Global Notebook

theeconomist: Daily chart: who’s arming the developing...

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 09:58:33 -0400

Daily chart: who’s arming the developing world? Arms deliveries to developing countries last year were the highest since 2004, totalling $28 billion, or around 60% of global sales. America and Russia, the world’s leading arms suppliers, accounted for around two-thirds of the deliveries.

inothernews: A Malian refugee pulls a container of water at...

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 17:41:07 -0400

inothernews:

A Malian refugee pulls a container of water at the Mbere refugee camp on May 3, near Bassiknou, southern Mauritania, near the border with Mali; fighting there has left more than 60,000 people internally displaced, and a similar number have fled to Mauritania and neighboring countries. Camp Mbere receives an average of 1,000 refugees per day: in mid-April the camp population was over 55,000, of which more than half were children. (Photo: Abdelhak Senna / AFP - Getty Images via MSNBC)

Canadian health providers protest cuts to refugee health

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 14:21:46 -0400

Carlos Osorio/Toronto Star

Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, has tabled sweeping changes to the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP), which provides health insurance for refugees who arrive in Canada. At present the IFHP provides medical coverage to refugees and refugee claimants that is similar to that provided by provincial health coverage plans. The changes would mean that refugees and refugee claimants would be denied access to essential medical coverage and preventive care. An excellent breakdown of the details of the changes can be found here.

Health providers and numerous organizations across the country have voiced their opposition to the cuts to refugee healthcare. On May 11^th Canadian physicians protested at the office of Mp Joe Oliver in a bid to draw attention to the impending cuts. Major healthcare providers, including the Canadian Medical Association and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada have written an open letter to Jason Kenney highlighting the deleterious effects of the changes and asking him to rescind this decision. The Wellesley Institute conducted a Health Equity Impact Assessment (HEIA) of the proposed changes to the IFPH which concluded that the negative health impacts of the planned changes to the IFHP will be severe and inequitable. Women and children will be at particular risk of adverse consequences. Ontario nurses have even said that people may end up losing their life due to the loss of coverage

Dr. Philip Berger, head of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital called the changes inhumane. To illustrate his point he cited the example of one of the reforms which says that persons from countries deemed to be ‘safe’ (called Designated Countries of Origin) will not receive coverage for heart attacks. Health providers have stressed that a lack of primary and preventive care will lead to people reaching emergency rooms sicker and potentially posing a greater public health hazard. By increasing costs for hospital emergency departments and by extension the provincial government, these cuts threaten to affect the health care access of all Canadians.

June 18 has been declared a national day of protest against the cuts to refugee healthcare.

Societies are judged by how they treat their most vulnerable. Refugees are some of the most traumatize members of our communities. Targeting them in such a narrow-minded way does not represent what Canada should be standing for.

doctorswithoutborders: Haiti Unprepared in the Face of...

Sat, 12 May 2012 11:21:46 -0400

doctorswithoutborders:

Haiti Unprepared in the Face of Resurgent Cholera

Cholera cases are on the rise in Haiti following the onset of the rainy season, and the country is not adequately prepared to combat the deadly disease, the international medical humanitarian organization MSF said today.

“Too little has been done in terms of prevention to think that cholera would not surge again in 2012,” said Gaëtan Drossart, MSF head of mission in Haiti. “It is concerning that the health authorities are not better prepared and that they cling to reassuring messages that bear no resemblance to reality. There are many meetings going on between the government, the United Nations and their humanitarian partners, but there are few concrete solutions,” he said.

Photo: Patients affected by cholera receive treatment at an MSF cholera treatment center in Port-au-Prince. Haiti 2011 © Frederik Matte/MSF

Update on cholera in the DRC

Wed, 02 May 2012 12:11:35 -0400

Since the cholera epidemic began the Democratic Republic of Congo in June 2011, 30,000 people have fallen sick and 700 have died due to the illness. The capital, Kinshasa, as well as four other provinces are currently experiencing the outbreak.

More information on the outbreak can be found here.

doctorswithoutborders: Dadaab Briefing Paper: Back to Square...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:29:07 -0500

doctorswithoutborders:

Dadaab Briefing Paper: Back to Square One

In the Dadaab camps of northerastern Kenya, which collectively form the largest refugee camp in the world, life is becoming more difficult every day and hundreds of thousands of refugees are facing a humanitarian emergency. Their health is at risk of deteriorating rapidly but humanitarian aid agencies are struggling to provide meaningful assistance on an ongoing basis.

The relocation of families to the newly opened camps of Ifo 2 West and Ifo 2 East continues, but work to ensure sufficient services has been slow to restart. Today, a limited number of people remain on the outskirts of the camps in so-called “self-settled areas,” where living conditions are still extremely poor. Such conditions have profound consequences for the health of these refugees, as confirmed in a detailed survey conducted by MSF’s epidemiological branch, Epicentre, in September 2011. The health situation in Dadaab is alarming, with recent outbreaks of measles, acute watery diarrhea, and cholera.

MSF continues to run its hospital and four health posts in Dadaab’s Dagahaley camp. At the height of the emergency, from October 2011 to January 2012, the 300-bed hospital in Dagahaley was operating beyond its capacity, reaching a peak of more than 350 patients in the first week of January. Today the situation has improved and medical activities have been restored in Ifo 2 [Somali refugee camp]. However, the number of severely malnourished children requiring hospitalization is still high compared to the same period last year, with nearly 100 children being admitted to the intensive therapeutic feeding center every week.

MSF is constantly adapting to the exceptionally difficult humanitarian and security challenges in the camps. Despite limited international presence in the camp due to security concerns, MSF staff are still providing high quality medical care.

Photo:Kenya 2011 © Brendan Bannon - Somali refugees settle at the edge of Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp.

A tumultuous city of more than 16 million people, Delhi recently...

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:01:23 -0500

A tumultuous city of more than 16 million people, Delhi recently celebrated 100 years as the capital of India. Dilli traces the contours of this rapidly expanding megalopolis through the eyes of the people that populate its slums and shanty towns.

Implications of peak oil on public health

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 18:37:32 -0400

Implications of peak oil on public health:

EpiAnalysis has put up a fascinating post considering how a drop in petroleum production will effect public health programs and hospitals. It mentions a few points that are not usually considered. For instance, a huge amount of plastic is used in hospitals, from IV lines to containers for blood samples. In fact, 46% of hospital wastes are plastics and most of them come from petroleum.

Doctors raise alarm over amount of radiation released from Fukushima disaster, warn of health consequences

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 09:00:00 -0400

Doctors raise alarm over amount of radiation released from Fukushima disaster, warn of health consequences:

Dahr Jamail reports that doctors in Japan are increasing concerned about the amount of radiation released from the Fukushima nuclear reactor and the Japanese government’s response to the ongoing nuclear disaster.

Fallout from Fukushima worse than previously thought

Radiation found in thyroid glands of Japanese children

Cholera outbreak in Congo spreading along river

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 17:52:00 -0400

Source: http://www.mgroupww.com/default2.asp?active_page_id=941

A cholera outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 279 people and infected more than 4000 more, say UNICEF officials. The outbreak started in the town of Kisangani in the Orientale province in March of this year and has continued to spread along the Congo River. In this largely roadless region of central Africa, the river is an important transport artery. The outbreak has spread to the provinces of Bandundu, Equateur and Kinshasa and has reached the capital city of Kinshasa. The neighbouring Republic of Congo has also reported that six people have been killed by cholera. The WHO has warned that there is a high risk of the epidemic moving further along the river. There is particular concern regarding the presence of the disease in Kinshasa, a city of 8 million people where factors that facilitate the spread of the cholera – such as poor sanitation and lack of clean water- are present.

Although cholera is endemic to Eastern parts of Congo, it has been more than a decade since Western Congo experienced an outbreak. Aid agencies are concerned that the relative rarity of cholera in the West may make it harder for locals to recognize and assist those who are ill. An information campaign is underway, with local radio stations running frequent messages regarding symptoms of and appropriate responses to the disease. The UN has released $4 million from its Central Emergency Fund to assist the WHO and UNICEF in managing the outbreak.

Cholera is an acute diarrheal disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae which can be introduced into the host via contaminated food or water. Approximately 10 percent of people exposed to contaminated water will develop cholera. However, the disease is particularly serious for young children, the elderly, the malnourished and those who have compromised immune function. It causes copious, watery diarrhoea that can rapidly dehydrate an individual. Without adequate rehydration, the disease can result in shock and death. The standard treatment for cholera is replacement of fluid and salt via an oral rehydration solution.

Cholera is often characterized as a disease of poverty. The WHO calls cholera one of the key indicators of social development. Typically, the world’s most underprivileged populations lack reliable sources of clean water and appropriate public sanitation systems, increasing their susceptibility to the disease.

Anxiety disorders increasingly prevalent among children in Occupied Palestinian Territories

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:55:17 -0400

“Childhood under Fire” - An exhibition of Gaza children’s drawings. Photo: Kobi Wolf. Physicians for Human Rights http://flic.kr/p/7x7Gho

An increasing number of children in the Occupied Palestinian territories are being diagnosed with anxiety disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Palestinian NGOs that work on mental health issues. Click on the picture to read the full news release.

Human Rights Watch releases report on attacks on medical personnel in Bahrain

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 08:43:00 -0400

Human Rights Watch releases report on attacks on medical personnel in Bahrain:

Click on image to read full report

Doctors Without Borders: Malnutrition among arrivals at Dadaab refugee camp

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 08:35:52 -0400

Doctors Without Borders: Malnutrition among arrivals at Dadaab refugee camp:

doctorswithoutborders:

In an assessment on the outskirts of one of Dadaab’s camp sites, MSF teams found extremely high malnutrition rates among new arrivals, including:

37.7 percent rate of global acute malnutrition

17.5 percent rate of severe acute malnutrition

43.3 percent of children aged five to 10 were…

In this Fault Lines report Zeina Awad explores the practice of...

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 09:50:02 -0400

In this Fault Lines report Zeina Awad explores the practice of conducting clinical trials in developing countries and the recent boom in such trials in India.

A report from the Dadaab refugee camp by Al Jazeera’s...

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 09:41:57 -0400

A report from the Dadaab refugee camp by Al Jazeera’s Nazanine Moshiri

The largest refugee camp in the world continues to get bigger

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:16:32 -0400

As the drought affecting East Africa forces more people to take to the road, many of them are making their way to the refugee camp of Dadaab in Kenya. Dadaab, which is actually comprised of three separate camps, Dagahaley, Hagadera and Ifo, is the largest refugee camp in the world. Established in 1992 in northeastern Kenya to house refugees escaping the civil war in Somalia, Dadaab was meant to accommodate up to 90,000 people. There are now more than 350,000 people packed into the camp, with new arrivals continuing to pour in each day. With nearly 1400 people arriving at the camp daily, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) estimates that the camp’s population will increase to 450,000 by the end of this year.

Many of the newcomers arriving at Dadaab have walked for days and are dehydrated and malnourished. 80 percent of new arrivals are women and children. According to MSF it takes approximately 12 days for newly arrived refugees to receive their first ration of food. As the camp’s population surges, the provision of essential services such as healthcare, water and sanitation is becoming increasingly challenging. UNHCR figures indicate that mortality among children under five at the camp has trebled in the last few months.

Life for the residents of the camp is difficult and prospects are bleak. The Kenyan government does not honour any of the rights of refugees laid out in the UN’s 1951 convention on refugees. The camp’s residents are physically confined within the camp and face fines, detention and forcible repatriation if caught outside without permits. This leaves refugees with little hope of ever finding employment or integrating into Kenyan society.

Number of clinical trials in developing countries increasing while ethical guidelines lag

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 08:58:40 -0400

Iraq's health system in shambles as thousands of doctors leave the country

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 12:47:14 -0400

Iraq's health system in shambles as thousands of doctors leave the country :

Dahr Jamail’s article outlines how a lack of security and entrenched corruption make it very difficult to provide medical services to the population of Iraq.

Drought results in pre-famine conditions in Horn of Africa

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 11:12:39 -0400

The Horn of Africa is in the midst of the worst drought in 60 years, with parts of Kenya and Somalia experiencing pre-famine conditions, the United Nations warns. Nearly 10 million people are now affected

A displaced Somali woman awaits humanitarian assistance from local residents in southern Mogadishu, Somalia. Photograph: Mustafa Abdi/AFP/Getty Images

Scarlet fever outbreak in Hong Kong

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 10:37:13 -0400

Scarlet fever has claimed the lives of two children in Honk Kong. The total number of cases of the disease in Honk Kong now stands at 466, more than three times the figure reported in 2010. Honk Kong authorities have declared an outbreak.

Scarlet fever is caused by the group A Streptococcus bacteria. Cases of scarlet fever occur in the region every year but this year the number of cases has been significantly higher. Scientists in Honk Kong say that a unique gene fragment in the bacteria’s genome may make it more contagious.

The CDC has also reported that there have been 21,269 cases of scarlet fever in China this year. An advisory has been issued by the CDC to Americans travelling to Honk Kong and China.