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PubMed1995

[Contribution to the history of Arabic pharmacy. Organization of the pharmacy profession, pharmacopoeias, and drugs distribution].

The article illustrates the history of pharmacology in the Arab world. The author analyzes the relations between medical and pharmaceutical sciences before the Xth century; he describes the first pharmacopoeias, the most important works in the Xth and XIth centuries, the organization of the pharmaceutical profession, and the history of Arabian pharmacology from the XIIth to the XVIIIth century, through the lives and books of the most important medical writers.

Arab World↗
PubMed2001

[Therapeutic use of aromatic substances in al-Andalus ].

Aromatic substances were used for therapeutic purposes in the ancient Arabic world, as they were in other contemporary and earlier cultures. By the Tenth Century, the Oriental Islamic culture had developed a solid corpus on aromatic substances that were selected for that purpose. This paper is an introduction to the knowledge of these substances that had been attained in al-Andalus in the Eleventh Century (considered the "Golden Age" of Andalusian pharmacology), based on the comparative study of the Kitāb ŷawāhir al-tīb al-mufrada, by Ibn Māsawayh, and the Kitāh al-adwiya al-mufrada, by Ibn Wāfid.

Arab World↗
PubMed1993

Socio-cultural and economic factors affecting food consumption patterns in the Arab countries.

Several factors have been found to determine the dietary habits of the people in the Arab world. Food consumption pattern has dramatically changed in some Arab countries as a result of sudden increase in income from oil revenue. It is believed that food subsidy policy has adversely affected the food habits in the Gulf states by encouraging the intake of fat, sugar, rice, wheat flour and meat. Socio-cultural factors such as religion, beliefs, food preferences, gender discrimination, education and women's employment all have a noticeable influence on food consumption patterns in this region. Mass media, especially televised food advertisements, play an important role in modifying the dietary habits. The migration movement, particularly that which was carried out during the 70s has a great impact on the food practices in many Arab countries. Comprehensive studies on social, cultural and economic factors associated with food consumption patterns in the Arab region are highly recommended.

Cultural Characteristics↗
PubMed2005

Genetic diversity among the Arabs.

The Arabs in general are genetically diverse. Major factors that contributed to their diversity include the migrations of Semitic tribes from the Arabian Peninsula, the Islamic expansion in the 7th century AD, the Crusade wars and the recent migration dynamics. These events have resulted in the admixture of the original Arabs with other populations extending from east and south Asia to Europe and Africa. Their demographic features include high rates of consanguinity, a large family size and a rapid population growth. There is a high frequency of autosomal recessive disorders and increased frequencies of homozygosity for autosomal dominant traits, such as familial hypercholesterolemia and X-linked traits, such as glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency. The patterns of autosomal recessive disorders, including their mutations, may be different in various geographic locations within the Arab world. However, there are disorders that are specifically prevalent among the Arabs either uniformly or in certain locations. The Arab Genetic diseases include Bardet-Biedl syndrome, Meckel syndrome, autosomal recessive severe childhood muscular dystrophy, osteopetrosis and renal tubular acidosis, Sanjad-Sakati syndrome and others.

Arabs↗
PubMed1991

In vitro fertilization and embryo transfer in Egypt.

The introduction of medically assisted human reproduction (MAHR) in the Arab world had to overcome initial resistance because of cultural, social, religious and financial limitations. The paper discusses the problems associated with the practice of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo transfer (ET) and the limitations in Egypt through the authors' experience during the period March 1986 to March 1989. The results of the management of 359 patients scheduled for the IVF and ET program at the Egyptian I.V.F. and E.T. Center, Maadi, Cairo, using different protocols are discussed. The maximum pregnancy rate achieved using the GnRH analogue agonist protocol for stimulation was 20.13 per transfer. It is concluded that in developing countries prevention of the tubal factor of infertility is better than treatment, which is uncertain and expensive. Also some techniques of MAHR that may improve the results cannot be implemented in the Arab and Islamic World.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

The Spectrum of beta-Thalassemia Mutations in the Arab Populations.

The Arab countries encompass a wide region stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Atlantic Ocean. The Arab population is quite heterogeneous and has experienced various invasions and migrations throughout history. beta-thalassemia is endemic in all countries of the Arab world. Our review of the molecular basis of beta-thalassemia in various Arab countries reveals the presence of 52 mutations, which are mostly of Mediterranean and Asian origin. The distribution of mutations reflects the geographical and historical backgrounds of each region. However, no specific mutation is confined to the Arabs, although some Arab countries do have unique mutations.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2004

[Galen of Pergamum (130-200)--his views on ophthalmology (part I)].

The development of medicine owes a lot to Galen of Pergamum (Asia Minor) who lived around 130-200 AD. He was of Greek origin and he wrote his works only in Greek. However, he lived and worked mostly in Italy. He studied both medicine and philosophy. When he came to Rome in 162 he was quickly recognised as a talented physician due to his unusual medical skills. He even became a physician at the Emperor's court. Apart from being an outstanding physician, he had a great knowledge of medicines and ways of their production. Being familiar with various philosophical doctrines, in particular with Hippocrates' thoughts, as well as the views of Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics, Galen developed his general theory of body functioning. It was only after his death that his works attracted more general attention. Both theoretical developments and his works on various ailments were first recognised in the Arabic world. It was only this fact that resulted in his works being gradually translated from Arabic into Latin and published in Europe where they grew important among European university circles. The article outlines ophthalmologic aspects included in Galen's works. The accuracy of descriptions of eye diseases and elements of descriptions of particular cases are underlined. It is concluded that the knowledge of symptoms of certain diseases followed from clinical observations, as well as from experiments on animals.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed1997

The prevalence of early postpartum psychiatric morbidity in Dubai: a transcultural perspective.

There have been numerous studies of the prevalence of postpartum psychiatric illness and its putative risk factors in Western Europe and North America, but very few studies have been undertaken in developing countries, including the Arab world. A total of 95 women admitted to the New Dubai Hospital in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for childbirth were studied. All subjects were assessed in the postpartum period using clinical and socio-cultural instruments, namely the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ) on day 2 and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) on day 7 after delivery. The prevalence of psychiatric morbidity was 24% according to the SRQ and 18% according to the EPDS. A number of psychosocial factors emerged as putative risk factors for postpartum psychiatric disturbance, including depressive illness. It is concluded that the prevalence of postpartum psychiatric morbidity and its risk factors in this Arab culture are similar to the results obtained in numerous previous studies conducted in industrialized countries. These findings have implications for the early detection and care of women at risk for postpartum psychiatric illness.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Psychiatry and the Palestinian population.

Some key issues pertaining to Palestinian psychiatry are described. Bearing in mind the geographical location and history of the Palestinian population, the development of psychiatry needs to be seen in the context of the Arab world, on the one hand, and of Israel, on the other. In the Middle Ages, Arab culture and medicine were more developed than in Europe. Aspects of general and forensic psychiatry on the West Bank and Gaza are outlined. Issues pertaining to the death penalty, suicide and suicide bombers are also discussed. The biblically-described relationship between the Arab and Jewish peoples has its resonance today with regard to cohabitation and conflict.

Arabs↗
PubMed1998

Prenatal testing for genetic disorders among Arabs.

Since, at least in the near future, prenatal testing and abortion of affected fetuses will remain the main way of the prevention of genetic diseases, knowledge about the way of its acceptance in different cultures is important. The Israeli population includes two major groups: Jewish and Arabs, but while there is wide experience about the Jewish population and its attitude towards prenatal testing, little is known about the Arab population. This knowledge is particularly important, since genetic disorders are relatively frequent in the Arab world (Teebi and Farag, 1997). From 1992 to 1996, 816 prenatal tests were performed in our department on Arab women [143 chorionic villus sampling (CVS) procedures and 673 amniocenteses]. The indication for an early prenatal test was a high risk for a monogenic disorder in 140 out of the 146 tests performed (143 CVS procedures and three early amniocenteses). In 26 cases, the fetus was found to be affected and early abortion was chosen by the couple in 25 cases (96 per cent). The 670 late prenatal tests were done for various reasons including monogenic disorders (13 per cent), increased risk because of a previous child affected with Down syndrome or a neural tube defect (4.8 per cent), and an increased risk for a chromosomal aberration (78 per cent). In 31 cases of a late prenatal test, the fetus was found to be affected and only 21 couples (70 per cent) opted for an abortion. The major reason for this observation is probably related to religious and cultural factors. Since Arab women do not wish to have prenatal testing for only knowledge or reassurance, these factors should be taken into consideration during pre-amniocentesis counselling.

Abortion, Induced↗
PubMed1994

Arabic medicine and nephrology.

During the Dark Ages following the fall of the Roman Empire, the Arabic world was instrumental in fostering the development of the sciences, including medicine. The quest for original manuscripts and their translation into Arabic reached its climax in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, and the dissemination of the compiled texts was facilitated by the introduction of paper from the East. Foremost among the Arabic physicians were Rhazes, Avicenna, Haly Abbas and Albucasis, who lived during the period 950-1050 AD. Their writings not only followed Hippocrates and Galen, but also greatly extended the analytical approach of these earlier writers. The urine was studied and the function and diseases of the kidneys described. Despite the fact that experimentation on the human body was prohibited by religion, some anatomic dissection and observation seems to have been undertaken, and the pulmonary circulation was described by Ibn Nafis. Anatomic illustrations began to appear in Arabic texts, though they did not have the detail and artistic merit of those of Vesalius.

Arabia↗
PubMed2006

Risk factors predicting outcome in patients with pneumonia in Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the predictive value of commonly used clinical and laboratory factors for mortality in patients with pneumonia in the Arab world. METHODS: We retrospectively analyze the data collected from all inpatients over the age of 16 years with a diagnosis of pneumonia in Tawam Hospital, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates between the years 1997 and 2002. Patients were grouped into those who survived and those who died in the hospital. Clinical and laboratory factors on admission were used to predict outcome using simple, and multiple logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: Among the 236 patients admitted, 122 were females (age 56.9 +/- 23 years), and 114 males (age 58.5 +/- 23 years). The 30-day mortality rate was 10%. The most common comorbid risk factors were diabetes mellitus in 23.7% and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 19.5%. Of the 236 patients, 145 had sputum culture on admission. Simple logistic regression analysis showed increasing age, presence of comorbidity, low systolic blood pressure, confused mental status, low serum albumin, high serum creatinine, raised blood urea nitrogen and raised partial pressure of carbon dioxide at the time of admission were associated with higher mortality. On the Stepwise-multilogistic regression analysis, the most significant factors influencing mortality were: older age, altered mental status, low systolic blood pressure, low serum albumin and raised serum creatinine. Using a scoring system developed in the presence or absence of these risk factors, a score of >=100 predicted high risk for mortality. CONCLUSION: The in-hospital mortality rate for pneumonia was 10%. Older age, altered mental status, low systolic blood pressure, low serum albumin concentration and raised serum creatinine at admission were predictive of poor outcome in this cohort of patients.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of argileh (water pipe or hubble-bubble) and cigarette smoking among pregnant women in Lebanon.

BACKGROUND: Currently, little is known about argileh (water pipe or hubble-bubble) and cigarette smoking among pregnant women in the Arab world, despite emerging evidence on the adverse health effects of argileh smoking and well-established knowledge about the health risks of cigarette smoking during pregnancy. OBJECTIVES: The present study assesses pregnant Arab women's knowledge of chemical contents and related harmful effects of argileh and cigarettes, their attitudes towards smoking argileh and cigarettes, and their actual smoking of argileh and cigarettes, both before and during pregnancy. METHODS: A stratified sample of 864 women from 23 health care centers in Lebanon completed a structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire. Information was collected on basic demographic variables, women's knowledge, attitudes, and cigarette and argileh smoking. RESULTS: Women were partially knowledgeable about the health risks of cigarette smoking, knew little about the harmful ingredients of argileh smoking, and had many misconceptions regarding how argileh worked or how it can produce harm. Attitudes were permissive towards all forms of smoking. Almost one quarter (23%) of participants reported smoking during pregnancy, with 17% smoking only cigarettes, 4% smoking only argileh, and 1.5% smoking both cigarette and argileh. CONCLUSION: A significant and growing percentage of pregnant Arab women are smoking in Lebanon, with four cigarette smokers for every argileh smoker. Smoking behaviors are empirically linked with important gaps in knowledge and with permissive attitudes. These data may be used to design more effective prevention programs targeting this vulnerable population.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

[Medical assimilation processes in the middle ages. From Gundishapur to Toledo].

The medicine of Ancient Greece has had an important impact on world medicine right up to modern times. One of the most interesting lines of development can be followed from about 1000 years after the death of Hippocrates (377 BC). At that time, Greek medicine and philosophy encountered the rising Islamic culture of the Arab world. It went through phases of reception and assimilation in the Middle East where, in addition to Baghdad, the city of Gundishapur is emphasized as an important centre of translation. Some hundred years later Latin Europe benefited from these Arab translations of medical and philosophical texts from Ancient Greece. After the Spanish city of Toledo had been reconquered from the Arabs, European scholars gathered there to translate the Greco-Arab manuscripts into Latin, the language of the learned in medieval Europe. The author tries to describe this course of events.

Asia↗
PubMed1990

[International migration in the Arab region].

"The main aim of the present paper was to establish the dimensions of international labour migration in the Arab world in the last ten to fifteen years, to describe the major characteristics of a particular process of movement of labour in the area and to point to the factors that have [affected] the politics of the countries of employment. A further aim was to show the specific features of labour force presence of a particular country of origin (Arab and Asian) and to give the socio-economic characteristics of the different migrant groups employed in the countries of the Middle East." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

Africa↗
PubMed1998

"Breaking the bureaucracy": drug registration and neocolonial relations in Egypt.

According to the Egyptian Ministry of Health, the per capita use of prescription drugs in Egypt is amongst the highest in the world. Multinational pharmaceutical companies license their proprietary products for manufacture and sale in Egypt through their Egyptian subsidiaries. A Ministry of Health Committee reviews and approves for sale all drugs marketed in the country. Aside from being an extremely lucrative market itself, approval of a drug for sale and manufacture in Egypt also opens to the pharmaceutical companies other markets in the Arab world. The Egyptian drug approval process is thus both important for assuring the health of Egyptian nationals and a high-stakes activity for the pharmaceutical companies. This paper examines the social relations and interactions of multinational pharmaceutical representatives in Egypt with Egyptian researchers in relation to the Ministry of Health's drug approval process. From time-to-time events focus attention on the huge financial rewards reaped by multinational pharmaceutical companies from their activities in lesser developed countries. This attention not infrequently has revealed the "drugging of the Third World" as a result of actions by expatriate multinational pharmaceutical officials. Indigenous review procedures such as those established by the Egyptian Ministry of Health might guard against such external exploitation. This paper shows how in place of external exploitation, indigenous pharmaceutical company officials have manipulated local patterns of social interaction to construct a system of reciprocal obligations which may frustrate intended safeguards, and by reconstructing colonial institutional structures, creates a pattern of neocolonialism in Egypt.

Drug Approval↗
PubMed2002

Seeking Emirati women's voices: the use of focus groups with an Arab population.

Focus groups have gained increasing acceptability as a data collection technique in qualitative research in recent years. Although used extensively with Western populations, they have been used only in a limited way in cross-cultural research. The authors describe a series of focus groups with women of childbearing age in the United Arab Emirates. The purpose was to identify Emirati women's health needs as a prelude to planning additional services and programs. Recommendations are outlined, with the appropriate cultural modifications for using this data collection tool. Major considerations that might be relevant to other parts of the Arab world include timing, location, topic, group composition, culture, religion, and selection of a facilitator and translator.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

The impact of the Gulf war on migration and remittances in Asia and the Middle East.

The author discusses the impact of the 1990 Gulf war on the migrant worker populations in the region, with a focus on migration and remittances in Asia and the Middle East. Both immediate and long-term effects are considered. "From the perspective of foreign migrant communities living in the Gulf...the war...was much more of a disaster for Arabs than for Asians....Arab migrant populations...were dramatically affected by the Gulf crisis. In contrast, the Asian migrant community was largely concentrated in Saudi Arabia and the [United Arab Emirates] and remained relatively less affected by the crisis. Subsequent polarization in the Arab world gives Asian labor-exporting countries an unexpected opportunity to increase their share of Gulf labor markets still further in the coming years." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)

Asia↗