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Receiving adequate, timely and effective medical care at the tertiary level hospitals can be a challenge because of the difficulty to reach these hospitals. Many of these facilities are located in central or certain geographic areas. This study describes the geographic distribution of tertiary care hospitals in Bangladesh and assesses their accessibility. Several data sources including the Directorate General of Health Services, National Population Census and Google Maps were used. Geographic inaccessibility ranking was calculated by a method that used data on population and area of the district, travel time and distance to the hospital. Among 35 hospitals, 16 are situated in Dhaka district comprising 10,424 beds, which is almost 41% of the total tertiary care beds. Among the 64 total districts, 46 do not have any such hospital. Around 6.4 million people need to travel more than 3 hours and another 25.4 million need between 2 and 3 hours to reach tertiary care hospitals. Geographic inaccessibility score was found to be high for 5 districts, moderate for 5 districts and low for 19 districts. High centrality of location and skewed distribution of these hospitals may have created health inequity and disparity for a large population segment in Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Monkeypox (Mpox) is an infectious illness that can spread to humans through infected humans, animals, or contaminated objects. In 2022, the monkeypox virus spread to over 60 countries, raising significant public health concerns. Nurses play a vital role in patient care and have critical responsibilities in managing infected patients and being aware of the potential impact on the general population. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the knowledge and attitudes (KAs) of Bangladeshi nurses regarding monkeypox infectious disease. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between October 2022 and March 2023 to evaluate the KA of nurses. Semi-structured and self-administered questionnaires were used, distributed via Google Form, and a convenient sampling technique was implemented. The dataset was analyzed using the Chi-square test, multivariable logistic regression, and Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: A total of 1047 datasets were included in the final analysis. Overall, 57.97% of the participants demonstrated good knowledge, and 93.12% of the respondents had a positive attitude towards monkeypox disease. Female nurses exhibited better knowledge (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.36; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.88–1.98) and a more positive attitude (AOR 1.64; 95% CI 1.12–3.00) than male nurses. Furthermore, a strong correlation was observed between good knowledge of monkeypox disease and a positive attitude (r = 0.76, p < 0.001), while poor knowledge moderately correlated with a negative attitude (r = 0.53, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Given the need for further improvement in KA, we recommend implementing additional training programs to enhance the abilities and motivation of nurses in effectively managing patients affected by monkeypox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Empowering workers through operational safety committees and having an effective safety reporting mechanism improves occupational health and safety. The Western large retailers mostly from Europe formed the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (Accord) in 2013 to advance occupational health and safety in the Bangladesh garment industry and one of its missions was to empower the workers. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of Accord's programs on improving safety and quality of the working environment in the garment sector. METHOD: All reports of Accord published and made available for the public were accessed and analyzed. Data were gathered and presented on 1) number of Safety Committees formed 2) Safety Training Programs conducted and 3) Safety and Health Complaints received. RESULTS: By 2021, a total of 1581 factories and 1.8 million workers were covered by Accord. By May, 2021, Accord formed Safety Committees and completed training sessions on these in 1022 factories (65% of the target). By 2020, the average number of total complaints received per factory was around two and the number of occupational health and safety (OSH) complaints -which was deemed to be dealt directly by Accord- was less than one per factory. The numbers of OSH complaints were less than two per 1000 workers and non-OSH complaints made up almost one third (25-35%) of all complaints during 2016 to 2019; however, in 2020 and 2021, non-OSH complaints constituted half (50%) of all complaints. CONCLUSION: Accord's worker empowerment mission could not form Safety Committees or deliver training sessions in all its factories and the number and relevance of complaints received appeared to be low given the number of factories and workers it covered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]