Life is Healthy

Antara News, Thursday, May 27, 2010 19:47 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communication and information, Kiyotaka Akasaka, said Indonesia had made an enormous progress at home upon achieving the MDGs target.

"I see that Indonesia has made progress in reducing poverty, upgrade the education sector and women role in the society as well as increasing the rate of child mortality," Akasaka said here on Thursday morning during a press conference after giving a public lecture themed "The UN, MDGs and the Role of Young People in Furthering the Global Agenda" at Atmajaya University Jakarta.

However, he said, further effort was still needed to boost the handling of several sectors namely maternal mortality, eradication of HIV/AIDS, improvement of environmental sustainability an unemployment.

"Indonesia still have five more years to go. I believe this country will be able to achieve the MDGs target and the UN is willing to assist it," he said adding that Indonesia was among countries in the world which support the UN`s program.

At noon, Akasaka is scheduled to meet with Directorate General for Multilateral Economy, Finance and Development from Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry, Rezlan Izhar Janie, and other high officials from the ministry. They will be discussing about further cooperation in area of public information.

"Indonesian government has already support UN`s program during the past years. We are hoping that the support will continue in th future," said Akasaka.

In the afternoon he will visit the Peacekeeping Training Facility in Cilangkap to participate in a ceremonial event to pay tribute to Indonesia`s contributions to UN Peacekeeping in anticipation of the International Day of UN Peacekeepers (May 29).

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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