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ECOSOC's Agenda Should Include Noncommunicable Disease Threat In Developing Countries
"[E]xplicit indicators to measure progress in reducing heart diseases, stroke, diabetes, cancers and chronic respiratory diseases" are missing from the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) agenda as it meets in Geneva this week "to focus on implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to public health," and the "omission needs to be urgently addressed if the intent is to have a major impact on reducing poverty by 2015," Ala Alwan, WHO"s assistant director-general for Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health; George Alleyne, PAHO"s director emeritus; and Martin Silink, president of the International Diabetes Federation write in an opinion piece in the Hindu.

Rampant Disease Osteoporosis: Under-diagnosed, Under-treated - Experts Call For Earlier Diagnosis And Therapy
"With a continuously ageing population the incidence of osteoporosis is steadily rising. This does not only pose problems to the individuals concerned but is also an enormous challenge for our societies" according to Professor Wolfhart Puhl, past president of the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (EFORT). Prof. Puhl, of the Orthopç¤dikum Allgç¤u, Germany, who is in Vienna for the EFORT Congress, emphasized that the problem"s "dimension is frequently underestimated. Policy makers and funding agencies do not always consider this development sufficiently in their planning."
News of the day
First Genetic Evidence For Why Placebos Work Presented By UCLA Scientists
Placebos are a sham - usually mere sugar pills designed to represent "no treatment" in a clinical treatment study. The effectiveness of the actual medication is compared with the placebo to determine if the medication works.
Medical Devices

Funding, Restrictions Keep WFP From Reaching Millions Of Hungry North Koreans

The U.N."s World Food Programme (WFP) said Wednesday a "lack of international funding and new restrictions by North Korea on its staff and where it can operate has left it unable to reach millions of hungry women and children in the impoverished country," AP/Taiwan News reports. According to the WFP, it has received 15 percent of the $504 million it needs to feed 6.2 million North Koreans (Sanderson, 7/1). The agency has had to reduce its goal of reaching all 6.2 million, and is now targeting 2.27 million people, Torben Due, the WPF"s country representative in North Korea. "For adults, it doesn"t mean a lot if you live for a few months on a diet of cereals and vegetables, but for children, it is critical," Due said, adding that anecdotally there appears to be "an increase in the number of children being admitted to hospitals with severe malnutrition," via AFP/Google.com. He said the country"s chronic food shortages have created a negative cycle in which malnourished children grow up stunted with weak immune systems, and, in turn, give birth to less-than-healthy babies. According to SAPA/BusinessDay, the government told the WFP to "scale back its operations and get rid of its Korean-speaking staff, which reduced the number of workers to 16 last month from the 59 agreed upon last year" (7/1). According to Due, government leaders ordered the scale back without giving clear reasons why. "A long-running international standoff over North Korea"s nuclear programmes escalated on May 25 when Pyongyang carried out its second nuclear test, followed by further missile launches, which resulted in new U.N. sanctions," writes APF/Google.com. "We have not really received any contributions after the nuclear test was carried out," Due said (Martin, 7/1). This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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