Background: Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally accounting for more than half of deaths in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). Cancer treatment is expensive and the high prices of cancer medicines have a huge impact on access in LMICs. Scarcity of pricing or affordability data is one of the major barriers in the development of effective and transparent pricing policies in LMICs. This study aimed to conduct a systematic review of the literature regarding pricing, availability, affordability, and access to anti-cancer medicines in LMICs.Method: A systematic search was conducted across six electronic databases: PubMed, Medline/CINAHL (EBSCO), Web of Science, Springer Links, Scopus, and Google Scholar. The literature (from 2015 to 2020) was reviewed to identify original research articles published in English.Results: A total of 13 studies were included in the review with some having multiple outcomes: five studies on pricing, four studies addressed affordability, five studies reported on availability, and four studies on access to anti-cancer medicines. The studies showed that in LMICs, there are wide variations in cancer prices and availability amongst the medicine brands and across different countries, with less affordability by patients with low-income levels, sometimes leading to treatment abandonment.Conclusion: Given the importance of medicine availability and prices in patient access and medicine buying capacity of governments, multi-pronged policy and program approaches by multiple stakeholders are needed to ensure access to cancer medicines.

Background Studies documented the important role of health-care professionals in encouraging their patients to adopt and use mobile health applications. Health-care professionals who use and believe in mobile health applications are more likely to encourage and empower their patients to use it. Likewise, students in health-profession related specialties who use mobile health applications are more likely to continue to do so when they join the workforce. Objective The objective of this study was to examine the rate of adoption of mobile health applications in students in health colleges, identify the types of health applications used by health students, and identify the barriers that prevent the use of mobile health applications. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among university students. Students were invited to participate in a self-administrated survey from five health colleges. The survey included questions about the pattern of utilization, the purpose of the health-related application being used, and the barriers to adoption. The analysis included descriptive statistics using SPSS. Results A total of 383 students participated in this study. The within gender comparison showed that more female students were using health-related applications 59.8% compared to male students 49%. The most frequent purpose of using mobile health applications were tracking physical activities 72.5% followed by counting calories intake 44%. We also identified the frequency and duration of use as well as the factors which may impact students intention to use. Conclusion Fitness and dietary related applications were more common which might be explained by the fact that we only included a younger age group. The reported levels of perceived usefulness, accessibility and ease of use suggest that students will continue to use it.

This study aimed to explore knowledge, attitude, perceptions, and willingness regarding vaccination among university students in Pakistan. This cross-sectional study was carried out using an open online self-administered survey via Google Forms. The survey data were collected between the 15 to 30 of October 2022. A total of 946 respondents participated in the study, of which the majority were female (514, 54.3%). Most students belonged to a medical background, specifically pharmaceutical sciences. Most of the respondents did not know about monkeypox before 2022 (646, 68.3%). Regarding overall knowledge of monkeypox, most of the respondents had average knowledge (726, 76.7%), with very few having good knowledge (60, 6.3%). Regarding overall attitudes towards monkeypox, most of the respondents had neutral attitudes (648, 68.5%). There was a significant association between knowledge of Monkeypox with the type of academic degree (p < 0.001), type of discipline (p < 0.001), and region of respondents (p < 0.001). The willingness to vaccinate among the population was (67.7%). The current study pointed out that the overall knowledge of monkeypox was average in most respondents, with considerable knowledge gaps in most aspects. The overall attitude towards monkeypox was neutral. Further, the knowledge about monkeypox was strongly associated with academic degree, study discipline, and region of respondents. Our findings emphasize the need to raise public awareness by educating students on the monkeypox virus. This will improve adherence to preventative recommendations.

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