Link for Health

The following excerpt is from an July 31, 2010 article published by The Washington Post.   To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

SAN SALVADOR — El Salvador Drug cartel violence in Mexico is quickly spilling south into Central America and is threatening to destabilize fragile countries already rife with crime and corruption, according to the United Nations, U.S. officials and regional law enforcement agents.

The Northern Triangle of Central America — Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras — has long been a major smuggling corridor for contraband heading north to the United States. But as Mexican President Felipe Calderón fights a U.S.-backed war against his nation’s drug lords…

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The following excerpt is from a July 22, 2010 article published by Stanford University News.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

Children in Crisis: Stanford Researcher Blends Medicine, Politics to Improve Health of Guatemala’s Poorest

BY ADAM GORLICK

SAN JUAN EL MIRADOR, Guatemala – Dozens of children are heading into a metal-sided, one-room building in this tiny village overlooking Guatemala’s western highlands. On most days, this is the community school. But today is special. It’s a free health clinic, and the children are coming to see the American doctor.

Paul Wise, a pediatrics professor at the Stanford School of Medicine and senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, has medicine to settle their stomachs, help their breathing and stop their skin from itching.

Wise diagnoses ailment after ailment: Diarrhea. Pneumonia. Scabies. He doles out ointments, capsules and powders. Almost every child leaves with a bag of vitamins – something to help offset the malnutrition that’s stunted their development and left them too small for their three, four or five years…

…Politics are as necessary as medicine in places like this. That’s the premise behind Children in Crisis, a program created by Wise to blend Stanford’s expertise in medical research and international studies to provide health care to the world’s most vulnerable patients: children living in politically unstable regions.

“It’s not enough to make sure everybody is vaccinated, or that everyone who needs them gets vitamin supplements,” Wise says. “It’s about understanding and beginning to address the political requirements for the provision of these kinds of resources.” …read more

The following excerpt is from a July 11, 2010 article published by The Latin American Times.  To read this article in its entirety, please click here.

GUATEMALA CITY – Violence continues unabated in Guatemala, where at least 23 people, including six women and a girl, died in one day this weekend, the press reported Sunday, citing police statistics.

The violence in Guatemala had been leaving an average of between 11 and 15 dead each day, but on Saturday there were several incidents, among them two armed attacks that left nearly two dozen dead across the Central American country.

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The following excerpt is from a May 24, 2010 article published by Eurasia Review.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

By Louisa Reynolds

Indigenous midwives are estimated to attend almost two-thirds of the births in Guatemala, and their work has proved vital in the recognition of indigenous peoples´ medicine. But while they play a key part of the process of coordination between the networks of traditional health care and the official health system currently taking place throughout the country, the Western system has yet to fully adjust to including these ancient and respected traditions.

Juana Ajquejay Batz, 45, is a midwife, or comadrona, who has spent over 15 years helping to give birth to children in the municipality of Patzicia, in Guatemala´s central highland department of Chimaltenango. She says that as long as there are no complications, home is the most appropriate place to receive a new member of the family…

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The following excerpt is from a May 19, 2010 article published by the Guatemalan Times.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

Guatemala City. Mr. Anand Grover, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health, visited Guatemala between 12-18 May 2010. On 18 May, he conveyed to the Government his preliminary reflections on his visit. Later on 18 May, he held a press conference in Guatemala City. He opened the press conference with some preliminary remarks about his visit. These remarks are set out below.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. I would like to warmly thank the Government for inviting me to Guatemala and for facilitating a rich and interesting programme of meetings in Guatemala City, Malacatancito, San Ildefonso Ixtahuacán and Huehuetenango. I also would like to acknowledge the traditional inhabitants of this land, the indigenous peoples of Guatemala: the Mayan, Xinca and Garifuna, and I pay my respects to them. During my visit I met with the Vice-President, Ministers of Finance and Health, members of the Constitutional Court, the Ombudsman, the First Vice-President and elected representatives of the Congress, the Presidential Commission on Human Rights, public officials from the national and local levels, numerous health professionals, civil society organisations – and many other experts, too numerous to mention…

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The following excerpt is based on a May 17, 2010 article published by Inside Costa Rica.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

The week before he was killed, Rogelio Chivalan paid gangs a protection fee of $240 to drive his bus safely through neighborhoods they controlled.

They killed him anyway, with four shots to the head while he drove his bus during morning rush hour in August 2007.

“They’ll kill you if you pay. They’ll kill you if you don’t pay. It’s nothing for [the gangs],” says his widow, Ingrid Janeht Escobar. “For us, everything changed that day.”

At the time, Mr. Chivalan’s death was a front-page story in Guatemalan tabloids – copies of which Ms. Escobar carries in a discolored cloth bag slung over her shoulder. Since then, the killing of bus drivers has become a footnote in this country’s violent downward spiral, in which Escobar has seen neighbors become widows.

Around the country, 512 bus drivers have been killed since 2006 in a scourge on the country’s only public transportation system. Last year alone, 146 drivers and 60 drivers’ assistants were murdered…

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The following excerpt is from a May 10, 2010 article published by PR Newswire.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

SHENZHEN, China, May 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ – Hard to Treat Diseases (HTDS; http://www.htdsmedical.com/) announces that the company successfully acquired the first contract for its Freeze-dried Varicella Vaccine.

After the HTDS acquired Approval for its Freeze-dried MEVAC-vari in this Central American country (company’s first Varicella vaccine approval in Latin America), the company closed the first contract in Guatemala and expects to ship and deliver its vaccine in May.

A source close to the company stated, “We are thrilled to close our first deal in less than two months after the final ministry approval. We offer very competitive products for the developing countries, and this is a great start for us on a market that offers a vast field of opportunities. Varicella, or chickenpox, is generally a mild viral illness. However, approximately 1 in 50 cases chickenpox associates with complications such as pneumonia and encephalitis, both attributed a high mortality rate. These complications can be fully eliminated by a simple vaccination. HTDS continues to seek out new opportunities in this part of the world as we are able to deliver affordable products to the parts of the world where basic health care lags behind only due to funding.”…

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The following excerpt is from a May 1, 2010 article published by The Washington Post.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

A division of Johnson & Johnson is recalling 43 over-the-counter medicines made for infants and children — including liquid versions of Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl — after federal regulators identified what they called deficiencies at the company’s manufacturing facility.

…

Marc Boston, a McNeil spokesman, would not discuss the deficiencies cited by the FDA or say when the manufacturing facility was shut down. The company also declined to disclose the amount of products affected by the recall. In addition to the United States, Puerto Rico and Guam, the medicines were sold in Canada; the Dominican Republic; Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates; Fiji; Guatemala; Jamaica; Panama; Trinidad and Tobago; and Kuwait…

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The following excerpt is from an April 26 article published in The Guardian.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

The World Bank Group has said that it will offer free access to more than 2,000 financial, business, health, economic and human development statistics that had mostly been available only to paying subscribers.

The decision –part of a larger effort to increase access to information at the World Bank–means that researchers, journalists, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), entrepreneurs and school children alike will be able to tap into the World Bank’s databases via a new website, data.worldbank.org.

Experts say the bank’s open data initiative has the potential to stimulate more evidence-based policy making in developing countries by bringing more researchers and innovative analysis into the development process. The move is also likely to stimulate demand for data and increase countries’ capacity to produce it, they say…

Michael Tierney, co-ordinator of the Aiddata Initiative, which tracks development finance, said increased transparency in country data would promote better donor co-ordination.

“If you could convince especially non-OECD countries … that there are benefits to transparency, then people like me that study foreign aid, or people, who are doing aid co-ordination, who work on, say water projects in Guatemala, will benefit because then they’ll know, this is what the Russians or the Chinese are doing on water in Guatemala,” he said…

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The following excerpt is from an April 15, 2010 article published by The Guttmacher Institute.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

According to a new study of trends in the sexual behavior of young women in Central America, the proportion of 15–19-year-olds who have ever used a modern method of contraception has risen significantly in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua over the past 15 years, but Nicaragua was the only country in which a significant decline in first births occurred in this age-group. At the same time, the proportion of adolescents having sex for the first time rose in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, and stayed the same in Guatemala. The authors, Ghazaleh Samandari and Ilene S. Speizer of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, believe that these patterns reflect the persistence of unmet need for contraception, inconsistent contraceptive use and high contraceptive failure rates in these countries…

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The following excerpt is from an April 23, 2010 article published by 7th Space Interactive.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

Consumption of healthy diets that contribute with adequate amounts of fat and fatty acids is needed for children. Among Guatemalan children, there is little information about fat intakes.

Therefore, the present study sought to assess intakes of dietary fats and examine food sources of those fats in Guatemalan children.

Methods: The study subjects consisted of a convenience sample of 449 third- and fourth-grade schoolchildren (8-10y), attending public or private schools in Quetzaltenango City, Guatemala. Dietary data was obtained by means of a single pictorial 24-h record…

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The following excerpt is from an April 8, 2010 article published by The Latin American Herald Tribune.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

GUATEMALA CITY – Three brothers linked to extortion and armed robbery were killed by lynch mobs in two separate incidents in northwestern Guatemala, police said Thursday.

Jeronimo Aj Guarcas, 28, was beaten to death Tuesday by residents of the town of Semeja II who accused him of leading a gang that extorted protection payments from bus drivers.

The following day, Mario and Miguel Aj Guarcas, ages 24 and 26, respectively, were caught in the act as they were robbing a bus. The vigilantes brought the two brothers to a soccer field in Semeja II, doused them with gasoline and set them on fire.

At least 1,500 people in all took part in the lynchings, police said.

This week’s killings bring to 10 the number of alleged criminals slain by mobs in Guatemala so far this year…

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The following excerpt is from an April 5, 2010 article published in the Latin American Herald Tribune.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

PANAMA CITY – Violence and accidents claimed 273 lives across Central America during Holy Week, according to preliminary reports from first responders throughout the region.

In Guatemala, police said that during the March 26-April 3 period, 102 people were reported killed, of whom at least 50 died in acts of violence, 30 in road accidents and 12 by drowning…

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The following excerpt is from a March 23, 2010 article published in Business Week.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

Guatemalan police say dozens of bus drivers clashed with authorities and used their vehicles to block access to the capital to demand better security.

Police spokesman Donald Gonzalez says that one bus driver was wounded by gunfire and 16 were arrested during Monday’s conflict…

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The following excerpt is from a March 14, 2010 article published by the Latin American Herald Tribune.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

GUATEMALA CITY – At least 130 children and adolescents have been killed in Guatemala thus far this year, a news agency that covers that segment of the population said in a report.

That number eclipses last year’s total of 523 on an annualized basis and sheds “dramatic light” on the situation Guatemala faces in the remainder of 2010, according to the study, which was presented at an event attended by the heads of the United Nations Children’s Fund, or Unicef, in the country.

The number of minors slain in this violent Central American country “could be higher,” La Nana news agency said, adding that its figures do not include the dozens of children and adolescents who were wounded in armed attacks and may have died.

“Despite government reports about a reduction in violence, it hasn’t decreased, and Guatemalan children and adolescents are targets every day,” according to La Nana, part of a network of alternative news agencies that advocate on behalf of children.

The report was presented Friday, the eve of Non-Violence Against Children Day, which was instituted in Guatemala after the 1990 murder by security forces of street child Nahaman Carmona…

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The following excerpt is from a March 11, 2010 article published by PR Newswire.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

SHENZHEN, China, March 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ – Hard to Treat Diseases (HTDS; http://www.htdsmedical.com/) and its subsidiary Mellow Hope announce that the company received Registration Certificate for its MEVAC-Vari vaccine in Guatemala.

This is the first Final Approval for HTDS’ Varicella vaccine in South America. In general, doctors regard Varicella, commonly known as chickenpox, as a mild viral illness. However, approx. 1 in 50 cases chickenpox associates with complications such as pneumonia and encephalitis, and both diseases report high mortality rate.

A source close to HTDS said, “Varicella complications can be averted by a simple vaccination, and we are happy that we obtained the Registration Certificate for our Freeze-dried Varicella vaccine (Mevac-Vari) in Guatemala. As it is Mellow Hope’s first Final Approval in South America, we see it as an important step and a very good start for our Varicella vaccine on the South American market. South America offers great potential for our affordable vaccines and our representatives continue their work to deliver Mellow Hope’s vaccines to the developing world.”…

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The following excerpt is from a March 9, 2010 article published by Inside Costa Rica.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.  (Emphasis Added)

TEGUCIGALPA – Increase of violence is nowadays women’s main worry in Honduras, where more than 400 were killed in 2009 and most of those responsible remain unpunished.

That figure places this country as second, regarding the number of homicides in that social sector, following Guatemala, with 700 cases, according to data published on Monday on the occasion of the International Women’s Day.

We think that the situation of violence is serious, and we have started this year really bad in that reference, Visitacion Padilla Women for Peace Movement National Coordinator Gladys Lanza told press…

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The following excerpt is from a February 18, 2010 article published by CBC News.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

The rate of stillbirths in developing countries fell more than 30 per cent after birth attendants received basic training in newborn care, researchers have found.  The randomized, controlled trial included 62,366 infants in six countries: Argentina, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Guatemala, India, Pakistan and Zambia.  The World Health Organization estimates there are more than three million stillbirths worldwide each year, and nearly four million infants die in their first month of life.

Traditional birth attendants, who are typically lay midwives, attended 40 per cent of the deliveries and nearly 75 per cent in the DRC.  Participants were trained in routine newborn care, including:

• Resuscitation of babies who have stopped breathing.
• Keeping the baby warm.
• “Kangeroo care” of skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby.
• Common illnesses…

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The following excerpt is from a January 29, 2010 article published by The Times of India.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

Chilean teenagers are becoming obese due to increasing fast food consumption while those from Mexico, Venezuela and Guatemala are not far behind.

Chile, where 44.7 percent of people over 15 were overweight in 2009, was the worst in Latin America and second in the world, said Euromonitor, which released a study on the subject. Mexico, Venezuela and Guatemala have been listed among the 10 countries with the highest obesity rates among teenagers due to increasing fast food consumption. Last year 31.8 percent of Mexicans teenagers over the age of 15 were found to be obese. The country ranked fifth in the list followed by Venezuela which recorded 29.6 percent obese in the same age group. The figure was 27.5 percent in Guatemala which was in the tenth position…

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The following excerpt is from a January 24 article published by the Latin American Herald Tribune.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.

GUATEMALA CITY – A total of 274 rotavirus cases have been reported so far this year in Guatemala, but there have been no deaths, Guatemalan Health Minister Ludwig Ovalle said.

Rotavirus cases have been registered in the western province of Quetzaltenango, the northwestern province of Huehuetenango, the southern provinces of Retalhuleu and Escuintla, and the northern province of Baja Verapaz, Ovalle said.

Rotavirus, which mainly affects children, produces a number of serious symptoms, including vomiting and fever, along with acute and dehydrating diarrhea.

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The following excerpt is from a January 15, 2010 article published by UNPO.com.  To read the article in its entirety, please click here.  To view the UN report on which the article is based, click here.

State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples Report Launched

First UN publication on the state of the world’s indigenous peoples reveals alarming statistics on poverty, health, education, employment, human rights, the environment and more.

Indigenous peoples all over the world continue to suffer from disproportionally high rates of poverty, health problems, crime and human rights abuses:

• In the United States, a Native American is 600 times more likely to contract tuberculosis and 62 per cent more likely to commit suicide than the general population.
• In Australia, an indigenous child can expect to die 20 years earlier than his non-native compatriot. The life expectancy gap is also 20 years in Nepal, while in Guatemala it is 13 years and in New Zealand it is 11.
• In parts of Ecuador, indigenous people have 30 times greater risk of throat cancer than the national
  average.

…

These are just a few of the startling statistics in the United Nations’ first publication on the State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, a thorough assessment of how indigenous peoples are faring in areas such as health, poverty, education and human rights.

…

Alarming State of Indigenous Health

The publication’s statistics illustrate the gravity of the situation in both developed and developing countries. Poor nutrition, limited access to care, lack of resources crucial to maintaining health and well-being and contamination of natural resources are all contributing factors to the terrible state of indigenous health worldwide.

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