BACKGROUND In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), hepatitis C virus (HCV) distribution appears to present a wide range of prevalence. The scale and nature of HCV disease burden is poorly known in the Horn of Africa sub-region of MENA including Djibouti, Somalia, and Sudan in addition to Yemen at the southwest corner of the Arabian Peninsula. The aim of this review is to provide a systemati...

BACKGROUND Gastrointestinal and liver diseases (GILDs) are major causes of death and disability in Middle East and North Africa (MENA). However, they have different patterns in countries with various geographical, cultural, and socio-economic status. We aimed to compare the burden of GILDs in Iran with its neighboring countries using the results of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study in 20...

The Gram-negative encapsulated bacterium Neisseria meningitidis type A (MenA) is a major cause of meningitis in developing countries, especially in the sub-Saharan region of Africa. The development and manufacture of an efficient glycoconjugate vaccine against MenA is greatly hampered by the poor hydrolytic stability of its capsular polysaccharide, consisting of (1→6)-linked 2-acetamido-2-deoxy...

The world is facing an unprecedented displacement crisis. Recently, over 1.1 million asylum seekers have been granted protection status in the European Union (EU). The majority of these asylum seekers were from countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.This influx carries with it a potential introduction of infectious diseases that have been eliminated in the EU, which poses a...

F rom the viewpoint of economic theories, total factor productivity (TFP) is the most important component that leads to economic growth and development. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of knowledge-based economy on total factor productivity in the member countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. For this purpose, the panel data regression analysis ha...

Palliative care is an important component of cancer treatment. Advancing palliative care in the developing countries is essential to improving patient care. The issues limiting its practice must be addressed, especially in light of the initiative to adapt the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Palliative care is in ...

OBJECTIVES To provide an overview of the current level of development and results from the national HIV surveillance systems of the 23 countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and to assess the quality of HIV surveillance systems in the period 2007-2011. METHODS A questionnaire was used to collect the information about the structure, activities and the results of HIV surveillance...

BACKGROUND Regional evidence-based guidelines for the prophylaxis and management of infantile colic are not available for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The Allied Against Infantile Functional GI Disorders (ACT) Working Group was created in January, 2015 to determine the knowledge gaps and the current management practices of infantile colic by physicians in the MENA region. The...

This paper uses panel cointegration techniques to examine the causal relationship between renewable energy consumption, economic growth and CO2 emissions for a group of 12 MENA countries covering the annual period 1975-2008. The Granger-causality results indicate that there is no causal relationship between these variables in short run except a unidirectional causality running from renewable en...

OBJECTIVES The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is perceived to have limited HIV data. The objective of this study was to quantitatively characterise the progress in HIV research in this region since the discovery of the epidemic. METHODS Four indices were defined and implemented to measure the progress of HIV research using the PubMed, Embase, MENA HIV/AIDS Epidemiology Synthesis P...