Médecine tropicale : revue du Corps de santé colonial
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A postal survey carried out by TDR (UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases) on sixty three (63) African medical journals in July 2002 found that the majority of medical and health journals were under-funded, did not publish regularly, lacked high quality articles and standard peer review practice and were mostly invisible to the rest of the international medical community. In French speaking Africa less than ten medical journals publish regularly and only five are indexed in Medline. Ten (10) countries out of twenty three (23) have no medical journal at all. ⋯ Academic traditions play an important role on the decision of French speaking African researchers to publish outside their country. The impact of African health research on local researchers, health professionals and policy makers in French speaking Africa, all of whom have little access to major international health journals and a poor command of the English language, is questionable. In 2002, TDR facilitated the launching of the Forum of African Medical Editors (FAME) to promote the creation of sustainable, high quality public health and medical journals in Africa in order to encourage African health researchers to publish also for their colleagues in their country.
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[Are health care facilities in Cameroon compatible with rational management of emergency patients?].
The aim of this month-long cross sectional study was to evaluate the preparedness of health care institutions in Cameroon to provide rational management of emergency patients. During January 2002 a survey was carried out to list all health care institutions offering emergency care services and to determine their other departments and available equipment and staff. A total of 144 institutions with emergency care facilities were found including 12 central reference hospitals and 123 district hospitals equipped to provide primary emergency care. ⋯ This ratio was 10 times higher than in France in 1994. Almost all major equipment and trained personnel for emergency care medicine were concentrated at the central reference hospitals but these resources were insufficient to organize round-the-clock services except at a single site. The findings of this survey indicate that the distribution of health care facilities in Cameroon was relatively adequate in relation to population density but that equipment and human resources were still insufficient to provide rational management of emergency patients.
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French Guiana is a French Overseas Department in South America. Ninety-five percent of the territory is a tropical rainforest. Its rich fauna includes seven families of snakes but only 3 are potentially venomous. ⋯ Crotalus durissus, a rattlesnake living in coastal savannah, or Micrurus sp cause neuromuscular poisoning. Coral snakes are encountered throughout French Guiana, but envenomation is very rare. Antivenom therapy must be administered by the intravenous route in association with symptomatic treatment and, if necessary, resuscitation in a specialized care unit.
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In this article, the author describes, in layman's terms, the legal framework for international humanitarian operations. He explains a number of complex and intricate principles used in these situations. He acknowledges the burden that legal considerations place on humanitarian organizations but also demonstrates that legal expertise is an indispensable tool in the provision of humanitarian services.