MedGenMed : Medscape general medicine
-
The World Health Organization (WHO) can be considered the primary agency of the United Nations that promotes global public health. This article provides a general overview of WHO by exploring the history, current, and future practices of the organization, and by addressing its major roles and functions in the present day. ⋯ Srimathy Vijayan is a fourth-year medical student at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom. She interned at the WHO headquarters in Geneva during the summer of 2007.
-
Consumer-directed health information resources hold great potential for improving public health and easing the demand on health systems. Their value, however, depends largely on the ability of their intended users to access and use them effectively. Little is known about whether British Columbia's ethnocultural communities are using the British Columbia (BC) Ministry of Health's BC HealthGuide (BCHG) program, and if so, when and for what purposes they use the services, as well as level of satisfaction with and users' perceptions of the resources. This study investigated attitudes toward and perceptions of the BCHG program, as well as use patterns and satisfaction levels, within the Iranian community of the Greater Vancouver Area (GVA)--among BC's largest and fastest-growing Middle Eastern immigrant communities--and explored a model for introducing the BCHG program to ethnic communities in the GVA and BC. ⋯ The findings of this study strongly suggest that Iranians living in the GVA are open to alternatives to routine healthcare services, including the use of preventive and self-care resources. However, awareness levels and utilization rates of the BCHG program among the GVA's Iranian immigrant population have until now been low. The noticeable and sustained improvement to attitudes, perceptions, and self-reported utilization rates of the BCHG program among Iranian participants in this study after watching culturally appropriate promotional videos indicates the potential to modify cultural beliefs in regard to the delivery of preventive health information if the relevant messages are delivered appropriately. By carefully considering the demographic and cultural characteristics of the various ethnic communities living in BC, and by targeting promotional activities and services directly to these individual communities, the BCHG program could improve awareness and utilization rates within these communities.
-
Secondary aortoenteric fistula (SAF) is an uncommon but very important complication of abdominal aortic reconstruction. The complication often occurs months to years after aortic surgery. The clinical manifestation of the aortoenteric fistula is always upper gastrointestinal bleeding. ⋯ The patient did well after the surgical management. Because of the increasing number of elective aortic aneurysm repairs in the aging population, it is likely that more patients with secondary aortoenteric fistula will present to the clinical physicians in the future. So, a high index of suspicion is necessary for prompt diagnosis and treatment of this life-threatening event.