SlashAsia » Health

AIDS campaign in Laos to promote awareness about transgender group

Alexandra Stevenson — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 04:13:35 +0000

A new government campaign in Laos is targeting HIV/Aids high risk group of transgender males called Katheoys. According to a report by the BBC, a government survey last year showed 5.6% of men have sex with other men, a number which is considered high in Laos. The katheoy culture is vibrant but stigmas attached make it hard for the group to find employment.

Laos tackles transgender taboos, BBC News

Hong Kong to vaccinate 2.5 million people for H1N1

Alexandra Stevenson — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:23:51 +0000

The Hong Kong government has announced plans to spend US $ 90 million on H1N1 flu vaccines, available by October this year, to vaccinate 2.5 million people for free. The aim is to cover all private and public health care workers, young children, seniors and patients with high risk of contracting disease.

Hong Kong to give free H1N1 shots to 2.5 million people, AHN

ASEAN+3 health ministers draft an A/H1N1 plan

enrico — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:03:56 +0000

Health ministers from the ten nation ASEAN countries, as well as Japan, China and South Korea drafted a response plan to the A/H1N1 influenza. So far the region has been relatively unscathed, with the first four cases confirmed in Japan at the end of the week. The ASEAN + 3 statement detailed supply and information sharing between nations, as well as setting up hotlines between national health officials in the region. Meanwhile, China has made it harder for US citizens to get visas to China, requiring six processing days as opposed to the previous one day. According to Xinhua, Undersecretary-General of the United Nations Zha Zukang, was quoted saying,”the Chinese government has learned a lesson from the SARS crisis in 2003 and has established an effective and efficient health emergency response mechanism.” Some question whether countries like China are too confident, keen to prove they are far more prepared than during the SARS crisis. Just days after Zukang’s statement, the government jumped the gun, quarantining70 Mexicans around the country, many of whom were not on flights coming from Mexico.

China changes visa rules for US citizens, AP
Anger as 70 Mexicans quarantined in China , AFP
China develops diagnostic method for possible H1N1 virus, Xinhua
ASEAN + 3 releases joint ministerial statement on A/H1N1, ChinaDaily

TB hot spot Burma in dire need of TB drugs

enrico — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:01:42 +0000

Despite WHO calls that a new strain of TB is “potentially explosive”, Burma is in serious shortage of TB drugs and funding from current national supplier Global Fund Facility will run out at the end of this year. Along with other Asian countries like Thailand, Vietnam, and China, Burma is a WHO “high burden category”. Countries like China have received funding; the Gates Foundation has pumped US $33 million into a TB program in China. An estimated 1.5 percent of Burma’s 55.4 million population are infected by TB each year. Medecins Sans Frontieres is set up in parts of the country to assist, but they rely in part on drugs from the National TB Program, which receives drugs from GFF. Burmese health agencies were given a five year grant from GFF but this is not set to start until 2011, leaving Burma without any international funding for one year.

The challenges of treating TB in Burma - MSF, Reuters AlertNet
Advances made, but battle against TB not over yet, The Nation
Burma faces shortage of drugs in 2010, The Irrawaddy