Academic literature on the topic 'Oman. Armed Forces of Sultan Qaboos'

Objectives: Brucellosis is a highly contagious zoonotic disease which can have serious health implications for affected humans and livestock. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical presentation, geographical distribution and risk factors of brucellosis cases admitted over a four-year period to two hospitals in Muscat, Oman. Methods: This observational study was conducted from January 2015 to December 2018 at the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital and Armed Forces Hospital in Muscat. All patients with probable or definitive diagnoses of brucellosis according to the diagnostic criteria of the World Health Organization were included. Relevant data were gathered from the patients’ medical records, including results from standard agglutination tests, Brucella enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, bacterial blood or tissue/aspirate cultures and Brucella polymerase chain reaction tests. Results: A total of 64 patients were diagnosed with brucellosis over the study period. The median age was 31.5 years and 73.4% were male. The majority (95.2%) presented with fever, followed by weight loss (51%), transaminitis (48.4%), peripheral arthritis/arthralgia (15.9%) and back pain (spondylodiscitis/sacroiliitis; 23.4%). Overall, 75.5% reported having consumed raw dairy products, while only 25.9% gave a positive history of animal contact. Conclusion: Patients with brucellosis presented with a wide range of clinical features, the most predominant of which was fever. The majority of patients were residents of or had recently visited Salalah and had consumed raw dairy products. These findings highlight the need for healthcare practitioners to maintain a high index of suspicion for this diagnosis. Moreover, further regulatory measures are necessary to oversee the sale of raw/unpasteurised dairy products. Keywords: Brucellosis; Bacterial Infections; Zoonotic Bacterial Infections; Risk Factors; Epidemiology; Oman.

Objectives: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major public health problem worldwide. The prevalence of HBV is dependent on the modes of transmission. Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection can progress to liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Oman is regarded as an intermediate endemic region and has had a neonatal vaccine against HBV since 1990. However, little research has been conducted regarding risk factors for HBV transmission. Our study aimed to identify the prevalence of major risk factors for acquiring HBV in Oman. Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of all adult Omani patients diagnosed with CHB at two tertiary hospitals in Oman, Sultan Qaboos University Hospital and Armed Forces Hospital, between February 2009 and July 2013. The prevalence of major risk factors was identified by interviewing CHB patients using a standard questionnaire during their follow-up visits to the hepatology clinic at both hospitals. The risk factor frequency was stratified by age, gender, and educational level. Results: A total of 274 patients were interviewed; 52.2% of the participants were males. The median age for men was 35.9 years and 35.1 years for women, with 75.5% aged 20–39 years old. The antenatal screening was the most common means of identifying HBV infection in females, and pre-blood donation screening was the most common in males. Intra-familial contact with HBV infected persons and behavioral risks such as body piercing (females) and barber shaving (males) were more common than nosocomial risk factors. Knowledge about HBV infection was scarce among our participants. More than half of the participants had a positive family history of HBV infection. There was a significant association between HBV infection and age groups, and educational levels (p < 0.050 and p < 0.001, respectively). Among those who were infected due to intrafamilial contact or behavioral risk, there was a significant difference between the two sexes (p < 0.020) and between the three age groups (< 23, 23–28, >28) of HBV positive mothers (33.3%, 14.3%, and 6.6%, respectively; p < 0.050). There was also a statistically significant difference among different educational levels (p < 0.050). Conclusions: Direct contact of infected individuals within a family and exposure to high-risk behaviors such as piercing and barber shaving are the main reported risk factors for HBV infection in Omani patients. Reducing the vertical and horizontal transmission of HBV in Oman could be improved by implementing routine antenatal screening of pregnant women and a greater focus on contact screening, respectively.

The development of seaport infrastructure in Oman during the fifty-year reign of Sultan Qaboos was a result of his government’s vision and strategic planning. Seaport development reflects Oman’s engagement with broader international trends such as globalization. Local and geopolitical forces both within the jurisdiction of Oman, as well as beyond the Sultan’s scope of influence, have shaped seaport initiatives. Exemplifying this are the Omani port cities of Duqm and Salalah, with their associated Duqm Special Economic and Salalah Free Zones. These two seaports represent Oman’s increasing engagement with global trade through the reign of Sultan Qaboos 1970–2020.

This chapter discusses how the British-led counterinsurgency campaign in Dhofar, Oman, which ran from 1965 to 1976, provides support for the compellence theory. The sultan of Oman, Sa'id bin Taimur, faced a popular nationalist and Communist insurgency in its remote southwestern corner. His British backers pressed reforms on him, which he resisted, but he welcomed the buildup of his military. In a palace coup in 1970, the sultan's son replaced him and gained additional British and regional support for the campaign. Accommodations took place in the form of empowering warlords and others, including insurgent defectors and tribal leaders. The British-formed militias led by these men were better able to fight the insurgents and gain information from the populace than was the regular army. Ultimately, the British-led military, the Sultan's Armed Forces (SAF), defeated the insurgent threat by controlling civilians to cut the flow of resources to insurgents, physically blocking the flow of resources from the insurgents' safe haven across the border with Yemen, and controlling the populace in the guerrilla-ridden mountains. Limited political reforms such as construction of clinics followed the military's success against the insurgency rather than causing insurgent defeat.