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WORLDVIEW
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AMERICAS
Senior citizens wait in line for flu vaccinations in Kannapolis, North Carolina.
Washington, DC - As the flu season takes hold, the U.S. finds itself with only half of the 100 million doses of flu vaccine that had been expected. The shortage precipitated when British authorities, citing concerns about sterility, closed a Liverpool factory used by Chiron, a California-based pharmaceutical company. The company is one of two major suppliers of flu vaccine, Fluvirin, to the U.S. The shortage has prompted debate about the supply of vaccines in general, as well as how to resolve the current situation.
A Haitian family examines the ruins of their home in Gonaives following Tropical Storm Jeanne.
GONAIVES, Haiti - Post-storm conditions continue to wreak havoc in Haiti, especially outside of Port-au-Prince where road damages caused by Tropical Storm Jeanne are impairing the transport of supplies. Of particular concern has been the rise in infant mortality due to unsanitary conditions. Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Dr. Mirta Roses and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson visited Haiti after the storm to inspect the humanitarian situation. The U.S. and PAHO have pledged assistance to the government of Haiti.
SACRAMENTO, California - Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently approved a state bill permitting the sale of sterile syringes without a doctor's prescription. This bill was passed with the goal of reducing the spread of HIV from contaminated needles, which cause about 20% of California's HIV infections. Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Delaware and New Jersey are the only states still enforcing strict policies regarding the sale of sterile syringes.
WASHINGTON, DC - The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has increased its effort to lower the extremely high maternal and infant mortality rates in the indigenous areas of Central and South America. Poor communication and insensitivity to indigenous cultural traditions have been cited as reasons for higher childbirth mortality rates in indigenous regions. PAHO is working with municipal authorities in indigenous regions, such as the department of Potosi in rural Bolivia, to set up community programs that will focus on identification of high-risk cases and improvement of sanitary conditions.
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ASIA
BANLUNG, Cambodia-A new telemedicine clinic has been opened to bring access to advanced, specialized treatment to the Ratanakiri province in the northeastern highlands about 600 miles from Phnom Penh. The World Health Organization has deemed the province to be the most vulnerable in Cambodia, a nation cited as having the most desperate health conditions in the Western Pacific. The clinic will address conditions such as intestinal parasites and cardiac problems, offering satellite consultation with doctors in the Sihanouk Hospital Centre of Hope in Phnom Penh as well as two US-based hospitals, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.
OSH, Kyrgyzstan-A recent report indicates a 50% increase the incidence of acute viral hepatitis in southern Kyrgyzstan. Since January, 1,500 people have been infected in the Osh province alone, 1,200 of them children under 14 years of age. Treating a single case of hepatitis A, which accounts for 95% of hepatitis cases in Kyrgyzstan, costs $300 while treatment for a patient with the more serious hepatitis B or C costs upwards of $400. In a country where the average monthly urban salary is US$35, the surge in incidence has raised concerns about the government's ability to cover the costs of hepatitis treatment.
BANGKOK, Thailand-The first verified human-to-human transmission of avian influenza has been reported in Thailand. The strain, A(H5NI), was transmitted between a girl and her mother, whose deaths were twelve days apart. There are currently no antiviral drugs or vaccines to treat A(H5N1), but human testing of an experimental vaccine is expected to begin at the end of this year. This strain of avian flu has killed 30 of 42 people infected in the past year, as well as millions of chickens and wild birds.
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EUROPE
Tamara Touirat is the first baby to be born from re-implanted ovarian tissue
VILNIUS, Lithuania - UNAIDS and the World Health Organization pleaded with members of the European Union to step up the fight against HIV/AIDS in Europe and Central Asia. Deaths from AIDS have declined in Western Europe with the increasing availability of antiretroviral therapy, but critics claim that this has led European governments to relax efforts to fight the spread of the disease. In Eastern Europe is of particular concern, where the incidence of HIV is rising and only about 12.5% of those who need antiretroviral therapy actually receive it.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The birth of a healthy baby girl by Ouarda Touirat on September 23, 2004 marks the first birth by a cancer survivor after undergoing an ovarian tissue transplant. Touirat froze her ovarian tissue in 1997 before undergoing chemotherapy and radiation therapy, treatments known to cause infertility. This medical breakthrough gives hope to young cancer patients and could also prove useful to women who want to delay childbirth until after menopause.
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, England - While the ability of dogs to smell cancerous growths has been debated for over a decade, a new study published in the British Medical Journal gives more credit to this idea. Researchers at Amersham Hospital tested 6 dogs for their ability to detect bladder cancer in urine samples. While the study resulted in only a 41% success rate, some believe that more training would significantly improve that result. Electronic imitations of dog noses are already being tested for detecting lung cancer, and many more studies on dogs' abilities to identify other types of cancer are taking place.
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AFRICA
Displaced Sudanese wait in line to collect food aid from the World Food Programe in Darfur
MAPUTO, Mozambique - A major breakthrough in the development of a malaria vaccine was announced by the Malaria Vaccine Initiative and the Mozambican Ministry of Health, in conjunction with GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which funded the trials. Clinical trials were carried out in the southern province of Maputo, where over 40% of hospital patients are suffering of malaria. The tests covered 2,022 children and showed 30% efficacy on clinically detectable malaria, 45% on non-symptomatic cases and 58% on severe malaria cases, with protection lasting for at least six months. Further efficacy studies will be needed, and the partnership estimates that the vaccine may not be generally available until 2010. However, this is the first vaccine against malaria with the potential to save children from infection or death, and even the limited efficacy reported thus far has been cited as a major public health achievement in a disease that kills more than a million people a year.
DARFUR, Sudan - The UN World Food Programme has decided to temporarily suspend the delivery of food aid in parts of North Darfur amid security concerns. The decision comes after two aid workers from Save the Children were killed by a land mine. The WFP estimates that 50,000 people will be affected by the suspension of aid. Over 50,000 people have already died over twenty months of violence in Darfur.
TRIPOLI, Libya - The US has agreed to help Libya convert a chemical weapons plant near Tripoli into a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant, to produce drugs for AIDS, malaria and other infectious diseases. The Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has approved the necessary "technical changes" to the global treaty on chemical arms that will allow the conversion, and the Bush administration has expressed strong support for the decision.
ANTANANARIVO, Madascar - The 25-day measles vaccination campaign that began in September has succeeded in vaccinating over 7.3 million children. The Ministry of Health announced that the campaign exceeded expectations, reaching 97.7% of the children targeted for vaccination, compared with the expected rate of 95%. Before the campaign, as many as 60% of children in Madagascar were not immunized. The campaign was funded with multi-sectoral support from international partners such as UNICEF, WHO, the CDC, Rotary International and numerous other donors.
Compiled from The New York Times, BBC, CNN, PAHO, UNWire, WHO, allafrica.com, globalhealth.org, hrw.org, worldhealthnews.Harvard.edu
Compiled by Erin Frey, Louisa Inskip, Nir Harish
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