This article reviews the importance of regional initiatives in the context of global efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goal 4 and 5 and describes the action-oriented multi-country healthcare professional association (HCPA) workshops organized by the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. The South Asian HCPA workshop served as a catalyst for strengthening the ability of...

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an economic and geopolitical organisation of eight countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) that are primarily located in South Asia. To promote the welfare of the people of South Asia and to improve their quality of life through accelerated economic growth, social progress and cultura...

In this paper we estimate the proximate determinants of economic growth in four major economies of South Asia with special emphasis on the role of institutions in conjunction with stock of physical capital, human capital and openness (measured as trade as percentage of GDP) as major predictor variables. World Governance indicators are available since 1996; therefore, we run a panel regression u...

Forty years ago, the countries of East and Southeast Asia were among the most densely populated in the world. In most countries of the region, natural resources were limited, populations were growing, and standards of living were low. Few observers were optimistic about the region’s development prospects. Beginning in the 1960s, however, several East and Southeast Asian countries adopted and vi...

Epidemiological studies of international variations in disease incidence have helped to generate and test hypotheses about the relative importance of genetic, environmental, social, and cultural factors in causing cardiovascular diseases. Studies of racial and ethnic variation within countries have also contributed in advancing such understanding. Indian, Bangladeshi, and Pakistani people born ...

Epidemiological studies of international variations in disease incidence have helped to generate and test hypotheses about the relative importance of genetic, environmental, social, and cultural factors in causing cardiovascular diseases. Studies of racial and ethnic variation within countries have also contributed in advancing such understanding. Indian, Bangladeshi, and Pakistani people born ...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the trends and correlations of gross domestic product (GDP) adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita on suicide rates in 10 WHO regions during the past 30 years. DESIGN Analyses of databases of PPP-adjusted GDP per capita and suicide rates. Countries were grouped according to the Global Burden of Disease regional classification system. DATA SOURCES Wor...

To investigate the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin among methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains in Asian countries, a total of 1,357 clinical isolates of MRSA collected from 12 Asian countries were screened by using brain heart infusion agar plates containing 4 mg of vancomycin per liter. The presence of strains that were heterointermediatel...

INTRODUCTION Considerable advocacy, funding, training, and technical support have been provided to South Asian countries to strengthen One Health (OH) collaborative approaches for controlling diseases with global human pandemic potential since the early 2000s. It is essential that the OH approach continues to be strengthened given South Asia is a hot spot for emerging and endemic zoonotic disea...

PURPOSE To investigate the incidence of bladder cancer (BC) in Sri Lanka and to compare risk factors and outcomes with those of other South Asian nations and South Asian migrants to the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US). MATERIALS AND METHODS The incidence of BC in Sri Lanka was examined by using two separate cancer registry databases over a 5-year period. Smoking rates were comp...