Top stories from DAWNS Digest
Salt Reduction Targets Set at World Health Assembly
The WHO’s governing body wraps up an eventful session. “Nations at the World Health Assembly in Geneva agreed to a target to reduce average daily salt consumption by 30 percent by 2025, to cut smoking rates by 30 percent, and to cut harmful alcohol use by 10 percent. Other objectives include reducing inactivity and halting the rise in diabetes and obesity, to meet a goal adopted last year to reduce deaths from so-called non-communicable disease by 25 percent by 2025.” (Bloomberg http://bloom.bg/18v2auK)
Yet Again, Iraqi Shi’ites Targeted By Horrific Violence
These kinds of massacres are becoming a regular occurrence. “The attacks started during the afternoon rush hour. A car bomb exploded at a public market, killing six people, the police said. Just after that, eight car bombings hit Shiite neighborhoods, including Huriya, Sadr City, Baya, Zafaraniya and Kadhimiya Altogether, at least 53 people were killed in the attacks and more than 100 were wounded, yet another sign of a surge in violence as sectarian tensions have risen in the last month.” (NYTimes http://nyti.ms/18v0PEc)
Polio in the Horn of Africa
The WHO is stepping up its warnings about new cases of polio in previously polio-free countries. “Two children have recently been found to have the type of paralysis caused by polio — one in the southern part of Somalia and the other in a Kenyan camp that includes many Somali refugees. Two healthy children related to the second child also had evidence of infection. Only about one infection in 200 causes paralysis, but the rest can silently shed the virus, which is spread by fecal-oral contact, often through sewage gutters and dirty puddles…If the outbreak is not quickly contained, the consequences could be far-reaching. From 2002 to 2005, the virus spread from Nigeria, where it has never been wiped out, to 21 other countries, paralyzing more than 1,000 victims.” (NYTimes http://nyti.ms/18v1TIr)