Smoking in Pregnancy: An Ongoing Challenge

Refugee Health: An Ongoing Commitment and Challenge

Refugees represent a diverse group of displaced individuals with unique health issues and disease risks. The obstacles facing this population have their origins in war, violence, oppression, exploitation, and fear of persecution. Regardless of country of origin, a common bond exists, with refugees often confronting inadequate healthcare resources, xenophobia, discrimination, and a complex web o...

Transient loss of consciousness: an ongoing challenge.

Transient loss of consciousness (T-LOC) is a common clinical entity that affects patients and engrosses physicians and national healthcare systems. As a symptom, whether syncopal or nonsyncopal, T-LOC may lead to physical injury, while reducing patient’s self-confidence because of its sporadic and sometimes unpredictable nature. The elucidation of the mechanism and prognostic significance of T-...

Safe Drinking Water : an Ongoing Challenge

Smoking in pregnancy--the size of our challenge.

Reducing the prevalence of smoking in pregnancy is a priority target for health care. We administered a semi-structured questionnaire to mothers in an inner city general practice who were given brief anti-smoking advice during routine antenatal care. Of a cohort of 113 mothers, 52(46%) reported smoking at the start of pregnancy. Six(12%) of these 52 smokers reported no change in smoking habit d...

Influenza Prevention in Solid Organ TransplantRecipients: An Ongoing Challenge

Background: Vaccination and immunosuppression are two processes that work in diametrically opposite ways creating an interesting paradox in the immunosuppressed individual. Though influenza vaccination has proven to be useful in allograft recipients the efficacy varies widely in different organ transplants withoverall lower antibody response as compared to the general population. Methods: Syste...