Globalising cartography?:the International Map of the World, the International Geographical Union, and the United Nations

Few maps mirror the history of the twentieth century as closely as the International Map of the World (IMW). A proposal for a map of the entire globe on a scale of 1:1 million, using standard conventional signs, was presented at the Fifth International Geographical Congress in Berne in 1891 by the German geographer Albrecht Penck. More than two decades later, the final specification was finally published shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, a crisis that brought a halt to the international collaboration on which the project depended. The IMW’s fortunes waxed and waned over the next three decades, necessitating a major review of its continuing value after the Second World War. A new IMW Executive Commission under the chairmanship of John Kirtland Wright, Director of the American Geographical Society, was established at the 1949 Lisbon conference of the International Geographical Union. Drawing on Wright’s correspondence in the AGS archives, this paper examines the debates between the national cartographic agencies and related societies involved in the future of the IMW, with particular reference to the transfer of the project’s Central Bureau from the British Ordnance Survey in Southampton to the United Nations in New York in the early 1950s. This discussion, which focused mainly on the need to combine the IMW with an internationalized version of the US-dominated 1:1 million World Aeronautical Chart, reveals the on-going tensions between the ideals of scientific internationalism embodied in the IMW’s original proposal and the harsh realities of national self-interest in the early years of the Cold War

Aiming at the global elimination of viral hepatitis:challenges along the care continuum

Abstract A recent international workshop, organized by the authors, analyzed the obstacles facing the ambitious goal of eliminating viral hepatitis globally. We identified several policy areas critical to reaching elimination targets. These include providing hepatitis B birth-dose vaccination to all infants within 24 hours of birth, preventing the transmission of blood-borne viruses through the expansion of national hemovigilance schemes, implementing the lessons learned from the HIV epidemic regarding safe medical practices to eliminate iatrogenic infection, adopting point-of-care testing to improve coverage of diagnosis, and providing free or affordable hepatitis C treatment to all. We introduce Egypt as a case study for rapid testing and treatment scale-up: this country offers valuable insights to policy makers internationally, not only regarding how hepatitis C interventions can be expeditiously scaled-up, but also as a guide for how to tackle the problems encountered with such ambitious testing and treatment programs.</jats:p

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

Modelling the elimination of hepatitis C virus infection as a public health threat

The revolution in hepatitis C virus treatment through the development of direct-acting antivirals has generated international interest in the elimination of the disease as a public health threat. This led the World Health Organization to establish viral hepatitis elimination targets. Whether these targets can be met and how intervention programmes should be scaled up in specific settings are open questions. This thesis details how mathematical models were developed and used to answer these questions. A model of the hepatitis C epidemic was designed and the impact of a range of intervention strategies estimated. A comprehensive package of prevention, screening and treatment interventions could avert 15 million new infections and 1.5 million premature deaths, falling narrowly short of the WHO targets. Nevertheless, achieving these gains relies on a dramatic scaling up of harm reduction interventions to people who inject drugs (to 40% coverage), continued reductions in risk of hepatitis C infection in the remaining population and implementation of screening programmes that result in 90% of hepatitis C infected people being diagnosed. Meeting global targets will only occur if concrete strategies are implemented at the local level. We worked with policy makers in Yunnan Province, China, to devise and assess a range of screening strategies. A combined suite of interventions could reduce incidence by 49% and mortality by 56% by 2030 with treatment costs over that period of 492 million Chinese Yuan. Targeted screening that averts future infections is more cost effective than general screening; cost effectiveness hinges upon reducing DAA costs below current list prices in China. Implementing hepatitis C interventions offers a net economic benefit. This work provides a two-sided view of tackling the public health burden of hepatitis C. Considered globally, significant steps towards elimination can be taken provided ambitious intervention targets are met. Considered locally, our analysis of the hepatitis C epidemic in Yunnan illustrates that interventions can be scaled up in a pragmatic way that offers economic benefits in addition to reducing the burden of disease ultimately borne by patients.Open Acces

Cartographic ideals and geopolitical realities: International maps of the world from the 1890s to the present

This paper charts the attempts to construct an international map of the world using a standard projection and common conventions and symbols. The first part of the paper discusses the original incarnation of this idea, the International (1:1 Million) Map of the World (IMW), initially proposed by the German geographer Albrecht Penck in the early 1890s. The IMW was designed to challenge the idea that cartography was an inherently national science undertaken by, and for, specific nation states. Despite endless negotiations, delays and compromises, two world wars and the withdrawal of American support, the IMW project continued through the early and middle decades of the twentieth century, initially at the British Ordnance Survey and subsequently at the United Nations, only to fizzle out in the 1970s. The second part of the paper examines the Global Mapping Project (GMP), the latest manifestation of the same idea. Global Map, the first version of which was released in 2000, is an attempt to construct a single world map for the digital age. Like the IMW before it, Global Map is designed to facilitate a common, trans-national understanding of global problems. However, the technical, institutional and application challenges facing the GMP are different from those that confronted the IMW. Whereas the primary purpose of the IMW was never consistently defined, Global Map has a clearer environmental and educational objective. But if Global Map is to become an effective tool for sustainable environmental management and development, its advocates will need to learn the lessons of the IMW's failure and secure renewed international commitment to the value of international mapping

Results of meta-analysis of CD4 staging for POC CD4 and laboratory testing (95% confidence intervals shown in brackets).

<p>Results of meta-analysis of CD4 staging for POC CD4 and laboratory testing (95% confidence intervals shown in brackets).</p

Prevalence and incidence curves.

<p>Prevalence and incidence for all three care contexts, for an arbitrarily chosen calibrated epidemiological parameter set. For all parameter sets see Fig C in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0158303#pone.0158303.s001" target="_blank">S1 Supporting Information</a>. The colours correspond to (from top to bottom on both panels): grey—current care (CC) context, orange—enhanced counselling and testing (ECT), blue—universal test and treat (UTT). Also shown on the left panel are the confidence intervals of the UNAIDS prevalence estimates (inner circles) and twice the confidence intervals (outer crosses).</p

Cost-effectiveness acceptability curves.

<p>These curves show the probability that introduction of POC CD4 testing compared to laboratory CD4 testing is cost-effective at a range of decision rule thresholds for the 1 year projection (left) and 3 year projection (right). The colours correspond to (left to right within each plot): grey—current care (CC) context, orange—enhanced counselling and testing (ECT), blue—universal test and treat (UTT). The dashed line shows South African GDP per capita.</p