CNS (Citizen News Service)

Family support is crucial for diabetes care

Dr Amitava Acharrya, CNS Correspondent, India

Photo credit: CNS (Durban, South Africa: 2017)

Human health is an equilibrium condition of physical, mental and social health. Traditionally, human beings are a group of socially dependent mammals where family and society have a major role in the development of human behavior, morality, ethics and the way of life. This becomes all the more pronounced in countries like India, where a strong traditional and cultural bond runs in its milieu.

[Click here to register] More than 7 million people die due to tobacco use every year. Every tobacco-related, untimely death could have been averted, and every tobacco-related disease, prevented. Tobacco is also a common risk factor for major non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as world's biggest killer cardiovascular diseases (CVDs including heart disease and stroke), cancers, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, etc, which account for over 70% of deaths worldwide.

Real talk: Are we on track to #endmalaria?

This year’s World Malaria Day theme, "Zero Malaria Starts With Me" re-energizes the fight to eliminate malaria which, despite being preventable and treatable, still kills over half a million people every year. While incredible progress has been made in the past 15 years (with over 7 million malaria deaths averted and about 40% reduction in malaria globally), the fight against the disease is now inching towards a tipping point - progress has slowed down in some parts of the world and reversed in a few.

Research and development: The gateway for a TB free world

Ronel Sewpaul, CNS Correspondent, South Africa

The fight against TB necessitates innovative new strategies to keep pace with the changing face of the epidemic and to capitalise on technological advancements. The first ever United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB in September 2018 called on world leaders to commit to and be accountable for ending TB.

Ending tuberculosis now is timelier than ever

Ekwi Ajide, CNS Correspondent, Nigeria

Nearly 4500 people die daily from tuberculosis (TB), the world’s deadliest infectious killer, and about 10 million people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease every year, which can infect any part of the body, but, more often than not, attacks the lungs. The symptoms of pulmonary TB include a cough that lasts for more than 2 to 3 weeks, weight loss, fever, night sweats, loss of appetite and coughing up blood, among others.

Unfortunately, UN agencies have never put TB as their top priority, said Dr. Mario Raviglione

Manjari Peiris, Sri Lanka

Dr Mario Raviglione

[First published in Asian Tribune, Sri Lanka/Thailand on March 30, 2019]
“There is no single country in the world which has ever eliminated tuberculosis (TB)- the number one infectious disease killer in the world. Asia and Africa respectively account for 60% and 25% of the global TB cases. Every year 10 million patients with TB are reported in the world and 1.6 million die of it, which amounts to nearly 4000 deaths per day. So we need to move fast to achieve elimination targets set by the World Health Assembly as part of the End TB Strategy”, stated Dr. Mario Raviglione, Director, Global Health Centre, University of Milan, and former Director, Global TB Program of the WHO, while speaking at a webinar organized by Citizen News Service (CNS) in the lead up to World TB Day 2019.

World TB Day 2019 Webinar: It's Time to bend the curve sharply to #endTB

It's Time to bend the curve sharply to #endTB

First published in The Bangkok Post (editorial page), Thailand

[हिंदी] Although governments of 193 countries had promised way back in 2015 to end tuberculosis (TB) by 2030, the global annual rate of TB decline since then has been much less than what is required.

Watch webinar recording | Listen to podcast

[Watch video recording] [Listen or download podcast] Between a quarter and a third of the world’s population are estimated to be infected with latent tuberculosis (TB). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), on average, 5-10% of those who are infected with latent TB, will develop active TB disease over their lifetime. Because “reactivated” TB is contagious, eradicating latent infection is a cornerstone of global TB control and achieving a better understanding of latent infection is deemed a research priority (read more).