Semarang, Central Java. Better health care through easing restrictions on foreign doctors and imported medical equipment is key to improving living standards and economic efficiency, members of a business lobby group heard on Tuesday.

"The public's access to health care remains low, as a result of limited services, and poor distribution and quality of medical workers," James Riady, Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and

Industry (Kadin) deputy chairman for education and health, said during the body's national congress in Semarang on Tuesday.

Disparities in health care across regions and economic groups should be minimized swiftly, said James, who is also chief executive of Lippo Group, owner of Siloam Hospitals, which operates 10 facilities.

James said that company employees only work effectively when their health is secure. To achieve that goal, James said, it is essential that the new Social Security Organizing Body (BPJS) operates effectively.

James said that Indonesia lacks quality doctors and other medical professionals and that the government should lift the ban on foreign medical workers so that the BPJS program can be successful.

"Kadin Indonesia wants to see red tape cut, including regulations that hinder businesses catering to the welfare of the public, such as the health sector," James said.

"How can hospitals provide sufficient quality and affordable services under the BPJS program when the equipment needed is expensive," James said in reference to the luxury goods sales tax, which applies to medical equipment.

Kadin Indonesia's health committee chairman Dr. Adib Yahya said that improving the quality of human resources in the health sector would require innovation and improved access to health education, including sufficient field practice to sharpen skills.

However, Adib said, substandard infrastructure and the small number of health facilities that work in conjunction with the health education system was limiting the quality of training available.

Adib echoed James's complaint about expensive import duties on health equipment, saying the tax led to a scarcity of sophisticated equipment.

He added that the luxury tax on health equipment had also put access to quality health care out of reach of many people.

Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi in her opening address said: "Health care never really came for free. The government has long provided subsidies for health services, so any assumption that such care was free is mistaken. There were definitely expenses.

"I support the revocation of luxury goods sales tax for medical equipment in order that hospitals can provide better services, with better equipment, purchased at more affordable prices. And that can be covered by BPJS."

(source: www.thejakartaglobe.com)

The country's workers unions are set to stage rallies across Indonesia to commemorate Labor Day on May 1, with marches organized across the archipelago.

National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo said his men were ready for the May Day rallies.

"It is an annual event, so it is important to keep it orderly," he said on the sidelines of a meeting at the Presidential Palace complex on Monday. "So please keep it peaceful and orderly. [You] are allowed to express your aspirations, but don't disturb the activities of other people." He acknowledged that Jakarta would be "a priority".

"Don't worry about the blocking of toll roads by protesters; we all hope it won't not occur," he added.

Jakarta Traffic Police deputy chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Sambodo Purnomo warned motorists to avoid the rally's three checkpoints at the Presidential Palace and the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle both in Central Jakarta and the House of Representatives in South Jakarta.

"We will let the public know about traffic detours during the May Day event through the Traffic Management Center [TMC] website as well as through Twitter and Facebook. There will also be live radio broadcasts," he said.

Thousands of workers in Tangerang regency are planning to block access to the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on May 1 to pressure President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"We will not leave the airport until the president comes to talk with us," said Mukhtar Guntur from the People Movement against Capitalism (Gerak) on Monday.

Gerak coordinator Koswara explained that their 13 demands included the elimination of the outsourcing system, the freedom of the workers' association, better wages and for the government to decline requests from their employers to suspend the higher 2013 wages.

"We are tired of holding rallies at the Presidential Palace without any reaction. Therefore, we will just stage a rally at the airport," he said.

Depok Police coordinated with the unions about their May Day plans. Chief Sr. Comr. Achmad Kartiko said that the police would deploy 695 personnel to secure the event, while asking the unions not to target factories in Depok operating on that day.

Timur said that the President planned to meet with workers in Surabaya during the May Day event.

On Monday afternoon, Yudhoyono met with several figures that represented the unions, including chairman of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Union (KSPI) Said Iqbal, Indonesian Labor Movement Council (MPBI) chairman Andi Gani and Congress Alliance of Indonesian Labor Unions (KASBI) chairperson Nining Elitos.

"In short, we share the same commitment and interests," Yudhoyono told the meeting. "I have often agreed that we want better workers welfare. It's not fair: High economic growth, the industry is well developed, yet the workers see no progress."

Yudhoyono urged protestors to keep the rallies peaceful.

Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar, who also attended the dialogue, told the press that they had agreed to have a meeting ahead of May Day to share ideas.

"We talked about how to improve the social security provider [BPJS] as well as its regulations, the provincial minimum wage [UMP] and outsourcing," Muhaimin said after the meeting.

Said Iqbal said Yudhoyono promised that "as long as the economy is growing, the workers would enjoy the wage. So let's wait until it improves." He also revealed that the President said May Day would be a national holiday next year. (tam)

(source: www.thejakartapost.com)

Canada will continue to be a world leader in the global push to eradicate polio and to save lives through immunization, announced the Honourable Julian Fantino, Minister of International Cooperation, during the Global Vaccine Summit, held in Abu Dhabi.

Canada will increase its support for polio immunization by providing additional support to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to address both immediate and longer-term needs to reach polio eradication by 2018.

"Canada remains a world leader in supporting immunization and is committed to joining the final global push to eradicate polio once and for all," said Minister Fantino.

"By helping to eradicate polio, Canada will help children and their families lead healthy and productive lives, reducing poverty worldwide," he added.

Canada played a leading role in the summit, hosted by His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi; Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The summit brought together international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and other high-level stakeholders, including heads of state and private sector representatives, to support global commitments to immunization, starting with polio eradication. Participants are discussed the critical links between ending polio, strengthening routine immunization, and improving overall child health.

"Canada has been a long-time leader in achieving a polio-free world and making sure children get the vaccines they need no matter where they live. The impact of its leadership is a powerful example of foreign assistance that works," said Bill Gates., co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

"Canada's increased support over the next six years will help ensure we can end polio and build the infrastructure needed to help all children live healthy and productive lives," he added.

"WHO deeply appreciates this substantial contribution from the Canadian government, which will help us finish the job of polio eradication. Polio eradication will be a perpetual gift to all future generations of children the world over. Canada's generosity is a contribution to this gift," said Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization.

"While success is in our sights, there remain challenges to getting vaccinations to those who need them," said Minister Fantino. "Canada calls on religious, government, and community leadership at home and where these diseases plague our children to clearly denounce attacks on immunization workers and to continue promoting science-based information about this important work," he added.

Economic Action Plan 2013 reaffirms Canada's commitment to international development, including immunization. As announced in Economic Action Plan 2013, the new Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development will ensure greater efficiencies and effectiveness in its delivery of international development assistance while maintaining the mandate of poverty alleviation and humanitarian assistance.

"Immunization saves the lives of millions of children every year, and is one of the most cost-effective health investments," said Minister Fantino. "Through Canada's Muskoka Initiative and our commitment to child health, Canada has helped rally global support to immunize 80% of children, and we are working together to ensure we reach every last child," he added.

The Global Vaccine Summit took place during the second annual World Immunization Week, which is recognized by the World Health Organization and aims to promote the use of vaccines to immunize people of all ages against diseases. For more information, please visit CIDA's page on immunization.

(source: www.ameinfo.com)

Cancer will soon eclipse infectious diseases as the main health care issue in low-income, middle-income countries. The Lancet Oncology has dedicated its most recent issue to understanding cancer burden in Latin America, and possible solutions.

Worldwide 12.7 million new cancer cases diagnosed each year, which is estimated to rise to around 16.8 million cases by 2020. Currently, about 80 percent of those cases are in low-to-middle income countries, which hold only 5 percent of the world's financial resources. Latin America's health care system, like those of many low-to-middle income countries, is hampered by problems such as including inadequate funding, inequitable distribution of resources, and a lack of trained health care professionals.

While the cancer incidence in the United States and Europe remains higher, people with cancer in Latin America are more likely to die from the disease. For every 22 cases of cancer in Latin America, 13 will die from it. In contrast, there are 13 deaths for every 30 cases in Europe, and 13 deaths for every 37 cases in the United States.

Of the 1.2 million cases in Latin America, which constitute 10 percent of the world's total, the majority are in Mexico and Brazil. The two countries are viewed as economic drivers of growth in the region. Cancer is estimated to cost the region $4 million a year in treatments, medicine, and the economic impact of premature death.

The main reasons behind Latin America's increased mortality burden are limited access to care--which is concentrated in urban areas for the wealthy minority --and consequently, the late presentation of new cancer diagnoses. People with low access to health services catch their cancer in later stages, when cancer is more advanced and harder to treat.

The study, led by Dr. Paul Gross, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, highlighted both the grim state of cancer care across the region and hopeful efforts that point toward solutions.

Many countries have existing cancer control protocols, but implementation lags due to a focus on competing priorities, including socioeconomic deprivation, crime, education, and infectious diseases.

To stem the rising cases of cancer, the seventy-two study authors said low-cost public health interventions could be effective, such as encouraging tobacco cessation, communicable cancer-causing diseases such as HPV and Hepatitis B, and health education to prevent obesity, which is associated with many cancers of the gastrointestinal tract and certain types of breast cancer.

Limiting cancer burden would also require major restructuring of the region's healthcare systems, including working toward universal health care coverage and improving access via reducing treatment delays, promoting early detection, and targeted screening programs.

In Mexico, a progressive health care reform launched in 2003 included a new public health agency, funding and a public health insurance program to support the uninsured population. While the country has yet to achieve universal coverage, Mexico has achieved success in increasing rates of cervical cancer and HPV screenings.

In Brazil, progress in medical education has established 52 oncologist training programs, graduating over 100 oncologists per year. However, many more must be educated to address the countries needs.

"We want to galvanize everybody to take action... Cancer is going to be the number one threat and we believe it is very wise to invest more and distribute the budget and resources equitably across all the populations of a country," said Dr. Gross in a press conference.

(source: www.medicaldaily.com)

Indonesia is among those countries in South-East Asia that have achieved encouraging progress in controlling malaria thanks to scaled up interventions that include long-lasting insecticidal nets, rapid diagnostic tests and artemisinin-based combinations, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

"Indonesia and several other countries in the region, including Bhutan, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand, are aiming for the elimination of malaria," the WHO's South-East Asia Region Office (SEARO) said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

WHO data shows that reported malaria cases in the region declined by 43 percent to 3.4 million in 2011 from 5.96 million in 2003. Meanwhile, the number of malaria deaths decreased by 68 percent from 4,482 in 2003 to 1,819 in 2011.

However, the WHO said these achievements could unravel in the face of new challenges, particularly the growing threat of resistance to the most effective anti-malarial drug, artemisinin.

Two countries in the region, Myanmar and Thailand, as well as Cambodia and Vietnam in WHO's Western Pacific Region, are particularly affected.

Approximately 1.3 billion people in the South-East Asia region in South-East Asia continue to be at the risk of contracting malaria, even though substantial progress has been made in controlling the disease.

With support from the WHO and other partner agencies, countries are aiming to reduce malaria cases and deaths by 75 percent by 2015 (from the year 2000) with the long-term goal of eliminating the disease.

WHO SEARO regional director Samlee Plianbangchang said malaria impacted upon the socioeconomic development of a country.

"Political will for urgent, collective action supported by greater investment is needed to prevent the resurgence of malaria," he added. (ebf)

(source: www.thejakartapost.com)

Eradicating poverty and achieving sustainable development should be the priorities of the post-2015 development agenda, said Development Committee MEPs on Tuesday. Universal health coverage and quality education should be key goals, and gender equality and decent work opportunities should become new ones, they said in a draft resolution, voted Tuesday, on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The committee stressed the need to take account of the changing landscape of poverty and the increasing importance of inequality. "I'm convinced that future goals must be better adapted to the changing reality, in order to enhance their effectiveness," said rapporteur Filip Kaczmarek (EPP, PL).

The text stresses that universal health coverage and high quality education for all and at all levels should be major goals of the post-2015 agenda. It also calls for gender equality to be built into all EU programmes and a focus on providing full and productive employment as key ways out of poverty.

MEPs recall that 75% of the world's poor people live in middle-income countries and therefore emphasise that these countries should not be overlooked when reviewing the MDGs despite their economic growth. They further urge that any efforts to differentiate countries by degrees of poverty should not exclude them from bilateral cooperation with the EU.

Although some developing countries have themselves become donors, they still face high levels of inequality comparable to that of other developing countries, they add.

EU member states must at least maintain their pledge to donate 0.7% of GDP to development after 2015 and must adopt multiannual budget timetables in order to reach this target, say MEPs, who also reiterate the crucial role of innovative sources of development funding, such as the Financial Transaction Tax, part of which should be allocated to sustainable development.

The draft resolution also insists that the cost of the effects of climate change should be paid from funds genuinely additional to existing commitments and urges the EU to keep up the fight against corruption, money laundering, tax havens, illicit flows of capital and harmful tax structures, so as to enable developing countries to raise more revenue at home.

To define poverty, new indicators are needed besides GDP, and to eradicate it, development policy must take account of the importance of inclusive economic development, redistribution of wealth through budgetary means, human rights and good governance, among other things, say MEPs.

The draft resolution was passed by 20 votes to 4 with no abstentions. It is scheduled for a plenary vote in May

(source: www.europarl.europa.eu)

Though the bird flu seems to be spreading amongst families in China, a top World Health Organization expert said there is no evidence that H7N9 is spreading in a "sustained" way.

On March 31, China announced that the virus was discovered in humans for the first time. There were 21 confirmed deaths and 104 confirmed cases by Monday.

The fear is that the virus will mutate and become transmissible between humans, triggering a pandemic.

But for now, there seems to be no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

Keiji Fukuda, assistant director general for health security and environment at WHO, said they have spent the last three days meeting government officials in Shanghai and visiting the agricultural market.

Officials acknowledged that certain "family clusters" exist, where members of one family become infected, but they are saying this is not related to human-to-human transmission.

Fukuda said it is "not clear why we have these small clusters."

He said there are certain families where more than one person contracted the flu and likely caught it from animals.

"With other avian influenza viruses we have seen where you can have limited, person-to-person transmission, so there's always the possibility," he said.

The difference between "sustained" transmission and "limited" transmission is that limited transmission happens between family members or medical personnel caring for the ill, but no one else.

Many cases in Shanghai are the limited type, including a man who contracted the virus from his father and a man whose wife had the flu.

"Family clusters in general do not change our understanding of the characteristics of the disease," Feng Zijan said.

"It is still passed from poultry to people and there is no evidence of human-to-human."

(source: www.opposingviews.com)

MAKASSAR, Indonesia, April 18 (Bernama) -- An average of 600,000 Indonesians seek medical care overseas annually, according to Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi.

"Therefore, we need to have more hospitals of WHO or international standard to enable us to serve patients in the country," Indonesia's Antara quoted the minister as saying here on Wednesday.

She urged hospitals to improve medical services in accordance with operational standards.

Hospitals must provide safe, friendly and non-discriminative services in order to avoid complaints, she stated.

At present, South Sulawesi Province has 75 hospitals and the ratio of hospital beds to population is 1.7 per 1,000, which is above the criteria of WHO at one per 1,000.

Meanwhile, in the Indonesian health ministry's strategic plan 2010-2014, at least five Indonesian cities to have world-class hospitals.

(source: www.bernama.com.my)