India’s Efforts to Aid Poor Worry Drug Makers

The article “India’s Efforts to Aid Poor Worry Drug Makers” shed light on the extremely expensive drugs that are a burden on the people needing them. One of those medicines, probably the most important and expensive, is the cancer medicines. There are so many women who are unable to afford a single treatment. The scarcity of the cancer medicines caused by its high prices and the growing demand had caught authority attention. The Indian government threatened to produce a cheaper and generic form of Herceptin, a strong breast cancer medicine. For those poor and who cannot afford any part of the $18,000 for a course of the treatment, this was something to look forward to: The producers of such drugs are who saw danger in such government intervention. The Herceptin maker from Switzerland Roche Holdings, refused but latter gave patent right after realizing the guaranteed lost in front of the law. The argument over the price of the expensive cancer medicine continues. There are serious international attempts from government officials of India to betterment of the situation.  The attempts include bringing innovative medicine and discovering cures and technology to help the large and poor population of cancer patient in India. Many experts suggest that even more investment should be done on preventing rather than curing. The Indian successful attempts to adopt paten laws spread around the world in countries including Brazil, Colombia and the Philippines. The effect does not stop there, but is also affecting the USA that also has expensive cancer medicine regardless of Medicare.

 

Expensive drugs and disease control is a global matter that no longer start or stop at one point. The different types of cancers and their expensive treatment are health problem facing both developed and underdeveloped countries. The fact that the problem has gained international attention, especially by the United States, points that the cancer epidemic is something that requires global attention and specially that of developed countries. India account for a large percent of the world’s health problems and cancer is a becoming the second HIV. Although Indian women are less likely to get breast cancer compared to the women in the United states, they are more likely to die as a result of it thus it is fatal in this case. The review over the paten right and government steps toward controlling high drug prices around the world is evident. Globalization and the technological age account for such advancement on shedding light over such issues. India is also to be thanked for both opening the world eyes and proving that it is ‘here’ for its national issues.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/30/health/indias-efforts-to-aid-poor-worry-drugmakers.html

Why Russian Men Don't Live as Long

Summary:
According to research Russians typically have a lower life expectancy. A Russian man has a 25% chance of dying before the age of 55 which is extremely low compared to other developed countries. Recent research of two large studies have suggested that the main cause of this difference is vodka. Russians love their vodka as much as they love their cigarettes. Russians typically drink more frequently than other men in other countries. Not only do they drink more frequently but they also tend to keep drinking after they reach the point of drunkenness. Male smokers who reported drinking three or more half liter bottles of vodka per week had a substantially higher risk of death than those that reported drinking one bottle or less per week. Recent price increases as well as a crackdown on black market sales have cut sales down to a third.

Analysis:
Alcohol is a major cause of Russia's low life expectancy rate. Twenty-five percent of Russia's male population will die before the age of 55. This is especially shocking to me because here in America a majority of our grandparents typically live between the ages of 70-80 years old. Of course Russia is not the only place where men like to enjoy vodka or other types of alcohol. Russian men just tend to drink more at a time as well as drink more frequently. I believe that this is due to their culture. In American society we would look at someone who drinks three bottles of vodka a week and immediately assume that they are an alcoholic. But in Russia I believe that this is not a violation of a social norm.

Obama signs student loan legislation

Summary:

This article is about Obama signing a new bill that will lower the student interest rate.  It will also allow undergrads, graduate students, and parents to borrow more money.  The rates will be locked for this years, but as each year progresses the rate can increase if the ten year treasury note increases.  For undergraduate student the rate can not increase more that 8.25% for undergraduate students, and 10.5% for graduate students.  This rate goes into affect for the Strafford loan, which is the most common loan for college students when needing to borrow money.  The student borrows money from the government and the government expects that payment plus interest on the amount borrowed.  These loans are available for almost any college student, including foreign exchange.

Analysis:

From what I have read this is a major improvement in our educational system.  Lowering the student interest rate will help students who have graduated, or been to school at the collegiate level.  This affects all the students in the country as well as the world who travel to different countries to go to school.  When he also put a cap on the interest being no more than 8.25% this gives a sigh of relief to many students who are attending college, or are still looking to go to college in the future.  We are moving forward with helping students whoa re going to school because we don't know what the future holds for us.  Many of the students that go to school are scared that they are not going to be able to pay off the interest before they go into retirement.  This affects all parts of the family as well as the nation as a whole.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/troyonink/2013/07/31/new-student-loan-rates-3-9-for-students-6-4-for-parents/

Blog #2: Sexual Assault on Women and the Affect on Health

Summary: Sexual assault is an increasing issue and one out of every fourteen women in the world has been a victim. Those who live in central sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia,  New Zealand as well as Australia are facing an endemic in relation to sexual assault. The news has heightened the public's awareness due to recent rapes that have occurred in India and South Africa with women. In North America 13% of women have reported being raped and is ranked the 6th highest out of 21 geographic regions. However, this region may have a more accepting as well as comfortable environment to be able to report rapes and sexual assault than others. The estimated economic cost in North America in relation to sexual assault ranges from $87,000 to $240,776 per rape and includes medical costs, law enforcement, and lost productivity. Sexual assault affects women not only physically but mentally as well such as depression, chronic pain, anxiety, post traumatic stress, and eating disorders.

Analysis: Sexual Assault greatly affects women's health with not only the physical wounds but as well as mentally. Women who have been assaulted sexually often show signs of depression as well as anxiety, eating disorders and post traumatic stress syndrome. North America has a larger amount of reported sexual assaults than most geographic regions, but it is important to take into account how other regions may not have such an accepting view of women reporting men to their respective law enforcement agencies. After sexual assault with no mental therapy process may quickly become despondent as well as unproductive and unable to work which in turn greatly affects society and the economy. Unfortunately, women in sexually assaulted instances often do not report their assault which in turn causes reports to not be as accurate as possible. With such a world wide problem and the health risks that are associated with these assaults, diminishing the occurrences of them would greatly decrease  the depression rates as well as help women's mental health statistics to be positive in their favor instead of negative.

Sources:
 http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/22/obama-sexual-assault-report-white-house-council-on-women-and-girls/4776949/

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/1-14-women-reports-non-partner-sexual-assault-worldwide-n27876

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/02/12/women-face-high-sexual-assault-rates-globally/

Polio Health Workers Massacred in Nigeria

     Just today, women who are health workers were shot  at. These health workers were going house to house giving out vaccination drives of Polio to the Muslim families who needed it. Polio, also known as infantile paralysis, is a highly infectious viral disease that may attack the central nervous system and can cause a mild non-paralytic infection to total paralysis in a matter of hours. The women were doing their jobs or what they were passionate about and a man came and opened fire on them. Eight to nine women were killed. It is said that this attack "also signaled a new wave of anger targeting immunization drives in Nigeria, where clerics once claimed the vaccines were part of a Western plot to sterilize young girls". This attack is one of many. It was read that in the pass weeks, another attack had occurred in Pakistan. Many who were against these vaccination drives have not really taken action until this year. Many also were skeptic on the vaccination. I understand that many of the people have their doubts, but what I do not understand is how can someone take a life when that life could have save hundreds of lives. The lives of young children could be saved. I would want these women to have longevity due to the fact that "humanity is so very close to eliminating polio from the face of the earth."


Kayla Howard
Submitted: February 8th, 2013 12:30
Source: http://www.undispatch.com/polio-health-workers-massacred-in-nigeria
Other sources: http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/polio