Monday, 28 June 2010
MALNUTRITION: AFRICA: Not spending enough on food
JOHANNESBURG, 21 June 2010 (IRIN) - "Africa is now facing the same type of long-term food deficit problem that India faced in the early 1960s", says a paper by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), a US-based think-tank. In the early 1960s India faced a major food crisis. African countries are not spending enough on agriculture and the overall productivity of the continent has dropped since the mid-1980s, said the paper which looked at trends in public spending on agriculture in Africa. "Since the 1960s, Africa has lost ground in the global marketplace. Its share of total world agricultural exports fell from 6 percent in the 1970s to 2 percent in 2007," said the paper entitled, Public Spending for Agriculture in Africa: Trends and Composition. The paper was produced by researchers who work with IFPRI's Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS). Spending money on food production is critical in Africa, where 70 percent of people live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for food and income. There are also going to be more people to feed in Africa in the next few decades. Sub-Saharan Africa's population is expected to grow faster than elsewhere by 2050, increasing by 910 million people, or 108 percent; East and Southeast Asia's population is set to rise by only 228 million, or 11 percent, according to UN projections. Ten percent target In 2003, the continent adopted the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and countries committed to allocating 10 percent of their budgets to agriculture. Only eight African countries have reached or surpassed the 10 percent target, according to CAADP. Erratic weather could be turning the screws on food security in Africa as well. Drought-hit Niger features in the eight countries to have allocated the required 10 percent of their budget to agriculture to become food secure, but failed rains have driven more than three million of its people into food insecurity and pushed Niger back onto the list of food aid dependent countries where it last featured in 2004. The other countries to reach the 10 percent target are Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, Senegal, Zimbabwe and Malawi. There has been a 75 percent increase in the amount governments spend on agriculture from 2000 to 2005 but the CAADP target "remains unmet because of the very low initial base and the declining trends prior to 2000", says the IFPRI paper. The researchers used another measure - agricultural Gross Domestic Produce (GDP) - to assess the amount countries spend on agriculture. Babatunde Omilola, ReSAKSS coordinator explained how it was calculated. "This measure of government spending on agriculture weighs in the size of the sector in the overall economy and takes into account factors such as revenue generated and its impact on poverty reduction." "With the exception of Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe, African countries have spent less than 10 percent of their agricultural GDPs on agriculture in recent decades." Africa spends 5-7 percent as a share of agricultural GDP on food production, whereas Asia spent 8-10 percent. But the range in spending in Africa is quite considerable. "For example, Botswana had the highest percentage in 2005 at 60 percent, while Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana spent less than 2 percent in the same year." Meanwhile, donor funding for agriculture in Africa has dropped dramatically - from 15 percent in the 1980s to 4 percent in 2006- but the amount countries allocate from aid to food production also varies quite considerably. In 2007 Botswana and Nigeria spent less than 1 percent of all aid received on agriculture. However, Burkina Faso in 2006 spent 8 percent of its total aid on agriculture.
MALARIA: Drug-Resistant Malaria Spreading Beyond Western Cambodia
Resistance to artemisinin-based malaria medications seems to be spreading beyond western Cambodia, where it was first detected.
First spotted in western Cambodia in 2007, there are now signs of artemisinin-resistance noted in southern Myanmar and potentially emerging resistance along the Chinese-Myanmar border and in southern Vietnam near Cambodia.
Still, the total number of malaria cases had fallen, Ziemer told the conference. "In Vietnam, for example, they were down from about 190,000 in 1991 to 15,000 by 2008, he said. 'But it is essential that national governments remain focused to contain and eventually eliminate these multi-drug resistant strains,' he told the conference on international cooperation against infectious diseases," AFP writes. Ziemer noted the importance of getting rid of counterfeit and substandard drugs, which increase resistance.The WHO "warned early last year that parasites resistant to the drug artemisinin had emerged along the border between Cambodia and Thailand," according to the news service (6/18).
http://globalhealth.kff.org/Daily-Reports/2010/June/18/GH-061810-Drug-Resistant-Malaria.aspx
First spotted in western Cambodia in 2007, there are now signs of artemisinin-resistance noted in southern Myanmar and potentially emerging resistance along the Chinese-Myanmar border and in southern Vietnam near Cambodia.
Still, the total number of malaria cases had fallen, Ziemer told the conference. "In Vietnam, for example, they were down from about 190,000 in 1991 to 15,000 by 2008, he said. 'But it is essential that national governments remain focused to contain and eventually eliminate these multi-drug resistant strains,' he told the conference on international cooperation against infectious diseases," AFP writes. Ziemer noted the importance of getting rid of counterfeit and substandard drugs, which increase resistance.The WHO "warned early last year that parasites resistant to the drug artemisinin had emerged along the border between Cambodia and Thailand," according to the news service (6/18).
http://globalhealth.kff.org/Daily-Reports/2010/June/18/GH-061810-Drug-Resistant-Malaria.aspx
MALARIA: System effectiveness of a targeted free mass distribution of long lasting insecticidal nets in Zanzibar, Tanzania
Background
Insecticide-treated nets (ITN) and long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLIN) are important means of malaria prevention. Although there is consensus regarding their importance, there is uncertainty as to which delivery strategies are optimal for dispensing these life saving interventions. A targeted mass distribution of free LLINs to children under five and pregnant women was implemented in Zanzibar between August 2005 and January 2006. The outcomes of this distribution among children under five were evaluated, four to nine months after implementation.
Methods
Two cross-sectional surveys were conducted in May 2006 in two districts of Zanzibar: Micheweni (MI) on Pemba Island and North A (NA) on Unguja Island. Household interviews were conducted with 509 caretakers of under-five children, who were surveyed for socio-economic status, the net distribution process, perceptions and use of bed nets. Each step in the distribution process was assessed in all children one to five years of age for unconditional and conditional proportion of success. System effectiveness (the accumulated proportion of success) and equity effectiveness were calculated, and predictors for LLIN use were identified.
Results
The overall proportion of children under five sleeping under any type of treated net was 83.7% (318/380) in MI and 91.8% (357/389) in NA. The LLIN usage was 56.8% (216/380) in MI and 86.9% (338/389) in NA. Overall system effectiveness was 49% in MI and 87% in NA, and equity was found in the distribution scale-up in NA. In both districts, the predicting factor of a child sleeping under an LLIN was caretakers thinking that LLINs are better than conventional nets
Conclusions
Targeted free mass distribution of LLINs can result in high and equitable bed net coverage among children under five. However, in order to sustain high effective coverage, there is need for complimentary distribution strategies between mass distribution campaigns. Considering the community's preferences prior to a mass distribution and addressing the communities concerns through information, education and communication, may improve the LLIN usage.
http://www.malariajournal.com/content/9/1/173/abstract
Insecticide-treated nets (ITN) and long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLIN) are important means of malaria prevention. Although there is consensus regarding their importance, there is uncertainty as to which delivery strategies are optimal for dispensing these life saving interventions. A targeted mass distribution of free LLINs to children under five and pregnant women was implemented in Zanzibar between August 2005 and January 2006. The outcomes of this distribution among children under five were evaluated, four to nine months after implementation.
Methods
Two cross-sectional surveys were conducted in May 2006 in two districts of Zanzibar: Micheweni (MI) on Pemba Island and North A (NA) on Unguja Island. Household interviews were conducted with 509 caretakers of under-five children, who were surveyed for socio-economic status, the net distribution process, perceptions and use of bed nets. Each step in the distribution process was assessed in all children one to five years of age for unconditional and conditional proportion of success. System effectiveness (the accumulated proportion of success) and equity effectiveness were calculated, and predictors for LLIN use were identified.
Results
The overall proportion of children under five sleeping under any type of treated net was 83.7% (318/380) in MI and 91.8% (357/389) in NA. The LLIN usage was 56.8% (216/380) in MI and 86.9% (338/389) in NA. Overall system effectiveness was 49% in MI and 87% in NA, and equity was found in the distribution scale-up in NA. In both districts, the predicting factor of a child sleeping under an LLIN was caretakers thinking that LLINs are better than conventional nets
Conclusions
Targeted free mass distribution of LLINs can result in high and equitable bed net coverage among children under five. However, in order to sustain high effective coverage, there is need for complimentary distribution strategies between mass distribution campaigns. Considering the community's preferences prior to a mass distribution and addressing the communities concerns through information, education and communication, may improve the LLIN usage.
http://www.malariajournal.com/content/9/1/173/abstract
Saturday, 19 June 2010
MALNUTRITION: Rising food cost
Families from Pakistan to Argentina to Congo are being battered by surging food prices that are dragging more people into poverty, fueling political tensions and forcing some to give up eating meat, fruit and even tomatoes.
Scraping to afford the next meal is still a grim daily reality in the developing world even though the global food crisis that dominated headlines in 2008 quickly faded in the U.S. and other rich countries.
With food costing up to 70 percent of family income in the poorest countries, rising prices are squeezing household budgets and threatening to worsen malnutrition, while inflation stays moderate in the United States and Europe. Compounding the problem in many countries: prices hardly fell from their peaks in 2008, when global food prices jumped in part due to a smaller U.S. wheat harvest and demand for crops to use in biofuels.
Majeedan Begum, a Pakistani mother of five, said a bag of flour for bread, the staple of her family's diet, costs three times what it did two years ago in her hometown of Multan. She can no longer afford meat or fruit.
"My domestic budget has been ruined," said Begum, 35.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's food price index — which includes grains, meat, dairy and other items in 90 countries — was up 22 percent in March from a year earlier though still below 2008 levels. In some Asian markets, rice and wheat prices are 20 to 70 percent above 2008 levels, it says.
Many governments blame dry weather and high fuel costs but critics in countries such as India, Argentina and Egypt say misguided policies are making shortages worse and collusion by suppliers might be pushing up prices.
No single factor explains the inflation gap between developing and developed countries but poorer economies are more vulnerable to an array of problems that can push up prices, and many are cropping up this year.
Farmers with less land and irrigation are hit harder by drought and floods. Civil war and other conflicts can disrupt supplies. Prices in import-dependent economies spike up when the local currency weakens, as Pakistan's rupee has this year.
Costs also have been pushed up by a rebound in global commodity prices, especially for soy destined for Asian consumption. That has prompted a shift in Argentina and elsewhere to produce more for export, which has led to local shortages of beef and other food. The global financial crisis hurt food production in some countries by making it harder for farmers to get credit for seed and supplies.
In Mauritania in West Africa, rice prices doubled over the first three months of the year, according to the World Food Program. Over the same period, the price of corn rose 59 percent in Zimbabwe and 57 percent in neighboring Mozambique.
In Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mami Monga pays $25 for a box of fish that cost $10 a year ago. The price of a 25-kilogram bag of rice has doubled to $30.
"Today I am obliged to buy half the food I used to buy mid-last year," said Mami, a mother of five.
Kinshasa shopkeeper Abedi Patelli said prices rise when the exchange rate of Congo's currency falls. "But when our currency improves against the U.S. dollar, prices don't fall," he said. "They remain steady."
WFP spokesman Greg Barrow said poorer countries can suffer a "ratchet effect" that locks in price rises due to high transportation costs and limited competition.
"Prices dropped fairly dramatically toward the end of 2008 on international markets but we found prices remained relatively high in many local markets in developing countries," said Barrow.
After the cost of food rises, "it tends to take a long time to go down," he said.
The FAO said the double blow of the global recession and high food prices has pushed 100 million people into poverty.
Opposition parties have organized protests in Pakistan. In Egypt, a 50 percent jump in meat prices in recent weeks has helped to fuel demonstrations outside parliament over wages and other economic issues.
"I am afraid that I will wake up one day and not able to get enough bread for my 12-member family," said Aboulella Moussa, a doorman at a Cairo apartment building.
People interviewed in a number of countries said they are coping not just by cutting out expensive items but by eating less — a trend that has stirred concern about malnutrition.
In the 2008 inflation spike, WFP found families in some countries skipped meals or switched to eating corn husks or other low-quality produce. "Over the long term, this would lead to the effects of chronic malnutrition," Barrow said.
"It's expensive, so we eat less," said Seema Valmiki, 35, who is raising three children in New Delhi with her husband on his 6,000-rupee ($135) monthly income as a driver.
Valmiki can no longer afford meat, fruit or fish and has put off buying her children new school uniforms, toys and a bicycle.
"If we buy them fruit, we can't buy them food" like rice, dal and vegetables, she said.
In China, food costs rose 5.9 percent in April over a year ago — a modest rate for a country that suffered 20 percent-plus inflation in 2008. But it was enough to prompt the communist government to try to reassure the public with pledges that prices will ease as the spring harvest comes in. It also threatened to punish price gouging in a new effort to cool inflation.
Even in moderately prosperous nations such as Venezuela, shoppers say they can no longer afford meat and scour markets for bargains.
In Argentina, soy production has taken over more than 32 million acres (13 million hectares) of grassland once used to raise cattle and replaced less profitable wheat and corn as well, driving up prices in supermarkets.
Argentina's government has responded with higher taxes, export limits, controls on supermarket prices of meat, wheat and corn, subsidies to food producers and pay hikes of 30 percent for union workers. The moves have temporarily eased the pain but beef producers have thinned their herds in response to government intervention and the price of meat has doubled in the last year.
"Before, we would eat meat three times a week. Now it's once, with luck," said Marta Esposito, a 45-year-old mother of two in Buenos Aires. "Tomatoes, don't even talk about it. We eat whatever is the cheapest."
Venezuela's 30.4 percent inflation is among the world's highest. The oil-rich country is a major food importer and its bolivar has tumbled against the dollar, forcing up prices in local markets. In April, food prices rose 11 percent over the previous month.
The Venezuelan government has imposed price controls and arrested some shopkeepers for violating them. But the controls have led to shortages of beef, sugar, corn meal and butter, forcing the government to allow some prices to rise by 20 percent this year.
Elsewhere, rising prices highlight a more basic problem: making sure farm productivity keeps pace with burgeoning populations.
India's food prices were up 17 percent in April over a year earlier but the government hopes normal rainfall this growing season will increase supplies. The rise has been driven in part by growing demand from the rural poor, who can afford to spend more on food thanks to government debt-relief and job-creation programs.
Longer term, experts say India, with more than 1 billion people, has to speed up growth in farm production if it is to keep up with demand.
"Our capacity to feed every Indian is systematically declining with time," said Harsh Mander, who was appointed by India's Supreme Court to monitor hunger. "World markets can't bail us out."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g-PV1iJxWc4KqE-gLaWEOIMQs-RQD9G5RK9O0
Scraping to afford the next meal is still a grim daily reality in the developing world even though the global food crisis that dominated headlines in 2008 quickly faded in the U.S. and other rich countries.
With food costing up to 70 percent of family income in the poorest countries, rising prices are squeezing household budgets and threatening to worsen malnutrition, while inflation stays moderate in the United States and Europe. Compounding the problem in many countries: prices hardly fell from their peaks in 2008, when global food prices jumped in part due to a smaller U.S. wheat harvest and demand for crops to use in biofuels.
Majeedan Begum, a Pakistani mother of five, said a bag of flour for bread, the staple of her family's diet, costs three times what it did two years ago in her hometown of Multan. She can no longer afford meat or fruit.
"My domestic budget has been ruined," said Begum, 35.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's food price index — which includes grains, meat, dairy and other items in 90 countries — was up 22 percent in March from a year earlier though still below 2008 levels. In some Asian markets, rice and wheat prices are 20 to 70 percent above 2008 levels, it says.
Many governments blame dry weather and high fuel costs but critics in countries such as India, Argentina and Egypt say misguided policies are making shortages worse and collusion by suppliers might be pushing up prices.
No single factor explains the inflation gap between developing and developed countries but poorer economies are more vulnerable to an array of problems that can push up prices, and many are cropping up this year.
Farmers with less land and irrigation are hit harder by drought and floods. Civil war and other conflicts can disrupt supplies. Prices in import-dependent economies spike up when the local currency weakens, as Pakistan's rupee has this year.
Costs also have been pushed up by a rebound in global commodity prices, especially for soy destined for Asian consumption. That has prompted a shift in Argentina and elsewhere to produce more for export, which has led to local shortages of beef and other food. The global financial crisis hurt food production in some countries by making it harder for farmers to get credit for seed and supplies.
In Mauritania in West Africa, rice prices doubled over the first three months of the year, according to the World Food Program. Over the same period, the price of corn rose 59 percent in Zimbabwe and 57 percent in neighboring Mozambique.
In Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mami Monga pays $25 for a box of fish that cost $10 a year ago. The price of a 25-kilogram bag of rice has doubled to $30.
"Today I am obliged to buy half the food I used to buy mid-last year," said Mami, a mother of five.
Kinshasa shopkeeper Abedi Patelli said prices rise when the exchange rate of Congo's currency falls. "But when our currency improves against the U.S. dollar, prices don't fall," he said. "They remain steady."
WFP spokesman Greg Barrow said poorer countries can suffer a "ratchet effect" that locks in price rises due to high transportation costs and limited competition.
"Prices dropped fairly dramatically toward the end of 2008 on international markets but we found prices remained relatively high in many local markets in developing countries," said Barrow.
After the cost of food rises, "it tends to take a long time to go down," he said.
The FAO said the double blow of the global recession and high food prices has pushed 100 million people into poverty.
Opposition parties have organized protests in Pakistan. In Egypt, a 50 percent jump in meat prices in recent weeks has helped to fuel demonstrations outside parliament over wages and other economic issues.
"I am afraid that I will wake up one day and not able to get enough bread for my 12-member family," said Aboulella Moussa, a doorman at a Cairo apartment building.
People interviewed in a number of countries said they are coping not just by cutting out expensive items but by eating less — a trend that has stirred concern about malnutrition.
In the 2008 inflation spike, WFP found families in some countries skipped meals or switched to eating corn husks or other low-quality produce. "Over the long term, this would lead to the effects of chronic malnutrition," Barrow said.
"It's expensive, so we eat less," said Seema Valmiki, 35, who is raising three children in New Delhi with her husband on his 6,000-rupee ($135) monthly income as a driver.
Valmiki can no longer afford meat, fruit or fish and has put off buying her children new school uniforms, toys and a bicycle.
"If we buy them fruit, we can't buy them food" like rice, dal and vegetables, she said.
In China, food costs rose 5.9 percent in April over a year ago — a modest rate for a country that suffered 20 percent-plus inflation in 2008. But it was enough to prompt the communist government to try to reassure the public with pledges that prices will ease as the spring harvest comes in. It also threatened to punish price gouging in a new effort to cool inflation.
Even in moderately prosperous nations such as Venezuela, shoppers say they can no longer afford meat and scour markets for bargains.
In Argentina, soy production has taken over more than 32 million acres (13 million hectares) of grassland once used to raise cattle and replaced less profitable wheat and corn as well, driving up prices in supermarkets.
Argentina's government has responded with higher taxes, export limits, controls on supermarket prices of meat, wheat and corn, subsidies to food producers and pay hikes of 30 percent for union workers. The moves have temporarily eased the pain but beef producers have thinned their herds in response to government intervention and the price of meat has doubled in the last year.
"Before, we would eat meat three times a week. Now it's once, with luck," said Marta Esposito, a 45-year-old mother of two in Buenos Aires. "Tomatoes, don't even talk about it. We eat whatever is the cheapest."
Venezuela's 30.4 percent inflation is among the world's highest. The oil-rich country is a major food importer and its bolivar has tumbled against the dollar, forcing up prices in local markets. In April, food prices rose 11 percent over the previous month.
The Venezuelan government has imposed price controls and arrested some shopkeepers for violating them. But the controls have led to shortages of beef, sugar, corn meal and butter, forcing the government to allow some prices to rise by 20 percent this year.
Elsewhere, rising prices highlight a more basic problem: making sure farm productivity keeps pace with burgeoning populations.
India's food prices were up 17 percent in April over a year earlier but the government hopes normal rainfall this growing season will increase supplies. The rise has been driven in part by growing demand from the rural poor, who can afford to spend more on food thanks to government debt-relief and job-creation programs.
Longer term, experts say India, with more than 1 billion people, has to speed up growth in farm production if it is to keep up with demand.
"Our capacity to feed every Indian is systematically declining with time," said Harsh Mander, who was appointed by India's Supreme Court to monitor hunger. "World markets can't bail us out."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g-PV1iJxWc4KqE-gLaWEOIMQs-RQD9G5RK9O0
MALNUTRITION: Angola, statistics and aid
Luanda - At least four million dollars has been earmarked for the implementation of the programme of combat to malnutrition in the country, under the "Joint Programme of Children, Food Security and Nutrition in Angola", aimed at alleviating hunger and malnutrition among children.
The programme, which is supported by UN agencies through the Fund for the Millennium Development Goals, was presented Friday in the city of Kuito, capital of central Bié province, by the Angolan minister of Health, José Van-Dunem.
Meanwhile, 12 million, of about 19.7 million inhabitants making up the Angolan population are vulnerable to food crises, and 75 percent of these people are children and women in reproduction age.
Addressing a presentation ceremony of the aforementioned programme, UNICEF's assistant representative in Angola, Amélia Russo de Sá, said that, in supporting this initiative, the United Nations intended to help eradicate hunger and reduce child mortality.
About 8,2 percent of Angolan children between 6 to59 months of age present acute malnutrition and 29,2 percent, the official added, have chronic malnutrition caused by inadequate diet, infectious disease or the combination of the two causes
http://www.portalangop.co.ao/motix/en_us/noticias/saude/2010/5/23/invests-USD-four-million-combat-malnutrition-Angola,08ff8863-6f65-403b-b4b2-452c959d0db9.html
The programme, which is supported by UN agencies through the Fund for the Millennium Development Goals, was presented Friday in the city of Kuito, capital of central Bié province, by the Angolan minister of Health, José Van-Dunem.
Meanwhile, 12 million, of about 19.7 million inhabitants making up the Angolan population are vulnerable to food crises, and 75 percent of these people are children and women in reproduction age.
Addressing a presentation ceremony of the aforementioned programme, UNICEF's assistant representative in Angola, Amélia Russo de Sá, said that, in supporting this initiative, the United Nations intended to help eradicate hunger and reduce child mortality.
About 8,2 percent of Angolan children between 6 to59 months of age present acute malnutrition and 29,2 percent, the official added, have chronic malnutrition caused by inadequate diet, infectious disease or the combination of the two causes
http://www.portalangop.co.ao/motix/en_us/noticias/saude/2010/5/23/invests-USD-four-million-combat-malnutrition-Angola,08ff8863-6f65-403b-b4b2-452c959d0db9.html
TUBERCULOSIS: genome research
Launched with much fanfare in September 2008 in the presence of Kapil Sibal, then India's science minister, the 1.5-billion-rupee (US$32-million) OSDD project aims to speed drug discovery — primarily against tuberculosis — by giving researchers an open platform for sharing their work through the Internet.
But controversy has followed Brahmachari's highly publicized announcement on 11 April that the project has comprehensively mapped, compiled and verified the genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. In particular, many researchers dispute Brahmachari's claim that the project has made the annotated genome publicly available "for the first time" — they note that other institutions, including the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, UK, and the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, already host publicly available annotated versions of the bacterium's genome.
Press reports after the announcement quoted Brahmachari, who is also the director-general of India's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) — one of the country's largest R&D organizations, as saying that the work has already yielded a molecule with potential as a drug to treat tuberculosis and that he hoped it would be ready to enter clinical trials within 18–24 months. Brahmachari refused Nature 's requests for an interview, but project director Zakir Thomas, whom Brahmachari said would respond on his behalf, says that "Brahmachari was misquoted".
Most of the concerns surrounding the work centre on the revelation that the massive task of re-annotating the M. tuberculosis genome — which contains around 4,000 genes — to link genes to their function, was completed in four months by about 400 college students with the guidance of senior OSDD project team members. And although the data from the project are available online, the team has yet to publish them in a peer-reviewed journal.
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100609/full/news.2010.285.html?s=news_rss
But controversy has followed Brahmachari's highly publicized announcement on 11 April that the project has comprehensively mapped, compiled and verified the genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. In particular, many researchers dispute Brahmachari's claim that the project has made the annotated genome publicly available "for the first time" — they note that other institutions, including the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, UK, and the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, already host publicly available annotated versions of the bacterium's genome.
Press reports after the announcement quoted Brahmachari, who is also the director-general of India's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) — one of the country's largest R&D organizations, as saying that the work has already yielded a molecule with potential as a drug to treat tuberculosis and that he hoped it would be ready to enter clinical trials within 18–24 months. Brahmachari refused Nature 's requests for an interview, but project director Zakir Thomas, whom Brahmachari said would respond on his behalf, says that "Brahmachari was misquoted".
Most of the concerns surrounding the work centre on the revelation that the massive task of re-annotating the M. tuberculosis genome — which contains around 4,000 genes — to link genes to their function, was completed in four months by about 400 college students with the guidance of senior OSDD project team members. And although the data from the project are available online, the team has yet to publish them in a peer-reviewed journal.
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100609/full/news.2010.285.html?s=news_rss
TUBERCULOSIS: Vaccine development in Germany
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.
Kaufmann emphasized that vaccines can play an important role in turning the tide. He referred to studies showing that a 40-50% reduction in TB could be achieved by new vaccines. Improved drugs could lead to a 10-27% reduction and better diagnostics to a 13-42% drop.
He elaborated on the development of the VPM1002 vaccine candidate by his team. VPM has successfully completed tests on safety and immunogenicity in Germany. Further trials (phase Ib) are taking place in South Africa at the moment.
Also in Spain progress is made. “It is a difficult process from research to development,” Professor Carlos Martin of the University of Zaragoza said, describing the development of the MTBVAC01 vaccine candidate discovered by him and his colleagues. After more than ten years of discovery and proof of concept and now four years of development, the vaccine is taking its first steps out of the lab: The vaccine is scheduled to be tested in people (phase I safety trials) the end of next year.
Dr Jelle Thole, director of Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI), in a meeting with Spanish journalists called MTBVAC01 a leading vaccine in its kind. “It is the only candidate derived from the actual bug that starts tuberculosis. All other vaccine candidates either are based on improving or boosting BCG,” he explained. TBVI, a European research consortium for the development of new TB vaccines, aims to have eight vaccines in phase II safety and efficacy trials in ten years.
New vaccines are aimed to improve or replace BCG, the only currently available vaccine against tuberculosis, which “does not protect against the most prevalent form of the disease, and therefore has little - if any - impact on the epidemiology of TB,” Kaufmann said.
However, Martin stressed that BCG, developed in the 1920s, is “…still in use because it is protective in children. In this regard, new vaccines should be at least as good as BCG in protecting against severe diseases as meningitis and miliary tuberculosis, and better in protecting against respiratory forms of the disease.”
Worldwide, new tools against tuberculosis are in several stages of development. Jan Gheuens, a senior programme officer on the tuberculosis team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, summarized at the symposium: “Two vaccines are in large clinical trials, lots of vaccines are in other phases. Furthermore, eight drugs are in pre-clinical development or further. And there is much excitement on the performance of a TB molecular diagnostic test”.
Gheuens briefly mentioned strategic challenges to be considered. “What will be the next generation of new vaccines? New antigens or a new approach to vaccines? What about the cost of progress, can we raise the funds for larger clinical studies?” he questioned, adding that fundraising is ‘tough’ and that not just greater awareness of the challenges in TB, but also (public/political) commitment is needed”.
http://blog.tropika.net/tropika/2010/06/09/research-and-development-of-new-tuberculosis-vaccines-conference-update/
Kaufmann emphasized that vaccines can play an important role in turning the tide. He referred to studies showing that a 40-50% reduction in TB could be achieved by new vaccines. Improved drugs could lead to a 10-27% reduction and better diagnostics to a 13-42% drop.
He elaborated on the development of the VPM1002 vaccine candidate by his team. VPM has successfully completed tests on safety and immunogenicity in Germany. Further trials (phase Ib) are taking place in South Africa at the moment.
Also in Spain progress is made. “It is a difficult process from research to development,” Professor Carlos Martin of the University of Zaragoza said, describing the development of the MTBVAC01 vaccine candidate discovered by him and his colleagues. After more than ten years of discovery and proof of concept and now four years of development, the vaccine is taking its first steps out of the lab: The vaccine is scheduled to be tested in people (phase I safety trials) the end of next year.
Dr Jelle Thole, director of Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI), in a meeting with Spanish journalists called MTBVAC01 a leading vaccine in its kind. “It is the only candidate derived from the actual bug that starts tuberculosis. All other vaccine candidates either are based on improving or boosting BCG,” he explained. TBVI, a European research consortium for the development of new TB vaccines, aims to have eight vaccines in phase II safety and efficacy trials in ten years.
New vaccines are aimed to improve or replace BCG, the only currently available vaccine against tuberculosis, which “does not protect against the most prevalent form of the disease, and therefore has little - if any - impact on the epidemiology of TB,” Kaufmann said.
However, Martin stressed that BCG, developed in the 1920s, is “…still in use because it is protective in children. In this regard, new vaccines should be at least as good as BCG in protecting against severe diseases as meningitis and miliary tuberculosis, and better in protecting against respiratory forms of the disease.”
Worldwide, new tools against tuberculosis are in several stages of development. Jan Gheuens, a senior programme officer on the tuberculosis team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, summarized at the symposium: “Two vaccines are in large clinical trials, lots of vaccines are in other phases. Furthermore, eight drugs are in pre-clinical development or further. And there is much excitement on the performance of a TB molecular diagnostic test”.
Gheuens briefly mentioned strategic challenges to be considered. “What will be the next generation of new vaccines? New antigens or a new approach to vaccines? What about the cost of progress, can we raise the funds for larger clinical studies?” he questioned, adding that fundraising is ‘tough’ and that not just greater awareness of the challenges in TB, but also (public/political) commitment is needed”.
http://blog.tropika.net/tropika/2010/06/09/research-and-development-of-new-tuberculosis-vaccines-conference-update/
TUBERCULOSIS: California school case
VICTORVILLE • An individual with contagious tuberculosis has been identified at Del Rey Elementary School, public health officials said Tuesday.
The San Bernardino County Health Department is now evaluating all students, faculty and staff who may have been exposed to the contagious individual, and school officials on Tuesday sent home letters explaining the potential risks to parents, said Don Lester, supervisor of safety and transportation for the Victor Elementary School District.
http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/victorville-19760-contagious-local.html
The San Bernardino County Health Department is now evaluating all students, faculty and staff who may have been exposed to the contagious individual, and school officials on Tuesday sent home letters explaining the potential risks to parents, said Don Lester, supervisor of safety and transportation for the Victor Elementary School District.
http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/victorville-19760-contagious-local.html
TUBERCULOSIS: Floida, MDR-TB in school
LOXAHATCHEE — A second Palm Beach County school is in the midst of a tuberculosis investigation, health officials acknowledged Tuesday, as they finished TB skin testing of some 200 students and faculty at Seminole Ridge High School in Loxahatchee.
The second case, based at Orchard View Elementary School in Delray Beach, involved fewer contacts and a different strain of TB, said Palm Beach County Health Department Spokesman Tim O'Connor.
Letters went out to the elementary school student's classmates and teachers on May 18, and skin tests were conducted immediately after, O'Connor said. In all, 96 people at Orchard View received the skin test.
"In elementary school, they don't change classes, so they tested the immediate classroom contacts," O'Connor said. "They also tested those on the school bus and in extracurricular activities."
It's not terribly unusual to have two schools facing TB inquiries at the same time, O'Connor said. Palm Beach County sees about 60 tuberculosis cases per year. Last year, John F. Kennedy Middle School in Riviera Beach had a student who was sick with the lung infection.
In every case, health workers try to identify close contacts and make sure they're tested for exposure.
What's unusual about the Seminole Ridge case, is the strain of TB that health officials are fighting.
It's multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, which means at least two of the favored drugs used to treat the disease, isoniazid and rifampicin, aren't effective. None of last year's 60 cases was drug resistant.
That has serious implications for how health officials will fight any spread of the disease at Seminole Ridge.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/schools/tuberculosis-hits-a-second-school-delray-elementary-has-735078.html
The second case, based at Orchard View Elementary School in Delray Beach, involved fewer contacts and a different strain of TB, said Palm Beach County Health Department Spokesman Tim O'Connor.
Letters went out to the elementary school student's classmates and teachers on May 18, and skin tests were conducted immediately after, O'Connor said. In all, 96 people at Orchard View received the skin test.
"In elementary school, they don't change classes, so they tested the immediate classroom contacts," O'Connor said. "They also tested those on the school bus and in extracurricular activities."
It's not terribly unusual to have two schools facing TB inquiries at the same time, O'Connor said. Palm Beach County sees about 60 tuberculosis cases per year. Last year, John F. Kennedy Middle School in Riviera Beach had a student who was sick with the lung infection.
In every case, health workers try to identify close contacts and make sure they're tested for exposure.
What's unusual about the Seminole Ridge case, is the strain of TB that health officials are fighting.
It's multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, which means at least two of the favored drugs used to treat the disease, isoniazid and rifampicin, aren't effective. None of last year's 60 cases was drug resistant.
That has serious implications for how health officials will fight any spread of the disease at Seminole Ridge.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/schools/tuberculosis-hits-a-second-school-delray-elementary-has-735078.html
TUBERCULOSIS: Florida San remains active
LANTANA, Fla. — The last of the nation’s original tuberculosis sanitariums sits, improbably, just off Interstate 95, near a Dunkin’ Donuts and a Motel 6, and just behind fields of children playing soccer. The fading signs out front simply say A.G. Holley State Hospital. There is nothing to suggest that one of history’s greatest killers lurks inside.
Florida lawmakers have tried for years to shut the place down. History, it seems, should be on their side. Holley’s counterparts, like the Trudeau Sanatorium in upstate New York, closed decades ago, after antibiotics nearly scrubbed the disease from the United States. These days, TB treatment usually takes place at home or in a handful of large research centers.
And yet somehow Holley remains. Sixty years after it opened, it is both a paragon of globalized public health and a health care anachronism, where strangers live together for months with boredom, pills, pain, contemplation and the same ancient disease that killed George Orwell, Franz Kafka and Eleanor Roosevelt. There used to be 500 patients here, surrounded by brush, with nursing quarters segregated by race. Now, no more than 50 live in the main building, above echoing, empty floors sometimes rented out as a location for filming horror movies.
They have all moved in, like generations past, because they are unable to control their illnesses. Some have traditional TB, the airborne contagion carried by one-third of the world’s population, which becomes a lung-wasting menace in only about 10 percent of the infected. A growing number of others arrive with drug-resistant mutations that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat.
Just keeping Holley air-conditioned costs hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, according to administrators, which partly explains the state’s interest in moving and privatizing the program.
Employees and patients, however, argue that the specialized care at Holley is a bargain for public health. Holley is a leader in research on drug resistance, and 93 percent of those who enter end up completely cured.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/health/13tuberculosis.html?src=mv&pagewanted=all
Florida lawmakers have tried for years to shut the place down. History, it seems, should be on their side. Holley’s counterparts, like the Trudeau Sanatorium in upstate New York, closed decades ago, after antibiotics nearly scrubbed the disease from the United States. These days, TB treatment usually takes place at home or in a handful of large research centers.
And yet somehow Holley remains. Sixty years after it opened, it is both a paragon of globalized public health and a health care anachronism, where strangers live together for months with boredom, pills, pain, contemplation and the same ancient disease that killed George Orwell, Franz Kafka and Eleanor Roosevelt. There used to be 500 patients here, surrounded by brush, with nursing quarters segregated by race. Now, no more than 50 live in the main building, above echoing, empty floors sometimes rented out as a location for filming horror movies.
They have all moved in, like generations past, because they are unable to control their illnesses. Some have traditional TB, the airborne contagion carried by one-third of the world’s population, which becomes a lung-wasting menace in only about 10 percent of the infected. A growing number of others arrive with drug-resistant mutations that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat.
Just keeping Holley air-conditioned costs hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, according to administrators, which partly explains the state’s interest in moving and privatizing the program.
Employees and patients, however, argue that the specialized care at Holley is a bargain for public health. Holley is a leader in research on drug resistance, and 93 percent of those who enter end up completely cured.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/health/13tuberculosis.html?src=mv&pagewanted=all
TUBERCULOSIS: South Africa leading cause of death
Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death in South Africa. A more dangerous form of the disease, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is gaining ground in the country. The World Health Organization reports an estimated 440,000 MDR-TB infections occurred around the world in 2008 and one-third of those infected died. Lisa Schlein has this report for VOA from the King George Hospital in Kwazulu Natal, a leading center of MDR-TB expertise.
Sister Flora Nsubane shows a group of visitors around the King George Hospital in Kwazulu Natal, a world leader in the treatment of tuberculosis. They wear masks to protect them from getting infected with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, or MDR-TB.
"This is a 32-bedded ward…It is always full because it is the only TB ward that we have," said Nsubane.
Patients who are sick with more virulent strains of MDR-TB and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis or XDR-TB, stay in separate wards.
The children's ward is spotlessly clean but largely empty because most of the children are at a school run for them by the hospital. A couple of toddlers are quietly playing on the floor.
A baby girl in a highchair fixes her big dark eyes on Sister Suminthra Sukmandam, the nurse who is feeding her.
"The baby is having a soft diet, which is prepared from the kitchen. It is pureed butter nut, pureed chicken and also mashed potato," she said.
Sister Sukmandam says the baby is four months old and was admitted to the hospital two weeks ago. "She's got multi-drug resistant TB and she has been the same. Her appetite is improving," she added.
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Tuberculosis-Linked-to-HIV-Is-Biggest-Killer-in-South-Africa-95722839.html
Sister Flora Nsubane shows a group of visitors around the King George Hospital in Kwazulu Natal, a world leader in the treatment of tuberculosis. They wear masks to protect them from getting infected with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, or MDR-TB.
"This is a 32-bedded ward…It is always full because it is the only TB ward that we have," said Nsubane.
Patients who are sick with more virulent strains of MDR-TB and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis or XDR-TB, stay in separate wards.
The children's ward is spotlessly clean but largely empty because most of the children are at a school run for them by the hospital. A couple of toddlers are quietly playing on the floor.
A baby girl in a highchair fixes her big dark eyes on Sister Suminthra Sukmandam, the nurse who is feeding her.
"The baby is having a soft diet, which is prepared from the kitchen. It is pureed butter nut, pureed chicken and also mashed potato," she said.
Sister Sukmandam says the baby is four months old and was admitted to the hospital two weeks ago. "She's got multi-drug resistant TB and she has been the same. Her appetite is improving," she added.
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Tuberculosis-Linked-to-HIV-Is-Biggest-Killer-in-South-Africa-95722839.html
TUBERCULOSIS: South Africa coal miners
A new study has found a higher incidence of tuberculosis among coal miners in sub-Saharan Africa, the result of close living quarters, infections with HIV-AIDS and the inhalation of mineral dust inside mines. The study by U.S. and British researchers at Oxford University found that as many as 750,000 new cases of tuberculosis in sub-Saharan Africa every year may be due to coal mining. Researchers examining data from nearly 50 countries found the potentially fatal lung disease is highest in 44 countries where coal mining is a common occupation, according to Mark Lurie, a professor of community health at Brown University in Rhode Island and co-author of the study.Lurie says the normally cramped conditions in mines -- as well as the tight quarters of many simple homes --are conducive to the spread of tuberculosis, a highly contagious bacterial disease that is transmitted through the air when an infected individual coughs or sneezes.Lurie says the disease can be spread further by infected migrants who travel from one country to another to work in the mines. "And every once in a while those men go home. Now they've been exposed to a very high risk of becoming infected with TB. And they'll then therefore increase the opportunities for them to spread TB back to rural areas when they return home," he said.Experts say the incidence of TB has been on the rise for the past 20 years in the 44 African countries, from 173 cases per 100-thousand people to 351 cases currently. They say the TB infection rate is ten times higher among mine workers than in the general population.It's long been assumed that the increase in TB cases was due to the exceptionally high rate of HIV infection in Africa. More than two-thirds of all the people in the world currently living with HIV - the virus that causes AIDS - live in Africa. And HIV-positive Africans account for nearly three-quarters of all AIDS-related deaths worldwide.But Lurie points out that when researchers factored out the impact of HIV infections on the development of tuberculosis, their analysis showed that mining is also a major factor.
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/health/Researchers-Find-Higher-Incidence-of-Tuberculosis-among-Coal-Miners-in-Sub-Saharan-Africa-95974664.html
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/health/Researchers-Find-Higher-Incidence-of-Tuberculosis-among-Coal-Miners-in-Sub-Saharan-Africa-95974664.html
POVERTY: more than insufficient money: World Bank view
We economists tend to see well-being, and poverty in particular, as a matter of finances and income. But fortunately, at least in the Bank, we have come a long way from that simplistic view. Reducing poverty is not only about increasing productivity and income. It is about enabling people to have a broad sense of well-being and opportunities to express and make choices about their lives.
As the famous Bank series “Voices of the Poor” and the follow up “Moving Out of Poverty” have shown us, poverty is much more than lacking a steady or sufficient source of income. Being poor is being vulnerable: to crime and violence, to the lack of justice and access to services. Being poor means inability to negotiate, bargain, and get paid. Poverty, in a nutshell, is a kind of decline in social connectedness. So that’s why social solidarity and cultural identity are so relevant to poverty reduction
http://blogs.worldbank.org/growth/node/8728
As the famous Bank series “Voices of the Poor” and the follow up “Moving Out of Poverty” have shown us, poverty is much more than lacking a steady or sufficient source of income. Being poor is being vulnerable: to crime and violence, to the lack of justice and access to services. Being poor means inability to negotiate, bargain, and get paid. Poverty, in a nutshell, is a kind of decline in social connectedness. So that’s why social solidarity and cultural identity are so relevant to poverty reduction
http://blogs.worldbank.org/growth/node/8728
POVERTY: Many Thai workers, now out of poverty, are in dissent
NONBON, THAILAND -- San Silawat has three dogs, two cows and a parrot. He grows rice and spring onions on a small plot of land. But he's hardly a pauper: He's added a second floor to his house and built a blue-tiled patio. His son plays computer games in the front room. His daughter recently bought a Nissan pickup truck. His granddaughter studies nursing in Bangkok.
For all his relatively good fortune, however, San is certain about one thing: "Life is definitely getting worse," said the 62-year-old farmer, grumbling about the price of gasoline, school fees and a political and economic system he sees as rigged in favor of the rich.
Last month, San and six friends from this village in northeastern Thailand piled into a pickup and drove 14 hours to join "red shirt" protests in Bangkok. During nine weeks of demonstrations, scores of other rural folk from Nonbon and nearby settlements made the same 390-mile trip.
Beneficiaries of an economic boom that, in just three decades, has cut the proportion of Thais living below the poverty line from 42 percent to about 8 percent, San and his family represent both the promise and the peril of Asia's dizzying transformation.
From China in the north to Indonesia in the south, hundreds of millions of people are now living far better than a generation ago. But the gap that separates them from the rich has often grown wider. As their fortunes and expectations have risen, so too has their frustration. And, as recent turmoil in Thailand has shown, this can mean big trouble.
San and his neighbors rallied to the red shirts not because they are hungry, uninformed and desperate but because they are no longer any of those things. Though still very poor compared with Bangkok residents who cheered the red shirts' defeat when government troops moved in on May 19, they are a better-off, better-informed and far more demanding voice in national affairs than their elders. San buys and reads a newspaper every day.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/08/AR2010060805224.html
For all his relatively good fortune, however, San is certain about one thing: "Life is definitely getting worse," said the 62-year-old farmer, grumbling about the price of gasoline, school fees and a political and economic system he sees as rigged in favor of the rich.
Last month, San and six friends from this village in northeastern Thailand piled into a pickup and drove 14 hours to join "red shirt" protests in Bangkok. During nine weeks of demonstrations, scores of other rural folk from Nonbon and nearby settlements made the same 390-mile trip.
Beneficiaries of an economic boom that, in just three decades, has cut the proportion of Thais living below the poverty line from 42 percent to about 8 percent, San and his family represent both the promise and the peril of Asia's dizzying transformation.
From China in the north to Indonesia in the south, hundreds of millions of people are now living far better than a generation ago. But the gap that separates them from the rich has often grown wider. As their fortunes and expectations have risen, so too has their frustration. And, as recent turmoil in Thailand has shown, this can mean big trouble.
San and his neighbors rallied to the red shirts not because they are hungry, uninformed and desperate but because they are no longer any of those things. Though still very poor compared with Bangkok residents who cheered the red shirts' defeat when government troops moved in on May 19, they are a better-off, better-informed and far more demanding voice in national affairs than their elders. San buys and reads a newspaper every day.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/08/AR2010060805224.html
POVERTY: photographic misrepresentation equals corruption
We’ve all seen it: the photo of a teary-eyed African child, dressed in rags, smothered in flies, with a look of desperation that the caption all too readily points out. Some organization has made a poster that tells you about the realities of poverty, what they are doing about it, and how your donation will change things.
I reacted very strongly to these kinds of photos when I returned from Africa in 2008. I compared these photos to my own memories of Malawian friends and felt lied to. How had these photos failed so spectacularly to capture the intelligence, the laughter, the resilience, and the capabilities of so many incredible people?
The truth is that the development sector, just like any other business, needs revenue to survive. Too frequently, this quest for funding uses these kind of dehumanizing images to draw pity, charity, and eventually donations from a largely unsuspecting public. I found it outrageous that such an incomplete and often inaccurate story was being so widely perpetuated by the organizations on the ground – the very ones with the ability and the responsibility to communicate the realities of rural Africa accurately.
This is not to say that people do not struggle, far from it, but the photos I was seeing only told part of the story. I thought that these images were robbing people of their dignity, and I felt that the rest of the story should be told as well. Out of this came the idea for a photography project, which I am tentatively calling “Perspectives of Poverty”. I am taking two photos of the same person; one photo with the typical symbols of poverty (dejected look, ripped clothes, etc.), and another of this person looking their very finest, to show how an image can be carefully constructed to present the same person in very different ways. I want to bring to light some of the different assumptions we make about a person, especially when we see an image of “poverty” from rural Africa. So far, I have finished two sets in the series and I want to share them with you to get reactions and hopefully generate some discussion around this in the early stages of this project.
http://waterwellness.ca/2010/04/28/perspectives-of-poverty/
I reacted very strongly to these kinds of photos when I returned from Africa in 2008. I compared these photos to my own memories of Malawian friends and felt lied to. How had these photos failed so spectacularly to capture the intelligence, the laughter, the resilience, and the capabilities of so many incredible people?
The truth is that the development sector, just like any other business, needs revenue to survive. Too frequently, this quest for funding uses these kind of dehumanizing images to draw pity, charity, and eventually donations from a largely unsuspecting public. I found it outrageous that such an incomplete and often inaccurate story was being so widely perpetuated by the organizations on the ground – the very ones with the ability and the responsibility to communicate the realities of rural Africa accurately.
This is not to say that people do not struggle, far from it, but the photos I was seeing only told part of the story. I thought that these images were robbing people of their dignity, and I felt that the rest of the story should be told as well. Out of this came the idea for a photography project, which I am tentatively calling “Perspectives of Poverty”. I am taking two photos of the same person; one photo with the typical symbols of poverty (dejected look, ripped clothes, etc.), and another of this person looking their very finest, to show how an image can be carefully constructed to present the same person in very different ways. I want to bring to light some of the different assumptions we make about a person, especially when we see an image of “poverty” from rural Africa. So far, I have finished two sets in the series and I want to share them with you to get reactions and hopefully generate some discussion around this in the early stages of this project.
http://waterwellness.ca/2010/04/28/perspectives-of-poverty/
POVERTY: World Bank predicts increase unless--
Jakarta: The number of extremely poor people in developing countries would increase by 26 million by the year 2020, the World Bank has said.
“Over the next 20 years, the fight against poverty could be hampered if countries are forced to cut productive and human capital investments because of lower development aid and reduced tax revenues,” World Bank said in its statement.
If bilateral aid flows declined, as they had in the past, this could affect long-term growth rates in developing countries, potentially increasing the number of extremely poor in 2020 by as much as 26 million, it said.
http://www.livemint.com/2010/06/11153632/WB-predicts-greater-poverty-in.html
“Over the next 20 years, the fight against poverty could be hampered if countries are forced to cut productive and human capital investments because of lower development aid and reduced tax revenues,” World Bank said in its statement.
If bilateral aid flows declined, as they had in the past, this could affect long-term growth rates in developing countries, potentially increasing the number of extremely poor in 2020 by as much as 26 million, it said.
http://www.livemint.com/2010/06/11153632/WB-predicts-greater-poverty-in.html
POVERTY: West Africa: Poverty breeds social unrest
Increased social and political tensions due to worsening poverty and deteriorating living conditions have become worrisome trends in a number of West African countries, United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General for West Africa, Mr. Said Djinnit has said.
He made the statement at 27th session of ECOWAS mediation and Security Council of ministers held yesterday in Abuja.
Djinnit said poverty needs to be addressed in a timely and appropriate manner, to avoid situations which would inevitably fuel a series of violent struggles for survival, with a significant impact on national and regional stability.
He said many people in the region demand opportunities for better livelihood, social justice in the way national resources are allocated.
"Food insecurity and the floods have been persistently affecting large number of West African populations for a number of years now, increasing frustration, anger and tensions among these populations" he stated.
In his speech, ECOWAS chairman of ministers Odein Ajumogobia said the council will review challenges in the sub-region which include the current political crises in Niger Republic, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau and Cote d'Ivoire.
In his speech president of ECOWAS commission Victor Gbeho decried the deleterious impact on the social condition and governance by on-going drug trafficking and other transnational organised crime, including money laundering and sadly, human trafficking.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201006090090.html
He made the statement at 27th session of ECOWAS mediation and Security Council of ministers held yesterday in Abuja.
Djinnit said poverty needs to be addressed in a timely and appropriate manner, to avoid situations which would inevitably fuel a series of violent struggles for survival, with a significant impact on national and regional stability.
He said many people in the region demand opportunities for better livelihood, social justice in the way national resources are allocated.
"Food insecurity and the floods have been persistently affecting large number of West African populations for a number of years now, increasing frustration, anger and tensions among these populations" he stated.
In his speech, ECOWAS chairman of ministers Odein Ajumogobia said the council will review challenges in the sub-region which include the current political crises in Niger Republic, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau and Cote d'Ivoire.
In his speech president of ECOWAS commission Victor Gbeho decried the deleterious impact on the social condition and governance by on-going drug trafficking and other transnational organised crime, including money laundering and sadly, human trafficking.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201006090090.html
Friday, 18 June 2010
MALARIA: Vaccine - The ‘Do Unto Others’ Malaria Vaccine
Progress is accelerating on transmission-blocking vaccines (TBVs), which would use humans to generate antibodies and deliver them to mosquitoes, with the aim of preventing the insects from spreading the disease. A half-dozen TBVs could have a shot at clinical trials sometime in the next 5 years, researchers say. Even so, the scientific and social hurdles remain daunting. Key among them is whether people can be persuaded to get a vaccination that doesn't prevent them from getting sick but instead protects family and neighbors from getting infected. That also raises the bar for an extremely safe vaccine.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/328/5980/847
MALARIA: artemesin resistance
If Artemisinin Drugs Fail, What's Plan B?Martin Enserink
If the current generation of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) should fail, does the world have a solid backup plan? The short answer: No. New funding has lured academics and pharmaceutical companies back to the malaria field after a decades-long drought. But drug development is a slow process, and the only compounds far enough along in the pipeline to quickly replace current ACTs are variations on the artemisinin theme. Whether they will kill resistant parasites is a big question
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/328/5980/846
If the current generation of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) should fail, does the world have a solid backup plan? The short answer: No. New funding has lured academics and pharmaceutical companies back to the malaria field after a decades-long drought. But drug development is a slow process, and the only compounds far enough along in the pipeline to quickly replace current ACTs are variations on the artemisinin theme. Whether they will kill resistant parasites is a big question
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/328/5980/846
MALARIA: Malaria's Drug Miracle in Danger
Along the border between Thailand and Cambodia, Plasmodium falciparum, the most dangerous of malaria parasites, is showing unmistakable signs of becoming resistant to artemisinin derivatives, the group of powerful drugs that—as part of so-called artemisinin-based combination therapies—have become the cornerstone of malaria treatment worldwide. For the moment, the drugs still work in the area; they just take more time to do the job. But that is alarming enough, scientists say. If resistance gets worse and starts spreading out from here, the results could be catastrophic. There are few other drugs in the pipeline, and those that are closest to the market may not work against the resistant strain
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/328/5980/844
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/328/5980/844
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