My Common Health

Fatal bird flu cases in Pakistan

Common Person — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:18:46 +0000

Reports BBC: “The first case of human-to-human transmission of avian flu in Pakistan has been confirmed. Tests carried out by the World Health Organisation (WHO) show that bird flu killed some members of a family in north-west Pakistan late last year.The WHO says steps were taken to prevent future fatalities in the area. Pakistan’s north-west and southern regions were hit by bird flu last year. Thousands of birds were culled to control the spread of the disease.”

Full report on BBC website

Tags: birdflu, avian flu, Pakistan

45,000 people affected in dengue in Brazil

Common Person — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:58:43 +0000

Reports BBC: “Officials say 13 people have died since Friday, bringing the number of deaths this year in Rio de Janeiro state to 67, with some 45,000 people infected.The mosquito-borne disease causes high temperature, headaches and muscle pain and, in extreme cases, can be fatal…

“The Brazilian military has opened three new field clinics in Rio de Janeiro to help officials tackle a surge in dengue fever that has overwhelmed hospitals.”

Read full report on BBC website

Tags: dengue, Brazil

Somalia is again polio-free, reports WHO

Common Person — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 07:37:13 +0000

Somalia is again polio-free, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) announced recently, calling it a ‘historic achievement’ in public health. “Somalia has not reported a case since 25 March 2007, a major landmark in the intensified eradication effort launched last year to wipe out the disease in the remaining few strongholds.

“Against a backdrop of widespread conflict, large population movements and a dearth of functioning government infrastructure, transmission of poliovirus in the country has been successfully stopped. This landmark victory is a result of the efforts of more than 10 000 Somali volunteers and health workers who repeatedly vaccinated more than 1.8 million children under the age of five by visiting every household in every settlement multiple times, across a country ranked one of the most dangerous places on earth.”

Full report on WHO website

Tags: polio, Somalia, Africa

US health care worse by the decade: AlterNet

Common Person — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 07:18:52 +0000

With quality and access of the US health care down, support for a national health care plan is growing, reports AlterNet. “New research by the Indiana University School of Medicine shows that 59 percent of doctors support legislation to establish a national health insurance system, up from 49 percent in 2002. Only 32 percent of doctors said they were opposed. A slightly lower percentage, 55 percent, agreed with a different question on what researchers considered “incremental” reform — that is, one that relies on tweaking the existing employer-based insurance system and filling in the gaps from there.”

Full report on AlterNet

Tags: healthcare, health insurance, USA

US set to spend $50bn against HIV

Common Person — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 06:51:56 +0000

The US is set to spend $50bn to battle HIV/Aids in the next five years, reports BBC.

“The US House of Representatives has passed a bill to more than triple government spending in Africa and other badly affected parts of the world. The bipartisan measure, which is backed by the White House, was passed by 308 votes to 116. The bill marks a huge increase from the $15bn authorised during the first five years of an initiative launched by President Bush in 2003.”

Full report on BBC News site

Tags: HIV, HIV/AIDS, funding, Africa

The side-effects of doing good

Common Person — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:58:07 +0000

Following the New York Times article about the head of the malaria programme at WHO complaining about the negative influence of Gates Foundation on research activities in public health, The Economist has published an analysis of the controversy… Here is an excerpt:

“At least in part, the gripes against the Gates Foundation are the churlish growls of a jealous crowd of bureaucrats and labourers at less influential charities. Some people at the WHO, a Geneva-based arm of the United Nations, openly worry that the foundation is setting up a new power centre that may rival their organisation’s authority. Such conspiracy theorists point to the foundation’s recent grant of over $100m to the University of Washington to evaluate health treatments and monitor national health systems—jobs supposed to be done by the UN agency.”

Map pinpoints disease ‘hotspots’

Common Person — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:58:45 +0000

From BBC News:

“A detailed map highlighting the world’s hotspots for emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) has been released.It uses data spanning 65 years and shows the majority of these new diseases come from wildlife.Scientists say conservation efforts that reduce conflicts between humans and animals could play a key role in limiting future outbreaks.Writing in Nature, they said their map revealed that global anti-EID resources had been poorly allocated in the past.”

Article on BBC site

The Global Tobacco Threat

Common Person — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:39:59 +0000

Editorial in The New York Times:

“Three years ago, an international treaty took effect that was designed to help developing countries resist aggressive marketing by big tobacco companies. The idea was that if a large number of countries committed themselves to the same tobacco control policies — including bans on all advertising and promotion — they would be better able to resist pressure from multinational tobacco companies and their own domestic tobacco sellers.

Unfortunately, the governments of low- and middle-income countries have not followed through. With tobacco use declining in wealthier countries, tobacco companies are spending tens of billions of dollars a year on advertising, marketing and sponsorship, much of it to increase sales in these developing countries.

A new report issued by the World Health Organization, with financial help from Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s foundation, offers the first comprehensive analysis of tobacco use and control efforts in 179 countries. It notes that tobacco will kill more people this year than tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria combined. It warns that unless governments do more to slow the epidemic, tobacco could kill a billion people by the end of the century, the vast majority in poor and middle-income countries…”

Editorial on NYT

New report on global tobacco control efforts (on WHO website)

WHO official complains about Gates Foundation’s dominance in malaria fight

Common Person — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:20:43 +0000

From International Herald Tribune:

“The chief of the malaria program at the World Health Organization has complained that the growing dominance of malaria research by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation risks stifling a diversity of views among scientists and wiping out the health agency’s policy-making function.

In a memorandum, the chief of the malaria program, Arata Kochi, complained to his boss, Margaret Chan, the director general of WHO, that the foundation’s money, while crucial, could have “far-reaching, largely unintended consequences.”

Full article on IHT

A Pandemic That Wasn’t but Might Be

Common Person — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:04:04 +0000

Experts argue that preparations against avian flu have to continue, even if the virus’s failure to mutate into a pandemic strain has given the world more time. Reports New York Times: “Last year, for the first time since avian flu emerged as a global threat, the number of human cases was down from the year before. As the illness receded, the scary headlines – with their warnings of a pandemic that could kill 150 million people – all but vanished. ut avian flu has not gone away. Nor has it become less lethal or less widespread in birds.”Read the story on the New York Times