370 die of drug clinical trials in India in 2 years

At least 370 deaths have been reported during drug clinical trials in India since February 2013, while compensation has been paid in only 21 cases, said local media Monday.

The Times of India quoted government data as saying of the 370 deaths, 222 or 60 percent cases have been examined so far by a regulatory panel on clinical trials, but only 21 were eligible for compensation as the drug under trial was found to have caused the deaths, said the report.

Pharmaceutical companies are targeting poor rural population for their drug trials, but there is a lack of government regulation to hold them responsible once the trial causes death, said experts.
 [Xinhua - globaltimes.cn]
15/12/14
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WHO experts to gather in Geneva to discuss use of experimental anti-Ebola drugs

GENEVA, September 04 /ITAR-TASS/. About 200 health experts will gather on Thursday in Geneva for a two-day conference to discuss all aspect of the use of experimental drugs that have not yet been tested on humans in anti-Ebola efforts. 

This meeting will be sequential to a mid-August conference of the World Health Organization (WHO), which gave green light to the use of anti-Ebola drugs tested only on monkeys.
This radical step was made in a bid to stop the unprecedented grave Ebola outbreak that have already claimed more than 1,500 lives in Western Africa. More than 3,000 people have been infected.

Since the first Ebola outbreak in 1976 in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, no drugs capable of curing this disease have been officially registered.
However, the WHO’s permission to use experimental drugs failed to solve the problem. The matter is that there are no efficient vaccines against Ebola and experimental drugs are either scarce or underdeveloped. But, according to the WHO forecasts, the number of infected people in Western Africa may reach 20,000 in the next six months.
This situation poses lots of questions, such as: what the criteria of a drug efficiency are, what kind of restrictions on its use should be imposed, how to better organize data collection for analysis. Apart from that, the experts are to outline the priorities for the use experimental drugs and decide where such drugs should go in the first instance, bearing in mind the acute shortage of such drugs. Financial aspects are important too. It is yet to be decided who is to finance the production of such drugs in the long run.

Taking part in the conference will be representatives from pharmaceutical companies who will present their latest developments. In all, specialists will speak about 20 drugs that might be used to cope with Ebola outbreak. These preparations are divided into three groups: drugs derived from the blood of humans or animals who have had Ebola; anti-virus preparations, like the ones used to treat HIV/AIDS; and, finally, vaccines. 


By now, Ebola virus has spread across five countries in Western Africa, namely Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Senegal. Deaths from Ebola have been reported from all these countries, except Senegal. The most serious situation is in now in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. According to the WHO estimates, this outbreak will last from six to nine months and will require about 490 million U.S. dollars.

Apart from these countries, Ebola cases have been registered in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the death toll has reached 31. WHO experts however say this is an isolated outbreak not linked with the one raging in Western Africa.

The World Health Organization describes Ebola virus disease (formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever) as “a severe, often fatal illness, with a case fatality rate of up to 90%.” Symptoms include sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. The infection is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected animals or people. People are infectious as long as their blood and secretions contain the virus. The incubation period is 2 to 21 days. There is no known cure or vaccine for the disease. The only treatment offered is “supportive intensive care.” During an outbreak, those at higher risk of infection are health workers, family members and others in close contact with sick people and deceased patients.
http://en.itar-tass.com
4/9/14
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• Ebola: cases, deaths ‘vastly underestimated,’ says UN health agency

• WHO Declares Ebola Outbreak a Global Health Emergency 

  • Statement by Commissioner Borg on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa....

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• Sierra Leone declares emergency as Ebola death toll hits 729...

• A West African Ebola outbreak is “out of control,” and the affected countries are struggling to contain the disease, Jason Cone, spokesman for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) aid group, told RIA Novosti....

• Ebola : la course contre la montre de MSF...

• Uganda refutes reports of Ebola outbreak

Ebola: cases, deaths ‘vastly underestimated,’ says UN health agency

UN,  15 August 2014 – Health workers at Ebola outbreak sites are seeing evidence that the numbers of reported cases and deaths “vastly underestimate” the magnitude of the crisis as they work around the clock to stop the disease from spreading, according to the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO, in its latest update on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa dated August 14, said no new cases have been detected in Nigeria, attributing the outcome to extensive contact tracing and monitoring, implemented with support from the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“Elsewhere, the outbreak is expected to continue for some time,” WHO said.

The most recent statistics compiled by WHO show that the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa continues to escalate, with 1975 cases and 1069 deaths reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.

But WHO also said: “Staff at the outbreak sites see evidence that the numbers of reported cases and deaths vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak.”

On the humanitarian side, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) is delivering food to the more than one million people locked down in the quarantine zones, where the borders of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone intersect, and several countries have agreed to support the provision of priority food staples for this population.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in a blog post from Sierra Leone on the “joys of survivors” of the deadly disease, says that “Ebola survivors can play a valuable role in dispelling myths and in gaining community support in the fight against Ebola.”

“Some people in Sierra Leone still have not accepted that Ebola is real. While many survivors fear stigma, some are now coming forward and telling their brave stories,” wrote UNICEF consultant Jo Dunlup.

WHO said it is mapping the outbreak in great detail, to pinpoint areas of ongoing transmission and locate treatment facilities and supplies.

“CDC is equipping the hardest-hit countries with computer hardware and software that will soon allow real-time reporting of cases and analysis of trends,” according to the UN agency’s update.

WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan in Geneva regularly meets with ambassadors from United Nations missions based in the Swiss city to identify the most urgent needs within countries and match them with rapid international support.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Dr. David Nabarro as Senior United Nations System Coordinator for Ebola, in support of the work done by the WHO team. WHO has expressed its disappointment that some airlines have stopped flying to West Africa. It is “hard to save lives if we and other health workers cannot get in,” WHO has said.

• WHO has repeatedly said the Ebola virus is highly contagious – but not airborne. Transmission requires close contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, as can occur during health-care procedures, home care, or traditional burial practices, which involve the close contact of family members and friends with bodies.

The incubation period ranges from 2 to 21 days, but patients become contagious only after the onset of symptoms. As symptoms worsen, the ability to transmit the virus increases. As a result, patients are usually most likely to infect others at a severe stage of the disease, when they are visibly, and physically, too ill to travel.
un.org
15/8/14
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Related:

• WHO Declares Ebola Outbreak a Global Health Emergency 

  • Statement by Commissioner Borg on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa....

  ------

• Sierra Leone declares emergency as Ebola death toll hits 729...

• A West African Ebola outbreak is “out of control,” and the affected countries are struggling to contain the disease, Jason Cone, spokesman for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) aid group, told RIA Novosti....

• Ebola : la course contre la montre de MSF...

• Uganda refutes reports of Ebola outbreak

Air pollution now linked to 1 in 8 deaths worldwide, UN health agency reports

25 March 2014 – Air pollution – both indoor and outdoor – killed some 7 million people across the globe in 2012, making it the world’s largest single environmental health risk, according to new figures released today by the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
“The risks from air pollution are now far greater than previously thought or understood, particularly for heart disease and strokes,” said Maria Neira, Director of WHO’s Department for Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health.

“Few risks have a greater impact on global health today than air pollution; the evidence signals the need for concerted action to clean up the air we all breathe,” Dr. Neira added.
In particular, the new data, which cites air pollution as the cause of one in eight global deaths, reveals a stronger link between both indoor and outdoor air pollution exposure and cardiovascular diseases such as strokes and ischaemic heart disease, as well as between air pollution and cancer. This is in addition to pollution’s role in the development of respiratory diseases, including acute respiratory infections and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases.

“Cleaning up the air we breathe prevents noncommunicable diseases as well as reduces disease risks among women and vulnerable groups, including children and the elderly,” Flavia Bustreo, WHO Assistant Director-General Family, Women and Children’s Health said. “Poor women and children pay a heavy price from indoor air pollution since they spend more time at home breathing in smoke and soot from leaky coal and wood cook stoves.”

Analysing the risk factors, taking into account revisions in methodology, WHO estimates indoor air pollution was linked to 4.3 million deaths in 2012 in households cooking over coal, wood and biomass stoves. The new estimate is explained by better information about pollution exposures among the estimated 2.9 billion people living in homes using wood, coal or dung as their primary cooking fuel, as well as evidence about air pollution's role in the development of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and cancers.

In the case of outdoor air pollution, the agency estimates there were 3.7 million deaths in 2012 from urban and rural sources worldwide. The most air pollution-related deaths occurred in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific, according to WHO, with a total of 3.3 million deaths linked to indoor air pollution and some 2.6 million related to outdoor pollution.
Many people are exposed to both indoor and outdoor air pollution. Due to this overlap, mortality attributed to the two sources cannot simply be added together, hence the total estimate of around 7 million deaths in 2012.

“Excessive air pollution is often a by-product of unsustainable policies in sectors such as transport, energy, waste management and industry. In most cases, healthier strategies will also be more economical in the long term due to health-care cost savings as well as climate gains,” Carlos Dora, WHO Coordinator for Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health said. 

“WHO and health sectors have a unique role in translating scientific evidence on air pollution into policies that can deliver impact and improvements that will save lives,” Dr. Dora added.
The release of today’s data is a step in the development of a WHO roadmap for preventing diseases related to air pollution. This involves the development of a WHO-hosted global platform on air quality and health to generate better data on air pollution-related diseases and strengthened support to countries and cities through guidance, information and evidence about health gains from key interventions.
 un.org
25/3/14
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Related:

• Pollution kills 7 million people every year. -WHO

• Η έκθεση υπολόγισε ότι κάθε χρόνο καταγράφονται 5 εκατομμύρια θάνατοι από την ατμοσφαιρική ρύπανση, την πείνα και τις ασθένειες ως αποτέλεσμα της κλιματικής αλλαγής

• La pollution de l'air a causé la mort de sept millions de personnes en 2012...

Pollution kills 7 million people every year. -WHO

Air pollution kills about 7 million people worldwide every year, with more than half of the fatalities due to fumes from indoor stoves, according to a new report from the World Health Organization published today (March 25).
The agency said air pollution is the cause of about one in eight deaths and has now become the single biggest environmental health risk.

“We all have to breathe, which makes pollution very hard to avoid,” said Professor Frank Kelly, director of the environmental research group at King’s College London, who was not part of the WHO report.

One of the main risks of pollution is that tiny particles can get deep into the lungs, causing irritation. Scientists also suspect air pollution may be to blame for inflammation in the heart, leading to chronic problems or a heart attack.
The WHO estimated that there were about 4.3 million deaths in 2012 caused by indoor air pollution, mostly people cooking inside using wood and coal stoves in Asia. The WHO said there were about 3.7 million deaths from outdoor air pollution in 2012, of which nearly 90 per cent were in developing countries.

• But the WHO noted that many people are exposed to both indoor and outdoor air pollution. Due to this overlap, mortality attributed to the two sources cannot simply added together, hence the WHO said it lowered the total estimate from around 8 million to 7 million deaths in 2012.

The new estimates are more than double previous figures and based mostly on modelling. The increase is partly due to better information about the health effects of pollution and improved detection methods. Last year, the WHO’s cancer agency classified air pollution as a carcinogen, linking dirty air to lung and bladder cancer.
The WHO’s report noted women had higher levels of exposure than men in developing countries.
todayonline.com
25/3/14
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• Η έκθεση υπολόγισε ότι κάθε χρόνο καταγράφονται 5 εκατομμύρια θάνατοι από την ατμοσφαιρική ρύπανση, την πείνα και τις ασθένειες ως αποτέλεσμα της κλιματικής αλλαγής

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• 7 millions de personnes victimes de la pollution atmosphérique dans le monde (OMS)...

En 2012, la pollution de l'air dans le monde a tué 7 millions de personnes, selon le rapport publié par l'Organisation mondiale de la Santé (OMS).

Ces chiffres représentent près du double des estimations précédentes, témoignant du fait que la pollution atmosphérique est devenue l'une des plus grandes menaces à la santé de l’humanité.

Ces données montrent qu’en 2012, une mort sur huit s’est produite en raison des problèmes, liés à la pollution de l’air. Il s’agit des maladies cardio-vasculaires, des accidents vasculaires cérébraux et des maladies pulmonaires chroniques, mais aussi des cas de cancer, et des infections virales respiratoires aiguës.
french.ruvr.ru
25/3/14