Médecine tropicale : revue du Corps de santé colonial
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A postal survey carried out by TDR (UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases) on sixty three (63) African medical journals in July 2002 found that the majority of medical and health journals were under-funded, did not publish regularly, lacked high quality articles and standard peer review practice and were mostly invisible to the rest of the international medical community. In French speaking Africa less than ten medical journals publish regularly and only five are indexed in Medline. Ten (10) countries out of twenty three (23) have no medical journal at all. ⋯ Academic traditions play an important role on the decision of French speaking African researchers to publish outside their country. The impact of African health research on local researchers, health professionals and policy makers in French speaking Africa, all of whom have little access to major international health journals and a poor command of the English language, is questionable. In 2002, TDR facilitated the launching of the Forum of African Medical Editors (FAME) to promote the creation of sustainable, high quality public health and medical journals in Africa in order to encourage African health researchers to publish also for their colleagues in their country.
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The implementation of essential drugs policies and widespread use of generic products in humanitarian programs has ensured access to medication for poverty-stricken populations. However rigorous drug selection according to origin is necessary to guarantee quality. ⋯ An obvious danger for drugs such as antibiotics is that use of poor quality products producing insufficient bioavailability will promote development of microbial resistance. This could become a worldwide public health problem with particularly dramatic consequences for the treatment of tuberculosis and retroviruses.
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[Are health care facilities in Cameroon compatible with rational management of emergency patients?].
The aim of this month-long cross sectional study was to evaluate the preparedness of health care institutions in Cameroon to provide rational management of emergency patients. During January 2002 a survey was carried out to list all health care institutions offering emergency care services and to determine their other departments and available equipment and staff. A total of 144 institutions with emergency care facilities were found including 12 central reference hospitals and 123 district hospitals equipped to provide primary emergency care. ⋯ This ratio was 10 times higher than in France in 1994. Almost all major equipment and trained personnel for emergency care medicine were concentrated at the central reference hospitals but these resources were insufficient to organize round-the-clock services except at a single site. The findings of this survey indicate that the distribution of health care facilities in Cameroon was relatively adequate in relation to population density but that equipment and human resources were still insufficient to provide rational management of emergency patients.
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Governmental humanitarian action is an old concept in France, that is a topic of current interest. To conduct humanitarian action, the French government has deployed various facilities. The military biological risk team was established to control epidemics, provide expertise during epidemiological emergencies, and conduct mass vaccination programs. The author describe the missions carried out by the biological risk team during the 1990s as an illustration of governmental humanitarian action.