World Health Organization : Tuberculosis Hardly Under Control

Tuberculosis disease was listed as one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide, ranking higher than HIV and Malaria.

In the 2014 World Health Assembly, world leaders agreed to the 2030 ‘twin goals’. These goals are to decrease the number of deaths due to the respiratory infection by 90% . Furthermore, they aim to bring down the cases reported, by 80%, compared to the number reported last 2015.

But, according to the World Health Organization Tuberculosis report released last Thursday, deaths and cases increased between 2013 and 2015. The case hike reflects a very serious problem in the fight against tuberculosis. The record shows that the number of escalated cases worldwide are far behind the total number of TB cases.

In about 10.4 million new cases in 2015, only 6.1 million were identified and reported to the authorities.

It clearly shows that the world governments are failing to meet their 2030 “twin goals”.
Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO director-general, said “There must be a massive scale-up of efforts, or countries will continue to run behind this deadly epidemic and these ambitious goals will be missed,” she further said, “We face an uphill battle to reach the global targets for tuberculosis.”

Seconded by Greg Elder, a medical coordinator for Doctors without Borders, called the report a “shockingly bad report card.”

In a statement, he said, “Governments need to get their heads out of the sand and realize that TB is not a disease consigned to the 1800s, we see and treat TB in our clinics every day, and it’s a deadly threat to all of us.”

Meanwhile, Mario Raviglione, the director of the WHO Global TB Program shared his sentiment about the issue.He called the global TB response in the last year “dismal”. Raviglione also added that program needs more money for rapid tests and drugs.

Most of the serious cases of tuberculosis come from low and middle-class countries. The report notes that they need $8.3 billion funds in 2016 but only received more or less $2 billion. Most of the funds came from domestic funding sources in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The report says, if the fund issue for TB treatment and prevention will not be addressed, the gap will increase to $6 billion by 2020.

U.S. top donor

According to Kaiser Family Foundation, who tracks health aid funding, most of the global aid support for TB comes through international donations. These are funneled to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The US is the single largest donor to the fund. Over the next three years, the U.S. has pledged $4.3 billion to be spent fighting AIDS, TB, and malaria.

However, tuberculosis-specific funding for programs run by the U.S. Agency for International Development has declined since 2012, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s analysis of federal appropriations. If it is approved, the budget request for 2017 will be the lowest level of funding for USAID TB programs since 2009.

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WHO: Tax Hike on Drinks with High Sugar Content Recommended to Combat Obesity

The World Health Organization appealed to the international communities to start taxing sugary beverages to fight obesity. On October 11, the UN’s health agency announced the end result of their research. The study shows that the connection of price hike has a noticeable decreasing effect on consumption.

The WHO recommendation about the sugary drinks resulted from the immediate solution for the increasing number of obesity cases. The agency targets to bring the obesity rates to 1 in 3 overweight adults.

The WHO report stated, “There is reasonable and increasing evidence that appropriately designed taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages would result in proportional reductions in consumption, especially if aimed at raising the retail price by 20% or more”.

In short, the price hike on an item relates to the consumption. The agency explained the analogy as an increase of 20% on the price will decrease the consumption by 20%. While a 50% price hike will cut the consumption in half.

According to Douglas Bettcher, department head of WHO’s prevention of non-communicable disease, “If governments tax products like sugary drinks, they can reduce suffering and save lives”.

In 2014, WHO estimated that 39% of adults worldwide were overweight, and more than half a billion people aged over 18 were obese. The agency found out that 42 million children under the age of 5 were overweight: a direct indication of increase about 11 million children within the span of 15 years.

The number of people affected by diabetes ballooned from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014.

Sweet, Deadly Sugar

Diabetes caused 1.5 million deaths in 2012. People with high glucose levels linked to diabetes were accountable for another 2.2 million deaths within the year according to the latest data from WHO.

The recommendation was based on a meeting held last year by fiscal experts. These experts are assigned to gather data and case studies worldwide to find the best possible solutions to lessen obesity.

The main focus of the study was Mexico, which in 2014 had already increase tax prices on the sugary beverages. Based on WHO report, Mexico’s consumption of those sugary beverages dropped a significant 6% by the end of 2014.

According to the report, “Fiscal policies should target food and beverages for which healthier alternatives are available”. “When you drink, your appetite control is not active, so you tend to over consume calories”. The department head of WHO’s health and development, Francesco Branca told reporters.

In the past, WHO recommended the sugar intake should compose less than 10% of a person’s total daily diet. They are now urging countries in lowering it further to 5%. It means the equivalent sugar intake is about 6 teaspoons or 25 grams of sugar a day. An average can of soda has 10 teaspoons of sugar.

The WHO report also indicates subsidization of prices in fruits and vegetables, a reduction of 10 to 30 percent in the price. This can eventually result in improving dietary lifestyles.

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Flu Vaccine: Is Getting a Shot Really Worth It?

The Current flu vaccine contains the same virus strain since the spring of 2009. The virus extracted from a patient in California is the earliest form of the pandemic virus H1N1 or swine flu.

The very same reason, that The World Health Organization suggested drug makers create an updated virus for the flu vaccine. Prolonged used of a flu virus in the vaccines are normally similar to the present one.

Influenza epidemiologist of the British Columbia Center for Disease Control in Vancouver, Dr. Danuta Skowronski said that the “A/California had a good run” as an anti-virus.

The new flu shots will be available as early as 2017 to be distributed in the Southern Hemisphere just before the flu season. The prompt response in updating the flu vaccine’s anti-virus indicates the efficiency in monitoring small changes in the viruses. Scientists are keen to observe changes in the evolution of the virus and how it affects people. The data from these observations helps them modify their fight against flu diseases.

Flu vaccines contain harmless viruses when exposed to the immune system it signals to release the particular antibodies to combat the disease. It then stores the information of the protective ammunition to fight future infection.

The H1N1 virus on the present flu vaccines latest evolution loses its efficiency on people ages 30 to middle age. These groups of people are not getting sufficient protection against the influenza family disease. Generally, healthy adults are subjects to have the best response to vaccines. However, for the past years that has not been the case for the H1N1 anti-virus component.

See Related Article: This is the Best Time to Get Your Flu Shots as Flu Season is Fast Approaching

Surprisingly, children and older adults develop positive antibodies response to H1N1 after  vaccination.

The New Anti-Virus Component

The new virus to replace the H1N1 component has even a longer and peculiar name, the A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)pdm09. The new anti-virus defined as an influenza virus linked to the H1N1 family transpired in the 2009 pandemic. Scientist recovered the virus in the same year in California and confirmed to have links to the new virus discovered recently.

Flu experts worldwide who recently met in Geneva, advised WHO to use a different virus retrieved in 2015. WHO agreed with the flu experts. They recommended using a virus from the same family retrieved in 2015 from a patient in Michigan instead of A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)pdm09

Jacqueline Katz, the deputy director of the influenza division at the Centers for Disease control and Prevention in Atlanta believed this strain of virus will be more effective. It can better protect the group of people that was not getting enough benefit from the H1N1 virus. That can be done without compromising the efficiency for children and the elderly.

Katz is also a member of WHO’s influenza strain selection committee. The committee meets twice a year to discuss existing flu viruses’ threat worldwide. Then recommends which flu vaccines will be appropriate for the Southern and Northern hemisphere.

Usually, flu vaccines are made for “one-size-fits-all” but this time, a huge modification needs to be done. The scientist must formulate a change in the virus strain because of a setback of the vaccine within a specific group of people.

Dr. Danuta Skowronski discussed last week about the drawback of WHO strain’s selection committee will eventually need to tackle. He said, “We don’t make age-based vaccine strain decisions. So if the vaccine isn’t protecting well the non-elderly adults, but seems to function OK in the young, what do you do with that information?”

The decision to change the virus strain is even more significant. Since scientists are able to monitor closely the effectiveness and performance of the vaccines in different age group sector. They are more vigilant now on the after effects of the vaccines than in the previous years.

The H1N1 virus component worked out well since its discovery after the 2009 pandemic. But in 2013 it shows a decrease of efficiency in people aged 30 to middle age.

CDC performed their own experiment with the ferrets. The agency tested the virus with laboratories ferrets that have never been exposed to the flu. Then scientists exposed the animals to the updated virus, and there was no sign of diminishing antibodies response.
The problem with the current virus strain begins to emerge when CDC started blood testing. They performed the test from vaccinated people in different age group and saw a difference on antibodies responses.

Scott Hensley, an associate professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania said, “If you do that same experiment and instead of using ferret antibodies if you use antibodies from humans that actually received the 2009 vaccine, what you find is that there’s a significant number of [vaccinated] middle-aged people that … fail to react to the strain that’s actually circulating,”

Hensley believed that the sectors of people who have diminishing antibodies responses were born in 1960s 1970s and 1980s. Their body first exposed to the H1N1 virus circulated in 1977 until 1985. The 1977 virus strain is from the family disappeared when the new H1N1 started circulation in 2009.

They share a name but are different in so many aspects, it evolved so much that the immune system failed to recognize the new version. Hensley said although it evolved some of the aspects remains in the corresponding section of H1N1 viruses of the 1977 pandemic.

People whose immune system that got exposed to the first H1N1 virus would probably recognize the new virus. The current H1N1 vaccines acted like a booster shot for their antibodies.

However, in 2013 the early recognition of the new virus disappeared when the H1N1 virus changed dramatically losing a segment. Hensley believed it was a factor that the immunological profile lost its detection to deploy the right type of antibodies to fight against the H1N1.

Hensley considered updating the H1N1 component in the vaccine will solve the problem. He pointed out that WHO made the right decision in urging drug-makers to make proper changes.

In the Northern Hemisphere, flu season is about to start. There is a concern for contracting flu within this season. Last winter H1N1 was so active in most of the flu cases transpired but Katz said: “We had such a big H1N1 season last year I doubt we’ll have a very robust season this year”

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