China meets millennium goal as maternal mortality rate drops

BEIJING, March 20 (Xinhua) -- China's maternal mortality rate contracted to 21.7 per 100,000 in 2014 from 23.2 per 100,000 the previous year, the National Health and Family Planning Commission said Friday.

The reading is a 75.6-percent drop from that of 1990, when the maternal mortality rate was 88.8 per 100,000.

That figure allowed the nation to meet the target set in the Millennium Development Goals one year ahead of deadline. Under the goals adopted by the United Nations in 2000, nations are obligated to cut maternal mortality by three-quarters by 2015.

The commission attributed the decrease to a more equitable medical care system as well as allowances provided for rural women who give birth in hospitals.

However, it stressed that the disparity between the more developed eastern regions and its less developed west still exists, with a maternal mortality rate in western China more than doubling that of the east.

The commission said it would focus its efforts on western China and poor areas to improve medical services and management there.

The statement said the nation's infant death rate and mortality for children ages five and under both dropped in 2014 to 8.9 per thousand and 11.7 per thousand, respectively. The figures for 2013 were 9.5 per thousand and 12 per thousand, respectively.

and more

India Adapts Mobile Phones As Means To Help Prevent Maternal And Child Death

India is adapting the process of using mobile phones to address the problems of maternal and child deaths, which has the highest rates in the world. This campaign will incorporate the use of voice messages in mobile phones to distribute advice on health to mothers and pregnant woman. This project is termed as “Kilkari”, or “Baby’s Gurgle”, and it will include voice messages dedicated to the individual stages for both pregnancy and age of the newborn.

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There are still places in India which are quite remote and services to those parts of the country are not of optimum quality. When it comes to the matter of health, these areas lack good public hospitals and other medical centers. On the other hand India ranks the second largest in the mobile network services. In India there are around 950 million connections, which means, mobile phones have penetrated to the majority of the mass.
Hence the advantages of mobile phones are, they can access places where other health workers may not. “It’s a huge opportunity for us,” says Manoj Jhalani, health ministry official and supervisor of the project. This service will include advice on vitamin supplements and other necessary vaccinations. By August 15, this service will be launched in eight Hindi speaking states of the country. “These are the most cost-effective health interventions,” says Jhalani.

Using mobile phones will prove to be beneficial

In the year 2013, maternal deaths were recorded to be 50,000. Around 1.3 million children below five years of age lost their lives due to poor hygienic problems, unavailability of medical services in urgency, poverty and all. Even diseases like pneumonia and malnutrition, which are treatable in the city, caused many mothers and infants to die.
Public hospitals and medical clinics are either in ruins or they have more patients waiting than they can admit. Hence there were instances when women had no choice than deliver their babies at home, with unhygienic water and absence of proper toilets.
But when this campaign was first set on trial by the government in Bihar, it received positive response. It’s been 18 months since then and around 100,000 rural families have already signed up for the voice messaging service of the mobiles phones. Mobile phones are also a cost-effective way to distribute basic health tips.
“This (mobile services) will have a very marginal effect,” says Dileep Mavalankar, director of the Indian Institute of Public Health, in the western state of Gujarat. But the healthcare system should also be developed in remote areas, he added.

For Treating Acute LRTI: Azithromycin or Amoxicillin?

Approximately five million people die annually from acute respiratory tract infections (eg, acute bronchitis, acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis), with pneumonia being the most frequent cause of death, hospitalization, and medical consultation. In a new review published in the Cochrane Library, researchers sought to compare the effectiveness of the macrolide antibiotic azithromycin to the broad-spectrum penicillin amoxicillin or amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (broad-spectrum penicillin + beta-lactamase inhibitor) for the treatment of lower respiratory tract infections. Microbial eradication, clinical failure, and adverse events were assessed for all therapies.
Fifteen trials, involving 2496 patients, were included in the assessment (12 trials compared azithromycin to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid; three studies compared azithromycin to amoxicillin). The following is a summary
of the findings:


Pooled analysis:

• Incidence of clinical failure on day 10–14: azithromycin group 10.1% vs. amoxicillin or amoxicillin-clavulanic acid 10.3%; no statistical significance between the two groups (risk ratio [RR]:1.09)
• Microbial eradication: azithromycin group: 66.4% vs. amoxicillin or amoxicillin-clavulanic acid 67.6%; no significant difference between the groups
• Overall incidence of adverse events: azithromycin group: 17.9% vs. amoxicillin or amoxicillin-clavulanic acid: 23.6% (RR: 0.76)

Subgroup analysis:

• No significant difference in effect between the two groups with regards to age
• For acute bronchitis, incidence of clinical failure significantly lower in the azithromycin group (RR:0.63)

The authors conclude that while evidence may be unclear as to whether azithromycin is superior to amoxicillin or amoxicillin-clavulanic acid in treating acute lower respiratory tract infections, for patients with acute bronchitis with suspected bacterial cause, azithromycin appears to be the more effective choice for lowering incidence of clinical failure. Also, the incidence of adverse events seems lower with azithromycin.  For clinicians treating acute lower respiratory tract infections, other factors such as cost, convenience, and treatment adherence should be taken into consideration. 

Nirbhaya documentary banned but filmmaker will release it?

THE STORY
A documentary film about the fatal Nirbhaya gang-rape case  has been banned in India over concerns that derogatory comments made by one of the rapists could create an atmosphere of fear and tension, a police official said.

Leslee Udwin's "India's Daughter" features conversations with Mukesh Singh and fellow convicts who raped and tortured a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in December 2012, sparking nationwide protests and forcing India to toughen anti-rape laws.

Comments released to the media this week showed that in the film, Singh blames the victim for the crime and resisting rape. He also says women are more responsible than men for rapes.

"A court has passed (an) order prohibiting the publication and transmission of the interview till further orders," said Rajan Bhagat, a spokesman for Delhi Police.

"He (Mukesh) had made offensive and derogatory remarks against women, creating an atmosphere of fear and tension with the possibility of public outcry."

Singh's comments in "India's Daughter" have grabbed headlines in Indian newspapers and sparked outrage on social media.

The film had been scheduled to premiere in India and several countries such as Britain and Denmark on March 8 on International Women's Day. Udwin, a rape victim herself, said the film would be released worldwide as planned.

"I am deeply saddened by this ban, this is not reasoned behavior," Udwin told Reuters on Wednesday, adding she would never agree to cutting the about nine-minute footage of Singh's interview in the documentary.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said the government has taken necessary action to stop the telecast of a documentary.

Making a statement in the Rajya Sabha, the home minister said government condemns the December 16, 2012 incident and will not allow to leverage such incidents for commercial use.

"It has come to the notice that the said interview was scheduled to be telecast by BBC-4 on International Women's Day on March 8," he said.

"Our government condemns the incident of 2012. The government has taken necessary action and secured a court order restraining telecast of the film," the minister said.

The issue forced the adjournment of the house for 15 minutes amidst noisy scenes earlier as members expressed outrage over the interview.
 In a shocking claim, one of the rapists on death row has displayed an utter lack of remorse, blaming the physiotherapy student for their savagery and saying she 'shouldn’t have fought back'.

In the BBC interview, Mukesh Singh claims that his execution will endanger rape victims.

He claims: “Now when they rape, they won’t let the girl go like we did. They will kill her. Earlier, they would rape and say, ‘Leave her, she won’t tell anyone.’ Now when they rape, especially the criminal types, they will just kill the girl. Death.”

The grotesque statement has set social media on fire, with stinging retaliatory messages doing the rounds. Even the legal community feels Singh’s statements are an “admission of crime” and “give us a peep into his sick mind”.

On December 16, 2012, the 23-year-old woman was brutally assaulted and tortured with an iron rod on a moving bus by five men and a 17-year-old.

Singh, who has admitted to driving the bus but denied raping the woman, is one of the four men sentenced to death for the killing that sparked worldwide condemnation and spurred major changes in Indian law. His death sentence is currently on appeal.

Speaking from jail, Singh says: “Women are more responsible for rape than men…. While being raped, she shouldn’t fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they’d have dropped her off after doing her, and only hit the boy.”

He also says it is up to women to escape rape.

“You can’t clap with one hand - it takes two hands. A decent girl won’t roam around at 9pm. Boys and girls are not equal. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night, doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20 per cent of girls are good,” he says.