3^rd Annual Conference on Epidemiology and Public Health December 18-18, 2020 Singapore City, Singapore

Track1: Epidemiology

The branch of science which deals with the diseases, possible control of diseases and factors related to health is known as epidemiology. This helps to know patterns and determinants of health and diseases. This is an important aspect for public health as it identifies the risk factors for diseases and targets preventive health care. In simple terms epidemiology is, “the study of the distribution and determinants of health-related issues and events in particular population and also application of the study to control health problems”.

Track 2: Social Determinants of Health

The circumstances in which individuals are born and live that have impact on their health are called as social determinants of health. The following are the various factors political, socioeconomic, and cultural constructs, also place conditions like accessible healthcare and education system, clean and safe environmental conditions, good neighbourhood, and availability of nutritious food.

Examples of Social Determinants of Health

The social determinants of health are also the determinants of health. Governmental policies, availability of healthcare, individual behavioural choices, and biological and genetic factors are other notable determinants of health. Examples of social determinants of health include:

 •          Income level

•           Educational opportunities

•           Occupation, employment status, and workplace safety

•           Early childhood experiences and development

•           Social support and community inclusivity

•           Neighbourhood conditions and physical environment

•           Access to safe drinking water, clean air, and toxin-free environments

•           Recreational and leisure opportunities

Data and research indicate that the social determinants of health have a higher impact on population health than healthcare and that a higher ratio of social service spending versus healthcare spending results in improved.
                  

Track 3: Epidemiology/ Occupational Health &Safety

Millions of people every year worldwide complain of ill-health which is caused or aggravated by work. Occupational epidemiology plays an important role as it provides powerful and practical information which helps in know the causes and determinants of work-related health issues, to help establish steps that should be taken to reduce those risks, for the benefits of workers and the community.

Types of studies in occupational epidemiology

1. Case control studies

2. Cross sectional studies

3. Cohort studies

Track 4: Women and Child Care

The study of the distribution and determinants of health-related status or events in mother and children and the application of health problems related to mother and child follows a systematic assessment of the health of the women in reproductive age and the children in the community including timely collection of data, analysis, interpretation, and use of Maternal Child Health related data. Mother and child are most vulnerable to the morbidity and mortality. So it is essential to protect them through appropriate action at each level. Women and child health epidemiology program highlights the skills to address the health problems of the mother and children through surveillance, assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Track 5: Public health informatics & Public health

The systematic information, computer science and technology in areas of public health like surveillance, prevention, and health promotion is known as public health informatics. Applications of Public health informatics promote the health of the whole population, which in turn promotes the health of individuals by preventing diseases and injuries by changing the conditions that increases the risk of the population. Public health informatics is uses informatics in public health data collection, analysis and actions. Emphasis on disease prevention in the population, realizing its objectives using a large variety of interventions, and work within governmental settings are aspects that makes Public health informatics different than other fields of informatics.The importance of Public health informatics includes the conceptualization, maintenance, and evaluation of communication, surveillance, and information systems related to public health.

Track 6: Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Almost every health issues are specific to certain parts of the world based on geography, socioeconomic and other factors.  A branch of international medicine which is tropical medicine is involved in knowing the issues related to health which mainly includes communicable diseases which are common in the tropical and subtropical regions.

In the last few decades there has been increase in the awareness about various tropical diseases and several initiatives have been taken by various national and international agencies to fight against the diseases that come under the subject of tropical medicine.

The importance of tropical medicine is to fully understand the biology of the disease-causing agents like bacteria and viruses discover the treatments to control the disease, setup proper guidelines for prevention and reduce the number of disease cases globally.

Track 7: Health and Climate Change

Climate change is a threat to the health of the people. now a days the impacts of human-induced climate change are increasing worldwide. Rising greenhouse gas concentrations result in increases in temperature, changes in precipitation and rising sea levels. These climate changes endanger our health by affecting our food and water sources, the air we breathe, the weather we experience, and natural environments. As the climate continues to change, the risks to human health also continue to grow.

The present and future climatic changes expose more people in more places to public health threats. We are already observing the climatic changes such as exposure to high temperatures, severe or longer-lasting extreme events; decreased air quality, diseases transmitted through food, water, and disease vectors like ticks and mosquitoes and mental health stresses and well-being. All of these threats will definitely worsen with continued climate change. Few of these health threats will occur over longer time periods, or at unpredicted times of the year; people will be exposed to threats not previously experienced in their locations. The instances of potentially beneficial health impacts of climate change are limited in number to specific regions or populations. The reduction in cold-related deaths is projected to be smaller than the increase in heat-related deaths in most of the regions.

Track 8: Alternative Therapy In Health And Medicine

Most of the people use alternative therapies due to many reasons. Around half of people with cancer use some sort of complementary therapy during their illness. There is no evidence to suggest that any type of complementary therapy can prevents or cures cancer or not. People often use complementary therapies to help themselves feel better and cope with having disease and treatment.

The alternative therapies concentrate on relaxation and reducing stress. They help to calm our emotions, relieve anxiety, and increase general sense of health and wellbeing. Many doctors, nurses and researchers are interested in the idea that positive emotions can improve your health. Few types of alternative medicine and  therapies can help to control some symptoms of cancer and treatment side effects. They can also help relieve a sore mouth after having treatment for head and neck cancer. Acupuncture can also help to relieve pain after surgery to remove lymph nodes in the neck. The complementary therapies seem natural and non-toxic. Some alternative therapies can help in dealing with specific symptoms or side effects.

Track 9: Health and Community Nutrition

Scientific evidence has placed community nutrition in the front-line strategies in health promotion. Traditional food habits have been changed in the last few decades. The combination of changes in food patterns and lifestyles has contributed to a significant increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity. The efforts in community nutrition should now focus on three key aspects like nutrition education in schools and in the communities, food safety and improved culinary skills in all age groups. School meals and other catering services provided at work or community sites should be of good quality with the educational message. Food supply services should ensure adequate nutritional supply, healthy eating practices and encourage participation in social learning. Food safety includes the procurement of a safe and adequate food supply in sufficient amounts to cover the nutritional requirements of all individuals globally. It has become a priority for Public health. 

Track 10: Public Health Pharmacy

Public health is organized by society to protect, promote and restore the people’s health. The programs, services and institutions involved promote the prevention of disease and the health needs of the population as a whole. It is explained as, the science and the art of preventing diseases, increasing life expectancy and promoting health through organized community effort.

Public health problems occur in a series of individuals presenting themselves to a health-care provider, but are considered in the context of a community or a population as a whole. The scope of public health is not infrequently misinterpreted as primarily medical care for the undeserved.

Some of the core elements of public health practice are as follows.

1. Surveilance and assessment of the population’s health and well-being.

2. Promoting and protecting the population’s health and well-being.

3. Developing quality and risk management with in evaluative frameworks.

4. Collaboratively working for health, building alliances and partnerships.

5. Developing capacity to reduce health inequalities

6. Policy and strategy development and implementation, cyclical efforts to implement strategies and assess the impact of those policies on health improvement

7. Strategic leadership, reduction in inappropriate antibiotics use etc.

8. Commitment to lifelong learning to assure better models equitable use, distribution and access to resources.

Track 11: Hospital Management

Hospital Management is a term wide in degree and It mostly identifies with the board of all parts of an emergency clinic; a coordination of all components of a medical clinic. This may go from persistent consideration to record keeping to stock of medications and neatness. To have the option to turn into an emergency clinic the executives proficient requires dealing with every single component of the medical clinic.

Qualities of Hospital Management

In each medicinal services setting, including emergency clinics, wellbeing focuses and facilities; coordination is the spirit of emergency clinic the executives. Be that as it may, in the emergency clinic setting, having such cutting edge innovation in social insurance offices; a large group of offices and highlights should be incorporated and synchronized, in this manner requires an exacting coordination. Cutting edge innovation is a significant factor in the emergency clinic office and capacities.

There will be various people taking care of every zone or branch of the emergency clinic like an individual talented in escalated care will be doled out to take care just of this office while an individual gifted in stock administration will be the sole responsible for clinical supplies; a real path from which most medical clinics work. With this, an administration proficient should be prepared to deal with every one of these regions and places the information and expertise into real practice.

Track 12: Population Health and Wellness

Highest quality of life is achieved through population health. Social, behavioural, genetic, financial, cultural statuses are the factors which reflect health. Population health not only focuses on population, it also aims at personalized care of every individual. To accomplish this, healthy lifestyles, health care and well-being of the population should be accomplished. Patterns of occurrence, resulting knowledge which develop policies, and actions to improve health and well-being are the interrelated conditions and factors that influence health population. Wellness means becoming the healthiest you can. According to a survey, there are eight dimensions of wellness: emotional, occupational, physical, social, intellectual, environmental, financial and spiritual. Individual should flourish in all dimensions like body, mind and community for good health. Areas of wellness are health, safety, connection, growth, achievement and resiliency.

Track 13: Global Health Economics

It is the investigation of circulation of human services it is a part of financial aspects worried about issues related efficiency, effectiveness, worth and conducts in the creation and utilization of wellbeing and medicinal services.Worldwide wellbeing is about overall wellbeing improvement, decrease of differences, and assurance against worldwide dangers

It tends to be estimated as an element of different worldwide illnesses and their predominance on the planet and risk to diminish life in the current day. Wellbeing financial matters are worried about conventional examination of costs, advantages, the executives and results of wellbeing and medicinal services. It is worried about the utilization of monetary hypothesis to wonders and issues related with wellbeing and social insurance. The study of disease transmission distinguishes chance factors and reasons for medical issues.

Track 14: Public Health Policy & Health management

Public health is the science of improving the health of people and protecting people and their communities. It can be achieved by promoting healthy lifestyles, researching disease and injury prevention, and detecting, preventing and responding to infectious diseases. Public health is involved in protecting the health of entire populations. Professionals in public health systems attempt to avert problems by implementing educational programs, administering services and implementing policies, conducting research across clinical professionals like doctors and nurses, whose focal point is primarily on treating individuals after they become sick or injured.

Health Management helps in reducing the frequency of health crises and costly ED visits and hospitalizations. Also to lower the cost per service through an integrated delivery of care team approach which includes clinicians, behavioural health care professionals, social workers and physical therapists To improve the overall patient experience by providing improved access to care. Health management includes promoting empowers patients and patient engagement to better self-manage their health and participate in the decision making process.

Track 15: Medical Tourism

Medical tourism is a combination of healthcare and tourism. Medical tourism is growing day by day internationally as well as domestically.  People travel to foreign regions to get a medical treatment. Due to this medical tourism is facing many problems and challenges, which are technological, language barriers etc.

Problems will be created for host country and destination population.  There are many advantages of medical tourism as well as drawbacks. This  is an emerging concept for the travel and tourism industry.

In ancient days people used to travel from one country to another, one destination to another for medical treatment like a hot spring bath, medical therapies.  But the current time has changed, now people travel due to many reasons like as to get affordable best medical treatment in the developing country,

Additionally, transplant tourism has become a highly controversial issue. Medical visitors obtain organs and transplant operations without waiting and for less money. But the World Health Organization says the organs often come from vulnerable people.

Track 16: Vaccines

A vaccine can gives active immunity against specific harmful diseases by stimulating the immune system to attack the agent. After stimulated by a vaccine, the antibody-producing cells, which are ready to respond to the agent should it ever gain entry to the body. A vaccine also confers passive immunity by providing antibodies or lymphocytes already made by an animal or human donor. Vaccines are usually administered by injection, but some are given orally or even nasally. Vaccines applied to mucosal surfaces, seem to stimulate a greater antibody response and may be the most effective route of administration

In addition to the development of memory B cells, vaccination is also beneficial at the population level. When an enough number of individuals in a population are immune to a disease, as would occur if a large proportion of a population were vaccinated, herd immunity is achieved. This means that if there is random mixing of individuals within the population, then the pathogen will stop its spread throughout the population. Herd immunity played an important role in the successful eradication of smallpox, and it is vital in preventing the spread of diseases such as polio and measles.

Track 17: Health Education

Health education is a social science that draws from the mental, physical, biological, environmental and medical sciences to endorse health and prevent defects, disease and adolescent death over education-driven amenable behaviour change activities. Health education is the growth of individual, group, and community, institutional and systemic strategies to improve health attitudes, skills, knowledge and behaviour. The intention of health education is to positively clout the health behaviour of individuals and communities as well as the existing and working conditions that influence their health.

Health education is any combination of learning experiences planned to facilitate voluntary actions favourable to health. Health promotion is the consolidation of environmental and educational supports for actions and conditions of living favourable to health, thereby including health education. The other main developments are relevant namely, the need for planning, the importance of evaluation, the use of social and behavioural science theories in the development of health promotion interventions. Finally, recent developments in information technology like computer tailoring and their effect on health promotion are presented.

Importance of Health Education:

• Maternal and infant health
• Chronic disease prevention and awareness
• Good Nutrition
• Behavioural Health
• Exercise and Obesity prevention
• Maintain hygiene environment

Track 18: Emerging Infectious Diseases

Emerging infectious diseases‎ are serious public health threats, globally. An emerging infectious disease is either that has appeared and affected a population for the first time, or has existed previously but is rapidly spreading. Many emerging infectious diseases are that the disease has emerged from an animal and crossed the species barrier to infect humans. Nipah virus, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever and avian influenza virus are examples of diseases that have recently emerged and have affected the world. Humans may have little or no natural immunity to emerging infectious diseases, so their impact, on health, society and the economy, are difficult to predict.

Emerging infectious diseases pose a significant threat to global health security. Past experience shows that outbreak of emerging diseases could not only potentially cause large numbers of human deaths as they spread, but also have huge social and economic impact in today’s interconnected world. Unfortunately, many of these diseases do not have any cure, and healthcare providers are also usually victim of such diseases.

With increasing travel, trade and mobility of people worldwide, emerging infectious diseases can freely cross international borders, moving aimlessly from one population to another. The nature of such diseases and the need for a collective approach has clearly been demonstrated by SARS (severe acute respiratory infections), avian influenza and, more recently, COVID-19. There are also some infectious diseases that have occurred in other parts of the world but have the potential to appear in the South-East Asia Region; for example, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus and Ebola virus disease

Track 19: Case Reports

Case reports are interactive studies which are useful for knowing epidemiologic principles and practices. The case reports are based on real life diseases outbreaks and public health problems. The epidemiological case studies are based on past and historical events which include various epidemiology methods and practices. Case reports studies the pattern and origin of different diseases and their behaviour in different population. These help in prevention and find cure of various infectious diseases.

Uses of Case Reports:

• Helps to understand the clinical spectrum of rare diseases
• Helps to understand the Mechanism of diseases
• Helps to know unusual presentations of common diseases
• Useful for medical research and evidence based medicine
• Play a vital role in personalization of treatments

Track 20: Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19)

Covid-19 or coronavirus is a novel virus with high affinity to spread in the community In December 2019, it was first identified in Wuhan, China The symptoms are non-specific, so fever, cough, dyspnea, are prominent features Respiratory failure and mortality have also been reported.

Maximum people infected with the COVID-19 virus will experience temperate to moderate respiratory illness and recover without requiring special treatment.  Older people and those with elemental medical problems like diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease and cancer are more likely to develop serious illness.

The best way to avert and slow down transmission is be well informed about the COVID-19 virus, the disease it causes and how it spreads. Protect yourself and others from infection by washing your hands or using an alcohol-based sanitizers rub frequently and not touching your face.

The COVID-19 virus spreads generally discharge from the nose or through droplets of saliva  when an affected person coughs or sneezes, so it’s necessary that you also practice respiratory manners for example, by coughing into a flexed elbow. At this time, there are no particular vaccines or treatments for COVID-19.

 Symptoms of Coronavirus:

• Fever
• Tiredness
• Dry Cough

Few people may also experience:

• Nasal Congestion
• Runny Nose
• Sore Throat
• Aches and Pains
• Diarrhoea

Precautions to be taken:

• Avoid close contact with people
• Avoid mass gatherings or crowded places
• Wash your hands thoroughly and frequently
• While sneezing cover your mouth and nose with elbow
• Use alcohol based sanitizer
• Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth with your hands
• Distance yourself from corona virus effected areas