Sunday, June 1, 2008
Higher risk of heart disease, strokes, diabetes among South Asians
The study, ‘Ontario Survey on the Prevalence and Control of Hypertension' released on May 21, contributes to research done over the last decade that found higher rates of heart disease, strokes, and diabetes, among people of Indian descent.
Hypertension in Ontario is three times higher among South Asians and those of African descent, than among whites, according to a joint study released by the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Statistics Canada, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation. But the good news is that treatment of high blood pressure was the same for all groups.
"The first major finding is everything else being equal, South Asians are three times more likely to get hypertension as compared to Caucasians. Secondly, in addition, they develop it at an earlier age, which is of course, a very important additional concern," Dr. Frans Leenen of the University of Ottawa, who was the lead researcher, told News India-Times. "Between the ages of 40 and 60, already 40 percent of South Asians have high blood pressure as compared to Caucasians. In the 60-plus age group, 75 percent have high blood pressure, so it is extremely prevalent."
To read the full article, click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://www.newsindia-times.com
Hypertension in Ontario is three times higher among South Asians and those of African descent, than among whites, according to a joint study released by the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Statistics Canada, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation. But the good news is that treatment of high blood pressure was the same for all groups.
"The first major finding is everything else being equal, South Asians are three times more likely to get hypertension as compared to Caucasians. Secondly, in addition, they develop it at an earlier age, which is of course, a very important additional concern," Dr. Frans Leenen of the University of Ottawa, who was the lead researcher, told News India-Times. "Between the ages of 40 and 60, already 40 percent of South Asians have high blood pressure as compared to Caucasians. In the 60-plus age group, 75 percent have high blood pressure, so it is extremely prevalent."
To read the full article, click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://www.newsindia-times.com
Labels: African, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, Indian descent, Ontario Survey, Prevalence and Control of Hypertension, research, risk, South Asians, strokes, treatment
Monday, April 7, 2008
Winning the fight against AIDS
The past decade has seen remarkable progress in the fight against AIDS with many new treatments discovered and more in development.Some people in the public health community now say that AIDS could be reclassified as a chronic disease that is manageable like diabetes or hypertension. Until recently, such thoughts were unimaginable.
Despite this progress in treatment, 2.5 million people will be infected with HIV this year and more than two million will die of AIDS. As long as weak infrastructure and disastrous political interference plague poor countries where the disease hits hardest, AIDS will persist. Frustrated global activists are now demanding that developing countries be allowed to revoke the patents on AIDS medications to make them more available.Already, the pharmaceutical industry funds philanthropic many programs to make medicines available in these countries at little or no cost.
But activists want to impose "compulsory licensing," a practice endorsed by the World Trade Organization, to allow governments to break patents during public health emergencies to produce copies of branded drugs. This could have deadly consequences.The immediate danger would come from the proliferation of lowquality counterfeits.
Most local industries in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia lack the technological and regulatory incentives to produce high-quality pharmaceuticals. If an AIDS patient takes medicine that isn't strong enough to kill the disease, the virus becomes drug resistant. Exposing HIV/AIDS patients to substandard products worsens the epidemic and increases treatment costs. In addition to this awful death toll, patent violations could lead to a decline in the number of new vaccines in the future, since drug companies would have no assurance of a return on their investments. On average, it takes more than ten years and $800 million to bring a new drug to market. No company could afford that cost if international patent theft made it impossible to recoup the investment.
To read the full article, click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://www.newsindia-times.com
Despite this progress in treatment, 2.5 million people will be infected with HIV this year and more than two million will die of AIDS. As long as weak infrastructure and disastrous political interference plague poor countries where the disease hits hardest, AIDS will persist. Frustrated global activists are now demanding that developing countries be allowed to revoke the patents on AIDS medications to make them more available.Already, the pharmaceutical industry funds philanthropic many programs to make medicines available in these countries at little or no cost.
But activists want to impose "compulsory licensing," a practice endorsed by the World Trade Organization, to allow governments to break patents during public health emergencies to produce copies of branded drugs. This could have deadly consequences.The immediate danger would come from the proliferation of lowquality counterfeits.
Most local industries in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia lack the technological and regulatory incentives to produce high-quality pharmaceuticals. If an AIDS patient takes medicine that isn't strong enough to kill the disease, the virus becomes drug resistant. Exposing HIV/AIDS patients to substandard products worsens the epidemic and increases treatment costs. In addition to this awful death toll, patent violations could lead to a decline in the number of new vaccines in the future, since drug companies would have no assurance of a return on their investments. On average, it takes more than ten years and $800 million to bring a new drug to market. No company could afford that cost if international patent theft made it impossible to recoup the investment.
To read the full article, click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://www.newsindia-times.com
Labels: AIDS, diabetes, hypertension, new treatments discovered, public health community
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