Putting patients at the centre of asthma management

Babs Verblackt, CNS Correspondent, Belgium
For the past few years ‘You Can Control Your Asthma’ has been the recurrent theme of the annual World Asthma Day, celebrated annually on the 1st Tuesday of May. Though therapies are available, controlling their disease often remains a personal struggle for asthma patients worldwide. Their voices should be heard in any research and development of new ways to beat the chronic condition, feel international asthma organizations.

More lung cancer awareness among women needed

Babs Verblackt, CNS Special Correspondent, Belgium
While cancer in women often gets associated with breast cancer, there is an equal threat of lung cancer. In fact, in Europe death rates from lung cancer are expected to exceed those for breast cancer among women for the first time this year (2015). Public awareness remains low and should be improved, lung cancer organisations stress.

Access to health services for everyone, everywhere!

Babs Verblackt, CNS Special Correspondent, Belgium
Achieving access to health services for all citizens remains challenging for many countries. Yet to fragile and transitional states it often is an even more complex issue. Still universal health coverage is an attainable goal that needs involvement of all essential parties - including local communities.

TB control in times of trouble

Babs Verblackt, CNS Special Correspondent

Photo credit: CNS: citizen-news.org

Challenging enough already, TB control gets even more complicated in times of conflict. Anything from social unrest to civil war can disrupt basic TB services, affecting groups at special risk of the infectious disease. Because of fear and chaos, reaching and engaging communities becomes increasingly difficult in conflict situations--though not impossible.

Giving voice to the voiceless: engaging community

Babs Verblackt, CNS Special Correspondent
Community engagement is a critical component in reducing stigma, raising awareness, and facilitating access to services for people living with HIV (PLHIV) and TB. From disease control and reaching health services to decision making and drug development--in every element of combating these diseases affected communities should have their say. Several initiatives around the globe are making efforts to ensure that weak voices are not only getting stronger but are also getting heard.

Stepping up development of child-friendly TB drugs

Babs Verblackt, CNS Special Correspondent
The development of drugs for pediatric TB is still in its infancy. But important steps are being made towards formulations that are more child-friendly. Now is the time to go the extra mile, bringing medicines to the market that serve those traditionally neglected in TB research: children suffering from the infectious disease. Pediatric TB is one of the main causes of death in children worldwide.

Care for counselling, counselling for care

Babs Verblackt, CNS Special Correspondent
TB patients more often than not struggle to understand their diagnosis and their medication regimen. At the same time they are dealing with fear, doubts and despair over their disease. Yet little attention is given to these issues in TB treatment. Patient counselling is key to TB treatment and care and should get better implemented, felt the experts at the ongoing 45th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Barcelona. Psychological support has been shown to improve treatment adherence and outcomes, yet TB programmes underemphasize patient counselling.

m-Health helping in TB control

Babs Verblackt, CNS Special Correspondent

Photo credit: Babs Verblackt/CNS

Getting diagnosed, getting treatment and adherence to treatment are all well known challenges in TB care and control. In this age of information technology, mobile phone devices around the world are being used to help address these challenges. From SMS alerts for patients to fully integrated systems, the possibilities for incorporating m-Health in TB treatment, care and control seem endless, as several presentations at the 45th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Barcelona showed.

Presumptive TB treatment for people living with HIV: better safe than sorry?

Babs Verblackt, CNS Special Correspondent

Photo credit: Babs Verblackt/CNS

As tuberculosis (TB) remains a major cause of death among people living with HIV (PLHIV), starting TB treatment without bacteriological confirmation is widely practiced in them as in the case of PLHIV traditional TB diagnostic tests have inadequate sensitivity. But this empirical or presumptive TB treatment is not without risks. At the 45th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Barcelona researchers discussed their investigations into who should get the treatment, and when and how.

TB-Diabetes: "An issue relevant all over"

Babs Verblackt, CNS Special Correspondent
The international action against the looming co-epidemic of diabetes and TB should speed up, avoiding a slow response like the one that had happened to the other co-epidemic of TB and HIV years ago. Dr. Anil Kapur, member of the Board of Directors  of the World Diabetes Foundation, explains why - and elaborates on the double burden of diabetes and TB in an exclusive interview with Citizen News Service (CNS).

Call to action to halt the looming TB-diabetes co-epidemic

Babs Verblackt, CNS Special Correspondent

Dr Anthony Harries, The Union (L),
Dr Anil Kapur, WDF (R)

It is time to act and no time to waste. That is the urgent message of the report "The Looming Co-epidemic of TB-Diabetes: A Call to Action" launched jointly by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) and the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF) at the opening day of the 45th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Barcelona. The report warns against the brewing storm of diabetes and tuberculosis (TB) that is no longer confined to the teacup.

Humid houses pose health hazards

Babs Verblackt, CNS Correspondent
Indoor air quality concerns more than just the fumes and smoke in the house. Dampness and mould pose health risks too, especially for people living with asthma. Researchers warn that people's living habits and the new energy efficient technology used to revamp old houses might actually give indoor damp and mould more room to rise. The need for adequate heating, ventilation and home maintenance remains crucial for ones lung health.

Advancements in TB control threatened by diabetes

Babs Verblackt, CNS Correspondent, Belgium
Progress made in tuberculosis control is at risk of being undermined by the rapid rise of diabetes in regions where both diseases are prevalent, experts warn. Patients living with diabetes are especially vulnerable to catching the lung disease. Improved care and increased efforts to diagnose and treat both diseases are urgently needed.

Optimism in AIDS vaccine research

While the world knows several ways of preventing transmission of HIV, a safe and effective vaccine is still lacking on the list. For years researchers around the world have been working on the development of such a vaccine in a challenging, step by step process. But they have reason for optimism. During this year's AIDS Vaccine 2011 conference (Bangkok, September 12-15) more than 400 new studies outlining advances in the search for an AIDS vaccine were presented. Most highlighted, however, was a further analysis of the so-called RV144 trial - the largest AIDS vaccine trial ever conducted (involving more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand) and the first trial to demonstrate that a vaccine can protect against HIV infection.

Thailand needs stronger enforcement of anti-tobacco laws

Thailand has enacted strong anti-tobacco laws, yet enforcement of these laws remains a challenge. Smoking is legally banned in workplaces and in public in Thailand. But poor law enforcement still remains a major problem.  On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day (May 31) this year, experts felt that not only politicians, but every individual, can contribute to improving the situation.

Better awareness and treatment compliance needed in Thai diabetes control

Diabetes control in Thailand is improving, but better awareness and patients’ treatment compliance is needed to fully tackle the health issues. So says Professor Wannee Nitiyanant, vice president of the Diabetes Association of Thailand under the Patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sinrindhorn in reaction to a recently published international study. The study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington showed that millions of people worldwide may be at risk of early death from diabetes and related cardiovascular illnesses because of poor diagnosis and ineffective treatment. 

Long road ahead for Asian women workers' struggle for equality

Lucia Victor Jayaseelan
Executive Coordinator, CAW

International Women's Day, 8th March
While much achievement has been made in the past decades, women workers across Asia still struggle for more rights and equality. They need to find more ways to make their voices heard, such as engaging in politics, speakers at a seminar in Bangkok said in the run up to International Women's Day (March 8). "Women found their voices. Power must come from within," Jurgette Honculada of the Committee for Asian Women (CAW) said about the gains made in Asia. But obstacles in gaining rights remain, she emphasized, 'from companies, state and men in our lives'. "Politics is the name of the game. Women should not simply wait for the crumbs falling from the table of the master, but try to take their place at the table of decision making," Honculada said, stressing that if something is not written in a law 'it is here today, gone tomorrow'.

Dialogue on legal barriers obstructing HIV response in Asia-Pacific

Mandeep Dhaliwal - UNDP

In Asia and the Pacific, as well as worldwide, laws and practices continue to often seriously hamper the progress made in HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support. Some 150 participants from 22 countries from across the region gathered in Bangkok last week to discuss the issue. "In the Asia-Pacific region, and across the world, there are too many examples of countries with laws, policies and practices that punish, rather than protect, people in need of HIV services. Where the law doesn't advance justice, it stalls progress," said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), who joined the regional dialogue.

Winning project pictures life with Tuberculosis

The TB Photovoice Project, the winner of the 2010 TB Survival Prize, started as a one man's way to deal with the loss of his beloved ones to tuberculosis (TB). By now, it is touching the lives of many people around the world, helping – through pictures and narratives – to empower and raise the voices of persons and communities affected by the disease. Read more

Book and video tell stories of TB in Thailand

Inspiring stories, both on paper and film, have recently been published to address the issue of tuberculosis (TB) in Thailand. The TB/HIV Research Foundation bundled the memories of volunteers working with people affected by TB in a book, and made a video to enhance treatment adherence among people living with TB. Read more.