Monitoring the quality of medicines plays a crucial role in an integrated medicines quality assurance system. In a publicly available medicines quality database (MQDB), the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) reports results of data collected from medicines quality monitoring (MQM) activities spanning the period of 2003-2013 in 17 countries of Africa, Asia, and South America. The MQDB contains information on 15,063 samples collected and tested using Minilab® screening methods and/or pharmacopeial methods. Approximately 71% of the samples reported came from Asia, 23% from Africa, and 6% from South America. The samples collected and tested include mainly antibiotic, antimalarial, and antituberculosis medicines. A total of 848 samples, representing 5.6% of total samples, failed the quality test. The failure proportion per region was 11.5%, 10.4%, and 2.9% for South America, Africa, and Asia, respectively. Eighty-one counterfeit medicines were reported, 86.4% of which were found in Asia and 13.6% in Africa. Additional analysis of the data shows the distribution of poor-quality medicines per region and by therapeutic indication as well as possible trends of counterfeit medicines.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.14-0535 | DOI Listing |
South Afr J HIV Med
December 2024
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Medical School, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, United States of America.
Access to adolescent-friendly, culturally relevant and stigma-free mental health support is essential for reducing the long-term psychological, social and economic challenges of mental illness of youth living with HIV (YLWH). Now more than ever, innovative task-shifting interventions, through which non-mental health professionals provide mental health support to YLWH, need to be explored and supported. While many of these have considered shifting tasks to nurses, tapping into the wisdom and inspiration from artists in the community where YLWH are living could represent a novel and potentially powerful task-shifting strategy.
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December 2024
Departamento de Medicina Intensiva del Adulto, Facultad de Medicina.
Chile is a South American country that spans 4,300 km from north to south. Population density and access to critical care are highly concentrated in Santiago's metropolitan region. After the educational challenges posed by the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, our critical care department at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago created the Respiratory Therapy Postgraduate Certificate as an educational intervention to address the shortage of healthcare professionals with knowledge and skills in performing respiratory support in critically ill patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMed J Aust
January 2025
International Centre for Future Health Systems, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW.
Objectives: To assess the distribution of health care expenditure (public and private) for primary care and primary health care as proportions of overall health care funding.
Study Design: The Primary Care Spend model; estimated distribution of expenditure for three tiers of primary care services by provider and function.
Setting: Primary Care Spend model applied to Australian health expenditure, public and private, 2020-21, from a health sector perspective, as recorded by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Neotrop Entomol
January 2025
Lab of Environmental Sciences and Biodiversity, Univ Estadual do Maranhão, São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil.
The diverse ecosystems of the Amazon biome play a vital role in the maintenance of biodiversity and delivering essential ecosystem services at both local and global levels. Small-bodied generalist insects, such as those from the order Odonata, contribute significantly to these services and are recognized as sensitive bioindicators of environmental quality. The present study evaluated the diversity and distribution of adult odonates in the Legal Amazonia zone of the Brazilian state of Maranhão, to identify the key environmental drivers shaping local odonate communities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAngew Chem Int Ed Engl
January 2025
Hunan University, School of Physics and Electronics, CHINA.
Organic materials are promising as battery electrodes due to their flexible design, low cost, and sustainability. Although high electrolyte concentrations are known to suppress organic cathode dissolution, the organic cathode solubility depends on the interplay between the electrode and electrolyte polarities, which remains unexplored. Here, we elucidate the delicate interplay of electrode and electrolyte polarities to achieve stable cycling of organic cathode.
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