Tag: contraception

Global Health Weekly News Round-Up

by Vaani, posted in News

Politics and Policies:

  • The House Committee on Appropriations released a draft of the FY 2013 Labor, Health & Human Services, Education and related Agencies appropriations bill. It provides the funding levels for global health programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the John E. Fogarty International Center.
  • Heads of State endorse the establishment of the African Public Health Emergency Fund (APHEF).
  • New smoking law in South Africa under attack.
  • Federally funded website in Australia is offering tools and tips to those battling anxiety and depression.
  • The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Truvada as HIV prevention pill.
  • European agency backs approval of a gene therapy.
  • Atlanta curbs smoking, part of southern wave of bans.
  • The F.D.A. has approved Qsymia, a weight loss drug.

Programs:

  • AIDS research road map issued by the international AIDS specialists- hope of eventual AIDS cure revived. The priorities of new cure research strategy will be- determine why HIV hibernates and persists, why people are naturally resistant, develop strategies to make them more naturally resistant etc.
  • African women to gain access to innovative contraception.  The UK Department for International Development (DFID), the US Agency for International Development, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Pfizer and PATH (the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health) partnership plans to produce 12 million doses of contraceptive between 2013 and 2016.
  • iAFya mobile health application launched in East Africa. This personal health service on phone answers everyday health questions- from basic information to professional health advice.
  • UCB launches Neupro(R) in the U.S. to treat Parkinson’s disease and Restless Legs syndrome.
  • Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Onyx blood cancer drug Kyprolis (Carfilzomib).

Research:

  • National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded study suggests that egg therapy helps children to overcome their allergies.
  • The researchers at Stanford University and at the Howard Hudges Medical Institute have worked on getting genome maps from 91 sperms and were able to create a personal map of the DNA within the sperm. They were also able to capture an image of the new mutations that formed within each sperm cell as the DNA changed to create more genetic diversity.
  • Scientists have discovered a link between cancerous cervical cells and those in the esophagus. They also found out that these cancerous cells are the remnants of a process known as embryogenesis, which failed to disappear and get replace by the adult cells.
  • Tool created by the researchers help to track real time changes in the brain of patients undergoing deep brain stimulation (DBS) for the treatment of brain disorders like Parkinson’s disease, depression and Tourette.
  • The researchers at the California Institute of Technology have revealed that certain changes in the over reactive immune system of mice could cause behaviors similar to those found in autism. This study has helped to find a link between irregularities in the immune system and neurodevelopmental disorders.
  • Researchers turn skin cells to brain cells.  They have generated the type of human neuron which is specifically damaged by the Parkinson’s disease (PD) and used various drugs to stop the damage.
  • Scientists have designed a pen like tool to more effectively stop seizures.
  • The researchers at the University of Dundee have showed through their study that a cheap gout drug- allopurinol- is helpful to treat heart pain.
  • A new study shows that the vitamin C may lower gout risk in men. It showed that consuming at least 1500 milligrams per day of this vitamin reduces the odds of gout by 46 percent.
  • The researchers in the Milk Quality Improvement Program at Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences have identified the predominant spore-forming bacteria in milk and their unique enzyme activity, the knowledge of which can be used to protect the quality and shelf life of dairy products.
  • Scientists grow sweat glands from newly identified stem cells. They devised a strategy to purify and molecularly characterize the different kinds of stem cell populations that make up the complex sweat duct and gland in skin.
  • A team of researchers have demonstrated the role of Lactobacillus reuteri as a beneficial probiotic organism which produces an antimicrobial substance known as reuterin, which may protect intestinal epithelial cells from infection by the foodborne bacterial pathogen Salmonella.
  • Scientist develop a new line of approach for combination therapy against melanoma. It involves combating the interaction between the protein MDM4 and the tumor suppressor p53.
  • A research shows that Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) testing in HIV positive women may help reduce frequent cervical cancer screening.
  • A study says that bacteria outbreak (which can cause gastroenteritis) in Northern Europe is due to ocean warming.
  • Discovery of anti-inflammatory effects of abscisic acid in the lungs could prove crucial to healing influenza.
  • Latest studies have revealed that patients with spinal cord injury and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis may benefit from cell transplantation.
  • According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) fatal car crash risk highest among young drivers. Its July issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report found that about 22 percent of the motor vehicle deaths among the U.S. residents with young people ages 15 to 24.
  • A study shows that women with high stress jobs may be more likely to have a heart attack.

Diseases and Disasters:

  • Heavy rains kill about 37 people in Beijing (China).
  • U.S. whooping cough outbreak could be worst in half century.
  • The doctors say that the survivors of movie massacre likely to develop depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

 

 

Global Health Weekly News Round-Up

by Vaani, posted in News

Politics and Policies:

  • U.S. task force has issued blood pressure guidelines.
  • The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gives less-expensive option, approves first generation versions of Plavix (blood thinners).
  • The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ordered forbidding the state dental board to restrict non-dentists from the teeth whitening services in Richmond, Va. According to AMA this decision might change medical practice regulation.
  • U.S. says Medicaid overpaid $ 700 M to New York State.
  • Missouri legislators have agreed to compromise on the debate over insurance coverage of contraception, abortion and sterilization.
  • The FDA advisory committees have endorsed two new HIV drugs and an arthritis drug.
  • The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services has announced a two-year pay boost for the primary care physicians who treat Medicaid patients.
  • According to the guidelines released on Wednesday, states should submit  details to the Federal government by November 16th on how they will run online insurance market places.
  • The ESC guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure developed by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in collaboration with the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC was launched at the Heart Failure Congress 2012, 19-22 May, in Belgrade, Serbia. These are published in the European Heart Journal.
  • The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CIFA) is warning the public not to consume the Gills Onion brand Fresh Diced Red Onions because the product might be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
  • As a part of e-health initiatives to improve primary health services in rural and underdeveloped areas, the union health ministry of India has given Rs 18.878 crore to states to facilitate establishment of Telemedicine network.

Programs

  • The Parsons Foundation gives $5million to fight HIV/AIDS in Arizona.
  • UAE school children to learn the benefits of milk in a month-long nationwide campaign. It will target first-grade students.
  • The CMS innovation center awarded 26 grants to a variety of healthcare organizations. The purpose is to improve the healthcare delivery.
  • The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) disclosed that its Philippines office has raised $28.5 M funds in the year till date. This money will be used to promote reproductive and maternal health- one of the country’s Millennium Development Goals.

Research

  • According to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, people who have bachelor’s degree or higher live about nine years longer than those who don’t graduate from the high school.
  • Besides urinary tract health benefits, a new study confirmed Cranberry’s benefits in boosting body’s immunity. The study also showed that consuming its juice significantly increased the levels of an important antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD).
  • A study indicates that the artificial sweeteners might cause inflammatory bowel disease.  They contain saccharin and sucralose which decrease the gut bacteria and weaken and destroy the gut barrier.
  • A research study found genes which connect football, military and Alzheimer’s disease together.
  • Chilean berry (maqui berry) extract might help to fight type-2 diabetes. The study shows that the anthocyanin’s- delphinidin 3-sambobioside-5-glucoside (D3S5G)-demonstrated insulin-like effects in muscles and liver cells in mice.
  • A study demonstrates the long-term effectiveness of a classroom-based prevention program targeting teen drug use. This study tracked teens that participated in the Bolvin Life Skills Training (LST) program as 7th graders and found that their participation in this program produced long lasting reduction in drug use 12 years later.
  • A study reveals that the healthcare law would save consumers nearly $300 per year. The research says that the saving will be even greater for the people between ages of 55 and 64.
  • According to a new governmental analysis, the foods which come under category of non-healthy food are more costly than the healthy food.
  • According to an 18-month long study conducted by the Rand Corp, about 96% of restaurant entrees exceed United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) limits for calories, sodium, fat and saturated fat.
  • Healthy dieting in pregnancy may be helpful. Study reveals that up to 40% of women gain more than the recommended weight during pregnancy. This excess weight is associated with a number of problems.
  • According to a study, mental distraction can help in relieving pain. The findings show that this isn’t just a mental process, but also physical mechanism that reduces the amount of pain signals travelling from the spinal cord to the brain.
  • An analysis done by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reveal the rate of current cigarette use among the U.S. teens decreased from nearly 12 percent in 2004 to about 8 percent in 2010.
  • A study indicates a possible risk between certain sunscreens use and chances of development of endometriosis. The chemicals known as benzophenone-type UV filters not only protect the skin from UV rays but they are easily absorbed into the blood stream and mimic the effects of the female hormone estrogen.
  • A study examining the sleeping behaviors of the parents whose children suffer from epilepsy say that they often lose sleep over child’s epilepsy.
  • A new U.S. study finds that government workplace safety inspections reduce on-the-job injuries and related costs without hurting company profits.
  • A study done on mice show that though it’s important what we eat but also when we eat. The scientists suggest eating too many hours a day may also contribute to obesity.
  • Harvard university researchers say that the bad fat may affect brain memory.

 

Diseases & Disasters

  • A moderate earthquake rattled an area in east Texas on May 17th. It had a magnitude of 4.3.
  • A maginitude-6.2 earthquake shook down walls and knocked out electricity in parts of far-northern Chile on Monday, May 14th, 2012.
  • Cluster of Influenza A cases in Castle Peak Hospital in Hong Kong.
  • Kenya is facing BCG vaccine shortage.
  • The water supply to tens of thousands of households near Tokyo was cut off on Saturday after local checks found it was contaminated with cancer causing chemical- Formaldehyde. A contamination of 0.2000 milligrams of formaldehyde per liter – more than two times the 0.80 milligram national limit- was detected.

 

Global Health Weekly News Round-Up

by Vaani, posted in News

Politics and Policies:

Programs

Research

Diseases & Disasters

 

 

Global Health News Last Week

by ihsection, posted in News

Note: There will be no news round-up next week, as the IH section will be conducting its usual array of activities during APHA’s Annual Meeting.  Please tune in for updates on section sessions and activites at the conference.  Meanwhile, you can get your global health news fix from the DAWNS digest, Humanosphere, or the Healthy Dose.

October 16 was World Food Day.
October 17 was International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

POLITICS AND POLICY

  • Scientists are warning officials negotiating a global treaty on mercury that banning the deadly chemical completely would be dangerous for public health because of the chemical’s use in vaccines. 
  • The Washington Post runs an editorial critical of the GOP presidential candidates’ hostility toward foreign aid.
  • An influential panel of MPs warned that changes in UK aid policies may make overseas aid more prone to corruption and misuse.
  • Attendees at the Asia Pacific Conference on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights have called on countries in the region to introduce comprehensive sexuality education in schools.
  • The Kaiser Family Foundation has released a report which finds that global HIV/AIDS funding dropped by 10% in 2010.

PROGRAMS

  • HP Signed a Memorandum of Understanding with USAID to collaborate in the fight against global poverty through initiatives directed at issues such as public health.
  • GAVI CEO Seth Berkley pens an op-ed in Huffington Post on the economic value of childhood vaccines.
  • The Pan African Parliament has passed a resolution that urges African nations to prioritize maternal, newborn and child health programs.
  • USAID is initiating research to find out whether developing world families will adopt a new cooking technology and adapt their cooking methods to save their health.
  • At an event in Washington, the Aspen Institute’s Global Leaders Council called for increased accessed to contraception worldwide. 
  • Microfinance initiatives to fund development could benefit from reinvigorating their aims and taking on new, integrated approaches, according to experts at the 2011 International Forum on the Social and Solidarity Economy in Montreal.

RESEARCH

  • A new study, by researchers from the National Institutes of Health, Gilead Sciences Inc. and universities in Belgium and Italy, suggests that a microbicide gel, which was originally developed to fight AIDS in Africa, could lower the incidence of herpes in many women.
  • RTS,S a malaria vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline, is showing great of promise in the early stages of its huge clinical trial.  The American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Council Member and Science Director at the PATH Malaria Control Program, Rick Steketee, explores the impact of the new RTS,S clinical trial results and what this breakthrough means for science and neglected tropical disease research. On the other hand, Sarah Boseley wonders where the money will come from once the vaccine has passed its trials, and Karen Grepin is not as excited about the new GSK malaria trial results as many others.
  • Adults who have fallen behind on mortgage payments exhibited higher rates of depression and are skipping meals and medications because they cannot pay the bills, a study published in the American Journal of Public Health found.
  • Teenage drivers have fewer crashes after they’ve been driving for a while, but new research in the American Journal of Public Health suggests that a few months behind the wheel do not improve their driving skills much.
  • A recent study finds that the best way to fight TB in patients with HIV is to treat as early as possible.

DISEASES AND DISASTERS

  • The famine in Somalia isn’t getting much public attention, but not because things are improving. Aid workers predict things will get worse before they get better. Much-needed rain is coming, but the rainfall could deepen the crisis for the four million people there who need help.
  • Numerous UN agencies are ready to be deployed if Southeast Asian nations ravaged by flooding request for assistance.
  • A report by Roll Back Malaria Partnership released at the start of the Gates Foundation’s Global Malaria Forum says that the world is making positive steps towards eradicating malaria. Specifically, 29 countries are on track to stop malaria within a decade.
  • Environmental hazards sicken or kill millions of people — soot or smog in the air, for example, or pollutants in drinking water. But the most dangerous stuff happens where the food is made — in peoples’ kitchens.
  • World Health Organization officials say the rapid and extensive globalization of food production has increased the incidence of food contamination worldwide.
  • Speculators in the agricultural commodities markets are forcing grocery prices to rise too quickly and erratically, according to some top economists marking World Food Day Sunday.
  • Climate change poses an immediate and serious threat to global health and stability, as floods and droughts destroy people’s homes and food supplies and increase mass migration, experts warn.
  • A survey of 87 countries showed more than half the countries reported more or much more awareness of mental illnesses in the past three years. Unfortunately, there is not a whole lot of new money behind that awareness.

Global Health News Last Week

by ihsection, posted in News

September 5 was Labor Day.

POLITICS AND POLICY

  • The State Department has announced the official US Delegation to the UN High Level Meeting on NCDs, which will take place September 19-20.
  • Access to affordable lifesaving medicines will be threatened where they are needed most—in parts of the developing world—if the U.S.insists on implementing restrictive intellectual property policies in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, says Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders).
  • Sarah Boseley shares the great news that Kenya has officially made female genital mutilation illegal.
  • A federal appeals court in Virginia has dismissed two lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.
  • United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon singled out sustainable development as the top issue facing the planet with the world’s seven billionth person expected to be born next month. Key to this was climate change, and he said time was running out with the population set to explode this century.
  • Thousands of proposed cuts in the US Congress could lead to significant cuts to USAID.
  • The Philippines reproductive health bill is still making its way through the senate.  Meanwhile, 7 villages in Bataan, the Philippines have banned “artificial contraception” amid national debate over the bill.
  • A report co-authored by an Australian academic highlights the need for healthy ecosystems as the basis for sustainable water resources and stable food security for people around the world.

PROGRAMS

  • Sometime this fall, the world’s population will reach 7 billion people. Experts now forecast that by 2050, the population could be 10 billion. Some say those numbers should force policy makers to focus more intently on making family planning much more widely available in the developing world.
  • The Institution of Mechanical Engineers has put together a one day conference bringing together innovators and health workers to share ideas about ways to more easily deliver interventions.
  • It has been commonly held that insecticide treated bed nets reduce the rate of malaria for people who use them. Now there is hard evidence to back up that assumption.

RESEARCH AND INNOVATIONS

  • A new study shows that less than three doses of the vaccine against cervical cancer can effectively protect women in the developing world where 80% of global deaths due to cervical cancer take place.
  • Only three African countries are on track to achieve MGD 5, according to an African Institute for Development Policy study.
  • Most efforts in the Western world seeking to find solutions for developing world problems tend to think of inventing new technologies or, at least, using the tools we typically use to fix things — modern drugs for diseases, improved seeds for crops, a better mousetrap. Sometimes, all you need is a newly geared donkey. 
  • Scientists may have developed a new TB vaccine after tests showed the elimination of TB from infected tissue in mice.
  • A socially active lifestyle can dramatically speed up weight loss through the burning of fat in mice, a study shows. Researchers at Ohio State University in the US identified a link between the amount of social interaction in a mouse’s environment and its weight.
  • An easy-to-use diagnostic chip for HIV could “give results in minutes” and be a game changer in the field of cheap diagnostics for remote regions, claim the researchers who developed it.

DISEASES AND DISASTERS

  • Having to contend with U.S.army drones and the crossfire between the Taliban and the Pakistani army, the residents of Pakistan’s tribal areas find access to treatment for HIV/AIDS harder than in most other parts of the world.
  • Three-quarters of a million people are facing death by starvation in Somalia according the United Nations, who declared Monday that famine had spread to a sixth southern region of the beleaguered Horn of Africa state.  Meanwhile, an investigation has revealed that masses of food meant for famine victims in Somalia are being stolen. There have also been reports of rioting and killings during food distribution at camps for famine victims.
  • A magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck 100km southwest of the city of Medan, Sumatra and 110km beneath the earth’s crust.
  • A New York Times editorial castigates the international community’s response to the cholera outbreak in Haiti.
  • The CEO of insulin manufacturer Novo Nordisk says the WHO should buy low cost diabetes drugs in bulk for the developing world.
  • Messages of good health and positive self-esteem for girls aren’t hard to come by in kid lit, so what’s the deal with all the attention for a not-yet-published rhyming picture book about an obese, unhappy 14-year-old named Maggie?

INFOGRAPHICS AND OTHER MEDIA