WHO sees good progress on U.N. health goals for poor
(Reuters) – Far fewer children are dying and rates of malnutrition, HIV and tuberculosis are declining thanks to good progress on health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.
In its annual health report for 2010, the U.N. body said some countries had made impressive gains, although others may struggle to meet some of the 2015 targets.
“With five years remaining to the MDG deadline in 2015 there are some striking improvements,” said the report, which is based on data collected from WHO’s 193 member states.
Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mozambique and Rwanda had made progress on child mortality despite facing difficulties, WHO said.
However the group said global results mask inequalities between countries, and some nations’ progress had been slowed by conflict, poor governance or humanitarian and economic crises.
The Millennium Development Goals were set in 2000 by 189 heads of state seeking to drive global policy to tackle poverty, hunger, ill-health and lack of access to clean water, among other things.
The key findings of WHO’s report were that:
* Fewer children are dying, with annual global deaths of children under five falling to 8.8 million in 2008 – down by 30 percent since 1990;
* The estimated percentage of underweight children under five has dropped from 25 percent in 1990 to 16 percent in 2010;
* The proportion of births attended by a skilled health worker has increased globally, but in the Africa and southeast Asia fewer than 50 percent of all births were attended;
* New HIV infections have declined by 16 percent globally from 2001 to 2008. In 2008, 2.7 million people contracted the human immunodeficiency virus which causes AIDS, and there were 2 million HIV/AIDS-related deaths;
* Existing cases of tuberculosis are declining, along with deaths among HIV-negative tuberculosis cases;
* The world is on track to achieve the MDG target on access to safe drinking water, but more needs to be done to achieve the sanitation target.
The water and sanitation goals call for the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation to be halved by 2015 from levels in 2000.
The WHO report found that the percentage of the world’s population with access to safe drinking water had increased from 77 percent to 87 percent, a rate of improvement it said would hit the MDG target if it keeps up.
“In low-income countries, however, the annual rate of increase needs to double in order to reach the target and a gap persists between urban and rural areas in many countries,” the report said.
On sanitation, the progress was less good: in 2008, 2.6 billion people had no access to a hygienic toilet and 1.1 billion were still defecating in the open, it said.
Poor sewerage can spread dangerous infections such as viral hepatitis and cholera.
The slowest improvement has been in Africa, where the percentage of the population using toilets or latrines increased from 30 percent in 1990 to 34 percent in 2008.
Reference Link
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6494TI20100511?feedType=nl&feedName=ushealth1100
Courtesy
Thomson Reuters.
Next step to stop oil: Throw garbage at it
- BP officials considering “junk shot” to try to clog blowout container with debris
- Crystals accumulated inside containment dome, rendering it ineffective
- Dome moved to side of wellhead while crews work to overcome the challenge, BP CEO says
- Placing dome over well 5,000 feet underwater had never been tried at such a depth
Venice, Louisiana (CNN) — BP working on ‘parallel paths’ to stop oil gush, company says By the CNN Wire Staff
VENICE, Louisiana (CNN) — BP is working “parallel paths” to fix an oil well blowout that is dumping 210,000 gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico a day, the energy company’s chief operating officer said Monday.
The failure over the weekend of a four-story dome to cap the leak has led BP to move on to other options, including the use of a smaller chamber over the leak and shooting garbage into the gaping hole to try to plug the gusher, said Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer for exploration and production.
The company also is considering placing a valve or a new blowout preventer on top of the existing one, which is not functioning, Suttles told CNN’s “American Morning” program. As the name suggests, a blowout preventer is a device that is supposed to clamp shut over a leaking wellhead.
In addition, Suttles said, BP is drilling a relief well to try to divert the flow onto another pipe.
“What we’re going to do is keep developing options until we get this flow stopped,” Suttles said.
The oil spill started April 20, after an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
Eleven oil rig workers remain missing and are presumed dead.
The rig sank April 22 about 50 miles (80 km) off the southeast coast of Louisiana, and the untapped wellhead is gushing about 5,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico.
On Friday, BP lowered the massive containment vessel over the well to cap the larger of two leak points. But that plan was thwarted Saturday after ice-like hydrate crystals formed when gas combined with water blocked the top of the dome and made it buoyant.
BP has already built the smaller dome and it is already available, Suttles said Monday. That device would keep most of the water out at the beginning of the capping process and would allow engineers to pump in methanol to keep the hydrates from forming, Suttles said.
Methanol is a simple alcohol that can be used as an antifreeze.
The process of stopping the gusher with garbage is called a “junk shot” or a “top kill.” Under that procedure, debris such as shredded up tires, golf balls and similar objects would be shot under extremely high pressure into the blowout preventer in an attempt to clog it and stop the leak.
Work also has begun on the relief well, Suttles said Monday.
“That started about a week ago,” Suttles said. “That work continues. The well is at about 9,000 feet. About 5,000 feet of that is the water depth. Then the rest is drilling below the sea floor. We’re slightly ahead of plan here. These are complex tasks, but we’re making very good process.”
President Barack Obama plans to meet with Cabinet members Monday afternoon to review BP’s efforts and to review response efforts to the oil slick, the White House said Sunday.
Hundreds of thousands of feet of boom and large volumes of dispersants continued to be deployed in an effort to capture or break up the spilled oil moving toward the Gulf coastline. Thousands of workers and volunteers also have been skimming the water’s surface.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasters warned that the Mississippi Delta, Breton Sound, Chandeleur Islands and areas directly north could see oil hit the coast by Tuesday. And scientists are analyzing tar balls found on a beach on Dauphin Island, Alabama, to determine whether they were caused by the oil spill, Coast Guard spokesman Erik Swanson said.
The tar balls are “pieces of emulsified oil” shaped like pancakes, ranging in size from dimes to golf balls, but can sometimes occur naturally, Swanson said.
The U.S. Coast Guard had tallied six oiled birds that died since the slick formed last month, Swanson said Sunday, though the cause of death is still being determined. Four additional oiled birds have been cleaned, Swanson said.
The stakes are high for residents of coastal Louisiana who make their living from fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil washed ashore Thursday on Louisiana’s barrier islands and drifted west past the mouth of the Mississippi River.
The government has closed parts of the Gulf to fishing.
“It’s killing everybody down here, everybody is more or less getting ulcers worrying about this, and it’s something we experienced five years ago with (Hurricane) Katrina,” charter boat owner Tom Becker told CNN Saturday.
Federal investigators are still trying determining what caused the explosion that sunk the Deepwater Horizon, which was owned by BP contractor Transocean Ltd.
BP is legally required to cover economic damages from the spill up to $75 million. But Florida Sen. Bill Nelson has introduced legislation that would raise the liability cap to $10 billion.
“If this gusher continues for several months, it’s going to cover up the Gulf Coast and it’s going to get down into the loop current and that’s going to take it down the Florida Keys and up the east coast of Florida, and you are talking about massive economic loss to our tourism, our beaches, to our fisheries, very possibly disruption of our military testing and training,” Nelson said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
BP already has started to pay some fishermen for lost wages, Suttles said Monday.
“We’re getting them checks,” he said. “People go and make their claim and leave with a check. What we’re trying to do is minimize the immediate impact. Longer term, I’m sure we’ll have to work that out.
“We’re moving swiftly to get these people who are predominantly displaced from working. Get them money so they can buy their groceries and we can offset the impact until we get this thing resolved.”
Engineers are examining whether they can close a failed blowout preventer by stuffing it with trash, said Adm. Thad Allen, the commandant of the Coast Guard. The 48-foot-tall, 450-ton device sits atop the well at the heart of the Gulf oil spill and is designed to stop leaks, but it has not been working properly since the oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20 and later sank.
“The next tactic is going to be something they call a junk shot,” Allen told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “They’ll take a bunch of debris — shredded up tires, golf balls and things like that — and under very high pressure, shoot it into the preventer itself and see if they can clog it up and stop the leak.”
Oil company BP, the well’s owner, had attempted to lower a four-story containment vessel over the well to cap the larger of the well’s two leak points. But that plan was thwarted Saturday after ice-like hydrate crystals, formed when gas combined with water, blocked the top of the dome and made it buoyant.
BP said it has not abandoned the dome plan. But Doug Suttles, the company’s chief operating officer, told reporters that officials are considering the “junk shot” along with other possible solutions.
Suttles said Saturday that trying to stuff shut the blowout preventer had not yet been attempted because of possible challenges and risks. And Allen said the approach had worked in the past, but never so deep beneath the water’s surface.
“We’re working at 5,000 feet of depth, which has never been done before,” he said.
The dome was resting on the seabed Sunday while crews tried to find a way to deal with the crystals — a process that could take two days, Suttles told reporters Saturday.
Officials are considering heating the dome or adding methanol to dissolve the hydrates, he said. If the hydrate problem is resolved, BP hopes to connect the dome to a drill ship and to begin sucking oil from the containment dome.
President Obama plans to meet with Cabinet members Monday afternoon to review BP’s efforts to stop the oil leak and to review response efforts to the oil slick, the White House said Sunday.
An estimated 210,000 gallons (5,000 barrels) of crude is pouring from the well every day. Hundreds of thousands of feet of boom and large volumes of dispersants continued to be deployed in an effort to capture or break up the spilled oil moving toward the Gulf coastline, and thousands of workers and volunteers worked to skim the water’s surface.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasters warned that the Mississippi Delta, Breton Sound, the Chandeleur Islands and areas directly north could see oil hit the coast by Tuesday, and significant winds could push oil west of the Mississippi River Delta by Monday. And scientists are analyzing tar balls found on a beach on Dauphin Island, Alabama, to determine whether they were caused by the oil spill, and Coast Guard spokesman Erik Swanson said.
The tar balls are “pieces of emulsified oil” shaped like pancakes, ranging in size from dimes to golf balls, but can sometimes occur naturally, Swanson said.
The U.S. Coast Guard has tallied six oiled birds that have died since the slick formed last month, Swanson said Sunday, though the cause of death is still being determined. Four additional oiled birds have been cleaned, Swanson said.
A college student in Waveland, Mississippi, e-mailed CNN pictures of thousands of dead fish she found washed up on the beach near her home Saturday. Sabrina Bradford, a student at the University of Mississippi, identified the fish as menhaden, which are often used as bait or as meal to feed farm-raised fish.
But William Hawkins, director of the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory at the University of Southern Mississippi, said the dead fish aren’t necessarily a result of the oil slick. The fish could have died in a pocket of low-oxygen water or could have fallen out of a torn fishing net, he said.
The stakes are high for residents of coastal Louisiana who make their living by fishing in the Gulf. Oil washed ashore Thursday on Louisiana’s barrier islands and drifted west past the mouth of the Mississippi River.
“It’s killing everybody down here, everybody is more or less getting ulcers worrying about this, and it’s something we experienced five years ago with [Hurricane] Katrina,” charter-boat owner Tom Becker told CNN Saturday.
Federal investigators are still trying determining what caused the explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon, owned by BP contractor Transocean Ltd. The explosion left 11 men presumed dead aboard the rig and caused the massive underwater gusher that the company and the federal government have been trying to cap since late April.
Suttles said Saturday that senior BP employees, including the company’s vice president for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, were on board the rig at the time of the explosion discussing its positive safety performance.
“This rig had an outstanding record,” he said.
All six BP employees on board were among the 111 people who escaped from the burning rig, Suttles said.
BP is legally required to cover economic damages from the spill up to $75 million. But Florida Sen. Bill Nelson has introduced legislation that would raise the liability cap to $10 billion.
“If this gusher continues for several months, it’s going to cover up the Gulf Coast and it’s going to get down into the loop current and that’s going to take it down the Florida Keys and up the east coast of Florida, and you are talking about massive economic loss to our tourism, our beaches, to our fisheries, very possibly disruption of our military testing and training,” Nelson said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Reference Link
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/05/09/gulf.oil/index.html
Courtesy
Cable News Network.
Gates backs 78 new projects for health innovation
Microsoft Corporation founder Bill Gates at Columbia University in New York November 12, 2009.
(Reuters) – Efforts to develop a vaccine triggered by human sweat, and to control mosquitoes using carnivorous plants, were among 78 science projects that won backing from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Tuesday.
The foundation, a $34 billion fund that is run by the multi-billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates and invests in scientific projects broadly aimed at improving global health, said each project would get a $100,000 grant for further study.
Other winning projects include developing a low-cost cell phone microscope to diagnose malaria, using ultrasound as a reversible male contraceptive, insecticide-treated scarves and using imaging systems to seek and destroy parasites with a targeted laser vaccine.
“We are convinced that some of these ideas will lead to innovations and eventually solutions that will save lives,” Tachi Yamada, of the Gates Foundation’s global health program, said in a statement.
The foundation said winners were from universities, research institutes and non-profit organizations in 18 countries around the world.
One group of scientists in Germany will use their grant to develop nanoparticles that penetrate the skin through hair follicles and burst on contact with human sweat to release vaccines.
Grants will also help researchers investigate new ways to fight malaria: one team is trying to see whether treating traditional scarves worn by migrant workers along the Thai-Cambodia border with insecticide will reduce drug-resistant malaria; in Uganda, a team is testing the ability of insect-eating plants to reduce the number of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes.
Scientists in the United States will use the grant to study the ability of ultrasound to temporarily deplete testicular sperm counts for possible use as new male contraceptive.
The grants were awarded by the foundation’s Grand Challenges Explorations scheme – a five-year $100 million initiative which seeks to promote innovation in global health.
Gates, the world’s richest man, is co-founder of Microsoft Corp and remains chairman of the company, although he focuses much of his attention on the foundation.
Since opening in 1994, the foundation has handed out more than $21 billion in grants.
Reference Link
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64A3I320100511?feedType=nl&feedName=ushealth1100
Courtesy
Thomson Reuters
World Bank boosts focus on reproductive health
A Sudanese woman carries her child in their home outside Sudan’s capital Khartoum April 17, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The World Bank said on Tuesday it will focus more on tackling high fertility rates and maternal deaths in poor countries, warning that family planning and other reproductive health services have fallen off the radar of many governments, donors and aid agencies.
In releasing a new 5-year Reproductive Health Action Plan, the World Bank said it would increase lending to reduce high fertility rates and prevent deaths of mothers and their children in 58 developing countries.
It will do this by increasing access to contraceptives, encouraging more frequent prenatal visits for pregnant women, expanding education on the subject and investing more in training new health workers.
Bank health financing tripled to a record $4.1 billion in fiscal year 2010 ending June, a 40 percent increase over the previous year’s record.
That said, lending to reduce high fertility or improve access to family planning accounted for only 4 percent of the Bank’s health portfolio over the last decade, dropping by two-thirds between the first and second half of the decade.
“A mother’s unnecessary death in childbirth is not just a human tragedy, it is also an economic and social catastrophe” said Julian Schweitzer, acting vice president of human development at the World Bank.
Some 350,000 women die each year, mainly in developing countries, due to complications associated with pregnancy and child birth.
Many women in poor countries use abortions as a last-resort means of birth control. Some 68,000 women die each year due to unsafe and illegal abortions, while another 5.3 million suffer temporary or permanent disability, the Bank said.
Meanwhile, new World Bank figures show that while development aid for health skyrocketed almost five-fold to $14 billion in 2007 from $2.9 billion in 1995, funding for population and reproductive health services increased by just $1.9 billion from $901 million during the same period.
In the 35 highest-fertility countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, funding for women’s family planning and reproductive programs began at $150 million in 1995 and increased to $432 million in 2007. Meanwhile, overall aid for health in the same countries went from $915 million in 1995 to $4.9 billion in 2007.
Reference Link
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64A53620100511?feedType=nl&feedName=ushealth1100
Courtesy
Thomson Reuters
Success against all odds
Six out of seven students of Kaliyuva Mane pass SSLC exam
Many of them had dropped out of school and were child labourers
Next batch of children in the organisation will take up SSLC exam in 2012
Worth a mention: Kaliyuva Mane in Mysore takes care of underprivileged children and specialises in alternative mode of learning.
Mysore: Never mind the numbers. But the odds against which the results were achieved make it a success story worth emulating.
For, six out of seven students of Kaliyuva Mane (Home for Learning) cleared the SSLC examination. What makes their efforts spectacular is that the students are from the underprivileged section of society and had dropped out of schools and were also employed as child labourers.
But thanks to the intervention of Divya Deepa Charitable Trust, which runs the Kaliyuva Mane at Kenchalagudu village on the Manathavady Road, these students passed the examination. The school, which specialises in alternative mode of learning, is driven by a belief that each child learns things in which it is interested, at is own pace. So, the students who had dropped out without completing their high school had to start from a scratch but managed to squeeze in 10 years of conventional education within four years of learning. The school caters to the needs of the underprivileged children and those from below the poverty line families, and those who have not attended school.
The numbers may seem insignificant for those familiar with assembly line production of distinction holders in mainstream educational institutions.
But for these children who had no hope of education and had given up on learning, it is a major milestone and holds out hope for the millions like them.
M.R. Ananth Kumar of Divya Deepa Charitable Trust explained: “What makes this feat so special and satisfying is that each of them hailed from rural BPL family. Most of them are first generation school-goers. Some had dropped out from mainstream schools due to various reasons”.
So meet the young achievers some of whom will take up vocational course to rebuild their life. Prashanth (19 years) was studying in a local government school but compulsions of life made him quit the school in 2003 and he did not complete his seventh standard. He left school to work as a child labourer at Ooty, Coimbatore and Hassan at a tender age of 12 and help his mother who is a domestic maid. By a quirk of fate, he opted for a job in Kaliyuva Mane. But, the trustees of the organisation put him to their alternative learning school.
So is the case of Sachin who is 15 years old. His father is a mason and Sachin considered to be a slow learner, lost interest in studies by the time he could complete 5th standard. Eventually, his parents brought him to Kaliyuva Mane where he began his studies from a scratch.
Nanjunda Swamy (21 years) was studying in government higher primary school at Mellahalli. In the year 2000 when he was 11 years old, he lost interest in going to school and bid good bye to it without completing the 5th standard. But he was brought to Kaliyuva Mane where he continued his education after a gap of nearly 7 years by which time he had forgotten to recognise even Kannada alphabets and numbers.
Narayana (15) used to attend a local school in his village but was least interested in studies. But his brother, who was a beneficiary of the Kaliyuva Mane, brought him to the institution and today Narayana has completed his SSLC.
Similarly, Santosh had dropped out after 7th standard and was tending sheep. So was Mahesha (15) of Dhanagahalli whose father is a construction worker. Mahesha joined Kaliyuva Mane in 2006, and has passed the exams with a first class.
Mr. Ananth Kumar said this was the first batch which appeared for the SSLC and a few more students will appear for the examination in 2012.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/11/stories/2010051157310300.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
A bus evoking green thoughts
Eco concerns:Forest Minister Benoy Viswom flagging off the ‘Rahma Green Messenger’ bus from the mofussil bus stand in the city on Monday.
Kozhikode: With the monsoon just a few weeks away, it’s an eco-campaign with a difference. An ordinary bus has been transformed into a piece of forest with huge trees, wild rivulets and massive rocks sculpted on the outer body. Inside, the bus is turned into a home theatre ready to screen videos urging viewers to save the earth by planting trees and conserving rain water. It also has a plethora of similar messages displayed in different forms calling upon the spectators to do something for the earth with great urgency.
With an amused crowd watching the unusual ‘bus’ on the road all set to roll on, Forests Minister Benoy Viswom flagged off the ‘Rahma Green Messenger’ mobile exhibition bus on the premises of the Mofussil bus stand on Monday morning.
The exhibition, which is aimed at spreading the message of water conservation and environmental protection, is part of a six-month long eco-campaign organised by Rahma, a social service project recently launched by a collective of earth-lovers, philanthropists and community leaders.
The Green Messenger, which will travel across six districts of Malabar, will stop at several points in all these districts and let the public watch DVDs and slide-shows on water conservation and environmental awareness.
“Sending a message of water conservation to save our earth from an acute drinking water shortage is one of the main objectives of our campaign,” said a Rahma member.
Precious rain water
On an average, Kerala receives 3,000 mm rain annually, which is well above the national average. “But we are able to save only five per cent of it and the rest ends up in the sea in no time,” he said.
Studies have found that around 30 per cent of the rain water can be conserved if people take effective measures. “The Green Messenger is out to spread this valuable message to all,” he said.
According to the organisers, the Green Messenger will be given receptions by environmental activists and socio-cultural organisations in all the districts.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/11/stories/2010051156020300.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
Taking a ‘sweet revenge'
Success of farm club’s initiative to grow watermelons
Rich harvest:Farmers harvesting watermelons from Parakulam Nilam, near Kakkodi, on Monday.
Kozhikode: It is a harvest of sweet revenge for the members of the Karshaka Mithra Farmers’ Club at Parakkulam Nilam, near Kakkodi, when they heap up the ripe watermelon in tonnes from the five-acre filed they cultivated together for the second time this year. Their “overwhelming success” in watermelon farming at a seemingly unbecoming area is a “fitting reply” to those who discouraged and mocked them when they ventured out with the plan last year.
With the patronage of NABARD and South Malabar Gramin Bank, the collective of farmers embarked on farming watermelon at a good stretch of land leased out for the purpose to have come out with flying colours.
There are more than 150 members in the club. And most of them participated in the initiative. The club found the basic capital for the venture by floating shares and through securing a Rs.1.5-lakh loan from a bank. They sought advice from the expert bodies including the Kerala Agricultural University and local agricultural offices for the purpose and managed to bring the “highbred” seeds from other States. They got good support such as the irrigation facilities arranged by the Chellannur block panchayat.
“And to boot, we were resorting to precision farming with advices from experts in the filed,” said Abraham Mathew, president of the club. “We have harvested only less than one-fourth of our total area today,” said Mr. Mathew adding that the yield was very good and came around three tonnes from less than one acre of filed.
He said the market rate of watermelon was “very high” (Rs.12 a kg) as it was the end of the season. “The quality also is very high with dense red colour inside and huge size for single pieces (around 12 kg),” said K.K. Ayyappan, farmer and executive committee member of the club.
Mr. Ayyappan said they had to face lot of criticism and ridicules from different quarters for selecting a crop no one had tried earlier in their part of the State.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/11/stories/2010051156030300.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
Now, mini-banks to provide crop loans
JAIPUR: Rajasthan Cooperative Minister Parsadilal Meena has announced simplification of the crop loan disbursement system while authorising cooperative mini-banks to provide these loans to farmers at the village level. Earlier, the farmers had to approach the Central Cooperative Bank’s branches for getting the loans.
Mr. Meena said here that the facility would be available at the mini-banks functioning in 3,341 village cooperative societies in the first phase. The crop loans are being disbursed through over 5,000 village cooperative societies across the State.
The Minister said the State Government had set the target for providing benefit of the cooperative crop loan disbursement system to 8 lakh farmers this year. Crop loans worth Rs.3,300 crore were disbursed in the State during the previous year, he added.
Reference Link
http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/11/stories/2010051155830300.htm
Courtesy
The Hindu
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