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VATICAN -
Geneva (Agenzia Fides) - "The Catholic Church provides a major contribution to health care in all parts of the world – through local churches, religious institutions and private initiatives, which act on their own responsibility and in the respect of the law of each country – including the promotion of 5,378 hospitals, 18,088 dispensaries and clinics, 521 leprosaria, and 15,448 homes for the aged, the chronically ill, or disabled people." These were the words of Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the Office of the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva, in his speech delivered on June 8, during the General Debate Item 3 of the 14th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, during which he focused largely on the need to ensure universal access to medicines and diagnostic tools to all people. The Archbishop stressed that from the reports from those actually operating in the territory in some communities, among the poorest, marginalized, and isolated, it is clear that the rights outlined in international documents "far from being realized."
"One major impediment to the realization of these rights is the lack of access to affordable medicines and diagnostic tools," said Archbishop Tomasi, who proceeded in recalling that the "diseases of poverty" still account for 50 percent of the burden of disease in developing countries, nearly ten times higher than in developed countries; more than 100 million people fall into poverty annually because they have to pay for health care; in developing countries, patients themselves pay for 50 to 90 per cent of essential medicines; nearly 2 billion people lack access to essential medicines.
"One group particularly deprived of access to medicines is that of children. Many essential medicines have not been developed in appropriate formulations or dosages specific to pediatric use... This situation can result in the tragic loss of life or continued chronic illness among such needy children. For example, of the 2.1 million children estimated to be living with HIV infection, only 38% were received life-saving anti-retroviral medications at the end of 2008. This treatment gap is partially due to the lack of "child friendly" medications to treat the HIV infection."
The Permanent Observer of the Holy See explained that his delegation is well aware of the complexities inherent in the intellectual property aspects related to the issue of access to medicines. However, he also urged the Council "to renew its commitment as a key stakeholder in efforts to assert and safeguard the right to health by guaranteeing equitable access to essential medicines." (SL) (Agenzia Fides 09/06/2010)
Links:
Complete text of the speech, in English
http://www.fides.org/eng/documents/Statement_HS_Geneva_08062010.doc
AFRICA/NIGER -
Niamey (Agenzia Fides) – A lack of transport, rural lifestyles, and pressure on women to prepare fields for harvest mean severely malnourished children are being taken out of therapeutic feeding programs before their treatment is complete. In some remote rural areas, health centers, where treatment takes place, are too far away for families to reach at all. One in five severely malnourished children in feeding programs in Zinder and Maradi provinces in the south drop out because they are traveling from Nigeria. Treating severe malnourishment takes up to eight weeks of intensive feeding, on average. Despite drop-outs, week-on-week the number of severely malnourished children being registered in therapeutic feeding programs is on the rise, with a jump of 8,000 cases just last week.
Aid agencies have admitted 84,000 severely malnourished children into care since the beginning of the year. In the southeastern province of Diffa, where the NGO Save the Children is working, the situation is getting worse. The organization is planning to extend aid to all the health centers of the district of Diffa. In Zinder and Maradi: "It takes the children and their mothers too long to go back and forth to the center. Husbands don't want their wives and children to stay there in the centres unaccompanied for long periods of time; and it's the start of the harvesting season - women prepare the fields - so they are being called home," sources explain. Many families find it hard to access health centers at all. In some areas, 70 percent of villages are more than 15km from health centers, with some villages 50km away. "It can take three days to walk there [to the center] and three days to walk back, so by that time they have to leave again," sources say.
Global acute malnutrition rates in Diffa province were the highest in the country, at 17.4 percent. Many rural families in northern Diffa do not stay put, so cannot be reached. One may return to a site one month later and find the village has disappeared. Children undergoing intensive feeding ideally need to be monitored weekly to ensure they are gaining weight, have no other health complications, and that the high-calorie food they are given is not being diverted to other family members. Children under five and pregnant women ostensibly receive free healthcare in Niger. However, even if it is free, you still need enough medicines to be able to provide it. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 8/6/2010)
AMERICA/VENEZUELA - Tons of food products left to expire could have fed 500,000 needy families
Caracas (Agenzia Fides) – The scandal connected with tons of food purchased abroad to feed the poorest Venezuelans and then left to expire in their containers is occupying a prominent place in the media and public debate in the Latin American country. Gathering information from different sources, Fides has learned that the Mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, has denounced the case of expired foods that were found in complete decomposition as "an act of grave irresponsibility." The mayor spoke of 87 million pounds of food destroyed, which could have fed about 500,000 families in the country. He also launched an appeal for the Head of State to intervene, as a good father, and take control of the situation. According to the mayor, these provisions "could help many elderly and needy families. They could help many people who are in extreme poverty. We are not a rich country, there are many poor among us."
According to the local press, the food arrived at different ports in Venezuela in 2008, and currently there is no exact number of how many thousands of tonnes have been lost. Official figures show that in Venezuela at least 6 percent of the population suffers from malnutrition, a rate similar to what the government recognizes as extreme poverty. The State and the private sector of Venezuela import nearly eight billion dollars in food, including milk, butter and cheese, beef and chicken, oil, flour, sugar, maize, beans, and other products that during the last decades of the twentieth century had been exported, such as coffee, which today comes from Nicaragua. In Puerto Cabello alone (150 kilometers northwest of Caracas) around 1,200 containers with 35,000 tons of beef, pork and chicken, dairy products, vegetable oil, flour, sugar, marmalade, and salt were left unused. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 09/06/2010)
