Public Health
UN warns WTO farm talks could worsen food crisis
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The head of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Monday that new rules on food aid as part of a global trade pact could reduce its flow and increase starvation in poor countries.
James Morris, executive director of the Rome-based agency, called instead on richer powers to boost food aid - in cash or kind - back to at least the annual 11 million tonnes of 2001 from the 7.5 million to which it dropped last year.
Polio cases rise to 40 in Yemen
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The number of Yemeni children diagnosed with polio has risen to 40, almost double the figure quoted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) at the end of April, a Yemeni Health Ministry official said on Monday.
Yemen, which last reported polio in 1996, is the 15th country to have the disease reappear since mid-2003, including 13 African countries and Saudi Arabia.
Officials fear the disease - which mainly affects children under the age of five, causing irreversible paralysis - could still be spreading. The latest cases appeared in various provinces but mostly in the Red Sea port of Hodeidah.
U.N. may add new chemicals to ‘dirty dozen’ ban
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Countries at a U.N. meeting in Uruguay agreed on Friday to consider adding four new chemicals to the “dirty dozen” list of banned pesticides and industrial chemicals, a U.N. official said.
The week-long meeting that concluded on Friday also sought to reduce the legal exemptions included in the 2004 U.N. ban on the world’s most hazardous substances blamed for deaths, cancer or birth defects in humans and animals.
But exemptions for some toxins such as DDT were maintained to allow their use to fend off deadly insects despite their harmful effects.
Hungary PM wants more to contribute to health cost
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Hungary’s Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said on Monday he would force people who work but do not pay national heathcare insurance to pay up and help finance the country’s ailing health system.
Economists estimate healthcare and pensions account for around a third of the budget deficit and the Socialist-led government hopes a system of individual social tax accounts will help track those who evade payments.
“There are about half a million people who are active, have a job, and do not insure themselves,” Gyurcsany told parliament.
Red Cross launches $653 mln 5-yr tsunami aid plan
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The global Red Cross and Red Crescent body on Monday launched a $653 million five-year plan to help 10 Asian and African nations around the Indian Ocean to rebuild after last December’s devastating tsunami.
The wide-ranging project, covering 2005-2010, is the biggest and longest ever mounted by the Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), which links organisations in more than 181 countries.
The cost will be covered by funds already raised by its member bodies.
Iran watchdog rejects bill easing abortion ban
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Iran’s legislative watchdog rejected a bill that would have permitted the abortion of a handicapped foetus as un-Islamic on Monday, parliament’s Web site reported.
Lawmakers had last month approved a bill to allow abortions when a mother’s life was in danger or the baby would be handicapped.
Some lawmakers who backed the bill had said a handicapped child could be a financial burden on a family.
Indonesia steps up polio vaccinations
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Indonesia stepped up polio vaccinations around several villages in West Java province on Friday as international concern grew over an outbreak of the virus that has crippled six infants.
Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari told El Shinta radio station that the number of positive cases had risen to six, from five on Thursday. All were near the city of Sukabumi, about 100 km (62 miles) south of Jakarta.
Health officials are studying up to 10 other possible cases.
Women hold “nurse-in” for U.S. breast-feeding bill
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Dozens of mothers and babies held a pre-Mother’s Day “nurse-in” near the U.S. Capitol on Thursday to support legislation to make it easier for working women to breast-feed or pump milk for their babies on the job.
“Breast-feeding is natural and it has a health benefit to mothers and children,” said the legislation’s chief sponsor, New York Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney, trying to be heard above the din of young children.
Her bill would expand the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act so a woman could not be fired or discriminated against in the workplace for pumping or nursing on breaks.
US salmonella cases linked to rats, hamsters - CDC
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U.S. health officials warned the public on Thursday to be careful when handling mice, rats and hamsters after an investigation into the first documented human cases of salmonella linked to pet rodents.
Although salmonella poisoning typically occurs as a result of eating contaminated food, such as eggs or meat, a number of cases were reported in people infected through contact with animals, usually snakes or turtles.
Pet chicks, ducklings, kittens and hedgehogs also have been linked to human outbreaks.
Nigeria records 54 new polio cases since Feb-WHO
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Fifty-four new polio cases were recorded in Nigeria between February and April, a drop of nearly a half from last year, according to the World Health Organisation.
The infection rate is down from the 91 cases recorded between Feb. 27 and April 29, 2004, WHO said in its weekly report obtained on Thursday.
The report said nine new cases were confirmed in Yobe state and Nigeria’s biggest city, Lagos - the first in the southern region where WHO said there had been no fresh infections since September.
Pakistan turns to scholars in birth control bid
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Pakistan’s prime minister is seeking the help of Islamic scholars to gain public support for the use of birth control in the deeply conservative country—a policy opposed by hardline Muslims.
Shaukat Aziz made the plea on Wednesday at a three-day international conference of Islamic scholars on population issues in Pakistani’s capital, Islamabad.
Some in the Islamic world believe Islam does not permit contraception but others disagree, Aziz said.
U.S. to begin voluntary anthrax shots for troops
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The Pentagon said on Tuesday it was resuming giving Anthrax vaccinations to troops on a voluntary basis under terms set by a federal judge who last fall ordered a halt to mandatory shots.
The vaccinations primarily will be limited to military units designated for homeland bioterrorism defense and to troops deploying to Iraq, Afghanistan and South Korea, the Pentagon said.
The Pentagon said it will inform troops about the vaccine’s benefits and side effects before they are asked to decide about whether to get the vaccination. Anthrax spores can be used in germ warfare to give victims the deadly bacterial disease.
Flight attendant loses second-hand smoke verdict
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A Florida state jury on Tuesday ruled against a flight attendant who claimed her chronic Sinusitis was caused by exposure to cigarette smoke on airplanes, attorneys in the case said on Tuesday.
The six-person jury answered “no” to the only question it posed to it, which was whether the second-hand smoke was the legal cause of Lorraine Swaty’s sinus condition, Steven Hunter, one of her attorneys, said.
Workplace gun policies linked to employee homicide
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Employers who permit guns in the workplace may inadvertently be increasing their employees’ risk of homicide, new study findings suggest.
“Our data suggest that, much as residents of households with guns are more likely to become victims of homicide, workers in places where the employer’s policy allows guns may have a higher chance of being killed at work,” write researchers in this month’s American Journal of Public Health.
While most Americans may keep guns on hand as a means of protecting themselves and their families, various researchers have shown that possessing a gun may actually increase a person’s risk of becoming a victim of violence.
Florida ends fight against abortion for 13-yr-old
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Florida dropped its fight on Tuesday to prevent a 13-year-old girl in state care from having an abortion in a case that marked the state’s second recent foray into controversial personal rights issues.
Weeks after it unsuccessfully tried to intervene in the bitter dispute over the fate of a brain-damaged woman, Terri Schiavo, the state’s Department of Children & Families said it would not appeal a ruling from a Palm Beach state court allowing the teenager to have an abortion.
“There will be no further appeals and we will respectfully comply with the court’s decision,” DCF District Manager Marilyn Munoz said in a written statement.
