Health work force in Egypt

Egypt has a long history in health care and medical practice that stems from the Pharonic and Arab heritage. Throughout the last decades, the country has achieved impressive improvements both in health indicators and health care provision. Health care system has established an extensive network of primary health care units covering the entire population. However, Ministry of health and population, MOHP, is facing the challenges of maintaining these improvements and executing more improvements for providing high quality health care [1]. One milestone for health planning is human resources. It is recommended to have adequate quantity and quality of different health team members. Balanced distribution of different specialties allover the country to attain equity in health care. This study will focus on physician's number in the past years till now to suggest our needs of doctors in the future. From the previous information we deduce that there was high discrepancy in data. The first step to plan for work force in Egypt is to get accurate data base. Ministry of health and population should prepare survey study to calculate the number of physicians [and other health team workers] in service. The number of physicians having postgraduate certificates in the different specialties. Distribution of physicians in the different governments by specialty. The second step after this situational analysis is to analyze these data to know the number needed of physicians, the needed specialties, the ideal distribution of physicians in the different governments to assure equity of service. The future needs-of physicians can be calculated in relation to the expected number of population increase. This number of physicians needed in the future will be the guide for the number of students to be admitted to faculties of Medicine and a guide for postgraduate planning. The quantity of physicians is not the only indicator for the health service effectiveness, the quality of physicians is also important. In some countries as Israel, Sweden [in table 4] the number of physicians to 10000 of population is very high in comparison to Egypt [nearly 7 folds] but the question is [can we solve our health problems by only increasing the number of doctors?] we think assuring quality is more important than increasing quantity

Low back pain in industry, an epidemiological study

This study was performed to determine the prevalence of low hack pain and the risk factors for this disease among the workers in jute industry. 484 workers were included from different sections at Belbis Jute factory in Sharkia Governorate. It was found that the prevalence of low back pain was 15.7% among manual workers in the factory while it was 7.1% among the administrative employees. Most of the diseased persons were above 40 years of age. This study revealed that the prominent risk factors for low back pain were age progression, long duration of employment and smoking habit. Low back pain prevalence was lower among workers practising spurt activities and those having higher educational levels. There was no significant relationship between low back pain and the worker's body mass index or his blood group

Cluster survey for vaccination coverage in Sohag Governorate, October 1989

This cluster survey for vaccination coverage in Sohag Governorate was carried out for the six vaccine preventable diseases in children below 2 years and tetanus toxoid for pregnant mothers. It reveals that vaccination coverage in Sohag is still far below the universal child immunization goal of 80% coverage by the year 1990. Fully vaccinated children were 17.2%. Vaccination coverage was better in urban [44.8%] than in rural areas [7%]. Vaccination coverage was higher in males [67.6%] than in females [32.4%]. Measles had the best level of coverage [66.1%] while B.C.G. was the least [20.9%]. Fifty percent of mothers were covered by two doses of tetanus toxoid. The most common reasons for drop out were unaware of need for return for second and third doses [32.6%] and vaccine not available [21.7%]. Evaluation of most important vaccination activities to be performed in link with the cold chain in the thirty health units of the thirty cluster areas of Sohag Governorate was performed

Knowledge, attitude and practice of pharmacists in Zagazig in relation to management of diarrheal cases with oral rehydration

This study was performed to identify the knowledge, attitude and practice of pharmacists concerning the different aspects of management of diarrhea with oral rehydration. It included 137 pharmacists in Zagazig district, about 32% of them working in rural areas. The study showed that 92% of pharmacists knowing the actual amount of water required to dissolve one packet of oral rehydration salts [ORS], 84% of them acquired their knowledge about oral rehydration from mass media and drug representative. Most of them [75.9%] have positive attitude toward, feeding of diarrhoeal cases. In the studied group 19% never prescribed ORS and the rest [81%] prescribed it. However only 4.4% prescribed ORS alone without other drugs which may reflect the lack knowledge or acceptance about ORS among the studied group

Meningitis in Sharkia governorate: an epidemiologic study

Meningitis is still a health problem in Sharkia governorate. The frequency of meningitis showed a gradual decline from 27.65/100000 population of Sharkia governorate in the year 1982 to 7.14/100000 population in the year 1987. However, the case fatality rats were increasing from 7.4% in 1982 to 25.5% in 1987 and this increase was magnified in the infant in particular. Certain districts in the governorate [Abo-Hammad, Ebraheemia and Zagazig] showed the highest frequency per 100000 population in the year 1987 [10.77, 9.97 and 9.45 respectively]. Meningitis in Zagazig Fever Hospital [Z.F.H.] was also explored in the year 1987, where 66 cases of meningitis were admitted