Translate AMICOR contents if you like

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Poverty and Human Development – October 2007. Journals

Estou experimentando novas formas de apresentar AMICOR e aproveitando para postar o endereço das revistas que estão participando do projeto de publicar sobre Pobreza e Desenvolvimento Humano. Estamos (Maria Inês Reinert Azambuja, Sérgio Bassanesi, Murilo Foppa e eu) trabalhando nesta linha e esperamos que haja mais gente interessada.

Trying new presentation forms for AMICOR and tacking the opportunity to post the addresses of journals engaged in the project of publication on Poverty and Human Development. We (Maria Inês Reinert Azambuja, Sérgio Bassanesi, Murilo Foppa and me) are working in this line and we hope to find new colleagues interested.

Journals Participating in the CSE Global Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development as of October 2007

Friday, October 19, 2007

Feeding a Hungry World -- Borlaug 318 (5849): 359 -- Science

Feeding a Hungry World -- Borlaug 318 (5849): 359 -- Science
Next week, more than 200 science journals throughout the world will simultaneously publish papers on global poverty and human development--a collaborative effort to increase awareness, interest, and research about these important issues of our time. Some 800 million people still experience chronic and transitory hunger each year. Over the next 50 years, we face the daunting job of feeding 3.5 billion additional people, most of whom will begin life in poverty. The battle to alleviate poverty and improve human health and productivity will require dynamic agricultural development.
Breakthroughs in wheat and rice production, which came to be known as the Green Revolution, signaled the dawn of applying agricultural science to the Third World's need for modern techniques. It began in Mexico in the late 1950s, spread to Asia during the 1960s and 1970s, and continued in China in the 1980s and 1990s. Over a 40-year period, the proportion of hungry people in the world declined from about 60% in 1960 to 17% in 2000. The Green Revolution also brought environmental benefits. If the global cereal yields of 1950 still prevailed in 2000, we would have needed nearly 1.2 billion more hectares of the same quality, instead of the 660 million hectares used, to achieve 2000's global harvest. Moreover, had environmentally fragile land been brought into agricultural production, the soil erosion, loss of forests and grasslands, reduction in biodiversity, and extinction of wildlife species would have been disastrous.
.............
Although sizable land areas, such as the cerrados of Brazil, may responsibly be converted to agriculture, most food increases will have to come from lands already in production. Fortunately, productivity improvements in crop management can be made all along the line: in plant breeding, crop management, tillage, fertilization, weed and pest control, harvesting, and water use. Genetically engineered crops are playing an increasingly important role in world agriculture, enabling scientists to reach across genera for useful genes to enhance tolerance to drought, heat, cold, and waterlogging, all likely consequences of global warming. I believe biotechnology will be essential to meeting future food, feed, fiber, and biofuel demand.

NIH Poverty and Human Development

NIH VideoCasting Event Summary

Monday, October 22, 2007, 10:00:00 AM
Category:
Description:
More than 230 scientific journals throughout the world will simultaneously publish articles devoted to the topic of poverty and human development. Eight of the most outstanding articles from these journals addressing critical issues of global health research and policy were selected by a panel of NIH and CSE experts for presentation. New research in these articles examines interventions and projects to improve health and reduce health-care inequities among the poor. Subject areas include: childbirth safety, HIV/AIDS, malaria treatment, food insufficiency and sexual behavior, interventions to improve child survival, physician brain drain from the developing world, influenza's impact on children, and use of satellite technology to predict disease outbreaks. The presentations involve research conducted in or about resource-poor countries throughout the world and will be published in the following journals: BMJ, AIDS Patient Care and STDs, American Journal of Public Health, PLoS Medicine, JAMA, Journal of Infectious Diseases, Obstetrics & Gynecology, and Science. For more information, visit http://www.fic.nih.gov/news/events/cse.htm

New Universal Definition for MI

From Cardiosource:
New Universal Definition of MI - learn about the big changes in a CVN interview with Joseph Alpert.
Full text in the journal
http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.187397v1

World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development

World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development

The World Bank, October 2007

Available online at: http://go.worldbank.org/LBJZD6HWZ0

Press Release: http://go.worldbank.org/IUIGDTF9M0

October 19, 2007 – World Development Report 2008 calls for greater investment in agriculture in developing countries.The report warns that the sector must be placed at the center of the development agenda if the goals of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 are to be realized.
· While 75 percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas in developing countries, a mere 4 percent of official development assistance goes to agriculture.
· In Sub-Saharan Africa, a region heavily reliant on agriculture for overall growth, public spending for farming is also only 4 percent of total government spending and the sector is still taxed at relatively high levels.
· For the poorest people, GDP growth originating in agriculture is about four times more effective in raising incomes of extremely poor people than GDP growth originating outside the sector

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

2367 – AMICOR10 – 18/10/2007 – Feliz dia do Médico!

  1. Understanding Popualtion Health Terminology
  2. XVIII IEA World Congress of Epidemiology 2008
  3. O MÉDICO CIDADÃO
  4. Inequality Around the World
  5. More time to submit abstracts to the WCC2008
  6. Consulta Pública Lista Brasileira de Internações por Condições Sensíveis à Atenção Básica
  7. More Recent Articles

Search AMICOR

• Email to a friend • Article Search • Related •

More Recent Articles

Safely unsubscribe now from "AMICOR" or change subscription settings



Understanding Popualtion Health Terminology

Population health is a relatively new term, with no agreement about whether it refers to a concept of health or a field of study of health determinants. There is debate, sometimes heated, about whether population health and public health are identical or different. Discussions of population health involve many terms, such as outcomes, disparities, determinants, and risk factors, which may be used imprecisely, particularly across different disciplines, such as medicine, epidemiology, economics, and sociology. Nonetheless, thinking and communicating clearly about population health concepts are essential for public and private policymakers to improve the population's health and reduce disparities. This article defines and discusses many of the terms and concepts characterizing this emerging field.
In March 2004, the editor of The Milbank Quarterly noted a subtle but important change in the journal's subtitle, from "A Journal of Public Health and Health Care Policy" to "A Multidisciplinary Journal of Population Health and Health Policy." In explaining this change, Gray noted,
The term public health has increasingly come to connote a relatively narrow, though vitally important, set of activities that are carried out by agencies with official functions. The Milbank Quarterly is concerned with a very broad range of topics affecting health, as this current issue well illustrates. The term public health has increasingly seemed too confining. … The term population health has been increasingly used in recent years, probably because it suggests a broad set of concerns—a particular perspective—rather than a specific set of activities, actors, or approaches. Thus, population health is more descriptive of the content to which the Quarterly aspires than public health is. (2004, 4)/.../

XVIII IEA World Congress of Epidemiology

XVIII IEA World Congress of EpidemiologyEpidemiology in the Construction of Health for All: Tools for a Changing World
September 20-24, 2008 Porto Alegre – Brazil
IEA International Epidemiological AssociationABRASCO, the Brazilian Association of Collective Health
Website: http://www.epi2008.com.br/ingles/index.php
Call for abstracts: http://www.epi2008.com.br/ingles/trabalhos/index.php
Construction: Epidemiology is one of several disciplines, and epidemiologists one of several categories of social actors involved in improving population health. The word construction emphasizes the key role of epidemiology, a discipline which integrates those around it, in this multi- and trans-disciplinarity task.
Health for All: In reemphasizing this now traditional motto, we highlight epidemiology’s role at national and local levels in developing, maintaining and renovating systems offering health care to whole populations. Within this context, issues related to equity and to inclusion of disadvantaged population groups are essential. The recent Brazilian experience with a universal health system will be highlighted.
Tools: Epidemiology is largely about tools for studying disease frequency, for establishing exposure-disease relationships, for testing health interventions and for evaluating health systems. The idea of tools also extends to the construction and evaluation of preventive and curative health services, so as to permit health workers at all levels to provide evidence-based care.
Changing World: The Congress will highlight the many changes occurring in the early 21st Century: demographic and epidemiological transitions; environmental alterations; the growth in research capacity for addressing health problems around the world; and the widening gap in health status between the rich and poor found both between and within nations and accompanied by a global divide in access to the benefits of scientific progress.
Possible topics are:.
· Collaboration between epidemiology and other research disciplines
· Epidemiologists and policy-makers: how to work together
· Access to scientific information
· Epidemiology and the Millennium Development Goals
· Epidemiology and primary health care
· International and intra-national inequalities in health
· What can other countries learn from the successes and failures of the Brazilian experience?
· Epidemiology in health systems and policy research
· Epidemiology in the development, implementation and evaluation of clinical and public health guidelines
· Epidemiological methods for decentralized health management
· Translation of research findings into practice
· Health promotion, disease prevention and surveillance for non-communicable diseases
· New paradigms for disease causation: from the molecule to the population
· Life course epidemiology
· Global trends in health and in its determinants
· New exposures and new diseases
· Terrorism and violence: threats to public health
· The eminence of new pandemics
· Environmental change and public health
· Managing noncommunicable diseases in low and middle-income countries


Alvaro Matida, Secretário Executivo da Abrasco
R. Leopoldo Bulhões 1480, sala 208
Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro - RJ – Brasil 21041-210
Tel. 55-21-2598-2527 Tel.Fax. 55-21-25608699 ou 2560-8403 http://www.abrasco.org.br/

O Médico Cidadão

(Para comemorar o dia de amanhã - dia do médico - enviei este artigo para ZH, mas não sei se será publicado. Em todo o caso quero compartilhá-lo com vocês, enviando meu abraço)
O MÉDICO CIDADÃO
Aloyzio Achutti. Médico
Temos consciência do muito que já fazemos para recuperar a saúde perdida e tentar preservá-la quando em perigo, mas ainda falta muito, pois as causas subjacentes, tanto da doença como da saúde, estão fora de nosso setor específico de atuação, e somente nossos braços não as alcançam.
Saúde não é assunto só de médico. As doenças dos indivíduos que atendemos são sintomas de doenças sociais, e aqui, social, não somente com foco na baixa renda ou na pobreza.
Já sabemos de há muito que quanto mais complexa a atividade exercida, tanto mais dependemos de outros profissionais da saúde e de infra-estrutura que nos apóiem. Dependemos da vontade do próprio paciente querendo se recuperar, observando nossa prescrição.
O agricultor sabe que sem preparar a terra, sem adubar, cuidar do inço e das pragas, da época do ano mais adequada, e de proteger as plantas enquanto crescem, não adianta plantar nada.
O engenheiro sabe que antes de começar a construir o edifício, tem que cavar a terra, precisa construir no sentido contrário, fazer boas fundações para que o prédio não venha a ruir.
O advogado também procura a jurisprudência, sem o que fica muito difícil defender o caso específico de seu cliente.
O comerciante tem experiência com a propaganda, sem a qual, e sem colocar seu produto a vista, com boa aparência e preço razoável, não vai conseguir vender.
A famigerada CPMF, no início foi também coisa de médico, tentando conseguir mais recursos para um setor que é sempre deixado para trás. Esperam para repartir depois de o bolo crescer, sem se dar conta de que sem saúde integral (com todos seus componentes essenciais de qualidade de vida) não se chega lá. O problema é que colocaram olho grande no que era para ser uma contribuição, tornando-a mais um imposto, desviando de seu destino.
Não podemos ser ingênuos permitindo que nos espoliem, e mais uma vez intermediários se intrometam e se aproveitem de nossas soluções. Precisamos fazer valer todo nosso potencial e conseguir parceria com os demais setores da sociedade, com a educação, com o comércio, com a indústria, a justiça, a agricultura, e tantos outros, para todos entendermos que saúde sem cidadania não existe.
Seria bom que pensássemos e tentássemos arregimentar esforços para além de nossos casos clínicos e de nossas ciências e técnicas biomédicas, para salvar não somente nosso enfermo, mas também a sociedade que adoece o cidadão, para poder devolvê-lo sem recaída.

Inequality Around the World

Inequality Around the World
This website is dedicated to all facets of inequality: (I) how within-national inequalities are affected by macro economic policies or trade, (II) how and why regional inequalities within countries expand or not, (III) what were the effect of transition from state-controlled to market economies on inequality, and last but not the least, (IV) what is the state of global (world-wide) inequality between world citizens. In addition to a selection of papers, the site also offers several inequality datasets.
Enquiries:Branko Milanovic (Lead Economist): bmilanovic@worldbank.org
Permanent URL for this page: http://go.worldbank.org/300LMVGD10

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

More time to submit abstracts to the WCC2008

De: Maria Mesias [mailto:maria.mesias@worldheart.org]
Enviada em: terça-feira, 16 de outubro de 2007 09:34
Para: World Congress of Cardiology
Assunto: World Heart Federation - World Congress of Cardiology 2008 - Some more days to submit your abstracts!Prioridade: Alta
Dear Abstract submitter,

We would like to thank you for your submission and take the opportunity to update you.
The system will be kept open some more days thus you will have some time left to submit new abstracts if you wish!
Kindly forward this message to all your colleagues who may want to submit.
The WORLD CONGRESS OF CARDIOLOGY will take place from 18-21 May 2007 in Buenos Aires Argentina.
More than 250 sessions (Symposia, Clinical Seminars, How To & Workshops, Debates) will be presented as well as a series of special sessions (Plenaries - Joint Sessions with related organizations - Sessions in Spanish organized by the South American Society of Cardiology)
To submit an abstract: http://www.worldcardiocongress.org/ (ABSTRACT SUBMISSION)
To register: www.ics-online.com/ei/getdemo.ei?id=232&s=_1D40WH97M
Please be aware that you can always edit an abstract that you have already submitted by using the login and password you were given. This allows you to edit as many times as you need until deadline.
WORLD CONGRESS OF CARDIOLOGY 2008
http://www.worldcardiocongress.org/
World Heart Federation - Sociedad Argentina de Cardiologia - Federacion Argentina de Cardiologia

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Consulta Pública Lista Brasileira de Internações por Condições Sensíveis à Atenção Básica

Consulta Pública Nº 04, de 20 de setembro de 2007Lista Brasileira de Internações Hospitalares por Condições Sensíveis à Atenção BásicaO Secretário de Atenção à Saúde, no uso de suas atribuições, considerando o estabelecido na Portaria no- 648/GM, de 28 de março de 2006, que aprova a Política Nacional de Atenção Básica;Considerando a Estratégia Saúde da Família como prioritária para reorganização da atenção básica no Brasil;Considerando a institucionalização da avaliação da atenção básica no Brasil; Considerando o impacto da atenção primária em saúde na redução das internações sensíveis à atenção ambulatorial em vários países;Considerando a necessidade de validar uma lista brasileira das internações sensíveis à atenção ambulatorial; eConsiderando a necessidade de incluir indicadores da atividade hospitalar para serem utilizados como medida indireta do funcionamento da atenção básica e da Estratégia Saúde da Família, resolve:Art. 1º - Submeter à Consulta Pública a Lista Brasileira de Internações Hospitalares por Condições Sensíveis à Atenção Básica.Parágrafo Único - Os grupos de diagnósticos considerados como condições sensíveis e a Nota Técnica de Orientação de sua elaboração estão disponíveis para consulta e contribuições no endereço eletrônico: www.saude.gov.br/dab, Consulta Pública.Art. 2º - Estabelecer o prazo de 30 (trinta) dias, a contar da data da publicação desta Consulta, para que sejam apresentadas contribuições, devidamente fundamentadas, relativas à proposta de que trata o Artigo 1º - desta Consulta Pública.Art. 3º - Determinar que o Departamento de Atenção Básica, da Secretaria de Atenção à Saúde - SAS/MS, avalie as proposições apresentadas, elaborando a versão final consolidada da proposta ora submetida à Consulta Pública, para que, findo o prazo estabelecido, a mesma possa subsidiar a orientação da lista brasileira de Internações Hospitalares por Condições Sensíveis à Atenção Básica a fim de uniformizar sua utilização pelos Estados, Distrito Federal e Municípios e Instituições de Ensino e Pesquisa.Art. 4º - Esta Consulta Pública entra em vigor na data de sua publicação.
Documentos
Nota TécnicaLista de internações por condições sensíveis à Atenção Básica.

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Tobacco smoking, harm reduction, and nicotine regulation

The Lancet Early Online Publication, 5 October 2007
The Lancet DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61482-2
Viewpoint
Tobacco smoking, harm reduction, and nicotine product regulation
Prof John Britton MD a and Richard Edwards MD b
Cigarette smoking is highly addictive, widely prevalent, and very hazardous. Smoking killed 100 million people in the 20th century,1 and is predicted to kill 1 billion in the 21st century.1 Worldwide, there are about 1·1 billion smokers, and there are expected to be 1·6 billion by 2025.2 Half of all smokers will die prematurely, unless they stop smoking.3
In the 50 years since the health risks of smoking first became widely recognised, the political and public health responses to smoking at national and international levels have been grossly inadequate. Although the main components of current recommended tobacco control policy4,5 (panel 1) have changed little from those first proposed in 1962,6 they have still not been widely applied7 and, in any case, achieve a reduction in smoking prevalence of typically about 0·5,8–10 and at best 1·0,11 percentage point per year. Full implementation of these policies might be sufficient to prevent smoking in countries in which the smoking epidemic has yet to take hold, but this is only part of the necessary solution for countries with an established smoking population. In the UK, for example, where 24% of adults still smoke,12 at a reduction rate of 0·5 percentage point per year it would take more than 20 years to reduce the prevalence of smoking by half. Even then, there will be more than 5 million smokers in the UK alone, predominantly from the most socioeconomically disadvantaged sectors of society,13 bearing a vast burden of avoidable morbidity and mortality. In fact most of the 150 million deaths from smoking that are expected over the next 20 years will occur in current smokers who are alive today. Since millions of these are unlikely to stop smoking in the near future, we argue, on the basis of a new report from the Royal College of Physicians,14 that in addition to conventional tobacco control policies, the application of harm reduction principles to nicotine and tobacco use could deliver substantial reductions in the morbidity and mortality currently caused by tobacco consumption. However, achievement of these reductions will require radical structural reform of the way in which nicotine and tobacco products are regulated and used.

BIBLIOTECAS/LIBRARIES

2366 - AMICOR10 - 06/10/2007

2366 – AMICOR10 – 06/10/2007


Caríssimos AMICOR,
Com a finalidade de facilitar a navegação, pretendo restringir as postagens daqui por diante nos seguintes endereços: HTTP://amicor.blogspot.com e HTTP://amicor_preserve.blogspot.com
Entretanto, o conteúdo anteriormente postado continuará a disposição nos endereços anteriores.
A seguir está a lista das últimas postagens que podem ser alcançadas diretamente no endereço.
Dear AMICOR,
With the purpose to make easier to surf, I will use just two addresses: http://amicor.blogspot.com and http://amicor_preserve.blogspot.com
The archives of previous postings remain available in the respective addresses.
Below is the list of the last postings.
· [2007-10-06 08:18] Brasil: População contagem 2007 Tags: brasil população
· [2007-10-05 20:27] The Secret History of the War on Cancer Tags: cancer prevention
· [2007-10-04 15:31] Survey: Is It Time to Abandon the Annual Checkup? - in Surveys, Surveys from MedPage Today Tags: none
· [2007-10-04 15:13] Join the Global Smokefree Partnership's campaign Tags: smoking
· [2007-10-03 07:28] Health in the Americas - 2007 Tags: americas health situation
· [2007-10-03 07:24] Health in the Americas: Brazil - 2007 Tags: brazil health situation
· [2007-10-02 17:13] Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases: WHO-Guidelines Tags: prevention guidelines
· [2007-09-29 06:34] Achieving health equity: from root causes to fair outcomes Tags: health equity; social determinants
· [2007-09-28 07:26] ACC/AHA 2007 Guidelines on Perioperative Cardiovascular Evaluation and Care for Noncardiac Surgery: Tags: none
· [2007-09-25 20:30] Prevalence of Colorectal Neoplasm Among Patients With Newly Diagnosed Coronary Artery Disease, September 26, 2007, Chan et al. 298 (12): 1412 Tags: none
· [2007-09-25 11:50] Desigualdades Sociais e Mortalidade CV precoce em Porto Alegre Tags: determinantes sociais desigualdade social
· [2007-09-24 08:31] Forum sobre Determinantes Sociais Tags: determinantes sociais desigualdade

Brasil: População contagem 2007

IBGE divulga relação da Contagem da População 2007
O IBGE divulga hoje (05/10) os resultados da Contagem da População 2007. Neste mesmo dia, o Diário Oficial da União publica a população dos 26 estados e do Distrito Federal, além dos 5.564 municípios brasileiros, de acordo com a Lei complementar nº 59, de 22 de dezembro de 1988, e com o artigo 102 da Lei nº 8443, de 16 de julho de 1992. Os prefeitos serão informados por meio de Ofício do IBGE sobre a população dos seus municípios e terão um período de 20 dias para apresentarem reclamações fundamentadas ao IBGE, que analisará os questionamentos e tomará as medidas cabíveis.
Por fim, no dia 31 de outubro, o IBGE encaminhará os resultados finais ao Tribunal de Contas da União, que os utilizará como base de cálculo das quotas referentes ao Fundo de Participação dos Municípios (FPM). Em dezembro, depois que a consolidação dos números estiver concluída pelo IBGE, será divulgada a população e demais variáveis que são objeto da investigação.
A Contagem da População aconteceu em 5.414 municípios com até 170 mil habitantes e em mais 21 municípios 1 situados em 14 estados onde um ou dois excedem esse teto populacional, permitindo, dessa forma, totalizar a população desses estados. Além da população recenseada nos municípios abrangidos pela Contagem, os resultados divulgados pelo IBGE incluem uma parcela estimada para os chamados domicílios fechados, locais onde não foi possível entrevistar os moradores.
Para os municípios onde não houve Contagem, o IBGE projetou uma estimativa para 2007. A descrição da metodologia utilizada para esta estimativa, assim como a nota técnica intitulada “Metodologia de Estimação do Número de Moradores em Domicílios Fechados” pode ser encontrada no site do IBGE na Internet (população residente em 2007).
Os Censos 2007 também incluíram a coleta de dados do 10º Censo Agropecuário que fornecerá à sociedade informações como número de estabelecimentos, área total (ha), condição legal das terras (próprias, aguardando titulação, arrendadas, em parceria, ocupadas), utilização da terra (lavouras, pastagens, matas e florestas, área irrigada), pessoal ocupado (total, com laço de parentesco e sem laço de parentesco), tratores, efetivo de animais (bovinos, bubalinos, caprinos, ovinos, suínos, aves), produção animal (leite, ovos, lã) e produção vegetal.
Além de traçar um quadro da realidade do país, os Censos 2007 servem para levantamento de dados fundamentais à formulação de políticas públicas e tomada de decisões acerca de investimentos privados e governamentais. A grande inovação tecnológica deste ano foi o uso, pelas equipes de campo, de cerca de 82 mil computadores de mão (PDAs). Este equipamento digital já era utilizado pelo IBGE em outras pesquisas, entretanto foi a primeira vez que a instituição fez uso deste recurso em uma operação censitária. Os PDAs trouxeram inúmeras vantagens, como a possibilidade de crítica em tempo real dos dados coletados, possibilitando a correção da informação prestada no ato da entrevista e o preenchimento de todos os quesitos obrigatórios, evitando a não resposta por esquecimento ou falha do recenseador.
Dotados de equipamentos de GPS (Global Positioning System ou Sistema de Posicionamento Global, em português), eles possibilitaram a exata localização dos recenseadores nas áreas de coleta (setores censitários), bem como a captação precisa das coordenadas geográficas de estabelecimentos e domicílios da zona rural. As vantagens da coleta eletrônica foram inúmeras, principalmente no que diz respeito à rapidez e agilidade nas entrevistas, processamento das informações recolhidas e comunicação dos resultados à sociedade. A rede de coleta do IBGE contou com 1.111 pontos com microcomputadores e acesso à internet por banda larga, 700 deles com transmissão via satélite. Os PDAs já estão em uso em outras pesquisas, como, por exemplo, a Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD) de 2007 e o Sistema Nacional de Índices Preços ao Consumidor.
1 Rio Branco (AC), Arapiraca (AL), Maceió (AL), Manaus (AM), Macapá (AP), Imperatriz (MA), São Luís (MA), Campo Grande (MS), Dourados (MS), Cuiabá (MT), Várzea Grande (MT), Campina Grande (PB), João Pessoa (PB), Teresina (PI), Mossoró (RN), Natal (RN), Porto Velho (RO), Boa Vista (RR), Aracaju (SE), Nossa Senhora Do Socorro (SE), Palmas (TO).
Comunicação Social05 de outubro de 2007

Friday, October 05, 2007

The Secret History of the War on Cancer

De: Social Determinants of Health [mailto:SDOH@YORKU.CA] Joel Moskowitz
sexta-feira, 5 de outubro de 2007 20:02
mailto:SDOH@YORKU.CA
Assunto: The Secret History of the War on Cancer
A crusader at Pitt tells how cancer prevention was stymiedBob Hoover, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 05, 2007As the events marking National Breast Cancer Awareness Month begin this week, a new book by a University of Pittsburgh researcher has been garnering national attention with charges that America's efforts to prevent cancer have been largely ignored for political and commercial reasons.Medical science has down-played prevention in favor of a massive campaign to cure the disease, Devra Davis, director of Pitt's Center for Environmental Oncology, says in her book, "The Secret History of the War on Cancer" (Basic Books, $27.95).In the book, which goes on sale next week, Dr. Davis alleges:Her appointment to a multimillion-dollar breast cancer research program in the Clinton administration was sidetracked by the chemical industry that opposed her efforts to identify environment sources of the disease.A reluctant medical profession blocked the widespread use of the Pap smear to detect cancer of the cervix for a decade because it resisted the use of laboratory technicians, rather than physicians, to read test results.Links between tobacco, X-rays, sunlight, hormones and such widespread chemicals as benzene were recognized by scientists in 1936, with little if any precautions taken over subsequent decades.The United States has tripled the purchase of products containing asbestos, a known carcinogen, from Mexico since 2000, while much of the world including the European Union, has banned the use of the substance.Both the American Cancer Society and American Medical Association were allied with the tobacco industry for years, even after the U.S. surgeon general's 1964 report linking smoking and lung cancer.Pennsylvania continues to feel the effects of this former partnership, Dr. Davis explains, in its law restricting municipalities from limiting smoking in restaurants and bars. That is the law that stalled Allegheny County's efforts this year to ban smoking.She also notes that Eugene Knopf, a lobbyist for the American Cancer Society's state chapter, quit in 1993 to work for the American Tobacco Institute after, she alleges, he manipulated the chapter into supporting a law that effectively blocked local control of smoking.Dr. Davis yesterday discussed her book on National Public Radio, and next week, Newsweek magazine plans to feature it as its "book of the week."Much of her information is drawn from a long-ignored report to the National Cancer Institute during the Carter administration that she unearthed in her research.Based on interviews with 80 key figures from the history of cancer research, the study "showed that the revolving door of industrial and government cancer experts had operated since the earliest efforts to deal with cancer nationwide," Dr. Davis said.Sources of cancer were identified in both the home and workplace by these figures starting in the 1930s, but the proof that "how we live and work affects the chances we may get cancer was basically ignored" by the federally funded "war on cancer" launched by President Richard Nixon in 1971.At the same time that war was under way, the U.S. government was funding research on a "safe cigarette," Dr. Davis said.The federal government spent $40 million from 1968 to 1979 through an agency dubbed the Less Hazardous Cigarette Working Group that oversaw the development of 100 experimental products. Although filters were believed to be the most-effective way to reduce tar and nicotine from tobacco, they caused people to smoke more cigarettes in order to maintain their nicotine levels, Dr. Davis shows.She also points out that the filter of one of the first popular "safe cigarettes," Kent, actually contained asbestos. Nearly 600 million packs of Kent were sold before it was changed in 1956.A native of Donora, Dr. Davis used the 1948 incident in that former industrial town in which 20 people died during a temperature inversion, as the starting point for her 2002 book, "When Smoke Ran Like Water," a history of air pollution. It was a finalist for the National Book Award.Dr. Davis, 60, has held public positions in the Carter and Clinton administrations, advised the World Health Organization and also is a professor of epidemiology in Pitt's Graduate School of Public Health.===Devra Davis: Chemicals, Cancer and YouListen to radio programFresh Air from WHYY, October 4, 2007 · In The Secret History of the War on Cancer, environmental-health expert Devra Davis warns that we're ignoring dozens of cancer-causing chemicals, like asbestos, benzene, vinyl chloride, and dioxin. She writes that, like the tobacco companies, the chemical industry has managed to obfuscate the carcinogenic dangers of chemical and other toxic waste.Davis directs the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and teaches epidemiology in the university's public-health graduate program. Her earlier book When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution was a finalist for the National Book Award.http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14986010&ft=1&f=13

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Survey: Is It Time to Abandon the Annual Checkup? - in Surveys, Surveys from MedPage Today

Medical News: Survey: Is It Time to Abandon the Annual Checkup? - in Surveys, Surveys from MedPage Today:
"Survey: Is It Time to Abandon the Annual Checkup? By Marianne Mattera, Managing Editor, MedPage Today Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. September 28, 2007 13 Add Your Knowledge™ PostsAdditional Surveys Coverage Only about 20% of recommended preventive services such as mammography and cholesterol screening take place during annual well-patient visits to the doctor, according to an analysis of more than 8,400 checkups reported in the Sept. 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. (See: Preventive Health Examinations Offer Few Preventive Services) Yet, the annual cost for the estimated 64 million Americans who had preventive health visits during the study period was about $7.8 billion. Looking at the available physician supply and the average time spent on a preventive visit, the investigators determined that if every adult were to have an annual checkup, those visits would 'account for 41% of all direct patient time for primary care physicians.' "


Given those metrics, is it time to abandon the concept of a regular, annual preventive health visit?
Yes, they're too costly, in both time and money, and it doesn't seem as if patients are getting the recommended services anyway.
No, an annual preventive visit is valuable if for no other reason than it gives doctors and patients a face-to-face encounter periodically.

Join the Global Smokefree Partnership's campaign

Join the Global Smokefree Partnership’s campaign
SUPPORT A SMOKEFREE UNITED NATIONS -JOIN THE GLOBAL VOICES FOR A SMOKEFREE UNITED NATIONS CAMPAIGN!If we act quickly, the United Nations could decide this month to make all its facilities worldwide 100% smokefree. There is a resolution pending now before the UN General Assembly calling for the UN to go smokefree worldwide. This resolution would protect more than 53,000 workers in the United Nations System, and would serve as a model for all governments. Last year, the General Assembly (GA) did not even put this proposal on its agenda for discussion. This year, the Global Smokefree Partnership is launching GLOBAL VOICES FOR A SMOKEFREE UNITED NATIONS - a campaign to encourage governments of the world to support the resolution. The first opportunity to raise the issue at the General Assembly is expected to come later this October so we need all supporters to act quickly. Please join the Campaign by adding your voice! The first call to action of the Campaign is to add your name, and your organization's name if you have the authority to do so, to an appeal addressed to each nation's Ambassador to the United Nations. This letter will be shared with other government officials and with the media, and will be presented to United Nations representatives at the General Assembly in New York.Click here to sign onto the campaign on behalf of an organization Click here to sign onto the campaign on behalf of yourselfTell me more about the campaignText of the resolution pending before the United Nations
GSP Factsheet: Why the United Nations Should Go Smokefree Now

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Health in the Americas - 2007

Health in the Americas, 2007
Pan American Health Organization PAHO/WHO - October 2007
Available online at: http://www.paho.org/HIA/index.html [ Available in English and Spanish]
"....The Regional Volume includes an opening chapter that provides an overview of health in terms of the Millennium Development Goals; of the health status continuum—the unfinished agenda, the protection of health gains, and the confrontation of emerging threats; and of the national and international health sector response to that health status. Also added is a final chapter that contemplates a vision of the future of public health in the Region in the context of the Health Agenda for the Americas, 2008 - 2017, with commentaries from a number of distinguished international experts.
Each of the intervening chapters commences with an introductory summary, which is set off from the main text with a different format. Color is used throughout the volume to assure the clarity of graphic material. Finally,as one of the main purposes of the series Health in the Americasis to trace regional trends in health conditions and health systems over time, complementing this edition are quotations from the Directors of the Organization—from Hugh S.Cumming in the 1920s to Mirta Roses Periago in the 21st century— that are germane to the subjects of the various chapters. The Country Volume presents maps of each country and territory, as well as short notices that highlight a specific health challenge and the response of the national health sector to that challenge. Throughout both volumes, text boxes are introduced to provide additional material; figures and tables are inserted as close as possible to their in-text mention; and bibliographic references are included.
In addition to the present iteration of past trends in the Region this edition provides a vision of the future of health in the Americas. Distinguished leaders with profound experience in international health offer their remarks on the "Health Agenda for the Americas, 2008-2017". These leaders include: George A.O. Alleyne, Stephen Blount, Paolo Buss, Nils Kastberg, Gustavo Kourí, Jay McAuliffe, Sylvie Stachenko, Muthu Subramanian, Ricardo Uauy, and Marijke Velzeboer-Salcedo. The two volumes of Health in the Americas, 2007 Edition, present information for the 2000-2005 period.
Volume I examines health in the Americas from a Regional perspective. Among other issues, the volume's six chapters analyze:- the political, social, and economic context of health, as well as important demographic and mortality trends; - the leading diseases and health problems in the period and efforts to prevent and control them; - the structure and functioning of health systems in the Region and efforts to reform them, and - the scope and impact of international cooperation in health.
ContentsRegional Volume
An overview of regional health
Chapter 1: Health in the context of development HTM: http://www.paho.org/HIA/vol1regionalingcap1.html PDF [30p.] at: http://www.paho.org/HIA/archivosvol1/volregionaling/HIA07%20Regional%20Volume%20ENG%20Ch%201.pdf
Chapter 2: Health conditions and trends HTM: http://www.paho.org/HIA/vol1regionalingcap2.html PDF [150p.] at: http://www.paho.org/HIA/archivosvol1/volregionaling/HIA07%20Regional%20Volume%20ENG%20Ch%202.pdf
Chapter 3: Sustainable development and environmental health HTM: http://www.paho.org/HIA/vol1regionalingcap3.htmlPDF [90p.] at: http://www.paho.org/HIA/archivosvol1/volregionaling/HIA07%20Regional%20Volume%20ENG%20Ch%203.pdf
Chapter 4: Public policies and health systems and services HTM: http://www.paho.org/HIA/vol1regionalingcap4.htmlPDF [84p.] at: http://www.paho.org/HIA/archivosvol1/volregionaling/HIA07%20Regional%20Volume%20ENG%20Ch%204.pdf
Chapter 5: Health and internacional cooperation HTM: http://www.paho.org/HIA/vol1regionalingcap5.htmlPDF [19p.] at: http://www.paho.org/HIA/archivosvol1/volregionaling/HIA07%20Regional%20ENG%20Ch%205.pdf
Chapter 6: Prospects for regional health HTM: http://www.paho.org/HIA/vol1regionalingcap6.htmlPDF [22p.] at: http://www.paho.org/HIA/archivosvol1/volregionaling/HIA07%20Regional%20ENG%20Ch%206%20.pdf
Contributors : http://www.paho.org/HIA/vol1regionalingcont.html
Volume II Country Volume tackles these same issues from a national perspective and includes information on progress towards attaining the Millennium Development Goals. This volume has 46 chapters covering information and analysis for each of the countries or territories in the Americas.
A series of highlighted profiles on health challenges and how the respective national health sector is responding to those challenges are presented for each of the countries.

Health in the Americas: Brazil - 2007

Health in the Americas, 2007
Pan American Health Organization PAHO/WHO - October 2007
Available online at: http://www.paho.org/HIA/index.html [ Available in English and Spanish]

Volume II Country Volume tackles these same issues from a national perspective and includes information on progress towards attaining the Millennium Development Goals. This volume has 46 chapters covering information and analysis for each of the countries or territories in the Americas.
A series of highlighted profiles on health challenges and how the respective national health sector is responding to those challenges are presented for each of the countries.
Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Aruba Bahamas Barbados Belize Bermuda Bolivia Brazil British Virgin Islands Canada Cayman Islands Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador French Guiana, Guadeloupe and Martinique Grenada

GuatemalaGuyanaHaiti (Version in French)Honduras Jamaica Mexico Montserrat Netherlands AntillesNicaraguaPanama Paraguay Peru Puerto Rico Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Suriname Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Islands United States of America Uruguay Venezuela United States-Mexico Border Area
PAHO Publications: http://publications.paho.org/product.php?productid=911
Fact Sheet: http://www.paho.org/HIA/documentos/Ingles/HIAFactSheets2colr07.pdf
Booklet [33p.] at: http://www.paho.org/HIA/documentos/Ingles/HIAbookletCompiled%20-%20Ingles.pdfd

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases: WHO-Guidelines

This and other recent publication on CVD prevention are available through the following address:
http://www.who.int/cardiovascular_diseases/resources/publications/en/index.html
Prevention of cardiovascular disease: guideline for assessment and management of cardiovascular risk

Overview
This publication provides guidance on reducing disability and premature deaths from coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and peripheral vascular disease in people at high risk, who have not yet experienced a cardiovascular event. People with established cardiovascular disease are at very high risk of recurrent events and are not the subject of these guidelines. They have been addressed in previous WHO guidelines. The WHO/ISH risk prediction charts that accompany these guidelines allow treatment to be targeted according to simple predictions of absolute cardiovascular risk.
Recommendations are made for management of major cardiovascular risk factors through changes in lifestyle and prophylactic drug therapies. The guidelines provide a framework for the development of national guidance on prevention of cardiovascular disease that takes into account the particular political, economic, social and medical circumstances.
(This publication was released on 24 August 2007)
Download DocumentPrevention of cardiovascular disease: guideline for assessment and management of cardiovascular risk [pdf 2.52Mb]