Urbanization and non-communicable disease mortality in Thailand: an ecological correlation study.

This study provides strong evidence from an LMIC that urbanization is associated with mortality from three lifestyle-associated diseases at an ecological level. Furthermore, our data suggest that both average household income and number of doctors per population are important factors to consider in ecological analyses of mortality

Frequent Spread of Plasmodium vivax Malaria Maintains High Genetic Diversity at the Myanmar-China Border, Without Distance and Landscape Barriers

BackgroundIn Myanmar, civil unrest and the establishment of internally displaced person (IDP) settlements along the Myanmar-China border have impacted malaria transmission.MethodsMicrosatellite markers were used to examine source-sink dynamics for Plasmodium vivax between IDP settlements and surrounding villages in the border region. Genotypic structure and diversity were compared across the 3 years following the establishment of IDP settlements, to infer demographic history. We investigated whether human migration and landscape heterogeneity contributed to P. vivax transmission.ResultsP. vivax from IDP settlements and local communities consistently exhibited high genetic diversity within populations but low polyclonality within individuals. No apparent genetic structure was observed among populations and years. P. vivax genotypes in China were similar to those in Myanmar, and parasite introduction was unidirectional. Landscape factors, including distance, elevation, and land cover, do not appear to impede parasite gene flow.ConclusionsThe admixture of P. vivax genotypes suggested that parasite gene flow via human movement contributes to the spread of malaria both locally in Myanmar and across the international border. Our genetic findings highlight the presence of large P. vivax gene reservoirs that can sustain transmission. Thus, it is important to reinforce and improve existing control efforts along border areas

2-2 Towards Managing Stateless People in a Thai Context

departmental bulletin pape

2‒2 Towards Managing Stateless People in a Thai Context

departmental bulletin pape

Integrative analysis of city systems: Bangkok 'man and the biosphere' programme study

This paper argues that integrative analysis of city systems helps us to see beyond their current environmental and social problems to underlying causes, and it suggests different opportunities for possible interventions. Focusing on a single aspect of a city or its people without understanding its context risks interventions which treat symptoms rather than causes and whose short-term 'solution' often means that the problem returns in the same or perhaps a different form. Our integrative analysis of Bangkok suggests that the root of its environmental (and some social) problems lie in decision-making structures and a political culture which has historically fostered self interested decisions by stakeholders rather than the public interest. This has produced a land use and built environment configuration that largely ignores the functioning of the natural flood plain ecosystem and the well-being of residents. People adapt their behaviour to their environment but often in ways that have serious cumulative impacts on the city. This analysis suggests that problems need to be addressed at their source: the nature of decision-making by stakeholders, at every level. This requires the engagement of all parties inside and outside government, the elite and otherwise. To the extent that planning has a viable role, the focus needs to be on the source of the impacts, such as national development planning, rather than in sectors such as transport, where the problems are evident