CNS

75% diabetic-foot related lower limb amputations preventable

Nearly 25% of people with diabetes face diabetic foot related complications in their lifetime. “People with diabetes can develop many different foot problems. Even ordinary problems can get worse and lead to serious complications. Foot problems most often happen when there is nerve damage, also called neuropathy, which results in loss of feeling in your feet. Poor blood flow or changes in the shape of your feet or toes may also cause problems” said Dr Gyan Chand, Associate Professor, Breast and Endocrine Surgery Department, Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS).

Dr Sandeep Pandey, CNS Columnist
On 17th February, 2014, some 300 students of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) took out a march through the campus against the multinational giants Pepsi and Coca Cola on Banares Hindu University (BHU) campus in Varanasi. There is a plant of Coca Cola in Mehdiganj, Rajatalab on the Varanasi-Allahabad highway about 20 km outside Varanasi where a farmers' movement has been going on against Coke for the last decade. In 2003 and 2004 there were big protests outside the plant on which lathi charges were ordered and hundreds of farmers went to jail. The march by IIT students was in support of the farmers.

Dr Rahul Pandey, CNS Columnist
In a short period of time the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has shaken up India’s political landscape by offering an honest alternative to the mainstream national parties, specifically the Congress and the BJP. This article is an attempt to understand AAP’s credibility on certain crucial dimensions, namely, the integrity of senior leadership; their policy agenda for the underprivileged sections of society; and for the economy and business sector. While doing so, a brief comparison of AAP with BJP and Congress is also attempted. High personal integrity of senior leaders is a fundamental pre-requisite for good governance. It is a starting condition for a party to collectively try to envision an India without vested self interests.

Alice Tembe, CNS Correspondent
Akin to the biblical and religious association to the end-times, unprecedented events occur and humanity perpetuates its own destruction. Having survived atomic bombs, years of epidemic diseases like the Ebola, Human Immune-deficiency Virus and its associate Tuberculosis, the establishment of a chemical mixture to suppress a craving for another equally destructive chemical like nicotine defies the logic to save the human race.

Chhatra Karki, CNS Correspondent
Tobacco companies all over the world are selling Electronic Cigarettes (E-Cigarettes) under the banner of 'safe smoking' in times when 5.4 million people die every year from tobacco related causes. Globally, various campaigns against smoking are on their feet while at the same time the increasing use of E-Cigarettes threatens to thwart all the commendable work done by tobacco control activists.

The gender insensitive leadership of AAP

Dr Sandeep Pandey, CNS Columnist

The comment made by Kumar Vishwas on nurses from Kerala and the Delhi Law Minister’s insistence that Delhi police raid a place which he alleged was being used to run a sex and drug racket have exposed certain weakness of the AAP party. Since it is a party created in a hurry obviously its cadres have not received any kind of training, leave aside ideological training. Unfortunately the top leadership of AAP is bereft of any prominent female member or anybody with feminist outlook.

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.

More than 100 community stakeholders and activists met in New Delhi on 6th February 2014 for a national consultation on Section 377 and for the launch of a new advocacy campaign, '207 against 377' initiated by Pehchan— a 5 year programme (funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria) that works in 17 states of India in close collaboration with India's National AIDS Control Programme to strengthen and build the capacity of community-based organizations to advance and focus on HIV prevention in vulnerable sexual minorities like men who have sex with men, transgenders and hijras.

Swapna Majumdar - CNS
It was just by chance that Renuka Prasad discovered a pea-sized lump in her breast in 1997. After ignoring it for a couple of days, she consulted a local gynaecologist in Bhatinda, Punjab, where her husband, an army Corp Commander, was posted. She was reassured when the doctor told her that the mammogram showed fatty tissues probably due to hormonal changes in her body – at 49, she was approaching menopause.

World Cancer Day: 4th February
Despite alarming cancer rates globally, with worst impact in low- and middle-income countries, one is forced to ponder if we really believe in 'cancer prevention is better than cure'. Cancer treatment is challenging and expensive, with very worrying 5-year survival rates (average 5-year survival varies for different cancers). Still evidence-based list of cancer prevention action-points is lying neglected in most low- and middle-income countries around the world.

Break the silence around cancer

Shobha Shukla - CNS

The focus of this year's World Cancer Day (4 February 2014) is on Target 5 of the World Cancer Declaration: Reduce stigma and dispel myths about cancer, under the tagline 'Debunk the myths' (the 4 myths of-- we do not need to talk about cancer; there are no symptoms of cancer; there is nothing I can do about cancer; I do not have the right to cancer care). Myths indeed these are, and coupled with gender inequities, they restrict women in low resource settings from accessing essential cancer services for early detection and cancer prevention programme.

'Change the Girl's Journey and Change the World'

Swapna Majumdar - CNS

Kate Gilmour UNFPA

If all adolescents in the world were put together they would be the size of India, a country with a population of over 1.2 billion. More than half of the world’s young people entering their reproductive years live in the Asia Pacific. Yet, the young people in this region, many of whom live in poverty, are denied access to sexual and reproductive health information and services. "Their rights are violated, denied and betrayed. It is no wonder that South Asia has the highest levels of child marriage in the world. Six million adolescent pregnancies occur in Asia Pacific, 90 per cent inside marriage. Clearly, very few have autonomy over their bodies," said Kate Gilmour, Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director (Programme), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Shobha Shukla - CNS
Social media is an effective means to promote broader public discourse on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) by translating technical information into forms that are easily understood by a young audience globally, thus educating them about SRHR issues and, more importantly, correct the misinformation - taboos, stigma and superstition, including religious extremism - that negates SRHR. It is a versatile tool treating people as agents of social change and not mere numbers.At the 7th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights (7th APCRSHR) held recently in Manila, experiences of Philippines, India, Cambodia and Pakistan on the relevance of social media in engaging youth for meaningful dialogues on SRHR were discussed at length.

"Eight tips for using Twitter around health-related events" was first prepared by @francetim (Inis Communication) and @GlobalHealthTom in collaboration with CNS and was launched at the 11th International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. Since then it has adapted and used by delegates of various health-related events around the world (and those not attending but following these events online). Most recently it was adapted and disseminated by Union International for Cancer Control (UICC)/ World Cancer Day, Inis Communication and CNS. This brief guide provides eight simple tips to make the most of one social media platform – Twitter – around the World Cancer Day (4th February 2014). Please contact Inis Communication for getting this guide adapted to your health event!

Long road to justice and equality for LGBTI people

Shobha Shukla, CNS Columnist
The recently concluded 7th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights (7th APCRSHR) in Manila saw some interesting discussions on protecting and advancing Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity (SOGI) rights and improving their access to Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services. While LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex people) form a sizeable population in Asia, their general and unique health needs are largely ignored or at the best seen through the HIV lens. Facing rejection and discrimination, even within the family and community, they are subject to violence in various forms - physical, psychological, sexual, economic and social. And yet they generally do not report cases out of fear of exposure, ignorance of the law, and due to self- stigma.

Smoking Goes Electronic

Shobha Shukla - CNS

[हिंदी] ‘Smoke healthy, Lite-joy-- A better alternative'; ‘Health e-cigarettes—Smoke and Quit Whenever'; 'Vapours- benefits of e-cigarettes'; 'Green-Smart-Living - easiest and most affordable way to start living a smoke-free life'... These are just a few of the several online advertisements one comes across these days-- all glorifying electronic cigarettes.

Shobha Shukla - CNS
Worldwide, a woman dies of cervical cancer every two minutes, taking the annual toll to 275,000. The disease is preventable, and yet the second largest killer of women in low and middle income countries, with most women dying in the prime of life. According to the Cervical Cancer Global Crisis Card, India tops the chart in cervical cancer deaths with nearly 73,000 women dying every year, representing 26.4% of the global deaths.

Swapna Majumdar - CNS
Over three million children died before their fifth birthday in 2010 alone in the Asia Pacific region. Thousands of mothers continue to die unnecessarily while giving birth with this region accounting for close to half of the nearly 500,000 maternal deaths recorded annually across the world. Many of these deaths can be prevented if sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services are accessible and affordable. It is here that innovative government health programmes can make a difference.

Photo credit: Swapna Majumdar

Swapna Majumdar - CNS

In India, 17 percent of female sex workers reported starting to sell sex under the age of 15 years.
In Maldives and Papua New Guinea, the median age reported among female sex workers ranged from 17-19 years (across surveyed sites), as compared to a range of 22-24 years of age in sites in Cambodia, Malaysia and Pakistan.
In Pakistan, 'hijras' (transgender persons) and male sex workers reported starting to sell sex at a mean age of 16 years.

Swapna Majumdar - CNS
[7th APCRSHR Images] Twenty years after the path breaking International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo, millions of women and adolescents, particularly the poor and marginalised, in Asia and the Pacific continue to face inequalities in access to reproductive and sexual health and rights.

Dr Eden R Divinagracia,
Chair, 7th APCRSHR (right)

Shobha Shukla - CNS
The theme of the 7th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights (7th APCRSHR), which opened in Manila on 21st January, 2014, is: Examining achievements, good practices, lessons learned and challenges: towards a strategic positioning of Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights. In an interview given to Citizen News Service (CNS), Dr Eden R Divinagracia, Executive Director, Philippine NGO Council on Population, Health and Welfare, and Chair of 7th APCRSHR lamented that currently abortions are illegal and unconstitutional in Philippines, and yet the country has more than 500,000 cases of abortions every year.

Photo credit: CAMI-IMPT

Shobha Shukla - CNS
[7th APCRSHR Images] Millions of women and girls around the world are still unable to protect themselves from sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Over 1 million people contract a sexually transmitted infection every day, half of whom are young people - mostly women. In fact women are 5 times more likely to get STIs than men. Also, currently 222 million women have an unmet need for contraception and approximately 290,000 women in developing countries die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth every year.

"Eight tips for using Twitter around health-related events" was first prepared by @francetim (Inis Communication) and @GlobalHealthTom in collaboration with CNS and was launched at the 11th International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. Since then it has adapted and used by delegates of various health-related events around the world (and those not attending but following these events online). Most recently it was adapted and disseminated by Mulat Pinoy, CNS and Inis Communication at 7th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights (7th APCRSHR). This brief guide provides eight simple tips to make the most of one social media platform – Twitter – around 7th APCRSHR. Please contact Inis Communication for getting this guide adapted to your health event!

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: A distant reality?

(Based on an interview with Dr Amita Pandey, Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, King George's Medical University - KGMU)

[7th APCRSHR Images] Before 7th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights (7th APCRSHR) opens in Manila later this week, Citizen News Service (CNS) spoke with Dr Amita Pandey on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) challenges in India.

- Those children who were left out can receive their dose on 28th January -
Over 1.7 crore children in Bihar were targeted for deworming treatment using Albendazole, on 23rd January. Albendazole is drug recommended by the World Health Organization to combat parasitic worms, and has been safely used to treat hundreds of millions of children worldwide.

Citizen News Service (CNS) is pleased to announce that it is currently accepting applications for new fellows for its CNS Health Fellowship Programme 2014. This programme offers mentorship, peer support, networking opportunities, and technical assistance to health writers on neglected health priorities.

[हिंदी] Rehabilitating communal violence survivors is State's responsibility, was echoed by the members of Socialist Party (India) in their procession and demonstration in UP state capital of Lucknow on 8th January 2014. Since permission was not granted to Socialist Party (India) to hold the demonstration at Gandhi Pratima in Lucknow city-centre (Hazratganj), the administration received the memorandum from them, after which this demonstration converted into a procession that marched to Lakshman Mela grounds where it continued the protest till the evening.

'Why I am not in Aam Aadmi Party?'

Dr Sandeep Pandey, Magsaysay Awardee and CNS Columnist

[First published in Tehelka] Some friends are calling to suggest that I should join Aam Aadmi Party while others want to know whether they should join. Some think that I am close to AAP and want me to recommend their names as candidate for the next general elections from their respective constituencies while some experts of different fields are offering their services for the benefit of schemes for poor to be implemented by AAP in Delhi.

Beginning of a novel experiment in politics

Dr Sandeep Pandey, Magsaysay Awardee and CNS Columnist

With the formation of Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi the country is going to witness a novel experiment in politics. The first target has been the VIP culture. Arvind Kejriwal has refused to accept security, beacon fitted vehicle and a government bunglow not only for himself but all his ministers. In a country where most people become politician to avail of all these facilities it is going to be a trend setting decision. In fact, the facilities given to people’s representatives and bureaucrats should be drastically cut down. This is an unnecessary wastage and burden on the tax payer.

Hom L. Shrestha - CNS
The World Health Organization (WHO) and its allies are taking a bold step to challenge Big Tobacco’s bullying and ‘intimidation by litigation’ by exposing the undue influences of Tobacco Industry (TI) and are responding to the industry’s disregard to the sovereignty of governments to protect health of its citizens. The WHO FCTC (Framework Convention on Tobacco Control) enshrines effective tobacco control initiatives across the globe and has been ratified by 175 countries, protecting nearly 90% of the world’s population from tobacco health hazards. Article 5.3 of FCTC guidelines explicitly recognizes the need to protect tobacco control programmes from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry.

Shaleen Rakesh - CNS

On 11 December 2013, the streets outside the Supreme Court of India thronged with a dazed crowd, hugging, sobbing and not quite sure what had happened. Inside the hushed courtroom, the judges had just passed a devastating ruling. Lesbians, gays, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) in India had once again been labelled as criminals. Section 377, the 149-year-old colonial law that banned gay sex, had been upheld by the Highest Court of Law of India saying that amending or repealing Section 377 should be a matter left to Parliament, not the judiciary.

Despite evidence to prevent occupational exposure to HIV for surgeons and other healthcare providers, people living with HIV (PLHIV) requiring surgical procedures for treatment often face heightened stigma and get discriminated within healthcare settings. But all is not that black and there are surgeons who have championed the cause of treating PLHIV without stigma and challenged discrimination in healthcare settings as well. Few of these surgeon-heroes were sharing their experiences of over 20 years in treating PLHIV at the 6th National Conference of AIDS Society of India (ASICON 2013).

"Co-infections and HIV beget each other": Dr Dilip Mathai

(This article is based upon a CNS interview with Professor (Dr) Dilip Mathai, Dean, Apollo Institute of Medical Sciences and Research)

Dr Dilip Mathai (left): ASICON 2013

HIV in today's context is a chronic condition of the human immune system. HIV is a retrovirus and the infection leads to a progressive reduction in the number of CD4+ T-helper cells (so called because CD4 glycoprotein is found on their surface) which are an essential part of the human immune system. They are the main targets of HIV which destroys infected CD4 cells leading to an overall weakening of the immune system, said Dr Dilip Mathai, Dean, Apollo Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, and former Head of Medicine Department, Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore.