Beyond plunging the nation into a quagmire of ethnic tension, Ethiopia’s ongoing Tigray conflict has become the catalyst for a potentially greater crisis: an outbreak of disease. This is the dire warning sounded recently by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Amid threats of secession by the Tigrayan leadership, Ethiopia’s government launched a military strike against the region in November, causing a major break in the flow of humanitarian aid. This has caused severe disruption in essential health services in the area, with disastrous consequences.

Between January & November of 2020, over 9,000 cases of malaria were reported within the region, with over 4,000 cases of measles diagnosed in children. During the same period, over 6, 700 cases of Covid-19 were reported, with 47 deaths. According to WHO estimates, over 4.5 million people in the region require assistance. Half of these are children.

Many hospitals & clinics are only partially functioning, say observers. And with the UN & other humanitarian agencies given only limited access to the area, the need for essential healthcare services is dire. Health experts warn that without urgent intervention, future outbreaks of disease can be expected. In addition to more incidences of Covid-19, malaria & measles, the spread of yellow fever & meningitis are also likely, they say.

Moreover, the threat of starvation looms large over the region, exacerbating the dangers of disease. The Tigrayan conflict is one which is all too familiar for Pascal Mukadi, a healthcare entrepreneur with business & philanthropic interests across Africa. He warns that, unless Africa develops stronger mechanisms for dealing with conflict, its healthcare systems will remain one of the greatest threats to its development.

“Over 60 years since the dawn of independence on the continent, Africa remains chained by our inability to resolve our differences” says Mukadi, founder of the Pascal Mukadi Foundation (PMF), an NGO.

“Because of this, we are literally destroying the lives of our people – mind & body. We’ll never
achieve our potential until we rid ourselves of this tendency.”

Through PMF, Mukadi seeks to develop & strengthen healthcare systems across Africa by promoting investment, skills transfer & leadership. In collaboration with governments, businesses & academic institutions, he implements public-private partnerships across the continent. He looks forward to working with Ethiopia to develop its healthcare infrastructure.

“Ethiopia will be one an economic engine for East Africa, and a key player on the continent” says Mukadi. “We can’t allow that destiny to be delayed or hampered in any way.”

“As PMF, we’re looking forward to partnering with this dynamic country.”

Written by: Mambande Thomas

Editor MFM Media

INDORE: Nearly half a dozen children experienced nausea and vomiting after being administered medication during a drive under the National Deworming Programme in Dewas district on Thursday.
The incidents reported in Pipalranwa village were managed by the medical staff on the field, said Dewas chief medical and health officer Dr SK Saral.

Asked about complaints of stomach ache and vomiting among children reported from various states, Mishra said that any drug will have certain side effects and asserted that these were “manageable”.

It is known that deworming medications can cause such side effects, he said adding if the worm load is very high, it creates a problem, there is vomiting and stomach ache. But these are all manageable.
The children were taken to a primary health centre and treated, he added.

Health ministry sources said that deworming may have very few side effects and some children, especially those with high worm infections, might experience nausea, mild abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and fatigue.
In line with the guidance from the ministry, comprehensive adverse event protocols have been put in place, Dr Saral said.

According to WHO, 43 per cent of the global population and 64 per cent of the Indian population less than 14 years of age are at risk of Soil Transmitted Helminths (STH) infection. The rate of open defecation, an important risk factor for STH transmission, is as high as 91 per cent in some areas and nationally it is 51 per cent.
According to the ministry which has done the STH mapping, the prevalence was recorded at 12.5 per cent in Madhya Pradesh in a 2015 survey.

SOURCE:The Times of India

Story highlights

Finland has set a goal to be tobacco-free by 2040, with new measures introduced in January
Measures include bans on smoking on balconies and extremely high fees for vendors
(CNN)The Finnish government has set an ambitious goal for residents in a bid to benefit their health — and their bank balances.

Officials plan to make the country tobacco-free by 2040, meaning they want less than 2% of their adults to consume tobacco — in any form — by that deadline.
So that’s more than 98% of the Finnish population saying no to cigarettes, snuff and other forms of smokeless tobacco, cigars, pipes and even e-cigarettes.
As per the trend in industralized countries, smoking rates in Finland have been on the decline in recent decades due to measures such as bans on advertising and shop displays, and the creation of smoke-free public spaces. In 2013, 16% of 15- to 64-year-olds in Finland smoked on a daily basis, while nearby in the UK, 19% of adults were smokers in 2014.
But at the start of this year, a new level of control measures came into force.

But at the start of this year, a new level of control measures came into force.
“The Finnish approach is revolutionary,” said Kaari Paaso, head of the unit on harm prevention at the country’s Ministry of Health and Social Affairs. “We want to get rid of all tobacco products.”
Experts agree that the Finnish government is using innovation and creativity to get everyone to kick the habit.
Rather than targeting one area at a time, such as exposure in public spaces or cigarette use, Paaso said his ministry wants to be precautionary from every angle. It doesn’t go down the path of advocating milder products that may do less harm, such as e-cigarettes or snuff. “It’s a comprehensive set of policies,” he said.

For example, neighboring Sweden has also seen a dramatic reduction in the number of smokers — just 12.7% among men and 15.2% among women in 2013 — but achieved this in part by promoting the use of snus, an oral smokeless tobacco product. The product, along with all other forms of oral tobacco, is banned in other member states of the European Union.

The UK is also adopting a harm reduction approach to reduce the number of smokers. Instead of snus, it backs the use of e-cigarettes to help people kick the habit.
But Finland wants rid of it all.

“We don’t want to fall into the trap of other policies that have less harmful products,” said Paaso, who fears that promoting other products will result in a new addiction for health officials to deal with in the future. “We want to phase out all products.”And that phasing out has begun.Raising the cost of selling tobacco

Experts agree that one of the strongest policies in terms of tobacco control globally has been taxation. The rising cost of the habit, linked to higher taxes, has meant that many can no longer afford to smoke, and those who can smoke provide revenue for anti-smoking campaigns and quitting support services, to name a few options.
“The evidence suggests increasing pricing is the single most effective way to reduce demand,” said Vaughan Rees, director of the Center for Global Tobacco Control at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“In states where we see the highest tax rates, we see the lowest prevalence,” he said, highlighting New York City, where then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduced city taxes on top of state taxes in 2010. Just over 14% of New Yorkers smoked in 2016, according to the NYC Smoke-Free program.

So Finland has now introduced another giant financial barrier for users: It increased the costs for vendors selling tobacco products.”There’s quite a high fee to license it and to sell it,” Paaso said.

Any business wanting to sell tobacco must first apply and pay for a license, a one-off process, but an additional fee must be paid annually to cover the costs of surveillance officers in each municipality who will check that retailers are following the rules.

The surveillance fee is the killer, as this is calculated per checkout or cashier in any business and can be as high as €500 ($536) annually per checkout.
The fee is now set by individual municipalities, not the state, many of whom have decided this upper limit should be the actual cost.

“This has resulted in criticism from small shop owners and big stores … saying it is disproportionally high from last year,” Paaso said. “But that was not the idea.” The ministry had hoped the fee would be scaled up annually.
A store with 10 checkouts could therefore pay more than $5,000 per year in addition to its license fee to sell tobacco to the public.

“Finland has come very far … and now they’re going to the next level, with innovation,” said Kelly Henning, director of the public health program at Bloomberg Philanthropies, an organization working to promote impactful tobacco control policies, founded by the former New York mayor.

Henning highlights that the World Health Organization’s Tobacco Free Initiative has six steps it recommends for effective control, known as MPOWER. The last letter stands for “Raising taxes on tobacco.”
“They have in place all MPOWER policies at the highest possible level,” she said. Smoke-free balconies and cars

Another unique approach the Scandinavian country implemented this month was the ability to apply for a ban on people smoking on neighboring balconies if their presence is a disturbance.

Housing companies may now apply for the ban if smoke is seen to be spreading from someone’s private balcony and onto other spaces. As in many other countries, bans are in place in public areas, but this new policy addresses a smoker’s private space.

“You can apply for a ban,” Paaso said. “There hasn’t been big change … but these measures are still quite new.”
Finnish residents are also no longer allowed to smoke in private cars if people under the age of 15 are present. This is not unique, as other countries such as the UK have imposed bans in cars when children are present. In the UK, the cutoff age is higher, at 18.

Preventing the appeal to minors

One key strategy in Finland’s approach to eradicate smoking is reducing the number of teenagers picking up the habit in the first place, by reducing its presence and its appeal.

As a result, new policies also limit the purchase of products that imitate tobacco or cigarettes, such as sweets and chocolates shaped as pipes or cigarettes. Though these products aren’t banned, they face restrictions. For example, stores where customers receive discounts through the use of a loyalty card cannot offer such discounts on such items.

But much bigger restrictions face the e-cigarette industry. “E-cigarettes are sold in normal shops, but we have strict rules,” Paaso said.

As of August, e-cigarettes had the same restrictions in terms of sales and public use as regular cigarettes, such as age limits, and they are no longer allowed to have any flavors. “They cannot have any distinctive taste,” Paaso said, adding, “our approach is this basic idea to phase out all nicotine products.”

The use of flavors in e-cigarettes has been the subject of much debate, amid fears that they will entice young people toward the habit and act as a gateway into smoking.

“That’s absolutely crucial,” said Harvard’s Rees, who believes that e-cigarettes can be a useful tool to help people quit smoking and advocates the UK’s stance on harm reduction. But his support ends when flavors are involved. “We’re seeing a proliferation in flavors, including gummy bear and candy flavors that are intrinsically appealing to children.”

A global mission?

Finland is not alone in wanting to reduce smoking and all tobacco-related habits among its population.
Henning and Rees highlight Australia, where plain packaging on cigarette boxes in combination with taxation has helped bring numbers down rapidly. In 2014-15, just 14.7% of adults 18 or over smoked daily — less than than Finland — compared with more than 16% in 2011-12.

“They increased the price dramatically, and we’re now seeing a benefit,” Rees said.

On the other end of the spectrum lies China. After a surge in demand for tobacco products in recent years as more people took up smoking, three cities have banned smoking indoors in public places, including the capital, Beijing.

“Tobacco-related deaths are rising because male smoking rates are so high,” Henning said. More than 1.3 million people die each year of tobacco-related disease in China, according to the Tobacco Atlas, linked to the fact that more than 45% of men are smokers. “We’re optimistic that these cities are going to lead the way.”

On a global level, the WHO set a goal to reduce tobacco use among people over the age of 15 by 30% by 2025, to fit in line with goals to reduce rates of non-communicable disease, like cancer, as a result.

But Finland remains a pioneer, the first country to set a goal to end the problem in its entirety. Experts, as well as the government, believe they can make it happen.

“Governments should set themselves that goal of achieving exactly that,” Rees said. But he acknowledges that not all countries would necessarily be able to achieve it, with culture playing a key role. “Finland, having a much more control over a relatively homogenous population, can realistically set that goal.”

And Henning agrees that simply setting a target can make a difference. “It’s a long shot,” she said. “But Finland believes it’s achievable.”

By Meera Senthilingam, CNN
Updated 0940 GMT (1740 HKT) January 26, 2017

The expansion of the Registered Traveller scheme will help medical tourists who travel regularly to the UK. Frequent travellers to the UK from 16 more countries can apply for membership of the scheme, which allows faster entry to the UK.

The government has expanded the UK Registered Traveller Service. Frequent travellers to the UK from 16 more countries can apply for membership of the scheme, which allows faster entry to the UK.

Membership is now open to travellers from Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Brunei, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Frequent visitors such as medical tourists regularly going to the UK can benefit from faster entry to the UK.

The UK is getting increasing numbers from South America and the Far East. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Israel, Malaysia and Mexico, provide many inbound visitors.

The service will be expanded to certain categories of traveller from India in 2017.

Registered Traveller was already open to passport holders from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and the US. It has 67,000 members and offers faster entry through the UK border.

The service allows approved members, who have undergone advanced security checks, faster entry at the UK border through access to the ePassport gates (if a holder of an ePassport) or the UK/EU passport lane.

They also avoid entry interviews, and the need to fill in landing cards and provide fingerprints.

To be eligible, passengers must hold an approved passport and have a visa/entry clearance or have visited the UK at least four times in the past two years.

The Registered Traveller Service was launched in April 2015 for applicants, from Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the USA. The service was extended to include applicants from Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region), Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan in January 2016.

Members can only use these airports-

• Heathrow
• Gatwick
• Manchester
• Stansted
• Luton
• Edinburgh
• Birmingham
• Glasgow
• East Midlands
• London City

They can also use the Eurostar terminals at Paris, Brussels and Lille.

It costs £70 to apply to use the service for the first year and a £50 annual membership fee.

NEWS SOURCE: IMTJ

Commentary: A Frenchman is suing Uber for $48 million, after he claims a technical problem with the app informed his wife of his movements.

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that’s taken over our lives.

For better or for worse.

This famous phrase describes our committed relationship with technology.

We go through bad times. A website won’t load, an app keeps crashing. But we stay together, because in each other we see the future.

A businessman from the Côte d’Azur in France, though, believes technology has destroyed his marriage. Specifically, Uber’s technology.

As Le Figaro reports, he claims there was a bug in the Uber app, one that enabled others to view his comings and goings. Actually, it was a very significant other, he says, who knew where he’d been — his wife.

More precisely, his ex-wife. The man claims that he borrowed his then wife’s iPhone and logged into the Uber app.

He says that after he logged off, his Uber activity was still relayed via helpful notifications on her phone. One can only surmise that his movements didn’t please his wife, as the lawsuit says that she divorced him.

So, to assuage his pain, the man is asking for Uber to pay 45 million euros (around $48 million). The case is expected to receive its first hearing next month.

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Uber didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. It did tell Le Figaro, however: “Uber doesn’t comment publicly on individual cases, and especially on cases that involve a divorcing couple.”

I’m not sure why divorces deserve special consideration. Perhaps Uber is reacting to accusations from rivals that it’s a nasty, insensitive company.

Le Figaro reveals that it was able to replicate the hurt man’s problem. A second iPhone was sent notifications without a password, it says. It says the bug doesn’t, however, give details of your exact destination, nor of real-time geolocation. Indeed, some on Twitter have noticed this issue too.

Of course, technology can lead to all sorts of relationship problems. Lovers sometimes guess passwords, accidentally (or not) see notifications or even discover secret Facebook relationships. Then, there is hell to pay. If you’re lucky, purgatory might ensue.

There was an another quirk in the alleged Uber bug. Le Figaro identified the glitch as only occurring on iPhones where the app was updated after December 16 of last year and not at all on Android phones.

Could there be a better reason for meandering, possibly philandering Frenchmen to switch to Android than this, especially with Valentine’s Day lurking so closely?

Tech Enabled: CNET chronicles tech’s role in providing new kinds of accessibility.

Technically Literate: Original works of short fiction with unique perspectives on tech, exclusively on CNET.