Of the six Arabian Peninsula countries which constitute the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates), it is estimated that on average 55% of the population are expatriates (CIA World Factbook, 2010). Research has indicated that these expatriates experience varying degrees of success in adapting to their host society. With particular refe...

BACKGROUND Implicit in all indices used for risk assessment in the prevention of heat stress is the assumption that workers are healthy and well hydrated; studies in Australian mine workers have shown that this is not the case. Where workers are poorly hydrated, the level of protection offered by management strategies based primarily on environmental monitoring is compromised. OBJECTIVES To i...

AIM To assess the risk factors, mechanism of injury, and clinical outcome of hospitalized patients with spinal injuries in order to recommend preventive measures. METHODS Patients with spinal injuries admitted to Al Ain Hospital, United Arab Emirates (UAE) for more than 24 h or who died after arrival to the hospital were studied over 3 years. Demography, location and time of injury, affected ...

BACKGROUND This paper presents an analysis of the main characteristics of the Gulf Cooperation Council's (GCC) health financing systems and draws similarities and differences between GCC countries and other high-income and low-income countries, in order to provide recommendations for healthcare policy makers. The paper also illustrates some financial implications of the recent implementation of...

AIM This paper, based on the experience of the first author as an expatriate nurse, aims to describe and discuss some aspects of collaboration that contributed to the building of clinical practice when implementing an operating theatre programme in the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) hospitals in Lebanon. BACKGROUND The operation theatre programme lasted for 8 months: 6 months in 2008 a...

OBJECTIVE To perform molecular fingerprinting for strain relatedness among isoniazid-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates recovered from tuberculosis (TB) patients in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty-two consecutive isoniazid-resistant M. tuberculosis strains isolated from TB patients (4 natives and 28 expatriates) at Rashid Hospital, Dubai, UAE were analy...