INDIAN PHARMACIST ASSOCIATION

In a major initiative to combat TB epidemic, the World Health Organisation and the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) signed a joint statement here on Sunday seeking to involve pharmacists in tuberculosis care and control.

The statement was signed by Hiroki Nakatani, WHO Assistant Director-General for HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases and FIP president, Michel Buchmann, at the World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences 2011 and the 71st International Congress of FIP. The event was inaugurated by President Pratibha Patil earlier.

Dr. Nakatani said that TB was one of the major killers worldwide claiming five million lives per year. Referring to the emergence of multi-drug resistant TB due to underuse, overuse and misuse of anti-TB drugs, he pointed out that India was home to largest burden of TB patients and emphasised the importance of collaboration with pharmacists.

FIP president Michel Buchmann said that FIP would endeavour to support WHO and its member States in enabling national TB programmes and national pharmacy associations to strengthen their collaboration towards care and control of TB and multi-drug resistant TB globally.

The statement called upon TB programmes and pharmacy associations to engage pharmacists in the fight against TB by increasing awareness of TB, referring people with TB symptoms to facilities with quality diagnosis and treatment, providing patient-centric treatment supervision to promote adherence and help prevent multi-drug resistant TB and promoting the rational use of anti-TB medicines.

Meanwhile, FIP honoured several individuals for their outstanding dedication to the development of pharmacy and science . The awards include FIP Distinguished Practice Award to Dr.Marianne F. Ivey (USA) and FIP Lifetime Achievment in Pharmaceutical Practice Award to Dr. Th ( Dick) Tromp (The Netherlands).

Source: The Hindu

At a two-day consultation here, health ministers and senior officials from 11 SAARC nations emphasised on the need to improve routine immunisation services and WHO officials announced the formation of a regional committee to enhance and sustain the existing services among member countries.

Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad highlighted challenges of the programme in the country. “You can estimate the scale of India’s immunisation programme from the fact that around 26 million children are born every year….We face challenges to cover this large birth cohort.”

Source: Indian Express

At the launch of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) first report on Neglected Tropical Diseases, GSK announced a new five-year commitment to expand the donation of its medicine albendazole to treat children at risk of intestinal worms, known as soil-transmitted helminths (STH).

Today’s report confirms that intestinal worms cause more ill health in school-aged children than any other infection. STHs aggravate malnutrition and amplify rates of anaemia. In doing so, they impede children’s physical growth and cognitive development, contributing significantly to school absenteeism. Lack of access to safe water and proper sanitation are the main factors in the persistence and prevalence of these diseases.

As part of control programmes, the WHO recommend annual treatment of all children aged 1-15 in STH endemic areas with single dose albendazole (or mebendazole). This ‘de-worming’ usually results in immediate improvements in child health and development. It also reduces absenteeism from school leading to improved academic achievement, and helps to reduce the burden on already overstretched health systems.

Under the new commitment announced today, GSK will increase production capacity of albendazole through new investments in its factories in South Africa and India. These investments will provide an additional 400 million treatments of albendazole per year. This represents a major new contribution to the UN’s strategy to improve women’s and children’s health and, when combined with existing de-worming programmes, will enable the countries to scale-up their efforts to achieve universal coverage of school age children in Africa. Shipments of the new donations are expected to start in late 2011.

Andrew Witty, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline said, “The scale of what is required to prevent and treat neglected tropical diseases means it is critical we take an integrated approach. We commend the WHO’s leadership to increase the visibility of these diseases to the global health community. There is growing momentum within industry, government and other partners to supply both medicines and funds. Our activity in this area is widespread, with ongoing research in both prevention and treatment. Today, marks another significant commitment by GSK and I hope will help to make a major difference to the lives of people in those countries facing these diseases.”

Dr Margaret Chan, director-general of the WHO said, “This pledge extends a long-term collaboration between WHO and GSK in tackling diseases that are perpetuated by poverty and keep people in poverty, especially in Africa. Albendazole is a safe, effective, and easy to administer treatment for children infected with soil-transmitted helminthiases, bringing rapid results with long-term benefits. The GSK donation means that many millions more will benefit as part of a strategy that can break the cycle of poverty, ill health, poor school performance, and lost productivity.”

The new commitment to supply 400 million tablets of albendazole per year for the treatment of intestinal worms is in addition to GSK’s ongoing commitment to supply the WHO with 600 million tablets of albendazole per year for use in the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filiariasis (GAELF), a chronic disease that causes debilitating damage to the lymphatic system, kidneys, arms, legs and genitals.