Safe, Nourishing, Accessible Community Kitchen (S.N.A.C.K.): A community kitchen manual for public health emergencies

@#<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Objective:</strong> The project aims to develop a community kitchen manual for public health emergencies.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Participants:</strong> The officers and members of the Samahan ng Nagkakaisang Kababaihan ng BASECO served as community respondents for this project. These eight women were in charge of the community kitchen operations, particularly the feeding program during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Implementation:</strong> The whole project comes in three phases. The design stage was executed in phase one of this project. The phase one also focused on the development of manual content based on available literatures and considered the interviews conducted with respondents.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Discussion:</strong> The manual contains guidelines on food safety and meal preparations. Based on the interview, the proponents identified specific contents that must be included in the guidelines, as compared with the need to improve current operations of the group's community kitchen. Looking at the activities of the community, the proponents indicated the food flow guidelines to ensure a safe, nourishing and accessible community kitchen (S.N.A.C.K).</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Conclusion:</strong> The designed community kitchen manual may be of use to lay groups putting up community kitchens, since there is no existing manual in the Philippines. However, phases two and three must be conducted to validate its usefulness and accuracy in the field.</p>

“STOP the PUFF! Tayo’y mag bagong BAGA, SIGARILYO ay ITIGIL”: A Pilot Community-based Tobacco Intervention Project in an Urban Settlement

@#<jats:p>The success rate for smoking cessation in the country remain low despite the intensified efforts of the government to curb smoking. There is a need to support tobacco control policies with clinical interventions for smoking cessation. However, cessation experts in the country are few and healthcare workers with training on tobacco interventions are limited.  The project aimed to address the clinical aspect of tobacco control by establishing tobacco cessation services in the community. This was done by providing brief tobacco intervention training among health workers and community leaders, thus allowing this intervention to be integrated in the existing programs of the community health center. This also led to the creation of possible referral mechanisms to cessation support providers. This was complemented with health education activities that promote smoke-free behavior. Keywords: tobacco; cigarette smoking; tobacco dependence; smoking cessation; brief advice; brief tobacco intervention​​​​​</jats:p>

A 15-year review of ocular manifestations of autoimmune inflammatory disorders in a university hospital

@#<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Background:</strong> Autoimmune diseases represent a significant health burden for 3% to 9% of the general population, and rheumatology, perhaps more than any other medical subspecialty, encompasses a broad array of such diseases that affect a wide range of organ systems including the eye. It serves as a sensitive barometer of autoimmune phenomena in many of the rheumatic diseases.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Objective:</strong> The study determined the various ocular manifestations of all autoimmune inflammatory disorders at the University of Santo Tomas Hospital, Section of Rheumatology and the Department of Ophthalmology from 2003 to 2018.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Methodology:</strong> A retrospective cohort study was done involving chart review of patients from both private division and clinical division. Sex, age, duration of disease, medications given, and ocular manifestations were determined. Statistical analysis included frequencies, percentages, and logistic regression analysis.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Results:</strong> Sixty-seven patients were included in the study. Of these, 58.2% (39/67) had ocular manifestations secondary to an established autoimmune disease. It was found out that 58.97% (23/39) had Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome. Other autoimmune diseases with ophthalmologic manifestations were systemic lupus erythematosus at 12.8% (5/39), ankylosing spondylitis at 10.25% (4/39), rheumatoid arthritis and Behcet's syndrome at 5.12% (2/39), and granulomatosis with polyangiitis, scleroderma and psoriatic arthritis at 2.56% (1/39).</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Conclusion:</strong> In this population, the frequency of ocular manifestations of autoimmune diseases remained low with anterior uveitis as the most common. Close coordination between specialties is very important in the course of treatment and management to lessen its complications and related morbidity.</p>