Studies have shown that most students do not disclose and do not get the psychological help and support they need.

Objectives: This survey aims to investigate the intentions to seek psychological counseling (ISC) among university students, their attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help (ATSPPH), and the predictors of those intentions and attitudes including stigma.

Review of the neglected tropical diseases programme implementation during 2012-2019 in the WHO-Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Introduction: The 2012-2020 WHO NTD roadmap set targets for control, elimination, and eradication of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). It recommends 5 strategies, out of which preventive chemotherapy (PC) and intensified disease management were key to achieve targets. WHO estimated that globally, between 2012 and 2019, the number of persons affected by NTDs decreased from nearly 2.

The effect of a patient informative leaflet on chronic use of proton pump inhibitors in a primary care center: a randomized control trial.

Background: Chronic non-medically indicated PPIs are highly prescribed worldwide. The long-term side effects of PPI must be wisely considered during an extended prescription duration. Our study purpose is to assess the impact of providing patients and physicians with educational guides on the rates of reducing or eliminating PPIs.

Carbocisteine as a Modulator of Nrf2/HO-1 and NFκB Interplay in Rats: New Inspiration for the Revival of an Old Drug for Treating Ulcerative Colitis.

Ulcerative colitis (UC), an inflammatory bowel disease, is a chronic condition of a multifaceted pathophysiology. The incidence of UC is increasing internationally. The current therapies for UC lack relative effectiveness and are associated with adverse effects.

United for dignity: four strategic shifts to get to zero leprosy by 2030.

Leprosy, or Hansen's disease, is a curable infectious disease caused by the bacillus M. leprae. In 1991, the World Health Assembly WHA44.

Cervix Uteri Cancer in Lebanon: Incidence, Temporal Trends, and Comparison to Countries From Different Regions in the World.

Background: Invasive cervix uteri cancer is the fourth most common malignancy in women globally. This study investigates the incidence and trends of cervix uteri cancer in Lebanon, a country in the Middle East, and compares these rates to regional and global ones.

Methods: Data on cervix uteri were obtained from the Lebanese national cancer registry for the currently available years 2005 to 2016.

Prostate Cancer in Lebanon: Incidence, Temporal Trends, and Comparison to Countries From Different Regions in the World.

Background: Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy in men globally. This study aims at investigating the incidence rates and trends of prostate cancer in Lebanon, and to compare them to those of countries from different regions in the world.

Methods: Data on prostate cancer were obtained from the Lebanese national cancer registry for the years 2005 to 2016.

Promoting family practice-based model of care: the role of WHO's professional diploma in family medicine in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Strengthening Primary Health Care (PHC) through family practice-based model of care is an essential bedrock in achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC), as called for in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3, target 3.8. However, the shortage of family practitioners worldwide and in most countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) is a daunting challenge.

Prescribing antibiotics in adults with respiratory tract infections in Lebanon.

Introduction: Antibiotic resistance is a global concern that has significant health and economic burden. The inappropriate use of antibiotics is a major cause of antibiotic resistance; this includes both unnecessary and incorrect prescriptions. Most antibiotics are prescribed in primary care, mainly for respiratory tract infections.

Colorectal Cancer in Lebanon: Incidence, Temporal Trends, and Comparison to Regional and Western Countries.

Global trends in the incidence and mortality rates of colorectal cancer show a steady increase with significant predilection to western developed countries, possibly linking it to westernized lifestyles among other risk factors. This study aims to investigate the incidence and trends of colorectal cancer in Lebanon, a country in the Middle East and North Africa region, and to compare these rates to those in regional and western countries. Colorectal cancer incidence data were extracted from the Lebanese National Cancer Registry for the currently available years 2005 to 2016.

Effectiveness of incentivised adherence and abstinence monitoring in buprenorphine maintenance: a pragmatic, randomised controlled trial.

Background And Aim: Buprenorphine (BUP) maintenance treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) begins with supervised daily dosing. We estimated the clinical effectiveness of a novel incentivised medication adherence and abstinence monitoring protocol in BUP maintenance to enable contingent access to increasing take-home medication supplies.

Design: Two-arm, single-centre, pragmatic, randomised controlled trial of outpatient BUP maintenance, with during-treatment follow-ups at 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks and 16 weeks.

Primary care physicians' awareness and perceptions on adherence to primary cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines in Lebanon: A cross-sectional study.

Objectives: To assess the awareness and have an insight on practice patterns of primary care physicians (PCPs) with respect to several professional primary cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) preventive guidelines.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, questionnaire-based using a non-probability convenience sampling. Data collection occurred at the annual conferences of the Lebanese Societies of General Practice, Family Medicine, and Internal Medicine in Lebanon.

Alternative feed ingredients in the finisher diets for sustainable broiler production.

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the utilization of alternative protein feed ingredients including sunflower meal (SFM), corn gluten meal (CGM), and dried distillers' grains with solubles (DDGS) as a mixture in a partial replacement of soybean meal (SBM) in broiler finisher diets with different protein levels and also to evaluate their effect on birds' performance, environmental aspects of litter, cecal microbes, and economic prospects. A total of 576 (19 days old) Cobb 500 broiler chicks were fed eight finisher diets consisting of 4 control (CTL) diets based on SBM with different crude protein (CP) levels (CTL21, CTL20, CTL19, and CTL18, containing 21%, 20%, 19%, and 18% CP, respectively) and 4 test diets with alternative protein sources (APS21, APS20, APS19, and APS18, containing 21%, 20%, 19%, and 18% CP, respectively) using a 15% combination of alternative protein sources (2.5% CGM, 5% SFM, and 7.

Dataset for describing the diversity of household farming systems and the degree of crop-livestock diversification and integration in the Western part of Nile valley (Egypt).

The CLIMED household farm dataset comes from a data collection conducted from 2013 to 2014 in five zones of the New Reclaimed Lands in the western part of the Nile Delta (Egypt). The main objective was to describe the diversity of household farms' assets and activities, the degree of crop and livestock integration at the farm level to assess the link between integration, diversification, efficiency, and livelihoods. This data set permitted to compare the diversity of farming systems of 175 household farms and to assess the economic and technical performances of crop-livestock systems along a geographical transect of reclaimed desert lands in Egypt.

A Pilot Intervention to Promote Positive Parenting in Refugees from Syria in Lebanon and Jordan.

Background: Early childhood development (ECD) is a crucial milestone that shapes a child's health, wellbeing, education, and personality. Several factors come into play, and each requires the nurturing care of caregivers. Although the importance of ECD is well understood, the implementation of ECD programs is scarce, especially in poor and vulnerable communities.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis in Syria: A review of available data during the war years: 2011-2018.

Background: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) has historically been reported from Syria. Since 2011, the country has been affected by a war, which has impacted health and health services. Over the same period, an increase in the number of cases of CL has been reported from several areas across the country and by a number of authors.

Mitomycin C-augmented Phacotrabeculectomy Versus Phacoemulsification in Primary Angle-closure Glaucoma: A Randomized Controlled Study.

Precis: Phacotrabeculectomy yielded similar results to phacoemulsification in primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG) in terms of intraocular pressure (IOP) lowering, glaucoma medications and success rates. Although releasable sutures may have reduced the risk of hypotony; complications and interventions were more common with phacotrabeculectomy.

Purpose: To compare the efficacy and safety of phacotrabeculectomy using releasable sutures and adjunctive mitomycin C versus phacoemulsification alone in the management of PACG.

AM-1241 CB2 Receptor Agonist Attenuates Inflammation, Apoptosis and Stimulate Progenitor Cells in Bile Duct Ligated Rats.

Background: The cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2) plays a pleiotropic role in the innate immunity and is considered a crucial mediator of liver disease. Cannabinoid CB2 receptor activation has been reported to attenuate liver fibrosis in CCl4 exposed mice and also plays a potential role in liver regeneration in a mouse model of I/R and protection against alcohol-induced liver injury.

Aim: In this study, we investigated the impact of CB2 receptors on the antifibrotic and regenerative process associated with cholestatic liver injury.