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The number of people with diabetic retinopathy (DR) has increased with the increasing prevalence of diabetes mellitus worldwide, especially in developing countries. In recent years, the successful implementation of public health programs in developed countries has been thought to contribute to decreases in blindness from DR. Developing countries, however, have not seen the same improvements, and their public health interventions still face significant challenges. In this review we describe the current state of public health approaches including risk factor control, screening and treatment techniques for DR in developing countries, and suggest recommendations. While the awareness of DR is variable, specific knowledge about DR is low, such that many patients have already experienced vision loss by the time they are screened. Attempts to improve rates of screening, in particular through non-mydriatic cameras and tele-screening, are ongoing and promising, although challenges include collaboration with healthcare systems and technology failures. Laser treatment is the most readily available, with anti-VEGF therapy and vitreo-retinal surgery increasingly sought after and provided. Recommendations include the use of 'targeted mydriasis' for fundus imaging to address high rates of ungradable images, increased communication with diabetes management services to improve patient retention and mobilization of access to DR treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatitis D virus (HDV) infection has considerably diminished in Europe since the 1970–1980s. The prevalence rates of chronic hepatitis D in HBsAg carriers in Italy have declined from 25% at the beginning of the 1980s to 8% in the 1990s. Similar declines in prevalence have been reported in Spain, Taiwan and Turkey. Better public health standards, HBV vaccination and the effect of measures to control the spread of human immunodeficiency virus have brought about a decline in the numbers of HBsAg carriers and therefore a decline in the HBV-dependent HDV. However, HDV has not declined further in Europe in the last decade, as the pool of fresh infections in migrants from HDV-endemic areas is counterbalancing the shrinking cohort of long-standing domestic infections acquired in the epidemic of the 1970–1980s. Hepatitis D remains an important health problem outside Europe, and new foci of infection continue to be identified in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]