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An interview with BMC Public Health Section Editor, Dr Shankar Viswanathan
Please tell us about yourself and your research interests I am a trained biostatistician with experience over two-decades in both methodological and public health research. My research interest includes developing new statistical methods to analyze further questions arising from medicine or public health. Specifically, I focus on survival analysis, longitudinal data analysis and missing data,…
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Giardia, deworming, and WASH: a complex picture
Scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of an in vitro Giardia lamblia culture. (Picture by CDC/ Dr. Stan Erlandsen, from the Public Health Image Library) Giardiasis and intestinal worms: two neglected tropical diseases Giardiasis, caused by the parasite Giardia duodenalis (also known as Giardia intestinalis or Giardia lamblia), has been associated with malnutrition and poor growth in…
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Allowing food companies to put nutrition claims on their products may run counter to health promotion efforts
Flickr: Alex Vilomara Nutrition claims (such as “low in fat” or “sugar free”) on food packaging may lead people to increase their consumption of those products and their overall energy intake. When unhealthy products are allowed to carry these claims it may contribute to unhealthy diets and obesity. Policy makers should therefore consider restricting the…
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Thinking outside the cube: The political determinants of universal health coverage
© Syda Productions / stock.adobe.com The politics of UHC Universal health coverage (UHC) is a key policy priority of our times, endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly as central to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The World Health Organization defines UHC as all people having access to the health services they need, when and where they…
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MinION: Democratising biodiversity research by misusing a portable long-read sequencer for short-read barcoding
Most undescribed biodiversity consists of countless of small organisms that belong to millions of species. This makes it hard to find new and rare species in samples that often comprise thousands of organisms (such as bulk insect samples). One solution is using DNA sequences to sort specimens into putative species using high-throughput methods (“reverse workflow”).…