Health

Among 230 people with the deadliest form of malaria in Thailand, India and Tanzania, Ranbaxy's arterolane cleared the disease in as many as 72 percent of patients within 28 days, researchers led by Neena Valecha at India's National Institute of Malaria Research wrote in the Sept. 15 edition of the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The Bangkok Post's website reported that the ministry's Bureau of Epidemiology of the Disease Control Department said the total death toll was confirmed for the period between April 28, 2009 and Aug. 7, 2010.

The number of people sick from the H1N1 virus started to rise in early July, along with the spread of seasonal influenza during the rainy season, the department said.

Local media reports say Bangkok's Public Health Ministry announced that some 54,592 Thais were infected with the viral disease between January 1st and August 3rd in 2010, and 63 of those had succumbed to the illness.

And the so-called breakbone fever affected seven infants aged less than 28 days, and more than 4-hundred seniors who are 65-years-old and above.

The Department of Disease Control says some 80 percent of the reported cases were caused by virus-carrying mosquitoes and have advised homes to frequently change water in vessels inside the house where mosquitoes often lay their eggs.
There is no vaccine to prevent dengue fever.

In the Ranong province of Thailand, aid workers estimate that migrants from Myanmar have reached around 200,000, which is twice the size of the local population. Many are from ethnic minorities, particularly the Christian Karen people, who have fled from the south of Myanmar following repression by the junta. In Ranong, they find low paid work in the fishing, seafood and agricultural industries.

But even though these refugees have found safety in Thailand, for many their struggle to survive is far from over. The prevalence of HIV/AIDs among the migrants is high, though no official statistics are available. Fearful of seeking help, migrants often appear at local hospitals only when they become so ill they are unable to work and are in the last stages of the disease.

The local health care in Ranong has been funding treatment for 3,000 migrants but is now relying on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as Marist Mission Ranong to help pay for new HIV patients. At 80 dollars per month, the cost of Anti-Retroviral medication is too high for most to afford from their own income, assuming they are well enough to work.

There was a growing focus on appearance in Thailand during the review period, with consumers becoming increasingly unwilling to accept skin problems. This boosted self-medication for many products in medicated skin care, with products offering aesthetic benefits seeing a particularly good performance. Hair loss treatments thus saw 7% volume growth in 2009 over the previous year, while acne treatments saw an impressive 11% growth.

This Medicated Skin Care Products in Thailand report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data 2005-2009, allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. Forecasts to 2014 illustrate how the market is set to change.

"I'm worried about how people dress, especially teenagers," said Deputy Public Health Minister Phansiri Kulanartsiri, noting that the mosquitoes which transmit the disease are attracted by dark colours.

"The mosquitoes can bite through the leggings' thin fabric, so those who wear them are at greater risk of being infected with dengue."

"It's better to wear light colours and wear pants that can protect against mosquitoes, such as jeans," she said in a statement released Sunday.

Thailand has seen a spike in dengue cases, with 43 deaths and more than 45,000 infections in the first seven months of this year, according to the government. Many of the victims were young people.

The Asian edition of beauty conference in-cosmetics, scheduled to take place in Bangkok in early November, has identified three key areas of interest for the Asian beauty market: skin-whitening, anti-aging, and anti-acne.

Skin-whitening, which is worth $18 billion on the continent alone after experiencing rapid growth since the 1970s, will be addressed by various experts in the field with talks on antioxidants or non-invasive measurements of skin color, for instance.

Asia-Pacific is also the second fastest-growing market for anti-aging products, making it a promising region for international skincare brands to tailor their offers to.

"It is found that the vaccine has 31.2-per-cent efficacy in reducing the risk of HIV infection," Health Minister Withaya Kaewparadai told a press conference.

"The outcome represents a breakthrough in HIV vaccine development because for the first time ever there is evidence that HIV vaccine has preventative efficacy," he added.

The study, to appear Tuesday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, showed that hand hygiene and face masks seem to mitigate the household transmission of the flu when the measures are used in combination and within 36 hours of one person in the house getting sick.

Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai said the baby was born premature. The 26-year-old mother had H1N1 flu and gave birth only seven months into her term.

The prenatal infection was a case study, because it was the world's first recorded case, he said.

The ministry also reported new 176 A(H1N1) cases, bringing the cumulative total to 4,057 patients.

Regarding the rising number of new patients and the proposal to close schools for one month to contain the A(H1N1) pandemic, Deputy Public Health Minister Manit Nopamornbhodi said that the ministry must discuss the issue with the Ministry of Education, as mid-term examinations will be held soon and the closure could affect the teaching schedule.

Mr. Manit, however, said that the A(H1N1) screening measures introduced in schools nationwide on Monday to detect at-risk students will work effectively to control the outbreak in schools. The ministry's report revealed that the measures could reduce the number of newly-infected cases in schools.

The measures include screening by teachers and health officials for students with high fevers and other flu-like symptoms when students assemble for morning exercises before class. If found likely to have contracted the A(H1N1) flu, the student will be immediately sent home for a seven-day self-quarantine period. (TNA  

Ignoring this, the government declares that milk is essential to good health, subsidizes the milk industry to the tune of billions of dollars, and requires milk in its public school lunch programs. And celebrity shills sporting milk mustaches tell us that milk is rich in proteins, calcium, and vitamins--and very cool to boot.

They forget to tell you about the dangers lurking in that innocuous-looking glass of white. Once criticized only by naturopaths and vegans, now the health effects of milk are being decried by many mainstream doctors. The supposedly hip milk mustache is actually a creamy layer of mucus, live bacteria, and pus.

Former Chairman of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University, Frank Oski, M.D. even has a book called Don't Drink Your Milk which blames every second health problem kids suffer on hormone-ridden commercial milk. Sixty percent of ear infections in kids under six years of age are milk-induced, and milk consumption is the number one cause of iron-deficiency anemia in infants today according to the American Association of Pediatrics.

But milk is also a racial issue. Almost 90 percent of African Americans and most Latinos, Asians, and Southern Europeans lack the genes necessary to digest lactose, the primary sugar in milk. The milk industry's response is classic: they have launched new campaigns arguing that non-whites can digest milk if they take in small sips during the day. There is a burgeoning industry worth $450 million a year churning out products designed to minimize lactose intolerance.