On the occasion of the second Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET) conference that was held from 6-9 December 2011 in Sharm Al Sheikh, Egypt, this article introduces EMPHNET and its role to link Field Epidemiology Training Programs (FETP) in the region. The paper briefly describes the changing epidemiology situation in the region to illustrate the urgent need to strengthen publ...

Molecular approaches have proven efficient to identify cryptic lineages within single taxonomic entities. Sometimes these cryptic lineages maybe previously unreported or unknown invasive taxa. The genetic structure of the marine gastropod Stramonita haemastoma has been examined in the Western Mediterranean and North-Eastern Atlantic populations with mtDNA COI sequences and three newly developed...

1Department of Epidemiology, University Hospital Farhat Hached Sousse, Tunisia 2Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital Farhat Hached Sousse, Tunisia 3World Health Organization Office Eastern Mediterranean Region, Non-Communicable Diseases Management Unit, Cairo, Egypt 4Pediatric Cardiology Unit, Department of Child and Adolescent University Hospitals of Geneva, University of Geneva, Gene...

The Etruscan culture developed in Central Italy (Etruria) in the first millennium BC and for centuries dominated part of the Italian Peninsula, including Rome. The history of the Etruscans is at the roots of Mediterranean culture and civilization, but their origin is still debated: local or Eastern provenance? To shed light on this mystery, bovine and human mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs) have been...

From the first reported case of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on December 30, 2019 in Wuhan, China, the number of confirmed cases of the disease has been increased continuously and exponentially up to now. The event has emerged as a clear threat to global health such that the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the outbreak of the disease a pandemic on March 11, 2020. The ...

Atlantic bluefin tuna populations are in steep decline, and an improved understanding of connectivity between individuals from eastern (Mediterranean Sea) and western (Gulf of Mexico) spawning areas is needed to manage remaining fisheries. Chemical signatures in the otoliths of yearlings from regional nurseries were distinct and served as natural tags to assess natal homing and mixing. Adults s...

Two sea turtle species nest in the Mediterranean, the green turtle and the loggerhead turtle. Leatherbacks are widely distributed in the Mediterranean, although they do not have any permanent nesting area. Two other species, the hawksbill and the Kemp’s ridley turtle only occur occasionally. Available information on sea turtle populations in the Mediterranean Sea, including distribution, popula...

Ecological connectivity is important for effective marine planning and biodiversity conservation. Our aim was to identify factors important in influencing variation in benthic community structure on shallow rocky reefs in 2 regions of the Mediterranean Sea with contrasting oceanographic regimes. We assessed beta (β) diversity at 146 sites in the littoral and shallow sublittoral from the Adriati...

The continuing burden of parasitic diseases upon the health of the human population worldwide, especially in tropical and developing countries, is clearly demonstrated in the recent estimates of disability adjusted life years (DALY), which incorporate both life lost from premature death and years of life lived with disability due to disease [1]. However, these figures fail to indicate the broad...