Q-fever deaths in the Netherlands

The number of people killed by Q-fever, a flu-like illness which mainly infects sheep and goats, was at least 24, the Head of the Public Health Institute RIVM in the Netherlands told the television current affairs show Nieuwsuur recently. The previous official death toll stood at 19. The outbreak of Q-fever began in 2007 and led to the slaughter of some 40,000 goats in an effort to get the spread under control. Some 4,000 humans became ill with the disease but that total could be far higher, Roel Coutinho, Head of the RIVM's infectious diseases unit, told the show.

Source: 

New Public Health: A Novel Domain

The New Public Health (NPH) is a contemporary application of a broad range of evidence based scientific, technological, and management systems implementing measure to improve the health of individuals and populations. Its main objectives are the political and practical application of lessons learned from past successes and failures in disease control and the promotion of preventive measures to combat existing, evolving and re-emerging health threats and risks. We address present and anticipated health problems in a complex world with great inequalities with specific targets which would help to achieve higher standards of health and a more just and socially responsible distribution of resources. The NPH is a moving target, as the science and practice of public health grow in strength. It is relevant to all countries, developing, transitional, or industrialized, all facing different combinations of epidemiologic, demographic, economic and health systems challenges. It has been conceptualized because of growing interest in the subtle interaction of the environment with people living in affluent societies. It is much more concerned with the interplay between affluence, social well being, education and health, social capital and health. In societies where the basic public health engineering, immunization and food safety are well in place and require surveillance but not reinvention, the new factors – the social, economic and community quality factors – are rising in importance as determinants of health and causes of illness. The challenges of the NPH include cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, healthy food consumption patterns, adequate physical activity, prevention of injury and violence, consumption of alcohol during pregnancy and addictions (tobacco, alcohol and drugs), biopreparedness and preparedness to adapt new advances of research in genetics and nanotechnology. 

The mission of the NPH is to maximize human health and well-being and to help redress societal and global inequities. Inequities in health across the world are part of the challenges of the NPH. These social inequities have been highlighted by public health thinkers since the 19th century and again stressed recently by the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. 

Contributed by

Dr. D. N. Garg

Former Dean, College of Veterinary Sciences,

Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences,

Hisar (Haryana) India

To read more click the link below.

WHO takes India off polio list

India, which has been polio-free for over a year now, has been taken off the list of polio endemic countries by the World Health Organisation. The Health Minister announced this at the polio summit 2012 in New Delhi. There were only four countries in the WHO endemic list, including Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan. The Prime Minister, while lauding the achievement, said the real credit goes to 23 lakh volunteers who repeatedly vaccinated children even in the most remote areas. He said the success of the effort shows that “team work pays”. After being removed from the list, India will have to remain polio free for the next two years to achieve the polio-free status with concerted efforts and an emergency preparedness and response plan, WHO representative in India Natela Menabde said. She said it is not just an achievement for India but a major progress for global polio eradication.

Emergence of Schmallenberg virus in Western Europe

Schmallenberg virus was first officially characterised in November 2011 in Germany from samples collected in summer/autumn 2011 from diseased dairy cattle. It was also initially detected in dairy cows and in newborn lambs in the Netherlands where the presence of the virus was confirmed in December 2011. In February 2012, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom and France have reported Schmallenberg virus outbreaks to the OIE as an emerging disease.

Following the emergence of Schmallenberg virus in Western Europe, the OIE convened a meeting of experts to review existing knowledge of the new virus and provide information to its Members and to stakeholders. Identified hosts so far are cattle, sheep, goats and bisons. Based on current available information, experts concluded that the risk for human health is negligible. The experts also determined that the viraemic period (the time during which the virus circulates in the bloodstream of an infected animal) of Schmallenberg virus is short and that virus transmission most likely occurs by vectors such as mosquitoes or biting midges, with apparent similarity to the transmission of the bluetongue virus. 

Source: World Organisation for Animal Health, Paris

Final push needed to end leprosy in the Western Pacific

WHO's Western Pacific Regional Office has urged its Member States to make a final push to address leprosy in the Region. In 1991, WHO launched a global campaign to eliminate leprosy as a public health threat and set a leprosy elimination target of less than one case per 10000 of population. In that same year, the Western Pacific Region met the elimination target. Over the past two decades, new leprosy cases in the Western Pacific Region have declined by nearly 90%. Political commitment is all that is needed now to finish the job. We have the drugs and we have the knowledge, therefore WHO has urged Member States to make a final push to eliminate leprosy in the Region.

Source: