Disease and Epidemic News

[bagiw.boi]

Philippines among 22 countries with high TB cases

Friday, March 23, 2012

THE World Health Organization (WHO) named Friday the Philippines as one of the 22 countries that carry much of the burden of tuberculosis (TB) cases in the planet.

In a statement, the WHO–Western Pacific Region said four of the 22 countries in the region belong in the list, including the Philippines.

"Twenty-two countries carry 80 percent of the burden of TB, and four of those are in the Western Pacific Region -- Cambodia, China, the Philippines, and Vietnam," said WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific Dr. Shin Young-soo.

Other countries accounting for most of the 8.4 million of the total TB cases as of 2011 are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.

Shin called on countries to intensify their efforts to combat the disease.

"Countries need to strengthen their health systems to prevent the development and spread of tuberculosis," said the official.

He noted that among the foremost challenge for health workers are to detect the cases in order "to cut the chain of transmission".

"The more TB cases that are properly diagnosed and treated, the more we can protect our children," said Shin.

The Department of Health (DOH) immediately answered the call with National Capital Region (NCR) Director Dr. Eduardo Janairo ordering community health teams (CHTs) to seek and monitor the treatment of TB patients in Metro Manila.

"This effort is needed to reach and identify those at highest risk for TB and implement innovative strategies to improve testing and treatment among high-risk populations in Metro Manila. It will be one the CHTs mission and we will be treating patients through community-based models of care in order to monitor the patient’s progress," said the DOH official.

As of 2011, DOH-NCR records show that there are 36,615 total TB cases currently being managed by the DOTS or Directly Observed Treatment Short Course of the government.

Saturday marks the observance of the World TB Day. (AMN/Sunnex)


http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/loc...b-cases-212834

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DOH response: to seek and monitor the treatment of TB patients in Metro Manila.

da faq? bakit sa metro manila lang?

[paenggoy]

"Study: Climate Change May Impact Outbreaks"

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2012/0...ess-outbreaks/

[Imfersonated]

Study: Necrobumping is no good as a tabon tool

Link:

[spoiler start] [spoiler end]

[bagiw.boi]

can we blame vice ganda?

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HIV Cases Rise To Record High – Philippines

Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation
By JENNY F. MANONGDO
March 25, 2012,

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) Sunday disclosed 274 newly confirmed human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive individuals, the highest number of cases recorded in the Philippine HIV and AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) registry. It also reported that a 41-year-old male died of AIDS last month.

This year’s figure is a 72-percent increase, according to the STD/AIDS Cooperative Central Laboratory (SACCL). Last year, the registry recorded only 159 HIV-positive individuals.

“Reported modes of transmission were sexual contact (235) and needle sharing among injecting drug users (39). Males having sex with other males (87 percent or 118 cases) were the predominant type of sexual transmission,” the registry said.

“Forty-six percent (127) of the reported cases were from the National Capital Region (NCR)… Twenty-four of the 274 reported cases were OFWs,” it added.

Out of the 274 HIV positive cases, six were reported as AIDS and all of them were males. According to the February 2012 update, all cases acquired the infection through sexual contact – one homosexual and five bisexual.

“Of the 486 HIV positive cases in 2012, twelve were reported as AIDS cases. All were males. Ages ranged from 7 to 47 years (median 35 years) and 92 percent acquired the infection through sexual contact – five homosexual and six bisexual contacts. The other mode of transmission include one mother-to-child transmission,” the registry said.

From 1984 to 2012, there were a total of 985 AIDS cases reported. Out of this figure, 345 had already died at the time of reporting.

The registry again highlighted that sexual contact was the most common mode of HIV transmission, accounting for 93 percent or 920 of all reported AIDS cases since 1984.

More than half of the number or 474 cases acquired the infection through heterosexual contact while 327 by homosexual contact and 119 through bisexual contact.

“Other modes of transmission include: mother-to-child transmission (19 cases), blood transfusion (10 cases), injecting drug use (6 cases), and needle ***** injuries (2 cases) Three percent (28 cases) of the AIDS cases did not report mode of HIV transmission,” the Philippine HIV/AIDS registry noted.

http://new.ahrn.net/hiv-cases-rise-t...gh-philippines

[paenggoy]

Study: Necrobumping is no good as a tabon tool

Link:

[spoiler start] [spoiler end]

You can only necrobump a topic that's dead. In contrast, this topic will likely become increasingly prominent during the next few decades due to combinations of factors that increase the vectors for the spread of disease: increasing urban migration, collapse of infrastructure such as sanitation systems due to increasing debt and economic recession, increase in ave. global temperature coupled with declines in species of animals that should have kept insect populations under control, antibiotic resistance, etc.

[paenggoy]

"Life won't be the same without antibiotics"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/he...tibiotics.html

[paenggoy]

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http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-new...cient-ice-bugs

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46987169...s-environment/

[paenggoy]

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http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_1...san-francisco/

[paenggoy]

"African monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV"

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...v-7786152.html

[paenggoy]

"Public health: Raised resistance"

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/a796e...44feabdc0.html

[paenggoy]

"Chagas Disease, Tropical Insect-Borne Illness, May Be 'New HIV/AIDS Of The Americas'"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1556749.html

[paenggoy]

"Gonorrhoea strain found to be 'resistant to antibiotics'"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14078098

[paenggoy]

From last March:

"WHO: Antibiotic overuse so prevalent scraped knee could be deadly"

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_1...uld-be-deadly/

[paenggoy]

"Scientists Have Found a Possible Cure for Ebola"

http://gizmodo.com/5918335/scientist...cure-for-ebola

[paenggoy]

"Researchers develop comprehensive H5N1 test kit"

http://www.scidev.net/en/health/bird...-test-kit.html

"Bird flu detected on a large poultry farm in Russia"

http://www.globalmeatnews.com/Indust...farm-in-Russia

"China: Tamiflu-resistant human swine influenza virus detected in HongKong"

http://www.flu.org.cn/en/news-16420.html

"Legionnaires' disease: mapping the outbreak"

http://local.stv.tv/edinburgh/magazi...-the-outbreak/

[paenggoy]

"Contagion: Not long before humans become bird-flu carriers"

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/tec...-1226406151054

[paenggoy]

"Gonorrhoea 'may become untreatable'"

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/new...9755905.print/

[paenggoy]

"Future Dengue Forecast: Intricate Relationships Between Mosquitoes, Virus and Climate Change Found"

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0705151204.htm

[paenggoy]

"Investigators probe mystery disease killing Cambodian children"

http://articles.cnn.com/2012-07-06/a...odian-ministry

[paenggoy]

"Concern grows over H1N1 outbreak in Bolivia"

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Co...livia_999.html