CNS

TB Forum demands GeneXpert in Maharashtra

GeneXpert at Lok Nayak Hospital
Delhi: Photo credit: CNS

Recent advances in TB diagnostics, particularly around GeneXpert, a technology which enables a rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) and also of Multidrug Resistant TB (MDR-TB) within two hours, has been a breakthrough in the worldwide efforts to curb the spread of the disease. Increased media coverage of this development and the growing incidence of MDR-TB as well as Extensively Drug-Resistant TB (XDR-TB) have stepped up general awareness and knowledge in the community of TB. Patients and families affected by TB are now coming together to demand the latest available technology with the potential to save many lives through an early and accurate diagnosis.

Breath is life, and yet the importance of lung health is under-recognised, especially in women. No wonder then that lung disease (including respiratory infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), tuberculosis, lung cancer and asthma) accounts for more than 16% deaths among women worldwide. Exposure to tobacco smoke and indoor air pollution, from using solid fuels for cooking and heating, are the two leading risk factors that impact women’s lung health much more than that of men, especially in low/middle income countries. Each of these pollutants kills over 1.5 million women worldwide every year.

Do you have US$ 24 or Indian Rupees 1,000 to spare? Now the choice is yours how you would like to spend the money: buy movie tickets and enjoy with friends or sponsor four women for a year to help protect their dignity? With this money these women would get the supply of sanitary napkins for a year. Till 5-6 years back menstruation was a tabooed topic in the Indian society. Activists avoided discussions on this integral part of a woman’s life. Even women felt embarrassed to talk about this biological cycle. The situation was despite the fact that the focal point for all schemes of social uplift always remained women–be it micro finance, self help groups or corporate social responsibility.

PrEP Strategies Remain Valuable Prevention Tool: AVAC
Results from a large-scale HIV prevention trial among African women known as VOICE (Vaginal and Oral Interventions to Control the Epidemic) provide an urgent reminder that products must meet the needs of the people using them. While disappointing, the results lend new urgency and direction to the search for additional safe and effective HIV prevention options for women, AVAC said. Researchers announced on 4th March 2013 that none of three pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and microbicide interventions tested in VOICE – daily oral tenofovir, daily oral TDF/FTC (Truvada), and daily 1% vaginal tenofovir gel – provided additional protection against HIV in the study, likely because few of the women in the trial used the products as directed.

BREAKING NEWS
Efforts to get women controlled HIV prevention tools have once again suffered a setback following the release of final results from a 4 year study that that sought to determine the safety and effectiveness of two antiretroviral (ARV)-based HIV prevention approaches in women. Speaking to a select team of journalists in the trial countries of Uganda, Zimbabwe and South Africa via teleconference on Monday afternoon, the lead researchers announced that none of the three products - tenofovir gel, oral tenofovir and oral Truvada proved to be effective among the women enrolled in the VOICE study.

A national level consultation on "Reducing Gender Inequalities: A Possible Framework for Post 2015" was recently held at Nawabganj, Unnao. Organized by the National Mission for Empowerment of Women (NMEW), Government of India, and supported by the UN Women South Asia, it was hosted by the Centre for Advocacy and Research and brought together leading civil society groups, think tank bodies and academicians to deliberate on the strengths and weakness of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); to review gaps and suggest remedies and evolve an inclusive, participatory and sustainable framework to advance the MDG post 2015.

As part of the ongoing 2by4 communications and advocacy campaign the first mini-series of e-consultation and key informant interviews is on the theme: Women and TB. 2by4 campaign focusses on two key populations (women and children) and four key issues (multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB); laboratory and diagnostics; private-public partnerships (PPP); TB-HIV collaborative activities).

Have your say in the online consultation and key informant interviews in lead up to the World TB Day, 24th March 2013. 'Two by Four: 2by4' is a time-limited communications' campaign hosted by Citizen News Service - CNS, a partner of Stop TB Partnership, on the Global Stop-TB eForum and other platforms CNS is part of. The 2by4 campaign runs for two months from 24th February to 24th April 2013.

[Images] [हिंदी] About thousand villagers in Reusa Block, Sitapur, staged a Jal Satyagrah by getting down into the waters of river Sharda and standing there all day long on 25-26 February 2013. They were demanding immediate action by the government to start work to stop erosion lest their villages and fields may again get submerged and destroyed by the fury of the swelling river. A population of 50,000 people residing in 20-25 villages are threatened to be displaced by the rising and shifting waters of river Sharda.

So said Freddy Svane, Ambassador of Denmark in an interview given exclusively to Citizen News Service - CNS, during his recent visit to Lucknow. He rightly believes that, “Diabetes is a non- communicable disease that is self-inflicted. It is generally not something that we inherit, but something that we inflict on ourselves mostly by adopting an unhealthy life style. Dealing with it is all about applying our own common sense to change our mindset. Of course some will have to be assisted to do this, and so it calls for education. It should definitely be part of school programmes, because that is the time the kids start aping all the bad habits that we have in the western culture—more junk food and less exercise, lots of cars and less of walking. The most important thing is to raise awareness and I have the firm belief that one needs to start from a very early stage.”

Narmada Bachao Andolan has been using Jal Satyagrah since 1993 as a means of protest wherein people facing submergence stay put in waist, or sometimes neck, deep rising waters of the river and endanger their lives. The administration or the government, on the other hand, is busy trying to save people by either forcibly pulling them out of water or agreeing to talk to them on their demands. Last year in Ghoglagaon of Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh people were left standing in water for 17 days and the government was not willing to talk to them until the body parts of some of the people in water started dissolving.

The recently released fourth annual edition of the financing series of the Institute of Health and Metric Evaluation (IHME), ‘Financing Global Health 2012: The End of the Golden Age?’ tracks Development Assistance for Health (DAH) from government aid agencies, multilateral donors, and private foundations. It also analyses health spending from governments in developing countries between 1990 and 2010. By combining health funding estimates with the results of the newly published Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2010, the report provides metrics that can help inform donor priority setting. Comparisons between the amount of DAH that a country receives and its disease burden provide useful tools for assessing need versus funding.

Rising Of A Billion Voices For Justice

It was a Valentine’s Day celebration with a difference. On 14th February, 2013, a vibrant crowd of Lucknowites marched from Begum Hazrat Mahal Park to Hazratganj-- the heart of the city—as a part of ‘Odhani ka Parcham’, a campaign to condemn violence against women. The three hours long event was in support of the global campaign ‘One Billion Rising’ to stop violence of all forms against women. Women (and men too) from different strata of society, transcended boundaries of caste, creed, colour, and community, to come together under the aegis of one common agenda—rise, dance and strike to end violence against women.

This is an appeal from a person in her own words who urgently needs support for her healthcare needs. She is a brave woman who is a living example of the oft-quoted adage - 'When the going gets tough, the tough gets going...' Read her story in her own words -a real-life experience, full of grit, courage and determination, to continue living and spreading light despite seemingly insurmountable challenges.
(CNS has met and interviewed Payel and strongly supports her efforts to exercise her right to health. Please consider supporting her personal fight against Von Hippel Lindau (VHL) Syndrome and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Kindly find her contact details or ways to support below)

According to an estimate, one in three women on the planet is likely to be raped or beaten in her lifetime. So on 14 February 2013, the 15th anniversary of Valentine’s Day, one billion women in unison across the globe, along with their well-wishers, hope to walk, dance, rise and demand an end to this violence. This historic day will see the collective strength and solidarity of women transcending all borders of caste, creed, religion and social status. It would be the clarion call to all women and men to refuse to accept and participate in any act of violence against women and girls and to end the rape culture.

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most under-reported and under-rated chronic disease for children across the world. Although childhood TB has been receiving attention from global health experts, it still remains a major cause for illness and death of children. Yet TB is preventable, treatable and curable. Children generally contract this disease because they are in proximity to elders who are already affected by the TB bacterium, such as a nanny, the mother, the care-giver or other infected family members.

Civil society organizations came together in Hyderabad today to enlist gaps in tuberculosis (TB) control programme in Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and appeal to authorities to strengthen the TB response. Partnership for TB Care and Control in India, along with LEPRA Society, Catholic Health Association of India (CHAI), Catholic Bishops Conference of India – Coalition for AIDS and Related Diseases (CBCI-CARD), Damien Foundation India Trust, David and Lois Rees Hospital, Shivananada Rehabilitation Home, TB Alert India, Vasavya Mahila Mandali, World Vision India, Christian Association for Medical mission and People's development (CAMP) and Rayalaseema Gramena Vikas Society, submitted a memorandum to Commissioner, Principal Secretary (Health) of AP Government, among others.

For a disease as old of tuberculosis (TB) how come despite all the scientific research and development (R and D) we still have about a century old BCG vaccine which is the only licensed vaccine to prevent TB - it is used extensively with approximately 100 million newborns being vaccinated globally each year. While BCG can prevent severe forms of TB in some children, its widespread use in infants has failed to control the global epidemic. Sustained efforts have been made to develop new, safe and more effective TB vaccines over the past years. Results of one such effort were announced in The Lancet on 4th February 2013.

Photo credit: CNS - Seoul 2012

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least one-third of all cancer cases are preventable. Prevention offers the most cost-effective long-term strategy for the control of cancer. Despite strong evidence and clear mandate to protect public health, lifestyle related cancers are on an alarming rise. Direct, indirect and surrogate corporate advertising of tobacco, alcohol, food, and other lifestyle related products must be censored to ensure consistent public health messaging.

[हिंदी] "We, as representatives of women’s organizations, civil society groups, and activists committed to women’s rights, convey our strong opposition to the Government's decision to move an ordinance on the criminal law amendments related to sexual violence. We call upon the President of India to not sign such an Ordinance" said firebrand social activist Arundhati Dhuru in a press conference in Lucknow. Arundhati is also the UP State Advisor to Right To Food Commissioners appointed by Supreme Court, and has been a long-time social activist with Narmada Bachao Andolan and National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM).

Researchers, from the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group, McGill University and the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), analysed data from 18 studies, spread over 27 distinct centres, and involving a total of 7,816 adults supposed to be having pulmonary TB or multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB)-- with or without HIV infection-- with a view to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the Xpert® MTB/RIF test -- a rapid, automated diagnostic test endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2010 that simultaneously detects TB and resistance to rifampicin, as an indicator of multidrug resistance. Most of these studies (55.6%) were carried out in low- and middle-income countries. This systematic review published in The Cochrane Library provides timely advice to clinicians and policymakers in countries where TB is a major public health problem.

Local and international experts warned this week that designated smoking areas in restaurants and workplaces, as allowed in Bangladesh’s proposed Bill for Amending Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Act, 2005, will threaten the health of citizens. Over the past five days, 25 international and local public health experts have participated in a workshop on ‘Enforcing Bangladesh’s Smokefree Laws,’ organised by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) and held in the BRAC Centre for Development Management in Rajendrapur, Bangladesh.

The Partnership for TB care and control in India announced its first Annual award for TB Champion Individual and TB Champion Organization at its recently held National Consultative Meeting in Delhi. This award has been instituted by the partnership (and is supported by Dr. Madhukar Pai and Global Health Strategies for next five years--2013-2018) to recognize the effort of individuals and organizations working for tuberculosis care and control in India. The first recipients of this prestigious award were the Hinduja Research Foundation and Hospital in Mumbai in the institutional category, and Dr Nalini Krishnan, Director of REACH, a Chennai based NGO doing commendable work in the field of TB Control in India - in the individual category.

HIV rates among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender community are alarming. Unless we have safe and effective HIV prevention methods for men, women and transgender people who practice anal sex, it will be difficult to stem the epidemic.
“There is clearly an epidemic of HIV in MSM and transgender community not only in Asian countries but also in the United States. MSM people of colour or those from African-American or Latino-American backgrounds, have the highest risk of HIV among the MSM community in US. In some of the major American cities rates are extremely high. That kind of situation is mirrored in Asia too. We see at varying degrees that some countries have higher rates than others, but we do see HIV increasing in MSM communities throughout South-East Asia and East Asia in general” said Dr Timothy H Holtz, Director, HIV/STD Research Programme, Thailand Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) - US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Collaboration, Bangkok, Thailand.

In Gujarat, people living with HIV are looking at a new therapy – marriage within the community of HIV positive people. Activist activist G.V. Joshi cites the example of a diamond worker Manohar, who was HIV positive and unmarried when he met his future wife Sujata at counselling meetings. Sujata too was HIV positive having caught the virus from her ex-husband. The two decided to tie the knot. A jubilant Manohar says that, “This marriage has proved to be the best decision of my life.”

[हिंदी] "Front-page of South Asian newspapers under gender lens" report was released in Lucknow by Vote For Health campaign of Asha Parivar and Citizen News Service – CNS. This report presents the summary analysis of an initial pilot research study comprising a month-long news monitoring, aggregation and gender analysis of the first page of prominent English newspapers in five South Asian countries.

Citizen News Service – CNS is pleased to announce that it is currently accepting applications for new fellows for its CNS Health Fellowship Programme 2013. This programme offers training on neglected health priorities for health writers through mentorship, peer support, networking opportunities, and technical assistance.

[हिंदी] Right to education (RTE) is a top priority, said Dr Dinesh Sharma, Mayor, Lucknow, who was addressing a Child Rights Convention in Lucknow. Over two hundred school children including some differently abled children, hailing from various districts of Uttar Pradesh participated in this convention. Added Dr Sharma: Every child must understand that duties must come first and then rights. He advocated a uniform system of education for all children, regardless of their socio-economic background.

While Indians are out on the streets demanding a severe law against rape after the shameful incident in Delhi, another debate has got initiated to find the root cause of this inhuman act. "A stricter law is not the solution, it is only a short term remedy. There are evidences of strict law, like death penalty, often working as a deterrent for the judiciary. How many times we see a death sentence in our country? What we need is speedy trials and high conviction rates, the state of which is quite pathetic in India," says Prof Manju Agarwal, Director, Amity Institute of Behavioural and Allied Sciences.

Civil society groups and citizens have submitted a comprehensive list of recommendations today (2nd January 2013) to government-appointed committee that is currently seeking input on how to reform laws against sexual assault. These recommendations emerged at an open consultation held in Lucknow on 28th December 2012 to seek input for Justice JS Verma Committee that is currently seeking input till 5th January 2013 to strengthen laws to respond to cases of sexual violence. This consultation was organized jointly by Socialist Party, Lok Rajniti Manch, Humsafar – Support Centre for Women, Asha Parivar and National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM).

On Dec. 28, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved bedaquiline (Sirturo), as part of combination therapy, to treat adults with pulmonary multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) when other alternatives are not available. Bedaquiline has the potential to improve the treatment for this particularly deadly and hard-to-treat form of TB that occurs when M. tuberculosis becomes resistant to isonazid and rifampin, two powerful drugs most commonly used to treat TB. Sirturo works by inhibiting an enzyme needed by M. tuberculosis to replicate and spread throughout the body. Sirturo is the first drug approved, in over forty years, to treat MDR TB and should be used in combination with other drugs used to treat TB.

Lord Tennyson had rightly said that 'The old order changeth yielding place to new' and also that 'More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of'. Well this is my prayer for India (inspired by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore) on this New Year…