Health news in 2016 was dominated by talk of Zika, polio and HIV, and the fear, devastation and death that followed. However, scientific advances offer hope for treatment and protection in the years ahead.

Zika

While many people with Zika exhibit such mild symptoms that they don't know they are infected, a surge of babies born with microcephaly proved that the virus is anything but harmless. Pregnant women with Zika are at risk of giving birth to babies with microcephaly, meaning they have abnormally small heads, which often signifies arrested brain development.

The Zika virus originated in Uganda more than 60 years ago, and is transmitted by mosquitoes and through sex with an infected person. The virus recently emerged in Brazil, then surged north. There were confirmed cases in Florida, and health officials in Texas worry the virus might be spreading there.

Dr. Anthony Costello, with the World Health Organization, said even one affected child has a big impact on community resources and a family's ability to cope.

"It is a public health problem of huge concern for the world," he said. "Sixty-nine countries have seen the Zika virus emerge in the last two years. We are talking about a virus that causes brain damage and potentially lifelong disability, which is a huge blow to families."

Currently, prevention is key. Women are advised to avoid travel to areas where the virus is spreading, to guard against mosquito bites and to delay pregnancy. There is no vaccine against Zika, but one could be available in 2018.

Polio

In Nigeria, the polio virus re-emerged in the violence-wracked northern part of the country, where it's hard to ensure that every child is vaccinated. Three children were diagnosed with polio just as Nigeria was thought to be approaching polio-free status.

The virus also exists in another conflict zone: along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Those behind the vaccination effort say they are determined to eliminate the disease. Polio infections have decreased by 99 percent since 1988, from about 350,000 cases then to less than three dozen in 2016.

HIV/AIDS

In the beginning of December, Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institutes of Health announced the start of a major trial of an experimental vaccine against the AIDS virus.

"An HIV vaccine is not going to be easy," he said. "We may not even know if we're going to get a vaccine."

However, Fauci described the advances in AIDS treatment as nothing short of spectacular.

"Today, the combinations of therapies we have for individuals — for someone who is in their 20s and gets infected and comes in and gets on a combination of drugs — you could predict that they could live an additional 50 years," he said. "That is one of the most extraordinary advances in the transition from basic research to an applicable intervention in any field of medicine."

If an effective vaccine is found, it could mean the end for a virus that has infected more than 70 million people and killed 35 million over the last half-century.

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In the ten years since the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by 168 countries, there has been both progress and stubborn obstacles.

Case in point: When a new transit system in Guatemala City was built in 2010 with raised platforms accessible only by stairs, disability rights activists brought a lawsuit against the system — and won. Now, some of those stations have to provide ramps, says Silvia Yee, senior staff attorney with the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund.

But there are still problems. People with disabilities still must get to those ramps on broken and crumbling sidewalks with no curb cuts.

A new analysis of the landmark international human rights treaty seeks to document how far countries have come in the past decade and how far they have yet to go. The World Policy Analysis Center at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, mapped the global response to disability.

"Persons with disabilities are one of the last groups whose equal rights have been recognized," says Dr. Jody Heymann, dean of the school of public health and lead study scientist of the analysis. "We wanted to see how far we've come in ten years."

Education

Goal: Countries should guarantee the right to quality education at all levels for people with disabilities.

Reality Check: That right is constitutionally guaranteed in only 28 percent of the 193 countries surveyed.

Other Protections: Children with disabilities are integrated into the same classrooms in 43 percent of countries; they are in the same schools but not the same classrooms in an additional 40 percent of countries. The analysis says that mainstreaming improves learning outcomes for children with disabilities.

"There are schools that exclude children because they see them as different," says Heymann. But other times, kids can't get to school because of gaps in transportation systems or a lack of medical supplies. "So, for example, a very bright little girl I met in Mexico lived in a one-room hut," Heymann says. "She had spina bifida and didn't have a wheelchair, so she couldn't get to school." Spina bifida is a birth defect that can cause paralysis, as it did in this child's case.

Heymann doesn't know what happened to this particular child but is encouraged by the country's overall efforts for disabled children. Mexico has been strengthening its laws to ensure education for disabled children and is among the countries that allow disabled children to attend the same schools as other children, though not necessarily the same classrooms.

Peru is moving away from schools specifically for disabled children and toward mainstreaming disabled children in public schools. "The problem now is training teachers, and there is some backlash from parents," says Debbie Sharp, project specialist at Mobility International USA. Some parents of able-bodied children object to having their children in classrooms with students with disabilities because they believe it will harm their own child's education. To help put to rest concerns of some parents of non-disabled students, some countries, like Mexico are increasing training of teachers who will work in classrooms with both disabled and non-disabled students, says Yee.

In some areas, teachers start the ball rolling on their own. "I was in a rural area of Sri Lanka," says Wodatch. "I went to a couple of schools where they didn't have any program to educate kids with disabilities. So the teachers developed an after-school program on their own. They weren't paid for it."

Employment

Goal: Countries should guarantee the right of persons with disabilities to work in an environment that is open, inclusive and accessible.

Reality Check: Only 18 percent of 193 constitutions guarantee the right of people with disabilities to work.

Other Protections: Of the 25 most populous countries at all income levels, 14 have broad protections for people with disabilities against discrimination in the work place.

Around the world, there are nearly half a billion working age people with disabilities, according to the analysis. "The need is huge," says Heymann.

Brazil passed a law in 2015, according to the UCLA analysis, protecting workers against discrimination in hiring, promotions and training as well as guaranteeing equal pay for equal work.

Some countries, like Japan and Montenegro, have set a quota, requiring that companies employ a specified percentage of disabled workers or pay a fine, says Wodatch. But it's no guarantee. The fines are usually low enough that some companies pay the fine rather than hire disabled workers, he says.

Peru also has a quota system with employers asked to hire 5 percent of workers with disabilities in the public sector and 3 percent in the private sector, says Silvia But employers can stretch the definition of disability. "You can get deliberate resistance," says Yee. "Employers will count people [as disabled] who wear glasses, or who get headaches frequently."

Health Care

Goal: Countries should guarantee people with disabilities the right to the highest possible standard of health without discrimination.

Reality Check: Only 26 percent of 193 constitutions explicitly guarantee the right to health to people with disabilities.

Other Protections: Some countries have passed work laws to help parents and caretakers. Peru, which offers 90 days of paid leave to new mothers, extends that benefit by 30 days if the baby is born with a disability. In Armenia, working parents are guaranteed paid leave to accompany disabled children to health care and treatment appointments.

The U.N. treaty has had an impact on countries, rich and poor alike. Even in a highly developed country like Canada, ratification of the U.N. treaty led to its health care system ensuring that interpretive services are provided for deaf patients, says Heymann.

And whether inspired by the U.N. treaty, or springing up organically, less developed countries are also making changes. "We're seeing a lot of disabled women and girls working on health care," says Susan Sygall, CEO of Mobility International USA. "They're interested in making sure disabled women have access to health care, access to information on disease like HIV/AIDS and information about violence against women services."

But in some poor areas of the world, health care access and quality is poor for everyone, and the fight for improved services for people with disabilities is an uphill battle. "In some countries I've been in, Mongolia, Armenia, Georgia, health care has not been very good to begin with," says Wodatch. "The system is not there even to deliver babies. Having a doctor's office be accessible is only amusing to them."

http://www.npr.org/

The WHO has moved some of its Geneva-based operations to Budapest, including its Collaborating Centre on Human Resources for Health Development. Its Budapest centre initially will be staffed by 20 people and it is possible that further operations could be transferred to Budapest at a later point.

István Mikola (pictured right), state secretary at the foreign ministry, said at the opening ceremony that the organisation would help coordinate action to handle the big challenges currently facing the world. He said that Hungary had always closely cooperated with the WHO but "now we are much closer to each other".

Dr Hans Troedsson (pictured in the middle), assistant director-general of the organisation, said the entire project perfectly demonstrated the effectiveness of recent months of cooperation between the WHO and the Hungarian government.

http://hungarytoday.hu/

Reducing the burden of dementia may all start with being more active, a new Australian report suggests.

There's currently no cure for dementia but there is a growing body of evidence that the lifestyle choices people make now can reduce a person's risk - or at the very least delay the onset - of the debilitating brain disease.

An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report, released on Wednesday, supports this.

It shows that about 30 per cent of the total dementia burden in 2011 was due to vascular diseases and other risk factors, such as smoking and inactivity.

"A significant proportion of dementia burden is preventable and reductions are possible," said AIHW spokesperson Dr Lynelle Moon.

According to the report, behavioural risk factors contribute eight per cent of dementia burden.

Of that eight per cent, physical inactivity is the biggest contributor (eight per cent), followed by tobacco use (five per cent).

High blood pressure and obesity in mid-life were the two metabolic risk factors that contributed the greatest to the dementia burden.

Among the vascular diseases that pose a risk, chronic kidney disease was the biggest contributor.

Dementia is a serious and growing health problem in Australia, affecting three in 10 over the age of 85 and one in 10 people aged 65 or over.

The Australian Burden of Disease Study (ABDS) 2011 estimated that dementia was responsible for 3.4 per cent of the total health burden due to disease and injury in Australia.

Dr Moon says what the report importantly highlights is that there are prospects for prevention.

Physical inactivity, obesity, high blood pressure and smoking all have quite an impact on dementia risk, she said.

"If people were more physically active across the whole population then that would have a large impact, as would eliminating smoking," said Dr Moon.

Diabetes, stroke, chronic disease also have a flow on effect to increase people's risk.

"So if we can prevent and treat those diseases as well then the expected outcome would be lower dementia burden in the population," added Dr Moon.

In fact modelling by the AIHW showed the burden of dementia would be reduced by 14 per cent if Australia met the World Health Organisation's (WHO) 2020 risk factor targets compared to doing nothing.

Alzheimer's Australia CEO Maree McCabe concedes there may never be a dementia "magic bullet" and says lifestyle factors can make a big difference.

Just half an hour of daily physical activity is a good start, says Ms McCabe.

"If we could just delay the onset of dementia by five years it would reduce the number of people diagnosed with dementia by 30 per cent," she said.

Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/

A middle-aged cigarette smoker who has smoked for decades is two to three times more likely to die early than someone similar who has never smoked. Tobacco smoking is well known to be a major risk factor for various cancers, lung and cardiovascular problems, and is also linked to other health problems, such as complications in pregnancy, low sperm count in men, oral problems, and increased likelihood of cataracts.

Little wonder then that the World Health Organisation (WHO) sees tobacco smoking as the number one avoidable cause of death in the world. US statistics reveal that smoking causes more deaths each year than HIV, illegal drug use, alcohol misuse, motor vehicle injuries and homicides combined. Similar comparisons can be found in UK statistics.

However, while there can be few today who are unaware of the toll smoking takes on the body, the effects of long-term tobacco smoking on other areas such as learning and memory are less well known.

Although some studies have shown that the nicotine in cigarettes can improve concentration and attention (making smokers feel more alert), there's more to cigarettes than just nicotine. They contain over 4,000 chemicals - over 50 of which are known to be toxic in nature: the carbon monoxide also found in car exhaust fumes, butane found in lighter fluid, and arsenic, ammonia, and methanol found in rocket fuel, for example.

What's in your cigarette?

• Nicotene: Insecticide
• Butane: Lighter fluid
• Methanol: Rocket fuel
• Arsenic: Poison
• Methane: Sewer gas
• Acetic acid: Vinegar
• Carbon monoxide
• Ammonia: Toilet cleaner
• Cadmium: Batteries
• Hexamine: Barbecue lighter
• Stearic acid: Candle wax
• Toluene: Industrial solvent
• Paint

It's thought that a long-term build-up of these toxic chemicals can damage the brain, leading to deficits in learning and memory. Long-term smoking has been linked with reductions in working memory, prospective memory - that used for everyday tasks such as keeping an appointment or taking medication on time - and executive function, which helps us plan tasks, pay attention to current activities, and ignore distractions. These three underpin our everyday ability to remember and learn, without which independent living would be much more difficult.

In the first study of its kind, our team of researchers from Northumbria University reported in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry our findings that those who smoke and drink heavily show greater deficits in their everyday prospective memory. More so, in fact, than those who smoke but do not drink heavily and those who drink heavily but do not smoke combined. This suggests there's a "double whammy" effect to combining smoking and drinking.

Recent studies of smoking-related health problems and memory deficits has included the effects of "second-hand" or "passive" smoking, where non-smokers inhale tobacco smoke from smokers. Research here has found the same range of health-related problems linked to passive smoking as found in smokers, including lung and cardiovascular disease and cognitive and memory problems. These could affect a passive smoker in a number of spheres of life, not just health but educational and occupational, given the universal requirement and use for everyday remembering.

Quitting smoking improves health and leads to improvements in cognition. This may be linked to an increase in the thickness of the brain's cortex - the outer layer of the brain which plays a critical role in information processing and memory. The cortex naturally thins with age, but smoking can worsen this effect causing the cortex to thin at an accelerated rate.

Stopping smoking can help partially to reverse this effect on the cortex, but not to the levels found in a non-smoker. Traditional methods of quitting smoking have focused on nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), such as nicotine chewing gum, patches, inhalators and nasal sprays. This typically takes around eight to 12 weeks before producing demonstrable health improvements.

An increasingly popular form of NRT is the e-cigarette: a battery-powered electronic nicotine delivery device resembling a cigarette that does not contain tobacco. The use of e-cigarettes over smoking tobacco recently has been found to improve everyday prospective memory (memory for future activities), but we presently know little about what long-term impact e-cigarettes may have upon health, mood and cognitive functions.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/

A middle-aged cigarette smoker who has smoked for decades is two to three times more likely to die early than someone similar who has never smoked. Tobacco smoking is well known to be a major risk factor for various cancers, lung and cardiovascular problems, and is also linked to other health problems, such as complications in pregnancy, low sperm count in men, oral problems, and increased likelihood of cataracts.

Little wonder then that the World Health Organisation (WHO) sees tobacco smoking as the number one avoidable cause of death in the world. US statistics reveal that smoking causes more deaths each year than HIV, illegal drug use, alcohol misuse, motor vehicle injuries and homicides combined. Similar comparisons can be found in UK statistics.

However, while there can be few today who are unaware of the toll smoking takes on the body, the effects of long-term tobacco smoking on other areas such as learning and memory are less well known.

Although some studies have shown that the nicotine in cigarettes can improve concentration and attention (making smokers feel more alert), there's more to cigarettes than just nicotine. They contain over 4,000 chemicals – over 50 of which are known to be toxic in nature: the carbon monoxide also found in car exhaust fumes, butane found in lighter fluid, and arsenic, ammonia, and methanol found in rocket fuel, for example.

It's thought that a long-term build-up of these toxic chemicals can damage the brain, leading to deficits in learning and memory. Long-term smoking has been linked with reductions in working memory, prospective memory – that used for everyday tasks such as keeping an appointment or taking medication on time – and executive function, which helps us plan tasks, pay attention to current activities, and ignore distractions. These three underpin our everyday ability to remember and learn, without which independent living would be much more difficult.

In the first study of its kind, our team of researchers from Northumbria University reported in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry our findings that those who smoke and drink heavily show greater deficits in their everyday prospective memory. More so, in fact, than those who smoke but do not drink heavily and those who drink heavily but do not smoke combined. This suggests there's a "double whammy" effect to combining smoking and drinking.

Recent studies of smoking-related health problems and memory deficits has included the effects of "second-hand" or "passive" smoking, where non-smokers inhale tobacco smoke from smokers. Research here has found the same range of health-related problems linked to passive smoking as found in smokers, including lung and cardiovascular disease and cognitive and memory problems. These could affect a passive smoker in a number of spheres of life, not just health but educational and occupational, given the universal requirement and use for everyday remembering.

Quitting smoking improves health and leads to improvements in cognition. This may be linked to an increase in the thickness of the brain's cortex – the outer layer of the brain which plays a critical role in information processing and memory. The cortex naturally thins with age, but smoking can worsen this effect causing the cortex to thin at an accelerated rate.

Stopping smoking can help partially to reverse this effect on the cortex, but not to the levels found in a non-smoker. Traditional methods of quitting smoking have focused on nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), such as nicotine chewing gum, patches, inhalators and nasal sprays. This typically takes around eight to 12 weeks before producing demonstrable health improvements.

An increasingly popular form of NRT is the e-cigarette: a battery-powered electronic nicotine delivery device resembling a cigarette that does not contain tobacco. The use of e-cigarettes over smoking tobacco recently has been found to improve everyday prospective memory (memory for future activities), but we presently know little about what long-term impact e-cigarettes may have upon health, mood and cognitive functions.

http://theconversation.com/

In an official agency advisory, the World Health Organization said on Friday, Nov. 18, that Zika virus, which is believed to have caused the rise in microcephaly and other notable defects in infants in Brazil, is no longer a global health emergency.

Although emphasizing that the crisis is not yet over, the WHO says it will not identify Zika virus an emergency, or a Health Emergency of International Concern, but rather as an ongoing threat like other known mosquito-related illness, such as malaria or yellow fever.

In an article by the New York Times, Dr. Peter Salama, executive director of the WHO's health emergencies program said, "We are not downgrading the importance of Zika. We are sending the message that Zika is here to stay and the WHO response is here to stay."

On other hand, experts pursuing the birth defect-causing pandemic expressed dismay and concern that the WHO's declaration might impede the support from international organizations and mislead people living in at-risk environments that they are no longer in danger.

According to Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, immunologist and director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is funding efforts to find a Zika vaccine, WHO's emergency lift is rather premature and untimely as summer is only about to start in the Southern hemisphere, which indicates a possibility of resurgence of Zika virus cases in countries like Brazil and Colombia. For his part, Dr. Fauci says his agency would continue its vaccine efforts for the Zika virus despite WHO's statement.

In February, WHO declared a state of emergency for Zika virus following the spread of the infection across almost every country in the Western Hemisphere, save for Canada. Babies by the thousands suffered physical deformities due to the infection.

Last September, President Barack Obama approved a $1.1 billion for the fight against Zika virus, $400 million of which dedicated solely to the development of a vaccine and diagnostic tests.

http://www.natureworldnews.com/

The World Health Organization has warned that a global influenza pandemic remains a real threat despite progress made over the past 10 years in increasing the worldwide supply of flu vaccines.

In 2006, the World Health Organization acknowledged that countries around the world were ill-prepared to tackle an influenza pandemic. At the time, there were concerns about an H5N1 bird flu pandemic spreading globally.

In response, the WHO launched the Global Action Plan (GAP) for influenza vaccines with three main objectives. It aimed to increase evidence-based seasonal vaccine use; increase vaccine production as a protection against pandemics and improve regulatory capacity in developing countries; and promote research and development for better vaccines.

That initiative has now ended, but Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO assistant-director general for health systems and innovation, observed that global preparation for an influenza pandemic had vastly improved over the past decade.

"We are certainly better prepared for an influenza pandemic than we were 10 years ago," Kieny said, "but,we must not lose the momentum and we are still facing the threat of an influenza pandemic in 2016."

More vaccine production

The WHO said global production capacity for pandemic vaccines increased from an estimated 1.5 billion doses in 2006 to 6.2 billion last year. While it's an impressive achievement, Kieny said, it "still falls short of the GAP goal to immunize 70 percent of the population with two doses of vaccine, potentially for which we would need 10 billion doses."

She noted that only rich countries were producing vaccines in 2006, whereas today, 14 mostly upper-middle-income countries were making strides toward manufacturing their own vaccines.

In addition, she said, the number of countries that have national influenza immunization policies in place has increased from 74 to 115 today, "including lower-middle-income countries and one low-income country."

William Ampofo, a professor at the University of Ghana and an advisory group member of the GAP, said he was encouraged by the progress made, but he told VOA he was disappointed that the creation of the GAP had not resulted in increased vaccine production capacity in Africa.

"As part of the GAP, technology transfer was provided for developing countries, and South Africa and Egypt were part of this initiative," he said. "Unfortunately, the tech transfer has not resulted in influenza vaccine production capacity as of now."

He added, however, that the Ebola epidemic in West Africa had shown that vaccination is an effective tool against a dangerous virus and that the manufacture of a flu vaccine on the continent should be seriously considered.

"Because of what happened with Ebola, now the countries — in West Africa, especially — the ministers of health are now giving attention to vaccine production capacity on the African continent," he said. "They recognize, however, that it is very difficult, but they feel that something must be started."

Flu season

The flu season in the Northern Hemisphere is set to start in December, peak in late January or early February and run its course by April or May. The WHO estimates every year there are between 3 million and 5 million forensic cases of influenza, resulting in 150,000 to 500,000 deaths.

A large variety of viruses or subtype influenza viruses are circulating in wild and domestic birds. Only three viruses currently are circulating in humans: influenza A (H1N1), an influenza A variant (H3N2) and an influenza B virus. Traditional flu vaccines, called "trivalent" vaccines, are made to protect against those three flu viruses.

Wenqing Zhang, a scientist in WHO's Department of Pandemic and Epidemic Diseases, said the influenza viruses are constantly changing. She said one type of change, "antigenic drift," results in small changes in the genes of influenza viruses. A second way, "antigenic shift," involves an abrupt, major change.

"With the antigenic drift, it will cause an epidemic, and if there is an antigenic shift, then there will be a pandemic," she said. "Because the virus is constantly evolving, the threat of influenza pandemic is real. It is very real. It could be tomorrow or in five years' time. It could be mild like the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, or it could be a very severe one, like in 1918."

During the 1920s, scientists estimated that 21.5 million people had died as a result of the 1918-19 influenza pandemic. More recent estimates have put the death toll at between 50 million and 100 million.

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