Tag Archives: India

World Health Organization Urges More Funding for Fight Against Tuberculosis

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The World Health Organization recently released a report on the state of tuberculosis in the world and called on donor nations to provide funds to distribute and monitor the administration of anti-tuberculosis drugs in the developing world.

The WHO’s basic conclusion is that the tuberculosis situation is declining fueled by the twin killers of AIDS and poverty. WHO estimates that one in three of the world’s 42 million HIV positive individuals also has tuberculosis.

Back in the early 1990s WHO declared tuberculosis to be a global emergency, and the situation with the disease today is much worse.

The cost of drugs that combat tuberculosis is only $10 for a complete regimen of drugs that will cure about 95 percent of cases. But in order for this to work, the entire series of drugs must be taken on a timetable. Poor health care systems in the developing world mean that even among individuals who receive drugs, few actually complete the entire regimen. This not only renders the drugs useless, but also dramatically increases the risks of more drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis.

According to WHO estimates, fewer than 1 in 3 African patients receives the entire series of drugs, and in Russia that percentage is even lower.

Aside from the devastating toll the disease takes among those afflicted with it, there is a bigger danger that a drug resistant form of the disease could emerge that would spread the disease along the lines of India. India is the epicenter of the tuberculosis epidemic with two million new cases annually.

WHO estimates that it needs another $4 billion or so to fulfill its plan to stop the spread of tuberculosis by 2005.

Sources:

WHO calls for widespread free access to anti-TB drugs for people living with HIV. Press Release, World Health Organization, July 15, 2003.

TB drugs ‘should be free’. The BBC, July 15, 2003.

TB advocacy report 2003. World Health Organization, 2003.

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India Moves Forward with First “Functional Food”

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India is looking to be the first country to approve a “functional food” — a genetically modified crop designed to enhance its nutritional value — with efforts kicking into high gear for a high-protein potato.

Potatoes have very little protein to begin with — about two percent by mass — and the enhanced potato only increases that by 30 to 50 percent. But the potato is also rich in amino acids lysine and methionine. The changes are caused by inserting a gene from the South American amaranth plant.

Although India has yet to approve any GM foods for human consumption (it returned 10,000 tons of GM corn donated by a charity last year), the head of India’s biotechnology program is talking about including the new potato in school children’s lunches within a year.

The potato has been undergoing field trials for the last three years, and media accounts suggested the potato could get final approval by the end of 2003.

Sources:

‘Protato’ Leaves Bad Taste in Critics’ Mouth. Ranjit Devraj, June 13, 2003.

Scientists develop GM ‘protato’ to feed India’s poorest children. John Vidal, The Guardian, June 12, 2003.

India’s search for enhanced food. Pallab Ghosh, The BBC, June 11, 2003.

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Is GM Cotton a Failure in India?

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Back in February of this year American and German researchers released a study showing that Monsanto’s genetically modified Bt cotton almost doubled crop yields while requiring less pesticides. But a new study of Bt cotton claims that most Indian farmers who used the GM cotton saw a decline in crop yields by about 35 percent. What gives?

The February study looked at 157 farms that used Bt cotton. The cotton is designed to be especially resistant to the boll weevil which traditionally causes significant crop loss. GM cotton has been used successfully in China, resulting in a 70 percent decline in pesticide use, but India has a far more severe pest problem. That study found that even though Bt cotton was more expensive, farmers who used it still managed to increase their income five-fold.

But the latest study — which the BBC did not bother to identify the source — says that 71 percent of farmers who used the GM cotton found that their yields declined an average of 35 percent compared to farmers who used traditional crop varieties.

The BBC reports that a Monsanto spokesperson ascribed the decline in crop yields to a drought, which would still seem to imply that if the GM cotton is more pest resistant, it might be more sensitive to drought.

Sources:

‘Indian GM cotton a failure’. The BBC, June 6, 2003.

GM cotton doubles yield in India trials. Tim Radford, The Guardian, February 7, 2003.

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Polio Cases Increase Thanks Largely to Indian Outbreak

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in April that cases of polio worldwide increased four-fold in 2002 due largely to an outbreak of the disease in India.

In 2001 there were only 483 confirmed cases of polio which shot up to 1,920 confirmed cases in polio after an outbreak in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. That was the single worst outbreak of the disease since the World Health Organization began its campaign to eradicate polio in 1988. Cases from the Indian outbreak constituted 71 percent of all polio cases in 2002.

Afghanistan, Egypt, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Somalia also reported cases of polio in 2002.

Source:

Polio cases on the increase. The BBC, April 25, 2003.

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WHO to Launch Intensive Polio Immunization Effort in India

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Following the largest polio epidemic in recent history, the World Health Organization is launching an intensive immunization effort in India. An estimated 1.3 million volunteers will go to door to door in an effort to vaccinate every child under five.

In 2002 India reported more than 1,500 new cases of the disease — easily the largest outbreak of the disease in decades. WHO had set a goal of eradicating polio by 2002, but now hopes to declare the planet free of polio by 2005.

Unfortunately, the BBC reports that the polio eradication effort faces a $275 million shortfall that could limit its immunization efforts.

Source:

UN targets polio in India. Emma Jane Kirby, The BBC, February 5, 2003.

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Wacky Proposal for a Rice Cartel

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Sometimes there are stories which are so self-refuting that it’s hard to provide further commentary. Such is the announcement that China, India, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam are investigating ways to cartelize world rice markets. They want to do for rice what OPEC has done for oil.

Rice prices have been in free fall since 1997, losing more than a third of their value in just 5 years. World projections show rice production continuing to increase, so the price of rice is likely to fall even further over the next few years while global consumption is projected to decline.

Under those conditions a cartel is a great idea for producers, but how do they ever expect to enforce cartel agreements? OPEC has had a nightmare enforcing its cartel agreements on oil which is a relatively easy commodity to track and exclude potential competitors (not to mention monitor violators). Since rice can be grown throughout most of the world, there is almost no way cartel efforts can succeed.

Ironically, each of the governments involved has had disastrous experience with state subsidies and internal control of food markets. Apparently they believe that if they simply try the same failed policies on a bigger scale that they might finally work. Don’t bet on it.

Source:

Rice producers in ‘cartel’ talks. The BBC, October 9, 2002.

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Cases of HIV in India Could Surpass South Africa

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While per capita HIV infection rates in India will likely never reach the levels found in South Africa, India is well on its way to surpassing South Africa’s tally of total AIDS cases.

Currently, the infection rate in India is estimated at only 0.7 percent. But with a population topping a billion people, that translates to 3.8 million adult cases in India compared to South Africa’s 4.7 million cases.

Even with the relatively low infection rate, this is an enormous number of cases that will strain the ability of India’s health care system to respond.

As in Africa, a mixture of denial and lack of openness about the disease has helped it spread. In some areas, such as the western state of Maharashta, as much as 2 percent of the adult population is HIV positive. That may not compare to South Africa’s 20 percent infection rate, but is high compared to a country such as the United States where HIV prevalence is only 0.61 percent (and where the prevalence is due in part to the long survival times of HIV positive individuals thanks to expensive drug regimens).

Source:

Indian HIV ‘could pass South Africa’. The BBC, May 2, 2002.

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Deadly Setback in Polio Immunization Efforts

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As this site has mentioned before, efforts are under way to eradicate polio through intensive immunization efforts in much the same way that small pox was eradicated. That effort took a horrific turn in India where 500 children fell ill and at least nine died after a mass polio immunization campaign.

On Sunday, November 11, thousands of children throughout India were vaccinated against polio. Within 24 hours hundreds of children in the Indian state of Assam were taken to local hospitals and health officials report that nine children had died — all from the same village.

The BBC quoted non-governmental agencies as suggesting that the vaccines used in Assam may have been outdated. Regardless, clearly this is likely to be a setback to efforts to eradicate polio.

Source:

Deaths follow Indian polio campaign. Subir Bhaumik, The BBC, November 12, 2001.

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