World Health Organization
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China stops tainted sweet sales
A Chinese sweet maker has stopped domestic sales of one of its best-known brands after it was found to contain the industrial chemical melamine.
The company, Guanshengyuan, has already halted exports of the popular White Rabbit candy, made from milk.
It is the latest development in a spreading food safety scandal involving milk contaminated with melamine.
Traces of the chemical have also been found in Hong Kong and Japan in products containing Chinese milk.
They are among a growing number of countries which have already banned or restricted imports of Chinese products containing milk.
Four babies have died and more than 53,000 children have so far been made ill by drinking contaminated powder milk in China.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has meanwhile urged five countries to immediately recall all milk powder imported from China. A Chinese sweet maker has stopped domestic sales of one of its best-known brands after it was found to contain the industrial chemical... more -
China dairy accused of cover-up
A dairy at the centre of China's growing scandal over contaminated milk was first made aware of problems nine months before it announced a recall of its products, Chinese state media has reported.
According to broadcaster CCTV, managers of the Sanlu Group dairy company first received complaints as early as December 2007 linking its infant formula to illnesses in babies.
It was not until June, however, that tests showed the milk was tainted with the industrial chemical melamine, which causes kidney stones and can lead to kidney failure.
In August, New Zealand-based dairy giant Fonterra, a major investor in Sanlu, was made aware of the problem and urged an immediate recall.
Sanlu did not go public until September 11.
Read full story at link above for more details. A dairy at the centre of China's growing scandal over contaminated milk was first made aware of problems nine months before it an... more -
World Health Organization backs universal health care
Major inequalities in health and life expectancy persist worldwide, according to an independent World Health Organization commission which on Thursday called for all countries to offer universal health care.
Huge discrepancies also exist within countries, including Scotland where a boy born in the poor Glasgow suburb of Calton can expect to live to 54, 28 years less than one born in affluent Lenzie, just across town, it said.
"The health inequities we see in the world are absolutely dramatic in their scale," Michael Marmot, a WHO health researcher, who chaired the commission, told reporters.
"Between countries we have life expectancy differences of more than 40 years. A woman in Botswana can expect to live 43 years, in Japan 86 years."
The Commission on Social Determinants of Health, composed of 19 independent experts, handed over its three-year study to the World Health Organization, a United Nations agency.
"Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale," it declared. Major inequalities in health and life expectancy persist worldwide, according to an independent World Health Organization commission w... more -
Stomach bug treatment for cancer
Eradicating a common bug in people with stomach cancer can prevent the disease from recurring, research suggests.
Helicobacter pylori, proved to be the cause of most stomach ulcers, has also been linked with stomach cancer. In a study of 550 people who had stomach cancer surgery, antibiotics which killed the bug cut the risk of a second cancer developing by two-thirds. There will now be a trial of 56,000 British people to see if killing the bacterium stops the cancer developing. H. pylori lives in the stomach, and accounts for up to 90% of duodenal ulcers and up to 80% of gastric ulcers.
It was famously linked with stomach ulcers by two Australian researchers - one of whom deliberately infected himself to prove the theory - who were awarded the Nobel prize for their discovery in 2005. The World Health Organisation also classes the bacterium as a leading cause of stomach cancer.
Read more... Eradicating a common bug in people with stomach cancer can prevent the disease from recurring, research suggests. ... more -
Gates' foundation aids smoking ban for Games
The retired co-founder of computer giant Microsoft, Bill Gates, has earmarked $130,000 from his foundation to support a "smoke-free Olympics".
"Awareness of the disease burden that smoking causes is not very widespread. I'd say most people in the US know it, but in China, that's not the case," Gates, who co-chairs the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said at a press conference in New York City on Wednesday.
The funds from the foundation's latest commitment are expected to go toward advertisements in an anti-smoking campaign in line with the Olympic smoking ban.
Beijing has pledged a smoke-free Games, banning smoking from most indoor public spaces, workplaces and spectator areas of open-air stadiums during the Games next month.
The anti-smoking drive is aimed at curbing a habit that reportedly affects more than 350 million people in the country. Medical costs from smoking also impoverish more than 50 million people in China, figures from the World Health Organization have showed. The retired co-founder of computer giant Microsoft, Bill Gates, has earmarked $130,000 from his foundation to support a "smoke-fr... more -
Web-Crawling Program ID's Disease Outbreaks
Every hour, HealthMap, an infectious disease-tracking Web site, culls through news Web sites, public health list servs, the World Health Organization's online pages, and other Web sites in six different languages to pinpoint outbreaks of disease that real-world doctors can then act on. Every hour, HealthMap, an infectious disease-tracking Web site, culls through news Web sites, public health list servs, the World Heal... more
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Ancient bones could help combat TB
Ancient bones from the city of Jericho are to be used by British scientists to develop treatments for tuberculosis. The project is part of a new scientific discipline in which archaeologists and medical researchers are cooperating to gain insights into modern ailments.
The team, which also includes Israeli, Palestinian and German researchers, will be following up pioneering work by British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon. In the Fifties she made a series of important digs at Jericho and found bones from thousands of humans, some dating back 8,000 years.
When these bones were examined, it was discovered many had lesions, indicating that the city's men and women had suffered from tuberculosis. The walls of Jericho may have come down, not with a trumpet blast, but with epidemic of coughing, it seems.
TB infects nine million people a year - 450,000 with a strain that is resistant to first-line drugs, according to the World Health Organization. Ancient bones from the city of Jericho are to be used by British scientists to develop treatments for tuberculosis. The project is par... more -
World Health Organization documents failure of US drug policies
The release of this article is telling. Many of the United States news organizations are spinning the data in the report to say that drug use is up across the world. The truth that is revealed in the article is simple. Countries with the strictest drug laws are also the countries with the highest drug use. Those countries with more tolerant drug laws show astonishingly lower rates of drug use.
"The numbers are startling. In the United States, 42.4 percent admitted having used marijuana. The only other nation that came close was New Zealand, another bastion of get-tough policies, at 41.9 percent. No one else was even close. The results for cocaine use were similar, with the United States leading the world by a large margin."
Our government officials are trying to play the report off by discrediting the World Health Organization.
Bloomberg News reported:
"The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy tried to dismiss the study.
Trying to find a link between drug use and drug enforcement doesn't make sense, said Tom Riley, spokesman for the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington. "The U.S. has high crime rates but we spend a lot on law enforcement and prison,'' Riley said yesterday in a telephone interview. "Should we spend less? We're just a different kind of country. We have higher drug use rates, a higher crime rate, many things that go with a highly free and mobile society."
It's about time Americans and the rest of the world wise up. Adults are smart. They can and should be allowed to pick and choose what they do with their lives and bodies. The things they consume and activities pursued in the privacy of the home are beyond the reach of law or government. The release of this article is telling. Many of the United States news organizations are spinning the data in the report to say that d... more -
World Health Organization to open Baghdad headquarters
The World Health Organization, one of United Nations' most important agencies, is opening a permanent office in Baghdad, a move that underscores recent security improvements in Iraq's capital.
WHO's representative in Iraq, Nae'ema Al-Gasseer, will be permanently based in the Iraqi capital.
The move comes nearly five years after the U.N. headquarters in Iraq was bombed, killing 22 people and curtailing a lot of the agency's work. One of those killed in the strike was the chief of the U.N. mission in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
In the post-Saddam Hussein era, the U.N. has lent support to Iraqi elections and the political process, as well as reconstruction.
WHO has performed vaccination campaigns in Iraq and has dealt with outbreaks such as cholera and avian influenza. The World Health Organization, one of United Nations' most important agencies, is opening a permanent office in Baghdad, a move t... more -
World Food Crisis - Are Obese People to Blame?
The BBC Reports:
Obese people are contributing to the world food crisis and climate change, experts say.
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine calculated the obese consume 18% more calories than average.
They are also responsible for using more fuel, which has an environmental impact and drives up food prices as transport and agriculture both use oil.
The result is that the poor struggle to afford food and greenhouse gas emissions rise, the Lancet reported.
It comes as the World Health Organization predicts the obese population will double by 2015 to 700m. The BBC Reports: Obese people are contributing to the world food crisis and climate change, experts say. ... more -
Study finds Africans get substandard malaria drugs
Many Africans are getting substandard malaria drugs, with more than a third of the pills tested failing quality tests, according to a report published on Tuesday..antimalarial drugs sold in Africa have failed quality tests.The study of drugs bought in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda shows that 35 per cent contained too little active ingredient or failed to dissolve, rendering them ineffective. Another third of treatments also belonged to a class of drugs that the World Health Organisation (WHO) wants to be banned because they can cause the malaria parasite to develop resistance.The findings suggest that hundreds of thousands of lives are being put at risk and indicate that drug counterfeiting is to blame. Only 40 of 74 manufacturers of artimisinin drugs have agreed to stop making monotherapies, and 42 countries, including 18 in sub-Saharan Africa, still allow these drugs to be sold.The vast majority of malaria deaths occur in Africa, south of the Sahara, where malaria also presents major obstacles to social and economic development. Malaria has been estimated to cost Africa more than US$ 12 billion every year in lost GDP, even though it could be controlled for a fraction of that sum.There are at least 300 million acute cases of malaria each year globally, resulting in more than a million deaths. Around 90% of these deaths occur in Africa, mostly in young children. Malaria is Africa's leading cause of under-five mortality (20%) and constitutes 10% of the continent's overall disease burden. It accounts for 40% of public health expenditure, 30-50% of inpatient admissions, and up to 50% of outpatient visits in areas with high malaria transmissions. Many Africans are getting substandard malaria drugs, with more than a third of the pills tested failing quality tests, according to a ... more
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What's really in the food you eat?
Discovering what's really in the food you eat can be depressing. You've surely heard that Americans eat as much as two pounds of insects per year without knowing it. But that seems pretty benign compared with the other stuff you may be ingesting. Pesticides, rodent droppings, way more fat than you had ever imagined... Fortunately there are web resources to scare you / gross you out / educate you about what you're throwing down the hatch. This new information may not keep you from your favorite greasy spoon — nor should it — but it may help you choose some healthier or more sanitary options for your general snacking and dining. Discovering what's really in the food you eat can be depressing. You've surely heard that Americans eat as much as two pound... more
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Today Is World Water Day...What will you do?
Today, March 22, is World Water Day. The theme for this year is sanitation. Every 15 seconds another child dies in this world from a waterborne disease due to lack of potable water and proper sanitation. This is the most crucial environmental crisis we face along with the climate crisis, and water shortages in many parts of our world due to lack of infrastructure, mismanagement of resources, and now climate change only lend to this crisis.
Please, take time today to do something to take action to save water and call for clean water for the children of our world. I will be sending letters to my Senators today and also sending a message to all of the presidential candidates to stand up for water and to make its conservation and availability and sanitation part of their environmental platforms, and that includes not supporting energy sources that pollute our waterways ( like coal and nuclear.)
Also, take a look at this site: http://www.water.org and consider pledging to give clean water to those in our world who need it. Water is our most precious resource. Water is life.
Thank you Today, March 22, is World Water Day. The theme for this year is sanitation. Every 15 seconds another child dies in this world from a w... more -
Beijing May Green for the Olympics, but Long-Term Forecast Is Gray
BEIJING - Every day, monitoring stations across the city measure air pollution to determine if the skies above this national capital can officially be designated blue. It is not an act of whimsy: with Beijing preparing to play host to the 2008 Olympic Games, the official Blue Sky ratings are the city's own measuring stick for how well it is cleaning up its polluted air.
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This is the tenth in a series of articles and multimedia examining the human toll, global impact and political challenge of China's epic pollution crisis.
Complete coverage: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/12/29/world/asi... BEIJING - Every day, monitoring stations across the city measure air pollution to determine if the skies above this national capital c... more -
As Earth Warms Up, Tropical Virus Moves to Italy
Aided by global warming and globalization, Castiglione di Cervia has the dubious distinction of playing host to the first outbreak in modern Europe of a disease that had previously been seen only in the tropics. Aided by global warming and globalization, Castiglione di Cervia has the dubious distinction of playing host to the first outbreak in ... more
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