The northeastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea share geological histories and display great faunal aYnities. The majority of the Mediterranean species have Atlantic origins, with a few species with tropical aYnities. These include the parrotWsh Sparisoma cretense and the wrasse Thalassoma pavo that are restricted to the subtropical northeastern Atlantic, the Macaronesian archipelagos (Azor...

Executive summary The aim of this technical paper is to assist the Member States in acquiring a perspective of health system priorities in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, identify the current challenges and carve out appropriate strategies. A fundamental theme that underlies health system priority-setting in the Eastern Mediterranean Region is the primary health care approach and the reiterat...

The viral haemorrhagic fevers (VHF) are a growing public health threat in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Nearly all of them are of zoonotic origin. VHF often cause outbreaks with high fatalities and, except for yellow fever, currently there are no specific treatment or vaccination options available. In response to this growing threat, the Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean of the ...

plans at national, regional and global levels in different disciplines.1 Moving from “bilateral relations” toward “multilateral networks” is a new paradigm of relationship among WHOCCs, introduced by the Executive Board of WHO in January 2000. This idea2 fosters the WHOCCs to strengthen their national and international capacity for training, research and collaboration for health development. Am...

UNLABELLED Secondhand smoke is harmful to smokers and nonsmokers, and smoke-free legislation worldwide improves health status. Lebanon has one of the weakest tobacco control regulatory environments in the Eastern Mediterranean region. However, several Lebanese workplaces and hospitality venues have chosen to implement such policies on their own. The objective of this study was to document their...

Background Systems Thinking (ST) has recently been promoted as an important approach to health systems strengthening. However, ST is not common practice, particularly in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). This paper seeks to explore the barriers that may hinder its application in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) and possible strategies to mitigate them.   Methods A survey consistin...

Help is needed to close the gaps in knowledge dissemination and access One of the current barriers to international knowledge-sharing is the assortment of obstacles to publication that non-native users of English from resource-limited settings must overcome. 1 In some countries, efforts to build research capacity are hampered by limited access to English-language resources for the professional ...

The desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea during the Messinian Salinity Crisis 6.0-5.3 million years ago (Ma), caused a major extinction of the marine ichthyofauna of the Mediterranean. This was followed by an abrupt replenishment of the Mediterranean from the Atlantic after the opening of the Strait of Gibraltar. In this study, we combined demographic and phylogeographic approaches using mitoch...