Global News Updates - PROCOR

Find out how tobacco is affecting cardiovascular disease around the world. Check out ProCor's website to get the latest news and find past articles.

The ProCor Global Tobacco News Update is a bi-weekly feature summarizing news focusing on tobacco control and cardiovascular disease prevention in developing countries.

http://www.procor.org/section_news.asp?section=S1&SiteCode=procor&lang=L1&pn=1

Global burden of coronary heart disease

More than 60% of the
global burden of coronary
heart disease occurs in
developing countries.

This is incredible! I would have guessed that it would occur higher in wealthy countries. Click on this link to see an amazing graph and chart that displays this burden and the healthy years of life lost. http://www.who.int/cardiovascular_diseases/en/cvd_atlas_13_coronaryHD.pdf

The Atlas of Heart Disease and Stroke

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and WHO have combined efforts to create a resource for CVD - Cardiovascular and Cerebral Disease.

• The webpage gives this introduction... The atlas addresses the global epidemic of heart disease and stroke in a clear and accessible format. This highly valuable reference material has been designed for use by policy makers, national and international organizations, health professionals and the general public. This picturesque atlas is in six parts:
• Cardiovascular Disease - types
• Risk Factors
• The Burden
• Action
• The future and the past
• World Tables

Each section can be downloaded for reading and research. Follow the link...http://www.who.int/cardiovascular_diseases/resources/atlas/en/

A Look at America's Health...

The graphs below were taken from the WHO's Global InfoBase in search of health stats for the USA in the past few years. My blog this week is on Coronary Heart Disease, these graphs give some ideas to the current state of the USA's heart health.

2003 Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)

2004 HERITAGE Family Study

Body Mass Index takes your height and weight and calculates an index regarding safe health - America's BMI is in an unsafe catagory.

2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
As age rises in the USA, so does Blood Pressure.

Check out your countries stats by clicking on this link http://www.who.int/infobase/report.aspx

A look at Tuberculosis...

World TB incidence. Cases per 100,000; Red = >300, orange = 200-300; yellow = 100-200; green 50-100 and grey <50. Data from WHO, 2006

Tuberculosis

Check out Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for details on TB.

Tuberculosis

...Over one-third of the world's population has been exposed to the TB bacterium, and new infections occur at a rate of one per second.

Check out the disease progression and what and where it affects the body by clicking the link below.

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Symptoms & Transmission

Wikipedia explains the symptoms of TB as well as the Transmission. Check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, A Curable Disease

Tuberculosis and MDR-TB from Partners in Health (pih)
A curable disease that kills millions in the developing world...

• TB kills 5,000 people every day, nearly 2 million people per year.
• More than 2 billion people, almost one-third of the world’s population, are infected with the microbes that cause TB.

TB and HIV/AIDS Read in this section how the HIV/AIDs epidemic is causing a surge in TB deaths.
Drug-resistant TB A crisis that is creating it hard for health workers to get this under control, read more about it by clicking the link below.

MDR-TB can be treated and cured. Read how Multi Drug Resistant TB can happen at Partners in Health... http://www.pih.org/issues/tb.html .

Don't miss this weblink, this IS AIDs! Take the interactive test below.

Step Into Africa With the World Vision Experience: AIDS

Can you survive the journey of a child? The Experience is an interactive exhibit that will transport you to the heart of Africa ... and into the life of a child. Visit the Experience Web site and watch the trailer...

Take Our Online AIDS Test

Fact and fiction swirl around the AIDS crisis. What do you know? Test your knowledge about HIV and AIDS with this interactive quiz. Some answers are obvious — some are not. Take the test...

Experience the First-Ever Global Vigil

Every day, 6,000 children lose a parent to AIDS. Imagine living without Mom. Or Dad. For many children, it's both — all because of this killer called AIDS.World Vision is planning a 24-hour worldwide vigil in advance of World AIDS Day to read the names of 6,000 children who have lost a parent to AIDS.The Global Vigil begins in Toronto at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 29. During the following 24 hours, it will roll west through several key U.S. cities, starting with New York, and then across the globe through international cities until the name of each child has been read. The event ends on Friday, Nov. 30, at 9 a.m. back in New York. More...

~~World Vision is a phenominal organization, their work is top quality. You will see this as you view their website, their projects, and their vision for people. Please take a moment to watch the link above and view the children's video trailers at the bottom of the web page when you finish.

A book every MPH student should read!

A young medical student who spends most of his medical training in Haiti practicing what he is learning. He spent years in a place where medicine did not reach the locals and built a thriving clinic that centered around public health needs.

I read this book a year and a half ago and am still inspired by Dr. Farmers experiences. He has broadened his practice to many other countries dealing with multi-drug resistant tb, Aids, hunger, etc...

View the website he founded: Partners in Health at I recommend that each student read this book, you may be able to find it at a local library!

A Women On A Mission...

Developing countries have many needs, where do you start? Check out this video about a women named Carrole Johnson who lives an "unimaginable" life for Christ in Ethiopia for the poorest of the poor...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3mwyboQve8

~Anthony and I sponsor a child in Ethiopia, she lives about 450 kilometers to the south of Addis Ababa. We have learned how desperate their lives are there and are glad to hear of others who are meeting that need.

The Contribution of Primary Health Care to the Millennium Development Goals
- A speech from a conference in Argentina by Dr Margaret Chan Director-General of the WHO
..."Obviously, if we want better health to work as a poverty reduction strategy, we must reach the poor. And we must do so with appropriate, high-quality care. What role can primary health care play in this quest?"

Let us look at the reality: Dr. Chan talks about the the delivery system of antiretroviral drugs, the birth attendant crisis, preventable child deaths, gaps in health getting wider, and more.

One area that I found interesting is life expectancy, she stated that it can vary by as much as 40 years between rich and poor countries. I agreed with her statement, "A world that can put a man on the moon should be able to put more children under bednets."

Find out what Dr. Chan has to say about this subject by clicking the link below.

To read the speech in its entierty, please visit http://www.who.int/dg/speeches/2007/20070816_argentina/en/index.html

Primary health care led NHS: learning from developing countries
BMJ 1995;311:891-892 (7 October)

Many lessons (webpage at the bottom)

Over the past 30 years a wide range of developing countries have successfully developed a model of primary health care promoted by the World Health Organization.

Read about the health initiatives in Africa, as well the "health for all" model suggested by Halfden Mahler, through primary care attainable for a few dollars a person, by clicking the link below.

Read more on this report at http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/311/7010/891