Kenya reduces child deaths from malaria
Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:14:58 GMT
By TOM MALITI, Associated Press Writer
NAIROBI, Kenya - Kenya cut child deaths from malaria by more than 40 percent over five years by handing out insecticide-treated mosquito nets, U.N. and Kenyan officials said Thursday.
Experts hope to replicate the success throughout Africa. An estimated 700,000 to 2.7 million people die of malaria each year, 75 percent of them African children, and tens of millions of people suffer chronically from the debilitating disease, even though it is preventable and curable.
Over the past five years, Kenya gave out 13.5 million treated nets with the percentage of children sleeping under them rising to 52 percent in 2006, from 5 percent in 2003, the health ministry said in a statement.
Health Minister Charity Ngilu said Kenya's program saved seven children for every 1,000 mosquito nets used. "This is value for money," she said. "Definitely this is good investment."
The Kenyan program followed World Health Organization guidelines that nets should be distributed free or heavily subsidized to everyone, as opposed to the earlier practice of giving children and pregnant mothers priority, the WHO said in a statement.
"We now have evidence that recent massive scaling up of malaria control interventions such as insecticide treated nets has dramatically reduced child deaths due to malaria by 44 percent in malaria risk areas," Ngilu said.
Ngilu said that her ministry's research report on Kenya's anti-malaria campaign will be published in peer reviewed journals, though she did not name them.
Dr. Sylvia Meek, of the London-based Malaria Consortium, said malaria among children is declining because of the nets, when in the 1990s when cases were rising.
"Such a reduction is certainly highly significant and a great achievement," she said.
"In some of the older kind of programs, they found using nets led to an average reduction of about 20 percent, so if they reduced deaths by 44 percent that is obviously even better."
Dr. Arata Kochi, director of the World Health Organization's Global Malaria Program, said Kenya should be a model for malaria prevention to be replicated throughout Africa.
"This data from Kenya ends the debate about how to deliver long-lasting insecticidal nets," Kochi said. "No longer should the safety and well-being of your family be based upon whether you are rich or poor. When these nets are easily available for every person, young or old, malaria is reduced."
Study Dust with retardant may harm cats
Thu, 16 Aug 2007 03:40:48 GMT
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON - A new federal study suggests that household dust containing a common flame retardant may be linked to an increase in cats getting sick from overactive thyroids. That could be a warning sign for how young children could get exposed to the chemical, said Linda S. Birnbaum, director of experimental toxicology at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and co-author of the study.
The small study looks at chemical flame retardants called polybrominated diphenyl ethers , which were used in foam, plastics, furniture, electronics, fabrics and carpet padding. The sole American manufacturer in 2004 agreed to phase out the types of PBDEs included in the study because of concern about toxicity in animals.
But PBDEs remain in American homes.
The study of 23 cats found the older felines with high levels of certain types of PBDEs tended to have overactive thyroids, the researchers reported online Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science and Technology.
Hyperthyroidism is treatable in both cats and humans. In cats, the disease started soaring in America in the late 1970s and 1980s, soon after PBDEs became common, according to the researchers.
The EPA study adds to recent research that raises serious questions about human exposure to PBDE. One study found a significant relationship between indoor dust exposure and PBDE levels in first-time mothers in the Boston area. Another found PBDE levels in Americans are three to 10 times higher than in Europeans. And small studies in California and Norway show that children, especially toddlers, have higher PBDE levels than adults.
Tom Webster, a professor of environmental health at Boston University, said animal research has found PBDEs to damage the nervous system and disrupt hormones, but studies haven't been done to look at people's health.
"I don't think we know about health yet, but I don't like the sound of this," said Webster, who co-authored the Boston dust study but was not part of the EPA research, which he praised. "Levels in people are going up."
But because the cat study is so preliminary, Birnbaum said people shouldn't overreact and sell their furniture or rid themselves of carpets. However, she said she makes sure to wash her grandchildren's blankets more frequently and checks on flame retardant use when buying furniture.
Most people don't have PBDE levels that are anywhere near that of cats, Birnbaum said. PBDE is just one of many chemicals that accumulate in our body with unknown effects, but the dust exposure route is unusual, Birnbaum said.
The EPA study suggests household dust as the key way PBDE gets into cats, and likely, people. It also found elevated PBDE levels in certain cat food, mostly fish, but tests showed food couldn't be blamed for the high levels in cats, Birnbaum said.
She said if PBDEs get into bodies through household dust, that means children are likely to be more exposed than their parents.
"To me, it's a consumer product issue," said Myrto Petreas, chief of the state of California's environmental chemistry branch and co-author of other studies looking at PBDE levels in women and San Francisco Bay harbor seals. "You get exposed while you're in your home.... It's in the carpet. It's in the monitor. It's in your chair."
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On the Net:
The EPA study: Environmental Protection Agency's PBDE web site: http://www.epa.gov/oppt/pbde/
State of Washington's advice on avoiding exposure to PBDEs: http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/oehas/pbde/pbdeavoidexposure.htm
