CNS

[Podcast] SDM Health Justice Lecture for June 2017: Food security for people with TB and/or HIV | Speaker: Dr KS Sachdeva

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions that occur due to imbalance of the body’s structural and biochemical processes which determine its metabolic functioning. It results in disorders like insulin resistance, clustering of abdominal obesity, high blood lipids, high blood sugar and hypertension, and increased risk of clotting, predisposing individuals to diabetes, stroke and coronary heart diseases.

[Webinar] How can we generate stronger action against NCDs?

[Podcast] Online briefing of 2017-2018 Bimla Misra Memorial Health Fellowship Programme

[Online briefing session] 2017-2018 Bimla Misra Memorial Health Fellowship Programme

[Webinar] How can we generate stronger action against Non-Communicable Diseases?

[Watch the webinar recording] One of the important outcomes of the 70th World Health Assembly held in May 2017 was a firm mandate from governments globally to generate stronger action against the non-communicable diseases (NCDs) that account for 70% premature deaths.Combating NCDs is "one of my priorities for the WHO" said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, newly elected WHO Director General.

[Watch lecture recording] [Listen or download lecture podcast] [presentation slides]
Dr Kuldeep Singh Sachdeva, Deputy Director General at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, has kindly consented to deliver the June 2017 e-talk as part of the Shanti Devi Memorial Health Justice Lecture Series.

Urgent measures needed for tobacco control: Experts

Aarti Dhar, CNS Correspondent, India

(First published in UC web portal)
Tobacco use kills more than 7 million people a year, and if urgent measures are not taken for tobacco control, this number will go up to 8 million each year by 2030, experts have warned. Tobacco-related illnesses are one of the biggest public health threats facing the world, even as tobacco use is one of the largest preventable causes of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

Barriers to HIV status disclosure

Catherine Mwauyakufa, CNS Correspondent, Zimbabwe
[First published in Manica Post]

HIV testing and counselling emphasises the importance of status disclosure between sexual partners. This is to encourage partners to also get tested. It helps prevent new infections. It increases opportunities for support and treatment for the one infected. But there are a number of reasons why one cannot not disclose his or her status after testing HIV positive.

Tobacco threatens the health of everyone

Francis Okoye, CNS Correspondent, Nigeria

Tobacco threatens the health of everyone on planet earth. ‘Tobacco kills nearly half of its users. 1/3 of the world is addicted to it, 1/3 of the world is poor, and 1/3 of the world suffers from TB. Tobacco kills 7 million people each year, 1 million of them being victims of second hand smoke. Tobacco use brings suffering, disease and death in its wake. It impoverishes families and national economics. 80% of premature death from tobacco are from poor, and middle income countries.’

Tobacco endgame is imperative for sustainable development

Dr Sophia Thomas, CNS Correspondent, India

It was my first clinical posting in the oral medicine department as a final year BDS (dental) student. A patient walked into the clinic nervously. He was a migrant daily wage construction worker in his late 20’s, married with 2 children. He complained of pain and multiple ulcers in the mouth. Upon careful examination, it looked like a case of oral cancer. I enquired about his smoking history and he admitted to have been smoking since he was 13 years old and also consumed chewable tobacco.

Food, nay tobacco, for thought

Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service - CNS

The curtain is finally down on the World No Tobacco Day 2017 and we are back to business as usual. There was a flurry of activities in my city, and elsewhere too, during the weeks preceding this day, reaching a crescendo on the 30th and 31st of May. Barring very few exceptions, the script of all the programmes/ discourses seemed to be taken from the same master copy.

Mrs Bimla Misra, who breathed her last on 12th September 2013 at the age of 84 years, is an example of living and dying with dignity and grace. True to her profession of an educationist, she taught her students till one month before her demise, and then donated her body to the cause of medical education to King George's Medical University (KGMU), sans any rituals.

[Watch video interview] [Listen or download this audio podcast] In this special World No Tobacco Day 2017 episode of CNS Focus interview series, we feature a special guest who has not only made lifetime contribution in medical oncology but also demonstrates leadership on cancer prevention, palliative care and advancing tobacco control: Prof (Dr) Bishnu Dutta Paudel, Professor of Medical Oncology, at the National Academy of Medical Sciences, Bir Hospital, Nepal, is also the Programme Director of Medical Oncology at NAMS, and member of Tobacco Tax Fund in Nepal. He was conferred upon the first Palliative Care Award for South Asian Region 5 years back. [Watch video interview] [Listen or download this audio podcast]

[Focus] At least one-third cancers are caused by preventable factor: tobacco

Prof (Dr) KC Mohanty is no more: Not afraid of death, his life was an example of what he taught

Emeritus Director Professor (Dr) Kishore Chandra Mohanty is no more. He died yesterday (1st June 2017) at Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital after a brief illness. Prof Mohanty's fond colleague, student and ardent supporter Dr Ishwar Gilada, President of AIDS Society of India, shared his heart-wrenching irreparable loss "On 29th May 2017, when I met him on my way to the airport (I was going to Hong Kong for a meeting), he held my hand and did not leave it for a long time. Perhaps he had had an intuition. Sir please transfer the balance of your courage to us and forgive us if we were short of our efforts anywhere - and this was because you were not available to guide us during last few days”.

Community togetherness for health benefits

Catherine Mwauyakufa, CNS Correspondent, Zimbabwe
[First published in Manica Post]

The state of HIV disclosure in rural areas is more open as compared to urban areas. Disclosure in rural communities is better managed at a community level, through well knit people living in the same geographical area. People hailing from the same village know who suffers from diabetes mellitus, hypertension and chronic backache or asthma.

Shanti Devi Memorial Health Justice Lecture Series

Shanti Devi Memorial Health Justice Lecture Series, is a series of online lectures/ e-talks exploring inter-sectoral solutions for specific health problems. Health is an outcome, determinant and enabler of sustainable development.

Tobacco farming should not be an occupational life choice

Alice Sagwidza Tembe, CNS Correspondent, Swaziland

Life always throws a rock and a hard place and, as individuals, every day we have to make a choice. This week I engaged a colleague, Rutendo Mamba (name changed) on the choices to be made regarding the use of tobacco. In no uncertain terms Rutendo expressed that shutting down the tobacco industry will rob a large population of a source of livelihood.

[World No Tobacco Day 2017 Webinar recording | Podcast] Although governments have promised sustainable development by 2030 by adopting UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but tobacco triggered pandemics threaten to stall or even reverse the progress made.

[Listen or download this Podcast] In this special World No Tobacco Day 2017 Podcast, let's listen to Ananda Bahadur Chand, Chairperson of Action Nepal, who is devotedly waging a fierce battle against tobacco in Nepal. Every tobacco related death can be averted and saving lives from premature deaths caused by tobacco is what drives Ananda Bahadur Chand. [Listen or download this Podcast]

[Focus] Saving lives from tobacco in Nepal is a human rights imperative

Equal partnerships are crucial to achieve Agenda 2030

Shobha Shukla, CNS (Citizen News Service)

[Listen or download this audio podcast] [Watch this video interview] The CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE) had organised a potentially game-changing meet in Bangkok to review the progress made on increasing effectiveness and accountability of civil society organisations (CSOs) since adoption of the Istanbul Principles seven years back and to brainstorm how Istanbul Principles can make Agenda 2030 a transformative one.

There is no doubt that groundbreaking progress has been made in fight against tuberculosis (TB) in the past two decades, but it might be prudent to review if we are winning the fight in order to #endTB by 2030. Do we slip backwards when we fail to prevent every single transmission of new TB infection or when a new person becomes resistant to anti-TB drugs? Are we sliding farther away from our #endTB goalpost, when we fail to ensure early diagnosis, effective treatment and successful cure?

Policy and harm reduction: What about the people?

Dr Ian Hodgson, CNS Correspondent

Speaking during the opening ceremony of the 25th Harm Reduction International Conference (#HR17), Montreal, Canada's Minister of Health, Jane Philpott, stated that, “Addiction is not a crime, or a moral failing, and not a bad choice, but a health problem.”

Connecting 'silos': Interdependence is key to #endTB in sustainable development era

When major weak-spots go beyond the purview of health ministry, inter-sectoral programming becomes critical to progress towards ending tuberculosis (TB) by 2030, globally. Indian government has committed to end TB by 2025 - a welcome political commitment indeed - but warrants urgent and unprecedented actions to muscle up the required pace to keep this promise.