An Australian academic's labelling the World Health Organisation a "Toothless Tiger".

An editorial in the Australian Medical Journal titled 'Toughen-up WHO' criticises the organisation's softer approach when countries don't follow it's regulations.

Associate Professor Sanjaya Senanayake said WHO needs to work around the complexities of new funding models that may dictate how their work is carried out during a viral outbreak.

He said they've reacted fast in the wake of Zika but need to keep up with a growing number of Non Government Organisations that weren't around during it's founding.

He said the organisation needs to learn to work with NGOs to improve not only the response in different areas but also the follow-through of regulations. Non-medical personnel, for example, would be extremely helpful to carry out preventative and decontamination tasks.

But Senanayake said it's not all about WHO sharpening it's teeth; countries can also do more to keep the momentum going.

"They can improve their relationships with the regional offices, they can have more non-medical staff, because during an outbreak there are so many aspects of a country and region's infrastructure that needs to be addressed."

Senanayake said there's room for punitive measures such as sanctions on countries to make them comply to WHO instructions.

"I think there's a danger that if the World Health Organisation is being ignored during an outbreak that people will notice that and be less inclined to take them seriously."

Meanwhile Russia has registered its first case of a person infected with the Zika virus after a tourist contracted the disease in the Dominican Republic.

The World Health Organisation declared the spread of the disease a global health emergency earlier this month.

source: http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/

Fluoroquinolone antibiotics were developed in the 1970s and first used in human medicine in the 1980s. The drugs are used for treating, amongst other conditions, human food poisoning illnesses such as campylobacter, salmonella and Ecoli.

Because of their important role in treating severe cases of such infections, the World Health Organization (WHO) has classified fluoroquinolones as being "critically important" to human healthcare, and said that reducing the use of the substances on livestock farms should be prioritised.

This is because of growing global evidence that the overuse of the antibiotics on factory farms is fuelling the development of drug resistant forms of food poisoning bugs which can be passed to consumers via contaminated meat. Those who develop complications requiring medical treatment may not respond to antibiotics prescribed by doctors, potentially putting lives at risk.

One of the most commonly used fluoroquinolones in chicken production is enrofloxacin, which is closely related to ciprofloxacin, a fluoroquinolone used in human medicine. Enrofloxacin is used on poultry farms to tackle bacterial infections. The drug is typically administered in birds' drinking water, meaning whole flocks are dosed with the drugs at one time.

Concerns over the links between fluoroquinolone use on farms and antibiotic resistant bacteria were raised as far back as 1998 when a House of Lords committee urged the poultry industry to reduce its use of fluoroquinolones.

Despite a temporary reduction in the use of the antibiotics following the calls, veterinary usage of the drugs has increased steadily in the years since. This has proved controversial, particularly as the use of the antibiotics in poultry production was outlawed in the US in 2005, and is banned in poultry farms in Australia, Finland and Denmark.

Although fluoroquinolones only account for a small proportion of the overall volume of antibiotics used in UK livestock farming each year – in terms of active ingredient, experts say the drugs are highly potent and weigh significantly less than other antibiotics commonly used. The European Medicines Agency has estimated that one dose of fluoroquinolones weighs 30 to 70 times less than one dose of tetracycline antibiotics

source: https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/

Pharmacist Ben Amodu is a researcher in herbal products and an expert in phytho-medicinal research. In this interview with DAVID ADUGE-ANI, he believes that herbal medicines are the solution for good health and longevity.

Sir could you explain the economic benefits a Third World country such as Nigeria could derive from herbal treatments?

As you know, if a country's exports exceed its imports, the result will be favourable balance of trade. I have participated in various expositions and workshops within and outside the country and was able to observe the response of participants.

A patient from London who was perfectly treated with our herbal supplements recently sent this into my mail: "Hello Sir, l give glory to God"

He told me that he visited other hospitals in India, and was advised to continue with his medication. Positive results of our supplement combinations to patients in 2013 moved Se Kroa Ehoule, the director and the coordinator of program of national promotion of traditional medicine in the country commended us.

If herbs can be recommended for the cure of the highest disease of the lung, then asthma being a disease of the lung is a small thing to the herbs.

The case of a hepatitis patient I mentioned above, whose UK medical consultant saw as incurable are ways of attracting international trade in the country which you know will go a long way to enhance favourable balance of trade. And if the wonders being performed by herbs on both communicable and non-communicable diseases within and outside the country can be encouraged by the government, herbal tourism will be attracted in Nigeria, because people will be coming from all over the world to Nigeria which in turn will attract foreign exchange.

Are you satisfied with how the governments have been going about this branch of medicine?

Well, I won't tell you that I am satisfied, but with all these developments so far, I believe that the present government will begin to encourage it. World Health Organization (WHO) recommended herbs for treatment of modern diseases. I want to inform you that the magic behind good health and longevity of life which China, India and other Asian countries have been enjoying are found in the use of herbs.

You have said it severally that herbal medicines succeed where its orthodox counterparts fail. Can you explain this?

I can give you instances, where herbs treat and cure communicable and no communicable diseases more than their orthodox counterparts.

It would surprise you to know that hepatitis kills about 11 people in this country on daily basis.

There are ailments such as kidney diseases, among others which have been found to be resistant to herbal treatments. What is your opinion on this?

The fact of the matter is that we don't value what we have in this country. But thank God that today people have begun to testify to what we have after having used the orthodox and the herbal medicines.

What would be your recommendations to government regarding herbal treatments in the country?

I would task the federal government to look inward. The reason is that the diseases termed incurable can now be cured and this is based from results we have been receiving commendations from our various patients within and outside the country who were treated with herbs.

Orthodox branch of medicine has been recognised in many countries of the world for the treatment of modern diseases even more than herbs. Could you react to this?

I am a pharmacist and have been in phytho medicine research for a long time now. I have said it above and still want to repeatedly inform you that the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued releases many times on the need for using herbal medicines in treatment of ailments in the world; be them communicable or non-communicable ones.

Herbal medicines are very good in the treatment of diseases that people grow into as they age and in medical term, they are called non-communicable diseases. Among them are diseases of cardiovascular of high triglyceride levels in blood like high blood pressure (HBP), diabetes, stroke, ulcer and asthma.

source: http://leadership.ng/

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that air pollution is now a "public health emergency" across the globe, in a stark warning about the dangers of unclean air in our cities.

The warning comes at a time when air pollution is high on the agenda - in December, Chinese authorities issued a pollution 'red alert' in Beijing, forcing schools and businesses to close down and urging people to stay indoors in order to protect them from the deadly smog.

And just eight days into 2016, London breached its own legal limit on air pollution for the entire year. Under EU regulations, pollution levels in London are allowed to exceed the maximum safe limit for 18 hours a year - this allowance had been burned through completely by Friday 8 January.

Speaking to The Guardian, Maria Neira, the head of public health at the WHO, said: "We have a public health emergency in many countries from pollution."

"It's dramatic, one of the biggest problems we are facing globally, with horrible future costs to society."

Neira told the paper that although the short-term effects of pollution on city-dwellers' health can be severe, consistently high levels could be creating a ticking time bomb of public health problems.

Exposure to air pollution can cause health issues like asthma, heart disease and potentially even dementia, conditions which require medical attention and hospital beds. If air pollution levels stay high, Neira believes global health services in the future could be put under even more strain than they are now.

According to the UN, 3.3 million people around the world die prematurely due to the effects of air pollution every year. Most of these deaths occur in China, India and Pakistan, but the UK is badly affected too.

According to a estimates made by researchers from King's College London, almost 9,500 people in London alone died prematurely in 2010 due to pollution - 3,537 from the effects of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which is expelled by engines and power stations, and 5,879 from PM2.5, the name given to the smallest particles of pollution which can penetrate deep into the lungs and cause respiratory problems.

Across the UK, the number of early deaths that can be blamed on pollution could be as high as 60,000 a year, according to a report from official advisory body the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants, which was reported by The Sunday Times.

The Government is now being put under pressure to take swift action on the issue, having been accused in the past of wilfully ignoring air pollution reduction targets.

This pressure will likely increase with the WHO's release of pollution figures next month, which are expected to show that air quality has continued to decline across the world in the past year

source: http://www.independent.co.uk/

An official says the World Health Organization hopes to eradicate polio in 2016, after containing outbreaks in conflict-ridden Syria, Iraq and Somalia by immunizing millions of children over two years.

Christopher Maher, who runs the regional polio eradication program, says there's a chance to "finish polio forever" this year. He says the disease still occurs in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but that the caseload is dropping.

Maher spoke Sunday at the inauguration of a WHO regional center for health emergencies and polio eradication in Jordan's capital, Amman.

The agency says it faces unprecedented demand for basic health services. It says half the region's 22 countries are in conflict or affected by it, and that the Middle East is home to the largest number of internally displaced people anywhere.

source; http://news.yahoo.com/

Mysuru: At a time when healthcare risks have become one of the most difficult issues that the country is dealing with, India's per-capita expenditure on health research is less than $1. And, just 3% of this is spent on public health research.

Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) director general Dr Soumya Swaminathan said out of $1 billion that the country has been spending annually, just 1% is for healthcare and it is 0.06% of GDP. Of the total amount, only 16% is by not-for-profit institutions and 83% by pharmaceutical industry.

More investment is a must if the country wants to focus on solving health-related issues without depending on other countries, feel researchers at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, the Indian Institute of Science and the Jawaharlal Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR).

"Significant mismatches between funding and disease-burden trends must be addressed. Strategic mechanisms are needed in India to address these gaps to enable research to effectively improve public health. The government must focus on translational and implementation research. We (government departments) must complete the chain of product development and ensure it is used in the public health programme, expand clinical trial network and conduct/sponsor more multicentric trials," Soumya said.

According to Nobel Laureate professor Serge Haroche, there must be local critical thinking so that discoveries and inventions are aimed at solving problems at hand with priority.

Echoing this, GJ Samathanam, former advisor, department of Science and Technology, said: "India has a great role to play in novel drug discovery. Our scientists must take up high-risk and high resource-oriented long-term research."

Referring to Bengaluru-based Vasan Sambandamurthy and team's single dose solution to cure malaria and two-drug compounds for Ebola developed by Jayanta Haldar and team at JNCASR, scientists argued that more such discoveries will happen only if investment increases.

"Compared to Japan (77%), the US (65%), and Germany (68%), India has the least investment (30%) coming from the industry for drug discovery which is affecting the sector in which the country has a lot of potential," Samathanam said.

source; http://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/

The role of the stethoscope, the ubiquitous tool of the medical profession for over 200 years, is at the center of debate in the US with a leading Indian-origin cardiologist declaring "the stethoscope is dead".

In recent years, the sounds it transmits from the heart, lungs, blood vessels and bowels have been digitised, amplified, filtered and recorded.

Algorithms already exist that can analyze the clues picked up by a stethoscope and offer a possible diagnosis. But whether all this represents the rebirth of diagnostic possibility or the death rattle of an obsolete device is a subject of spirited discussion in cardiology, The Washington Post reported.
The widespread use of echocardiograms and the development of pocket-size ultrasound devices are raising questions about why doctors and others continue to sling earphones and rubber tubing around their necks.

"The stethoscope is dead," said Jagat Narula, a cardiologist and associate dean for global health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. "The time for the stethoscope is gone," Narula said. Starting in 2012, Mount Sinai began giving its students hand-held ultrasound devices that are little bigger than a cellphone but can generate real-time images of the heart right at the bedside. Several other schools will join the experiment in the coming months, the report said.

Stethoscopes retain their value for listening to lungs and bowels for clues of disease, experts say. But for the cardiovascular system, "auscultation is superfluous. We are wasting [students'] time," Narula said.

"Why should I not have an echocardiogram in my hand if it's as small as the stethoscope?" Not so, counters W Reid Thompson, an associate professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "We are not at the place, and probably won't be for a very long time," where listening to the body's sounds is replaced by imaging.

"It is valuable," he said. One thing on which both sides agree, however, is that doctors are not very good at using stethoscopes — and have not been for a long while, the report said. In 1997, researchers examined how well 453 physicians in training and 88 medical students interpreted the information obtained via stethoscope.

According to their study, "both internal medicine and family practice trainees had a disturbingly low identification rate for 12 important and commonly encountered cardiac events."

19 years later, another team tried to determine when doctors stopped improving at "auscultation" — the art of listening to the body to detect disease. The answer: after the third year of medical school. French physician Rene Laennec had invented the stethoscope in 1816.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com

As open enrollment season comes to a close for health insurance markets, it's a good time to reflect on the progress of the U.S. health system. With the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. made efforts to close its uninsured gap with other industrialized nations. The U.S. has made progress on that metric with 16.4 million out of an estimated 50 million uninsured gaining coverage through the Marketplace and Medicaid expansions. But will this change finally put the U.S. at the top of the health system rankings?

U.S. policymakers seek to rank as the nation's health system as best in world. Unfortunately, rankings from the World Health Organization and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show the United States as quite a laggard. The WHO rankings that got the most attention placed the United States at 37th of 191 behind all other industrialized countries and Cuba.

As health economists we were convinced that the U.S. might do better if we took into consideration different variables like access to the physicians. The result in a just published study shows that the United States is not necessarily at the bottom, but it is not at the top either. Just like the residents of U.S. fictional small town Lake Woebegone, Americans are just above average — some of the time.

More disturbing was the highly sensitive scoring process. And actually the conceit of a single country-specific metric of health system performance is the futility of the process itself. We show that single country rankings are fraught with challenges around data availability, transparency and comparability across countries.

For example, although individual health behaviors are important predictors of health utilization and spending, measures such as obesity are not regularly or consistently collected across countries. Even when the data are available, we found that rankings at such 30,000-foot levels are highly sensitive to the statistical approach and set of variables used in a model.

Our work suggests that singular rankings are not well correlated with resource and utilization measures such as physicians per capita, which suggests that factors beyond the control of the health system are at play. One would think that more physicians would lead to better system performance.

The training and payment of physicians is one of the costliest attributes of any industrialized nation. Instead, we see countries with higher rank (Sweden) and lower rank (Hungary) have nearly identical per capita physicians.

In this era of big data, analysts have amassed data from a wide range of sources such that could someday provide new signal for a league table metric and truly provide country-to-country comparisons. For example, a metric could be created from an anonymous population's aerobic activity based on cellphone traveled distance and type of transportation (e.g., car, transport or walking).

Unfortunately, our current health system inputs are stuck in the 20th century. More work is needed to make these connections across countries to improve our comparisons. Improvement in health insurance coverage is a start, but much more needs to be done to identify areas of inefficiency in our health system.

Citizens of the 21st century need to have a more comprehensive set of real-time metrics that are relevant to evolving health systems across the globe. The United States and other nations around the globe spend trillions a year on health care with well over half of the expenditures based on tax receipts of citizens.

Industrialized nations around the world owe it to our children's children to develop appropriate metrics to gauge the effectiveness of health systems expenditures. Until then, our current international health system league tables are statistically unworthy of global discussion.

Stephen T. Parente is a professor at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. Bianca K. Frogner is an associate professor at the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Washington. They wrote this for InsideSources.com.

source: http://www.detroitnews.com