Far from offering suitable birth control methods to men and women at different points in their lives, India’s programme focuses on female tubectomy carried out in substandard camps.

(Original Source)

The 2 year old boy who died in December 2013 in Gueckedou, Guinea, is considered the index case of the current outbreak of Ebola virus disease caused by the Zaire species. Up until 2014, the disease was limited to rural areas of east and central Africa, but it has now spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Senegal.

Breast cancer is the largest contributor to cancer incidence and cancer mortality in women worldwide. As people in Western societies are living longer, there will be an increase in the proportion of older women with breast cancer in upcoming years. Older women with breast cancer often have comorbidities and functional limitations, resulting in an increased risk of adverse outcomes and side effects from breast cancer treatment. Also, previous studies have shown that breast cancer specific mortality increases with age.

Measurement of blood pressure is an iconic part of modern medicine. Over the past century, life insurers, public health organisations, and prospective studies, including the Framingham Heart Study, have established the relation between increased blood pressure and long term morbidity and mortality. About 40% of adults have hypertension globally; the prevalence is highest in the African region. In the United States, hypertension is the most common diagnosis at a medical visit.

The objective of the study was to evaluate the effects of a government insurance program covering tertiary care for people below the poverty line in Karnataka, India, on out-of-pocket expenditures, hospital use, and mortality.

People who live close to an airport and are exposed to constant loud aircraft noise may face an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, according to this new study published in the latest edition of British Medical Journal (BMJ).

Are there public health consequences when regulators turn a blind eye to cross border advertising that contravenes national laws? Although Canada prohibits direct to consumer advertising of prescription drugs, no steps are taken to prevent US advertising from reaching the Canadian public. The linked study by Law and colleagues (doi: 10.1136/bmj.a1055), provides compelling evidence that this does have consequences for public health and of the need for better regulatory oversight. (Editorial)

The objective of the study was to assess the impact of direct to consumer advertising of prescription drugs in the United States on Canadian prescribing rates for three heavily marketed drugs—etanercept, mometasone, and tegaserod.

Original Source

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