The News Review:
- Chemical in food cans, baby bottles cited as health risk
- Yellow Fever Vaccination Campaign In Mali
- Measles outbreak spreads
- Namibia failing to meet health goals
- Families avoiding health checks
- Report on McElwee affair published
Chemical in food cans, baby bottles cited as health risk
MarketWatch – Apr 15, 2008
Last week, CamelBak said it will have a BPA-free line of reusable water bottles by the end of this month. “The science surrounding BPA can be confusing and contradictory,” the company said. “While we believe in the safety of all our products, enough consumers requested a BPA-free alternative that we re-engineered our bottles with an innovative new material to provide consumers with worry-free hydration. ”
Government attention
There have been calls for the U… ”
The committee has also been probing the FDA’s approval of the use of BPA in products for infants and children. The committee found that the FDA has relied on two studies paid for by the American Plastics Council. “There is a wealth of scientific information available about the safety and health effects of bisphenol A, yet FDA seems to have relied exclusively on two industry-funded studies, one of which has not even been made available to the public for review,” Dingell said. “This raises serious concerns about whether the science FDA relied on to approve the use of bisphenol A was bought and paid for by industry. ”
As early as Wednesday, Canada is expected to classify BPA as a dangerous substance, according to the Globe and Mail newspaper. Canada would be the first country to make such as a move, which could lead to restrictions, according to the media report.
Yellow Fever Vaccination Campaign In Mali
Medical News Today – Medical News Today (press release) – Apr 15, 2008
Because of its severity, even a single case (such as Mali reported in 2007) is a public health concern. Yellow Fever is endemic in tropical regions of Africa and South America where 44 countries (33 in Africa and 11 in South America) are considered to be at-risk. The public health threat from the disease is removed only when vaccination rates in at-risk areas are at least 60-80%. Currently, 610 million people are considered to be at-risk from the disease in Africa. The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization is a partnership of public and private sector resources with a single, shared focus: to improve child health in the poorest countries by extending the reach and quality of immunisation coverage within strengthened health services. These efforts are directed through the financing mechanisms of the GAVI Fund and the work of the Geneva-based GAVI Secretariat which channel funding, optimise product availability and market pricing, and coordinate the field support necessary to plan and implement programmes in the world’s poorest countries. The 12 countries taking part on the Yellow Fever Initiative are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo… The public health threat from the disease is removed only when vaccination rates in at-risk areas are at least 60-80%. Currently, 610 million people are considered to be at-risk from the disease in Africa. The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization is a partnership of public and private sector resources with a single, shared focus: to improve child health in the poorest countries by extending the reach and quality of immunisation coverage within strengthened health services. These efforts are directed through the financing mechanisms of the GAVI Fund and the work of the Geneva-based GAVI Secretariat which channel funding, optimise product availability and market pricing, and coordinate the field support necessary to plan and implement programmes in the world’s poorest countries. The 12 countries taking part on the Yellow Fever Initiative are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. The ministries of Health of these 12 countries are being supported financially and technically by a Yellow Fever partnership which was launched in February 2006 and now includes WHO, UNICEF, GAVI, Médecins Sans Frontières, IFRC, the Association pour la Médecine Préventive (AMP), the Programme for Appropriate Technology (PATH), the European Union Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and the Institut Pasteur. The partnership continues to take on new members.
Measles outbreak spreads
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (subscription… – Apr 15, 2008
The region’s measles outbreak intensified Tuesday with reports of three new likely measles cases in Racine, Milwaukee and Walworth counties, and a confirmed case of rubella in a Waukesha County resident. State laboratory tests have not yet confirmed the measles cases, but Racine health officials said Tuesday that an elementary school-age child has been infected, and 12 additional students at S. Johnson Elementary School are at risk. Those children will be placed under quarantine until April 29 because they were either not vaccinated or not fully inoculated against the illness, said Janelle Grammer, a health officer for the City of Racine. “One case is very serious because of the communicability,” Grammer said.
Namibia failing to meet health goals
Namibian – Apr 15, 2008
As a result Namibia is ranked 189th out of 191 countries in a World Health Organisation (WHO) global assessment of health sector efficiency, which compared spending on health with actual service delivery, Harris said. He added that the health expenditure across the country was highly unequal too. He said the per capita expenditure on health was the lowest in the northwestern parts of the country, which also had the highest child mortality. Harris said Government had failed to meet its target in reducing the mortality rate of children under five years from an average of 63 per 1 000 to 50 per 1 000. According to Harris, most of the child mortalities were the result of malnutrition, a poverty-related cause of death that can be prevented at a low cost if the intervention was targeted at reaching the poorest parts of society. Harris ranked the north of the country as the area with the highest number of children with preventable non-lethal illnesses, adding that this is because primary healthcare and vaccinations are the lowest there.
Families avoiding health checks
NEWS.com.au – Apr 15, 2008
Northern Territory Member for MacDonnell Alison Anderson said some families avoided the intervention health teams because their children have sexually transmitted diseases. "I know for a fact that certain people that have children in that category actually ran away from the community when the health checks (were to take place)," she told ABC TV last night. "It’s about us as a community and as leaders standing up and saying to these people don’t be frightened – we need to expose child abuse and abuse against families and abuse against women," she said. Health Minister Nicola Roxon yesterday acknowledged there might be thousands more children who have not yet undergone a health screening. "The estimates vary because the Northern Territory (Government) has also undertaken a number of checks themselves, but they vary from anything from a few hundred up to a few thousand," Ms Roxon said. But she also welcomed the first of five "blitzes" of ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgery to be performed by two specialists and three theatre nurses who have been flown up to the Alice Springs Hospital. Of the 8500 children that have been screened by primary carers, 500 have been identified as needing immediate surgery, particularly for hearing problems.
Report on McElwee affair published
RTE.ie – Apr 15, 2008
The report also says that a garda, who accompanied Dr McElwee to Amsterdam for his drugs research project in 2004, made no written report of the incident to the Midland Health Board but did notify his superiors. The garda was not present during the incident in the Amsterdam hotel. The report, commissioned by the Health Service Executive, says that if proper child protection measures had been followed, the outcome would have been clear in June 2004. It notes that concerns were first raised by social workers in the South Eastern Health Board in 1997 about an interview Dr McElwee conducted with a woman in relation to research. In 1999, the health board also raised concerns with the Waterford Institute of Technology about medical slides used by Dr McElwee.
