Life is Healthy

Governments around the world stockpiled antiviral drugs

Key scientists behind World Health Organization advice on stockpiling of pandemic flu drugs had financial ties with companies which stood to profit, an investigation has found.

The British Medical Journal says the scientists had openly declared these interests in other publications yet WHO made no mention of the links.

It comes as a report from the Council of Europe criticised the lack of transparency around the handling of the swine flu pandemic.

A spokesman for WHO said the drug industry did not influence its decisions on swine flu.

Guidelines recommending governments stockpile antiviral drugs were issued by WHO in 2004.

The advice prompted many countries around the world into buying up large stocks of Tamiflu, made by Roche, and Relenza manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline.

A year after the swine flu pandemic was declared, stocks are left unused in warehouses and governments are attempting to unpick contracts.

Conflict of interest

The BMJ, in a joint investigation with The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, found that three scientists involved in putting together the 2004 guidance had previously been paid by Roche or GSK for lecturing and consultancy work as well as being involved in research for the companies.

Although the scientists involved had freely declared the links in other places and said WHO asked for conflicts of interest forms prior to expert meetings, the ties were not publically declared by WHO.

It is not clear whether these conflicts were notified privately by WHO to governments around the world, the BMJ said, and a request to see conflict of interest declarations was turned down.

In addition, membership of the "emergency committee" which advised WHO's director general Margaret Chan on declaring an influenza pandemic has been kept secret.

It means the names of the 16 committee members are known only to people within WHO, and as such their possible conflicts of interest with drug companies are unknown.

On its website, WHO says: "Potential conflicts of interest are inherent in any relationship between a normative and health development agency, like WHO, and a profit-driven industry.

"Similar considerations apply when experts advising the Organization have professional links with pharmaceutical companies.

"Numerous safeguards are in place to manage possible conflicts of interest or their perception."

BBC News, Athens The Danish company's decision has been criticised in Greece

The world's leading supplier of the anti-diabetes drug insulin is withdrawing its medication from Greece.

Novo Nordisk, a Danish company, objects to a government decree ordering a 25% price cut in all medicines.

People with diabetes in Greece have condemned the Danish action as "brutal capitalist blackmail".

More than 50,000 Greeks with diabetes use Novo Nordisk's state of-the-art-insulin, which is injected via an easy-to-use fountain pen-like device.

A spokesman for the Danish pharmaceutical company said it was withdrawing the product from the Greek market because the price cut would force its business in Greece to run at a loss.

The company was also concerned that the compulsory 25% reduction would have a knock-on effect because other countries use Greece as a key reference point for setting drug prices.

'Insensitive'

Greece wants to slash its enormous medical bill as part of its effort to reduce the country's crippling debt.

International pharmaceutical companies are owed billions in unpaid bills. Novo Nordisk claims it is owed $36m (£24.9m) dollars by the Greek state.

The father of a 10-year-old Greek girl with diabetes called Nephele has written to Novo Nordisk's chairman saying there was more to health care than the bottom line.

"You could not have acted in a more insensitive manner at a more inopportune time," he wrote.

The Greek diabetes association was more robust, describing the Danes' actions as "brutal blackmail" and "a violation of corporate social responsibility".

The Danish chairman, Lars Sorensen, wrote to Nephele's father stressing that it was "the irresponsible management of finances by the Greek government which puts both you and our company in this difficult position".

People with diabetes in Greece have warned that some could die as a result of this action.

But a spokesman for Novo Nordisk said this issue was not about killing people. He pledged that the company would make traditional insulin products available free of charge to compensate.

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E.coli causes about 80% of UTIs

Urinary tract infections are becoming increasingly hard to treat because of emerging resistance to current antibiotic drugs, experts warn.

They say the problem is spawned by the overuse of antibiotics in the farming industry which enter the food chain.

Scientists from the University of Hong Kong found evidence suggesting resistance genes are being passed from animals to humans in this way.

Their findings are published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology.

The researchers examined Escherichia coli bacteria, which are responsible for the vast bulk of human urinary tract infections. (UTIs).

Looking at samples from humans and animals they found an identical gene for antibiotic resistance was present.

The gene, called aacC2, encodes resistance to a commonly-used antibiotic gentamicin and was found in approximately 80% of the 249 human and animal samples the team studied.

Lead researcher Dr Pak-Leung Ho said: "These resistance genes may possibly spread to the human gut via the food chain, through direct contact with animals or by exposure to contaminated water sources.

"When the resistance genes end up in bacteria that cause infections in humans, the diseases will be more difficult to treat."

Global problem

Although the research was carried out in only one region - Hong Kong - experts say the problem is global.

Dr Ho said: "With the international trading of meats and food animals, antibiotic resistance in one geographic area can easily become global.

"Health authorities need to closely monitor the transmission of resistance between food-producing animals and humans and assess how such transfers are affecting the effectiveness of human use of antibiotics."

Professor Chris Thomas, an expert in bacteria at the University of Birmingham, said doctors in the UK were also seeing resistant strains.

"Antibiotic use in animal husbandry is tightly controlled in Europe.

"But even if the problem is being curbed here, people travelling abroad and moving from community to community will bring resistance with them and it will spread.

"It's a worldwide problem."

He said the resistant infections could be treated with other, sometimes more expensive antibiotics. However, with time, resistance may develop to these too, he warned.

In the UK, it is estimated that one woman in three will have a UTI before the age of 24, and that half of all women will have at least one UTI during their lifetime. They are less common among men.

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The Pan-American Health Organisation PAHO says Latin America is struggling with a severe outbreak of the deadly dengue fever. 146,000 cases have already been registered this year, and 79 people have died. Last year this time only 79,000 patients had been reported with the illness, which is spread by mosquitoes.

The PAHO says the countries the hardest hit are Brazil, Columbia and Venezuela. There is no medicine against dengue, also known as breakbone fever, although experts hope to have developed one in about five years.

Global warming is responsible for spreading the disease to countries which were formerly unaffected. In some Central American and Caribbean countries, dengue has reached epidemic proportions.

Cancer is preventable: Commemorating World Cancer Day, held every year on Feb. 4, demonstrators distribute flowers at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta on Thursday. The rally held to draw attention to the harmful effects of smoking on human health, and to promote the message that “Cancer Can Be Prevented”. JP/Nurhayati.

Over the past 10 years, the Microsoft co-founder's charity has committed $4.5 billion to vaccines and has been instrumental in establishing the GAVI alliance, a public-private partnership that channels money for vaccines in poor countries.

By increasing immunization coverage in developing countries to 90 percent, it should be possible to prevent the deaths of 7.6 million children under five between 2010 and 2019, Gates told reporters at the World Economic Forum.

Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization described Gates' commitment to vaccines as "unprecedented" and called on governments around the world and the private sector to match it with "unprecedented action."

Vaccination rates have already climbed remarkably in recent years, with even a poor African country like Malawi now boasting coverage rates similar to those in many Western cities.

"Over the last 10 years, the success of both increased vaccine coverage and getting new vaccines out has been phenomenal," Gates said.

More cash is now needed to make the most of new vaccines becoming available, including ones against severe diarrhea and pneumococcal disease from GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Pfizer.

"We can take immunization to the next level, with the expanded uptake of new vaccines against major killers such as pneumonia and rotavirus diarrhea," Chan said in a statement.

She said an extra two million deaths in children under five could be prevented by 2015 by widespread use of new vaccines and a 10 percent increase in global immunization coverage.

Further off, Glaxo is also in the final phase of testing a vaccine against malaria that Gates said could slash deaths from the mosquito-borne disease.

Gates warned against the risk of governments diverting foreign aid funding for health toward climate change, arguing that health should stay a top priority -- not least because better health leads to a lower birth rate.

Curbing the globe's population growth is critical for tackling global warming.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler, additional reporting by Kate Kelland, editing by Jon Boyle)