June 3rd 2009
This week in medicine
The following will appear in the June 6 issue of The Lancet:
Addiction accounts The USA’s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse has released a report on the cost of substance misuse. US$468 billion was spent in 2005—more than a tenth of total government expenditure. In what the report calls “a reckless misallocation of public funds”, only 2% of these funds were spent on prevention, treatment, and research; the rest went on dealing with the consequences of abuse.
Zambia corruption The Netherlands and Sweden have suspended aid for health projects in Zambia, pending an investigation by the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission into allegations of inappropriate use of funds by government officials. With foreign aid constituting 55% of Zambia’s budget for health, this decision will no doubt have serious implications.
Child health ambassador Ex-Minister of Health and current Minister in Presidency for South Africa, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, has been made the African Union’s Goodwill Ambassador for the improvement of maternal and child health in Africa. Health activists in the region have mobilised against the controversial minister’s appointment, since her AIDS policies have failed to reduce maternal and child mortality in the past.
US family planning The US Institute of Medicine has released its assessment of the Title X Family Planning Program, the national resource for family planning. The programme aims to provide reproductive health care for low-income individuals. The report acknowledges the success of the programme in achieving this aim, but also highlights failures in its chosen goals and structure.
Acupuncture for backs The UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has given its seal of approval to the use of acupuncture, exercise classes, and massage as part of the routine treatment of patients with persistent non-specific lower back pain. NICE recommends the use of such therapies over the current practices of radiographs and spinal injections.
Yellow fever risk Stockpiles of yellow fever vaccine are at risk of running out by 2010 if funding for vaccine production is not achieved. Togo, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Cameroon have successfully completed vaccination campaigns and eliminated the threat of outbreak, but in a further seven African countries, 150 million people are still at risk.
H1N1 vaccine A vaccine against swine-origin influenza came another step closer last week with the development of a candidate vaccine virus by the UK National Institute for Biological Standards and Control. The recombinant strain, produced by reverse genetics, joins another candidate produced in the USA by classical reassortment earlier last month, and is being made available to vaccine manufacturers.
Cholera in Zimbabwe The Red Cross has warned that the threat of cholera in Zimbabwe is still very real. An estimated 100 000 people have been infected with cholera, and, at the time of writing, 4300 have died. These figures have greatly surpassed the worst-case scenario predictions from WHO.
Australian Debt2Health Australia has negotiated a debt swap agreement with Indonesia as part of the Debt2Health initiative set up by the Global Fund. Indonesia will have to use the AU$75 million it owes Australia to fund domestic tuberculosis programmes for this commercial debt to be written off. Debt2Health allows conversion of old government debt into a funding resource for tackling HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.
EU aids food security The UN World Food Programme has received €39 million from the European Union to improve food security in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sierra Leone. The projects will allow small-scale farmers, mostly women, to improve their food production and overcome the growing problem of food insecurity in the regions.
Charity crunch England’s Association of Medical Research Charities has warned that many medical research charities will struggle for funding in the current economic climate. A quarter of its 117 members said that they would have to cut their funding this year, affecting grants for medical research.
Poverty in Iraq A quarter of Iraqi people live below the poverty line, according to a government survey. Poverty, defined as living on US$2·20 per day, was most prevalent in the rural south, where rates of up to 50% were found for some provinces. The government blamed unemployment, poor infrastructure, and corruption for the high rates, but claimed they were better than expected.
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