International Journal of Public Health and Safety

George Satayana stated that “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. As our UK “good outcome” death toll of 20,000 from coronavirus (SARS CoV-2/COVID-19) in 2020 has sadly been surpassed; never has a phrase been more pertinent. The last major pandemic on a similar scale to COVID-19 is “Spanish Flu” from 1918. We aim to delineate the timeline of events in response to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic and compare this to the timeline of COVID 19 response, given that the NHS and WHO have since both been long established. In the last 102 years many changes have occurred. Health services across the world have significantly improved, with the advent of mechanical ventilation and antimicrobial treatments. Vaccination programmes against common pathogens have prevented many large-scale disease threats; however novel illnesses have also emerged. Worldwide communication through the Internet and many agencies including the World Health Organisation has improved, and the awareness and surveillance of disease is more prominent. Despite advances in healthcare and communication, the national and international timeline for public health intervention in the current COVID pandemic in comparison to the Spanish flu pandemic of more than 100 years ago is virtually identical. The World Health Organisation operates to promote global health and prevent spread of disease, with this in mind; should the WHO have intervened earlier? We need to learn quickly from this pandemic and improve planning for the future.

This article is dealing with the area of the working risks and their assessment in the SMEDs in the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic. The area of the occupational safety and health (OSH) is solved on both the supranational and national levels by legal regulations. It represents the approaches of these countries, describes the current approach and tools for assessing the working risks and the further steps in this area.

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection causes a global health problem with a high level of morbidity and mortality. Individuals are at higher risk of acquiring the disease. Attitudes related to health are influenced by varying aspects of knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP). The purpose of this study was to examine the KAP level of Residents towards HBV virus infection in Ogbomosho, Nigeria.

Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive locality-based study was conducted in seven (7) L.G.A of Ogbomosho. A pre-tested organized questionnaire was designed and implemented to explore KAP as regards HBV infection. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 was utilized to conduct statistical analysis and examine the data. Chi square test was used to determine the relationship between categorical variable.

Results: A total number of 140 respondents were screened and evaluated about their Knowledge on Hepatitis B. 62.1% were male and 37.9% were female. The diagnostic results showed that 93.6% were HBV positive while only 6.4% were negative. About half of the total respondents have knowledge about the mode of transmission of HBV. About only 11.4% were aware of Vaccination. The working experience, Knowledge about HBV and its mode of transmission by the respondents had no significant effect on their current HBV status (p>0.05).

Conclusion: There is need for transmission communication of with information about Hepatitis B infection to the population. There is a need for more information and investment in vaccination as community dwellers seems to have low knowledge and poor attitude toward HBV vaccination.

Background: Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is a public health epidemic outbreak and is currently a concern of the international community. As of 23 March 2020, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has reached more than 300,000 worldwide. This burden crates high stress in the global community, and is having a significant impact on the global economy. This paper pursued to obtain a time series model that able to model and forecast the global daily incidence of Novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Methods: Global daily number of confirmed cases and deaths from Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) reported during the study period from 22 January 2020 to 22 March 2020 were considered. A time series model namely an Autoregressive Moving Average (ARMA) Model was employed to model and forecast the daily global incidence of COVID-19. Various ARMA models were considered with different lag order specification, and the best model was considered using the Akaike's information criterion (AIC) and Bayesian information criterion (BIC).

Results: A dramatic rise in the number of confirmed cases and deaths per day from COVID-19 was observed around the globe during the study period. In the analysis, the log-transformed value of the series was considered, and relatively stable variations were found around the mean of the series. The ARMA (2, 3) and ARMA (2, 2) model for the daily reported death and confirmed cases series were obtained as a best model respectively. The incidence of death from COVID-19 is substantially impacted by the past two AR lags (AR(1)= 0.208 and AR(2)=0.68 ) and the past three shocks/MA (MA(1)=0.899, MA(2)=0.397, and MA(3)=0.449,).

Conclusions: The global incidence of Novel Corona virus (COVID-19) has risen significantly over the study period and needs to be strongly underscored. The forecast value shows a dramatic rise in the incidence of COVID-19 for the next 2 months. This study warns the body concerned to the need for a high degree of action to prevent the spread of coronavirus with possible intervention. The prevention strategies that help to curb the virus identified by world health organization (WHO) should be implemented basically in the global community with optimal resource utilization.

Objective: There is paucity of information on the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors among the working population in Nigeria, particularly among nurses. This study was thus conducted to investigate the prevalence of selected modifiable CVD risk factors and sociodemographic factors associated with them, among nurses in Nigeria.

Materials and methods: This study was a cross-sectional survey involving 316 (298 females and 18 males) nurses, purposively recruited from the largest teaching hospital in Nigeria. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire and the AUDIT- C Alcohol Screening Questionnaire were used to assess the physical activity and alcohol consumption levels of the participants respectively. Participants' height, weight, body mass index (BMI), waist and hip circumferences, waist-to-hip ratio and blood pressure were assessed using standard procedures. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics of Chi-square at 0.05 level of significance.

Results: There was high prevalence and clustering of physical inactivity, obesity and pre-hypertension among the participants. Significant association was found between age and blood pressure (p<0.001), age and BMI (p<0.001), sex and physical activity level (p=0.041), sex and alcohol consumption (p<0.001), professional rank and blood pressure (0.038) and between professional rank and BMI (p<0.001).

Conclusion: Findings from this study showed high prevalence of CVD risk factors: obesity, pre-hypertension abnormal waist-hip ratio and insufficient physical activity levels among participants. These factors were variedly associated with participants’ age, professional rank and sex. There is a need for an urgent intervention to ameliorate CVD risks among nurses in Nigeria.