An unusual two-strain cholera outbreak in Lebanon, 2022-2023: a genomic epidemiology study.

Cholera is a life-threatening gastrointestinal infection caused by a toxigenic bacterium, Vibrio cholerae. After a lull of almost 30 years, a first case of cholera was detected in Lebanon in October 2022. The outbreak lasted three months, with 8007 suspected cases (671 laboratory-confirmed) and 23 deaths.

Preparing for the next respiratory pathogen pandemic: using tabletop simulation exercises to strengthen national planning in Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Lebanon and Mongolia.

The Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats (PRET) initiative takes an innovative mode-of-transmission approach to pandemic planning by advocating for integrated preparedness and response systems and capacities for groups of pathogens with common transmission pathways. The World Health Organization (WHO) launched this initiative in 2023 with the publication of PRET Module 1 addressing respiratory pathogens. Exercise PanPRET-1 is a customizable tabletop simulation exercise (TTX) package developed to complement PRET Module 1.

Community-led HIV self-testing for men who have sex with men in Lebanon: lessons learned and impact of COVID-19.

Background: In Lebanon, HIV is concentrated in both native and refugee communities of men who have sex with men (MSM). For over 10 years, the National AIDS Program (NAP) has offered HIV voluntary counselling and testing through a partnership with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). In 2018, implementation of HIV self-tests (HIVST) was introduced, and this self-care intervention has been further scaled up during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Predicting sexual risk and sexual health screening in a sample of university students in Lebanon: a cross-sectional study.

Objective: The present study focuses on factors that predict sexual risk behaviors and sexual health screening behaviors in a sample of university students in Lebanon.

Participants: A convenience sample of 250 undergraduate students was recruited at a private university in Beirut, Lebanon.

Methods: Students completed measures of religiosity, psychological distress, contraceptives usage, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/sexually transmitted infections (STI) screening, and sexual risk behaviors.

A case of possible resistance in a woman.

(MG) is an increasingly recognized sexually transmitted infection. In women, MG is particularly associated with endometritis, cervicitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, HIV, and long-term negative reproductive health and obstetric outcomes. In addition, MG has the potential to show resistance to antibiotics.

Child-level double burden of malnutrition in the MENA and LAC regions: Prevalence and social determinants.

Although the prevalence of obesity has rapidly increased in the low- and middle-income countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) regions, child undernutrition remains a public-health challenge. We examined region-specific sociodemographic determinants of this double burden of malnutrition, specifically, the co-occurrence of child stunting and overweight, using Demographic and Health Survey and Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey data (2003-2016) from 11 countries in the MENA (n = 118,585) and 13 countries in the LAC (n = 77,824) regions. We used multiple logistic regressions to model region-specific associations of maternal education and household wealth with child nutritional outcomes (6-59 months).

Bullying Victimization and Use of Substances in High School: Does Religiosity Moderate the Association?

Alcohol, tobacco and other drug use continue to pose serious public health concerns among youth. Bullying victimization has been identified as a risk factor and religiosity a protective factor for adolescent substance use. No previous research has examined the potential moderating role of religiosity.