Public Health In The Middle East And North Africa

This publication contains papers presented at the Middle East regional symposium, held in Beirut in June 2002, to discuss public health challenges in the Middle East and North Africa and Eastern Mediterranean (MENA/EM) regions. Issues discussed include: public health functions and infrastructures, health economics, affordable and culturally appropriate services for disease prevention and treatment to reduce the dual burden of illness and disability, promotion strategies, the HIV/AIDS situation, issues of road safety, and strengthening primary health care in Iran.

The papers in this book answer the call by scholars in the fields of Public Health, Community Health, Environmental Health and Safety, Medicine, Bio-Statistics, and Decision Science, as well as the call by political actors, policy experts, and various world bodies dealing with health and safety in North Africa and the Middle East, to address the intellectual lacuna left by the dearth of scholarship on contemporary health, environmental, and safety issues in the above-mentioned regions of the world. What is unique about this edited volume is the extent to which the authors have been careful in incorporating the general public's opinions about the various public health and environmental health issues as well as the unique views of the different genders. The topics covered are broad and the depth is indisputably outstanding. Important topics dealt with include HIV and AIDS, diabetes, hepatitis B and C, as well as water and it's associated environmental, agricultural, and health impact. Even more important and innovative about this volume is the attempt by the authors to examine real and/or actual views of the research populations on environmental and public health issues based on participants' their religion; that is, whether the Islamic religion plays any significant role, for example, in determining the main characteristics of the diabetes epidemic in Islamic countries world-wide in general, and in the Arabian Peninsula in particular. There is no doubt that this volume is a pathfinder in its geographic breath of covering two politically important sub-regions of the world -- North Africa and the Middle East. Even more important is the detailed attention the volume devotes to Hepatitis B and C, especially, its impact on migration. Most of the contributors are distinguished in the subject area thereby making the volume authentic and most highly respectable.

Overconfident: How Economic and Health Fault Lines Left the Middle East and North Africa Ill-Prepared to Face COVID This report examines the region’s economic prospects in 2021, forecasting that the recovery will be both tenuous and uneven as per capita GDP level stays below pre-pandemic levels. COVID-19 was a stress-test for the region’s public health systems, which were already overwhelmed even before the pandemic. Indeed, a decade of lackluster economic reforms left a legacy of large public sectors and high public debt that effectively crowded out investments in social services such as public health. This edition points out that the region’s health systems were not only ill-prepared for the pandemic, but suffered from over-confidence, as authorities painted an overly optimistic picture in self-assessments of health system preparedness. Going forward, governments must improve data transparency for public health and undertake reforms to remedy historical underinvestment in public health systems.

This 2-volumeset focuses on adolescent health in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), and presents the latest research on the health risk behaviours and social behaviours that adolescents from the MENA region engage in. While there has been a surge in peer-reviewed research publications on population health in the MENA region in the last couple of decades, very few books offer a resource to address the diverse negative influences that disproportionately affect adolescents and children in the MENA region, including increased tobacco consumption culture, low emphasis on physical activity, increased sedentary behaviours, weak health policies, and societal issues related to displacement and political conflicts. These books offer a synthesis of current knowledge on adolescent health issues in the MENA region, and aim to provide evidence-informed adolescent health care practices that address current issues related to mental, physical, reproductive and nutritional health. Volume 2 focuses on nutritional and reproductive health in the MENA region, predictive modelling of obesity, determinants of sexual and oral health, HIV, and diabetes. The study will aid health care professionals, policy makers, government organizations and health program planners to assess current policies and practices related to adolescent health in the MENA region, and to identify the best courses of action moving forward.

Research for Development in the Middle East and North Africa

This book critically reflects on the responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by exploring the impact and possible future outcomes in a region already struggling with the effects of a decade of uprisings, failed or difficult political transitions, state collapses, civil war and international conflict. International scholars offer a comprehensive treatment of today's major societal issues and provide a unique, broadly comparative view on public policy responses in the MENA region. Addressing the implications and public policy responses to the crisis, they bring a critical perspective to the emerging challenges of evidence-based policy making; the locus of authority in transnational issues; the nature of governance; and the role of government and implications for civil society. Tackling the psychology, sociology, education, law, and public policy issues related to the social and economic implications of the COVID 19 pandemic, this book will be of interest to scholars and students alike.