Haroon Ashraf

Poor nations need more help to slow growing cancer burden

According to WHO 6 million people died from cancer in 2000—the last year for which full results are available. But by 2020 12 million per year will die from the disease according to the latest estimates. International Atomic Energy Agency Director says that US

UK improves access to “morning after pill”

2.5 billion will be needed to provide adequate facilities in developing countries: half to buy machines and half to train physicians and physicists. (excerpt)

Investigations continue as SARS claims more lives

The UK government announced that a postcoital contraceptive levonorgestrel will be available from pharmacies without a doctors prescription allowing it to be sold over-the-counter. The availability of the so-called “morning after pill” has been broadly welcome despite some moral reservations and concerns about how the drug would be dispensed. The government is confident that the provision of emergency hormonal contraception will make an important contribution to the provision of unplanned pregnancy. Meanwhile in the US the American Medical Association (AMA) strongly endorsed efforts to expand access to emergency contraceptive pills. AMA said it would support efforts by manufacturers to obtain over-the-counter approval for emergency contraceptive pills from the Food and Drug Administration.

UN pleads for better reproductive health in poor nations

By April 7, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) had claimed 98 lives with 2601 cases reported from 17 countries, according to WHO. As The Lancet went to press, WHO said that SARS had killed 53 people in China, 23 in Hong Kong, nine in Canada, six in Singapore, four in Vietnam, two in Thailand and one in Malaysia (see commentaries and Fast-Track SARS study on www.thelancet.com) The hardest hit countries remain China, with 1268 confirmed cases, and Hong Kong, with 883 cases. WHO welcomed the Chinese government’s decision to provide daily updates on numbers of cases and deaths nationwide by province. “Chinese officials have announced that SARS is being made a high priority by the government. A system of alert and response for early detection and reporting of all emerging and epidemic-prone diseases is being put in place”, said WHO. Although China has reported several new cases and deaths in the past few days. WHO was particularly alarmed by the death of a 53year-old Finnish staff member of the International Labor Organization (ILO) on April 6 in Beijing. ILO staff were attending an international conference in Beijing. Currently WHO does not know how this staff member contracted SARS. “He had travelled to Beijing via Thailand, where no local transmission has been reported”, said WHO. Meanwhile Hong Kong continued to report the largest number of new cases, which is placing hospitals under considerable strain. However a spokeswoman for the Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority said its hospitals were prepared for 3000 patients with SARS in a worst-case scenario. Hong Kong’s Department of Health said the investigation at the Amoy Gardens estate, where 268 residents were infected, was coming to an end. Health authorities are considering evidence for a oral-faecal route of transmission although no conclusions have been reached. The Department of Health said it had found no evidence of airborne transmission. China faced renewed criticism by WHO’s directorgeneral Gro Harlem Bruntdland for failing to report the initial outbreak in November last year. Meanwhile WHO’s network of 11 laboratories have been working round the clock to develop a diagnostic test. “Three diagnostic tests are now available and all have limitations”, said WHO. ELISA detects antibodies but only from about day 20 after clinical symptoms appear. “It therefore cannot be used . . . at an early stage before they have a chance to spread the infection to others”, said WHO. The immunofluorescence assay detects antibodies reliably from day 10 of infection, but is a demanding and comparatively slow test that requires the growth of virus in cell culture. PCR is useful to detect SARS virus genetic material in the early stages of infection but produces many falsenegative results. Last week WHO stepped up precautions and advised citizens not to travel to countries worst hit by SARS.

Poverty linked to access to water, says new water league table

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) warned in a report published this week that policy makers and world leaders must give more support to reproductive health if poor nations are to meet the health targets set out in the Millennium Development Goals which were agreed by world leaders in 2000. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid UNFPA Executive Director said at the launch of the report in London on Dec 3 that “improving reproductive information and health services is like throwing a lifeline to women but its more than that together with education better health offers women the chance to free themselves and their families from poverty”. (excerpt)

USA spearheads renewed efforts to combat AIDS

A water poverty index (WPI) developed by UK researchers and experts from the World Water Council (Marseille France) which grades 147 countries according to water resources access capacity use and environmental impact found that some of world’s richest nations such as USA and Japan have a poor ranking while some developing nations are listed in the top ten of the index. (excerpt)

International Health Regulations: putting public health on the centre stage

This article presents the renewed efforts made by the US against AIDS. US Vice-President Al Gore claimed a US

Bill Gates throws down gauntlet to medical researchers

150 million investment to help combat the international AIDS pandemic and contribute to international infectious disease control efforts. Likewise, the US will invest another US

WHO takes another step towards polio eradication.

100 million in HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment in Africa and Asia. It was also proposed that the US government would allocate US

Older people must be on the health and development policy agenda

325 million in the 2001 budget for worldwide HIV/AIDS prevention measures. Gore also promised that US