The increasing threat of infections with pandemic potential such as influenza has focussed attention on the information needed to inform those managing a pandemic. The Health Protection Agency, Nottingham University and EMIS have developed a new national health protection surveillance system using QRESEARCH, an established primary care-derived database, to provide timely and local information on trends in community illness and prescribing. This article describes the first year of the surveillance project. Data on consultations and prescribing were extracted from routinely generated computerized consultation records between November 2004 and December 2005. Weekly consultation and prescribing rates for a range of conditions including influenza-like illness and prescription of anti-viral drugs for influenza and vomiting were developed as 'key indicators'. These indicators were presented in a weekly bulletin showing data to strategic health authority level for use by those working in public health. The particular value of this scheme is the ability to produce timely data on illness to local level and to link prescribing to morbidity. The data were used 'real time' to reassure about lack of illness following the Buncefield Fuel Depot incident. This scheme is being further developed to provide daily local influenza-related information needed in an influenza pandemic.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdl078 | DOI Listing |
PLoS One
January 2025
Laboratory and Forensic Medicine (I-PPerForM), Institute of Pathology, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Sungai Buloh, Selangor, Malaysia.
Cataracts are significant causes of blindness, closely linked to prolonged hypercholesterolemia. While saffron has the potential for eye health, its effects on lens lesions remain understudied. This study aimed to investigate the effect of saffron on the lens changes in atherosclerotic-induced New Zealand white rabbits (NZWR).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
January 2025
Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02114.
Radon, a common radioactive indoor air pollutant, is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. Knowledge about its distribution is essential for risk assessment and designing efficient protective regulations. However, the three current radon maps for the United States are unable to provide the up-to-date, high-resolution, and time-varying radon concentrations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
January 2025
Department of Economics, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403.
The advent of herbicide-tolerant genetically modified (GM) crops spurred rapid and widespread use of the herbicide glyphosate throughout US agriculture. In the two decades following GM-seeds' introduction, the volume of glyphosate applied in the United States increased by more than 750%. Despite this breadth and scale, science and policy remain unresolved regarding the effects of glyphosate on human health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
January 2025
Evidence-based Public Health, Centre for International Health Protection, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany.
Health system resilience is defined as the ability of a system to prepare, manage, and learn from shocks. This study investigates the resilience of the German health system by analysing the system-related factors that supported health care workers, a key building block of the system, during the COVID-19 pandemic. We thematically analysed data from 18 semi-structured interviews with key informants from management, policy and academia, 17 in-depth interviews with health care workers, and 10 focus group discussions with health care workers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
January 2025
Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
End-user feedback early in product development is important for optimizing multipurpose prevention technologies for HIV and pregnancy prevention. We evaluated the acceptability of the 90-day dapivirine levonorgestrel ring (DPV-LNG ring) used for 14 days compared to a dapivirine-only ring (DVR-200mg) in MTN-030/IPM 041 (n = 23), and when used for 90 days cyclically or continuously in MTN-044/IPM 053/CCN019 (n = 25). We enrolled healthy, non-pregnant, HIV-negative women aged 18-45 in Pittsburgh, PA and Birmingham, AL (MTN-030 only).
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