The News Review:
- Biggest Health Issues Facing Women Today; What You Should Be Asking…
- Myanmar Health System Strained by Cyclone
- Obesity Threatens a Generation
- Absenteeism among health workers highest in India: Report
- HEALTH CAPSULE
- Re ‘Down and Out in Connecticut’ (editorial, May 9):
- Kennedy: liberal legend, able legislator
Biggest Health Issues Facing Women Today; What You Should Be Asking…
CNN International – May 17, 2008
Welcome to a very special edition of HOUSE CALL. Today, we’re empowering women to take charge of their health. I’ll sit down with a woman who’s led some of the most respected medical institutions in the country. We’re going to talk about the biggest health issues facing women today. Plus, find out what you should be asking for at the doctor’s office when you go in for your next exam… INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: Well, I think part of it is that men tend to get heart disease earlier than women do. Women tend to get heart disease 10 years later than men do. They seem to be protected during their child bearing years. So I think that that attitude, plus the research being done in men exclusively, made it clear that heart disease was the widow maker, not the widower maker as I was taught in medical school. GUPTA: I still think it’s, you know, people find it striking if you hear a 45 or 55-year old woman taking a statin drug. They just say, well, wait a second, that — but that was something that meant to specifically should. I mean, is there a bias towards prescribing medications that could possibly prevent heart disease to women? HEALY: Well, I think that we’re seeing more prescriptions for women because we’re realizing that women have cholesterol problems as well.
Myanmar Health System Strained by Cyclone
ABC News – May 17, 2008
“Is he going to die?”Myanmar’s ragged health system has been stretched to the limit after the cyclone two weeks ago left up to 2. 5 million people homeless, exposed to pounding rains and potential disease. Until Saturday, the military regime had insisted it was capable of handling the crisis alone, but Thai and Indian doctors have now been given permission to help. For some, like Saw Htin’s little one, it may not matter. The local doctor said it didn’t look good, most likely pneumonia brought on from living in what’s left of their leaky thatch hut ripped apart by the cyclone.
Obesity Threatens a Generation
Washington Post – May 17, 2008
Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois at Chicago acknowledged recently. This is the first day in a week-long Washington Post series on childhood obesity, exploring its causes, its impact and possible remedies. The epidemic is expected to add billions of dollars to the U. Treating a child with obesity is three times more costly than treating the average child, according to a study by Thomson Reuters. The research company pegged the country’s overall expense of care for overweight youth at $14 billion annually.
Absenteeism among health workers highest in India: Report
Economic Times – May 17, 2008
Referring to a survey carried
out in 2002 -03, the report says that the rate of absenteeism among primary
healthcare workers in India is 40%. This has a strong impact on the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) like reducing child and maternal mortality and
sanitation MDGs. The GMR
attempts to highlight how healthcare quality is critical to reaching the MDGs. ?The quality of
healthcare services matters because it reflects the extent to which investments
to national healthcare systems are able to raise both human capital and
individual welfare,? says the report… The
government in developing countries need to expand their programs with
effectiveness. ?
According to Qureshi, the
incentives are weak in India and hence people respond to that by taking leaves
and being absent from their work station. There is also lack of accountability
among health workers due to which they move freely without attending to jobs. Agrees Shrawan Nigam, Senior
consultant, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations
(ICRIER), who feels that the problem is more severe in rural India. ?There
is a concept of passing on the responsibility to the panchayati raj, whereas the
work is not happening at that level as well and there is a need for
monitoring,? asserts Nigam. According to Nigam, absenteeism is high among
teachers in India too. The
report points out that though there is a need for more spending on education and
health programs, that is not the sole answer.
HEALTH CAPSULE
Deccan Herald – May 17, 2008
This means that young kids who have wholemeal bread, brown pasta and piles of fruit imposed on them are getting too full too quickly and do not have room for enough foods such as dairy products, meat, eggs and fish, which have vital nutrients for growth and development. The study therefore insists on striking a balance and suggests how much of what should be given to children at various ages. The recommendations to some extent vary with the size and appetite of the child as well. The World Health Organisation has provided some useful parameters for doing so. Lower-fat milk
Toddlers should be given semi-skimmed milk from the age of 2. Fully skimmed milk is not suitable as a main drink until they are 5, because it doesn’t contain enough calories for a growing child. Fish
Since oily fish such as mackerel, salmon and sardines contain residues of pollutants such as dioxins and PCBs, the Food Standards Agency suggest that boys should be given up to four portions a week, but girls should have no more than two a week, because the residues can build up in their bodies over the years and can affect reproductive functions in later life.
Re ‘Down and Out in Connecticut’ (editorial, May 9):
New York Times – May 17, 2008
As one of the country’s wealthiest states, Connecticut should be leading the way on creating pathways to opportunity and prosperity for all. There have been bright spots. Connecticut’s Legislature passed a bill in 2004 that set a goal of reducing child poverty by half, and state officials drafted a strong plan. Jodi Rell and the Legislature have failed to follow through on its recommendations, like a state earned-income tax credit, and poverty has risen. Quality education, universal health care and increasing income and assets are the keys to reducing inequality… Jodi Rell and the Legislature have failed to follow through on its recommendations, like a state earned-income tax credit, and poverty has risen. Quality education, universal health care and increasing income and assets are the keys to reducing inequality. Leaders from business, communities and philanthropy must push for policies and actions that ensure that every person has a fair chance to realize his full potential. Success will follow when leaders inside and outside government join together with vision and a sense of urgency. Horan
Executive Director
Connecticut Association for Human Services
Hartford, May 9, 2008•To the Editor: Your editorial tells the country what working-class and poor people in Connecticut have known for a long time: even in one of the richest states, people are suffering.
Kennedy: liberal legend, able legislator
International Herald Tribune – May 17, 2008
The older visitors might know the main outlines of his career: He survived tragedies including two brothers' assassinations and a young woman's drowning; ran for president in an ill-timed year; won Senate elections decade after decade; and now is nearing the end of a dynasty as he mentors young politicians such as Barack Obama. Even the most astute tourists, however, may not realize the extent to which the Massachusetts Democrat long ago passed up the chance to coast along as a celebrity. When the cameras were elsewhere, he bore into the details and drudgery of legislating, leaving his imprint on hundreds of laws dealing with health care, civil rights, welfare, housing, education, foreign affairs and other issues. Saturday's news that Kennedy was hospitalized after an apparent seizure served as a sharp reminder that he is 76 and has been in the Senate 45 years — longer than most Americans have been alive. Celebrity magazines hail him as the last son from a glamorous but sorrow-tinged political family. Congressional insiders know that he also embraces his job wholeheartedly, working harder and longer hours than some younger colleagues, and hiring bright aides who often stay for years and are seen as role models by others… Kennedy was instrumental in enacting the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and many other health care initiatives. To be sure, there were disappointments along the way. Although Kennedy has sharply criticized President Bush on Iraq and other issues, he worked with the administration to enact the No Child Left Behind education bill. Many leading Democrats, including Obama, now deride the bill as a test-obsessed hindrance to local decisions about teaching. If Kennedy's penchant for compromise bewilders some liberals who see him as a stereotype, his biographers will have to sort through a larger mass of contradictions. Fans see him as a wise and caring man, intent on helping the less fortunate. But he shocked the nation in 1969 when he drove his car off a bridge to Massachusetts' Chappaquiddick Island and a young female campaign worker drowned.
