Cured Meats Called Factor in COPD Etiology -

Cured Meats Called Factor in COPD Etiology - CME Teaching Brief® - MedPage Today: "Cured Meats Called Factor in COPD Etiology

By Michael Smith, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
April 23, 2007

NEW YORK, April 23 -- Eating too much bacon and sausage may increase the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, found researchers here. Action Points

Explain that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S., and the only known modifiable risk factor is smoking.

Note that this study suggests that cured meats, such as bacon or sausages, may contribute to an increased risk of COPD.


Caution that the study was unable to demonstrate cause and effect and that more research is needed.
In a large population-based study, those who ate cured meats 14 or more times a month were nearly 80% more likely to develop COPD than those who ate none, reported Rui Jiang, M.D., Dr.P.H., of Columbia, and colleagues in the second April issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
The nitrites used in meats such as bacon, lunch meats, and sausage generate reactive nitrogen species that can cause damage to the lung, at least in animal models, they wrote. But no human studies had explored the possible link between cured meat and obstructive lung damage. "

Vitmain D Deficiency Associated with Weakness in Older Patients - CME Teaching Brief® - MedPage Today

Vitmain D Deficiency Associated with Weakness in Older Patients - CME Teaching Brief® - MedPage Today: "Vitmain D Deficiency Associated with Weakness in Older Patients

By Neil Osterweil, Senior Associate Editor, MedPage Today
Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
April 23, 2007


WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., April 23 -- Vitamin D deficiency in older patients has been associated with poor performance on simple physical tasks, according to investigators here"/.../

Campaign for elected UN assembly launched

Campaign for elected UN assembly launched
By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor
Published: 23 April 2007
Some 541 politicians, academics and business leaders from Europe and around the world have signed an appeal for the creation of a UN parliamentary assembly to overcome the "democratic deficit" in global affairs and give citizens a bigger voice.

One of the main objectives of the campaigners - including Dame Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop; Arthur C Clarke, author of 2001: Space Odyssey, four Nobel Prize winners and 377 MPs from 70 countries - is to provide a global citizens' platform to bring about change on issues such as global warming. The campaign, which is launched today and has a secretariat based in Germany,will be rolled out across the world in the next three weeks.

The Israeli peace campaigner Shimri Zameret said the idea followed the successful creation of the International Criminal Court. "We were thinking: what is the next step in developing international democracy?" he said. The support of the MPs including 20 from the UK and 48 MEPs, was enlisted for what organisers hope will eventually lead to a "world parliament" at the UN, an idea certain to be opposed, however, by the American hosts of the United Nations. Only nine Americans have signed the appeal and Mr Zameret said the appeal did not have a US branch because of the lack of support in America for the world body./.../

Bloglines - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bloglines - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Bloglines is a web-based news aggregator for browsing weblogs and other news feeds via syndicated feeds utilizing technologies such as Really Simple Syndication and ATOM. Unlike other feed readers that download posts directly to one's device, Bloglines is a server-side aggregation system, where blog entries are downloaded and updated on the server on a frequent basis [1].
Users then subscribe to as well as read individual feeds via the web portal, which provides them with the ability to access their feeds from any computer, not just the computer on which they have installed a particular RSS Reader "

Bloglines - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bloglines - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Bloglines is a web-based news aggregator for browsing weblogs and other news feeds via syndicated feeds utilizing technologies such as Really Simple Syndication and ATOM. Unlike other feed readers that download posts directly to one's device, Bloglines is a server-side aggregation system, where blog entries are downloaded and updated on the server on a frequent basis [1].
Users then subscribe to as well as read individual feeds via the web portal, which provides them with the ability to access their feeds from any computer, not just the computer on which they have installed a particular RSS Reader "

Medical.WebEnds.com

Medical.WebEnds.com: "Medical.WebEnds.com is a free online medical terminology dictionary with over twenty thousand definitions. It is also an internet index to thousands of other online healthcare resources."

World Health survey - BR

Acesso aos resultados da pequisa mundial da saúde. Dados para o Brasil, mas disponíveis também para diversos outros países

Too much bacon 'bad for lungs'

BBC NEWS | Health | Too much bacon 'bad for lungs': "A Columbia University team found people who ate cured meats at least 14 times a month were more likely to have COPD - chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

COPD, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, kills around 30,000 people in the UK each year.

The report, in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, said nitrites in meat may be to blame./.../"

Easing global poverty

The Toronto Star published an Editorial that states:
"Spectacular
growth in China has driven down the number of people in extreme poverty to under 1 billion, from 1.5 billion 15 years ago, according to the bank's World Development Indicators, 2007. "

Do you think it's possible that the World Bank lowered the poverty line to shift a good chunk of the global destitute out of the world's focus? The article can be accessed at: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/204687

Rahul Mediratta
BHS Honours, Health Policy
http://winstoninwonderland.blogspot.com

You might not know it when you see haunting images of starving children in Africa or elsewhere. But the world is actually winning the war on extreme poverty, the World Bank argues in an encouraging new report that should reassure Canada and other donor countries that debt relief, foreign aid and open trade are having a positive impact.

Spectacular growth in China has driven down the number of people in extreme poverty to under 1 billion, from 1.5 billion 15 years ago, according to the bank's World Development Indicators, 2007. And elsewhere, the number of people living in extreme poverty (on $1 U.S. a day, or less) is not growing as before.

Even in sub-Saharan Africa, where 300 million remain mired in desperate need, international aid in recent years has checked a decades-old trend toward increased poverty.

This nudging of 500 million people into a better life shows that the United Nations' goal of slashing the proportion of poor people in half by 2015 "is still within reach," the bank argues, especially if the world can be persuaded to pour more resources into Africa and Latin America where poverty remains entrenched.

But the enthusiasm of Canada and other countries for meeting that target remains in doubt.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives have budgeted $4.6 billion for official development assistance in 2007-08. That is a disappointing 0.32 per cent of our economic output, down from 0.33 per cent last year, and less than half the UN target of 0.7 per cent.

And Canada's failure to expand aid is typical of donor countries, the World Bank confirms.

After reaching a record high in 2005, combined donor aid fell to $104 billion (U.S.) in 2006, a 5 per cent drop. "Real aid delivery is falling well short of donor commitments," the bank concludes.

That is bad policy, given the evidence that aid works. Cutting back on helping the poorest, just when progress is being registered, only imperils these hard-won gains.

Pela primeira vez, população urbana supera a rural no mundo

19 abril 2007-Pela primeira vez, população urbana supera a rural no mundo

Em 2007, pela primeira vez, a população urbana ultrapassou a rural em níveis mundiais, de acordo com Anna Tibaijuka, diretora executiva Programa das Nações Unidas para Assentamentos Humanos, UN-Habitat.

Tibaijuka encontra-se em Nairobi, no Quênia, participando de reunião do Conselho Administrativo do UN-Habitat.

No encontro, também foi divulgado um estudo indicando que, em 2030, dois terços da população mundial viverão em centros urbanos.

O director do escritório regional do UN-Habitat para América Latina e Caribe, Jorge Gavidia, falou à Rádio ONU, de Nairobi, sobre o impacto do crescimento das cidades.

“O mundo já passou nesse momento a marca de 50% de pessoas que moram na cidade. Na América Latina, 75% das pessoas moram em cidades. Os problemas gerados são a falta de planejamento dessas cidades, que se refletem em uma demanda não satisfeita por serviços básicos: água, esgotos e lixo. No caso da América Latina, agora o problema central é a regularização das propriedades e o serviço de estrutura das nossas cidades”, explicou.

O encontro do UN-Habitat em Nairobi prossegue até sexta-feira.

UN Seed storage plan

Third World Crops Get $37.5 Million Gene Storage Aid

April 19, 2007 — By Reuters

OSLO -- A $37.5 million seed storage plan will help safeguard crops vital for developing nations from global warming and other threats, the head of a U.N.-backed scheme said on Thursday.

The cash, $30 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and $7.5 million from Norway's government, would preserve genes of crops grown in Africa, Asia and Latin America such as cassava, yams, bananas and rice.

"This initiative will rescue the most globally important developing-country collections of the world's 21 most important food crops," said Cary Fowler, director of the Rome-based Global Crop Diversity Trust.

The U.N.-backed trust said the money would "secure over 95 percent of the endangered crop diversity held in developing country gene banks, many of which are under-funded and in disrepair".

Some crops grown in poor countries are known as "orphan crops" because they have been largely neglected by modern breeders. Some, such as yams, cannot be grown from seeds, but need to be cultivated from cuttings, roots, or cell cultures.

"This is material that is really under imminent threat of becoming extinct," Fowler said.

The project would help collect and save thousands of different varieties of each of 21 key world food crops, also including wheat, maize and sorghum, he said.

Seeds now poorly stored might have genes enabling them to resist drought, flooding or heatwaves -- qualities that may be in demand because of global warming widely blamed on human burning of fossil fuels.

"Not only will this partnership combat hunger and protect crop diversity, but it also helps nations prepare for the impacts of climate change," said Timothy Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation.

DOOMSDAY VAULT

The trust is also building a "doomsday vault" in the Norwegian Arctic to safeguard millions of seeds. The new funding would allow developing countries and research groups to send 450,000 seed samples to the vault, due to open in March 2008.

Fowler said the new funds would help set up a global computer database to guide farmers.

"If you're an American farmer and search a gene bank in the U.S. for a strain of disease-resistant wheat there's quite a good possibility that it isn't there," he said. "But you might find it in by searching records in Ethiopia or Poland."

One possibility was a database modelled on online bookseller Amazon to link up national crop records, he said. "We think that virtually all the world's diversity can be found and accessed through such a system in five years," he said.

Crop varieties are being lost almost daily, such as rice ruined by typhoons in the Philippines.

The trust was set up in 2005 and has now raised $110 million, including the $37.5 million, of a funding goal of $260 million. The money from Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, and his wife Melinda is the biggest single donation.

Source: Reuters

Life expectancy & Economic Growth

w12269.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Use a mirror (843 K)

Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson NBER Working Paper No. 12269 Issued in June 2006 NBER Program(s): EFG ---- Abstract ----- What is the effect of increasing life expectancy on economic growth? To answer this question, we exploit the international epidemiological transition, the wave of international health innovations and improvements that began in the 1940s. We obtain estimates of mortality by disease before the 1940s from the League of Nations and national public health sources. Using these data, we construct an instrument for changes in life expectancy, referred to as predicted mortality, which is based on the pre-intervention distribution of mortality from various diseases around the world and dates of global interventions. We document that predicted mortality has a large and robust effect on changes in life expectancy starting in 1940, but no effect on changes in life expectancy before the interventions. The instrumented changes in life expectancy have a large effect on population; a 1% increase in life expectancy leads to an increase in population of about 1.5%. Life expectancy has a much smaller effect on total GDP both initially and over a 40-year horizon, however. Consequently, there is no evidence that the large exogenous increase in life expectancy led to a significant increase in per capita economic growth. These results confirm that global efforts to combat poor health conditions in less developed countries can be highly effective, but also shed doubt on claims that unfavorable health conditions are the root cause of the poverty of some nations. This paper is available as PDF 4.0+ (843 K) or via email. Machine-readable bibliographic record - MARC, RIS, BibTeX

MDGs Global Monitoring Report 2007

Global Monitoring Report 2007: "Published April 13, the 2007 Global Monitoring Report on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) assesses the contributions of developing countries, developed countries, and international financial institutions toward meeting universally agreed development commitments. Fourth in a series of annual reports leading up to 2015, this year's report reviews key developments of the past year, emerging priorities, and an assessment of performance drawing on numerous indicators.

Subtitled 'Confronting the Challenges of Gender Equality and Fragile States', the report highlights two key thematic areas —gender equality and empowerment of women (the third MDG) and the special problems of fragile states, where extreme poverty is increasingly concentrated. Press Briefing"

A Queda Recente da Desigualdade BR

A Queda Recente da Desigualdade

A constatação da significativa redução dos índices de desigualdade social e de pobreza no Brasil desde 2001, a necessidade de analisar as políticas públicas associadas a essa queda da desigualdade e os desafios futuros para que ela persista motivaram a realização desses trabalhos. Sobre a Recente Queda da Desigualdade de Renda no Brasil (março / 2007) Desigualdade de Renda no Brasil Apresentação do pesquisador do Ipea Ricardo Paes de Barros no Seminário Internacional "O Desáfio da Redução da Desigualdade e da Pobreza"

Global Warming Is Changing the World

An international climate assessment finds for the first time that humans are altering their world and the life in it by altering climate; looking ahead, global warming's impacts will only worsenIn early February, the United Nations--sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) declared in no uncertain terms that the world is warming and that humans are mostly to blame. Last week, another IPCC working group reported for the first time that humans--through the greenhouse gases we spew into the atmosphere and the resulting climate change--are behind many of the physical and biological changes that media accounts have already associated with global warming. Receding glaciers, early-blooming trees, bleached corals, acidifying oceans, killer heat waves, and butterflies retreating up mountainsides are likely all ultimately responses to the atmosphere's growing burden of greenhouse gases. "Climate change is being felt where people live and by many species," says geoscientist Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton University, a lead author of the report. "Some changes are making life harder to cope with for people and other species."

FDA advisory panel votes against Merck & Co.'s Arcoxia by Alison Fischer

April 12, 2007
FDA advisory panel votes against Merck & Co.'s Arcoxia by Alison Fischer
An FDA advisory committee voted 20-1 against recommending approval for Merck & Co.'s Arcoxia (etoricoxib) over safety concerns.
Clinical data have suggested that the drug may increase the risk of cardiovascular adverse events, and panel member David Felson noted that "there is nothing special about this drug that would warrant giving it to patients and putting them at risk of a cardiovascular death, period." Committee member Richard Cannon added that "we don't have strong data that there is a need for this drug, compared to what's already available."
At the meeting, FDA drug safety expert David Graham told panel members that Arcoxia "probably confers a substantial increase in cardiovascular risk." Graham also stated that "what you're talking about is a potential health disaster. We could have a replay of what we had with [Vioxx]."
In response, Peter Kim, president of Merck Research Laboratories, commented that the company is "disappointed" with the committee's decision. "We continue to believe that Arcoxia has the potential to become a valuable treatment option for [patients] suffering from osteoarthritis." The drugmaker, which is seeking approval to sell the product in the US as a treatment for the signs and symptoms of the disease, plans to continue to discuss its application with the FDA. An agency decision about whether to approve the compound is expected by the end of the month.
Arcoxia, which is approved in more than 60 countries outside the US, had revenue of $265 million in 2006.

statins is associated with a sharply reduced risk of death from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., April 10 -- The moderate use of statins is associated with a sharply reduced risk of death from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, researchers here found.
Action Points
Explain to interested patients that statins are prescribed to lower cholesterol, but evidence is mounting that they have other effects, including modulating the immune system
Explain that this study found an association between moderate statin use and a lower risk of death from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as a lower risk of death from flu and pneumonia.
Point out that cohort studies of this kind don't show a causal effect.
In a large matched cohort study of 76,232 patients, moderate use of statins was associated with an 83% reduction in the risk of death from COPD, they reported in the April issue of CHEST.
Use of statins also was linked to a 40% reduced risk of death from pneumonia or flu, according to Floyd Frost, Ph.D., of the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute here, and colleagues.
The findings were confirmed in two separate case-control studies -- one each for COPD and for pneumonia and flu -- which yielded similar risk reductions, Dr. Frost and colleagues said.
The study provided additional evidence that statins, in addition as lowering LDL levels, also can modulate the immune system -- a property that may be important in the event of a new flu pandemic, Dr. Frost and colleagues said.
The Lovelace study is "extremely valuable because it suggests that statin therapy may well be efficacious in real-world application to COPD patients and possibly for acute influenza," said John Mancini, M.D., of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, in an accompanying editorial.
The findings provide a "compelling rationale for executing randomized clinical trials that will more clearly define the magnitude of effect and the characteristics of patients that will benefit the most," Dr. Mancini said.
The current findings come from the medical records of several health management organizations in the Albuquerque area, Dr. Frost and colleagues said.
The researchers identified 19,058 patients who each had at least 90 days of statin use from Jan. 1, 1992, to Dec. 31, 2003 -- the cases -- and matched each of them with three HMO patients who did not use statins.
Statin use was stratified into low-dose (less than 4 mg/day) and moderate-dose (4 mg/day or more).
For patients using a moderate dose of statins, a logistic regression analysis of causes of death showed that:
The risk of death from pneumonia was reduced 51%. The odds ratio was 0.49, with a 95% confidence interval from 0.26 to 0.76, which was significant at P<0.05.
The risk of death from unspecified pneumonia or flu was reduced 40%. The odds ratio was 0.60, with a 95% confidence interval from 0.26 to 0.82, which was significant at P<0.05.
The risk of death from COPD was reduced 83%. The odds ratio was 0.17, with a 95% confidence interval from 0.07 to 0.42, which was significant at P<0.05.
For the case-control studies, the researchers identified 397 HMO members who died in a hospital with a diagnosis of unspecified pneumonia or flu, as well as 54,136 people with the same diagnosis who survived. They also found 207 who died of COPD, as well as 9,622 with COPD who survived.
Patients were grouped into three age cohorts -- those born in or before 1920, from 1921 to 1945, and from 1946 to 1955 -- with the youngest group serving as a reference.
For moderate statin users analysis found that:
The risk of death from unspecified pneumonia or flu was again reduced. The odds ratio was 0.62, with a 95% confidence interval from 0.43 to 0.91, which was significant at P<0.05.
The risk of death from COPD was similarly reduced. The odds ratio was 0.19, with a 95% confidence interval from 0.08 to 0.47, which was significant at P<0.05.
Although the three studies cannot show cause and effect, Dr. Frost and colleagues said, the results "are in general agreement with prior studies" and are unlikely to be artifacts of study design.
The authors declared they had no conflicts of interest. They made no statement about sponsorship of the study.
Primary source: ChestSource reference: Frost FJ et al. "Influenza and COPD Mortality Protection as Pleiotropic, Dose-Dependent Effects of Statins." CHEST 2007; 131:1006-12.

Biblioteca Virtual sobre Corrupção

CGU e UNODC lançam Biblioteca Virtual sobre Corrupção
Acervo online será atualizado diariamente e terá contribuições de pesquisadores
Brasília, 10 de abril - A Controladoria-Geral da União (CGU) e o Escritório das Nações Unidas contra Drogas e Crime (UNODC) lançam na Internet a Biblioteca Virtual sobre Corrupção ( www.bvc.cgu.gov.br), que reúne documentos, artigos, teses, notícias, eventos, apresentações e outros materiais relacionados ao tema. O enfoque é o da prevenção como estratégia de combate à corrupção.
O objetivo da CGU e do UNODC, além de promover a pesquisa e a divulgação de informações sobre corrupção e assuntos afins, é estimular o controle social e o exercício da cidadania por meio da difusão do conhecimento. O acesso à Biblioteca Virtual sobre Corrupção (BVC) é livre e gratuito. A consulta pode ser feita por coleção, autor, título, assunto ou data.
O acervo da BVC é atualizado diariamente. Todo o conteúdo é de domínio público ou obteve prévia autorização dos proprietários dos direitos autorais. O uso das informações da BVC é livre, mas não é permitido, sob nenhuma hipótese, o uso das publicações disponíveis na biblioteca para fins comerciais, de forma direta ou indireta, ou ainda para quaisquer finalidades que possam violar os direitos autorais aplicáveis.
A BVC apóia o " Manifesto Brasileiro de Apoio ao Acesso Livre à Informação Científica", promovido pelo Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia (Ibict), órgão do Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia, visando promover a constituição de uma nova ética no acesso à produção do conhecimento eletrônico. Além dos conteúdos já publicados, a BVC aceita contribuições de pesquisadores e interessados no assunto. Para submeter artigos, pesquisas, relatórios, monografias, dissertações, teses ou outros materiais à análise do conselho editorial da BVC, basta encaminhar o documento para o endereço eletrônico bvc@cgu.gov.br. Caso o documento não seja de domínio público, é necessário o envio do Termo de Autorização (preenchido e assinado), que está disponível na página da BVC, para: Biblioteca Virtual sobre Corrupção, Controladoria-Geral da União, SAS Quadra 01, Bloco A, Ed. Darcy Ribeiro, sala 1.004, Brasília/DF, CEP 70.070-905; ou para o fax (61) 3412-7265.
Conheça as áreas de interesse da BVC:
- Abuso de poder - Accountability - Chantagem - Conflito de Interesse - Contrabando - Controle Social - Correição - Corrupção - Desvio de recursos públicos - Direito Administrativo - Disciplinar Enriquecimento ilícito - Ética - Extorsão - Favoritismo - Fortalecimento da Gestão - Fraude
- Gestão de recursos públicos - Governança - Improbidade administrativa - Integridade - Jeitinho - Lavagem de dinheiro - Lei de Gerson - Nepotismo - Ouvidoria - Pirataria - Suborno - Técnicas de auditoria - Tráfico de influência - Transparência pública - Troca de favores

Renewing Primary Health Care in the Americas

De: Equity, Health & Human Development [mailto:EQUIDAD@LISTSERV.PAHO.ORG]
Em nome de Ruggiero, Mrs. Ana Lucia (WDC)
Enviada em: terça-feira, 10 de abril de 2007 10:19
Para: EQUIDAD@LISTSERV.PAHO.ORGAssunto: ]
[EQ] Renewing Primary Health Care in the Americas
Renewing Primary Health Care in the Americas

A Position Paper of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO)
Washington, D.C: PAHO, 2007.ISBN 92 75 12698 4

Available online as PDF file [48p.] at: http://www.paho.org/English/AD/THS/primaryHealthCare.pdf

“………For more than a quarter of a century Primary Health Care (PHC) has been recognized as one of the key components of an effective health system. Experiences in more–developed and less–developed countries alike have demonstrated that PHC can be adapted and interpreted to suit a wide variety of political, social, and cultural contexts. A comprehensive review of PHC –both in theory and practice–and a critical look at how this concept can be “renewed” to better reflect
the current health and development needs of people around the world, is now in order.

The goal of this paper is to generate ideas and recommendations to enable such a renewal, and to help strengthen and reinvigorate PHC into a concept that can lead the development of health systems for the coming quarter century and beyond.

There are several reasons for adopting a renewed approach to PHC, including: the rise of new epidemiologic challenges that PHC must evolve to address; the need to correct weaknesses and inconsistencies present in some of the widely divergent approaches to PHC; the development of new tools and knowledge of best practices that PHC can capitalize on to be more effective; and a growing recognition that PHC is an approach to strengthen society’s ability to reduce inequities in
health.

In addition, a renewed approach to PHC is viewed as an essential condition for meeting the commitments of internationally agreed–upon development goals, including those contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration addressing the social determinants of health and achieving the highest attainable level of health by everyone………”

Content:
Executive Summary
I. Why Renew Primary Health Care? . Table 1: Approaches to Primary Health Care
II. Building Primary Health Care–Based Health Systems
A. Values Figure 1: Core Values, Principles and Elements in a PHC–Based Health System
B. Principles .
C. Elements Box 1: Renewing PHC: Implications for Health Services Box 2: PHC–Based Health Systems and Human Development
D. What are the Benefits of a PHC–Based Health System?
III. The Way Forward .
A. Learning from Experience . Box 3: Human Resource Challenges in the Americas
B. Building Coalitions for Change
C. Strategic Lines of Action
Appendix A: Methods
Appendix B: Regional Declaration on the New Orientations for Primary Health Care (Declaration of Montevideo)
Appendix C: Some PHC Milestones in the Americas, 1900–2005
Appendix D: Facilitators and Barriers to Effective PHC Implementation in the Americas
References

genes, environment, and disease

http://www4.od.nih.gov/oba/SACGHS/reports/SACGHS_LPS_report.pdf

The report describes the preliminary questions that should be addressed to help policymakers decide whether the U.S. Government should undertake a new large population study (LPS) of genes, environment, and disease. The aim of such studies is to determine linkages between environmental factors and exposures and risk for disease. These studies usually include the collection of health and environmental data and biological specimens from hundreds of thousands of people over a period of a decade or longer. Data and biospecimens are typically maintained in databases and repositories and are used by many researchers to determine associations between environmental factors and disease. Some scientists believe that a new large-scale LPS involving 500,000 to 1 million participants is the next logical step for deepening our understanding of the relationship of genes and the environment in human disease.
The SACGHS report is based on two years of fact-finding, public consultation, and deliberation. The report identifies five areas that require further analysis and consideration by the Secretary of HHS prior to making a decision as to whether a new LPS could take place: research policy; research logistics; regulatory and ethical considerations; public health, social, and economic implications; and public engagement. Among the specific issues identified are the funding impact on other areas of medical research; the need for environmental exposure measures and detection methods; challenges associated with data sharing and access to study findings across multiple study sites; the need to ensure confidentiality of participants’ personal and health data; and a need to assess the study’s social and economic implications with a particular focus on health disparities. The report also discusses the critical role of the public and that public interest in participating in such a study was not clear and would need to be assessed. The report also concludes that the Secretary should initiate a thorough consideration of the full range of policy issues outlined in the report and that the public at large, the scientific community, a relevant Government agencies and policymakers, and the private sector stakeholders should be engaged in the process.
SACGHS was established in 2002 to assess the broad range of human health and societal issues raised by the development and use and potential misuse of genetic technologies. SACGHS is composed of 13 non-governmental national experts in a range of scientific and professional disciplines as well as 19 non-voting ex officio representatives from a number of HHS agencies and offices and other components of the Executive Branch. More information about SACGHS is available at http://www4.od.nih.gov/oba/SACGHS.htm.

UN Talks on Global Warming Report

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide: "UN Talks on Global Warming Report End With `Very Good Document'

By Alex Morales
April 6 (Bloomberg) -- United Nations negotiations over a global warming report ended today after delegates completed discussions of how human activities are bringing climate change.
Discussions by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, were scheduled to end yesterday in Brussels. The group is examining the effects of global warming and ways in which humans can adapt to changes. At 10:15 a.m. local time, IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri told reporters a document was agreed upon after a ``marathon'' session as scientists and political envoys debated the text's wording, including degrees of confidence associated with the effect of climate change.
``I'm still wearing the suit I wore yesterday morning, and I've been sitting in a chair all night'' Pachauri said, ``What we have in the end is a very good document.'' The completed summary wasn't immediately made available to reporters. "

Scientists, governments clash as report reveals dangers of climate change - USATODAY.com

Scientists, governments clash as report reveals dangers of climate change - USATODAY.com: "BRUSSELS — After a marathon session that saw angry exchanges between diplomats and scientists, an international global warming conference approved a major report on climate change Friday.
'We have an approved accord. It has been a complex exercise,' conference chairman Rajendra Pachauri told reporters after an all-night meeting.
Several scientists objected to the editing of the final draft by government negotiators, the Associated Press reported, but in the end agreed to compromises. However, some scientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change vowed never to take part in the process again, the AP reported."

Climate change: In graphics

BBC NEWS Science/Nature Climate change: In graphics: "Climate change: In graphics
It is 'very likely' that human activity is the cause for climate change, scientists from over 130 countries have concluded. The graphics below illustrate their predictions on just how much global temperatures may rise over the next century. "

Blood for all

446586a.pdf (application/pdf Object)
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Blood for all
Nature Biotech. doi:10.1038/nbt1298 (2007)
Bacterial enzymes that efficiently convert blood from groups A, B and AB into the ‘universal’ O group may lead to safer blood transfusions.
Red blood cells from groups A, B and AB contain antigens that cause life-threatening reactions if transfused into people with a different blood group. Henrik Clausen of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Gerlind Sulzenbacher of the Universities of
Aix-Marseille, France, and their colleagues have identified two novel glycosidase enzymes that strip away these antigens. The enzyme-treated blood could then be used like group-O blood — group-O cells do not carry A or B antigens, so they can be safely given
to anyone. The technology now needs to be tested in clinical trials.

The Ecologist - Money...

The Ecologist - Archive Detail: "It's the money, stupid
Money. It can't buy you love, but it is almost as complicated. Most of us think our money is minted somewhere in the basement of Number 11, firmly controlled by the government in everyone's best interest. Wrong. John Rogers, John Courtneidge, John Waters, and Mary Fee, from LETSlinkUK, write of money's worries and prove that there is another way...
Date:22/03/2007 Author:Mary Fee"

A monstrous war crime | Iraq | Guardian Unlimited

A monstrous war crime | Iraq | Guardian Unlimited: "With more than 650,000 civilians dead in Iraq, our government must take responsibility for its lies

Richard Horton
Wednesday March 28, 2007
The Guardian

Our collective failure has been to take our political leaders at their word. This week the BBC reported that the government's own scientists advised ministers that the Johns Hopkins study on Iraq civilian mortality was accurate and reliable, following a freedom of information request by the reporter Owen Bennett-Jones. This paper was published in the Lancet last October. It estimated that 650,000 Iraqi civilians had died since the American and British led invasion in March 2003.

Immediately after publication, the prime minister's official spokesman said that the Lancet's study 'was not one we believe to be anywhere near accurate'. The foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, said that the Lancet figures were 'extrapolated' and a 'leap'. President Bush said: 'I don't consider it a credible report'."

The Number

http://www.jhu.edu/~jhumag/0207web/number.html

The Number

When Johns Hopkins epidemiologists set out to study the war in Iraq, they did not anticipate that their findings would be so disturbing, or so controversial.

By Dale Keiger

In April of last year, Gilbert H. Burnham and Leslie F. Roberts, A&S '92 (PhD), began finalizing plans for some new epidemiology. There was nothing notable in that; Burnham and Roberts, at the time both researchers at Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health, were epidemiologists. What was notable was the subject. They would not be studying the spread of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, or incidence of cholera in Bangladeshi villages. They meant to conduct epidemiological research on the war in Iraq. They would treat the war as a public health catastrophe, and apply epidemiological methods to answer a question essential to an occupying power with the legal obligation to protect the occupied: What had happened to the Iraqi people after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion?

Their efforts produced a mortality study, their second in two years, published last October in The Lancet, Britain's premier medical journal. The study produced a number: 654,965. This was the researchers' estimate of probable "excess mortality" since the 2003 invasion — Iraqis now dead who would not be dead were it not for the war. The number was a product of the study, not its central point. But it commanded attention because it was appallingly, stupefyingly large. It was beyond anyone's previous worst imagining. It was just plain hard to believe, and in the weeks following its publication, it became an oddity of science: a single number so loud, in effect, it overwhelmed the conclusions of the research that produced it.

Newspapers the world over put the number in their headli