Health activists unite v. super bugs
UPPSALA, Sweden
A global "Stop the Super Bugs" campaign has been launched by a network of concerned medical researchers and health activists to keep currently available antibiotics effective and prevent the emergence of new drug-resistant microbes.
At a three-day meeting 60 participants from 23 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas discussed ways to alert the world to the growing menace of the so-called Super Bugs that cannot be treated with any known antibiotics.
"In 15 years' time modern medicine will be dead, organ transplantation will be impossible and our children will not be safe from common infections. Twenty-first century patients will have to accept 19th century medicine," said Otto Cars of the Action on Resistance to Antibiotics (REACT).
The network has evolved a list of benchmarks by which governments around the world will be judged for their response to the threat of antibiotic resistance. The list includes the existence of diagnostic capability to monitor drug-resistant microbes, regulations on use of antibiotics, and measures to control infectious diseases.
The network, which brings together concerned doctors, scientists, policy makers, health and human rights activists, wants bodies like the World Health Organization and its member-governments to scale up measures to stop the rampant misuse of antibiotics. Widespread inappropriate use in medical practice and the massive use of antibiotics in agriculture as animal growth promoters have fueled the spread of mutant microbes that develop resistance.
The participants are also asking drug-research and development institutions to reverse the alarming drop in funds for innovating new antibiotics. They are also calling upon the pharmaceutical industry to ensure the ethical promotion of antibiotic use.
"We are running out of time. Current and future generations around the globe should have effective treatment of bacterial infections," said Prof. Eduardo Gotuzzo of the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Lima, Peru.
Participants at the Uppsala meeting feared a return to the preantibiotic era where, for example, child mortality from infections such as pneumonia, already high in many developing countries, would increase dramatically. Antibiotic resistance is also likely to jeopardize advanced medical procedures such as cancer therapy, hip replacement, organ transplantation, and implants of prostheses, where antibiotics are crucial to ensure patient safety.
Among the goals of the new network are to convince policy makers, doctors, scientific and research organizations as well as civil society to do something to tackle the threat posed by antibiotic resistance. It also wants to inform, involve, and mobilize communities to take the problem seriously and protect their right to safe and effective antibiotics.
More information about REACT may be obtained from Christina Greko (+46-705-463743,
christina.greko.react@ucr.uu.se).
PPS, Unilab in parenting program
As part of its medical home initiative program, the Philippine Pediatric Society recently struck a partnership with Biogesic for Kids for the holding of a series of parenting seminars and workshops to help address concerns faced by parents who have little time for taking care of their kids because of work and those whose spouses work abroad.
With the theme Kalusugan ng Kabataan: Ating Kinabukasan, the program kicked off at Barangay Sto. Cristo in Quezon City, with Ms. Maricel Laxa-Pangilinan as guest speaker. Pangilinan discussed issues surrounding varying parenting styles and how formation of moral values influences the parents' principles. She pointed out that Filipino parents are generally capable of raising a healthy and happy family. However, certain factors that are beyond the parents' control, such as economic problems, become barriers to make things possible.
Dr. Estrella Paje-Villar, PPS president, said that the holding of these seminar-workshops enable the PPS to conduct further research on good parenting to come up with relevant information materials for dissemination to parents. She thanked Unilab, makers of Biogesic for Kids, for supporting the society's efforts "to promote good parenting and moral family values through seminars."
Through these seminars, the PPS conducts surveys, which they share with accredited hospitals and the nine PPS regional chapters around the country. Results of these surveys will help the PPS identify the priority problems of each community.
Jench Chua, Biogesic for Kids product associate, said that under the program, PPS and Biogesic for Kids will also provide medical services, livelihood programs, health education, library and recreational facilities, sanitation brigade, and free clinic.
PATACSI hosts 17th ATCSA congress
Foreign affairs secretary Alberto Romulo will be the keynote speaker at the 17th biennial congress of the Association of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons of Asia (ATCSA) slated November 20 to 23 at the Makati Shangri-la Hotel. The conference is hosted by the Philippine Association of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons.
Dr. Avenilo Aventura, chair of the organizing committee, said an outstanding group of international thoracic and cardiovascular surgeons will present the latest developments in the field.
There will be six plenary sessions and 16 symposiums. The speakers in the plenary sessions include Drs. Antonio Maria Calafiore on surgical treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy, Hermann Reichenspurner on technical options of left-ventricular remodeling, Stephen C. Yang on surgical treatment of esophageal carcinoma, Tom DeMeester on minimally invasive esophageal surgery, Joseph Coselli on current strategies in thoracoabdominal-aortic aneurysm repair, Bruce Lytle on surgery for aortic-arch aneurysm, Duke Edward Cameron on aortic-valve-sparing procedure, Delos Cosgrove on minimally invasive valve surgery, Jean Deslauriers on respiratory complication after pneunomectomy incidence, Ryosuke Tsuchiya on surgery for stage-III nonsmall-cell lung cancer, Shunji Sano on surgery for difficult congenital heart disease, and Roger B. B. Mee on univentricular procedures.
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