Health Inequities and Societal Participation

The EU working group “cancer & employment” presented recommendations to further improve Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan by regarding return-to-work support as integral part of cancer survivorship.

Bacteria & Borders is a collaboration between visual artist Marlies Vermeulen and social scientist Alena Kamenshchikova

How do public health professionals manage Infectious Disease Control (IDC) in a very dynamic and densely populated Euregion such as the Euregion Meuse-Rhine with its active social life across the borders? That is what Dr. Alena Kamenshchikova and her colleagues wanted to find out. From December 2020 until April 2021, they investigated the way Euregional public health professionals in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands tried to control COVID-19.

Chlamydia is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted disease (STD) worldwide and in the Netherlands. The clinical and public health relevance of widespread case finding by testing for asymptomatic Chlamydia infections is under debate.

People who travel to distant destinations often take multi-resistant intestinal bacteria back home as a souvenir. These are bacteria that are not (any longer) sensitive to the usual antibiotics. This is shown by recent research by microbiologists from Maastricht University.

Prof. Paul Savelkoul and Dr. Petra Wolffs (both Medical Microbiology) about their tireless work during the COVID-19 pandemic, and all the other research activities they continue to work on. 

Alena Kamenshchikova (RL Health Inequities and Societal Participation) was awarded a Kootstra Talent Fellowship. During the next months she will study the challenges of cross-border infectious disease control.

Low individual socioeconomic status (SES) is known to be associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Hans Bosma and colleagues found out that living in a low property value neighbourhood in Maastricht is associated with higher rates of T2DM, independently of individual SES.

De GGD Zuid Limburg, GGD Limburg-Noord, Provincie Limburg en Maastricht UMC+ starten vanaf vrijdag 23 oktober een onderzoek naar antistoffen en de verspreiding van het coronavirus in Limburg. De resultaten van het onderzoek geven straks belangrijke informatie voor inwoners, beleidsmakers én wetenschappers over het virus en de verspreiding in Limburg.

Petra Woestenberg obtained her PhD (Cum Laude) with her dissertation called: "Measuring the effects of HPV16/18 vaccination on HPV positivity and anogenital warts". Petra investigated the effects of the HPV vaccination programme in the Netherlands. Her research concluded that HPV vaccination is very effective in protecting against HPV infection.

Christian Hoebe, professor of Social Medicine and head of Infectious Disease Control at the GGD Zuid-Limburg, discusses his passion for social medicine, his childhood in Alkmaar and, of course, the fight against COVID-19.

Olga Zvonareva has received an ERC Starting Grant, which is an European research grant for young academics at the career stage at which they are starting their own independent research team or programme. 

Maastricht University, GGD South-Limburg and the health services in neighbouring Belgium and Germany were granted an Interreg subsidy of 955,000 euros for a large Euregional COVID-19 study. (Article in Dutch)

The INPACT project is one of the few academic collaborations between European and Iranian universities that is holding strong since Iran was politically and economically sidelined.

Professor of Philosophy of Public Health Klasien Horstman and Belgian artist Marlies Vermeulen have won this year’s Mingler Scholarship for their project Bacteria & Borders. Experimental cartography between art, lab & (daily) life. They plan to study and make tangible the realities of infectious diseases in border regions.

After George Floyd was killed by an American police officer, many hundreds of thousands of people all over the world took to the streets to protest against racism. These protests also prompt self-reflection at UM: what is the current situation in terms of the use of race and racism in Dutch health care and health research? We asked Alana Helberg-Proctor.

Fatigue, headaches, irritability, or sleep problems? These might be symptoms of stress caused by the unfamiliar demands of working from home. Angelique de Rijk studies work stress in nurses – and worries about the current situation and the transition back to normal.

In late 2019, China became the first country to be hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic, and many cities were locked down in 2020 to prevent transmission. The country’s response to the coronavirus has raised questions about control measures and establishing public accountability and trust in a non-democratic context. Ronghui Yang (RL Health Inequities and Societal Particiation) traces discussions among citizens about the response to the coronavirus pandemic by following Chinese social media platforms.

A column by Hans Bosma, professor of Social Epidemiology.

In this COVID-19 period, it seems surprising that the European Union (EU) feels remote and not at the forefront of the response. Why is that? Our Health Law Group explains.

The public health authorities in Iran have severe difficulties in responding to the Covid-19 outbreak, which coincides with the politically induced economic sanctions against the country. All aspects of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment are directly and indirectly hampered, and the country is falling short in combating the crisis. In the context of this worrying public and socio-economic health situation, the Erasmus+ project “IraN European Partnership for Capacity-building and Teaching in Global Health (INPACT)” , led by Anja Krumeich and Remco van de Pas (RL Health Inequities and Societal Participation) has recently started. 

The corona crisis has increased work demands for (scientific) staff at Maastricht University in many ways. Moreover, the intelligent lock down introduces new private life stressors: educating your children, worries about the care for your elderly parents, suffering from loneliness etc. Angelique de Rijk (professor in Work and Health) gives some advice on how to face the current situation and shows how managers can help.
 

Prof. Klasien Horstman: "If we appreciate health and democracy, controlling epidemics requires open societies with rich, varied, and inclusive public deliberative fora. The value of ideas needs to become clear through public deliberation, not by denying non-experts, whoever they may be, a voice in the public arena".

Het aantal inwonersinitiatieven in Nederland groeit sterk. Nieuwe initiatieven ontstaan naast ‘oude’ sociale verbanden, zoals verenigingen. Al die initiatieven zijn gericht op de ontwikkeling van een gemeenschap (collectieven) en daarmee een antwoord op toenemende individualisering en samenloosheid. Echter, de groeiende deken van regels, formulieren en controles drukt de ontwikkeling van inwonersinitiatieven dood. Hoe kunnen verantwoordingtechnieken inwonersinitiatieven, in plaats van te hinderen, versterken? 

During the STI & HIV 2019 World Congress GGD Zuid Limburg and CAPHRI IPG PhD-candidate Charlotte Peters was awarded the first prize for best oral presentation for her presentation entitled: “Reaching home-based female sex workers with preventive sexual health care services in The Netherlands”.

The workgroup ‘Socialgreen’ of ‘Universiteit met de buurt’ investigates, together with residents of Maastricht North-West, how the green in their neighbourhood could become a meeting place for people and for people and nature.

Research projects that are performed by a collaboration of researchers coming from different disciplines, need to take into account more than one view on scientific integrity. How do interdisciplinary scientific collaborations define research integrity and good science and deal with differences (which might result in conflict) that occur?