Global health news - April 2009
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Research
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Does substance abuse induce TB?
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 Almost 20% of tuberculosis patients in the United States reported drug or alcohol abuse. The disease was more contagious insubstance abusers and remained contagious for a longer period than in non abusers. One third of the world population is infected with the bacterium that causes TB. Only a small proportion of them ever develop the disease. But the effect of substance abuse on the body may raise the chances that the latent infection turns into active disease. Substance abusers have less access to routine medical care, therefore may be less likely to be screened for TB and to obtain and finish treatment. The researchers conclude that substance abusers form an important but complex target population in TB control programmes. JS
Reference: CDC journal Archives of Internal Medicine jan. 2009Â
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Malaria vaccine: promising developments
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A recent publication in the New England Journal of Medicine revealed that the world’s most advanced malaria vaccine candidate provides children a significant protection against malaria. Two separate randomized double-blind phase II trials, conducted in Kenya and Tanzania, showed that in children aged 5 to 17 months, the candidate vaccine RTS,S/AS01 reduced the risk of clinical episodes of malaria with 53 % over an eight month follow-up period. The data have shown that the vaccine candidate can be administered as part of existing national immunization programs. These studies open the promising way to a large scale phase III efficacy trial involving 16 000 children in 11 centres in Africa, now awaiting approvals by national regulatory agencies.Â
Research & Development of these and other malaria vaccine candidates are supported by the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), a global programme established through an initial grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. JSÂ
Read more on global vaccine initiatives in our IAVI series
Reference: N Engl Med 2008-2009, Biovalley Basel jan.2009 |
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Climate change enhances dengue transmission
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Increased temperature and rainfall are associated with increased dengue transmission. This was demonstrated in Puerto Rico in a study using 20 years of data about seasonal variability and occurrence of dengue fever.Â
The Aedes aegypti mosquito is proven sensitive to changes in environment. This relationship is consistent with laboratory studies of the impacts of climate factors on vector survival and viral replication, but was never studied in real-life situations. The results predict increased incidence and spreading of dengue fever by global warming in the next decades. JSÂ
Read more about dengue in Global Medicine's Neglected Disease series.Â
Reference: Johansson MA et al. Local and Global Effects of Climate on Dengue Transmission in Puerto Rico. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 3(2) 2009
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Health policy
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Sudan expels NGOs
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In response to the International Criminal Court’s issuance of an arrest warrant for the Sudan’s president on March 4, 2009, the Sudanese government has expelled 13 international organizations conducting critical work to address the critical health and humanitarian needs in Sudan. The warrant calls for the arrest of President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan’s Darfur region. The organizations ordered out of the country include CARE International, Save the Children, the French and Dutch branches of Doctors without Borders, Oxfam and others. UN officials have said that about 76 international groups had been operating in Darfur. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the Sudanese government to reverse the decision. EB
Reference: http://www.globalhealth.org/news/article/10849 |
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UNICEF: Report on the state of the world's children
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A global effort to reduce deaths during pregnancy and childbirth is likely to fail unless action is taken to improve health care in the developing world, the United Nations Children's Fund concluded in their recently released report, The State of the World's Children 2009.Â
More than half a million expectant and new mothers die each year, most in Africa and Asia where obstetrical and post-natal care is often unavailable and many pregnancies are complicated by HIV. According to UNICEF, the riskiest place to give birth in 2008 was Niger, where the lifetime chance to die in labour is one in seven. The safest place was Ireland where the risk was one in 47,600. The UN has called for a 75 % reduction in the maternal and child mortality rate by 2015 as part the Millennium Development Goals. Since 1990, progress has been made in reducing child mortality, but the number of maternal deaths has remained largely unchanged.Â
UNICEF says many of the deaths could be reduced by improving family planning and post natal-care and ensuring that trained medical personnel were on hand for deliveries. Conflicts and political crises, however, have made it more difficult to tackle the problem. JS
Reference:  UNICEF, The state of world’s children, January 2009
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Photo © by Amfion Fotoshoots (Antonette de Groot-Klootwijk), photos for Global Medicine only, all rights reserved.
Photo by Robbert Duvivier, all rights reserved.Â
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Laatst aangepast op dinsdag, 23 maart 2010 20:20 |
Global Medicine 6
