Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
News outlets explored the health implications of natural disasters in Indonesia, the Philippines, Tonga, Samoa and India:
- Almost a week after Indonesia was struck by a "devastating earthquake," health workers sprayed the city of Padang with "disinfectant" in an effort to prevent disease outbreaks, Reuters reports (Ahmad/Creagh, 10/6).
International search and rescue crews have stopped actively searching for survivors because the possibility of finding anyone alive at this point is too remote, the New York Times reports. "Ade Edward, director of West Sumatra’s center for disaster management, called an official end to the rescue efforts Tuesday, saying it was standard practice in any disaster after six days," the newspaper writes.
For those who did survive the earthquake, the U.S. has "opened a large field hospital …in the parking lot of Padang’s main hospital, which, after parts of the hospital collapsed following the quake, remains unable to provide many basic medical services" (Gelling, 10/6). According to the Jakarta Post, the emergency hospital can handle about 400 patients per day, the U.S. embassy said (10/6). Although substantial aid has been sent to Indonesia, "the scale of the disaster, heavy rains and road damage means relief aid is trickling in to survivors," Reuters writes. "Peter Guest, deputy country director for the World Food Programme [WFP] in Indonesia, said WFP was distributing fortified biscuits in the area," the news service reports (10/6).
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Inquirer.net examines Typhoon Ondoy's effect on health facilities in the Philippines. "At least 15 major government hospitals and a health-related institution sustained damage estimated" at about $14 million, the publication reports (Pazzibugan, 10/6).
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ABC's Radio Australia interviews Wame Baralivala, a reproductive health adviser for the U.N. Population Fund in Fiji, about how the U.N. is responding to the needs of women in Samoa and Tonga after the recent tsunami.
- Indian authorities are dealing with major flooding that has killed about 250 people, Australia's ABC News reports. "In a dramatic and cruel turnaround, some of these areas had been enduring the worst drought in 40 years and now are experiencing the worst flood levels in more than a century so they have gone from one to another very, very quickly," ABC News writes (Sara, 10/6). According to the BBC, officials estimate that billions of dollars will be needed for relief and reconstruction efforts. "Health officials said measures were being taken to prevent the outbreak of water-borne diseases in the affected areas," the BBC writes (10/5).
The number of H1N1 (swine flu) cases reported in WHO regions worldwide has grown by at least 24,000 in two weeks to cross the 340,000 mark since the virus was first detected in mid-April, the CDC reported Monday, according to Agence France-Presse.
The agency also said there have been 191 deaths since September 20 -- "a marked slow-down from last month, when the WHO reported nearly 500 additional deaths from swine flu in the space of a week" – to bring the total deaths from H1N1 to more than 4,100.
The increase in the number of new cases was "only the tip of the A(H1N1) pandemic iceberg," the news service reports. "Many countries focus surveillance and laboratory testing only on people with severe illness," according to the CDC (10/5).
The Herald examines the limited capacity of clinics in Zimbabwe to test patients for H1N1. According to the WHO, Zimbabwe will need $12 million in order to effectively fight the virus (Chipunza, 10/5).
Meanwhile, Cuban health officials on Monday requested the WHO and PAHO assist the country in accessing the H1N1 vaccine, AFP reports in a second story. "The new vaccine against the A(H1N1) virus, which has begun being administered in more developed countries, is highly effective, but also very expensive," Health Minister Luis Estruch said (10/5).
Business Day examines efforts currently underway in Africa to bolster the continent's ability to develop new drugs and diagnostics.
Though "Africa bears the greatest burden of the world's diseases, and while there have been a handful of African successes in developing diagnostic tests, the continent has yet to commercialise any new medicines of its own," the newspaper writes (Kahn, 10/6).
Africa's commitment to future drug development takes center stage at a meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, this week of the African Network for Drug and Diagnostics Innovation, where the group will discuss "plans for the first African-owned and -managed innovation fund to finance drugs and diagnostics research," Independent Online reports.
The plan calls "for a R4.4 billion [$590 million] endowment fund in Africa that would generate a sustainable income of up to $30 million (about R230m) a year to support African drug and diagnostic innovation," the news service writes, adding that the African Development Bank is being looked at as a possible funding source for the project.
During an address to the delegates, South African Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor expressed optimism that South Africa would become a leader in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals: "As a government we have committed ourselves to the establishment of the necessary initiatives and infrastructure that will assist in the drug-development value chain." She added, "This includes medicinal chemistry, preclinical testing facilities and capabilities, and the manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients" (Meyer, 10/5).
Reuters examines how floods, droughts and rising temperatures, thought to be caused by climate change, are compromising African farm lands and leading to health problems for already vulnerable populations – a topic discussed at the "first pan-African climate hearings."
According to the news service, poor crop yields have led women, who once harvested the fields, to turn to prostitution in order to fight poverty and hunger, increasing their risk of HIV/AIDS. "Besides AIDS, which has already killed more than 800,000 people in Malawi since 1985 and left more than one million orphans, experts fear an increase in diseases such as malaria and cholera should temperatures rise," Reuters writes.
The stories from the preliminary climate hearings will be presented later this year during climate talks in Copenhagen, "where Western countries and poorer nations are expected to adopt new carbon emission targets to curb global warming," the news service writes. "Africa, the world's poorest continent mainly dependent on subsistence agriculture, is expected to bear the brunt of unpredictable weather patterns that could ruin crops, entrenching poverty and malnourishment" (Roelf, 10/5).
Inter Press Service reports on a discussion among health experts at the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics' (FIGO) 19th World Congress of Gynecology and Obstetrics in Cape Town, South Africa, about maternal mortality rates in Africa. More than 2,000 gynecologists, obstetricians and other health workers are attending the conference, which runs from Oct. 4-9.
"We can unfortunately say that the overall situation in sub-Saharan Africa with regards to maternal health has not improved," she said. "Of the 529,000 maternal deaths world wide that die each year during pregnancy and child labour, half lived in sub-Saharan Africa," Dorothy Shaw, FIGO's president, said.
FIGO launched its 2009 world report on women's health at the conference. Health workers also discussed the factors that contribute to the continent's high maternal mortality rate. Pregnancy- and labor-related injuries that do not result in death were also highlighted (Mannak, 10/5).
Developing countries Monday at a meeting in Istanbul said they should get larger percentages of the vote at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Associated Press reports.
Finance ministers from Brazil, India, Indonesia, Russia and Venezuela "said the credibility of the bank, which assists developing countries, would erode unless countries have a voice consistent with their weight in the global economy," the news service writes. At the recent G20 meeting in Pittsburgh, "leaders agreed to redistribute at least 3 percent of voting power in the World Bank, and 5 percent in the IMF" (Torchia, 10/6).
VOA News reports that the World Bank and IMF development committee "announced that an agreement had been reached on the first step to redistributing power in the World Bank in favor of emerging markets" (Jones, 10/5).
After a recent trip to Africa, "to see firsthand the region's fight against malaria," Tachi Yamada, the president of the Global Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, writes in a CNN opinion piece that a visit to a pediatric hospital ward in Zanzibar that did not have "a single patient" was the "single most memorable image of the trip."
Yamada discusses some of the foundation's work to combat malaria, highlighting the project in Zambia, where the malaria incidence "declined by more than 50 percent, and child mortality from all causes, including malaria, declined by 30 percent" because of the use of proven interventions, including insecticide spraying, bed net distribution and others. He writes, "Zambia, Zanzibar, and other success stories provide a beacon of hope for the dream of a world free of malaria, articulated by Bill and Melinda Gates in 2007 when they put out a call to eradicate the disease."
Several "outspoken" voices "question the value and true impact of development assistance," Yamada writes. However, malaria proves that "political will, advice on planning, funds to purchase sound, scientifically validated tools, and the courage to measure results objectively," along with "development assistance can have an enormous impact in a short period of time," according to Yamada.
"Where have all the patients gone? Home, where they can live happier, healthier lives. Let them be the retort to the skeptics of development assistance," he concludes (Yamada, 10/5).
U.S. Government Adjusts Aid Terms To Groups Seeking Humanitarian Grants In Somalia
The U.S. State and Treasury departments together with USAID have reached an agreement that will allow several aid agencies in Somalia to receive humanitarian grants upon meeting several conditions, "unlock[ing] millions of dollars in relief resources that had been on hold due to US anti-terrorism rules," IRIN reports. According to the U.N., Somalia is currently "facing its worst humanitarian crisis in 18 years," with "an estimated 3.8 million," or nearly half the total population, in need of aid (10/6).
Nigerian Government Tries To Negotiate Health Workers Away From Strike
The Nigerian government continues to "mak[e] frantic efforts" to avoid a health workers strike, scheduled to being Tuesday, which they say could endanger the lives of Nigerians caught in the crossfire, the Daily Trust reports. Health Minister Professor Babatunde Osotimehin on Tuesday expressed optimism that through ongoing negotiations between the government and union health worker, the strike would be avoided (Rabiu, 10/6).
PlusNews/IRIN Examines Swaziland's Plan To Increase Services For Male Circumcision
PlusNews/IRIN examines an effort currently under way in Swaziland "to provide circumcision to 80 percent of men aged 15 to 24 in the next five years" in an attempt to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS. Through a project supported by PEPFAR and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, health officials from Swaziland's Ministry of Health and Human Services are working to educate the public about circumcision and making services for the procedure more readily available (10/5).
PEPFAR Commits $285M To Uganda
Amid recent concerns that drug shortages in Uganda were leaving HIV-positive patients without treatments, the Daily Monitor reports PEPFAR has committed $285 million to help support HIV/AIDS patients in need of care. "PEPFAR currently serves at least 150,000 people with antiretroviral care," according to the newspaper (Ngatya/Kemigisha, 10/6).
The Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report is published by the Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2010 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.