Articles: pandemics.
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African health sciences · Sep 2023
Comparative genomics of spike, envelope, and nucleocapsid protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) upsurge sprang up in Wuhan, China, in late December 2019. ⋯ The current research findings may have an implication that facilitates the development of prospective immunization candidates/small pharmacological compounds targeting COVID-19.
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Neurosurgical advocates for global surgery/neurosurgery at the 75th World Health Assembly gathered in person for the first time after the COVID-19 pandemic in Geneva, Switzerland, in May 2022. This article reviews the significant progress in the global health landscape targeting neglected neurosurgical patients, emphasizing high-level policy advocacy and international efforts to support a new World Health Assembly resolution in mandatory folic acid fortification to prevent neural tube defects. ⋯ Progress toward a neurosurgery-inspired resolution on mandatory folic acid fortification to prevent spina bifida-folate is described. In addition, priorities for moving the global health agenda forward for the neurosurgical patient as it relates to the global burden of neurological disease are reviewed after the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Sep 2023
ReviewFactors that impact on recruitment to vaccine trials in the context of a pandemic or epidemic: a qualitative evidence synthesis.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic on 11 March 2020. Vaccine development and deployment were swiftly prioritised as a method to manage and control disease spread. The development of an effective vaccine relies on people's participation in randomised trials. Recruitment to vaccine trials is particularly challenging as it involves healthy volunteers who may have concerns around the potential risks and benefits associated with rapidly developed vaccines. ⋯ This review identifies many of the factors that influence a person's decision to take part in a vaccine trial, and these reflect findings from reviews that examine trials more broadly. However, we also recognise some factors that become more important in connection with a vaccine trial in the context of a pandemic or epidemic. These factors include the potential stigma of taking part, the possible adverse effects of a vaccine, the added motivation for helping society, the role of community leaders in trial dissemination, and the level of trust placed in governments and companies developing vaccines. These specific influences need to be considered by trial teams when designing, and communicating about, vaccine trials in the context of a pandemic or epidemic.