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Don't Worry About Bird Flu
(Charlie Reese, October 18, 2005)
As of now, so far as we know, on Planet Earth about 60 people out of 6 billion have died of bird flu. All were involved in handling sick birds. There is, as of now, no recorded case of bird flu being transmitted from one human to another – something that is necessary before even an epidemic, much less a pandemic, could occur. . . . An epidemic is a widespread outbreak of a disease in a particular community at a particular time. A pandemic is an outbreak of disease in a whole country or in several countries. Pandemics occur, on the average, every 30 to 40 years. . . . What I'm trying to do is add some perspective to the current semihysteria being whipped up by politicians and the media. Certainly the virus that causes bird flu could mutate so that it could be transmitted from human to human. Such mutations, while typical of viruses, ordinarily occur over a period of years, not overnight. . . . Before you let politicians, the media, the pharmaceutical companies and the grant hogs at the National Institutes of Health scare you with stories about being wiped out by a bird-flu pandemic, consider the following: If you are more than 50 years old, you've already lived through two pandemics of flu and probably didn't even know it. . . . At any moment, some new virus might appear that would cause mankind big problems. Earth is a hazardous environment. Humans are all mortal. The only people who have ever gotten off the planet alive are astronauts and cosmonauts. . . . If the bird-flu virus should mutate so that it can travel human to human, there is no vaccine for it. It would have to be treated with the old methods of trying to isolate those infected with it. The only thing individuals could do to protect themselves would be to avoid crowds, stop picking their noses or using their fingers as toothpicks, and wash their hands several times a day. . . . At any rate, pandemics – even the bad one in 1918–1919 – run their course and stop on their own, usually in a year or two. Even the 1918 one killed only about 550,000 Americans, and so it is well to keep in mind for perspective purposes that, on average, 2 million of us die every year from one cause or another. . . . I'm just trying to say keep a stiff upper lip and don't let the new phenomenon of 24/7 television tie your knickers in a knot. . . . For the sake of your mental health, turn off your TV, then practice good personal hygiene, go about your daily life and enjoy, as the old pioneers used to say, every day you have above ground. Our Earth may be hazardous to our health, but it is one beautiful place to live.

posted by LoZo 8:59 PM

 

Women's health fuelling poverty
(BBC NEWS, 12 October 2005)
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says 99% of maternal deaths are preventable yet every minute a woman dies from pregnancy-related causes. . . . This loss impacts not only on the family and society, but also on the economy, its latest report says. . . . UNFPA says investment in reproductive health and gender equality could spur growth and sustainable development. . . . An estimated 529,000 women died from complications of pregnancy and childbirth in 2000, virtually all in developing countries. . . . For every woman who dies, roughly 20 more suffer serious injury or disability - between 8 million and 20 million a year. . . . Experts agree that the majority of maternal deaths are preventable through family planning to reduce unintended pregnancies, skilled attendance at all deliveries and timely emergency obstetric care in all cases where complications arise. . . . Executive director of UNFPA Thoraya Obaid said: "The problem is implementation and monitoring implementation. . . . "You have to spend more on healthcare and on looking after women. . . . "If women are healthy then they can jump start the life of their family and the economy." . . . She called for the "utterly immoral" gap between the reproductive health of rich and poor women to be closed. . . . "In no other area of health are the disparities between rich and poor so wide and the tragic consequences so utterly immoral," she told a news conference at the Foreign Press Association in London to launch a population report. . . . She said another big area of health affecting women was HIV/Aids. . . . Worldwide, young women aged 15-24 are 1.6 times as likely as young men to be HIV positive. . . . "In Africa, HIV/Aids has a young woman's face and many of them are married. It is their husband who brings HIV into the house. . . . Part of the problem is that developing countries are facing critical shortfalls of contraceptives and condoms. . . . She said that in sub-Saharan Africa: "One man has access to six condoms a year. Certainly that is not sufficient to protect against HIV." . . . WHO's director general Dr Lee Jong-Wook said: "Giving mothers, babies and children the care they need is an absolute imperative." . . . "Worldwide, millions of women are unable to protect themselves from HIV infection due to lack of prevention methods that can be controlled by women, causing unneccessary suffering and death. "One of the most urgent actions is to increase funding for microbicide and vaccine development and invest in education that will ensure they are accepted within communities."

posted by LoZo 7:50 AM

 

Vitamins boom after disease outbreaks in Asia
(Dominique Patton, October 12, 2005)
Outbreaks of bird flu and other infectious diseases have triggered strong growth in vitamin consumption in many Asian markets in recent years. . . . While the European market differs quite significantly from Asia, where many countries have typically low consumption of supplements, the trend in recent years demonstrates how fears of disease can heighten awareness of preventive healthcare. . . . In Indonesia, for example, supplement sales reached less than $200 million in 2002, but the following year they grew to $268 million and then a further 25 per cent during 2004 to reach $322 million. . . . Analysts at Euromonitor say that much of this growth came from new awareness of preventative healthcare, initially motivated by the SARS epidemic that threatened much of Asia in 2003. . . . China too saw unprecedented growth that year, with supplement sales rising 15 per cent, after only 2 per cent growth in 2002. . . . Consumer fears are thought to be responsible for the strong growth in multivitamins, vitamin C and dietary supplements such as echinacea that year. . . . A new Euromonitor report on the country's OTC market shows that sales of vitamins in Indonesia increased by 29 per cent over 2004, making it the most dynamic and most valuable sector within the OTC healthcare market. Vitamin C recorded the highest growth, achieving a 32 per cent increase over the year. . . . Other Asian countries hit by bird flu are also seeing strong growth in supplement sales. In the Philippines, vitamin and dietary supplement sales grew by 8.3 per cent in 2004, although they have slowed since the receding of the threat of SARS. . . . The spread of disease has not so far impacted European supplement sales, according to Crossley, with growth being generated instead by products for targeted health conditions like heart, joint, or skin health. . . . But as bird flu reaches eastern European markets, and the media attention on human health risks grows, immune-boosting products could see some gains this year. [COMMENT by Lorenzo: Of course, the WTO's new CODEX will eliminate the use of vitamins and food supplements without a doctor's prescription. See Vitamins to be Banned Worldwide.]

posted by LoZo 7:26 AM