Show us the data: global COVID-19 wastewater monitoring efforts, equity, and gaps

A year since the declaration of the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, there were over 110 million cases and 2.5 million deaths. Learning from methods to track community spread of other viruses such as poliovirus, environmental virologists and those in the wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) field quickly adapted their...

Image-Based Awareness Campaign and Community Mobilization in the Control of Schistosomiasis

Community awareness and participation in mass screening is critical for schistosomiasis control. This study assessed the impact of sharing anonymized image-based positive test results on the uptake of screening during community mobilization outreach. We conducted an observational study to compare the population response to standard and image...

Analysis of Urban Built Environment Impacts on Outdoor Physical Activities: A Case Study in China

Outdoor physical activities can promote public health and they are largely influenced by the built environment in different urban settings. Understanding the association between outdoor physical activities and the built environment is important for promoting a high quality of life. Existing studies typically focus on one type of outdoor activity...

WHO & UfM Joint Webinar on Environment and Health in Seaport Cities – a report

Seaports are vital nodes connecting the hinterlands of countries and continents with the rest of the world, attracting industries and people. This nodal function, however, is incompatible or even in conflict with other uses: port activities affect the entire region of a port city and not just the area administrated by the port. Despite several...

Domestication Will Shape Future Public Spaces: A Report from Rotterdam

This commentary aims to provide a window on the future by studying actions, taken to control the spreading of the corona virus, while obviously affecting public space over a year. What has been the effects on public space directly linked to these actions during the pandemic; what values play a role, and what can we expect for the future? We have...

Urbanización informal en tiempos de corona: Cómo el coronavirus podría cambiar la forma como tratamos a la urbanización informal

The article addresses the issue of how the coronavirus can give us clues on how<br/>to change our current views on informal urbanisation and radically transform the way in which we see social housing provision in Latin America. Despite the many ways in which informal urbanisation takes shape in Latin America, it is possible to generally assert...

A guide to systems-level, participatory, theory-informed implementation research in global health

Implementation research is a multidisciplinary field that addresses the complex phenomenon of how context influences our ability to deliver evidence-informed healthcare. There is increasing realisation of the importance of applying robust implementation research to scale-up life-saving interventions that meet health-related sustainable...

“The Hoist of the Yellow Flag”: Vulnerable Port Cities and Public Health

Port cities have long played a key role in the development, discovery, and fight against diseases. They have been laboratories for policies to address public health issues. Diseases reached port cities through maritime exchanges, and the bubonic plague is a key example. Port city residents’ close contact with water further increased the chance...

Regional sensitivities of air quality to aviation emissions

Emissions from civil aviation traffic degrade air quality, causing human health problems that have been estimated to result in ~16 000 premature deaths per year globally, potentially making the cost to society of the air quality impacts even greater than the cost of the climate impact of these emissions. Previous studies have indicated that...

Designing during, and for Pandemics: A multidisciplinary approach

COVID-19 pandemic may have captured our attention over the last months, but there are several pandemics currently active. Understanding the nature of a pandemic and learning how to design for, and during a pandemic is more than a contemporary need. In this workshop we will introduce the stages of a pandemic using a public health perspective,...

Reprocessing filtering facepiece respirators in primary care using medical autoclave: prospective, bench-to-bedside, single-centre study

OBJECTIVE: There are widespread shortages of personal protective equipment as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Reprocessing filtering facepiece particle (FFP)-type respirators may provide an alternative solution in keeping healthcare professionals safe. DESIGN: Prospective, bench-to-bedside. SETTING: A primary care-based study using FFP-2...

Regional sensitivities of air quality and human health impacts to aviation emissions

Emissions from civil aviation degrade air quality, and have been estimated to lead to ~16 000 premature deaths annually. Previous studies have indicated that aviation emissions in different regions have varying corresponding air quality and human health impacts. Given the global nature of aviation activity and its forecasted regionally...

Developing water and sanitation services in refugee settings from emergency to sustainability - The case of Zaatari Camp in Jordan

Developing water and sanitation services in refugee settings from emergency to sustainability - The case of Zaatari Camp in Jordan

Three years after Zaatari camp was established in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, to host Syrian refugees, its population has grown to 82,000 persons. Zaatari is one of the largest refugee camps in the world, in one of the most water scarce areas on earth. Since its establishment, drinking water has been delivered by trucks to communal...

Using System Dynamics to model the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Botswana and Uganda

Uganda and Botswana present two interesting and contrasting cases in the AIDS epidemic. System dynamics models of the AIDS epidemic in Botswana and Uganda were created to examine the future development of the virus in both countries and evaluate existing and future policy measures. The effect of existing and new policies such as abstinence only,...

Health issues and the building stock

Microbial risk assessment for urban pluvial flooding

Public health risks of urban pluvial flooding have so far received little attention in technical discussions. In this paper, the results of pathogen measurements in the sewer system of Utrecht and an urban flooding experiment are presented and used in an application of Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment, an existing risk analysis method for...

Die Entwicklung von Abwasserentsorgungskonzepten unter dem Einfluss von Urbanisierung und Industrialisierung im 19. Jahrhundert - dargelegt an ausgewählten Beispielen -

Abstract not available