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WORLDVIEW
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AFRICA
Abuja, Nigeria - A polio outbreak centered on the state of Kano in northern Nigeria has brought this West African nation to the forefront of the campaign to eradicate the virus. Of the 414 reported cases worldwide, Nigeria now accounts for 178. The World Health Organization has begun to implement a plan to vaccinate 15 million children in Nigeria and neighboring states. The campaign faced initial opposition in northern states from local Muslim clerics who suggested that the vaccine was part of a Western plot to spread AIDS or infertility. Independent testing in Nigeria, however, found no traces of HIV or anti-fertility agents in the polio vaccine.
Bamko, Mali - According to estimates by Doctors Without Borders, half a million people are at risk in a growing cholera epidemic that began in early November. The World Health Organization reported over 1,000 cases and nearly 100 deaths within the first month of the outbreak.
Johannesburg, South Africa - The South African government approved a long-awaited plan to distribute free anti-retroviral medication to millions of citizens infected with HIV. The government will allocate US $1.7 billion over the next three years to recruit thousands of health professionals and set up treatment centers in each of South Africa's 250 municipalities within five years. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang estimated that as many as 50,000 patients could be treated within the first year. President Thabo Mbeki had long resisted international pressure to treat the estimated 12% of the South African population infected with the virus. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the South Africa's foremost HIV/AIDS advocacy group, warmly welcomed the decision, calling it a "wonderful day for all in South Africa."
Kinshasa, DRC - Government officials reported a rise in the number of leprosy cases reported, as health agents reach areas that were previously inaccessible during a five-year war. 13% of the persons detected were at a point where their limbs had become disfigured, and 11% were children. The National Anti-leprosy Programme is looking for funding for a plan to eliminate the disease by 2005.
Nairobi, Kenya - The World Health Organization (WHO) and Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) launched a $5.5 billion campaign, known as "3 by 5", to enroll three million HIV-infected people on antiretroviral treatment by the year 2005. A key component of the effort is an innovative generic drug that combines three essential antiretroviral drugs into one pill taken twice a day. The WHO called on the 34 countries hardest hit by HIV/AIDS to train and organize 100,000 healthcare and nonprofessional workers to help in delivering the drugs.
Nairobi, Kenya - Nine major international corporations with operations in Africa have pledged to expand HIV treatment and prevention programs in an effort to boost the fight against the disease. The companies - AngloAmerican, Bristol-Myers Squibb, ChevronTexaco, DaimlerChrysler, Eskom, Heineken, Lafarge, Pfizer and Tata Steel - will run the program with their own money and funds from the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
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AMERICA
Brasilia, Brazil - The government has launched a national campaign to encourage more people to be tested for HIV. It is estimated that 600,000 Brazilians are HIV-positive, but two-thirds of them are carrying the virus without realizing it. Brazil's AIDS program has been heralded by the World Health Organization as one of the most successful in the world. The Brazilian Government already pays for anti-retroviral drugs and puts pressure on pharmaceutical companies to keep down the cost of drugs. It is hoped that after this campaign as many as 4.5m people a year will take an HIV test in Brazil.
Mexicali Valley, Mexico - Investigators have tracked an outbreak of hepatitis A in Pennsylvania to contaminated green onions exported from Mexico and served in Chi-Chi's chain restaurants. In response, Mexico's Agricultural Department has shut down four of its export companies which do not comply with US health regulations. Green onions make up 90% of the fruits and vegetables produced in the Mexicali Valley and have a commerical value of about $44 million.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti - In a new effort to curb hunger, researchers from the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA have partnered with missionaries in Haiti to develop a novel fish-food pellet from local tree leaves. Many popular fish are native to this tropical island, but the fish are generally as malnourished as the people. The idea is to produce a one-pound fish, almost half of which would be edible animal protein, a key component missing from the average Haitian's 800-calorie daily diet.
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ASIA
Almaty, Kazakhstan - According to a recent report, alcoholism in Kazakhstan is surging, especially among juveniles. Among adults, there has been a five-fold increase over the past ten years. In children under 14, the increase was tenfold. Officials blame a lack of extracurricular activities and busy parents, which they say leave children with no better way of spending their time.
Beijing, China - Coinciding with World AIDS Day, China took steps in early December towards overcoming past government denial about HIV/AIDS. Public service announcements were run to promote awareness and recommend condom use. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao pledged the government's support in the fight against AIDS, and promised to expand the government's free anti-retroviral treatment program to all people who had tested positive for HIV. For years the government blocked Chinese media coverage of the country's HIV/AIDS problem - over one million people are believed to be HIV-positive, and experts say there could be as many as 10 million cases by 2010.
New Delhi, India - Each year, over 100,000 women here die of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth - one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. In an effort to make childbirth safer, the Health Ministry has announced a plan to pay midwives to bring pregnant women to hospitals, and pay women for having their babies there. Only 20% of Indian women currently receive adequate prenatal care.
New Delhi, India - Government officials announced a plan to provide free antiretroviral therapy to new parents and children under 15 in the six states with the highest rates of HIV and AIDS. The program aims to eventually treat all people in those states with full-blown AIDS. The government is in price-reduction negotiations with many pharmaceutical companies based in India which manufacture generic versions of antiretroviral medications.
Tehran, Iran -- The biggest ever immunization campaign for measles, mumps and rubella has been launched in Iran. The government is hoping to vaccinate 33 million people - around one-half of the Iranian population - within one month. The campaign has been in preparation for six years, and is part of a global challenge to eliminate measles by 2005.
Thimphu, Bhutan - Health officials are aiming to make this landlocked Buddhist kingdom the world's first tobacco-free nation. 19 of the kingdom's 20 provinces have already banned tobacco, often on religious grounds, as Buddhists here consider smoking to be a sin. The groundwork is now being laid for the capital district to follow suit as early as next year. If they succeed, it will be illegal to sell tobacco products, and Bhutanese smokers will be fined if caught in public.
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EUROPE
Kiev, Ukraine - President Leonid Kuchma has accepted a $60 million World Bank loan to fight AIDS and Tuberculosis in this former Soviet republic. With an estimated 500,000 people infected with HIV, Ukraine has the highest HIV infection rate in Eastern Europe. Tuberculosis cases have doubled in recent years to nearly 700,000, and the death
rate from the disease is mounting.
London, United Kingdom - As part of a plan to combat obesity, the government is now asking the television regulator Ofcom to draw up a tough code on junk food and drinks advertisements directed at children. In recent reports, 8.5% of six-year-olds and 15% of 15-year-olds in Britain were obese.
Warsaw, Poland - The European AIDS Clinical Society warned during an international AIDS conference that the number of AIDS deaths in Eastern Europe could skyrocket in the next 10 years unless infected people receive the same treatment offered in Western Europe. In Eastern Europe, "it is more difficult to find drugs than in Senegal," conference chairwoman Christine Katlama said. Of the 2 million people in Europe infected with HIV, 1.2 million live in Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet-bloc countries.
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