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Strengthening public private partnerships in health in Africa: right timing; challenged beyond capacity or both?
© PeopleImages / Getty Images / iStock The role of the private sector in attaining the objectives of the health sector is gaining increasing recognition, especially in low income countries. Arguably, the private sector is not a new player in health. Indeed, the World Bank has advanced the ideology of private sector provision of health…
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Ecotourism: A Potential Reservoir for Transfer of Antimicrobial Resistant Pathogens between Humans and Non-Human Primates
Ecotourism is attractive as it provides an opportunity for tourists to appreciate nature in its’ pristine form, including the chance to interact with charismatic animals native to the habitat. Income from tourism is an important incentive for the conservation of the natural habitat, especially to the local populations familiar with the fauna and flora of…
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International Women’s Day 2020: Celebrating Southeast Asian women in research
Women around the world There are many remarkable Southeast Asian women who work in important areas in research institutions, governments, universities and pharmaceutical companies. This project aims to celebrate these amazing women and to inspire young women to take up careers in research and research-related fields. Professor Mallika Imwong Mallika Imwong is Head of Mahidol…
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Antimicrobial use and resistance in animals and environment in Africa
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health threat caused by the ability of microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites) to withstand the effect of antimicrobials resulting in treatment failure. This puts pressure on health systems across much of Africa and is exacerbated by a difficulty in accessing diagnostics and a reduced availability of second-line antimicrobials.…
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Why do some people eat their placenta?
Almost every animal on the planet which produces a placenta eats it after birth. There are only a few exceptions to this rule – aquatic animals, camels, and humans. In fact, humans are so averse to eating our own placentas after birth that it has not been recorded by any culture anywhere in the world…
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Hybrid speciation in the Culex pipiens mosquito complex?
Culex quinquefasciatus feeding (From Wikimedia Commons) Historically, the use of morphological characteristics created many instances where single ‘species’ were described as having broad ecological and behavioral variation, including variation in host preferences. With the advent of molecular tools for surveying mosquito diversity, it has become clear that much of the ecological and behavioral diversity observed…
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Memory decline and depression in older adults: Is it a chicken and egg question or can we identify a directional relationship?
As people grow older, they may experience changes in their memory, like forgetting an appointment or someone’s name, leading to concerns about their memory functioning. And older adults sometimes report having memory problems despite performing normally on memory tests, such as those conducted by their doctor. Even if cognitive testing is normal, subjective memory complaints…
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MICHELINdb – a new online platform for mining available data on worm-microbiome crosstalk
[embedded content] In the world, over 1.5 billion people are infected by parasitic helminths (worms), mainly in areas of Africa, South America and South-East Asia characterised by poor sanitation and sub-optimal hygiene standards. Moreover, worms of livestock significantly affect the health and welfare of infected animals, leading to dramatic production losses for farmers worldwide and…
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Why is cultural safety required over cultural competency in the pursuit of health equity?
Image credit: © Romolo Tavani / stock.adobe.com We all know we need to do much more for Indigenous health. What we don’t always know is how best to go about doing more to reduce and ideally eliminate Indigenous health inequities. One of the common pitfalls that health professionals and healthcare organizations make when it comes…