Thursday 13 October 2011

Rising Global Smoking Rates Could Add Millions of TB Deaths


 There could be 18 million more tuberculosis(TB) cases and 40 million more TB deaths worldwide over the next 40 years if smoking rates stay at their current levels, a new study warns.
Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection of the lungs. Smoking raises the risk of contracting TB and of dying from the disease, explained lead author Dr. Sanjay Basu of the University of California, San Francisco.
The researchers used World Health Organization data to predict the number of TB infections and deaths among smokers between 2010 and 2050.
Along with their alarming finding about the increased numbers of smoking-related TB cases and deaths, the researchers also concluded that strict tobacco control that leads to a 1 percent annual drop in a country's smoking rates could reduce the death toll by 27 million over the next 40 years.
"Tobacco control is tuberculosis control," senior author Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine and director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at UCSF, said in a university news release.
Currently, nearly one-fifth of the world's population smokes tobacco or uses other tobacco products. That rate is expected to rise in many poor countries that don't restrict tobacco marketing.
Most of the world's smokers live in countries with high TB rates, Basu noted.
"The tobacco industry has spent decades working to convince developing countries as well as funding agencies that they should not 'waste' their time on tobacco control, but rather focus on infectious diseases like tuberculosis at the same time that the multinational tobacco companies were expanding aggressively in those very countries," Basu said in the news release.
"This paper shows that, because smoking and passive smoking facilitate the spread of TB and the transition from infection to active TB, reducing tobacco use is an important key to achieving the millennium development goals for TB," Basu said.
The millennium goal was to slash the TB death rate in half between 1990 and 2015 through programs focused on detection and treatment of active TB cases.
The study was published online Oct. 4 in the British Medical Journal.

3 comments:

  1. A Raju, Hyderabad
    Tuesday, October 09, 2012, 08:00 Hrs [IST]
    The Andhra Pradesh Pharmacy Council (APPC) has introduced new token system to control the growing inflow of candidates coming for fresh registrations and renewals.

    According to sources, since July this year there has been an increase in the number of students coming for registrations. Around 120 to 200 students are visiting the office every day. As the council is having a limited staff they are not able to control the growing crowds and have installed two security guards at the gates.

    Sources at the Council’s office informed that every day 40 tokens are issued to the candidates on first come first serve basis. Students coming beyond this number are instructed to come the next day.

    The securities have been instructed to allow only those candidates possessing the tokens into the office. The remaining people who come for enquiry and for other reasons are kept outside the office and are allowed only after 4 pm in the evening.

    As the APPC is the only centralized office here in Hyderabad serving the entire state, many people coming from faraway districts like Adilabad, Tirupati, Visakhapatnam, Vijayanagaram and Srikakulam, etc are facing problems as they have to wait for one or two days more for their work to complete.

    “I have come all the way from Tirupati to get my passbook renewal. I had to close my shop almost two days which is a big loss for me. If the government installs the online system, it will greatly facilitate the members as they can renew regularly on time without any lapse,” informed a D. Pharmacy candidate who had come to the Council’s office for renewal.

    The candidates coming from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions feel that the council should open new regional branches, one at Vijayawada and the other at Tirupati to facilitate the candidates in those regions.

    Moreover, many students, who are fresh B and D Pharmacy graduates, are unaware as to what are the required documents to be submitted in order to get them registered. Though the council has put the instructions in the notice boards and here and there on the walls, it is not enough. Many students feel that an official website of the APPC would be a great facility which would enable them to know more details relating to registrations and renewals.

    The much hyped online system of the pharmacy council is yet to be installed. Though the Council sources earlier claimed that it will be installed in three months, so far nothing has been done in this respect.

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    Delay in launching website causes huge rush of pharmacists for registration at APPC office

    Our Bureau, Hyderabad
    Thursday, December 27, 2012, 08:00 Hrs [IST]
    With undue delay in the launch of a website for Andhra Pradesh Pharmacy Council (APPC), the officials and the security staff of the Council are experiencing the pressure as large numbers of newly graduated students and pharmacists are pouring in for registrations and renewals at the office.

    Already the APPC is facing the staff crunch. On the top of it every day around 400 to 600 people are pouring in at the council’s office for renewals and registrations. This is creating huge pressure on the staff as they are not able to complete the targets in time due to overload of work.

    “A website for APPC is very much required. If the website comes into force it will definitely reduce this mad rush and it will give a lot of relief not only to the staff but also to the candidates. Once the online registration system comes in place any one can register or renew from any part of the world without any hazels,” informed an official at the council.

    To reduce the rush a token system is already in place, but with huge rush of pharmacists it doesn’t seem to work. Every day 300 to 400 freshly graduated D. Pharm, B. Pharm and M. Pharm students are standing in large queues to just collect the tokens. Another 300 to 400 people are coming every day for renewals. With large number people all round the situation at the council’s office is chaotic. As the office premises is located at the fourth floor in a commercial complex. There is not enough place for the candidates to stand and the entire office is congested having no systematic entry or exit points.

    “We face the same problem from December to March every year. We are waiting for an online system to be introduced soon, this would definitely reduce the rush as well as the workload,” informed another staff of the council.

    When enquired why the website for the APPC is delayed, sources at the Drug Control Administration informed that already the file is put before the concerned principal secretary at the secretariat. Once the government takes a decision the online process will be taken up immediately.

    Even the much hyped online system of Andhra Pradesh Drug Control Administration (APDCA) was launched long back; it has not been in operation due to technical problems. People are hoping that at least in the New Year the state government will take a favourable decision and launch an exclusive website for APPC and avoid the inconvenience to the pharmacists across the state

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