Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health

A cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology emerged in Wuhan, China, at the end of December 2019. The cluster was largely associated with a seafood and animal market. A novel Betacoronavirus was quickly identified as the causative agent, and it is shown to be related genetically to SARS-CoV and other bat-borne SARS-related Betacoronaviruses. The number of cases increased rapidly and spread to other provinces in China, as well as to another four countries. To help control the spread of the virus, a “cordon sanitaire” was instituted for Wuhan on January 23, 2020, and subsequently extended to other cities in Hubei Province, and the outbreak declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the Director General of the World Health Organization on January 30, 2020. The virus was named SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee for the Taxonomy of Viruses, and the disease it causes was named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization. This article described the evolution of the outbreak, and the known properties of the novel virus, SARS-CoV-2 and the clinical disease it causes, and the major public health measures being used to help control it’s spread. These measures include social distancing, intensive surveillance and quarantining of cases, contact tracing and isolation, cancellation of mass gatherings, and community containment. The virus is the third zoonotic coronavirus, after SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, but appears to be the only one with pandemic potential. However, a number of important properties of the virus are still not well understood, and there is an urgent need to learn more about its transmission dynamics, its spectrum of clinical severity, its wildlife origin, and its genetic stability. In addition, more research is needed on possible interventions, particularly therapeutic and vaccines.

The outbreak of corona virus initiated as pneumonia of unknown cause in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, which has been now spreading rapidly out of Wuhan to other countries. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus outbreak as the sixth public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), and on March 11, 2020, the WHO announced coronavirus as pandemic. Coronavirus is thought to be increasing in Pakistan. The first case of coronavirus was reported from Karachi on February 26, 2020, with estimated populace of Pakistan as 204.65 million. Successively, the virus spreads into various regions nationwide and has currently become an epidemic. The WHO has warned Pakistan that the country could encounter great challenge against the outbreak of coronavirus in the coming days. This short communication is conducted to shed light on the epidemic of coronavirus in the country. It would aid in emphasizing the up-to-date situation in a nutshell and the measures taken by the health sector of Pakistan to abate the risk of communication.

This study aims to provide both a model by using cumulative cases and cumulative death toll for SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) outbreak in four countries, China, Italy, South Korea, and Turkey, starting from the first diagnosis and to compare associated indicators. The most successful estimation was obtained from the cubic model with natural logarithm for China, Italy, South Korea, and Turkey. The success of the models was around 99%. However, differences began to emerge in China, Italy, and South Korea after the second week. Although the highest number of new cases per 1 million people in China was 9.8 on February 28, 2020; it was 108.4 on March 21, 2020, in Italy; and this was 16.6 on March 5, 2020, in South Korea. On the other hand, the number of new cases was 24.6 per 1 million people on March 27, 2020, in Turkey. The log-cubic model proposed in this study has been set forth to obtain successful results for aforementioned countries, as well as to estimate the course of the COVID-19 outbreak. Other factors such as climacteric factors and genetic differences, which may have an impact on viral spreading and transmission, would also have strengthened the model prediction capacity.

The lessons learned from Vietnam, a country that the world acclaimed for its management of the fight against COVID-19, could stand out as an example of how to do more with less. The Vietnamese government has acted swiftly at the very early stage of the pandemic with a focus on containment efforts and extensive public health measures, particularly (1) the commitment from the government with a multisectoral approach; (2) a timely, accurate, and transparent risk communication; (3) active surveillance and intensive isolation/quarantine operation, case management with tracing all new arrivals and close contact up to three clusters; and (4) suspension of flights, shutting schools, and all nonessential services.

The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) presents a great challenge to developing countries with limited access to public health measures in grassroots communities. The World Health Organization lauded the Vietnamese government for its proactive and steady investment in health facilities that mitigate the risk of the infectious disease in Vietnam. This short communication presents cases that could benchmark public health policies in developing countries.

Was there quality in the Chinese epidemiological surveillance system during the COVID-19 pandemic? Using data of World Health Organization’s situation reports (until situation report 55), an objective analysis was realized to answer this important question. Fulfillment of Benford’s law (first digit law) is a rapid tool to suggest good data quality. Results suggest that China had an acceptable quality in its epidemiological surveillance system. Furthermore, more detailed and complete analyses could complement the evaluation of the Chinese surveillance system.

The main purpose of this paper is to highlight the important information sources of the Public Health awareness used by the library and information sources in this Pandemic situation. Social distancing phase Information professional used a different medium to connect with their patron and try to serve the best manner. The role of the information professional in health information and health literacy is very vital. Information professional public health awareness information with the library patrons and the general public. In this paper, the researchers provide a brief introduction to different information channel support in information dissemination.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 infectious pneumonia in Wuhan, China, in January 2019, it has rapidly spread to 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country within 3 months. Chengdu Sport University is the only physical education institution in Southwest China. During the epidemic period, the university actively responded to the call of the government and issued response measures as soon as possible to achieve the goal of zero infection among teachers and students. This article describes in detail how to deal with the new coronavirus in colleges and universities during the epidemic.

In India, there has been no attempt to measure the implementation of World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Article 5.3, which provides guidelines to address tobacco industry interference (TII). This study draws on a desk review conducted to assess the frequency and severity of TIIs and the government’s response, reported between January and December 2017. This study highlights that the government of India does not allow tobacco industry to participate in policy development. However, the industry interferes by collaborating with the government’s allied organizations. The tobacco industry has diversified as food industry in India, and directly or indirectly supports various government programs, by investing through their corporate social responsibility schemes. In addition, there are limited legislative measures to allow transparency in adoption of Article 5.3 guidelines across the country. Hence, the findings of this study underscore an exigent need to adopt and implement Article 5.3 at the national level in India.

Good nutrition in the first “1000 days,” including breastfeeding and appropriate complementary foods, prepares for a healthy childhood and adult life, also contributes to the prevention of the double burden of malnutrition. Exclusive breastfeeding provides all required nutrients until an infant is around 6 months of age when complementary foods are needed. A literature review was undertaken of complementary foods in the Asia Pacific region. The foods being used at present are often of low nutrient density may provide insufficient amounts of some critical nutrients, and generally the variety is limited. Guidelines for complementary feeding are provided to assist in education and in public health planning.

This study aimed to estimate the socioeconomic burden of asthma in South Korea. The data were obtained from the National Patient Sample of 2014. The direct costs included health care and non–health care costs, and the indirect costs included loss of productivity. To estimate the prevalence of asthma, this study used both primary diagnoses and treatment-based criteria. The prevalence of asthma was 3.7% using primary diagnosis-based criteria. The total costs of asthma were $645.8 million. The direct and indirect costs were $553.9 million and $92.0 million, respectively. When the treatment-based criteria were applied, the prevalence decreased to 1.8% and the total costs decreased to $465.1 million. The direct and indirect costs were $394.9 million and $70.2 million, respectively. In the future, the cost of asthma, derived from various perspectives, should be regularly estimated and used as a basis for lowering the burden of disease due to asthma.

The aims of this study are to estimate the mean change in the predicted probability and identify the most important predictors of diagnosed, measured, total, and undiagnosed hypertension among aged 45+ adults in China. We used data collected from the fourth wave (2015) of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (n = 12 236). First, we estimated the prevalence of diagnosed, measured, total, and undiagnosed hypertension. Second, we used probit models to identify the factors that were associated with hypertension, and we estimated average marginal effects of variables in probit models. Among Chinese people aged 45+, the prevalence of diagnosed, measured, total, and undiagnosed hypertension were 23.1%, 32.7%, 42.6%, and 19.5%, respectively. The probability of total hypertension is higher for overweight and obesity than normal body mass index (10.4% and 19.3%, respectively), higher for past smokers and current smokers than nonsmokers (5.9% and 3.8%, respectively), higher for urban population than rural population (4.0%), and lower for married individuals than unmarried/single (−7.1%). Our results suggest that continued strengthening for smoking prevention is needed to reduce smoking-related hypertension and greater focus on prevention of hypertension are necessary for overweight or obesity and in urban areas among middle-aged and older adults in China.

Work environments can affect job satisfaction and psychological well-being. Using the job demand-control model as a foundation, this study aimed to explore the relationships between physical and psychosocial work environments and psychological well-being and job satisfaction in the workplace. A multistage sampling method was used with the 2012 China Labor-force Dynamics Survey among 4442 employees. Our outcome measures included psychological well-being and job satisfaction. The final model showed migrants (odds ratio [OR] = 1.34, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.13-1.60) and nonmanagerial employees (OR = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.25-1.78) who worked in general enterprises (OR= 1.61, 95% CI = 1.34-1.92) or suffered longer weekly work hours (OR = 1.42, 95% CI = 1.24-1.63) had worse psychological well-being or lower job satisfaction. Following the job demand-control model, higher job demands and lower job autonomy were significantly and positively associated with worse psychological well-being and lower job satisfaction. This study highlights that improved work environments can protect employees’ well-being. Policymakers must provide better work environments. They must consider its physical environment (stable work contract and short work hours) and psychosocial environment (low job demands and high job autonomy) aspects, particularly for migrants and nonmanagerial employees.

Using current best evidence to make decisions can improve outcomes of public health. Thus, establishing the capacities of evidence-based public health (EBPH) has become one of the core competences. To better scale up EBPH movement, efforts should focus on introduction of EBPH into school curriculum. However, data indicating the extent to which EBPH is used in universities are scant. In the current study, we conducted a nationwide questionnaire survey to investigate the perceptions toward EBPH among full-time teachers and senior undergraduates at all universities with a Department of Public Health in Taiwan. A structured questionnaire was distributed by post to all potential participants of nine universities in 2017. Questions included items related to awareness, knowledge, skills, behaviors, and barriers of EBPH. Results showed teachers were more aware of EBPH than students. In addition, teachers more often had sufficient knowledge and skills of EBPH, and more often applied the findings to decision-making after critical appraisal than students. Furthermore, personal barriers toward EBPH were more common in students than teachers. In conclusion, there are differences in awareness, knowledge, skills, behaviors, and barriers of EBPH between teachers and students. The data suggest that an initiative of systematically teaching EBPH to undergraduates is important.