tagged w/ World Health Organization (WHO)
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Aid agencies are planning to immunise three million people in central Africa after a polio outbreak, which has killed more than 100 people.
Hundreds more have been paralysed by the disease, authorities have said.
The disease broke out in Congo-Brazzaville, but has also affected parts of neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola.
The government said the vast majority of deaths had occurred in the city of Pointe-Noire in Congo-Brazzaville.
Congo-Brazzaville had previously recorded its last case of indigenous polio in 2000.
The vaccination plan is being conducted by several aid agencies, including Unicef and the World Health Organization (WHO).
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READ MORE: http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2010/11/united-nations-says-three-million-will.htmlAid agencies are planning to immunise three million people in central Africa after a... more
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The New York Times has posted an interactive map feature (requiring Adobe Flash) to view daily updates as the swine flu spreads worldwide. Headline summaries about the flu outbreak accompany map images with links to news stories and detailed reporting.
As of today, the New York Times is reporting that the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) has identified the global threat level as 5 for a global flu pandemic.
Photo: At a Mexico City hospital, a woman holding her child left the emergency area, where people with flu-like symptoms were being checked. Eduardo Verdugo/Associated Press.The New York Times has posted an interactive map feature (requiring Adobe Flash) to... more
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The amount of HIV infection among people over 50 is “surprisingly high,” World Health Organization (WHO) officials say, and despite much speculation about why, there’s little definitive information that might shed light on the trend.
“HIV prevalence and incidence in the over-50-year-olds seem surprisingly high and the risk factors are totally unexplored,” according to an editorial in the March Bulletin of the World Health Organization. “Understanding the epidemiology of HIV infection in older individuals can lead to interventions to make these years safer and more enjoyable.”
In 2005, people 50 and older accounted for 15 percent of the new HIV/AIDS diagnoses in the U.S. and 24 percent of people living with the virus, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These figures are up 17 percent since 2001.
That proportion of cases in the 50-something demo is "surprisingly high," says editorial co-author George Schmid, an epidemiologist in WHO's HIV/AIDS branch, because 50-somethings aren’t believed to be at much risk, especially from sex. While a few 50-somethings are contracting HIV in middle age, in the U.S. prevalence has grown in the over-50 demographic partly because people who were infected earlier in life are surviving into middle age, CDC data shows. Schmid didn’t say whether that would also explain the increase in developing countries, where antiretroviral drugs credited with extending the lives of HIV patients are harder to come by.
"To achieve these 'surprisingly high' prevalences, there must be a fair bit of sexual activity, more than we think," Schmid tells ScientificAmerican.com. "But interest in sex and sexual activity decline for both sexes as we age. Thus, to achieve these 'surprisingly high' prevalences and assuming they are from sex, there must be a relatively high transmission efficiency, e.g., thinning of vaginal mucosa. And, studies have shown that older individuals are less likely to use safer sex practices."
All of that said, the editorial doesn’t distinguish between people who are catching HIV in their 50s and those who were infected when they were younger and are surviving into middle age, making it tough to understand why the proportion of cases in that age group is more than experts originally imagined. "We do not know when these people became infected," Schmid concedes.The amount of HIV infection among people over 50 is “surprisingly high,”... more
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More than 153 million people around the world with poor or no eyesight either don't have access to or can't afford vision correction, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Ninety percent live in low- or middle-income countries, WHO reports, where optometrists are harder to come by and individually crafted lenses cost too much for many.
A British physicist wants to solve that problem. He has his sights set on the lofty goal of distributing one billion pairs of glasses, at $1 a pair, by 2020. Why so many? Josh Silver, a physics professor at the University of Oxford in England and the man behind the mission, isn't stopping at the WHO's definition of those who need vision correction. He's also including much of the world's vast age 45–plus population, who are subject to presbyopia: natural age-related vision deterioration.
"The story now is how you get there," Silver says of his goal.
The glasses, developed by Silver and offered by his company, Oxford-based Adaptive Eyecare, Ltd., are round plastic frames with lenses made of clear sacs of silicon oil (the sort most commonly found in vacuum pumps that also happens to have a high refractive index) sandwiched between two clear plastic circles. They're not un-Harry Potter–like in appearance, but their effectiveness lies in a simple fundamental concept.
They work on the same principle that the human eye and traditional glasses do; as the curve of the lens changes, so does its power. The two fluid-filled membranes between the lenses hold a little less than 0.6 cubic inch (10 cubic centimeters) of oil and are each connected to a tube and small syringe, which can be adjusted by turning the dials on each side.
As a wearer adjusts the dials he or she can control how much liquid is loaded into each sac (thereby custom forming each membrane's curvature); this fine-tunes the glasses to an individual's prescription. After the world comes into focus, the sacs are sealed off permanently with a small valve, and the adjusting mechanisms are removed. The glasses weigh about 1.7 ounces (48 grams) and each lens is about 1.5 inches (four centimeters) in diameter.More than 153 million people around the world with poor or no eyesight either... more
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