Public Health

Europe: Birthrate Down, Maternity Wards Packed

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While much has been made in recent years over declining birthrates in Europe and other parts of the industrialized world, some Western countries’ are having difficulty providing adequate health care for the births they do have. Britain’s maternity services are so bad they endanger the lives of mothers and babies, according to a report released this week by the nation’s Healthcare Commission. The Independent reports that the study was the largest of its kind ever conducted in Britain, and involved all 150 maternity hospitals in England. “I don’t ever again want to be reading another report into high death rates at a maternity unit,” Sir Ian Kennedy, chairman of the commission, told the newspaper. One of the key problems cited by the report was a lack of midwives to help busy doctors and nurses — a shortage that was noted in a separate report earlier this year.

Public Health

Medical Bills Spur India Suicide Plan

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A woman stricken with kidney disease and her husband have petitioned a municipal official in Kolkart, India, to allow them to commit suicide. The Times of India reported that Swapna Das and husband Biswanath Das wrote to the district magistrate asking permission to die together because of health care costs they find staggering. She is on dialysis, which costs 6,000 rupees or U.S.$138, and cannot afford a kidney replacement. Their neighbors financially support them. Biswanath said they wrote to the chief minister and prime minister to no avail.

Public Health

Doctors Resign as Life-Support Lawsuit Drags On

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A Canadian hospital is facing a shortage of doctors, who are resigning rather than continue to care for an elderly man on life support. Samuel Golubchuck, 84, has been on life support since last fall; physicians say his brain functions are minimal and his chances of recovery are slim. This, along with destructive surgery to remove infected ulcers that one doctor likened to “torture,” have prompted a wave of resignations Winnipeg Grace Hospital, CTV.ca reports. Golubchuck’s Orthodox Jewish family says it is against their religion to hasten death, and successfully sued to block doctors from taking him off life support. Source:
“More doctors resign from Winnipeg hospital”
CTV.ca, June 17, 2008

Public Health

U.K. Faces Diabetes "Explosion"

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A new report predicts a 46 percent increase in diabetes in the United Kingdom by 2025, driven primarily by eating habits and booming obesity rates. As many as 4.2 million people in England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are expected to have contracted type 2 diabetes by then, a result of junk-food diets and low rates of exercise. With this, experts foresee a parallel boom in related ailments — such as heart disease, kidney problems, amputations and blindness — as well as increased medical costs. In Scotland alone, the National Health Service is currently spending 10 percent of its budget on diabetes-related issues. Campaigners called for greater efforts by the government to encourage healthy dietary habits and lifestyles.

Public Health

Callbacks on the Cell Phone Cancer Story

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The long running debate over whether cell phones cause cancer is heating up again. The latest round of press came after the release of two studies suggesting a link between cell phone use and cancer, and one that denies such a link altogether. Australia’s Dr. Vini Khurana made waves recently with research finding that using cell phones for more than 10 years could more than double the risk of developing malignant brain tumors. But what hit the headlines was Khurana’s contention that cell phones could present more of a risk to public health than smoking or asbestos. Based on a 15-month review, Khurana found increased reports of malignant brain tumors associated with heavy cell phone use, with tumors showing up near the phone user’s preferred ear for making calls.

Economy

King Tobacco, Balkan Crime Lord

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Cigarette counterfeiting and smuggling in the Balkans is one of the primary drivers of crime and corruption in the region, according to a coalition of investigative reporting projects. Bosnia-Herzegovina alone is estimated to lose $200 million each year in tax revenue from tobacco smuggling, a sum that could approach billions worldwide. The Organized Crime & Corruption Reporting Project, with bureaus and partners in Sarajevo, Albania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and else- where, has assembled a massive investigative package on tobacco smuggling, and particularly the involvement of government officials in the region. High prices and taxes on tobacco in the West are driving the smuggling boom, with a packet of cigarettes purchased in Ukraine for less than a euro selling for seven euros in London. Extortion, murder are common, and a variety of dubious and notorious public figures are implicated, according to the report.

Nation

Transplant Shortage Hits Minorities

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Doctors all over the world are having difficulty finding matching donors for bone marrow transplants – a lifesaving operation for certain very serious illnesses. And patients from ethnic minorities are the most at risk. Because the transplants are much more likely to succeed when they are between people of similar genetic backgrounds, physicians try to find donors from the same ethnicity as the patients. But, even in advanced nations, the pool of registered donors is relatively small, and ethnic minorities make up a small percentage of that small number. In New Zealand, this means that patients who belong to the indigenous Maori population are much less likely to find a matching donor and receive a transplant than are the descendents of European settlers.

Democracy & Civics

Nigeria's Smoke Out

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Claims that international tobacco companies are targeting young people in Nigeria have spurred a $43 billion government lawsuit against Phillip Morris, British American Tobacco and International Tobacco. Activists told The Guardian that the companies are targeting teenagers with marketing strategies that have banned in other nations, using sponsored events, pop stars and product placements to glamorize smoking. According to the World Health Organization, one in five Nigerian teenagers smoke, and the number of women smokers there rose tenfold in the 1990s. Government lawyers cite “internal” corporate documents that identify “young and underage smokers” as a prime target — some no more than eight or nine years old. Critics of the lawsuit say that Nigeria’s lawsuit is a cynical ploy to make money off the industry, which only recently enjoyed numerous tax breaks there.

Public Health

Japan's Health Care Crisis

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It is a leader of the industrialized world, a scientific and technological powerhouse with a robust economy, a vigorous democracy and guaranteed universal health care for all its citizens. Yet Japan increasingly struggles to make good on that promise, as hospitals, many of them privately owned, have begun shutting down their emergency wards due to rising costs and staffing shortages. The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reports that 235 hospitals in Japan have stopped accepting emergency patients in the last two years, and 20 have closed their doors for good. At issue is a lack of doctors willing to work overnight shifts, and private owners who have found hospitals, especially in rural areas, to be unprofitable. –Josh Wilson/Newsdesk.org
Source:
“200 hospitals have ended emergency care over past two years”
Asahi Shimbun/Agence France-Presse, January 16, 2008