Two out of five cancer cases in India due to tobacco

India e-news
April 25 2007
New Delhi

News -Two out of five cancer cases in India due to tobacco

Claiming that nearly 2,000 Indians die due to cancer every day, Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss Tuesday said at least two out of every five cancer cases in the country were due to tobacco consumption.

'In India more than 40 percent of cancer cases are due to tobacco. The relationship between oral cancer and tobacco can be assessed from the WHO estimates according to which 91 percent of oral cancers in Southeast Asia are directly attributable to the use of tobacco,' Ramadoss said.
'India has been a forerunner in the fight against the tobacco epidemic which claims over 2,000 lives in my country every day,' the minister told reporters at a cancer awareness programme organised by the American Cancer Society here.

The minister said India would set up a national regulatory authority to oversee the effective implementation of the tobacco-related laws. It would be formed under the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-12).

'A prohibition on sale of tobacco products through vending machines, ban on sale of tobacco products by minors and a ban on visible stacking of tobacco products at the point of sale have also been proposed through an amendment to the rules to restrict youth's access,' he added.

He said, tobacco control is a multi-sectoral issue and in order to ensure effective coordination among stakeholders, his ministry had constituted a multi-sectoral task force, which includes representatives from various government departments and civil society groups.

In recognition of outstanding achievement in the field of tobacco control, an award called 'Tumbakoo Virodh Puraskar' (anti-tobacco campaign award) will be conferred in four categories - individuals, institutions, civil society organisations and state governments on May 31, the World No Tobacco Day every year.

online available at - http://www.indiaenews.com/health/20070425/48820.htm

Dedicated programme for tobacco control under Eleventh Plan: Ramadoss

News -Dedicated programme for tobacco control under Eleventh Plan: Ramadoss

Apr 24 2007

New Delhi

Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss on Tuesday said that a dedicated National Programme for Tobacco Control will be instituted under the Eleventh Five Year Plan.

Delivering the keynote address at the American Cancer Society's (ACS) 'Leadership Training Programme on Community based Cancer Control', Ramadoss said: "Under the programme, a National Regulatory Authority (NRA) to monitor and regulate the effective implementation of tobacco control laws will be set up".

The vital components of the programme include a State/District level programme and setting up of tobacco testing laboratories for content regulation.A public awareness campaign highlighting the ill-effects of tobacco will also be launched under this programme.

In India more than 40 per cent of cancer cases are caused due to tobacco. On an average, tobacco claims over 2000 lives in the country every day.To curb the epidemic, a comprehensive tobacco control legislation has been enacted, which include provisions like ban on smoking in public places, prohibition on sale to minors and ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

The Health Ministry has also instituted the "Tumbakoo Virodh Puraskar" to be conferred in four categories, namely individual, institutions, civil society organisations and State governments on the World No Tobacco Day every year.

online available at- http://www.dailyindia.com/show/136147.php/Dedicated-programme-for-tobacco-control-under-Eleventh-Plan:-Ramadoss

Enforce global tobacco treaty

Madhya Pradesh

April 24 2007

Personal Thought: Enforce global tobacco treaty

By - Bobby Ramakant

[ It is the first legal instrument designed to reduce tobacco-related deaths and disease around the world.] No More Tobacco please...... read more. thanks

Why do we need a global tobacco treaty to prevent needless diseases, disabilities and deaths attributed to tobacco use in India and national legislation wasn't enough?

India ratified the global tobacco treaty, better known as Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), on 5 February 2004. FCTC was developed as a global response to the globalization of the tobacco epidemic. Adopted in May 2003 by the 56th World Health Assembly, FCTC quickly became one of the most widely embraced treaties in history, becoming international binding law on 27 February 2005.

Increased trade, foreign investment, global marketing and other complex international phenomena have led to the globalization of the tobacco epidemic. As the epidemic transcends national borders, its control requires international cooperation and multilateral regulation.

Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death in the world, with an estimated 4.9 million deaths a year. If current smoking patterns continue, the toll will nearly double by 2020. A high percentage of deaths (70%) will occur in developing countries. Tobacco kills people at the height of their productivity, depriving families of breadwinners and nations of a healthy workforce.

There is no doubt that reducing the rates of uptake and consumption of tobacco will save lives and that the FCTC is the evidence-based tool with which to do it. It has been projected that with a progressive 50% reduction in uptake and consumption rates, as many as 200 million lives could be saved by the year 2050 AD and hundreds of millions more thereafter.

By becoming Parties (signing and ratifying FCTC by national parliaments) and implementing the provisions of the treaty where it counts most ¨C at country level ¨C countries are working towards a tobacco-free world and towards millions of lives saved. 146 countries have signed and ratified the treaty so far.

It is the first legal instrument designed to reduce tobacco-related deaths and disease around the world.

Among its many measures, the FCTC treaty requires countries to impose restrictions on tobacco advertising, sponsorship and promotion; establish new packaging and labelling of tobacco products; establish clean indoor air controls; and strengthen legislation to clamp down on tobacco smuggling.

Tobacco products are advertised through sports events, music events, films, fashion - in fact, any place where the tobacco industry can target potential new smokers (young people). The treaty obliges Party States to undertake a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, as far as their constitutions permit.

online available at - http://www.centralchronicle.com/20070424/2404303.htm

Asia's Cancer Rate May Pose Threat to Economic Growth (Update1)

Bloomberg.com

23 April 2007

London

News - Asia's Cancer Rate May Pose Threat to Economic Growth (Update1)

April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Asia's cancer rate may jump by almost 60 percent to 7.1 million new cases a year by 2020, straining the region's ill-prepared health systems, said Richard Horton, editor of the British medical journal Lancet.
Aging populations, tobacco use and increasing rates of obesity are fueling the incidence of deadly tumors in Asian patients too poor to afford the most advanced treatments including Herceptin and Avastin, sold by Roche Holding AG, the drugmaker based in Basel, Switzerland, Horton said April 21 at an international cancer meeting in Singapore.
Asia's prevalence of cancer deaths may climb 45 percent to 163 per 100,000 people by 2030 from about 112 per 100,000 in 2005, according to the World Health Organization. At that rate it would overtake the Americas, where cancer-related mortalities are expected to rise to 156 per 100,000 from 136 over the same period. Europe, which has the highest prevalence at 215 per 100,000, may increase about 9 percent to 234 per 100,000.
``There really is going to be an incredible pandemic of cancer like we've not seen -- we couldn't have imagined it -- over the next 20 years,'' Horton said in an interview in Singapore, where he spoke at the Lancet Asia Medical Forum. ``We barely have the health systems to handle infectious diseases, so how on earth are we going to deal with this?''
Cancer already kills more people worldwide than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Spending to prevent and treat chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes may slow the expansion of China and India, the world's two fastest-growing major economies, researchers said at the meeting in Singapore.
`A Fortune'
``It is going to cost them a fortune in terms of health care expenditure,'' Horton said, adding that it will ``eliminate a huge number of people from the labor market. We think AIDS is a disaster to the world now. You have seen nothing yet.''
It costs close to $50,000 in Great Britain to treat a breast cancer patient using Herceptin, which generated $3.2 billion in sales last year for Roche and its partner South San Francisco, California-based Genentech Inc. In comparison, per capita government expenditure on health was $4 in Bangladesh, $7 in India, $11 in Indonesia and $22 in China in 2003, according to data compiled by the WHO.
Asia accounted for about half the 7 million cancer deaths worldwide in 2002, with 23 percent in China alone, D. Maxwell Parkin, a visiting research fellow at the University of Oxford's clinical trial service unit, told the two-day forum.
Health Insurance
``Historically in developing countries, people died before they could get cancer,'' said You-Lin Qiao, a professor of cancer epidemiology at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing. ``Now they are living longer, we're seeing more cancer'' and degenerative diseases of the brain, he said.
The majority of China's rural dwellers don't have health insurance, Qiao said in an interview. The cost of treatment, therefore, is borne by the entire family.
Attacks on China's medical personnel almost doubled last year to 9.83 million cases, with 5,519 staff injured, causing 200 million yuan ($26 million) in costs, the official Xinhua News Agency reported last week, citing Vice Minister of Health Chen Xiaohong.
The violence reflects the growing frustration in China over a health system struggling to provide affordable medical care, said Tony Mok, professor of clinical oncology in Hong Kong's Prince of Wales Hospital, who consults in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.
Doctor Shortage
``The doctor treats the patient,'' Mok said. ``The family thinks it is going to work. They get all their money, sell their cow, sell their house, and then the patient dies. They get very angry.''
About 1.1 million doctors and nurses are urgently needed in Southeast Asia alone, where shortages of health-care workers exist in six of the region's 11 countries, according to the WHO's 2006 World Health Report. Developing countries make up 85 percent of the world's population, but have a third of the world's radiotherapy machines, which are used to treat cancer.
``If nothing happens, there will be a disaster,'' said Franco Cavalli, president of the Geneva-based International Union Against Cancer. ``For the time being, governments don't realize, or do not want to realize, that this is a bomb which is going to explode.''
Developing nations in Asia have little access to anti- cancer drugs now, with the U.S., Europe and Japan absorbing 95 percent of the global supply, Cavalli said.
`Westernization' of Diets
Lung cancer, Asia's biggest cancer-killer and driven by tobacco-smoking, may increase 42 percent to almost 1 million deaths a year between 2005 and 2015, the Geneva-based agency reports. Stomach cancer, the second-biggest type of the disease in Asia, may grow 25 percent to 1.2 million deaths a year over the same period, the WHO says.
Still the ``Westernization'' of Asian diets, including rising consumption of alcohol and red meat, is causing higher rates of breast, colon and rectum cancer, Oxford's Parkin said.
Pursuing sophisticated drugs and technologies for treating cancer patients ``is incredibly high-cost and probably beyond the bounds of most countries'' in Asia, the Lancet's Horton said. Instead, priority should be given to a campaign to stop smoking, increase exercise and consumption of fruit and vegetables, prevent obesity and reduce salt.
``These seem simple things, but they would eradicate a vast proportion of the potential cancer burden,'' he said

online available at - http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=ajEasGsZx8R8&refer=japan

Amit Dwivedi's JANSATTA Editorial article on STAYING ALIVE WITH HIV

अमित द्विवेदी का जनसत्ता का लेख

एचआईवी के साथ जिंदगी

ITC to meet Kerala tobacco traders

News - ITC to meet Kerala tobacco traders

The Times of India
April 21 2007
New Delhi

KOZHIKODE: Representatives of the Indian Tobacco Company and traders in Kerala, who are at loggerheads over who should pay taxes on cigarettes, will meet in Kochi on April 22 in a final bid to resolve the crisis, a leading traders body said on Thursday.

"We are meeting company representatives as a last effort and hope ITC will meet our one-point demand by agreeing to pay the 12.5 per cent Value Added Tax before fixing the maximum retail price, thereby sparing retailers from incurring the loss', Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi President, T Naseeruddin said. Noting that retailers, who on an average sold cigarettes worth Rs 10 lakh annually, would have to pay Rs 50,000 as tax if the company refused to pay VAT before fixing the MRP, he said that the government, which has recently included cigarettes also under VAT, had left the option to the company.

If the talks failed, the Samithi would then demand action against a section of the distributors, who were now `illegally engaged' in distributing cigarettes directly to the retailers bypassing wholesale traders, he said. "Anyone involved in the trade will have to necessarily possess a VAT registration and salesman permit to sell the product. We will seek stern action against the offenders in case our talks fail and if sales still continue', he said.

on line available at - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/ITC_to_meet_Kerala_tobacco_traders/articleshow/1924843.cms

Another Death of pregnant woman with HIV is Alarming

Online at: http://www.theseoultimes.com/ST/db/read.php?idx=5099




Another Death of pregnant woman with HIV is Alarming
Saturday 7 April 2007
The Seoul Times
South Korea

It is not only shocking that alarming levels of HIV associated stigma and discrimination runs high in MP but also that despite of repeated alerts sounded on rising maternal mortality in the state, nothing much has improved.

By Bobby Ramakant

On World Health Day 7 April 2007: A 30-year-old pregnant woman who was living with HIV died outside the hospital building in Indore (Madhya Pradesh state (MP), India) after the government healthcare staff denied to provide adequate medical care and hospital admission.
It is not only shocking that alarming levels of HIV associated stigma and discrimination runs high in MP but also that despite of repeated alerts sounded on rising maternal mortality in the state, nothing much has improved.

Madhya Pradesh figures among the list of those Indian states where maternal mortality is high, particularly in rural areas, where the healthcare system is virtually non-existent and awareness on the subject among the people extremely low.

According to UNICEF, Madhya Pradesh along with Assam and Uttar Pradesh, has a high Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) of 700 or more per 100,000 live births as against the national figure of 407 per 100,000 live births as per the 2001 Census figures. However, regional disparities in maternal mortality are wide with the death ratio being low in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Punjab and extremely high in most northern states in India.

President of Madhya Pradesh Network of People living with HIV (MPNP+) Manoj Verma said that on 3 April 2007, a 30-year-old pregnant woman who was living with HIV, died outside MY Hospital after the government healthcare staff refused to admit the patient. She was referred from Bhuranpur, Nehru Hospital, village Gambhirpura on 31 March 2007.

After the preliminary examination, she was referred and was taken to the ward for admission. But when the doctors came to know of her HIV positive status, they intentionally discharged the patient despite of the fact that she was in labor pains. But the doctors blatantly refused to admit her. While the patient came from the fifth floor of the hospital and reached the compound, she delivered the baby girl near the water tank of the MY Hospital. The relatives again tried to approach the healthcare staff to re-admit her but the security guards refused their entry into the hospital building.

As her condition was critical on 2 April 2007 she was brought to the MY Hospital at 9.30 am and fortunately got hospital admission, but was not fortunate enough to get proper medical attention. On 3 April 2007, her condition worsened, with no doctors to attend to her and she succumbed owing to severe medical negligence during and after child birth. She belonged to 'Banjaran' backward class and had five children.

MPNP+ President Manoj called the collector of Indore who asked him to register an FIR (first Information Report) at the nearest police station. However the nearest Sayogitha Gunj police station refused to lodge an FIR.

"I am shocked to hear of the blatant discrimination against a pregnant HIV+ woman in the hospital in Indore. This is even more so because right now there is a huge campaign by UNICEF and others to work on maternal health issues in MP" said India's noted women's health rights activist Jashodhara Dasgupta of SAHAYOG (www.sahayogindia.org).

Many reports reveal the extent to which people are stigmatised and discriminated against by health care systems in India. Many studies reveal the reality of withheld treatment, non-attendance of hospital staff to patients, HIV testing without consent, lack of confidentiality and denial of hospital facilities and medicines.

Fear of discrimination often prevents people living with HIV from seeking existing healthcare services. Perhaps the most conspicuous context for HIV/AIDS-related discrimination, stigmatization, and denial is the health care sector in India, whether public or private. Many infected people trace some of their AIDS-related fear, anxiety, and denial to their traumatic experiences in health care settings.

Health activists in India stress on the dire need to frame strategies to address women's health care, including HIV vulnerabilities, in the context of rights. The issues they seek to resolve include confidentiality, partner notification, and free and informed consent — all difficult issues for women who risk violence and neglect if their HIV status is disclosed. Without increasing gender sensitivity among health planners, healthcare workers, policymakers, judiciary, and other stakeholders, the high rates of maternal mortality fuelled with HIV associated stigma are unlikely to come down.

Bobby Ramakant, author is a senior health and development journalist, writing for newspapers in Asia and Africa.