Tackling the global clean air challenge

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2011/air_pollution_20110926/en/index.html

According to WHO, two million people died every year from breathing in tiny particles present in indoor and outdoor air pollution. M10 particles, which are particles of 10 micrometers or less, which can penetrate into the lungs and may enter to the bloodstream, and it causes heart disease, lung cancer, asthma, and acute lower respiratory infections. Who had recommended to countries, PM10 (particles) has to be 20 per cubic metre as an annual average, but the data had shown that in many cities it reached up to 300 per cubic metre. Air pollution is a problem in both developed and developing countries that it is usually caused by motor transport, small-scale manufactures and other industries, burning of biomass and coal for cooking and heating, as well as coal-fired power plants. However, we can significantly reduce the problem with air pollution by monitoring and managing the environment properly. The problem is that in many countries, there are no air quality regulations and even where they do exist, national standards and their enforcement vary markedly. People usually try to solve the problem when the problem becomes an issue. Among many other things, it is much easier and cheaper to prevent the problem than solving the problem after it happened. People spend enormous amounts of money on health issues, but we do not really care about what causes the health issues. We have to prevent the problem when we know how to prevent the problem that preventing the problem is much more important than solving the problem after it have been happened.

New global killers: heart, lung disease and cancer

http://news.yahoo.com/global-killers-heart-lung-disease-cancer-043849285.html;_ylt=AlT.cciNhGjozzp.vq_GMPPVJRIF;_ylu=X3oDMTNzdGRsbTRoBG1pdANKdW1ib3Ryb24gSGVhbHRoU0YEcGtnAzExNGVmMTAyLTE1NDItMzcwMC04NDRmLTBhM2UwMTRkMWQ3ZARwb3MDMgRzZWMDanVtYm90cm9uBHZlcgNkYmZ

Recent health care had put a more attention to diseases that can spread – AIDS, tuberculosis, new flu bugs. However, it is also important to notice about chronic diseases –cancer, diabetes and heart and lung disease. Chronic diseases account for nearly two-thirds of deaths worldwide, or about 36 million. Chronic diseases are caused by common risk factors, such as smoking and sedentary lifestyle. Infectious diseases are very important issue to be noticed by global health organizations but it is also important to look at diseases that kill two-thirds of deaths worldwide. Unlike disease that spread, chronic diseases are much more preventable with avoiding tobacco use, alcohol abuse, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and environmental carcinogens. Despite the fact that chronic diseases are more related with developed countries, rate of chronic diseases in developing countries are increasing as well. Chronic diseases will become a  bigger problem if they occur in developing countries because there are not enough doctors and all cancer-related medicines are either nonexistent or beyond the reach of ordinary people in developing countries. It is best to find cost-effective treatments that lead to maximum impact when we try to fix the problem. It is obvious that if people start to stop smoking, drinking, and exercise more we can decrease the rate of people dying from these chronic diseases without spending any money. If problems with chronic diseases are solved, it will also positively affect problems with infectious diseases that people can spend more money and time on infectious problem that exist in developing countries. 

Net giveaway halves Kenya's child deaths from malaria

http://spiderednews.com/HealthIssuesinDevelopingcountries_I.htm?url=@http://www.guardian.co.uk/kenya/story/0,,2150645,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12

In Africa, malaria kills 1 million people a year, more than any other disease. Which led WHO (World Health Organization) to recommend for the first time that nets should be given away, rather than sold , in the developing world. WHO recommended this because free distribution of mosquito nets in Kenya halved child deaths from malaria. In Kenya, after mosquito nets had been given to people, in some areas the number of childhood deaths from malaria had fallen by 44%. Dr Willis Akhwale, head of malaria control at the health ministry, said: “We have shown that the war on malaria can be won.” However, the problem is that even though we know that mosquito nets are one of the most effective ways to prevent malaria; the distribution of nets across Africa had been low due to lack of funding and disagreement on distribution methods. Some in the scientific community had pointed out that only when people made an investment in the net could usage be guaranteed that nets given away have often been resold, used for fishing, or simply discarded when the insecticide wore off. Although, the data shows that giving nets to people in Kenya had dropped malaria rate by 44%. We cannot stop people who uses their nets for different reasons, but there are still more people who use these nets for right reason that we should give away nets to more people in developing countries who are living in high-risk areas of malaria.

HIV/AIDS: "Worrying" drop in global spending"

article here: http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=93521

International funding for HIV fell by 10 percent in 2010 from the previous year. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation and UNAIDS, international assistance for HIV/AIDS in low-and middle-income countries fell from US$7.6 billion in 2009 to $6.9 billion in 2010. This data is shocking because this is the first time funding has dropped in more than a decade of tracking HIV/AIDS spending. Reductions in development may have happed because of currency exchange fluctuations and a slowdown in the pace of disbursements from the US government. US had cut their disbursements from 4.4 billion dollars in 2009 to 3.7 billion dollars in 2010. Despite the cutting disbursements, US is still the largest donor in the world, accounting for an estimated 55 percents of disbursements. This data shows us that international funding for HIV is highly relying upon US; cutting US’s disbursements will affect a lot. It is understandable that US is experiencing economic difficulties in recent years that they had to cut their disbursements; however, we can solve this problem with PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief). PEPFAR is an emergency plan, and not intended to last forever. Some people think this is not a time to use an emergency plan, but if we do not take care of the problem right now, it can ended up in a bigger problem in the future that we have to spend much more money than we have to spend right now.

Newborn Deaths

I read an article from the WHO about the issues of newborn deaths. (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2011/newborn_deaths_20110830/en/index.html)
Newborn deaths decreased from 4.6 million in 1990 to 3.3 million in 2009 due to more investment into health care for women and children. However, the progess is too slow and developing countries are being left further behind. 99% of newborn deaths occurs from the developing countries, and it tells us that where babies are born influences their chances of survival. I personally think, even though there are gaps between develping countries and developed countries, where babies are born should not influence their chance of survival because it is important to give them at least a same chance to survive when they are born. From the data above, the number of newborn death decreased dramatically from 1990 to 2009 and it tells us that there are proven, cost-effective interventions to preven the leading causes of newborn death.