Health

Polio – India in final four

An international campaign to eradicate polio received a major boost with the announcement that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would give 100 million dollars to support intensified immunizations in the handful of countries where the virus remains active.

The grant went to the Rotary Foundation, an organization of service clubs with over 1.2 million members worldwide, and its PolioPlus Programme.

“It's a very large grant for us. Certainly not the largest we've ever made, but on the other hand this is perhaps one of the largest possibilities we've had to deal with: ultimate eradication of this horror from the lives of children. There's almost no figure that is too high to invest in that possible end,” William Gates Sr., co–chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, told IPS.

Since the Rotary Foundation started their programme to eradicate polio in 1985, according to their own figures two billion children have been immunized, another five million children have been spared disability and more than 250,000 lives were saved from the debilitating and often deadly disease.

Considering that it has collected a total of 633 million dollars since the beginning of the polio project in 1985, the grant of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation alone represents over 15 percent of the Rotary Foundation's budget in the last 22 years together.

“So necessary is this infusion of funds to the polio eradication initiative that Rotary will spend the initial 100 million dollars in direct support of polio immunisation activities in 2008,” said Dr. Robert Scott, chair of the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International and its PolioPlus Programme.

The acute viral infectious disease still paralyses sufferers in four countries. Despite major efforts in recent years, Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan still reported some 2,000 cases of polio last year. However, this number is in contrast with the 350,000 children paralyzed worldwide every year when Rotary first began their work.

“Ninety–nine percent of the job is done,” Scott said.

Still, public health experts agree that it is the final one percent that is most difficult and expensive.

“That's why this grand grant comes at a critical moment,” said Dr. Margaret Chan, director–general of the World Health Organisation (WHO). “Polio eradication will be a perpetual gift to all future generations of children who can grow up free from this crippling disease. We are closer to this goal than ever before.”

The funding gap to a polio–free world, according to the Rotary Foundation, is still 650 million dollars. After receiving the Gates Foundation grant, Scott hopes to mobilise additional resources in order to solve this problem.

“We are extremely proud that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation thought of us as a suitable organisation and an organisation that can deal with such a large sum and deal with it efficiently due to our previous experience in this programme of polio eradication,” he said.

Although they are the last four countries on Earth with cases of polio, according to the WHO, Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan are all on track to achieve eradication. But every country is facing its own unique problems.

“In terms of numbers of cases, actually, we are seeing the smallest number in Pakistan and Afghanistan. But the challenge there is getting our healthcare workers to reach every child in every household,” Chan told IPS.

She said “given the security situation there it's sometimes quite difficult, but I'm happy to report that our colleagues at different levels get agreements and the support of leaders, Taliban leaders as well as the government, to give us some days, we call it days of tranquility, whereby our healthcare workers could reach as many children as possible.”

For security and infrastructural reasons, sometimes it is hard to reach every child in regions that are prone to polio. But according to Chan, WHO is now able to reach close to 100,000 children who had not been reached in the last two years.

The situation in India and Nigeria is worse, but Chan notes that “in both cases, India and Nigeria are actually showing improvements since my urge to the governments this February to put in additional efforts.”

Despite all the efforts to finally eradicate polio by the Rotary Foundation and cooperating institutions, Scott added many people believe polio is not that big of a problem anymore.

“Indeed, most of the world is, thanks to our combined efforts, polio–free, but the disease is still threatening children in some developing countries,” he said. “Because polio is a virus that moves from child to child, it is capable of reemerging anywhere in the world –– especially if we don't follow through and eradicate this disease once and for all now.”

Source: Philip Rouwenhorst. 100–Million–Dollar Polio Grant Targets Final Four. Inter Press Service News Agency, 26 November 2007.

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More ills of junk food

Junk food addicts, here's yet another reason why your mass of fatty tissues should not touch the obesity meter as you age – it can cause disability.

Researchers in the United States have carried out a study and found that older obese adults develop disabilities that interfere with daily living than those who are normal weight or slightly overweight, the Web–MD reported.

“It's not just that obese people have a higher risk (of these disabilities) than normal–weight people. What is new about this research is that the risk is actually increasing in obese people over time.”

“Adults aged 60 and over who are slightly overweight do not have much of an increased risk of impairment. But in those who were obese, therisk can rise at a concerning rate. The more obese, the greater the risk,” lead researcher Dawn Alley was quoted as saying.

In fact, Alley of the University of Pennsylvania and her fellow researchers came to the conclusion after analysing data from a national survey at two different time points. The researchers looked at the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys for 1988 to 1944 and for 1999 to 2004. In all, they evaluated the obesity disability link for nearly 10,000 adults aged 60 and older.
While 23.5% of the participants in the first survey were obese, 31.7% of those in the second were.

The researchers also evaluated each participant's limitation in activities of daily living and classified them as limited if they had much difficulty or couldn't perform any of three tasks–getting in and out of bed, dressing themselves and eating. “At time point 1, obese older people were only 50% more likely than normal–weight people to be functionally impaired. At time point 2, they were 98% more likely to be functionally impaired than normal weight people”. “The risk of functional impairment among obese elderly increased 24% overtime,” Alley was quoted as saying.
During the first survey, the risk of having a limitation in daily living activities wasn't significantly different between obese and normal–weight participants. But by the second survey, the risk of having such difficulty was twice as great for obese people.

“The increases are concerning for a couple of reasons. One is, it means obese people're experiencing more potentially preventable impairments. Second is that it means in the future, if this trend continues, increasing obesity rates are likely to slow health improvements in the elderly,” the researcher said.

Source: Obesity can cause disability in elders, Financial Express, New Delhi, 27 November 2007.

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Check blood pressure, reduce age related disability

Do your otherwise active grandparents find it difficult sometimes to climb stairs or go out to buy groceries? Check their blood pressure.

High blood pressure has so far been synonymous with stroke, heart failure, kidney failure and coronary artery disease. But doctors now say elevated BP, specifically systolic BP–BP when the heart is contracting – increase the risk of disabilities later in life, such as the inability to lift objects, walk up or down stairs, or bathe oneself. In a study reported in the November 20 issue of “Hypertension; Journal of the American Heart Association”, a team from Harvard Medical School confirmed this trend. “This adds another dimension to how we think about hypertension,” said Ihab Hajjar, lead author of the study. “We always think of it as a risk factor for CVDs and heart attacks. But this study shows elevated blood pressure also tends to affect our independence and functional abilities.”

Senior cardiologist of Apollo Hospital, Dr Deepak Natarajan, said, “High BP is an individual health risk for old people above the age of 70. It not only increases risk of heat diseases, but also causes dementia and limits cognitive functions. Controlling BP is the single most important factor. For those aged above 70, BP should be around 140/80 mmHg. They must not miss their BP medications, reduce their salt intake and do meditation.”

This has tremendous connotations for India where 10 crore adults suffer from high BP. Estimates say the disease affects about 32 million rural and 34 million urban Indians. What's worse, India will soon have a tremendous volume of aged population.

Source: High blood pressure raises disability risk, The Times of India, Mumbai, 23 November 2007.

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