CNS: Articles of Jittima Jantanamalaka

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Radio broadcast series on antimicrobial resistance in Thailand: 9 episodes

Legal barriers and stereotypes block care services for same sex couples

Despite alarming HIV rates amongst the men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people, many countries, community leaders, media and society at large continue to hold discriminating stereotypes against them. "Punitive laws will drive MSM and transgender populations underground" rightly said Aradhana Johri of Department of AIDS Control, Government of India. In US alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report, although Black American MSM people represent only 13 percent of the US population but they account for about 44 percent of the new HIV infections particularly among those aged 13 -19.

By Jittima Jantanamalaka, CNS Thailand

Part 2: Take Control of Asthma - Assure Access to Quality Affordable Medicines [Thai version]

Special thanks:

International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union); Prof Nadia Ait-Khaled, Union advisor on asthma, ISAAC Steering Committee and ISAAC Africa Regional Coordinator, Executive Committee, BOLD (Burden of Lung Disease) study. Co-author of asthma management chapter, GAR, Muthita Trakultivakorn, MD, Associate Professor. Division of Allergy & Clinical Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Thailand, and The Asthma Foundation of Thailand.

Part 1: Taking Control - Understand Asthma and Its Triggers [Thai version]

CNS-Asthma Series: 'World Asthma Day' 2012

By Jittima Jantanamalaka, CNS Thailand

Part 1: Taking Control - Understand Asthma and Its Triggers [Thai version]

Special thanks: International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union); Orapan Poachanukoon, MD, Associate Professor. Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat University, Thailand, and The Asthma Foundation of Thailand.

Part 2: Take Control of Asthma - Assure Access to Quality Affordable Medicines [Thai version]

CNS Podcasts: The Gender Agenda - Making HIV Responses Work for Key Affected Women and Girls

Thai version:

English version:

[CNS Video] Paths that were never trodden...

[CNS Video] Voices of the voiceless...

ASICON video: Getting to Zero: Long road ahead for India's AIDS response [Part II]

ASICON video: Getting to Zero: Long road ahead for India's AIDS response [Part I]

The Science of Community Engagement makes the difference: Mitchell Warren

It Is Necessary To Communicate about Non-Communicable Diseases

(Based on the speech of the UN Deputy Secretary-General, at the Media Forum on Non Communicable Diseases , in New York on 20.6.2011)
The UN Deputy Secretary-General, Asha-Rose Migiro, while speaking at a media forum on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), in New York, reiterated the commitment of the United Nations to scale up efforts to fight the menace of NCDs, while being aware of the potential road blocks. She agreed that, unlike virus triggered diseases, non-communicable diseases were linked directly to individual habits like tobacco consumption, unhealthy eating and a sedentary life style. Hence there should be a concerted campaign to promote exercise, reduce excessive consumption of alcohol and cut the use of tobacco products.

Public health and social justice: the time to stop criminalising Thai injecting drug users is now

Jittima Jantanamalaka - CNS
Thailand has been a leader in HIV prevention and treatment for 20 years. Success has come to Thailand in many HIV contexts, but not for HIV transmission driven by injecting drug use. The combination of the criminalisation of injection drug use and a lack of a coherent legal and policy framework on drugs, means that not only injecting drug users (IDUs) are at risk when they access services, but service providers are also at risk of being penalised for offering them. In Thailand, service providers have been arrested, jailed or blacklisted – confirming the gravity of the situation.Criminalisation of drugs can increase HIV infection rates, particularly among IDUs. The number of new hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections has also escalated since the 'war on drugs' was launched. On one hand, when in some countries rates of heterosexually transmitted HIV infections are falling, HIV transmission through the injecting drug route continues to rise. While harm reduction approaches have proven effective at reducing the spread and impact of the epidemic among IDUs, progress in addressing IDU's needs and priorities moves at a snail's pace. Read more

Published in:
Citizen News Service(CNS), India/Thailand
Wikio News, Africa
Elites TV News, California, USA
Health Dev.net, Thailand
Aids Portal.org
Aids Space.org

'Building capacity, redressing neglect' on harm reduction

The 22nd International Harm Reduction Conference took place in Beirut Lebanon during April 3-7, in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region where it faces diverse and rapidly changing patterns of drug, tobacco and alcohol use. Despite to the fact that harm reduction has been adopted in policy and practice in more countries than ever before, however significant gaps remain in the response, also there are lack of coverage on harm reduction programmes and the capacity of civil society to respond to harm reduction issues, remain low in much of the world, therefore, 'Building capacity, redressing neglect' has become the theme of this annual international conference.

Dr. Viroj Tangcharoensathien, the Director of International Health Policy Program, MOPH Thailand and the winner of Edwin Chardwick Medal Award, shared the successful experiences of Thailand over 27 years to achieve full Universal Health Coverage at the First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR), 16 – 19 November 2010, Montreux, Switzerland. Read more.

“Around 150 million people are suffering from the hardships presented by the collapse of financial systems. And 100 million people have actually been pushed under the poverty line because of the need to use and pay for health services," said David Evans, director of health systems financing at the WHO and the author of World Health Report 2010, which was officially launched in November. Read more

“Every year almost 9 million children and infants die from preventable causes.”

“1 in 5 children are now over weight. Childhood obesity is 10 times higher than it was in 1970.”

“Poverty and disease in any one country has an impact on every other country because we are all living in an age where national borders should matter less and humanity matters more.”

These are some of the hard hitting quotes that Judith Rodin, the president of Rockefeller Foundation stated over the opening session of The First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR) which was held in Montreux, Switzerland, from 16 to 19 November 2010. The event was hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners in order to scale up better health systems research. Read more

Dr Prakit Vathisathokit

During the 10th International Week of Resistance to Tobacco Transnationals (IWR) during 4-8 October 2010, civil society groups from around the world told the world: how tobacco industry interferes in the implementation of the global tobacco treaty, formally known as the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Thailand, was one of the countries where veteran tobacco control stalwarts like Professor (Dr) Prakit Vathisathokit, shared how tobacco industry interferes in the implementation of global tobacco treaty and also in enforcing their domestic tobacco control policies in the country. Prof (Dr) Prakit is the Executive Secretary of ASH Thailand. Read more

According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), the number of people in Thailand living with diabetes, in the age group 20-79 years, has risen from 3,162,400 in 2007 to 3,538,000 in 2010. Thus, during the past three years 375,600 more Thais have joined the band wagon of this non communicable disease, increasing the national incidence of diabetes from 7.2% in 2007 to 7.7% in 2010. This is more than the current prevalence in India (7.1%) and China (4.5%) in the age group of 20-79 years. Thailand urgently needs to increase efforts to raise awareness of diabetes among its population in order to stem the potential of a burden epidemic. Read more

As tobacco consumption rises among women and youth, warning sign has gone out to the world on World No Tobacco Day (31 May 2010), also from the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) foundation Thailand.

This year 2010, also marks the "Year of the Lung" campaign and the studies show that 50% of all deaths from lung disease are linked to tobacco use. "Currently, we know that 9% of Thai women are using tobacco and that over 1 million are actually exposed at home to harm from second hand smoke" said Anne Jones, Technical adviser of The Union. Read more

Thailand ups diabetes prevention and education on World Diabetes Day 2009

In Thailand, more than 3 million people are living with diabetes. There is an urgent need to scale up the diabetes prevention and education, says Wittaya Kaewparadai, Minister of Public Health, Thailand.

According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), diabetes education and prevention is the World Diabetes Day theme for the period 2009-2013. The World Diabetes Day campaign calls on all those responsible for diabetes care to understand diabetes and take control.

"We have to educate Thai people to prevent getting diabetes by reducing the risk and modifying lifestyles and consumption

behaviours," says Wittaya. "More than 980,000 health volunteers are sent by the Ministry to conduct surveys and provide diabetes-related education to encourage people to reduce consumption of food that

increases their vulnerability to diabetes, like sweets. There is a need to pay more attention to healthcare and healthy lifestyles," says Wittaya.

"For those people who are living with diabetes presently, we

provide special care to manage

diabetes. There is regular screening for people with diabetes, especially for those who may be at risk of diabetes retinopathy, which is one of the major preventable cause of blindness" informs Wittaya, Minister of Public Health, Thailand.

"We received financial support from Denmark when HRH Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and HRH Crown Princess Mary came to celebrate 150 years of Thai - Denmark relationship in Bangkok in

November 2008. In addition to this financial aid, with the support of the World Diabetes

Foundation (WDF), we started the mobile car units providing diabetes scanning, consultations and diabetes retinopathy treatment to the populations in Thailand. These two cars will also

provide services to people one day before World Diabetes Day, 14 November, at Nakhon Sri

Thammarat and Surachthanee (in Thailand)" further added Wittaya.

Diabetes claims 4 million lives every year and is a leading cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attack, stroke and amputation. According to International Diabetes Federation (IDF), if the current rate of diabetes growth continues unchecked, the total number of people living with

diabetes worldwide will exceed 435 million in the next 20 years.

"The world needs to invest in integrated health systems that can diagnose, treat, manage and prevent diabetes," said Professor Jean Claude Mbanya, the new IDF President. "Governments also need to invest in actions outside the formal health sector, particularly in promoting healthier diets and physical activity, to reduce obesity and the risk of type-2 diabetes. Without effective prevention diabetes will overwhelm health systems and hinder economic growth" further added Mbanya.

"It is estimated that 50,000 - 60,000 of people living with diabetes in Thailand would develop blur vision or blindness. Instead of waiting for them to come to hospital which sometimes becomes too late to provide effective prevention and cure, we move ahead to reach out to them and prevent or treat as required. There are ophthalmologists and specialists with well-equipped advanced diagnostic and therapeutic facilities, to treat patients in faraway villages free of cost. We expect that by next World Diabetes Day 2010 we will prevent 4,000 people from blindness" said Dr Sriwanna, Head of Academic Department, Public Health Ministry, Thailand.

In many high-burden diabetes countries like India, China and USA, there are efforts to educate people to reduce consumption of junk food. There are regulatory laws to check misleading advertisements as well. "We still don't have any law to check the amount of sugar in snacks, or to regulate the TV advertisements yet, but we have been asking the companies or entrepreneurs to reduce the sugar in their products and if they cooperate then they can mention it on the label as healthy food/snack. I understand that if we seek cooperation and give education to people, every company will finally follow. We also provide statistics and information about what kind of food/beverage are unhealthy to people" informs Wittaya. "We are also campaigning in schools and giving rewards to school which do not sell junk food to children" said Wittaya.

"Growing numbers of Thai people especially from middle-income group are buying more healthy food, pesticides-free vegetables, brown rice, among other healthy food products. 'Khon Thai Rai Pung' campaign to raise awareness about obesity and to encourage Thai people to reduce their weight by having more physical activities is also giving encouraging results" said Wittaya.
"In cooperation with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), we are opening pesticides-free markets like Sam Yan Market, where there is an officer from the FDA to check every entrepreneur and certify the quality of food product" informs Wittaya, the Thai Public Health Minister.

"This year we are also promoting Tambon Health Stations to become Tambon Health Promotion Hospital at about 2,100 places around the country" informs Wittaya. "Besides providing treatment, these centres also provide health promotion services" says Wittaya.

"This year we received great support because everyone already realized that Diabetes is a growing public health challenge for Thailand," said Professor Wannee Nitiyanant, Vice President, Diabetes Association of Thailand under the Patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.
"There will be campaigning and activities on diabetes education

and prevention, free diabetes and health check up on how at risk you are, and facilities to cater to other related health problems such as high blood pressure at Lumpini Park" says Professor Wannee.

According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), the key messages of the World Diabetes Day (November 14) campaign are:
* Know the diabetes risks and know the warning signs
* Know how to respond to diabetes and who to turn to
* Know how to manage diabetes and take control

Thailand seems to be gearing up to improve diabetes prevention and education to prevent diabetes and diabetes-related complications, alongside scaling up quality care and services for people living with diabetes.

Jittima Jantanamalaka
[The author is the Director of Jay Inspire Inc and produces radio programmes for FM radio stations in Thailand]

Published in:
The Asian Tribune
Modern Ghana News, Accra, Ghana
Citizen News Service (CNS), India/Thailand
Pakistan Christian Post, Karachi, Pakistan
Bihar and Jharakhand News Service (BJNS)