Results: Of the 14 Middle East countries, attention was focused on 10 countries with similar renal care systems: 7 Arabian Peninsula countries and 3 eastern Mediterranean countries. Collectively, they have a population of 72.5 million. Incidence of ESRD ranged between 64 and 212 patients per million population (pmp) with an average of 93 patients pmp. The lowest prevalence was 320, the highest ...

BACKGROUND The nutritional status of school-aged children impacts their health, cognition, and subsequently their educational achievement. The school is an opportune setting to provide health and nutrition services to disadvantaged children. Yet, school-aged children are not commonly included in health and nutrition surveys. An up-to-date overview of their nutritional status across the world is...

The olive is one of the most ancient cultivated fruit trees. Olive cultivation has a very long history which started from the Third Millennium BC (Loukas & Krimbas, 1983) in the Eastern region of the Mediterranean sea and spread later around the basin following land and maritime routes to Italy, Spain, North Africa and France. Nowadays there are about 805 million of olive trees, 98% of which ar...

Hepatitis B virus genotype D can be found in many parts of the world and is the most prevalent strain in south-eastern Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East, and the Indian sub-continent. The epidemiological history of the D genotype and its subgenotypes is still obscure because of the scarcity of appropriate studies. We retrieved from public databases a total of 312 gene P sequences...

The aim of this cross-sectional observational study was to address the health care situation in regard to smoking cessation efforts and expenditure, and to provide a basis for future studies and for implementing tobacco control programmes throughout the Eastern Mediterranean Region of the World Health Organization. Information collected included methods and cost of services for tobacco cessatio...

Caper (Capparis spinosa L.) is a xerophytic shrub with a remarkable adaptability to harsh environments. This plant species is of great interest for its medicinal/pharmacological properties and its culinary uses. Its phytochemical importance relies on many bioactive components present in different organs and its cultivation can be of considerable economic value. Moreover, taxonomic identificatio...

BACKGROUND This article aims at providing an overview of the current epidemiological situation in the heterogeneous Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). It is one in a series of eight articles appointed by the International Epidemiological Association to improve the epidemiological situation. METHODS Several resources were used to extract morbidity, mortality and risk factors data that contrib...

This review was done to fulfil the following objectives: • to present a brief overview on the current global concepts concerning antimalarial drug resistance; • to review historical data about the emergence of drug resistance in the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region; • to present the available information on the current prevalence of drug-resistant falciparum malaria in the Region; ...

Background Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) is an autosomalrecessive disorder characterized by recurrent attacks of fever and serositis. It is common in eastern Mediterranean population. There are only few FMF patients in Slovenia and Macedonia and the mutation carrier rate is not known. So far, over 80 disease associated mutations have been identified in MEFV gene; the most common are M694V,...

QUALITY PROBLEM Recent evidence in the level of patient safety from hospitals in six developing countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region has demonstrated the high prevalence of adverse events, the excessive rate of death and permanent disability and their high preventability. The Patient Safety Friendly Hospital Initiative (PSFHI) has been launched to respond to these challenges. INITIAL...