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Topic Review
Vitamin D: Cost-Effectively Overcoming Infections and Chronic Diseases
The prevalence of chronic diseases increases with age, especially in those with co-morbidities. The two most common denominators are the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and low concentrations of angiotensin-converting enzyme receptor-2 (ACE2). Whether vitamin D deficiency initiates or aggravates chronic diseases is unclear: the likelihood is both. Hypovitaminosis D negatively affects all body systems, especially the musculoskeletal and immune systems. Many chronic conditions and infections can be minimized using the right dose of vitamin D supplements administered at the right frequency (daily or once weekly) or direct sun exposure to one-third of the skin between 10:30 AM and 1:30 PM, in summer like sunlight, for 20 to 60 minutes depending on the skin tone. It is advisable to wear sunglasses and a brimmed hat to protect one’s eyes and face. Maintaining the population serum 25(OH)D concentration above 40 ng/mL (i.e., sufficiency) ensures a better immune system, minimizing symptomatic diseases and reducing infections and chronic diseases. The best clinical outcome and longevity are expected from maintaining the serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations between 50 and 80 ng/mL.
  • 1.5K
  • 04 Sep 2023
Topic Review
Interoperability in uHealth and Digital Therapeutics
Interoperability in digital health refers to the seamless, secure, and scalable exchange of health information between care environments and digital platforms. Being a central pillar for the integration of wearable sensors, AI-based diagnostics, clinical and non-clinical workflows for both Digital Therapeutics and ubiquitous health (uHealth), mobile health applications, and virtual coaching applications, interoperability is done using standards such as HL7 FHIR, TEFCA, and SMART on FHIR, which provide shared protocols for information exchange, protection, and semantic harmonization. This entry describes fundamental ideas, new governance paradigms, technical architectures, and regulatory issues required for realizing interoperable health ecosystems for personalized, preventive, and participatory care. The entry describes barriers in the form of fragmentation, data silos, and ethical issues, while identifying enablers such as federated learning, blockchain, and FAIR data principles.The content is based on a structured narrative review registered with OSF (DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/PNKG4) and a preprint version publicly available via Preprints.org.
  • 1.4K
  • 16 Jul 2025
Topic Review
Association between Smoking and Obstructive Sleep Apnea
The connection between smoking and Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is not yet clear. There are studies that have confirmed the effect of smoking on sleep disordered breathing, whereas others did not. Nicotine affects sleep, as smokers have prolonged total sleep and REM latency, reduced sleep efficiency, total sleep time, and slow wave sleep. Smoking cessation has been related with impaired sleep. 
  • 1.4K
  • 14 Sep 2022
Topic Review
The Effect of International Traffic on Malaria Cases
The stagnation of international traffic due to countermeasures against COVID-19 potentially reduced malaria cases by 58% in 2020 in Japan. International traffic was stagnated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but international travel is slowly picking up from very low levels. We need to promote the preparation for the rebound of imported malaria cases in response to the normalization of international traffic.
  • 1.4K
  • 17 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Breakthrough Infections in Measles Elimination
Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known to man. Despite the existence of a safe and effective live attenuated vaccine, measles can appear in vaccinated individuals. Paradoxically, breakthrough cases increase as vaccination coverage in the general population rises. In measles endemic areas, breakthrough cases represent less than 10% of total infections, while in areas with high vaccination coverage these are over 10% of the total. Two different vaccination failures have been described: primary vaccination failure, which consists in the complete absence of humoral response and occurs in around 5% of vaccinated individuals; and secondary vaccination failure is due to waning immunity or incomplete immunity and occurs in 2–10% of vaccinees. Vaccination failures are generally associated with lower viral loads and milder disease (modified measles) since vaccination limits the risk of complicated disease. Vaccination failure seems to occur between six and twenty-six years after the last vaccine dose administration. 
  • 1.4K
  • 15 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Specialists’ Dual Practice within Public Hospital Setting
In line with the commitment of the Malaysian government and Ministry of Health (MOH) to prevent the brain drain of specialists from public hospitals, they have been permitted to perform dual practice within the public hospital setting (DPH) since 2007. DPH allowed them to hold jobs in both public and private practices within the same public hospitals that they are affiliated to, permitting these specialists to treat public and private patients. Nevertheless, the information regarding DPH in Southeast Asia region is still limited. In Malaysia, public specialists are allowed to perform DPH, which is also known as Full Paying Patient (FPP) Service. FPP Service as DPH has been well-governed and regulated by the MOH while serving as a means to retain specialists in the public healthcare system by providing them with opportunities to obtain additional income. Such a policy has also reduced the financial burden of the government in subsidizing healthcare.
  • 1.3K
  • 04 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Syphilis and COVID-19
The syphilis and COVID-19 pandemics have marked a turning point in the history of mankind. The aim of this review is to analyze what two pandemics caused by different diseases have in common.
  • 1.3K
  • 25 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines
The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has captivated the globe’s attention since its emergence in 2019. This highly infectious, spreadable, and dangerous pathogen has caused health, social, and economic crises. Therefore, a worldwide collaborative effort was made to find an efficient strategy to overcome and develop vaccines.
  • 1.3K
  • 17 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Abortion in Times of COVID-19
The COVID-19 health emergency has thrown the health systems of most European countries into a deep crisis, forcing them to call off and postpone all interventions deemed not essential or life-saving in order to focus most resources on the treatment of COVID-19 patients. To facilitate women who are experiencing difficulties in terminating their pregnancies in Italy, the Ministry of Health has adapted to the regulations in force in most European countries and issued new guidelines that allow medical abortion up to 63 days, i.e., 9 weeks of gestational age, without mandatory hospitalization. This decision was met with some controversy, based on the assumption that the abortion pill could “incentivize” women to resort to abortion more easily.
  • 1.2K
  • 19 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Food Security in Ghanaian Urban Cities
Urbanisation in Ghana could be negatively impacting the state of food security, especially in economically vulnerable groups. Food supply, safety, and quality are all aspects of food security which could be impacted.
  • 1.2K
  • 26 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Religious Backgrounds and Legalisation of Suicide
Religion and laws, although the two have been linked for a long time and in some countries still are, also influence suicide-related views in the population.
  • 1.2K
  • 23 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Urban Digitization Governance in Birth Registration Field
Digitization governance is one of the most significant current discussions in the urban governance field. Especially, with the spreading of Blockchain Technology (BCT), researchers have shown an increased interest in the application of the technology in solving birth registration challenges as a digital infrastructure in developing countries.
  • 1.2K
  • 17 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Telehealth Geriatrics during COVID-19
Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected older people disproportionately. Prior to the pandemic, some studies reported that telehealth was an efficient and effective form of health care delivery, particularly for older people. There has been increased use of telehealth and publication of new literature on this topic during the pandemic, so we conducted a scoping review and evidence synthesis for telehealth use in geriatric care to summarize learning from these new data.
  • 1.2K
  • 25 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Reaching Undocumented Migrants with COVID-19 Vaccination
Access to vaccination against a health threat such as that presented by the COVID-19 pandemic is an imperative driven, in principle, by at least three compelling factors: (1) the right to health of all people, irrespective of their status; (2) humanitarian need of undocumented migrants, as well as of others including documented migrants, refugees and displaced people who are sometimes vulnerable and living in precarious situations; and (3) the need to ensure heath security globally and nationally, which in the case of a global pandemic requires operating on the basis that, for vaccination strategies to succeed in fighting a pandemic, the highest possible levels of vaccine uptake are required. Yet some population segments have had limited access to mainstream health systems, both prior to as well as during the COVID-19 pandemic. People with irregular resident status are among those who face extremely high barriers in accessing both preventative and curative health care. This is due to a range of factors that drive exclusion, both on the supply side (e.g., systemic and practical restrictions in service delivery) and the demand side (e.g., in uptake, including due to fears that personal data would be transmitted to immigration authorities). Moreover, undocumented people have often been at increased risk of infection due to their role as “essential workers”, including those experiencing higher exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus due to frontline occupations while lacking protective equipment. Often, they have also been largely left out of social protection measures granted by governments to their populations during successive lockdowns.
  • 1.2K
  • 25 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Ketogenic Diet
The ketogenic diet, initially introduced in the early nineteenth century, refers to a diet pattern that is low in carbohydrates and high in fat with a moderate proportion of protein (1.2–1.5 g/kg).
  • 1.2K
  • 02 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Arboviral Disease Outbreaks in the Pacific Islands Countries
Arthropod-borne viral (arboviral) diseases are a significant global health problem accounting for >17% of all infectious disease cases and 1 million deaths worldwide annually. Arboviral diseases are infections caused by over 100 viruses belonging to the Flaviviridae, Togaviridae, Reoviridae, Bunyaviridae, Rhabdoviridae and Orthomyxoviridae families. These viruses are spread to humans through arthropods, including mosquitos, ticks, and flies.
  • 1.2K
  • 17 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Burden of Childhood Malnutrition: A Roadmap of Policies
Childhood malnutrition is a global epidemic with significant public health ramifications. The alarming increase in childhood obesity rates, in conjunction with the COVID-19 pandemic, pose major challenges. Since the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 and the joint consortium held by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) that led to the “Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding”, several policymakers and scientific societies have produced relevant reports. Today, the WHO and UNICEF remain the key players on the field, elaborating the guidelines shaped by international expert teams over time, but there is still a long way to go before assuring the health of our children.
  • 1.2K
  • 25 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Probiotics and Probiotic-like Agents against Chemotherapy-Induced Intestinal Mucositis
Cancer chemotherapy has allowed many patients to survive, but not without risks derived from its adverse effects. Drugs, such as 5-fluorouracil, irinotecan, oxaliplatin, methotrexate, and others, as well as different drug combinations trigger intestinal mucositis that may cause or contribute to anorexia, pain, diarrhea, weight loss, systemic infections, and even death. Dysbiosis is a hallmark of chemotherapy-induced intestinal mucositis and diarrhea, and, therefore, strategies aimed at modulating intestinal microbiota may be useful to counteract and prevent those dreadful effects.
  • 1.2K
  • 25 Oct 2023
Topic Review
Mobile Mental Health Application
The demand to improve mental quality of life has increased along with the recent increase in interest in and awareness of mental health. Consequently, the concept of mental health services emerged, along with an increased demand to manage mental health using information and communication technology (ICT) such as mobile communication and social network services (SNS).
  • 1.1K
  • 25 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Types of COVID-19 Vaccines
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a highly contagious virus that emerged at the end of 2019 and has caused an upper respiratory disease pandemic, currently known as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Vaccine clinical studies are developing promptly with the aim of obtaining vaccines that are effective in suppressing the spread of the virus; however, the development of viral mutations raises concerns about the decreasing effectiveness of the resulting vaccine, which also results in the need for more in-depth studies. There have been 330 vaccines developed, including 136 clinical developments and 194 pre-clinical developments. 
  • 1.1K
  • 12 Jan 2022
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