CNS

Outrage against delay in pictorial warnings on tobacco products in India

In a detractive decision of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India (GOI), the implementation of new pictorial health warnings has been deferred to December 1, 2010 from the earlier commitment of introducing them from June 1, 2010. In March 2010, civil society organizations had joined hands to applaud the government's efforts in notifying effective pictorial warning of cancer-stricken mouth on packs of both smoking and smokeless tobacco. However, this delay in implementation of new pictorial warnings by the GOI is worrying civil society organizations, as in the past, this oscillating stand of the Government had led to further weakening and dilutions of warnings. Read more

Justice Shravan Shankar Jha Commission of Inquiry constituted by the Madhya Pradesh (MP) High Court in August 2008 to enquire into the multi-crore scam of fake registries of Sardar Sarovar affected victims started its next phase of proceedings in Alirajpur today. The immensely corrupt nexus of authorities and touts has derailed implementation the rehabilitation of the Sardar Sarovar Project oustees and has denied the affected, their right to agricultural land. This large scale corruption in the whole process has led to a loss worth crores of rupees to the treasury of the Indian State. Read more

Tribunal expresses grave concern on severe non-compliance by authorities
A Panel of eminent citizens who came together as an Independent People's Tribunal (IPT) to assess the true scale and impacts of the large dam-projects in the natural-resource rich region of the Narmada Valley, delivered their verdict today on various aspects concerning the massive displacement, rehabilitation, environmental compliance and overall cost-benefits of the Sardar Sarovar and Jobat Projects as also the large canals of Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar. Read more

A legal notice was issued by the Narmada Bachao Andolan to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, on the issue of continued land acquisition and excavation for the large canals of Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar, which is causing an irreversible damage to the best of agricultural land in the region. Read more

The International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which falls on 26th June, is a grim reminder of the detrimental effects of drug abuse which is destroying lives, encouraging crimes and threatening economic development all over the world. The theme for this year's drug campaign is 'Think Health, Not Drugs,' with the aim to to sensitize the people in general and the youth in particular, to the harms of using drugs. Read more

While community home based care is the preferred means of providing care for people living with HIV in many parts of Southern Africa, it comes with massive costs especially to caregivers in terms of time, effort and commitment, according to a study published recently in the Journal of the International AIDS Society. Read more

Time for pronouncement of award: People's Tribunal on Narmada

Pronouncement of Award on Sardar Sarovar, Indira Sagar, Omkareshwar and Jobat
You must be aware of the Sardar Sarovar Project embroiled in the controversy over last 25 years. The project has now reached a critical juncture with 2 lakh (200,000) people still in the submergence area while the authorities who are monitoring social and environmental measures have been reporting non-compliance. The cost and benefits are being questioned by various authorities and organizations, while the Planning Commission has recently given a revised investment clearance of Rs. 39,000 crores. Read more

CNS coverage from "Research and development of new TB vaccines" Symposium, Zaragoza, Spain

Babs Verblackt wrote on issues around the tuberculosis (TB) vaccines, on-site from the "Research and development of new TB vaccines" Symposium, Zaragoza, Spain (3-4 June 2010). Babs is freelance journalist, a Fellow of CNS Writers' Bureau and Associate Communications at TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative – TBVI). Read more

As the indefinite Satyagraha of thousands of Mumbai’s anguished, albeit resilient poor completed one whole week today, a group of slum dwellers from Anna Bhau Sathe Nagar gheraoed Shri. Kripa Shankar Singh, President of the Mumbai Congress Committee at Kurla, where he had come to inspect the progress of Mithi River cleaning. The slum dwellers challenged the indefensible silence of the Congress Party over the gross violation of their legal and human rights. Read more

साथी तेरे सपनों को, मंजिल तक पहुंचाएंगे

We, the adivasis, farmers, fish workers, potters, labourers, women, men, and children from the Narmada valley and the activists of Narmada Bachao Andolan are deeply shocked and shattered by the sudden and most undeserving demise of our dear colleague Shri Ashish Mandloi at his ancestral village Chhota Barda in Badwani district due to a cardiac arrest. Read more

The nation is abuzz with the news of Rouvanjit Rawla, a class VIII student of Kolkata’s prestigious La Martiniere School for boys, who hanged himself four months ago, reportedly unable to bear the humiliation after he was caned by his school principal Sunirmal Chakroborty, and allegedly by some other teachers as well. What was his crime? Read more

Babs Verblackt writes for CNS from "Research and development of new TB vaccines" Symposium, Zaragoza, Spain

In Asia, partnerships between public and private healthcare providers are especially relevant in the fight against tuberculosis (TB). "These partnerships can help guarantee quality of care and improve information on the national TB situations," says Giuliano Gargioni, Team Leader, Partnering and Social Mobilization at the Stop TB Partnership. Read more

Over a hundred people from Karnataka representing various human rights groups/issues gathered on the rainy evening of 3rd June 2010 on the steps of Bangalore's Town Hall. Using informative leaflets and slogans, we jointly protested the two day Global Investors Meet (GIM) held in Bangalore that day and the next. Read more

State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights is still not top priority of government
It is indeed a matter of grave concern that 20 per cent (1,927,997 to be exact) of India's total (12,666,377) child labour force lives in Uttar Pradesh. It is a fact that there is no dearth of grants, aid, projects and schemes for creating a child-labour-free state and yet, instead of declining, the percentage of child labour is growing by leaps and bound in the state. Read more

In 1910, a meeting of 35 women in Copenhagen started a worldwide movement demanding universal voting rights for women. That was a turning point in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. Now, 100 years later, over 3000 delegates (40% of who were men) from 146 countries, gathered together in Washington DC to press for universal access to maternal and child health. 2010 is as transforming a mile stone as 1910 was, in the journey of achieving basic human and health care rights for all women and children. Read more

Media Nest, a Lucknow-based pan-India forum of journalists that works for the welfare of media persons and their families has initiated a group medical insurance for newspaper persons and their families. The premium rates will be highly subsidized and as per health insurance norms will be 100 per cent exempt from income tax. Read more

While new information technology enables instantaneous access to vital health information, advances in medical technology for use in low-resource settings enable access to cutting edge care in some of the poorest and most under served places in the world. Read more

On the 1st day of Women Deliver 2010 conference, taking place in Washington DC, USA, leaders from United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and CARE International announced an agreement to enhance collaboration on maternal health programs in more than 25 countries, by working with national governments and by engaging local communities. However for women to deliver, they need power. Successful women change makers have to deal with their power --getting it, keeping it and using it wisely. Read more

Symposium shows progress in TB vaccines

Babs Verblackt writes for CNS from "Research and development of new TB vaccines" Symposium, Zaragoza, Spain
Steady progress is made in the development of new vaccines against tuberculosis (TB), researchers showed at a symposium in Spain. Several vaccine candidates are now being or soon will be tested in people.

European scientists gathered at the international symposium "Research and development of new tuberculosis vaccines" in Zaragoza, Spain, to share and discuss the progress in vaccines against the airborne infectious disease. At the second and last day (4 June 2010), Professor Stefan Kaufmann of the Max-Planck-Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, Germany, illustrated that TB infection is a vicious circle: Each day about 125,000 infections result in roughly 25,000 TB cases, or 10 million new cases of TB disease a year. Around 5,000 people die of tuberculosis every day. Drug resistant TB strains, and HIV/TB co-infection further challenge global TB control. Read more

Women Deliver 2010: Lot more needs to be done to save women's lives

To listen to the audio podcast of exclusive interview with Women Deliver 2010 co-chair Dr Sai, click here

"At the global level we don't only have the issue of deaths of women and child, pregnancy and child-birth related situations, but it is the discrepancy between these deaths in the northern and more industrialized countries and in the developing countries. In fact, today as we speak we know that practically no woman dies in child birth in Europe or North America. But they do die in South Asia, Africa and Latin America" said Dr Frederick Torgbor Sai, an internationally recognized gender and reproductive health advocate from Ghana, who is the co-chair of "Women Deliver 2010" in Washington DC, USA (7-9 June). Read more

The world's largest conference on women's health and empowerment in more than a decade opens on Monday, June 7, at Washington DC, USA, with a call to increase funding commitments for maternal, reproductive, and newborn health. The conference comes at a critical moment, three weeks before the G8 Summit, where host country Canada has made it a major focus, and represents the return of the United States as a strong partner, in promoting global maternal and reproductive health. Read more

World Environment Day, June 5
Second-hand tobacco smoke is dangerous to health. It causes cancer, heart disease and many other serious life-threatening diseases in adults. "Almost half of the world's children breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke, which worsens their asthma conditions and causes dangerous diseases. At least 2 lakhs workers die every year due to exposure to second-hand smoke at work" said Professor (Dr) Rama Kant, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General's WNTD Awardee in a media interface to mark World Environment Day (WED 2010), on 5th of June.

Incidentally, this year 2010 is the Year of the Lung to recognize that hundreds of millions of people around the world suffer each year from treatable and preventable chronic respiratory diseases like asthma. This initiative acknowledges that lung health has long been neglected in public discourses, and understands the need to unify different health advocates behind one purpose of lung health, informed Dr Nils Billo, Chair of the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS). Read more

An Independent People's Tribunal (IPT) led by Hon'ble Justice (retd) AP Shah (Retired Chief Justice, Delhi and Mumbai High Court), Dr. Devinder Sharma (International Researcher and Agriculture Policy Analyst) and Prof. Jaya Sagade (Faculty, Indian Law Society, Law College, Pune) concluded their two-day visit and mass public hearing in the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) affected region in Narmada valley today evening. Read more

Further research into field of new tuberculosis (TB) vaccines needed

Babs Verblackt writes for CNS from "Research and development of new TB vaccines" Symposium, Zaragoza, Spain
The development of new vaccines against tuberculosis (TB) is progressing in promising ways, but many issues remain to be further researched, European scientists explained on 3 June 2010 at a symposium in Spain.

At the first day of the International Symposium "Research and development of new tuberculosis vaccines" in Zaragoza, Spain, researchers reinforced the need for new vaccines against tuberculosis (TB), pointing out that TB is a continuously growing health problem and the only currently available vaccine, BCG, has limited efficacy in adults and safety issues in HIV-infected newborns. 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

31 May is World No Tobacco Day
The World No Tobacco Day, 31 May 2010, is a critical point in the 2010: Year of the Lung campaign, according to the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union). Studies show that 50% of all deaths from lung disease are linked to tobacco use. "Strengthening tobacco control is the single most important action we can take to improve global lung health," said Dr Nils E Billo, Executive Director of The Union and chair of the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS), which is sponsoring the Year of the Lung. "Tobacco is a leading cause of preventable death and kills 5 million men, women and children each year." Read more

To listen to the audio podcast of this interaction, click here
"Use of lubricants may put individuals at higher risk" said Professor (Dr) Ian McGowan, co-chair of the International Microbicides Conference (M2010) in Pittsburgh, USA at a press conference. "One of the M2010 themes is the growing realization that there is a significant issue of HIV acquisition through rectal sex not only for men who have sex with men (MSM) who are clearly very visible HIV high risk group but increasingly for women who may be exposed to the virus rectally which is relatively new observation although may be going on for quite some time" added Prof Ian McGowan. Read more

The World No Tobacco day is once again upon us to remind us politely that health is a concern of everyone. From personal physical fitness to the threats posed by growing global pandemics, all people share an interest in improving the well-being of themselves and others. Real, sincere and ongoing action is needed to achieve this, instead of mere rhetoric. The war against tobacco needs to be won, and not just fought, with renewed pledges; stricter legislation; innovative awareness programmes; and the will to succeed in curbing the menace of tobacco. Read more

World No Tobacco Day is on 31 May 2010
The theme of this year's World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) is "Gender and tobacco with an emphasis on marketing to women." It is designed to draw particular attention to the harmful effects of tobacco marketing towards women and girls. Controlling the epidemic of tobacco among women is an important part of any comprehensive tobacco control strategy. Professor Judith Longstaff Mackay, Senior Adviser, World Lung Foundation, spoke to CNS in Hong Kong. She lamented that for decades women and adolescents have been a major target of opportunity for the tobacco industry, and more so now, when this industry needs to recruit new users to replace the nearly half of current users who will die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases. So it is an ongoing battle – longer than the 100 years war. Prof Judith Mackay has been conferred the prestigious BMJ Lifetime Achievement award for her contribution to the fight against tobacco across the world, and is also a recipient of the American Cancer Society's Luther Terry award for Outstanding Individual Leadership. As a leader in the battle to control tobacco, she was once described by the tobacco industry as "one of the three most dangerous people in the world" (Time magazine). Read more

To listen to the audio podcast of 2010 Omololu Falobi Award ceremony (at the M2010 closing ceremony) click here
"Omololu Falobi lived life only for 35 years. Yes he was in a hurry. He was a visionary. For those who knew him they would realize that this conference was part of his vision. M2010 is a turning point where it has become glaringly obvious that developing and rolling out new HIV prevention technologies is as much about community voices, politics, media, culture as it is about science. That's what Omololu thought of, that's what he dreamed of" said Manju Chatani Gada, at the closing ceremony of the International Microbicides Conference (M2010) in Pittsburgh, USA. Manju represents AVAC: Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention, African Microbicides Advocacy Coalition (AMAG) and has demonstrated a rich experience of community-centric responses to AIDS globally. Read more

To listen to the audio podcast, click here
It is well understood that both the efficacy and effectiveness of HIV Prevention research trial products (such as microbicides) depends upon their actual use by the clinical trial participants. "Use is a function of human behaviour and action that is affected by an individual, interpersonal, social, and cultural factors that operate interactively in complex, dynamic and varied ways across settings" said Dr Judith D Auerbach, Vice President for Science and Public Policy at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, USA. Read more

Their scientific methods may have been quite different, but their conclusions were not. In asking whether drug resistance could be a problem if antiretroviral (ARV) drugs become a mainstay for HIV prevention, the two studies - one involving a mathematical model and the other assays of cells and tissue - arrived at the same answer. Resistance could happen if people who are unknowingly already infected use the approach. The results of these studies, which were reported today at the International Microbicides Conference (M2010) in Pittsburgh, USA, underscore the importance of incorporating routine HIV testing and ongoing monitoring of infection status in any prevention program that involves the use of ARVs. Read more

A flexible ring containing two anti-HIV drugs showed in laboratory tests that it can deliver therapeutic levels of both drugs for up to 30 days, researchers reported at the International Microbicides Conference (M2010) in Pittsburgh, USA, adding that they consider the ring near ready for testing of its safety in women. Read more