Public Health

Australia to Dry up?

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An anti-binge-drinking ad campaign directed toward Australian youth begins this month, part of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s national strategy to reduce reckless inebriation. The Sydney Morning Herald reports the multi-million-dollar campaign will utilize scare tactics to show excessive drinking can lead to “pub brawls, brain damage, mental illness, serious injuries in car accidents and even death.” Media experts say the timing of the ads will be crucial; evening or late morning ads could catch the demographic before going out, or after waking up with hangovers. The campaign will focus on underage drinkers and 18 to 25-year-olds. One content advisor for the campaign said scare tactics are not enough, recommending additional alcohol-advertising restrictions, the promotion of less potent drinks, and a new taxation system.

Democracy & Civics

The Czech Republic's Meth Crackdown

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Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, is cracking down on the sale of medicines made with ephedrine and pseudoephedrine in order to control production of homemade methamphetamine, one of the country’s most common drugs. The Prague Post said the two chemicals are key ingredients of pervitine — “a more refined form” of crystal methamphetamine, or speed — and are commonly found in cold medicines. The National Drug Squad will restrict sales to one package per week and will coordinate pharmacy databases to monitor purchases. Most of the European Union’s methamphetamines originate in the Czech Republic, where it is made in homemade laboratories and smuggled across borders. The use of speed, which was given to Nazi soldiers during World War II to stimulate alertness and fight fatigue, became widespread during the former Czechoslovakia’s communist era.

Public Health

Questions About HPV Vaccine Risks

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A new vaccine to eliminate the Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) — which is linked to some cervical cancers — will soon be on the market, but concerns over its side effects are emerging. An opinion piece on the Medical News Today Web site claims that many health professionals say the vaccine is being pushed too quickly onto teenage women without full understanding of its side effects. The U.S. government now mandates the vaccine for all female immigrants ages 11-16 that are applying for a green card. According to the Houston Chronicle, this will affect around 130,00 immigrants annually. The government has received more than 9,000 reports of adverse reactions to the vaccine, known as Gardasil or Cervarix, including spontaneous abortions and 20 deaths.

Public Health

Alzheimer's Effects Linked to Career, Culture

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A pair of new articles identify education, career, ethnicity and other socio-economic factors as having an influence on the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s patients who have higher education levels and mentally challenging careers have fewer symptoms than other patients with the same or less damage to their brains, according to a new study by Italian researchers. The scientists offered two possible explanations for their results: either the brain gets stronger over time through education and career challenges, or, there are existing genetic factors that made it more likely for some people to end up in “mentally tough” careers, reports BBC News. Other research shows that significant numbers of Hispanic Americans are developing Alzheimer’s earlier than African American and non-Hispanic White patients. Hispanics are not more genetically predisposed to the disease than other ethnicities.

Public Health

Children Left Behind

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News media have paid a lot of attention to the growing obesity epidemic among children all over the developed world, but recent studies point to a number of other somber health trends. Perhaps most serious was a report that the United States has stalled in its efforts to reduce infant mortality. The report, released last week by the National Center for Health Statistics, analyzed about 95 percent of birth records in the nation and found the United States has about seven infant deaths per 1,000 live births — roughly the same number it had in 2000. The report found Japan, Sweden, Britain, Spain, France, Germany, Australia and more than a dozen other countries all had infant mortality rates of fewer than five deaths per 1,000 births, according to Bloomberg News. Although the report found a small drop in the number of infant deaths in 2005 and 2006, the United States now ranks 29th in the list of nations with the lowest infant mortality rates — tied with Poland and Slovakia.

Environment

A Different Shade of Green Revolution

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While much of the developed world is talking about environmentally sustainable “green” technology, Africa is desperately seeking a green revolution of a different kind. The original Green Revolution was a wave of new agricultural technology and government policies which are often credited with ending starvation in Asia in the second half of the 20th century. Although more recently linked with pollution and disease from pesticides and other chemicals, its successes have been much discussed in recent news reports about hunger in Africa. There is even an organization called The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, seeking to build a continent that can feed itself. In a recent op-ed article about the food crisis in Ethiopia, United Nations top relief official John Holmes wrote, “Africa, and Ethiopia, need a new Green Revolution — one that is agriculturally productive, economically profitable and environmentally sustainable.”

Public Health

PTSD Hits the British Armed Forces

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Roughly 24,000 British veterans returning from duty in Iraq or Afghanistan are now battling the UK’s criminal justice system and constituting nine percent of the prison population, according to reports. The U.K.’s Telegraph reported the findings of three separate studies sponsored by the National Association of Probation Officers and other veteran support groups. Research from 2001 to 2004 along with the case histories of 74 veterans showed that the majority of violent offenses committed by veterans is fueled by drug and alcohol abuse, the result of untreated post-traumatic stress disorder. With 8,000 veterans currently in custody, concerned citizens argue that the Ministry of Defense is doing too little to screen recently discharged servicemen and women for early signs of mental illness. The Ministry says it utilizes “robust systems” to treat and prevent PTSD with pre- and post-deployment screenings, and subsequent access to counseling.

Democracy & Civics

India's Recipe for school success? Add three eggs

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In India, there apparently is such a thing as a free lunch. The World Press Review reports that the government has mandated the world’s largest lunch program to keep 140 million public school students in the classroom. An estimated 2.1 million Indian children die before age 5 each year, and malnutrition is also blamed as one of the causes of India’s high dropout rate. Yet since the hot-lunch program debuted, the dropout rate for students 14 or younger has decreased from 32 million in 2001 to 7.6 million today, while overall enrollment figures and nutrition levels have increased. A government official said the program helped lower the elementary school dropout rate from 12 percent to two percent between 2002 and 2007.

Democracy & Civics

Women Claim Space at AIDS Conference

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Circumcision, female condoms and sex work grabbed attention at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City last week. Researchers at the conference said circumcision in African men can minimize rates of HIV transmission by up to 60 percent, the United Nations news service reported. But despite assurances that women’s infection rates will concurrently decline, Marge Berer, editor of Reproductive Health Matters, was skeptical. “From a public health perspective, we are told that 60 percent protection [for circumcised men] is far better than nothing,” Berer said. “But is male circumcision good enough for women?”

Public Health

Dogs Could Guide Humans in Vision Study

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Norwegian scientists believe dachshunds might hold the key in discovering the root of hereditary blindness in humans, according to the BBC. Dr. Frode Lingass of the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science said a similar gene that causes blindness in humans has been discovered in wiener dogs. The gene initially causes day-blindness in the eyes’ photoreceptors and gradually full blindness in humans. “This gene has been associated with a combination of kidney and eye disease in human patients,” Lingass told the BBC. Lingass also said his find could lead to breeding out canine vision disorders.