CNS: Articles of Carolyn Kavita Tauro

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Stop illicit trade of tobacco products

Carolyn Kavita Tauro, CNS Special Correspondent

Tobacco kills 6 million people annually of whom more than 600,000 are non-smokers dying from passive smoking. More than 80% of these preventable deaths in the future will be among people living in low-and middle-income countries. According to 5th edition of The Tobacco Atlas 2015, compared to other higher tobacco consumers, India has 106 million (>20%) adult males smoking daily (2013). India and China have 12.2 million daily females smokers, second only to US, which has 17.7 million.

Carolyn Kavita Tauro, CNS Correspondent
The 68th World Health Assembly (WHA) held over the past week, from 18th May to 26th May, at Geneva was declared closed last night by the Indian Minister of Health, Mr. Jagat Prakash Nadda, elected President of the Assembly this year. Mr. Nadda said: “We need to think locally before we act globally. We must find out the strengths and weaknesses of each country; find out what gaps remain and then strategize accordingly.”

Why is counseling important in TB treatment?

Dr Carolyn Kavita Tauro, CNS Correspondent, India

Rohani (name changed) was one of those quieter female TB patients. But they almost all are, including the one who had committed suicide the previous night by jumping out of the hospital ward window. It is difficult, though not impossible, to comprehend what goes behind the calm exterior of patients like Rohani. Another TB patient, Archana (name changed), was just told that she would have to take her TB medications for a period of two years and that she would not be able to see her one-year old baby for at least a year.

Double burden of TB-diabetes: Are we ready?

Carolyn Kavita Tauro, CNS Special Correspondent

Diabetes has been long seen as a disease of the rich. Today, however, it is clear that the disease is also prevalent in low- and middle-income countries, affecting the rich and the poor alike. Like malnutrition and HIV infection that compromise a person’s immunity, chronic conditions like diabetes, have also shown to impair a person’s defense system against tuberculosis (TB).

TB-Diabetes: the looming co-epidemic

Carolyn Kavita Tauro, CNS Special Correspondent

Dr A Harries (L), Dr A Kapur (R)

On the opening day of the 45th Union World Conference on Lung Health, “The Looming Co-epidemic of TB Diabetes: A Call to Action” was launched to highlight a serious public health threat. This report promotes an international policy framework for action and lays out a research agenda to fill knowledge gaps on the topic of the co-epidemic of TB-diabetes. The purpose of the report is to highlight to various stakeholders like country policymakers, government officials, health care managers, clinicians, patients and patient groups and activists about the serious public health risk that is present between tuberculosis (TB) and diabetes.

Photo Credit: Carolyn Kavita

Carolyn Kavita Tauro, CNS Correspondent, India
For those who have been fighting for tobacco control, Wednesday the 15th of October was a step ahead when the Health Minister of India announced that, come 1st April 2015, graphic and text warnings (which reflect the adverse effects of smoking and are meant to act as a deterrent to the buyers) will cover up to 85% of space on both sides of cigarette packs and other tobacco products. 60% space will be devoted to pictorial warnings while 25% will be covered by textual warnings.

Carolyn Kavita Tauro, CNS Correspondent
It was World No Tobacco Day on the 31st of May… So what? We, the non-tobacco consumers, carried out a few rallies, made pledges to never smoke again (for those who did), made a few speeches about the loved ones we have lost to tobacco, shed a few tears and begged our smoker friends to stop smoking… to please stop smoking. What is really all the fuss about?

Carolyn Kavita Tauro, CNS Correspondent
‘Tobacco is one of the leading killers in the world’; ‘smoking is harmful for our health’; ‘smoking can cause lung cancer, heart disease’… We have heard it all before. We also know how once someone gets into the habit of smoking it is very difficult, if not impossible for him/her to quit due to the addictive nature of nicotine. So the tobacco industry, with all its so called concerns for the dying population, has come up with a new alternative to smoking – E-Cigarettes.

Dr Carolyn Kavita Tauro - CNS
Recently, Ahmedabad was host to an International Conference on Inequity in Maternal and Child Health organized by the Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH) Gandhinagar and Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI). It brought together national and international public health professionals to discuss about various issues affecting an equitable delivery of health care to mothers and children in India.

Carolyn Kavita Tauro, India
It was a casual sit-in with some of my friends back home when one of them who is a mother of a three-year old boy said to me, “Hey tell me! As soon as I get to know that one of my son’s friends is ill, I already give him some antibiotics so that he doesn’t get ill… is this ok”? By the time she had asked me the question, she had realized that maybe it was not ok for her to do it, but like most people she did not know why. Another young mother quickly adds, “But anyway the doctor give so many medicines nowadays”.

Carolyn Kavita Tauro, India
(First published in Mangalorean News, India on 4th October 2013)
On the morning of 1st October, 2013, the very first plan of its kind was launched toward the goal of zero deaths in childhood TB. The launch was jointly brought about by the World Health Organization (WHO), International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), Stop TB Partnership, UNICEF and other partners, bringing out of the shadows this disease in children, which has been neglected so far.

Carolyn Kavita Tauro - CNS
Most smokers would reply that no one tricked them into smoking. It was and has always been their sole decision to smoke. However, when one looks back it is not uncommon to see the different reasons why people, both young and old smoke. The common ones we all know: “we need it to be part of the group; it makes us look cool; it helps keep my weight down; it relieves my tension; …. the list is endless.

Carolyn Kavita Tauro, India
Tuberculosis (TB) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) – can we continue to tackle these separately? According to the Global TB Report (2012), in 2011, out of 8.7 million people who developed TB worldwide 1.1 million (13%) were HIV positive. An approximate of 0.4 million HIV-associated TB deaths took place in 2011 and TB is the most common opportunistic infection among people living with HIV (PLWH). HIV increases chances that latent TB infection can become active TB disease and also increases the risk of death due to this.

Carolyn Kavita Tauro - CNS
As we stand at a pedestrian crossing or walk by a bridge, and a vehicle passes by, letting out a cloud of smoke in our face, our immediate reaction is to fan it away with our hands. We are also quick to give the driver of the vehicle a stare and even make a comment about how unclean and unsafe the air in the atmosphere around us is.

Carolyn Kavita Tauro - CNS
'Tobacco kills nearly half its consumers'! “That can't be possible,” exclaimed Tesh (name changed) as his friend read out one of the new posters pasted at a bus stop. In most countries No Tobacco Day went by just like any other day, with probably just as many smokes up in flames. How much do we know about this much used substance Tobacco?

Types of Tobacco consumption

The different forms of consuming tobacco around the world include the cigarette, cigar, cigarillo and little cigar, dissolvable tobacco, electronic cigarette, beedi, roll your own, hookah, kreteks, the pipe, the french inhale and vaporiser, passive smoking and other forms of smokeless tobacco including paan, gutkha, mawa, chewable tobacco, snuff, snus, spit tobacco and dips among others.

Carolyn Kavita Tauro
Globally, asthma is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality. Cases have increased in the past 20 years especially in children. Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases with over 200 million suffering from it worldwide. If urgent action isn't taken, the deaths due to asthma will increase in the coming decade. Although asthma cannot be cured, good control and management lies in early and proper diagnosis, treatment and patient education.

Photo Credit: WHO/M.Gzemska

Carolyn Kavita Tauro - CNS
“I will not take all these medicines for two years... they are very strong medicines. I won’t be able to go to school” said 12 year old Abu (name changed) as the doctor explained to him that his sputum was still positive after six months of treatment. Abu was now affected with Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and the person from whom he had contracted it was his 17 years old brother. Abu’s mother sat helpless recalling all the money she had already spent on doctors, medicines and nutritious food for her children.

Carolyn Kavita Tauro - CNS
According to the WHO In 2011, an estimated 8.7 million people fell ill with tuberculosis and 1.4 million people died from it, including 0.5 million women, making TB one of the top three causes of death for women aged 15 to 44 worldwide. “Although the ratio of males to females affected by TB in the pre-puberty and childhood ages is almost equal, this changes significantly in adulthood, and we find almost 4 men per 1 woman affected with TB,” according to Dr Sarabjit Chadha, Project Director at the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), India. Dr Chadha attributes this to “access related issues considering that women in the rural settings do not have a similar health seeking behavior as men. Also, issues of poverty and malnutrition are more relevant in case of women because of gender inequality.”