This Week in Medicine
Poverty progress Poverty levels in Latin America are at their lowest in two decades, according to a new report from the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Between 1990 and 2010, the overall poverty rate fell from 48·4% to 31·4%, and extreme poverty from 22·6% to 12·3%. Progress was attributed to increases in wages and public spending.
Martin Rickett/PA Archive/Press Association Images
Childhood sentenced Amnesty International has called on the US Government to ban the issuing of life sentences without parole for people younger than 18 years, and to review the cases of more than 2500 prisoners serving such sentences. The USA and Somalia are the only countries not to have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which expressly forbids such sentencing.
Red light for food labels The Australian Government has rejected the “traffic light” food labelling system, opting instead to work closely with the food industry to find better ways of helping consumers to understand nutritional values. Alcoholic beverage labels warning against consumption while pregnant will be compulsory within 2 years. www.thelancet.com Vol 378 December 10, 2011
Riders for Health/Tom Oldham
Obesity support The US Medicare system has announced that it will cover intensive behavioural counselling for willing participants with a body-mass index of 30 kg/m² or more. The plan, expected to cover more than 30% of the Medicare population, will mean 6 months of in-person therapy, extending to 12 months if the beneficiary has successfully lost 3 kg. Riders for HIV A fund launched by Riders for Health aims to replicate a motorcycle courier scheme piloted in Lesotho for access to quick, reliable HIV testing and treatment in subSaharan Africa. In Lesotho, the transport scheme reduced testing times from weeks to days, leading to a 54% increase in health facilities offering antiretroviral therapy. Action on bowel cancer The UK’s Royal College of Surgeons and the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland have recommended that survival could be increased by earlier detection of bowel cancer, wider use of new techniques, and more consultant time available for emergency bowel surgery. The organisations were responding to the National Bowel Cancer Audit 2011.
Death rates decline Annual mortality figures from South Africa show a decline of nearly 4% between 2008 and 2009. The greatest proportion of deaths occurred in the black population and in those aged 30–34 years. Tuberculosis was the leading natural cause of death, followed by influenza, pneumonia, intestinal infectious diseases, heart disease, and cerebrovascular diseases. HIV discrimination in China Three school teachers in China who claim that they were refused jobs after successful interviews because blood tests revealed them to be HIV positive have submitted a petition to the Beijing Government. Activists claim that departmental regulations contradict national law, which is supposed to protect the employment rights of people with HIV.
Boost for local research A publicprivate partnership has enabled a US$250 000 research centre in Ghana to combat waterborne diseases and malaria. As well as improvement of present antimalarial equipment, expected outcomes include tests able to detect mosquito species and insecticide resistance, along with potential tools to better protect crops from contamination by flies.
Food for gaming The UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Konami Digital have released an online game to raise awareness of the fight against undernutrition. Players of Food Force, available via Facebook, spend virtual money planting, processing, and distributing food, which will help to fund WFP school meals projects in the real world.
Healthy gains The number of children living without health insurance in the USA has dropped by 1 million in the past 3 years, according to a report released by Georgetown University. The improvements were largely put down to increased eligibility via the Affordable Care Act. Florida had the biggest drop in the number of uninsured children, but Minnesota, Kansas, and Wisconsin saw a rise.
Turtle physical wellbeing The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have released a novel for children aged 10–13 years that tackles the subjects of diabetes and healthy living. Aimed mainly at youngsters in indigenous communities, Coyote and the Turtle’s Dream uses human and animal characters to deliver its message, and is available for free from the CDC.
For more on obesity counselling under Medicare see http://www.cms.gov/apps/ media/press/release.asp?Counter =4189&intNumPerPage=10& checkDate=&checkKey=&srch Type=1&numDays=3500&sr For the report on poverty levels in Latin America see http:// www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/ xml/5/45175/2011-819_PSISummary-WEB.pdf For more on the USA and life sentences for young offenders see http://www.amnesty.org/en/ library/asset/AMR51/081/2011/ en/cdde342e-5a70-40ca-bc9339d298d07039/ amr510812011en.pdf For the Australian Government’s decision on food labelling see http://www.health. gov.au/internet/ministers/ publishing.nsf/Content/mr-yr11nr-nr254.htm For more on the Riders for Health fund see http://www. riders.org/n_details. aspx?nwId=381 For the Royal College of Surgeons’ statement on bowel cancer see http://www.rcseng. ac.uk/news/rcs-acpgbistatement-bowel-cancer-auditpoints-to-future-direction-tosave-lives-in-emergency-cases For the study on health insurance coverage in US children see http://ccf. georgetown.edu/index/despiteeconomic-challenges-progresscontinues-children-health For South Africa’s mortality statistics see http://www. statssa.gov.za/publications/ statsdownload. asp?PPN=P0309.3&SCH=5097 For the Food Force online game see http://www.wfp.org/stories/ online-game-food-force-putsplayers-front-lines-hunger For the CDC book about diabetes prevention see http:// www.cdc.gov/diabetes/projects/ coyote_turtledream.htm
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Poverty progress Poverty levels in Latin America are at their lowest in two decades, according to a new report from the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Between 1990 and 2010, the overall poverty rate fell from 48·4% to 31·4%, and extreme poverty from 22·6% to 12·3%. Progress was attributed to increases in wages and public spending.
Martin Rickett/PA Archive/Press Association Images
Childhood sentenced Amnesty International has called on the US Government to ban the issuing of life sentences without parole for people younger than 18 years, and to review the cases of more than 2500 prisoners serving such sentences. The USA and Somalia are the only countries not to have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which expressly forbids such sentencing.
Red light for food labels The Australian Government has rejected the “traffic light” food labelling system, opting instead to work closely with the food industry to find better ways of helping consumers to understand nutritional values. Alcoholic beverage labels warning against consumption while pregnant will be compulsory within 2 years. www.thelancet.com Vol 378 December 10, 2011
Riders for Health/Tom Oldham
Obesity support The US Medicare system has announced that it will cover intensive behavioural counselling for willing participants with a body-mass index of 30 kg/m² or more. The plan, expected to cover more than 30% of the Medicare population, will mean 6 months of in-person therapy, extending to 12 months if the beneficiary has successfully lost 3 kg. Riders for HIV A fund launched by Riders for Health aims to replicate a motorcycle courier scheme piloted in Lesotho for access to quick, reliable HIV testing and treatment in subSaharan Africa. In Lesotho, the transport scheme reduced testing times from weeks to days, leading to a 54% increase in health facilities offering antiretroviral therapy. Action on bowel cancer The UK’s Royal College of Surgeons and the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland have recommended that survival could be increased by earlier detection of bowel cancer, wider use of new techniques, and more consultant time available for emergency bowel surgery. The organisations were responding to the National Bowel Cancer Audit 2011.
Death rates decline Annual mortality figures from South Africa show a decline of nearly 4% between 2008 and 2009. The greatest proportion of deaths occurred in the black population and in those aged 30–34 years. Tuberculosis was the leading natural cause of death, followed by influenza, pneumonia, intestinal infectious diseases, heart disease, and cerebrovascular diseases. HIV discrimination in China Three school teachers in China who claim that they were refused jobs after successful interviews because blood tests revealed them to be HIV positive have submitted a petition to the Beijing Government. Activists claim that departmental regulations contradict national law, which is supposed to protect the employment rights of people with HIV.
Boost for local research A publicprivate partnership has enabled a US$250 000 research centre in Ghana to combat waterborne diseases and malaria. As well as improvement of present antimalarial equipment, expected outcomes include tests able to detect mosquito species and insecticide resistance, along with potential tools to better protect crops from contamination by flies.
Food for gaming The UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Konami Digital have released an online game to raise awareness of the fight against undernutrition. Players of Food Force, available via Facebook, spend virtual money planting, processing, and distributing food, which will help to fund WFP school meals projects in the real world.
Healthy gains The number of children living without health insurance in the USA has dropped by 1 million in the past 3 years, according to a report released by Georgetown University. The improvements were largely put down to increased eligibility via the Affordable Care Act. Florida had the biggest drop in the number of uninsured children, but Minnesota, Kansas, and Wisconsin saw a rise.
Turtle physical wellbeing The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have released a novel for children aged 10–13 years that tackles the subjects of diabetes and healthy living. Aimed mainly at youngsters in indigenous communities, Coyote and the Turtle’s Dream uses human and animal characters to deliver its message, and is available for free from the CDC.
For more on obesity counselling under Medicare see http://www.cms.gov/apps/ media/press/release.asp?Counter =4189&intNumPerPage=10& checkDate=&checkKey=&srch Type=1&numDays=3500&sr For the report on poverty levels in Latin America see http:// www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/ xml/5/45175/2011-819_PSISummary-WEB.pdf For more on the USA and life sentences for young offenders see http://www.amnesty.org/en/ library/asset/AMR51/081/2011/ en/cdde342e-5a70-40ca-bc9339d298d07039/ amr510812011en.pdf For the Australian Government’s decision on food labelling see http://www.health. gov.au/internet/ministers/ publishing.nsf/Content/mr-yr11nr-nr254.htm For more on the Riders for Health fund see http://www. riders.org/n_details. aspx?nwId=381 For the Royal College of Surgeons’ statement on bowel cancer see http://www.rcseng. ac.uk/news/rcs-acpgbistatement-bowel-cancer-auditpoints-to-future-direction-tosave-lives-in-emergency-cases For the study on health insurance coverage in US children see http://ccf. georgetown.edu/index/despiteeconomic-challenges-progresscontinues-children-health For South Africa’s mortality statistics see http://www. statssa.gov.za/publications/ statsdownload. asp?PPN=P0309.3&SCH=5097 For the Food Force online game see http://www.wfp.org/stories/ online-game-food-force-putsplayers-front-lines-hunger For the CDC book about diabetes prevention see http:// www.cdc.gov/diabetes/projects/ coyote_turtledream.htm
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