ABSTRACT
Background: Oman is witnessing an increase in outbound and inbound travelers.
Aims: This study was undertaken to assess the current knowledge, attitude, and practice of travel medicine among primary care physicians (PCPs) working in the Muscat Governorate.
Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 108 primary healthcare physicians in primary healthcare institutions in the Muscat Governorate in December 2014 using a self-administered questionnaire.
Results: We had a response rate of 81%, 78% (n = 84) were females, 56.5% (n= 61) were Omani nationals. More than 50% (n= 54) of study participants had been in practice for more than 8 years. Sixty-eight (58.3%) reported having pre-travel consultations during the previous 1-month period and 86 (79.6%) had post-travel consultations. Most of the PCPs were aware of the issues that needed to be addressed in pre-travel consultation.
Conclusions: This study showed that travel health is in an early stage of development in Oman and supports the need for the establishment of travel medicine services
ABSTRACT
To review the rationale and practice for the use of single dose antibiotics in [children below five years] as pre-referral treatment in the emergency triage and treatment protocol of IMCI in the developing countries and also, to assess the available evidence on the suitability of adopting the use of pre-referral antibiotic treatment as a standard strategy of Emergency Triage and Treatment [ETAT] in [integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses] [IMCI] for all developing countries. Scientific, reliable information from the international articles [published and unpublished] were collected. A series of Medline search with key words were performed. Opinions of epidemiologists, public health officers and researchers University Alumni and senior health officials of some developing countries were included in this review. Indirect evidence regarding for or against adopting pre-referral antibiotic treatment were found in developing countries where IMCI was implemented. It was also noted that the efficiency ranking based on the health system performance correlated negatively with the per capita income [r=-0.7, p=<0.001] and the per capita health expenditure. [r=-0.6, [=0.001]. the gap between mortality rates of the [<1] and [1 to 4] years age groups was narrow in countries such as Oman and Argentina compared to the other developing countries. While the doctor population ratio was higher in countries with better efficiency rankings, [r=0.66, p=0.01]. The differences found within the developing world indicate that the use of pre-referral antibiotic is certainly open to modification depending on the resources and health system performance