Tag: Diarrhea

Global Health Weekly News Round-Up

by Vaani, posted in News

Politics and Policies:

  • The Food and Drug Administration has announced that it will begin exercising its authority given under a 2009 law, power to regulate cigarettes and other tobacco products that they believe pose public health risks.
  • In an effort intensify campaign to publicize new health insurance options and to persuade consumers, the White House is recruiting mayors, county commissioners and other local officials.

Programs:

  • A health check program has been launched in Accra, in order to reach out to the people of Ghana who are challenged with non-communicable diseases (NCDS), in an affordable and effective way.
  • The United Kingdom (UK) is starting a rotavirus vaccination program to protect the babies from infection which causes diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, fever and dehydration.
  • Ben & Catherine Ivy foundation grants more that $9 million for brain cancer research.

Research:

  • To help avert 3 million AIDS deaths by 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) through its guidelines is recommending the patients the start medicine at earlier stage of the deadly disease.
  • According to global Diabetes attitudes, wishes and needs 2 study one in five people with diabetes feel discriminated against them because of their condition. About 16% people suffering from this condition are at risk of depression.
  • According to the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Ghana cuts new HIV infections among children by 76% since 2009. It states that one three in ten children in need of treatment have access to it.
  • A report released by the United Nations state that Nigeria has highest number of children with HIV/AIDS virus in the world. It states that the incidence rate has not increased much but the increase in the prevalence rate has remained stagnant.
  • According to the scientists, new World Health Organization (WHO) test- based approach against malaria does not work everywhere. There must be a hard diagnosis before the disease is treated.
  • According to the research results published in the Journal of Infectious diseases, infant rotavirus vaccine is effective against this disease in Ghana. Results showed a significant response in parameters of efficacy, safety and immune impact of vaccine.
  • A study published in the journal’ Diabetologia’, ethnicity should be considered while making guidelines for physical activity. They state that south Asians need more exercise than white Europeans to reduce diabetes risk.
  • According to a research review published in BMJ, high consumption of fish reduces risk of breast cancer by 14%. It replenishes the body with all omega 3 essential fatty acids which can only be acquired from external sources as body cannot manufacture it.
  •  In a study published in Cell Transplantation journal, type 2 diabetes patients who receive self-donated bone marrow stem cells require less insulin. According to the scientist’s good glycemic control appeared as a critical factor in the transplanted and non-transplanted control group.
  • A study indicates that consuming more than 2-3 standard alcohol drinks per day is linked to deadly digestive tract cancers including mouth, throat, larynx and esophageal. They also warn of risk of bowel, breast and prostate cancers.
  • The scientists have found out that the patients of Crohn’s disease also have a virus – enterovirus in their intestines as compared to those who did not have this disease. It also said that the genes associated with the onset of this disease are vital for the immune response against this virus.
  • According to the researcher’s malaria parasite are full of iron which they cannot digest nor can excrete them. Their invention- hand-held battery operated malaria detector will use the power of magnets to detect them.

Diseases & Disasters:

  • Reports state that Lusaka (Zambia) records approximately 185 new HIV/ AIDS infections every day. It has high prevalence rate of 20.8 percent as compared to the other districts of Zambia.
  • The cholera epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo claims lives of 257 people. Lack of proper sanitation and clear water are stated to be the main cause of the outbreak.
  • Polio outbreak in Somalia jeopardizes global eradication. Before this there was no case of this disease for more than five years. This outbreak is reported in its early stages and WHO experts see more cases coming in next few weeks.
  • A report released by Greenpeace suggests that a Chinese herbal medicine contains a variety of pesticides. It is increasingly accepted in the western countries for medicinal use.
  • Reports have shown a new trend of HIV infection among the youths of Manipur (India). Unsafe sex practice has been indicated to be the major mode of HIV transmission among them.
  • According to the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Diclofenac, a common painkiller raises the risk of heart attack and stroke among the patients with serious underlying heart conditions.
  • Health officials are warning that tularemia cases are on rise in New Mexico. Four cases have been so far been reported.
  • Japan and Poland are facing epidemic of rubella. Travel warnings have been issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the pregnant females visiting these countries.

IH News Global Health Weekly News Round-Up

by Vaani, posted in News
  • The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (Gambia) in collaboration with WHO UNICEF, Rotary International and other partners  observe  the week of May 2013 (from 24- 27) as National Immunization (NIDs) days against poliomyelitis.
  • May is skin Cancer Awareness Month.
  • May 19 was observed as National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

Politics and Policies:

  • Kenya is the first country to protect girls against cervical cancer with GAVI- supported human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines.
  • The government of Canada has announced its support in the fight against tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS.
  • India’s health ministry is tying itself in knots over the ban of drugs that are banned in some countries and some cases for some population segments.
  • The Illinois Senate has voted to approve the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

Programs:

  • Zambia- Zimbabwe Cross Border Malaria Initiative, a joint co-ordination launched by Zambia and Zimbabwe to control malaria and accelerate reduction of its transmission among the border communities.
  • Merck and Glaxo cut price of Human Papilloma Virus drug in the poorest countries. This cut is more than 95%.
  • Nigeria seeks support on guinea worm eradication.
  • Ghana Health Service has launched the country’s first online based health service which allows patients to engage with doctors online over minor ailments.
  • The Gambia and the World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a Comprehensive Tobacco Control formulation in Bakau.
  • India develops cheap vaccine (against Rotavirus) against major cause of diarrhea deaths in children.
  • The Child Division at the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) is working to introduce pneumococcal vaccine against pneumonia– major cause of death among children less than five years of age in the country.

 Research:

  • According to Cervical Cancer Crisis card that used data from official reports by the World Health Organization, Africa has the highest cervical cancer deaths.
  • According to the 2011 National HIV Indicator Survey, prevalence rates among the Ugandans between ages of 15 to 19 are rising.
  • The Annual State of the World’s Mothers report states that every year three million babies die within the first month of life.
  • A study published shows that HIV prevalence and late diagnosis of HIV infection is high among young women with sexual risk behavior in Beira, Mozambique.
  • According to a Global Mother’s Wellbeings ranking report, Ghana ranks 146th out of 176 countries.
  • According to the Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus Elimination Initiative partners, landmark has reached in fight against tetanus. It has been eliminated in over half of 59 priority countries.
  • According to a study, number of Australian parents with mental illness has increased by 3% every year from 1990 to 2005.
  • The findings of a study published in the World Allergy Organization Journal, children dwelling in commercial areas of New Delhi, India are most susceptible as compared to those living in other parts of the capital, to the respiratory ailments followed by industrial and residential areas.
  • A study shows that the paradoxical TB-IRIS frequently complicates HIV-TB therapy in India.
  • A paper published in The Lancet Oncology, say that if current trends in cancer among the people of Latin America and Caribbean continue, the region will see cancer cases soaring by third each year to reach 16.8 million in total by 2020.
  • According to a study health of the immigrants suffer as they live longer in the U.S.
  • According to a study, newer whooping cough vaccine is as protective as was thought to be.

Diseases & Disasters:

  • According to the reports Zambia is facing shortage of HIV medicines.
  • Heavy rains have caused flooding of both Nyamamba and Nyamugasani rivers in Uganda. It has caused heavy flooding which has displaced thousands of people.
  • Two cases of wild polio virus have been recorded in Tafa Local government area of Niger and Fagge in Kano respectively in Nigeria.
  • Reports have indicated that African mineworkers are at significant risk of becoming resistant to tuberculosis treatment.
  • Body of a man who died in an unnamed hospital as having suffered from Creutzfeld –Jakob disease has been identified by the L. Greenberg Forensic Institute at Abu Kabir.  According to the Health Ministry danger of being infected under normal conditions are negligible.
  • A travel alert has been issued for dengue fever in Thailand. About 33 deaths have been reported since April of this year, particularly in northeastern part of the country.
  • According to the reports more than 1200 new cases of measles have been reported this year. Health officials are scrambling to catch up and stop a growing this growing epidemic.

 

 

IH News Global Health Weekly News Round-Up

by Vaani, posted in News

Politics and Policies:

  • Somalia signs its new Healthcare Plan. It has moved away from the emergency-level health provision towards more mainstream national health systems.
  • Kenya’s President elect promises much needed free primary healthcare for the citizens and raising the financing from 6-15%
  • Five memorandums of understandings has been signed by Egypt with South Sudan in the healthcare, livestock and agriculture sectors.
  • Tanzania and Japan sign Sh802 million project grant. It will help Tanzania in various sectors including health, education and water supply.
  • Kansas, United States, doctors may be required to tell patients that abortion causes breast cancer.

Programs:

  • The World Bank will help Cameroon to build safety net system aimed at reducing poverty and vulnerability. Households will get training to improve their health.
  • Solar power in Africa helps people to grow nutritional vegetables and improve their basic needs including health.
  • The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) calls for more reproductive health resources.
  • UNAIDS and other health organizations support new TB and HIV initiative in Africa.  It will include a package worth more than US$120 million to be used to expedite this process.
  • South Sudan through its community health workers detect and treat tuberculosis. This strategy is helping to fight tuberculosis draws communities themselves to detect and treat cases of tuberculosis.
  • UC San Francisco receives $2 million from billionaire Li K-shing for transforming its medical care by integrating data from the human genome and disease research with information from patient’s records and environmental data.

 Research:

  • According to a study about 570 United Kingdom children start smoking every day. This has made the UK government to consider whether to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products.
  • According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine physiotherapy results are as good as knee surgery.
  • According to a study, as part of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV virus, antiretroviral therapy has to be initiated before the last trimester of pregnancy to achieve an undetectable RNA plasma viral load before delivery.
  • A report of United Nation states that about four and a half billion people have access to toilet (as compared to six billion people who have access to mobile phones) of the world’s seven billion people.
  • Researchers are working to tackle obstacles to medical aid.
  • According to the World Health Organization and Global Fund Africa and Europe has not yet reached the millennium tuberculosis goal. They say that strains of tuberculosis with resistance to multiple drugs could spread widely.
  • According to a report by the UNICEF, about 66 million Nigerians are without portable water.  It is the leading cause of diseases and deaths especially among under five aged children.
  • Doctors have discovered a women’s mysterious bone condition due to drinking a pitcher of tea every day for past 17 years.
  • Reports indicate that only 28% of Ugandans have access to hand-washing facilities. Statistics from the Uganda Demographic and Household Survey show that 190,000 Ugandan children die every year due to diarrhea.
  • A report publish by the World Health organization (WHO), among South-East Asia Region, Indonesia has achieved an amazing 90% success rate for TB treatment.
  • Scientists from the John Hopkins University have developed a new innovative method known as Predicting Infectious Disease Scalable Model (PRISM) extracts relationships between clinical, meteorological, climatic and socio-political data in Peru and the Philippines.
  • According to a study flu sufferers can spread the virus by sneezing, while talking, breathing by at least 6 feet.
  • A new method to treat blinding cornea diseases in children is now available in Singapore.
  • According to a study breast cancer radiation therapy increases a women’s risk of suffering a heart attack or other heart problems.
  • A study indicates an increase in the number of parents who won’t vaccinate daughters against Human Papilloma Virus (HPV).
  • A study shows that parents seem to be increasingly worried about the vaccine’s safety.
  • Low-GI protein blends have been designed to be eaten about 30 minutes before meals to reduce satiety is being marketed by a Swedish form Indevex. It increases release of incretin hormone which can provoke insulin release before blood glucose levels due to meal consumption.
  • A research done by Lund University in Sweden shows that we can modify the function of genes through epigenetic changes that can take place over the course of time.
  • United States tuberculosis rates reach all-time low but resistance of bacteria is a continuous threat.
  • Researchers have indicated that menstrual blood cells can be used to treat heart failure patients.
  • Researchers say that females with ovarian cancer too often get insufficient treatment.

Diseases and Disasters:

  • Chinese Public call for tackling water pollution.
  • Reports indicate that about 40 patients have lost their lives in drug trials in Maharashtra, India.
  • According to a report released by the CDC, from early December, 2012 to mid-February 2013, the Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak linked to ground beef had sickened a total of 22 people.
  • Natives of United States call for increased HIV testing per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations.

Global Health Weekly News Round-Up

by Vaani, posted in News

Politics and Policies:

  • The Obama administration has given conditional approval to health insurance market places being set up by six states led by Democratic governors.
  • New Jersey Assembly panel passes a bill allowing driver’s licenses to include diabetic condition.
  • The Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) has set a standard in the middle of the range of 11- 13 micrograms per cubic meter for the soot particles in the air.
  • Michigan works to ban synthetic drug phenethylamine.

Programs:

  • The United Nations (UN) has asked for $8.5 billion to deliver urgent humanitarian aid to 51 million people in crisis-stricken countries around the world in 2013.
  • The U N has launched an initiative to help to eliminate cholera in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
  • Emergency vaccinations campaign has been organized in Sudan by its Federal Ministry of Health against mosquito- borne yellow fever.
  • Third phase of measles and rubella (MR) vaccination campaign has been started in Nepal.
  • The UN has warned that nearly 55 million tons of radioactive waste from old Soviet-era uranium mines in unsecured sites in northern Tajikistan.
  • The state of Iowa is planning to spend $3.2 million on tobacco prevention and cessation.
  • MidMichigan Health receives grant to fight childhood obesity.

Research:

  • A Sudanese neurologist has succeeded in giving the first clinical and psychological description of spastic paraplegia.
  • Researchers at the University of California and the University of Oxford have found a link between type-2 diabetes and corn syrup consumption.
  • A study published in Lancet states that air pollution tops the list of major health risk among the developing countries.
  • A study finds years living with disease and injury increasing globally.
  • In a study done by the researchers in United Kingdom, they found a link between the foliate consumption and risk of developing breast cancer.
  • The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given approval for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) and Philadelphia Chromosome positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
  • According to a study about 10% of the 6- 8 year old children of Finland have sleep – disordered breathing.
  • Experts say “plethora” of diseases caused by low vitamin D.
  • A study links work place bullying to developing risk for anxiety/ depression/ psychological problems.
  • A study done by the U.S. researcher’s show that Blacks have higher risk of heart disease.  They have a double risk of dying of coronary disease.
  • A study links drinking coffee with reduction in risk of throat and mouth cancer. It states that drinking more than four cups of coffee can cause significant rate of risk reduction.
  • Researchers at University of Copenhagen have found a very important function of BRCA2 gene. This knowledge could be used for the treatment of breast cancer.
  • A 2010 study states that the television in bedrooms may boost heart disease and diabetes among the children.
  • A study links innate immunity and inflammation pathway with advanced prostate cancer risk.

 Diseases and Disasters:

  • Outbreak of diarrhea killed seven people from lower Shabelle region in Southern Somalia.
  • A report released by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that Alaska ranks number one in United States for Chlamydia.
  • Seventh death due to fungal meningitis has been  reported in Indiana (U.S.).
  • A report released by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that Louisiana leads the nation in rates of gonorrhea and syphilis cases.
  • Drug resistant infection cluster has been reported in South Dakota. People who are healthy are not at risk as compared to those on ventilators, urinary or intravenous catheters or long courses of certain antibiotics.

 

 

 

 

Global Health News Last Week

by ihsection, posted in News

From March 28 to April 1, panelists working in Canada, Uganda, the United States, and Zambia will lead a discussion in GHDonline.org on ways to build sustainable partnerships to strengthen surgical and anesthesia capacity in resource-poor settings. More information can be found here.

March 22 was World Water Day. Blogger Tom Murphy has collected some interesting videos on PSI’s blog here.
Elizabeth Taylor, Hollywood icon and longtime advocate for the fight against HIV/AIDS, passed away on March 23 at age 78.
March 24 was World TB Day.

POLICY

  • China, the world’s largest tobacco producer and home to a third of all smokers, has issued a national ban on smoking in hotels, restaurants and other indoor public spaces.
  • Fears are growing among HIV/AIDS sufferers in the Ukraine amid claims from some patients that they have been denied life-saving medicines by authorities during a crackdown on drug substitution therapy.
  • The WHO has announced a list of 30 essential medicines for treating common diseases of mothers and children that can be used as the basis for procurement and supply of medicines and guide local medicine production.

RESEARCH

  • Scientists from the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), Dublin City University and Universidad de Valparaiso (Chile) have developed a self-powered, low-cost chip that can test blood samples and diagnose diseases like tuberculosis and HIV within minutes.
  • Researchers have discovered that capsaicin, the compound that makes jalapeños, red chilies, and the famous habanero pepper spicy, inhibit the production of cholera toxins.
  • Results from a recent study show that people with HIV who change antiretroviral treatment regimens due to side effects are at higher risk for developing drug resistance.
  • The Pakistan Medical Association’s 2011 annual report found that 400,000 infants die in the first year of their life each year and 1 out of 10 children die by the age of five.
  • A study by researchers from Johns Hopkins University found that child diarrhea deaths could be almost halved if currently available interventions such as breastfeeding, hand washing with soap, and improved household water treatment were widely implemented.
  • Global health and development blogger Amanda Makulec shares seven key ideas that she took home from the Global Health Metrics and Evaluation Conference in Seattle.

DISEASES AND DISASTERS

  • Despite setbacks, work continues at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant. Meanwhile, in addition to radiation-contaminated vegetables, officials are now warning families to not give Tokyo tap water to infants due to elevated levels of radiation found in the water supply. The World Bank estimates that the earthquake and tsunami have caused as much as $235 billion in damage to Japan and that it will take five years for the nation to recover.
  • The crisis in Côte d’Ivoire continues as well, as the country’s healthcare system is strained by the violence.
  • Leprosy, which has been officially “eliminated” in India, still affects hundreds of thousands of people who are shunned by society. There are 130,000 new cases diagnosed in the country each year.
  • Leaders at the 26th Annual Conference of Alzheimer’s Disease International challenged the World Health Organization and countries around the world to take action on the dramatic surge in the global incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.