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The spread of venereal diseases after the Second World War constituted a grave public health danger in Europe. Especially in all four occupation zones in Germany and the Polish People���s Republic high morbidity rates were observed. In order to limit the spread of diseases, respective administrations adopted specific regulations. The aim of this research is the analysis and comparison of legal regulations for controlling and combating venereal diseases in these countries. We have analyzed legislative and administrative acts concerning combatting venereal diseases issued by the official organs of the Soviet Occupation Zone, the German Democratic Republic, and the Polish People���s Republic from 1945 to 1989. Subsequently, the analyzed sources were evaluated in light of the existing literature on the topic. Our analysis shows that policy approaches in both countries were based the Soviet Union���s model for fighting venereal diseases. Visible are similarities of the approaches. They include organization of anti-venereal services, compulsory hospitalization, and actions against social groups perceived as sources of venereal diseases. Beside the purpose of breaking the spread of the epidemics, the approaches had also a political aimof sanctioning behavior that diverged fromprescribed socialist moral norms., publishedVersion

Emergency contraception (EC) has been prescribed for decades, in order to lessen the risk of unplanned and unwanted pregnancy following unprotected intercourse, ordinary contraceptive failure, or rape. EC and the linked aspect of unintended pregnancy undoubtedly constitute highly relevant public health issues, in that they involve women's self-determination, reproductive freedom and family planning. Most European countries regulate EC access quite effectively, with solid information campaigns and supply mechanisms, based on various recommendations from international institutions herein examined. However, there is still disagreement on whether EC drugs should be available without a physician's prescription and on the reimbursement policies that should be implemented. In addition, the rights of health care professionals who object to EC on conscience grounds have been subject to considerable legal and ethical scrutiny, in light of their potential to damage patients who need EC drugs in a timely fashion. Ultimately, reproductive health, freedom and conscience-based refusal on the part of operators are elements that have proven extremely hard to reconcile; hence, it is essential to strike a reasonable balance for the sake of everyone's rights and well-being.

The development of new methods in the field of prenatal testing leads to an expansion of information that needs to be provided to expectant mothers. The aim of this research is to explore opinions and attitudes of gynecologists in Germany, Poland and Russia towards access to prenatal testing and diagnostics in these countries. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with n = 18 gynecologists in Germany, Poland and Russia. The interviews were analyzed using the methods of content analysis and thematic analysis. Visible in all three countries is a connection of prenatal medicine with the politically and socially contentious issue of pregnancy termination. Respondents in Poland and Russia concentrated on the topic of inadequate resources. Quality of information for expectant mothers is an important point in all three countries. Only in Germany was the issue of language barriers in communication raised. With regard to non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) respondents in Germany focused on the ethical issues of routinization of testing; in Poland and Russia they concentrated on fair access to NIPT. Challenges in all three countries arise from structural factors such as imprecise and prohibitive regulations, lack of resources or organization of healthcare services. These should be addressed on a political and medico-ethical level., publishedVersion

Previous research illustrated that the laws regulating involuntary placement and treatment of people with mental-health problems are diverse across countries. International studies comparing satisfaction levels between countries are rare. We compared the opinions of professionals and family members about the operation of the national mental-health law regulating forcibly admission and treatment of psychiatric patients in 11 countries: Ireland, Iceland, England and Wales, Romania, Slovenia, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Norway and India. An online survey design was adopted using a Mental Health Legislation Attitudes Scale (MHLAS). This brief nine-item questionnaire was distributed via email to psychiatrists, general practitioners, acute and community mental-health nurses, tribunal members, police officers and family members in each collaborating country. The levels of agreement/disagreement were measured on a Likert scale. Data were analysed both per question and with regard to a total MHLAS ���approval��� score computed as a sum of the nine questions. We found that respondents in England and Wales and Denmark expressed the highest approval for their national legislation (76% and 74%, respectively), with those in India and Ireland expressing the lowest approval (65% and 64%, respectively). Almost all countries had a more positive attitude in comparison to Ireland on the admission criteria for involuntary placement and the way people are transferred to psychiatric hospitals. There are significant variations across Europe and beyond in terms of approval for how the national mental-health law framework operates in each country. �� In Copyright http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/, publishedVersion

This paper discusses the complexity of contemporary struggles for collective health in Colombia, by analysing the efforts of different actors to inscribe abortion as a matter of public health and as a human right. In 2006 the Colombian Constitutional Court (Sentence C 355 of 2006) partially decriminalised abortion in specific circumstances. Such a change in regulation was the result of the strategic coordination of international organisations, researchers and women’s social movements. These groups produced a powerful network of international regulation and epidemiological data about abortion’s mortality and burden of disease in order to move the discussion from the moral field to public health and international law. Despite the significance of the sentence in terms of civil rights, ten years after the regulation there is no clarity about its impact. Conservative sectors within the government have limited the operation of the regulation, through eliciting convoluted rules for hospitals and care providers. On the other hand, data about safe abortions are weak and precarious. Recently groups opposed of abortion have exploited such weakness to undermine the impact of the decriminalisation and to criticise the justification of legalising abortion as a matter of public health. © 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor and Francis Group.

[Damage caused by blood transfusion and medical liability] A wide scientific and jurisprudential literature is available on the issue of medical liability for damage by blood transfusion. National laws and jurisprudential guidelines had transposed the scientific development in term of preventive diagnostic techniques designed to minimize the risk of post-transfusion infections. For this reasons the Ministry of Health has issued several decrees to preserve patients from viral post-transfusion infections, avoiding compensation due to unpredictable transfusion damages. Particularly, by implementing all the methods provided by law, it is now possible to minimize the risk of infection, but it is impossible to cancel it. On the other hand, in the “so-called windows period” for viral infections, potential infective donors can’t be identified, although the recent molecular technique (PRC: polymerase chain reaction) has been applied for HBV, HCV, and HIV. This technique has been introduced in the nineties but applied only since 2000. Consequently an unappropriated transfusion therapy for wrong indication or a careless collection, analysis, and storage of blood, according to laws since 2000, remain compensable. Post-transfusion infections, which are impossible to identify for the sensitivity limits of analytical methods, are not compensable. Another important issue is the time-barred for the request of the damage: in this case, the prescription term doesn’t start since the time of infection, but since the time when the disease was perceived or it could be perceived as a post-transfusion damage. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview on the responsibility and the time-barred of damage caused by blood transfusion.

Background: Directive 2004/24/EC, which came into force in 2011, created new regulatory requirements for traditional herbal medicines (THM). This study compared the Spanish THM registry before and after the Directive came fully into force in 2011. Methods: We consulted the herbal medicinal plant and drug catalogues (General Council of the Official Colleges of Pharmacists), the website of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and retail web sites. Results: Of 315 THM (from 39 companies) licensed in Spain in 2010, only 48 (10 companies) remained licensed in 2013, mainly due to their withdrawal: the EMA had received just 123 applications from Spain and at least 34% formerly licensed THM had shifted to the less strictly regulated food sector, while up to 54% might have disappeared from the market. However, there is still a significant presence of retail websites making illegal health claims. Conclusion: In Spain, the public health benefits of the Directive 2004/24/EC might be less than expected.

Introduction: The Spanish tobacco control law of 2006 was modified in January 2011, banning smoking in all hospitality venues. The objective of the study was to assess the impact of the 2011 Spanish smoking ban on secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure in hospitality venues, and to analyze the potential impact of outdoor smokers close to entrances on indoor SHS levels after the, law came into force. Methods: Before-and-after evaluation study with repeated measures. The study was carried out in three regions of Spain (Catalonia, Galicia, and Madrid) and included a random sample of 178 hospitality venues. We measured vapor-phase nicotine and particulate matter 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter (PM2.5) as SHS markers at baseline (November December 2010) and at follow-up (April June 2011). We also recorded tobacco consumption variables such as the presence of butts, ashtrays, and smokers. In the posttest assessment, we also recorded the number of outdoor smokers close to the entrance. Results: A total of 351 nicotine and 160 PM2.5 measurements were taken. Both nicotine and PM2.5 concentrations decreased by more than 90% (nicotine from 5.73 to 0.57 mu g/m(3), PM2.5 from 233.38 to 18.82 mu g/m(3)). After the law came into force, both nicotine and PM2.5 concentrations were significantly higher in venues with outdoor smokers close to the entrance than in those without outdoor smokers. All the observational tobacco consumption variables significantly decreased (p < .001). Conclusions: SHS exposure in hospitality venues dramatically decreased after the 2011 Spanish smoking ban. SHS from outdoor smokers close to entrances seems to drift inside venues. Smoking control legislation should consider outdoor restrictions to ensure complete protection against SHS.

Thefocus of the work of Committee 2 of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) is the computation of dose coefficients compliant with Publication 103. A set of reference computational phantoms is being developed, based on medical imaging data, and used for radiation transport calculations. Biokinetic models used to describe the behaviour of radionuclides in body tissues are being updated, also leading to changes in organ doses and effective dose coefficients. Dose coefficients for external radiation exposure of adults calculated using the new reference phantoms were issued as Publication 116, jointly with the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements. Forthcoming reports will provide internal dose coefficients for radionuclide inhalation and ingestion by workers, and associated bioassay data. Work is in progress to revise internal dose coefficients for members of the public, and, for the first time, to provide reference values for external exposures of the public. Committee 2 is also working with Committee 3 on dose coefficients for radiopharmaceuticals, and leading a cross-Committee initiative to give advice on the use of effective dose. © 2016, © The International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics.

This paper offers a critical overview of social science research presented at the 2014 International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia. In an era of major biomedical advance, the political nature of HIV remains of fundamental importance. No new development can be rolled out successfully without taking into account its social and political context, and consequences. Four main themes ran throughout the conference track on social and political research, law, policy and human rights: first, the importance of work with socially vulnerable groups, now increasingly referred to as "key populations"; second, continued recognition that actions and programs need to be tailored locally and contextually; third, the need for an urgent response to a rapidly growing epidemic of HIV among young people; and fourth, the negative effects of the growing criminalization of minority sexualities and people living with HIV. Lack of stress on human rights and community participation is resulting in poorer policy globally. A new research agenda is needed to respond to these challenges.

Male sex workers who sell or exchange sex for money or goods encompass a very diverse population across and within countries worldwide. Information characterising their practices, contexts where they live, and their needs is limited, because these individuals are generally included as a subset of larger studies focused on gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) or even female sex workers. Male sex workers, irrespective of their sexual orientation, mostly offer sex to men and rarely identify as sex workers, using local or international terms instead. Growing evidence indicates a sustained or increasing burden of HIV among some male sex workers within the context of the slowing global HIV pandemic. Several synergistic facilitators could be potentiating HIV acquisition and transmission among male sex workers, including biological, behavioural, and structural determinants. Criminalisation and intersectional stigmas of same-sex practices, commercial sex, and HIV all augment risk for HIV and sexually transmitted infections among male sex workers and reduce the likelihood of these people accessing essential services. These contexts, taken together with complex sexual networks among male sex workers, define this group as a key population underserved by current HIV prevention, treatment, and care services. Dedicated efforts are needed to make those services available for the sake of both public health and human rights. Evidence-based and human rights-affirming services dedicated specifically to male sex workers are needed to improve health outcomes for these men and the people within their sexual networks.

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Over the last 10 years, there has been stagnation in the number of multinational drug trials in stroke in Europe. One important cause of this is probably the increased burden of laws and regulations that came with the European Union Clinical Trials Directive. The main objective of research regulation and governance should be to protect research participants, their tissues, and data, but the approval systems are complex, regulation is variably interpreted and enforced, and the assessment of studies is often not proportionate to the risk of the research to participants. Such unnecessary barriers should be reduced by simplifying, centralizing, and harmonizing the application process, and by applying regulatory and governance requirements in a way that is proportionate to the potential harms to the patients. The traditional functions of a regulator (in setting, monitoring, and enforcing quality standards) could also be supplemented with an aim to actively help researchers achieve these standards, for example, by giving advice, and ultimately with an aim to facilitate and promote research, for example, by integrating research in everyday clinical practice. Research networks offer one way of integrating research and clinical practice across multiple centers, and can streamline research delivery by supporting researchers deal professionally and efficiently with the regulations and governance requirements. © 2015 World Stroke Organization.