MuncangHealth News Update
EU to send radiation measuring devices alongside aid to Japan
Brussels – The European Union’s next aid shipment to Japan will include dosimeters in addition to blankets and mattresses, Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva said Monday, after a trip to the country that underlined the need for the radiation measuring devices.”We left them ours.
Israel to set up field hospital in quake-ravaged area of Japan
Tel Aviv – Israel is opening a field hospital in a village in Japan’s north-eastern Miyagi prefecture, one of the areas worst hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.The hospital is to operate in Kurihara for a month, the Israeli military said Monday.The plane carrying the 50-member Medical Corps team of medical specialists and a cargo plane with 80 tons of equipment landed in Tokyo late Sunday.The rural area saw vast devastation. The closest hospital, a small one, is an hour-and-a half away by car, said an Israeli military statement.”This is not a life saving mission, like that of Haiti,” said Chief Medical Officer, Brigadier Nachman Esh, but the delegation would do important work attending to mostly older farmers living in the area.Although Israel offered aid on the first day of the disaster, it took some time for Japan to accept the offer, on the condition that the delegation function independently, without logistical help from Japanese authorities, who are dealing with many other problems.
African health ministers signal alarm over TB drug resistance
Washington – A trio of Southern African health ministers Tuesday said the world’s efforts to wrestle down tuberculosis were quickly being outstripped by the disease itself as it mutates into ever deadlier forms.”TB is already laughing at us, saying ‘I am just transforming!’,” Mphu Ramatlapeng, minister of health in the tiny kingdom of Lesotho, told the German Press Agency dpa.She noted that “everyone has been absolutely lax” about the fight against the killer disease, an attitude that has helped to allow it to develop into ever more virulent forms of multiple-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and even extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB).The United Nations warned last week that as many as 8 million people would die of tuberculosis worldwide in the coming four years without follow-through on a successful global health strategy to fight the disease.Ramatlapeng joined her colleagues from South Africa and Swaziland – Aaron Motsoaledi and Benedict Xaba – for the annual board meeting of the Stop TB Partnership, held this year in Washington. The programme, which is attached to the World Health Organization, aims to push tuberculosis up the world’s political agenda.Their efforts have been energized by the debut earlier this year of one of the first new anti-TB technologies to emerge in decades – the GeneXpert TB machine, which can diagnose sputum for TB and its drug resistance within 90 minutes
Blame game in Brussels after EU cloned food talks collapse – Summary
Brussels – The European Union’s parliament and secretariat on Tuesday accused each other of failing to compromise, as negotiations over labeling food from the offspring of cloned animals fell apart during more than 11 hours of overnight talks.Blame was also cast on the European Commission, which had mediated between the European Parliament and the EU Council, amid allegations that it had raised concerns over how labeling requirements could affect trade.Products from cloned animals – including sperm used to create offspring – are believed to come mostly from countries outside the EU, such as the United States.”There was a lot of pressure from the US on the commission, we heard,” the parliament’s novel food rapporteur, Kartika Liotard, said.
EU food talks fail on labelling cloned animal products
Brussels – The European Union’s parliament and secretariat on Tuesday accused one another of failing to compromise, as negotiations over labeling food from the offspring of cloned animals fell apart after more than 11 hours of overnight talks.The negotiations between the European Council and the European Parliament, mediated by the European Commission, were part of a wider effort to introduce rules on food from cloned animals, which the EU lacks – in part because the science of cloning is in its infancy.The bloc will now revert back to its 1997 regulation on novel foods, which does not touch upon cloning, since the technology did not exist at the time.”The present situation where there is no control at all on cloning techniques or on clones will be the rule again in Europe,” EU Health Commissioner John Dalli said, describing the breakdown of talks as a “great pity.”"It could have been a situation of a regulatory regime, which I think would have put us in a much better position,” he added.But Dalli was also quick to note that “science is telling us that there is no risk at all on meat from clones.” Answering a question from a reporter, he declared, “I would eat cloned cattle.”Cloned animals themselves are not typically processed for food, because of their high price tag. However, meat and milk from their offspring could be sold in European supermarkets without being identified as such.”The council has exhausted every possibility trying to reach a balanced solution on novel foods, and in particular on the question of food from cloned animals,” the EU Council said in a statement.It blamed the parliament’s “inability to compromise” on a demand that all food derived from the offspring of cloned animals be labelled, suggesting that the measure was not feasible.”The council does not want to mislead consumers by agreeing rules that cannot be enforced,” it said.Instead, the council had suggested to initially only label beef stemming from offspring, two years after the new regulations enter into force.The labelling requirement would then have been extended to all other offspring products, “subject to a commission report on the feasibility.”Dalli pointed to that council proposal when asked by reporters about concerns that the labelling measure could break trade rules. Products from cloned animals come mostly from countries outside the EU, such as the United States.The trade concerns were pounced on by several groups who had supported a ban on cloning.”The commission …
EU novel food talks fail over labeling of cloned animal products
Brussels – The European Union’s parliament and secretariat on Tuesday accused one another of failing to compromise, as negotiations over labeling food stemming from the offspring of cloned animals fell apart during overnight talks.The EU so far has no rules on food from cloned animals, in part because the science of cloning is in its infancy. The bloc will now revert back to its 1997 regulation on novel foods, which doesn’t touch upon cloning, since the technology did not exist at the time.Cloned animals themselves are not typically processed for food, because of their high price tag. However, meat and milk from their offspring could be sold in European supermarkets without being identified as such.”The council has exhausted every possibility trying to reach a balanced solution on novel foods, and in particular on the question of food from cloned animals,” the EU Council said in a statement.It blamed the parliament’s “inability to compromise” on a demand that all food derived from the offspring of cloned animals be labelled, suggesting that the measure was not feasible.Instead, the council had suggested to initially only label beef stemming from offspring, two years after the new regulations enter into force.”The council does not want to mislead consumers by agreeing rules that cannot be enforced,” it said.The parliament, however, complained that the council “would not listen to public opinion.”"We made a huge effort to compromise, but we were not willing to betray customers on their right to know whether food comes from animals bred using clones,” the chair of the parliamentary delegation, Gianni Pittella, and its novel food rapporteur, Kartika Liotard, said in a joint statement.”A commitment to label all food products from cloned offspring is a bare minimum,” they added.
South Korean tests find radioactivity in Japanese food imports
Seoul – South Korean authorities have found traces of radioactive substances in food imported from Japan, but said they posed no danger to human health, media reports said Wednesday.Tests revealed radioactive iodine and caesium in 14 out of 244 products, the Yonhap News Agency reported, citing the Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) in Seoul.The food items were imported between March 19-29.Levels of radioactivity in the 14 food items – including melons, bread, biscuits and vitamins – were still well under the maximum allowed levels.Some of the products were reportedly manufactured before the Fukushima nuclear power plant was damaged by the March 11 magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami that hit north-eastern Japan.For that reason it could not be ruled out that in some cases the radioactivity could be traced back to natural sources, the KFDA said.After the problems at the Japanese reactors low levels of iodine and caesium were discovered in the atmosphere in various parts of South Korea including Seoul.The Korea Institute for Nuclear Safety in Taejon said on Tuesday that the radioactive iodine-131 probably came from the Fukushima plant.But the concentration was so low that there was no danger to the environment or human health.
Southern African ‘A-Team’ takes on TB – Feature
Washington – The health ministers of Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa are rolling up their sleeves to tackle the alarming spread and increasing drug resistance of tuberculosis.They have formed a sort of “A-Team” against TB with the same can- do attitude of the popular television series. And while they shun the sort of undercover approach of Mr T and his gang, they clearly take the fight personally.”TB is already laughing at us, saying ‘I am just transforming!’” Mphu Ramatlapeng, a physician and health minister in the tiny kingdom of Lesotho, said in a lilting, mocking voice.The trio, which spoke to the German Press Agency dpa, was in Washington on Tuesday for the annual board meeting of the Stop TB Partnership.The programme, which is attached to the World Health Organization, aims to push tuberculosis up the world’s political agenda.
UN chief calls for new push against AIDS
Nairobi – United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday called for the world to take bold decisions in the war on AIDS to reach under-threat goals set for 2015 at the launch of a report in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.”World leaders have a unique opportunity at this critical moment to evaluate achievements and gaps in the global AIDS response,” Ban said. “We must take bold decisions that will dramatically transform the AIDS response and help us move towards an HIV-free generation.”The report by UNAIDS, released as the thirtieth anniversary of the recognized start of the AIDS epidemic approaches, said that the global rate of new HIV infections was going down and access to treatment was expanding.However, the report cautioned that for every person beginning antiretroviral treatment, two become infected with HIV – amounting to 7,000 new infections each day, including children.”Thirty years into the epidemic, it is imperative for us to re-energize the response today for success in the years ahead,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe
40,000 women a year from China travel to Hong Kong to give birth
Hong Kong – Hong Kong’s public hospitals are struggling to cope as 40,000 women a year from China cross the border to give birth in the wealthy city, a minister was quoted as saying Wednesday.Health Secretary York Chow said the number of mainland Chinese women giving birth in the city had risen from a few hundred six years ago to nearly half Hong Kong’s 88,000 births in 2010.”It really puts pressure on our obstetrics services and neonatal intensive care units and even maybe pediatric services,” Chow was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post.”This is a real problem we need to tackle,” he said. “… Our basic principle is we have to give priority to local mothers.”Chow did not outline any specific measures to tackle the influx but was expected to meet hospital officials and doctors to discuss the issue, the newspaper said.Heavily pregnant women from China have flooded over the border to give birth in Hong Kong since cross-border travel restrictions were substantially eased in 2003.Babies born in Hong Kong are entitled to residency along with free education and health care in the former British colony, which remains substantially wealthier than neighboring southern China.Maternity fees for mainland Chinese women have been increased to around 5,000 US dollars per birth to try to reduce the influx, but the move has proved to be little of a deterrent.Hong Kong reverted to China sovereignty in 1997 but has a separate financial and judicial system and maintains border controls with mainland China