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FBIS3-60286_0 | Danilov-Danilyan on Need for Environmental Aid From West | Language: Russian Article Type:CSO ["Abridged" interview with V.I. Danilov-Danilyan, minister of environmental protection and natural resources, by NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA correspondent D. Frolov under the rubric "Opinion. ZELENYY MIR Files"; place and date not given: "Russia in an Ecological Zugzwang"] [Text] Minister V.I. Danilov-Danilyan told NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA correspondent D. Frolov: "We and the West alike need Western aid." Danilov-Danilyan: ...Dozens of cities in Russia have absolutely impermissible indicators of air pollution. If we omit the word "absolutely," the number of such cities will come...to 110. These are not some kind of provincial towns but rather large industrial and administrative centers, including the capital city. In many places, pollutants are superimposed over one another in a way: transportation generates nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide, the iron and steel industry generates sulfur dioxide and benzopyrene; the chemical industry generates formaldehyde, phenol, and aromatic hydrocarbons. The cumulative effect of this cocktail is menacing, and the residents of cities such as Kemerovo, Nizhniy Tagil, Sverdlovsk, Perm, Chelyabinsk, and Saratov suffer incredibly because of this. Most bodies of water are in an impermissible condition. The Volga is no longer a great Russian river but, by analogy with the Danube, which is called "Europe's cesspool," it fully merits the name of "Russia's cesspool." The Ladoga, Omega, Neva, North Dvina, and virtually all rivers of the Urals are polluted.... The Bering and Kara Seas have become a cemetery for decommissioned nuclear reactors; a favorable situation in regard to radiation is out of the question there. In general, radioactive contamination is our worst ecological problem: There are Chernobyl, Kyshtym, and dozens of oblasts with poorly controlled storage facilities. Frolov: It would appear that the list of our ecological troubles could go on forever. As you see it, what kind of resources will be needed in order to contain, if not eliminate all of this? Danilov-Danilyan: If monetary terms are at issue, it is very hard to make this assessment. For example, how can we appraise the extinction of a biological species or the damage done to a genetic pool? Of course, it is possible to count the dead forests, sick leave, and losses caused by the corrosion of metal. However, the result will be far from the truth. As far as containment is concerned, this is a major problem indeed, because we are increasingly posing a danger to our neighbors. This is not necessarily a catastrophe on the scale |
FBIS3-60288_0 | Danilov-Danilyan Concerned About Russia's Garbage Disposal Methods | Language: Russian Article Type:CSO [Article by S. Demin under the rubric "Ecology": "Burning Gold"] [Text] This is how V. Danilov-Danilyan, minister of environmental protection and natural resources of Russia, described the issue of garbage disposal in Russia and specifically in the Moscow region at a press conference devoted to ecological problems in our country held yesterday at the House of the Russian Press. In the words of Viktor Ivanovich, in developed European countries household waste is sorted and either recycled or burned. In our country, everything is burned without distinction, producing smoke which does nothing to improve the ecological situation in the country. Millions of rubles go up in smoke. This happens because there are neither specialists in sorting waste nor special plants. On the whole, the ecological situation in Russia is critical, but for now nothing can be done about it: In a country with a sick economy, the environment will also suffer. Mr. Danilov-Danilyan stated that inspectors of the environmental protection inspectorate are frequently unable to even assess fines against enterprises: They run to billions, and enterprises may go bankrupt, leaving hundreds of thousands of people out on the street. Meanwhile, Russia has only 16,000 ecology specialists. |
FBIS3-60290_0 | Technology Developed To Extract Lead From Batteries | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Article by Roman Gerasimov and Dmitry Kossakovsky; first paragraph MOSCOW NEWS comment] [Text] An ecologically pure technology of producing secondary metal has been developed at the Institute of Electro-Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences. After the disintegration of the USSR the commercially developed lead deposits for Russia's customers found themselves outside of the country's borders, whilst the price of lead from the CIS countries is quite often higher than it is on the world market. At the same time the demand for it can, to a considerable extent, be met by using the storage batteries which have exhausted their service life. In the industrially advanced countries up to 95% of used batteries are processed, and 75% of requirements in lead are being met with secondary metal obtained in such a way. Its cost is approximately three times less than primary. In Russia less than 50% of used batteries are being collected, which is creating a serious ecological problem. The nearly 90,000 tons of lead scattered annually in the environment contaminate it more than the releases from burning ethyl petrol. The pyrometallurgical method of the treatment of old batteries, used in our country, contaminates the environment with sulphur dioxide and lead aerosols. The Electro-Chemistry Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences has worked out an electrochemical technology which not only has a number of ecological advantages (absence of harmful effluents into the atmosphere, minimum amount of solid waste, closed cycle of water-supply), but is also economically more profitable than pyrometallurgical technology. It is particularly convenient for the treatment of a small number of storage batteries (about 3,000 a year), which makes it possible to site production not far from the places where used batteries are collected and so save on the storage facilities and transportation expenses. |
FBIS3-60296_0 | Lack of Funds Hinders Safe Disposal of Liquid Nuclear Waste | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Funds are needed immediately if Russia is to dispose of liquid nuclear waste (LNW) safely. Their dumping into the sea was halted in response to international protest against the disposal of a small amount in the Sea of Japan on October 17. The authorities said that they had no other choice at that time. Experts in the Environment Protection Ministry of Russia say that in recent years the total amount of LNW in navy ships and repair yards has been stable at 18,000 to 20,000 cubic meters a year. However, as utilization of nuclear submarines continues in the coming years, that amount is expected to increase by 20 to 30 percent by the year 2000. Russia has just one facility which meets international standards and is capable of neutralizing all kinds of LNW at a rate of 22.5 cubic meters per hour. It is installed in the Atomflot enterprise, Murmansk, and serves nuclear icebreakers. To neutralize all the LNW of the Northern Fleet the enterprise would need nearly 2 Bn rubles in 1994. The Northern and Pacific Fleets have one special-purpose tanker each which carries LNW neutralization units but their performance does not meet international standards. The upgrading of the units would cost nearly 3 Bn rubles. Experts believe that if funds for these projects are made available soon, by the end of the first quarter of 1994 the LNW neutralization would be less of a problem and by the end of the next year there would be no need to dump LNW in the sea. |
FBIS3-60309_6 | Environment Minister on Ecological Aspects of National Security `The Scope of the Ecological Threat May Be Greater Than That of Any Aggression....' `A Perpetual-Motion Machine for Processing Natural Resources Into Waste' `We Will Not Accomplish Anything in the Absence of a Strong Policy of Environmental Protection' `If We Do Not Put Up a Barrier to the Illegal Imports of Toxic Substances From Abroad, Ukraine Will Turn Into a European Trash Dump Rather Than a European State' `The Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Environmental Protection Carry a Weighty Proportion of Responsibility for the National Security of Ukraine. We Should Work Hand in Hand....' | condition there. The intake of water to meet economic needs has been growing continuously. The runoff of many rivers is taken in full in years with low, and even average, water availability. The inclusion of small rivers into land reclamation systems and the thoughtless draining of marshlands have resulted in disruptions of their hydrological regimen; the quality of natural water and its self-purification capacity have deteriorated. The current condition of our forests is critical. They occupy one-half of the area that they do in adjacent states--Poland, Slovakia, and Belarus. Only 6 percent of our forests are mature, whereas 15-20 percent should be. `We Will Not Accomplish Anything in the Absence of a Strong Policy of Environmental Protection' NARODNA ARMIYA: Yuriy Ivanovych, what major shortcomings do you see in the organization of efforts to protect the environment in our country? What should be done specifically in the context of guaranteeing our national security? Kostenko: First of all, it should be grasped at all levels of state government that improvements in the natural environment are impossible in the absence of a clear-cut program, continuous attention and, certainly, considerable material and financial outlays. What do we have at present? Our own state budget is the most instructive in this regard. It allocates only 0.2 percent of the gross national product (GNP) for all environmental protection measures in 1993. For comparison, Scandinavian countries spend close to 1 percent of their GNP just to help other states. The fact that economic losses reach one-tenth of the entire gross national product in Ukraine as a result of deterioration in the quality of the environment testifies to our short-sightedness. Moreover, the Ministry of Natural Resources, which in keeping with legislation in effect is supposed to ensure compliance with the norms of ecological safety in Ukraine, controls as little as one-tenth of these funds, of these purely symbolic budget outlays for the protection of natural resources, or 0.02 percent of the GNP. This does not happen in any other country in the world! Our ministry has an extremely broad scope of responsibilities, but the main levers of influence, financial levers, are virtually absent. Therefore, degradation of the environment with all of its terrible consequences will not be stopped without fundamental changes in the system of guaranteeing ecological safety, and without a strong environmental-protection policy for the state. NARODNA ARMIYA: Nonetheless, what has already been specifically done by the |
FBIS3-60318_3 | Energy Policy To Stress Natural Gas, Renewable Sources | that all along," said Palmgren. "But the money we now pay to have our waste taken care of and processed in Tchelyabinsk also helps the Russians finance the cleanup of the area, which suffered heavy radioactive contamination in the 1950's." Palmgren thought the government had yielded to outside political pressure in formulating its statement and pointed out that it would certainly be possible to provide final underground storage for the waste from Lovisa in Finland, but that it would be a barbaric way to dispose of it. In this case usable fuel would also be buried while long, medium, and short-lived waste would all be mixed together. Therefore Palmgren feels it is better to send it to Russia now that it is also possible for both Imatran Voima and Finland's Radiation Safety Center to check that the waste is handled properly. Old Formula In other respects Wednesday's statement repeats the government's old formula for the economic management of Finland's energy. One element is energy taxes to make energy use efficient and achieve the environmental goals that have been set, another is a revised program to cut energy use and sector agreements on energy-saving measures in industry. The government also wants to increase the use of bioenergy and other domestic energy. To promote this goal, increased support will be given to research in new technologies applicable to gasification plants, among other things. It will become easier for small-scale power plants to enter the electricity network and the possibility of increased electricity production in connection with the cellulose industry will be studied. The government is also stressing the development of energy technology and will subsidize export efforts in this area. In addition, the electricity market will be deregulated and there will be increased competition. Previous emission goals will remain in effect in the energy sector, sulfur dioxide emission must be cut 80 percent in relation to the 1980 level, nitrogen dioxide emission 30 percent, and carbon dioxide emission will be checked at the end of the 1990's. Industry Dissatisfied Industry's Energy Association feels the government's energy policy line is still based on empty phrases just as it was after the negative decision on nuclear power. The association's president, Pentti Sierila, says the government's energy statement is not in line with the good goals that are presented at the beginning of the statement. "The energy policy line that has now been presented is |
FBIS3-60322_3 | 1994 Budget Cuts Affect Environmental R&D | Georg Wagner of the SPD said, "It is not hard to see that the environment minister is once again the great loser. The actual environment and nature conservation sector has suffered a DM64- million or 3.3-percent cut in real terms. If we add the cuts suffered in the 1993 budget, the environment's share in the budget has taken a 17-percent cut since 1992. Since 1992, when the situation in the new laender caused an explosive growth in environmental problems for us all, the budget has shrunk by nearly one-fifth. We no longer have an environment policy in the true sense of the term. The federal environment minister is a loudspeaker for environment policy." "Looks" Do not Matter In his 10-minute speech, the federal environment minister barely referred to the massive objections voiced by the opposition. Instead, Toepfer trotted out a series of well-worn statements, brandishing a sort of balance sheet as his contribution to the budget debate. "Our environment policy in Germany has created jobs. Environment policy currently provides employment for 680,000 people in Germany. About 50,000 people are directly employed in environmental reclamation as a labor market policy measure. In recent times we have employed 120,000 people under job creation schemes. About 15,000 people are usefully employed on reclamation work in the lignite mining industry. The federal and land governments spend DM2-3 billion a year on this item; this spending does not appear in my budget, but 75 percent of it is borne by the Federal Government. What matters is that we get the environmental reclamation done, not whether I would like a better-looking budget." Toepfer pronounced himself in favor of the creation of a disposal infrastructure involving private industry. "We need an environmental infrastructure for sewage treatment and waste disposal facilities, and for reclaiming contaminated land that we have inherited from the centrally planned economy of the former GDR. We want to attract private capital as well for this purpose. In the new federal laender, 46 sewage treatment plants are currently being planned or built, or have already been completed, with private capital -- DM4.3 billion are being mobilized. I should be happy if as many private sewage works had been built in the original federal laender in the whole 40-year history of the Federal Republic. Hats off to those who have assumed responsibility there and achieved this. This is growth policy and environment policy rolled into one. |
FBIS3-60322_4 | 1994 Budget Cuts Affect Environmental R&D | creation schemes. About 15,000 people are usefully employed on reclamation work in the lignite mining industry. The federal and land governments spend DM2-3 billion a year on this item; this spending does not appear in my budget, but 75 percent of it is borne by the Federal Government. What matters is that we get the environmental reclamation done, not whether I would like a better-looking budget." Toepfer pronounced himself in favor of the creation of a disposal infrastructure involving private industry. "We need an environmental infrastructure for sewage treatment and waste disposal facilities, and for reclaiming contaminated land that we have inherited from the centrally planned economy of the former GDR. We want to attract private capital as well for this purpose. In the new federal laender, 46 sewage treatment plants are currently being planned or built, or have already been completed, with private capital -- DM4.3 billion are being mobilized. I should be happy if as many private sewage works had been built in the original federal laender in the whole 40-year history of the Federal Republic. Hats off to those who have assumed responsibility there and achieved this. This is growth policy and environment policy rolled into one. We shall pursue it to the best effect." Morsleben Can Still Be Used Referring to the dispute over nuclear waste disposal, Toepfer stressed that all forces in the Federal Republic, regardless of their ideas as to the duration and exploitation of nuclear power, had to reach a consensus on disposal. Referring to the controversial Morsleben permanent disposal store, Toepfer said: "Morsleben can legally be operated until the year 2000. The Nuclear Safety Commission has pronounced the Morsleben store still usable. The storage quality will be changed, and the waste will not be stored at the taxpayers' expense; the cost will be passed on in the form of fees to those who store material there." Toepfer said that he aimed to abolish ecological subsidies. This meant altering prices, as prices changed behavior and brought about technological developments. This road toward an ecological market economy was more successful than ecological regulations imposed from above or planned economy considerations. The Federal Republic already enjoyed a worldwide reputation for environment engineering. Individual budget 16 also features a couple of interesting items. For instance, the federal minister receives an annual salary of DM275,000 inclusive of local weighting, plus an annual official expenses allowance of DM7,200 |
FBIS3-60324_1 | Solid Waste Recycling Capacity Summarized | the Environment directed a number of awareness programmes aimed at the elementary and secondary schools (approximately 10,000 students in all). The total quantity of source separated materials was as follows: -- Paper: 110 tons -- Aluminium: 10 tons -- Glass: 2 tons [Box] Consumption of Aluminium Cans as a Percentage of Total Recycling [box head] -- 1985: 130 million cans (8 percent) -- 1986: 230 million cans (11 percent) -- 1987: 280 million cans (13 percent) -- 1988: 430 million cans (17 percent) -- 1989: 480 million cans (21 percent) -- 1990: 500 million cans (25 percent) -- 1991: 650-700 million cans (26 percent) (Source: Report from the Ministry of Environment -- 85/389 EEC. Hellenic Aluminium Company) [box end] 2. Seventy-five municipalities and communities have started source separation programs mainly for paper and aluminium cans. The Municipality of New Psyhiko was the first to begin a source separation program. Presently, New Psyhiko Municipality has started a source separation program and has constructed and currently operates a park for ecology including a train where schoolboys give aluminium cans to have a ride. The population of New Psyhiko's Municipality is only 14,000 inhabitants. 3. In the biggest landfill in Greece, and one of the biggest in Europe which is located in Athens, which has a capacity of 3,500 tons per day, has been constructed and is managed by the Association of Municipalities and Communities in the Attika Region; a pilot plant for recovery of refuse (Refuse derived fuel (RDF) and compost) with a capacity of 2.5 tons per hour. The above mentioned Association has planned and is currently purchasing equipment to set up a source separation project for paper in 13 municipalities with a total population 500,000 inhabitants. There is a study for the management of small hazardous wastes into the municipal wastes. It will be finished within the near future. 4. A compost plant is being built in the Municipality of Kalamata which will have a capacity of 80 tonnes per day plus 10 tons of sludge. It will be ready next year. 5. The private sector which is partially represented by the Hellenic Company of Recovery and Recycling (51 companies which produce and distribute packaging products) is due to begin this year with a full-scale pilot program for source separation in all packaging materials. 6. There are four MEDSPA waste management programmes that cover recycling, two on Naxos (compost and |
FBIS3-60325_0 | `Huge' Increase in Toxic Waste Dumping Noted | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Article by Tony O'Brien and Jerome Reilly: "Minister Warns on Toxic Waste"] [Text] Twenty five thousand tonnes of highly dangerous poisonous waste is being illegally dumped every year in this country -- and nobody knows where it is going, a government minister admitted yesterday. Environment Minister Michael Smith said the country had to face up to the huge increase in the amount of toxic waste being produced and see how this could both be reduced and disposed of. Ireland is now producing some 70,000 tonnes of officially classified toxic waste every year. And while 10,000 tonnes of this is disposed of abroad, and more incinerated by individual companies, thousands of tonnes remain unaccounted for. "We have to presume that some 25,000 tonnes of poisonous waste is being dumped on ordinary landfill sites and other locations," said Mr Smith, who added: "In truth, we don't know where these highly dangerous substances are ending up." Pointing out that Dublin produced more toxic waste than the rest of the country, Mr Smith again hinted that a national waste incinerator may be the preferred option. But he stressed that no decision has yet been made on the issue. "I have already stated my view that incineration should not be excluded as a viable disposal option," he said, adding that new proposals will follow a major conference on hazardous waste being organised in January. "The toxic waste being dumped is a hazard for people living here now and for future generations," he said. Another problem was the disposal of around 10,000 tonnes of clinical waste being incinerated in hospitals. Decisions would have to be made. "We are producing more and more waste each year but we don't want landfill sites and we don't want incinerators but we have to face up to the problem and early next year we will make a decision one way or another." |
FBIS3-60326_5 | Pigment Used Against Radioactive Contamination | years after the accident, we are starting to see some of the consequences. In Ukraine and Belarus, infantile thyroid gland cancer has increased dramatically, a survey conducted by the World Health Organization, WHO, showed. Since 1989, 225 new cases have been reported in Belarus, 157 in Ukraine. Normally there would only have been two to three cases. Ukrainian experts also think they are seeing more deaths from other diseases, among others of the heart, blood vessels, and the circulatory system, but inasmuch as there are so many factors that influence the development of such diseases, at the moment it is too early to suggest any connection. Regardless--the national assembly, Verhovna Rada, certainly stands by what it said when it states that the Chernobyl accident "will be seen as the worst tragedy in 20th century Ukrainian history, and will affect the lives of several generations of people." Strange Evergreen Forest The needles on the fir trees do not look like ordinary needles--even if they come from the common fir, pinus silvestris. They are in different sizes. Some are long, others are short, some are growing in loops. From every growth point, where normally five branches would grow, here between six and 20 grow. All the same, upon closer inspection, this green forest is not that normal. "We can see changes in the pattern of growth," said Andrei Arkhipov, one of the researchers at the center in Pripyat. "But it is impossible to see whether there are genetic changes; for that, we have to have several generations of trees. The green forest of firs was sown with seeds from those trees that received the greatest radiation damage in 1986, and turned red." Arkhipov is the son of Prof. Nikolai Archipov, one of Russia's greatest experts on the effects of radioactive contamination. For many years the elder Arkhipov conducted studies of the effects of the once unknown nuclear accident in Kyshtym in the Urals. Now the laboratory has been moved to Chernobyl. The forest is just one of the research areas. In large greenhouses tests have been made on plants such as rape, lupine, oats, root crops, and vegetables to study the absorption of radioactive materials in the plants--and how this can be neutralized. "The most effective countermeasure we have found to date is fertilization with potassium, which prevents the absorption of cesium. Applying lime is useful to reduce the absorption of strontium," |
FBIS3-60328_2 | Market Economy Cited in Decreased Kola Emissions | received full pay this fall. Previously the workers had contracts for five years or more. Now only a minority get a contract for more than a few months. Even people with a solid knowledge of Russia have difficulty explaining what is really happening in northwest Russia. On the one hand their industry seems to be marked by depression, heavy debt in rubles, and rapidly falling production. But on the other hand more Russian nickel is being sold abroad than at any other time, and income in dollars is high. Scientist Rune Castberg at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute is unsure whether what is happening at Kola is the result of a real economic crisis or whether the leadership has let the crisis run full course simply as a means of getting rid of superfluous employees. Castberg has for years worked with the Kola problems. He does not think that market forces and the gradual economic freedom in Russia will result in a complete halt in pollution from Kola. "Since the smelting works are there, it will benefit Russian society most to have as much activity there as possible. However, in the future production will to an increasing degree have to be profitable," Castberg says. He thinks it probable that the part of the metal industry that is dependent on ore transported from Siberia will disappear, and that the smelting industry based on the local ore will remain. But even though some slight degree of modernization has taken place during the last decades, the technology and the buildings are mainly from the 1940's and 1950's. Whether the conglomerate can afford to modernize to the degree necessary to keep up production in the future without economic aid from abroad is unclear. Skeptical of Support Castberg is skeptical as to whether Norway should give 300 million kroner in support of modernizing the smelting industry in Nikel in order to reduce emissions further. "I do not think this is the most efficient use of our money. We might rather help Pechenganikel achieve the full effect of the cleanup capabilities the company already has," Castberg says. The point is really that the production at the metal works has been reduced more than the pollution. This means that the companies are unable to clean the waste gas as well as they have previously. One of the reasons is a strong reduction in the production of sulfuric acid. |
FBIS3-60330_1 | Pulp Industry Ahead of Schedule Reducing Emissions | is the largest source of pollution. But, there was also uneasiness concerning the more long-term accumulation of chlorine compounds on the sea floor, and in animals and people. Society registered its concern--the government through tough environmental measures, consumers through boycotting chlorine-bleached diapers, coffee filters, and writing paper. Environmental correctness became a factor in competitiveness. In 1988, the Riksdag set the goal of cutting emissions in half, corresponding to 1.8 kilograms of organically bound chlorine (measured by the so-called AOX [expansion unknown] method) per ton of pulp production. The effort to reach this level was to begin no later than 1992. The industry wanted more lenient standards and a longer time to fulfill them. Alternative Chemicals The reality was quite different, all the environmental goals were exceeded. The industrial average for 1992, according to the most recent report from the Swedish Environmental Agency, was approximately 0.6 kilograms AOX per ton of pulp, a reduction of 80 percent in four years. "Yes, you are correct, it progressed very quickly--through rapid technical advancement and conversion to other bleaching chemicals. Above all, in the case of the most dangerous, long-lived compounds, including dioxin," said Erik Nystrom of the Swedish Environmental Agency. The reason is due primarily to the fact that the old chlorine gas is no longer used as a bleaching agent. It has been replaced principally by chlorine dioxide, but also by chlorine-free alternatives such as hydrogen peroxide and ozone. Deformed pike are no longer to be found. The political objective now is to reach levels by the year 2000 at which "the environment is not harmed at all." Closed Systems Are we perhaps already there? "We don't know. There are those who believe that even today's chlorine content causes harm, if somewhat more diffuse, but there are also those who think the opposite. Even completely chlorine-free bleaching can cause certain problems, but we do not have sufficient knowledge," said Nystrom. He feels that other emissions--metals, nutritive salts, lignin, resin acids--are now receiving greater emphasis and point to the next step, the "closed factory." Runoff water is returned to the factory and waste products can be readily controlled. This also saves energy. "In three or four years, there is sure to be a number of factories with closed systems. It can be done with chlorine dioxide, but is technically simpler with ozone. Furthermore, the market is demanding ever more chlorine-free paper," said Nystrom. |
FBIS3-60336_1 | Draft National Action Plan for Implementing UNCED Decisions Section 1. Development of a System for the Management of Natural Resource Use and Environmental Protection Section 3. Ensuring Environmental Safety in Economic Development Section 5. Priority Measures and Focuses of Environmental Restoration Section 6. Basic Principles of the Mechanism for Implementation of the National Plan of Action II. List of Measures Toward Implementation of the National Plan of Action To Implement the Decisions of the UN Conference on the Environment and Development in 1993-97 | ensuring environmental safety and restoring the environment. This document is based on the Russian Federation law ``On Environmental Protection,'' decrees issued by the Government of the Russian Federation, decisions by the UN Conference on the Environment and Development (June 1992, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), the Lucerne Conference on a Program of Action To Protect the Environment of Central and Eastern Europe (April 1993, Switzerland) and the board of the Russian Ministry of Ecology [as published] in regard to priority areas requiring program development in the field of environmental protection, and statements contained in the Russian Federation's State Environmental Program. The National Plan is a foundation for Russia's actions in regard to the environment and development. It is essential to be guided by the following key principles: -- consideration for environmental and development issues in the process of political and economic decisionmaking; -- compliance with the requirements of environmental protection legislation and environmental standards; -- compliance with the terms of environmental protection when implementing reforms designed to bring about sustainable economic development; -- use of economic means to compensate for losses due to environmental pollution; -- reduction of risks to public health resulting from pollution and the harmful effect of the environment, including air pollution in cities and buildings, water pollution, the problems of pesticides, wastes, noise, and ionizing and nonionizing radiation, coupled with creation of a system for monitoring the state of the environment and assessing its quality and the state of public health; -- protection of the environment and natural resources with consideration for the maintenance of the distinctiveness, culture, and interests of native people and guarantees of their effective participation in the achievement of sustainable development; -- further development of international cooperation for the purpose of preserving, protecting, and restoring the integrity of the Earth's ecosystems; -- improvement of international legal relations pertaining to liability and compensation for the negative effects of environmental damage. These principles will make it possible, despite a lack of funding and the state of existing economic relationships, to establish priorities among environmental problems when federal and regional program materials are compiled as components of the national plan of action. The National Plan envisions a transition period during which gradual changes in the economic mechanism will be used to bring about adaptation to market relationships, as well as a gradual transition from strictly regulated, centrally planned management of natural resource use to a decentralized |
FBIS3-60336_12 | Draft National Action Plan for Implementing UNCED Decisions Section 1. Development of a System for the Management of Natural Resource Use and Environmental Protection Section 3. Ensuring Environmental Safety in Economic Development Section 5. Priority Measures and Focuses of Environmental Restoration Section 6. Basic Principles of the Mechanism for Implementation of the National Plan of Action II. List of Measures Toward Implementation of the National Plan of Action To Implement the Decisions of the UN Conference on the Environment and Development in 1993-97 | permissible emissions (discharges) of pollutants for basic technologies and types of production; -- to establish a special tax rate for products manufactured using environmentally hazardous technologies; -- to create a multilevel system of environmental protection insurance funds to finance the prevention and elimination of environmental effects from major accidents and human-caused or natural disasters; -- to apply lending on favorable terms and subsidies for enterprises that effectively implement environmental program goals; -- to improve the search for new basic approaches to the economic management of environmental protection activity (the environmental price of production and environmentally based economic calculations of production efficiency); -- to expand the special-rate (lending) form of financing for environmental efforts out of local, oblast, kray, republic, and Russian Federation environmental funds. Federal administrative bodies in conjunction with republic, kray, and oblast administrative bodies will define key regions in which to conduct experiments to develop new elements in the economic regulation of natural resource use, arrange scientific support for that work with funding from the Russian Environmental Fund, disseminate the experience gathered in these key regions, and ensure broad study and consultation by specialists from other regions of the Russian Federation. 1.3. The Public Health-Related, Demographic, and Ethnic Aspects of Natural Resource Use Without exception, all efforts to ensure environmental safety set forth in the National Plan and all measures to develop a system of natural resource use and environmental protection administration and to encourage environmental training and education must to one degree or another guarantee the health of individuals and society. One priority issue is the deterioration of health as a result of a poor-quality environment. A threat to human health (and to the economy) is posed by the following types of pollutants: -- lead contained in the air and in soil, with its source being zinc and lead smelters and vehicles; -- airborne dust from household furnaces, small enterprises, electric and heat generating plants, large metallurgical plants, and other plants; -- sulfur dioxide and other gases, particularly in combination with dust. Other sources of health hazard are: -- nitrates dissolved in water as a result of inadequate planning of feed storage facilities and other agricultural facilities and settling ponds in rural areas, and from improper fertilizer use; -- pollutants in food and water, particularly in cases of the direct presence of heavy metals or toxic chemicals in drinking water reservoirs or the improper disposal of toxic |
FBIS3-60336_42 | Draft National Action Plan for Implementing UNCED Decisions Section 1. Development of a System for the Management of Natural Resource Use and Environmental Protection Section 3. Ensuring Environmental Safety in Economic Development Section 5. Priority Measures and Focuses of Environmental Restoration Section 6. Basic Principles of the Mechanism for Implementation of the National Plan of Action II. List of Measures Toward Implementation of the National Plan of Action To Implement the Decisions of the UN Conference on the Environment and Development in 1993-97 | of a stock-based exchange to engage in free trading in information and scientific and technical advances in the fields of production-related and consumption-related waste collection, transportation, utilization, and disposal; -- incentives for destatization of enterprises that collect and process waste; -- establishment of small businesses and joint ventures to recover usable materials and manufacture products out of them; -- implementation of accelerated development of capacities to collect and utilize various types of secondary resources, plus introduction of progressive technologies for their processing; -- development and introduction of technologies to neutralize and process toxic industrial wastes; -- development of a plan for the siting of toxic industrial waste and solid household waste storage facilities in Russia based on regional planning documents and projects; -- construction of specialized facilities for the neutralization and environmentally safe disposal (or storage) of toxic industrial wastes for which there are currently no environmentally or economically acceptable means of processing; -- guarantees of environmental safety in the operations of facilities that destroy chemical weapons, including the storage of such weapons at their point of origin, transportation to destruction sites, destruction (or neutralization) of the weapons, destruction (or utilization) of the products of neutralization, and disposal of nontoxic waste; -- monitoring of the collection, processing, and transportation of used daylight lamps that contain mercury and other heavy metals; -- introduction of enterprises (or installations) to neutralize pesticides that have been banned or are not suitable for use; -- introduction of a method of combined processing of solid household waste with preliminary separation of valuable components, composting of organic wastes, and utilization of the noncomposted residue for pyrolysis; -- development of an industrial-scale technology to obtain biogases at storage sites (or dumps) and make comprehensive use of such gases, with a primary goal of creating appropriate facilities for cities with a population of more than 100,000; -- development of garbage processing plants with a capacity of 23-25 percent of all solid household waste by the year 2005. 3.4. Conversion and Ecology A solution to the problem of environmental safety and achievement of goals that will improve the environmental situation in the Russian Federation will be more difficult without the use of the defense complex's production capacity and scientific and engineering potential. Therefore, a number of state programs for conversion of the defense complex include a separate Conversion and Ecology program. Those programs' goals are: -- to improve the environmental |
FBIS3-60336_48 | Draft National Action Plan for Implementing UNCED Decisions Section 1. Development of a System for the Management of Natural Resource Use and Environmental Protection Section 3. Ensuring Environmental Safety in Economic Development Section 5. Priority Measures and Focuses of Environmental Restoration Section 6. Basic Principles of the Mechanism for Implementation of the National Plan of Action II. List of Measures Toward Implementation of the National Plan of Action To Implement the Decisions of the UN Conference on the Environment and Development in 1993-97 | restore disrupted environments. 3.6. Environmental Aspects of the Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex The priority of environmental efforts in the strategy to develop the fuel and energy complex results from that complex's very intensive negative effects on the environment. For example, enterprises in the fuel and energy complex account for 50 percent of all emissions into the atmosphere, up to 35 percent of all waste water discharges into natural bodies of water, and approximately 30 percent of all solid waste, which occupies significant areas of productive land and constitutes a source of secondary pollution. The main principle guiding the assurance of environmental safety in the fuel and energy complex is a comprehensive approach to efficient use and conservation of fuel and energy resources at all stages of their production and processing on the basis of progressive and environmentally clean technologies, including the functioning of unified energy technology installations. A significant role in reduction of environmental pollution can be played by optimization of the fuel and energy balance as it relates to the structure and siting of other production facilities that release harmful substances, as well as by an increase in the percentage of centralized heat supply to industrial and nonindustrial facilities. There are plans for a transition from traditional methods of fuel combustion to the use of new furnaces, and to the development and introduction of steam-gas and gas-turbine installations employing intracycle coal gasification. It is essential that incentives be provided for the development and introduction into use of nontraditional, environmentally clean methods of producing energy (using solar, thermal, wind, and biomass power), as well as low-potential energy sources. There will be marked progress toward improvement of the system for the collection, transportation, and refining of by-product gaseous products, as well in the detection, location, and elimination of oil leaks and spills in production and refining regions, particularly under the environmentally sensitive conditions that exist in the North. In view of the objective orientation toward primary use of coal to produce energy, environmentally clean technologies for coal mining, transportation, upgrading, and processing are becoming more widely used, with mandatory utilization of waste products, recultivation of disrupted land, and ecosystem restoration. Research and development work will continue on the development and manufacture of high-efficiency methods and equipment to purify exhaust gases and utilize the products thus trapped, particularly sulfur compounds, nitrogen oxides, and hydrocarbons, as well as on equipment |
FBIS3-60336_51 | Draft National Action Plan for Implementing UNCED Decisions Section 1. Development of a System for the Management of Natural Resource Use and Environmental Protection Section 3. Ensuring Environmental Safety in Economic Development Section 5. Priority Measures and Focuses of Environmental Restoration Section 6. Basic Principles of the Mechanism for Implementation of the National Plan of Action II. List of Measures Toward Implementation of the National Plan of Action To Implement the Decisions of the UN Conference on the Environment and Development in 1993-97 | training and education that will encompass the entire process of preschool and school training and education, vocational training for specialists at secondary and higher educational institutions, and advanced training for such specialists with the aid of the mass media. The structure of this system of universal comprehensive and continuing environmental training and education (subsequently to be referred to as the system of continuing environmental training and education [SNEVO]) may be represented by the following basic and interconnected branches: -- preschool environmental training in the family and in specialized training institutions, both state and private; -- environmental education for workers (training of workers at vocational and technical schools and on the job); -- environmental education for middle-level specialists (training at technical secondary schools, at higher vocational schools, and at pedagogical schools); -- environmental education at higher schools: special environmental education, introduction of environmental training for specialists in all fields and areas of specialization, and environmental training for academic and scientific personnel; -- environmental education for specialists and administrators with higher and secondary specialized education (special courses, advanced training courses, advanced training institutes, and academic centers); -- on-the-job environmental education for blue-collar workers, office workers, engineering and technical personnel, and administrative personnel at enterprises and in the social realm; -- informal environmental training and education, and self-education for children and adults. The principal measures by which to implement this strategy are: a) Creation a state/private system to administer SNEVO. This will require: -- identification of existing state and private organizations that have experience with cooperation in the field of environmental training and education, development of functional and structural diagrams, and establishment of state/private administration for SNEVO on a basis of legal standards; -- creation of interdepartmental coordinating and methodological councils at all levels and a higher state certification commission to issue certificates and licenses in the field of environmental training and education; -- establishment of a Russian (International) Center for Environmental Training and Education and a network of regional centers (an environmental education space). b) Establishment of a foundation of legal standards. This will require: -- development of sublegal acts, normative acts, standards, and the other normative legal documents that are essential for the establishment, functioning, and development of SNEVO. c) Preparation of the scientific and methodological base. This will require: -- analysis and selection on the basis of quality of scientific plans for methodological complexes (qualifications descriptions, standards, curricula and programs, |
FBIS3-60336_81 | Draft National Action Plan for Implementing UNCED Decisions Section 1. Development of a System for the Management of Natural Resource Use and Environmental Protection Section 3. Ensuring Environmental Safety in Economic Development Section 5. Priority Measures and Focuses of Environmental Restoration Section 6. Basic Principles of the Mechanism for Implementation of the National Plan of Action II. List of Measures Toward Implementation of the National Plan of Action To Implement the Decisions of the UN Conference on the Environment and Development in 1993-97 | of space-based information support for forest fire protection efforts and monitoring of the forest fire situation, as well as a system for detecting and providing up-to-date information on fires as they occur, along with other operational information; -- establishment of a computer network and communications system of unified interagency dispatcher stations for ongoing management of forest fire prevention; -- allocation of budget funding for the operating expenses and centralized capital investment required for air- and ground-based forest protection. In order to protect and efficiently utilize plant and animal resources, it is essential: -- to develop and perfect legislative foundations, standards, and regulations for the protection and reproduction of animal life and regulation of hunting, and to define measures to increase penalties for violations of the requirements thus established; -- to create an effective system for the protection and use of plants (including forests) and animal life (including fish resources); -- to continue to develop and perfect methods for the comprehensive management of forestry, hunting, and fishing; -- to conduct an inventory of and map the habitats of rare and endangered plant and animal species, and to create and expand existing genetic banks; -- to set environmentally justified limits on the procurement (harvesting) of wild medicinal and food products from the forest and on the basis thereof to organize the industrial use and reproduction of those resources; -- to provide state record keeping and state cadastral mapping of plant and animal resources and to maintain the Russian Red Book on a qualitatively new level, with consideration for the economic independence of republics and regions; -- to implement a series of measures to prevent desertification and degradation of steppe vegetation; -- to expand the network of botanical preserves, genetic reserves, and preserves for distinctive forest boundaries and mast-producing areas; -- to develop and establish a new procedure for the creation, expansion, and storage of botanical and zoological collections; -- to develop and introduce a system of economic, legal, and ecological standards for the use of plants; -- to develop and put in practice a new economic mechanism for regulation of the use of animal resources, defining a procedure for assigning hunting lands on a lease basis and issuing all types of permits for the rights to use animal resources; -- to continue the study of the effects of animal activities on the formation of biological and geological cenoses, conduct a classification by |
FBIS3-60336_89 | Draft National Action Plan for Implementing UNCED Decisions Section 1. Development of a System for the Management of Natural Resource Use and Environmental Protection Section 3. Ensuring Environmental Safety in Economic Development Section 5. Priority Measures and Focuses of Environmental Restoration Section 6. Basic Principles of the Mechanism for Implementation of the National Plan of Action II. List of Measures Toward Implementation of the National Plan of Action To Implement the Decisions of the UN Conference on the Environment and Development in 1993-97 | increase in the 1993-95 period in the amount of work done to improve the condition of small rivers, strict compliance with regulations governing water protection zones, and complete cessation of land cultivation in water protection zones along rivers and other bodies of water in the Volga-Caspian watershed; -- consideration and resolution in the 1993-95 period of issues pertaining to expansion of preservation zones along the Volga River and establishment of a system of biological reserves in those zones, with priority development of fishing and restrictions on other types of economic activity; -- restrictions on the filling of reservoirs at the Nizhnekamsk Hydroelectric Power Station and the Cheboksary Hydroelectric Power Station, in order to reduce losses of agricultural land and prevent other adverse effects on the environment in the vicinity of those reservoirs; -- changes in regulations governing the use of water resources in reservoirs along the Volga-Kama chain of hydroelectric power stations in view of the need to create more favorable conditions for intensive development of fishing and the reproduction of fish populations; -- equipping of all water diversion and water discharge facilities in water collection and drainage systems with effective fish protection devices in the 1993-95 period; -- conducting during the 1993-94 period of in-depth research on the restoration and stabilization of ecological systems and realization of measures necessary to preserve and restore populations of sturgeon and other valuable fish species; -- efforts toward comprehensive reconstruction of rice cultivation and irrigation systems in the Volga-Caspian watershed in order to eliminate completely the discharge of polluted runoff into fishing areas by 1995; -- completion in the 1993-95 period of measures to increase water supply in the Akhtuba River and improve the state of fish spawning grounds in the Volga-Akhtuba watershed. 5.2.2. The Baltic Sea Basin In accordance with the Convention on Protection of the Marine Environment in the Baltic Sea Region (1974 and 1992), various declarations (1988, 1990, and 1992), the Convention on Long-Distance Cross-Border Air Pollution (1979), the intergovernmental Soviet-Finnish Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Environmental Protection (1985), urgent measures stemming from Russia's obligations, and the Declaration on Revival of the Baltic Sea (1990), and in order to restore the normal ecological balance, it will be necessary to draw up a comprehensive joint program of environmental measures in the Baltic Sea basin. That program will include: -- a halt to discharges of untreated or inadequately treated waste |
FBIS3-60336_93 | Draft National Action Plan for Implementing UNCED Decisions Section 1. Development of a System for the Management of Natural Resource Use and Environmental Protection Section 3. Ensuring Environmental Safety in Economic Development Section 5. Priority Measures and Focuses of Environmental Restoration Section 6. Basic Principles of the Mechanism for Implementation of the National Plan of Action II. List of Measures Toward Implementation of the National Plan of Action To Implement the Decisions of the UN Conference on the Environment and Development in 1993-97 | structure and distribution of production facilities into accordance with the natural resource potential of the region in question and reducing the acuteness of the environmental situation. 5.2.3. The Sea of Azov Basin As a result of flow regulation along the Don and Kuban Rivers, intensive irrigation, and large volumes of permanently diverted water use, the influx of fresh water into the Sea of Azov has decreased by as much as 65 percent as compared to the average annual flow of its tributaries, and this has resulted in a change in the water balance and caused an increase in the sea's salinity from 10 to 14 percent. As a result, there has been a change in the species composition of fish populations and food organisms, with valuable fish species being replaced by less valuable ones. Increasing contamination of the marine environment has resulted in the accumulation of pollutants in aquatic biotas and has created a real possibility that the genetic stock of fish populations in the Sea of Azov will be lost. In view of the extremely acute environmental situation in the Sea of Azov basin and the negative ecological processes occurring in it, processes that threaten to lead to irreversible changes, it is necessary to implement: -- during the 1993-95 period, a series of environmental protection measures to prevent pollution of bodies of water, conserve water, and reduce permanent diversion of water in order to halt completely all discharges of contaminated waste water by 1995 and ensure an average annual flow of at least 34 cubic kilometers of fresh water into the Sea of Azov; -- during the 1993-95 period, efforts to improve in a comprehensive manner the condition of small rivers, restore in all areas a system of water protection zones, and ensure compliance with that system, and beginning in 1993 halt the cultivation of lands in water protection strips adjacent to bodies of water; -- planting in the 1993-95 period of artificial forest areas on nonproducing areas of forest land and unused agricultural land; completion of efforts to create protective forest stands to prevent erosion processes; -- reduction in harmful emissions into the atmosphere in 1996 in cities and industrial centers along the Sea of Azov coast--Rostov-na-Donu, Taganrog, Novocherkessk, Krasnodar, and others--according to established standards, plus construction in the 1993-95 period of enterprises and facilities for the utilization, neutralization, and disposal of toxic industrial, household, and other wastes; |
FBIS3-60341_0 | Australia Provides Grant for River Management Project | Language: Indonesian Article Type:BFN [Text] Jakarta, Kompas -- Australia, through its International Development Aid Bureau (AIDAB), has provided a 6.1-million Australian dollar (8.3 billion rupiah) grant for planning and managing district rivers (DAS) in Noelmina, East Nusatenggara. A memorandum of understanding [three preceding words in English] was signed in Jakarta on 22 November by Forestry Minister Jamaludin Surjahadikusumo and Australian Ambassador to Indoensia Allan R. Taylor. The Australian ambassador clarified that the effort was undertaken as part of the Australian community's responsibility in connection with environmental problems. The Australian Government believes that its cooperation with Indonesia will bring about mutual benefit. Mr. Taylor admitted that this is the first time that Australia has participated in any of the forestry projects. Besides, East Nusatenggara is not a new region because prior to this Australia had participated in several other projects such as the Joint District Development project which concluded in March 1992. The Noelmina DAS project was selected because the region is one of the 39 DAS projects which the Forestry Department considers the most prone to land erosion. In his statement, Forestry Minister Jamaludin clarified that the government has five objectives to achieve in carrying out the DAS projects. The first is to maintain a balanced hydrology condition in an effort to minimize forest degradation, prevent land erosion, destruction of land, and floods. The second objective is to increase land productivity, while the third is to create more public awareness about the importance of forests, land, and water pollution. The government's fourth objective is to increase the central and provincial government's capability of managing natural resources. The fifth objective is to increase the local community's living standards. |
FBIS3-60343_0 | Japan Environmental News Update (1-15 September 1993) Kawasaki Heavy Industries To Provide Gas Turbine Technology to Indonesia | Language: Japanese Article Type:CSO [Complete text of article obtained through NIKKEI BIZ DATABASE] [Text] Kawasaki Heavy Industries will provide production and maintenance technologies for gas turbines to two Indonesian public corporations including BARATA, a steel skeleton construction and heavy equipment manufacturer based in Surabaya. The technological assistance is intended to promote the gas turbine market in the country where natural gas is abundant. The gas turbine is superior to the diesel turbine in terms of environmental factors and thermoelectric effects. Kawasaki Heavy Industries has decided to provide this technological assistance since interest in gas turbines, which create less pollution, has been increasing. The assembly and maintenance technologics for the gas turbine will be provided to BARATA and IPTN, a government-owned aircraft and engine manufacturer based in Bandon. In August, Kawasaki Heavy Industries received an order for an emergency gas turbine power generation facility for the Indonesian Science and Technology Agency's new building. The facility consists of four gas turbines with an output of 1,500 kilowatts at a price of slightly less than ¥400 million. Kawasaki Heavy Industries will commission the assembly and maintenance of the power generation facility to BARATA and IPTN as the initial project. The main parts of the facility will be exported from Japan by Kawasaki Heavy Industries. The facility is scheduled to be completed by the end of March 1994. Kawasaki Heavy Industries has begun to expand its sales activities for the current fiscal year by increasing the number of sales representatives in Indonesia and Malaysia, which are rich in natural gas for use as gas turbine fuel. Although the same technologies have also been provided to Malaysia, Indonesia is the first country where technological assistance is being provided along with the receipt of an order. This will make seven cases of technological assistance in six nations, i.e., Germany, Canada, the United States, and Italy, in addition to the above two countries. Although the majority of demand for gas turbines is in Japan, the company expects that Asia will represent a growing market in the future due to its industrialization. The demand for gas turbines is increasing in Japan due to such advantages as low noise, low vibration, compact design and the low level of soot and dust. Kawasaki Heavy Industries has set the FY93 sales target at ¥26 billion, an increase of 13 percent over the previous fiscal year. The company holds approximately 50 percent |
FBIS3-60347_0 | Japan Environmental News Update (1-15 September 1993) MITI To Dispatch Environment Advisors to Developing Nations | Language: Japanese Article Type:CSO [Complete text of article obtained through NIKKEI BIZ DATABASE] [Text] The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) is planning to expand its assistance to developing nations in the area of the environment. It has already included the creation of the "International Environment Advisor System" in its initial request for the FY94 budget, which is under negotiations with the Ministry of Finance. MITI will also expand on-going cooperation projects for desulphurization technologies in China. The International Environment Advisor System certifies and registers "Environment Advisors" among "Managers in Charge of Pollution Control," designated specialists with knowledge and technical backgrounds, in the private sector based on their experience in developing nations and language ability. They will be sent to developing nations to organize seminars for pollution prevention and to provide assistance and advice based on requests from such nations. Cooperation with developing nations through the dispatch of experts in environmental issues, such as pollution prevention, has already been implemented as part of private enterprise's social contribution. The International Environment Advisor System is intended to expand such efforts and establish a governmental system for human cooperation. The technological cooperation for desulphurization in China is intended to establish several simplified desulphurization testing facilities for low- quality coal with a high level of sulfur to prevent air pollution by coal- burning thermal power plants. The construction of the first such facility began in May in Qingdao, Shandong, with the Chinese side recently agreeing to a second facility to be established in Taiyuan, Shanxi. The project is expected to be completed by the year 2000, with a total budget of ¥7.3 billion. MITI plans to promote international cooperation further since "Environmental issues are not confined to Japan, as in the case of technological cooperation with China for desulphurization as a countermeasure to acid rain in the East Asia region" (Industrial Location and Environment Bureau). |
FBIS3-60350_0 | Japan Environmental News Update (1-15 September 1993) Order for Environment-Related Equipment in July | Language: Japanese Article Type:CSO [Complete text of article obtained through NIKKEI BIZ DATABASE] [Text] According to a report released by the Japan Society of Industrial Machinery Manufacturers (chairman: Kozaburo Nishimura) on 7 September, the orders for environment-related equipment received in July amounted to ¥104.597 billion, a slight increase of 7.7 percent over the same month last year. This was a decrease of 50.7 percent from the previous month since the effects of the advance orders for public works were terminated. The orders for waste treatment equipment showed the smallest growth during the current fiscal year. According to the breakdown by type of equipment, waste treatment equipment increased by 6.1 percent to ¥54.986 billion. Water pollution prevention equipment increased by 22.3 percent over the same month last year to ¥43.703 billion. Air pollution prevention equipment decreased by 36.8 percent to ¥5.555 billion. The same three categories recorded decreases from the previous month by 64.2, 14.5 and 23.8 percent, respectively. According to the breakdown of orders by category, governmental orders increased by 15.7 percent to ¥98.302 billion, representing a decrease, however, of 51.0 percent from the previous month. Concerning the private sector, non-manufacturing industries sharply decreased orders by 72.7 percent due to the decline of exhaust gas desulfurizers for the electric power industry. The manufacturing industries also decreased orders by 32.4 percent due to a decline in industrial water treatment equipment for the machinery industry. In general, the effects of the restraint of facility investment continued. |
FBIS3-60351_0 | Japan Environmental News Update (1-15 September 1993) Nittetsu Chemical Industry Develops Fixed Ammonia Decomposition Technology | Language: Japanese Article Type:CSO [Complete text of article obtained through NIKKEI BIZ DATABASE] [Text] Nittetsu Chemical Industry (based in Minato Ward, Tokyo; president: Tadashi Hisatsune), an environment-related plant manufacturer in the Nippon Steel group, has developed a decomposition technology for fixed ammonia, such as ammonium sulfate and ammonium chloride, diluted in water. By decomposing ammonia with magnesium hydrate, magnesium sulfate, which can be disposed of in the ocean, is extracted as a by-product. Since fixed ammonia is subject to regulation by waste water standards, the company plans to promote plant sales based on the new technology. Although Nittetsu Chemical Industry also examined a processing technology using inexpensive calcium hydroxide, magnesium hydrate was adopted instead since separation was difficult due to the gypsum generated when using calcium hydroxide. While treating the fixed ammonia, ammonia water and ammonium sulfate can be collected for recycling. The company is constructing a pilot plant which will begin operation soon. |
FBIS3-60352_0 | Japan Environmental News Update (1-15 September 1993) Japan Iron and Steel Federation To Send Mission to Brazil for Environmental Assistance | Language: Japanese Article Type:CSO [Complete text of article obtained through NIKKEI BIZ DATABASE] [Text] The Japan Iron and Steel Federation (chairman: Hiroshi Saito) will send a mission to Brazil in late September to assist in environmental technology training. This is in response to an invitation from the Steel Association of Brazil (IBS). The mission consists of six engineers from five companies, including NKK, Kawasaki Steel and Kobe Steel, and is expected to spend one week delivering lectures on methods for processing dust, collector and slug dust from blast furnaces, steel converters and electric steel to 50 members in charge of environmental management at local steel manufacturers. |
FBIS3-60353_0 | Japan Environmental News Update (1-15 September 1993) Ebara Forms Partnership With German Firm | Language: Japanese Article Type:CSO [Complete text of article obtained through NIKKEI BIZ DATABASE] [Text] Ebara has formed a comprehensive partnership in the area of the environment with Lulugi (based in Frankfurt; president: Jan Peter Shaefer), a large engineering company in Germany. First, a subsidiary is expected to be established by the end of the year to decontaminate polluted soil in Japan using the technology provided by Lulugi. It is also planned to establish a subsidiary to burn waste plastic for power generation in Germany using Ebara's technology. Environment-related business is to be promoted collaboratively in Japan and Europe through the exchange of environment- related technologies of Japan and Germany. The partnership between Ebara and Lulugi in the area of the environment consists of the establishment of subsidiaries, the cooperative development of new technologies, and mutual technological transfer involving their group companies. The new company to be established in Japan will remove hazardous materials in the soil using the technologies of Lulugi, which has been involved in decontaminating the soil at plant sites in Germany. Its capital is expected to be between ¥100 and 200 million, of which 51 percent will be financed by Ebara and 49 percent by Lulugi. The new company will begin operation next year. Another subsidiary will be established in Germany using Ebara's technologies and financed over 50 percent by Lulugi. The company will examine the construction of incineration facilities for waste plastic for power generation. Ebara and Lulugi will promote cooperative research in the areas of waste sorting, energy collection by waste incineration, and the treatment of organic compounds, as well as on materials that are difficult to degrade. The companies have already begun to examine utilizing environment-related technologies already developed. Ebara plans to provide waste gas and water processing technologies. Lulugi is an engineering company specializing in waste treatment as well as in the construction of chemical and metallurgical plants, with annual sales amounting to 2.5 billion German marks (approximately ¥160 billion). In the area of environment-related business, Mitsubishi and Mercedes-Benz, also Japanese and German firms, have formed a partnership for waste automobile recycling and plan to establish a subsidiary. Cooperation among companies of different nations based on the mutual use of their technologies will be accelerated. |
FBIS3-60376_9 | European Environment Agency Launched Participation of Non-Community Countries and International Organisations | into account issues of security, secrecy and legality, in line with common rules developed through the DG III programme, IDA (Interchange of Data between Administrations), whose aim is to encourage and stimulate such data exchange. The approach focusses on the requirements for communication and the exchange and access to data and information systems. Data Bases A `data-model' is being prepared to serve the needs of current and expected future data holdings, including, in particular, those arising out of European environmental legislation. Development of a strategy for coding data, and standards needed to improve and facilitate data exchange, are included. Catalogue of Data Sources A report has been completed on the needs and possible solutions for a 'meta-database' for the EEA. This is a system that records details of data holdings, data sources, institutions, activities and other environmental related information needed for the EEA's work. The main characteristics of the system have now been defined and a standard 'data-model' is being developed. Plans are also being laid for the preparation of a multi-lingual thesaurus of environmental terms to use in connection with the catalogue. Updating and Completing Corine Data Bases Land cover - the cartography of land cover on the scale of 1:100 000 has been completed for almost half of the territory of the European Community. This is continuing with the support of Community regional policy, with a view to completion of the inventory in 1994- 95. In addition, the application of Community methodology has begun in the PHARE (Footnote 3) (countries of Central and Eastern Europe in receipt of EC economic aid according to the terms of Council regulation 89/3906/EEC) countries, as well as in several EFTA member states and in countries in the southern part of the Mediterranean basin with LIFE (Footnote 10) (Council regulation 92/1973/EEC of 21 May 1992 establishing a financial instrument for the environment (LIFE). OJ No L 206, 22.7.92, p. 1.)/MEDSPA (Footnote 11) (Council regulation 91/563/EEC of 4 March 1991 on action by the Community for the protection of the environment in the mediterranean region (MEDSPA). OJ No L 63, 9.3.1991. p. 1.) support. Biotopes The data base has been updated and supplemented to serve the needs of Community nature conservation policy, and in particular the application of the `habitats' directive. The PHARE countries and certain EFTA member states are carrying out the inventory according to the Community methodology. Work continues in collaboration with |
FBIS3-60378_1 | Competitiveness/Environment Balance Plea | of fungi seems promising for the future because these organisms can colonize vast regions while bacteria develop in more limited zones. There is also increasing talk about biomass combustion and the use of biofuels. Although wood combustion is used relatively little in France, other countries have no hesitation about using it regularly and, in Denmark, new incinerators burn hay. Despite its critics, biofuels continue to be tested and the comparative eco- audit between rapeseed and diesel does not condemn vegetable diester. Other options exist such as wheat and beetroot for the production of ethanol and oxygenated components for lead-free gas or wood for the production of methanol, for example. Not forgetting the latest developments by English researchers who are experimenting on power supply for diesel engine generating units using an algae which feeds on the liquids used for reprocessing sewage water. This green monocell algae, chlorella, has an extremely rapid growth rate and the carbonic gas resulting from combustion is recycled to improve the output of photosynthesis even further. New Markets Biology opens up whole new technological areas for processes and products. Because they are young these have the specific characteristic that they can benefit from studies on risks parallel to their development. This has been a rare occurrence throughout history. It was remarked that this was a growing problem during discussions on the presentation of the bill on genetically modified organisms (GMO's) at the National Assembly. In economic terms, a recent American report "Biomarkers 93: Forecast for High Growth Markets" puts forward several interesting figures. The use of ground bacteria (indigenous or exogenous) to treat contamination should grow to the tune of 20 to 30 percent per year between now and the end of the decade. It is estimated that the market for microorganisms capable of desulphurizing carbon will rise to several billion dollars a year around the year 2000. For the recuperation of metals in waste using biological processes, this estimate rises to nearly two billion dollars in 1998. Living Mechanisms We are entering the age of "worker microbes." True, sauerkraut or Roquefort cheese were already made with their help. The use of microorganisms for industrial production is, when all is said and done, ecologically satisfactory. As living beings, they require more "natural" or "softer" working conditions than traditional industrial processes. Factories using them will essentially be more hospitable than those using machines. Temperature, pressure, acidity, etc., will |
FBIS3-60378_4 | Competitiveness/Environment Balance Plea | environment is inevitable. For drinking water, the excess of dissolved biodegradable organic carbon undergoes biological treatment using the properties of bacteria fixed on active carbon and biological nitrification or denitrification is often used. The treatment of waste water frequently requires a biological process which includes lagooning, and, if a higher level of purification needs to be achieved, treatment on bacterial beds or the use of activated muds. Today, however, in order to overcome certain difficulties linked to mechanical procedures, the development of biofilters, which lead to increasing the biomass activated by the use of cultures of microorganisms fixed on a fine granulated environment, is indispensable. For the treatment of residual industrial waters, the use of membrane bioreactors could be advantageous. Similarly, the biological dephosphatization of water is an interesting option. The diversity of usable biotechnologies today and the capacity to discover new approaches for the future will enable current techniques to be improved considerably. Waste Too The outlook is the same for the treatment of waste. We know about the methanization of silage, slaughter house residue, brewery dregs, etc., but also of household waste. We know how to develop rudimentary mechanisms, perfectly adapted to developing countries. In this respect, the remarkable experience of the treatment of residue from the Thies slaughterhouse in Senegal should be mentioned. This process enabled the elimination of solid and liquid residue through methanization and lagooning with water hyacinths which supplied the energy required to operate the slaughterhouse. Furthermore, it transformed the substrate and yielded a protein-rich material capable of increasing the production of marsh cultures for a lower than usual cost. In other respects, bioleaching and biofixing are subject to increasing research for the treatment of waste which is rich in heavy metals. Cleaning Up Contaminated Land Rehabilitation treatment for contaminated land is another field of investigation undergoing rapid development. The problems this poses for the substrata and in relation to ground water or future exploitation are such that it is absolutely necessary to clean up these lands. But the cost of doing so can reach excessive levels if the most suitable process is not chosen. The biological solution is often the most acceptable. This question is central to many programs around the world. Some EUREKA projects were recently launched focusing on the different possibilities and certain results look promising. From Air to Biosensors Another important area of biological cleaning covers the reduction of atmospheric |
FBIS3-60378_9 | Competitiveness/Environment Balance Plea | Ecological research must be strengthened to test the evolution that blind development in genetic engineering could bring about, and particularly in the plant world. Nature is being increasingly moulded by man, but biodiversity is certainly an indispensable advantage for its survival, notably if we are entering a period of galloping demography. This is why an approach where the use of biotechnologies is controlled and regulated is needed. Necessary Scientific Vigilance Biotechnologies are no less abstract than other modern industrial processes. Escherichia coli, a famous bacteria, despite its presence in our intestines, is no more familiar than carbon 14 or any other isolated molecule, although its use is growing, and under many different guises. So are we not dealing with them regularly. So "artificial" bacteria need not be experimented more commonly than plutonium or dioxin. Creating it, watching over it and using it will be the task of specialists for a long time to come and not that of ordinary mortals, other than exceptionally. This is why scientific vigilance is capital, as it is important to evaluate the ecotoxicological consequences on different environments. At the beginning, techniques calling on microorganisms, which some people said had been used since antiquity, did not seem to be at the source of any particularly great risk. But the appearance and utilization of genetic engineering techniques have completely changed this conviction. These techniques, which enable the potential of microorganisms to be transformed, and even new capabilities to be brought about by modifying the genome, have given rise over the past decades to questions based on both ethics and security. The experience we have to date of their utilization and industrial application is not yet sufficiently advanced in a certain number of sectors to enable all the doubts we have encountered to be removed completely. Reconciling Contradictions The approach is directed, like for a number of other activities, by a search for an indispensable balance between two levels which can, in certain cases, seem contradictory, namely, economic competitive activities and the lives of people. So if preventive and regulatory activities must be introduced, scientific research must bring light to bear on potential risks, and researchers must adopt a practically simultaneous attitude of vigilance in relation to the future impact of their results on the environment from the very launch of a project. This is a golden opportunity, for once, to develop new techniques having taken their consequences |
FBIS3-60386_0 | Studies Show Cancer Dangers From Nuclear Plants | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Article by Polly Ghazi: "New Cancer Fears Raise Ministers' Doubts on Thorp"] [Text] Anxiety among Ministers over the hundreds of cancer deaths that Britain's new nuclear reprocessing plant is expected to produce is jeopardising its future. The Government's radioactive waste advisers have received urgent instructions to review alarming new estimates by Government and independent scientists of likely worldwide deaths from the Thorp plant at Sellafield in Cumbria. The move follows meetings between Environment and Health Ministers who fear the health risks from Thorp may scupper Government plans to approve the plant's operation within the next few weeks. A senior Government source said last week that the issue of public dose levels was now regarded as `very serious' and 'potentially fatal' to the plant's future. The effects of discharges from Thorp into the air and sea is causing increasing concern among both the British public and foreign governments. Last week, the Health and Safety Executive confirmed that childhood leukemia levels 10 times the national average found in the village of Seascale nearby could be partly caused by radiation from Sellafield. Environment Minister Tim Yeo last week instructed the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee to advise the Government on the validity of calculation methods for radiation doses and subsequent worldwide deaths. The move follows the forwarding to Ministers this month of an alarming new report by the Government's official radiation watchdog, the National Radiological Protection Board. The report estimates that radiation doses afflicting the global population from the nuclear complex will almost quadruple after Thorp begins operating. The new worldwide levels, which would cause around 200 deaths for every year of Thorp's operation, are also more than three times greater than the previous highest totals, reached in 1975. Ministers have repeatedly stated that public radiation doses will not be allowed to return to such levels. These official figures are much higher than recent estimates produced for Greenpeace by radiological expert Dr David Sumner of Glasgow University that provoked widespread public concern. He estimated that the first 10 years of Thorp's operation would sow the seeds of 600 cancer deaths worldwide from Sellafield. The protection board report partly blames the steep rise in worldwide doses on proposed Thorp emissions of two very long-lived cancer-causing radionuclides, iodine-129 and krypton-85, which `circulate globally and therefore irradiate large numbers of people.' However, the report claims less than a quarter of future total |
FBIS3-60386_1 | Studies Show Cancer Dangers From Nuclear Plants | Environment Minister Tim Yeo last week instructed the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee to advise the Government on the validity of calculation methods for radiation doses and subsequent worldwide deaths. The move follows the forwarding to Ministers this month of an alarming new report by the Government's official radiation watchdog, the National Radiological Protection Board. The report estimates that radiation doses afflicting the global population from the nuclear complex will almost quadruple after Thorp begins operating. The new worldwide levels, which would cause around 200 deaths for every year of Thorp's operation, are also more than three times greater than the previous highest totals, reached in 1975. Ministers have repeatedly stated that public radiation doses will not be allowed to return to such levels. These official figures are much higher than recent estimates produced for Greenpeace by radiological expert Dr David Sumner of Glasgow University that provoked widespread public concern. He estimated that the first 10 years of Thorp's operation would sow the seeds of 600 cancer deaths worldwide from Sellafield. The protection board report partly blames the steep rise in worldwide doses on proposed Thorp emissions of two very long-lived cancer-causing radionuclides, iodine-129 and krypton-85, which `circulate globally and therefore irradiate large numbers of people.' However, the report claims less than a quarter of future total Sellafield doses will originate from Thorp. And it stresses that the accuracy of its dose estimates are `questionable' as they are based on radiation effects over 10,000 years, during which new technology may greatly reduce risks. Nevertheless, the protection board figures will boost opponents' demands for a wide-ranging public inquiry before Thorp is allowed to operate. `However small the doses may be, people will die as a result and it will be very hard to justify allowing the 1970s levels to be breached,' said Dr Sumner. Officials fear these new concerns over Thorp's health effects could unravel the Government's entire case for approving the plant. Under the Radioactive Substances Act 1960, every new radioactive discharge must be justified by demonstrating that economic gains will outweigh the damage to human health. But the original economic justifications for Thorp have now largely disappeared. Not only will the plutonium it will produce be largely redundant because the new generation of fast-breeder reactors it was meant to fuel have never been built, but foreign customers are now expressing doubts about the plant's viability. THE OBSERVER LTD, 1993 |
FBIS3-60392_0 | North Sea Wildlife Endangered by Toxic Waste | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Article by Sean Ryan, environment correspondent: "Toxic Cocktail Killing North Sea Dolphins"] [Text] The wildlife of the North Sea, one of Europe's most diverse habitats, is under increasing threat from a build-up of pollution that is killing dolphins, seals and countless birds. The most comprehensive study of the sea, undertaken by leading scientists from the eight countries surrounding it, has found that concentrations of toxic chemicals are high enough to cause tumours and breeding failures across a wide range of species. Ministers from all the countries concerned meet in Copenhagen this week to consider the conclusions of the Quality Status Report of the North Sea, which took six years to complete and is regarded as a conservative analysis of the impacts of pollution. They are expected to respond with measures to curb illegal dumping of oil from ships, pesticide pollution and over-fishing. Conservationists warned that marine wildlife was facing disaster in "a synthetic soup of chemicals" because governments had failed to meet anti-pollution targets set three years ago. Dr Sian Pullen, of the World Wide Fund for Nature, said action so far had failed to reverse decades of deterioration. "The commercial and environmental losses are enormous," he said. The study, to which Britain contributed more than £5m, says mammals are particularly at risk from thousands of industrial chemicals that accumulate in body fat after getting into the sea from rivers, waste tips and the air. Some, including polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs), are thought to suppress immunity to disease and damage ovaries. Poisonous waste metals such as mercury have attacked the kidneys and livers of minke whales, bottle-nosed dolphins and grey and common seals. Tens of thousands of sea birds are also dying each year in oil slicks from rigs and ships' tanks. Dr Nancy Harrison, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said: "Accidents make headlines, but chronic oil pollution is the biggest danger to wildlife and the health of the sea." Some of the most startling impacts have been recorded in fish. Contamination by tributyl tin, a highly-toxic component of paints used on ships' hulls, has triggered sex changes in whelks, often miles from shipping routes. Vast numbers of cod have developed tumours on their gills because of general chemical pollution and food and poisoning from shellfish, including mild paralysis, is on the increase: the report blames sewage. Dr John Huthnance, a leading British |
FBIS3-60392_2 | North Sea Wildlife Endangered by Toxic Waste | and common seals. Tens of thousands of sea birds are also dying each year in oil slicks from rigs and ships' tanks. Dr Nancy Harrison, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said: "Accidents make headlines, but chronic oil pollution is the biggest danger to wildlife and the health of the sea." Some of the most startling impacts have been recorded in fish. Contamination by tributyl tin, a highly-toxic component of paints used on ships' hulls, has triggered sex changes in whelks, often miles from shipping routes. Vast numbers of cod have developed tumours on their gills because of general chemical pollution and food and poisoning from shellfish, including mild paralysis, is on the increase: the report blames sewage. Dr John Huthnance, a leading British oceanographer, said the North Sea was especially vulnerable to pollution because it was largely landlocked. Chemicals that might disappear in six weeks in other seas could linger there for two years. The study warns that fertilisers seeping into the sea from rivers and underground channels have contributed to high levels of phosphorous and nitrogen, which have fed blooms of toxic algae. The Thames Humber, Tees and Tyne are all identified as important sources of industrial pollution. Metals swept downriver sink into sediments where they are absorbed by tiny organisms and gradually work their way up the food chain. Britain's pollution record has been fiercely criticised by other North Sea countries, particularly in Scandinavia, who pride themselves on their environmental performance. They are expected to complain this week that Britain has fallen behind targets set for curbing several pesticides. The use of dichlorvos -- one of the most toxic chemicals -- to deal with lice on fish farms was due to be cut by half between 1985 and 1995, but has so far increased. In Copenhagen, however, Britain is expected to accuse Denmark of taking grossly excessive catches of fish. The report says that up to 40% of all commercial species by weight are hauled out of the sea each year. More than half the adult cod and haddock in the North Sea were netted between 1986 and 1990, a rate described as impossible to sustain. Tim Yeo, the environment minister, said he regarded excessive spraying of pesticides on roadsides and railway embankments as one of the priorities for the conference. "We are committed to reducing their use to the absolute minimum," he said. |
FBIS3-60395_0 | Ministry: No Care for AIDS Victims | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Text] The Minister for Health, Mr Joshua Angatia yesterday warned that in future, Aids patients will have to be catered for by their families because the Government could not afford to maintain them in hospitals. He said if all Aids patients were to be admitted to hospitals, then it would mean that patients suffering from curable diseases would not get hospital beds. He said Aids patients in the country were 35,000 while HIV positive cases had reached 800,000. The Minister, who was moving a motion seeking the £109,986.945 for the year 1993/94 said if the Government continued admitting Aids patients in hospitals, then it meant that those suffering from the common diseases would have to die in their homes. Mr Angatia, who is also the Malava MP, said health care programmes had been introduced and that district health management boards will now be allowed to use 75 per cent of money collected in the cost- sharing to purchase medicines. He said the Government was advising the Nairobi City Council on step to take to run its clinics on a 24-hour basis, to avoid congestion at Kenyatta National Hospital. He disclosed that Pumwani Nyayo Wards will be opened soon and that the Infectious Diseases Hospital commonly known as IDH will be converted into a district hospital. Seconding the motion, the Minister for Labour, Mr Philip Masinde, said too much money was being used in maintaining ambulance vehicles. He cited cases where a battery could go down in a car leading to its grounding. He said the cost of medical attention had shot up and that Kenyans could no longer afford to get sick. He said some hospitals were demanding as high as Sh16,000 admission fee. |
FBIS3-60396_0 | Fourteen Deaths From Meningitis in Mubenda District | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Article by Alibosit Vincent: "Meningitis Hits Buwekula"] [Text] Fourteen people have died in Kibalinga, Buwekula areas in Mubende district recently. According to the medical report issued by the Medical Superintendent, Mubende Hospital Dr Ngobi, the cause of death was meningitis. The disease has reportedly claimed many lives in various areas of Mubende district but the worst hit being Kibalinga, Kasana in Buwekula areas. Only a few cases have so far been reported to the District medical authorities. The District Medical Officer, Mubende Dr Bagambisa George revealed it was a strain of malaria parasites which was difficult to treat using ordinary malaria drugs. He attributed the escalating number of deaths to the ignorance of the people about the prevailing outbreak of the disease. He said normally during dry periods meningitis is common among the people and claims a lot of lives. He also conceded he had received reports of the disease in the district. Meanwhile, a source who talked to The New Vision and asked for anonymity, disclosed a district team headed by the District Medical Officer, Dr Bagambisa is soon to go around the district educating people about the causes of these rampant deaths. |
FBIS3-60397_0 | Twenty Sudan Refugees Die of Meningitis, Measles | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Article by Yunusu Abbey: "20 Sudan Refugees Dead in Arua Camp"] [Text] Over 20 Sudanese refugees have so far died after contracting meningitis and measles at two transit camps here. Many more are down from the same causes. The dead comprise mainly old men and women as well as children living under squalid conditions at the camps, four miles from Koboko town along Moyo-Koboko road. The death occurred between last week and mid this week, according to Red Cross workers at the camps. "Between five to six people are dying here daily," said a Red Cross volunteer from Arua who is involved in the operation. On Monday August 16 alone, nine people died in one camp. Four others had died the previous day while another four died on Tuesday. The adults are mainly dying of meningistis while children are dying of measles. Aid workers however expressed fear that the death toll might rise because of the unhygienic and poor sanitary conditions at the camps. By Thursday the 30,000-plus refugees living in the two camps, had no toilets. Pit latrines had not been dug. They were also faced with an acute water shortage. The British charity organisation Oxfam, was still surveying nearest possible source of water for them. Besides, refugee families are crammed in poorly built grass-thatched huts, while others are sleeping under trees. Tents have been given out to some but many have not yet received any. RC officials distributing the food say though the bombing had ceased at the southern Sudan border town of Kaya, more refugees were still coming in. Four truck-loads arrived at the Koboko camps mid this week. The refugees are mainly of the Kakwa ethnic group of southern Sudan. Their dialect is almost similar to that of Uganda Kakwas in Koboko. But they complained that SPLA [Seychelles People's Liberation Army] fighters, mainly Dinka, confiscated and looted their property as they fled to Uganda. Sudanese Anglican Bishop Semmey Solomon has also sought refuge at Koboko. He is now staying with some Ugandan priests at Nangilia parish. |
FBIS3-60400_0 | TB Outbreak at Chiredzi Hospital Reported | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Text] The Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Timothy Stamps, yesterday confirmed recent Press reports that over 20 members of staff had contracted tuberculosis at Chiredzi District Hospital. Dr Stamps told reporters in Chiredzi that 20 nurses and six general hands had contracted TB but neither confirmed nor denied that four nurses had died of the disease. "They did not die of TB, we all know what they died of," he said. Investigations to establish the cause of the outbreak were underway while efforts to protect staff from TB were being made, he said. Dr Stamps said precautions being taken to prevent the recurrent of such incidents included proper disposal of TB positive Sputum, the use of masks by staff, proper changing of bed linen and thorough cleaning of hospitals. "TB is a big problem in Chiredzi, you should put in place extra precautions to reduce the risk of TB spreading," he said. He, however, said staff also had a duty to protect themselves but did not guarantee a "non-risk situation." Dr Stamps said in 1992 Masvingo recorded 377 deaths resulting from TB of which 144 were from Chiredzi. He said at least 200 TB cases were reported every three months in Chiredzi. |
FBIS3-60407_0 | China, U.S. Cooperate in Chronic Disease Research | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Hefei, December 9 (XINHUA) -- In the countryside chronic diseases are closely connected with patients' occupations and the their working and living environment, according to a large-scale investigation now being conducted in east China's Anhui Province. The investigation is part of a co-operative research program between Anhui Medical University and the Medical College of Harvard University in the U.S. The research into chronic and non-infectious diseases, which started in May this year and will continue for 20 years, aims at clarifying the role of occupation- and environment-related factors that cause chronic diseases. Since the 1970s the death rate from infectious diseases has been effectively curbed worldwide because of the introduction of effective vaccines and antibiotics. However, not much research has been done on the relationship between the environment and occupations, and chronic diseases such as tumors and heart disease, which are now major causes of death. The two institutes chose the Yingjiang district of Anqing city, Yijin town in Jiyang County and Haikou town in Huaining County, all in Anhui, as the focus of their field work. A four-month investigation of 52,000 of the total 60,000 population in the three areas has already been concluded, covering 2,378 items, including chronic respiratory ailments, the influence of pesticides on health, female fertility and medical services in the countryside. An investigation of the urban population in the same areas will soon be carried out. These surveys will be repeated at five-year intervals, and the information will be fed into computers. |
FBIS3-60408_0 | Parasites Said Affection 62 Percent of Population | Language: English Article Type:BFN [By staff reporter Zhu Baoxia: "Parasites Infect Most of Nation's Population"] [Text] Parasitic diseases have infected more than 62% of Chinese residents and have become a major threat to public health, especially in rural and ethnic areas. Some medical specialists suggest that central and local governments include parasitic disease control in their social and economic development programmes and increase budgets for parasite eradication. Ministry of Public Health experts, who recently completed a nationwide survey exposing the problem, hoped that extensive publicity and education could raise the public's awareness regarding parasitic illnesses. The survey found that of the 62% of Chinese infected with intestinal parasites, some 43% had two or more species of parasites. Some persons had as many as nine species. The rate of infection is even higher among farmers and ethnic people because of their agricultural activities and dietary customs. Most are infected with roundworm, pinworm, and whipworm. It is estimated that some 531 million people in the country have round-worms. Each year, the central and local governments spend some 150 million yuan (about $26 million) treating people infected with such soil transmitted parasites as roundworm, pinworm, whipworm, and hookworm. The national survey, the first and the largest of its kind in Chinese history, lasted for eight years from 1988 to 1992 [years as published]. The Ministry of Public Health and local governments spent more than 5.2 million yuan (over $900,000) for the survey which involved about 8,000 technicians and medical specialists. The survey selected 2,848 pilot sites in 726 counties, and some 1.5 million persons were surveyed by fecal examination. A total of 56 species of parasites were detected on the mainland. Of those, three species of trematodes detected in Anhui and Fujian provinces are the first recorded in humans on the mainland. Another species, also found in Fujian Province, is the first instance of infection in a human. The highest infection rate--nearly 95%--was reported in South China's Hainan Province. The lowest--17.5%--was in northeastern Heilongjiang Province. |
FBIS3-60417_0 | Court Rules Blood Supplier Responsible for HIV-Linked Death | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] A Seoul court has ruled that the authority which supplies blood with the HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is responsible for the infection and not the state or hospital involved. The landmark ruling, made yesterday by the Seoul District Civil Court, is expected to have a critical impact in legislating laws and regulations pertaining to AIDS (aquired imminodeficiency syndrome). In the ruling, the court found the Korea National Red Cross (KNRC) responsible for causing the fatal infection of a 21-year-old man identified only by his surname Yi who committed suicide after realizing that he acquired AIDS through a blood transfusion. The infection has been confirmed to have occurred in January 1987 while Yi was undergoing a blood transfusion during surgery at the Seoul National University Hospital. He killed himself in April last year. Following his death, Yi's family filed a civil suit against the government, the hospital and KNRC which processed and supplied the blood used in the transfusion, demanding compensation of 330 million won. KNRC's Blood Processing Center is responsible for processing virtually all domestic blood products. In handing down the ruling, presiding judge Kim Mok-min said neither the state nor the hospital is responsible for the accident and ordered KNRC to pay Yi's family 12 million won in compensation. "Since the discovery of HIV here in December 1985, the government has made diligent efforts to ensure that the spread of the deadly disease is prevented," Kim noted. He cited that the government issued strict directives for related authorities to administer stringent tests on all donated and other blood to screen it for HIV infection. The judge went on to say that there are grounds to believe that the hospital eliminated detailed tests on the blood before the transfusion only on the basis of the fact that Yi was in serious condition. |
FBIS3-60421_0 | Health Committee Reports Infectious Diseases Rising | Language: Serbo-Croatian Article Type:BFN [Text] The Republican Committee for Health and Social Safety of the Citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina stated that according to the information it has received from the regions of Olovo, Mostar, Teocak, Zvornik, and Sarajevo, eight people were killed and 12 wounded in the last 24 hours. Of these, one person was killed and six wounded in Sarajevo. The threatened areas of Tesanj, Maglaj, Srebrenica, Zepa, Gorazde, Gornji Vakuf, Olovo, and Mostar need aid in food, medicines, medical accessories, winter clothing, footwear, sleeping bags, and places to live in. The hygiene-epidemiology situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina is deteriorating. Intestinal infectious diseases are on the rise. The number of respiratory disease cases is also rising. |
FBIS3-60423_4 | Statistics on Infectious Diseases | |436.9 |643.6 |138.1 |35.0 | |za | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Epidemi-|1.2 |1.5 |1.8 |1.6 |1.4 |0.9 |1.1 | |c Cereb-| | | | | | | | |rospina-| | | | | | | | |l Menin-| | | | | | | | |gitis | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Epidemi-|0.3 |0.4 |0.2 |0.1 |0.1 |0.1 |0.2 | |c Encep-| | | | | | | | |halitis | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Infanti-|-- |-- |-- |-- |0.0 |-- |0.5 | |le Para-| | | | | | | | |lysis | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |"Q" Fev-|0.0 |5.6 |0.2 |0.1 |0.1 |0.3 |0.6 | |er | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Hemorrh-|0.1 |0.3 |0.2 |0.4 |0.3 |0.1 |0.2 | |agic Fe-| | | | | | | | |ver | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Malaria |1.4 |1.3 |1.3 |1.1 |1.3 |0.4 |0.6 | |<sup> 1 | | | | | | | | |</sup> | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Abdomin-|0.0 |0.0 |0.0 |-- |0.0 |0.0 |0.2 | |al Typh-| | | | | | | | |us [Typ-| | | | | | | | |hoid] | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Paratyp-|-- |0.0 |-- |-- |-- |-- |-- | |hoid | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Dysente-|96.9 |68.5 |56.4 |44.0 |36.4 |60.0 |69.6 | |ry | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Toxic D-|0.2 |0.1 |0.0 |-- |-- |-- |-- | |yspepsia| | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Infecti-|110.8 |138.3 |176.3 |122.0 |106.6 |265.9 |262.7 | |ous Hep-| | | | | | | | |atitis | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Blue Bl-|0.1 |0.2 |0.1 |0.2 |0.1 |0.1 |0.1 | |ister (-| | | | | | | | |Anthrax)| | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Leptosp-|0.2 |0.3 |0.5 |0.5 |0.3 |0.3 |0.2 | |irosis | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Tetanus |0.2 |0.1 |0.1 |0.0 |0.1 |0.1 |0.1 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Serosal |2.2 |14.2 |2.3 |1.1 |1.8 |1.4 |2.4 | |Meningi-| | | | | | | | |tis | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |<sup> 1</sup> All cases involve infection while visiting outside Bulgari-| |a. | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
FBIS3-60425_0 | Birth Rate Drop, Infant Mortality Reported | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Sofia, December 8 (BTA) -- A total of 96,522 Bulgarians were born in 1992 and 138,705 abortions were performed over the same period, statistics of the National Health Prophylaxis Centre show. The results of a related survey were made public yesterday, TRUD writes. There are 2.169 million Bulgarian women of a child-bearing age, the survey specifies, but the number of those willing to have a child is on the decrease. A total of 1,443 abortions were performed per 1,000 live births, or 500 up on 1991. Infant mortality is very high. In towns it was 15.4 per 1,000 population in 1992, that figure being 17 in villages. Statisticians hold the Bulgarian nation dwindles not by the year but by the month. |
FBIS3-60430_0 | Slovak Soldiers Not Hurt by Gas in Gulf | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Prague, Nov 29 (CTK) -- No physical or mental problems have been detected among the Slovak soldiers who had been involved within the Czechoslovak anti-chemical unit in the 1991 Desert Storm operation, Chairman of the Slovak Army health service Stanislav Pirosik said today. He reacted to the information published in Czech media on the damaged health of the Czechoslovak anti-chemical unit troops. He said that his statements were based on evidence from direct participants of the operation according to whom the unit had measured low levels of unspecified chemical substances. |
FBIS3-60433_0 | Brucellosis Reported in Kicevo Area | Language: Macedonian Article Type:CSO [Article by V.Z.: "Threat of Brucellosis"] [Text] This year, 11 citizens contracted the disease, while veterinarians destroyed 139 head of contaminated cattle. Kicevo, November--Once again, the Kicevo livestock breeders are disturbed by the outbreak of brucellosis, a contagious disease. Tests conducted so far have confirmed that the disease has already spread to several herds of sheep in Zajas and Kolari villages. In the last 10 months, 11 cases of brucellosis in humans have been recorded in the Kicevo township, while veterinarians have destroyed 139 sick sheep. The spreading of brucellosis in the Kicevo area is confirmed by Ace Delovski, director of the veterinary station in Kicevo. According to him, brucellosis is destroying the Kicevo herds. So far, the Kicevo veterinarians have tested 16,429 sheep in the township, and all contaminated sheep have been destroyed. He stressed that the township veterinarians have declared war on this disease, which threatens human health as well. According to Delovski, a special program has been formulated to block the spread of the disease, requiring coordinated veterinary efforts. Wherever the disease is detected the cattle is destroyed and its owners are compensated on the basis of market value. According to Mirce Lazeski, head of the epidemiological service of the Kicevo Medical Center, all contaminated individuals are livestock breeders who in direct contact with the animals. |
FBIS3-60434_0 | Contagious Diseases Kill 208 in Kosovo This Year | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Unattributed report: "208 Victims of Contagious Diseases in Kosova Within This Year" -- issued by the Democratic League of Kosova] [Text] The Prishtina-based Serbian newspaper JEDINSTVO reports in its today's edition that during this year only, some 18,836 persons in Kosova have suffered contagious diseases. Some 30 epidemics and 8 contagious diseases have been prevailing amongst the population causing thus 208 deaths. These figures present only the cases registered in the public health care (Serb run, KIC) institutions, whereas the real figures may be five-fold higher as the vast majority of the population gets treated at private medical centers and homes, says the newspaper. The most frequent diseases the Kosovars have been suffering are jaundice, tuberculosis, measles, hepatitis, pleurisy, infant palsy, scarlet fever etc., with children being hit mostly. |
FBIS3-60438_0 | Health Authorities Issue Bulletin on Casualties, Diseases | Language: Serbo-Croatian Article Type:BFN [Text] How the aggressor is observing the signed agreements in practice is best illustrated by the bullet of the Republican Institute for Health Protection for the past week. The aggressors killed 60 and wounded 167 citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina in the past week. Despite the fact that they signed agreements, the aggressors from both the east and the west are not allowing the food convoys to pass through. The most endangered regions are still Tesanj, Maglaj, Gorazde, Mostar, Olovo, and Gornji Vakuf. In addition to food, they need clothing, footwear, and facilities for accommodating refugees and the displaced persons. The epidemiologic situation on the territory of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina remains (?unfavorable). In the first 10 months of this year, 26,261 persons were registered to have infectious diseases. |
FBIS3-60439_0 | Health Center Puts Total Death Toll at `Over 141,000' | Language: Serbo-Croatian Article Type:BFN [Text] What follows now is this week's black Bosnia-Herzegovina statistics. According to the latest report from the Bosnia-Herzegovina Health Headquarters, during the last week 66 people were killed and 255 were wounded in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In Sarajevo, 21 were killed and 118 wounded during this period. Based on information gathered from about 70 percent of the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina, over 141,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of the war, and 158,651 people have been wounded. In Sarajevo alone, 9,612 people have been killed and 55,021 wounded. As for medical treatment abroad, 1,171 patients are waiting to be evacuated from Bosnia-Herzegovina. So far 606 people have been evacuated. There are 1,312 people on the evacuation waiting list in Sarajevo, and so far 446 patients have been evacuated, according to the statement by the Bosnia-Herzegovina Health Headquarters. |
FBIS3-60440_1 | Serbia: Embargo Impairs Health Care Conditions | about a general deterioration of the immunity of citizens. Some bleak forecasts have already come true: In the last two years in our capital there has been a growing number of mental, contagious, and so called insufficiently defined diseases, that is to say, cases without diagnosis. "In the period prior to the sanctions, that is from 1986 to 1990, the number of those who died of contagious diseases was 213 on average, two years later it was 272 (27 percent more), while in the first quarter of this year as much as four times more cases of death have been reported, relative to last year. The reason for worry lies with the fact that people are even dying of diseases that are normally quite curable if a correct therapy is implemented. This is to say, the main problem is the lack of medicines," Professor Dr. Svetislav Ristic, head of the Epidemiologic Department at the Federal Institute for Health Care, says. Prof. Dr. Teodor Bakovic, director of the aforementioned institute, says that the number of newly registered patients suffering from active tuberculosis has increased by 8.6 percent, as well as the number of those suffering from psychosis, which has increased by 3.8 percent. This figure refers only to the cases registered by general practitioners. The analysis of autopsy reports in the period prior to the imposition of the UN sanctions and after it, speaks convincingly for how endangered the health of Yugoslav citizens is. "The cases of infections have considerably increased in the time of the sanctions, particularly cases of pneumonia and sepsis as causes of death. In the period before the implementation of the sanctions, there were 20 percent of such cases, while after the implementation, the number of such cases has jumped to 42 percent. Before the embargo, infections as causes of death were reported in 31 percent of all death cases, while afterwards in almost 58 percent of cases," Prof. Dr. Vladimir Kanjuh from the Institute for Pathology with the Faculty for Medical Sciences, says. Diagnosis -- Unknown [subhead] Since the sanctions were implemented, the number of accurate diagnosis has sunk considerably. Until the end of 1992, 42 percent of diagnosis were correct, 39 percent were partly correct, while 19 percent were incorrect. With the deterioration of the conditions in the health care institutions, only 27 percent of diagnosis have been proven correct, 38 percent partly, while as |
FBIS3-60440_2 | Serbia: Embargo Impairs Health Care Conditions | 3.8 percent. This figure refers only to the cases registered by general practitioners. The analysis of autopsy reports in the period prior to the imposition of the UN sanctions and after it, speaks convincingly for how endangered the health of Yugoslav citizens is. "The cases of infections have considerably increased in the time of the sanctions, particularly cases of pneumonia and sepsis as causes of death. In the period before the implementation of the sanctions, there were 20 percent of such cases, while after the implementation, the number of such cases has jumped to 42 percent. Before the embargo, infections as causes of death were reported in 31 percent of all death cases, while afterwards in almost 58 percent of cases," Prof. Dr. Vladimir Kanjuh from the Institute for Pathology with the Faculty for Medical Sciences, says. Diagnosis -- Unknown [subhead] Since the sanctions were implemented, the number of accurate diagnosis has sunk considerably. Until the end of 1992, 42 percent of diagnosis were correct, 39 percent were partly correct, while 19 percent were incorrect. With the deterioration of the conditions in the health care institutions, only 27 percent of diagnosis have been proven correct, 38 percent partly, while as much as 35 percent have been proven incorrect! There are many reasons for that: The reduced number of regular medical checkups, the lack of diagnostic instruments and medicines, problems in the field of disinfection and disinfestation.... Among the most frequent causes of death, apart from "traditional" diseases, the violent forms of death (suicides, murders, accidents) have also found their place on the scale. After a long time, anemia (poor condition of blood) has reappeared as one of the most frequent diseases, as a consequence of inadequate nutrition. We are no longer safe from diseases that can be prevented (by a vaccine), because the number of children immunized by the DI-TE-PER [against diphtheria, tetanus, and periostitis] has dropped from 88 to 70 percent, while those vaccinated against chicken pox have dropped from 88 to 76 percent, partly because of the shortage, partly because of malfunctions, and partly because of the difficulties of transport. All age groups are endangered, without distinction, while the prospects for the future are even worse. The study worked out by Dr. Viktorija Cucic stresses, among other things, that the conditions for carrying out scientific research will be reduced by 64 percent, the possibilities for specialization will drop |
FBIS3-60440_3 | Serbia: Embargo Impairs Health Care Conditions | much as 35 percent have been proven incorrect! There are many reasons for that: The reduced number of regular medical checkups, the lack of diagnostic instruments and medicines, problems in the field of disinfection and disinfestation.... Among the most frequent causes of death, apart from "traditional" diseases, the violent forms of death (suicides, murders, accidents) have also found their place on the scale. After a long time, anemia (poor condition of blood) has reappeared as one of the most frequent diseases, as a consequence of inadequate nutrition. We are no longer safe from diseases that can be prevented (by a vaccine), because the number of children immunized by the DI-TE-PER [against diphtheria, tetanus, and periostitis] has dropped from 88 to 70 percent, while those vaccinated against chicken pox have dropped from 88 to 76 percent, partly because of the shortage, partly because of malfunctions, and partly because of the difficulties of transport. All age groups are endangered, without distinction, while the prospects for the future are even worse. The study worked out by Dr. Viktorija Cucic stresses, among other things, that the conditions for carrying out scientific research will be reduced by 64 percent, the possibilities for specialization will drop by 61 percent, the chances for providing basic medicines by 46 percent, while conditions for keeping up the hygienic-epidemiologic level in health care institutions will be reduced by 38 percent. The consequence of these changes will be a decline in the birth rate, an increase in the infant mortality-rate, an increase in cases of cardiovascular diseases, ulcers, mental disorders, diabetes, tuberculosis.... The conclusion is quite unambiguous: Either the sanctions are lifted in the field of medicine, or we shall die out. All age groups are endangered, without distinction, while the prospects for the future are even worse. The study worked out by Dr. Viktorija Cucic stresses, among other things, that the conditions for carrying out scientific research will be reduced by 64 percent, the possibilities for specialization will drop by 61 percent, the chances for providing basic medicines by 46 percent, while conditions for keeping up the hygienic-epidemiologic level in health care institutions will be reduced by 38 percent. The consequence of these changes will be a decline in the birth rate, an increase in the infant mortality-rate, an increase in cases of cardiovascular diseases, ulcers, mental disorders, diabetes, tuberculosis.... The conclusion is quite unambiguous: Either the sanctions are lifted |
FBIS3-60440_4 | Serbia: Embargo Impairs Health Care Conditions | many reasons for that: The reduced number of regular medical checkups, the lack of diagnostic instruments and medicines, problems in the field of disinfection and disinfestation.... Among the most frequent causes of death, apart from "traditional" diseases, the violent forms of death (suicides, murders, accidents) have also found their place on the scale. After a long time, anemia (poor condition of blood) has reappeared as one of the most frequent diseases, as a consequence of inadequate nutrition. We are no longer safe from diseases that can be prevented (by a vaccine), because the number of children immunized by the DI-TE-PER [against diphtheria, tetanus, and periostitis] has dropped from 88 to 70 percent, while those vaccinated against chicken pox have dropped from 88 to 76 percent, partly because of the shortage, partly because of malfunctions, and partly because of the difficulties of transport. All age groups are endangered, without distinction, while the prospects for the future are even worse. The study worked out by Dr. Viktorija Cucic stresses, among other things, that the conditions for carrying out scientific research will be reduced by 64 percent, the possibilities for specialization will drop by 61 percent, the chances for providing basic medicines by 46 percent, while conditions for keeping up the hygienic-epidemiologic level in health care institutions will be reduced by 38 percent. The consequence of these changes will be a decline in the birth rate, an increase in the infant mortality-rate, an increase in cases of cardiovascular diseases, ulcers, mental disorders, diabetes, tuberculosis.... The conclusion is quite unambiguous: Either the sanctions are lifted in the field of medicine, or we shall die out. All age groups are endangered, without distinction, while the prospects for the future are even worse. The study worked out by Dr. Viktorija Cucic stresses, among other things, that the conditions for carrying out scientific research will be reduced by 64 percent, the possibilities for specialization will drop by 61 percent, the chances for providing basic medicines by 46 percent, while conditions for keeping up the hygienic-epidemiologic level in health care institutions will be reduced by 38 percent. The consequence of these changes will be a decline in the birth rate, an increase in the infant mortality-rate, an increase in cases of cardiovascular diseases, ulcers, mental disorders, diabetes, tuberculosis.... The conclusion is quite unambiguous: Either the sanctions are lifted in the field of medicine, or we shall die out. |
FBIS3-60441_0 | Federal Ministry Report: Sanctions `Highly Damaging' to Health Care | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Text] Belgrade, Nov 25 (AFP) -- Sanctions imposed against the rump Yugoslavia in 1990 have proved highly damaging to health care, according to a Health Ministry statement published in the daily BORBA. The death rate in hospitals has risen by up to 30 percent since the introduction of sanctions, the statement said. Statistics from the Yugoslav Institute for Preventative Medicine showed that cases of chicken pox had risen from 694 in the first half of last year to 14,940 in the same period this year, of which 44 were fatal. Belgrade's Tirsova Children's Hospital, which operated on 500 children with heart defects last year, could this year manage only 150 operations. Clinic Director Dusan Scepanovic said: "Children will die waiting for their turn." Infant mortality has risen from 1.4 percent in 1991 to 1.7 percent during the first six months of this year, the statement said. By April, Serbia was spending annually only 20 dollars per resident on health care compared to 150 dollars in 1983. |
FBIS3-60446_0 | Researchers Seek To Decrease Pediatric AIDS | Language: Portuguese Article Type:CSO [Article by Sandra Gomide] [Text] Sao Paulo--Nearly 20 percent of North American children of mothers carrying the AIDS virus are born infected with the disease. In Brazil, this rate is almost 35 percent, resembling that in the African countries. However, it is known that half of all the children infected worldwide contract the virus at the time of delivery. Based on this information, researchers are attempting to reduce the number of pediatric AIDS cases. "If we succeed in obtaining a method to prevent transmission of the virus, the result will be good, because these children are still developing their immune system, and hence have less resistance to the infections caused by the disease." This statement was made by the Indian physician, Savita Pahwa, an immunologist at North Shore University Hospital, in New York. She arrived in Sao Paulo yesterday to participate in the First National Meeting on Pediatric AIDS, from 1 to 3 December, sponsored by the Association To Assist Child Carriers of HIV. According to Doctor Pahwa, there are, basically two clinical types of children carrying HIV: those who show symptoms of the disease during the first months of life, and die by age two; and those who more easily resist infections, and even survive up to age 12. She explained: "We are studying the immune systems of those children to learn the differences between them, and why some manage to live longer." Concurrently, the researchers on her team are attempting to solve what they call the virus "envelope." It consists of a layer of protein covering the virus, which determines the type of attack that the latter will make on the immune system of infected patients. According to Pawha, approximately 1,200 children have already been infected by the virus in the United States. The principal treatments used in Brazil are not much different from those in the developed countries, which use AZT alone, or combined with two other more modern drugs called DDI (dideoxynosine, in English) and DDC (dedeoxycytidine). This system changes the date for starting the use of AZT, as well as its dosage. According to Doctor Marinella Della Negra, from the Emilio Ribas Hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil was the first developing country admitted to the protocol for Penta I research (the acronym for the accord regarding the European Economic Community's Pediatric AIDS Studies). That accord includes collaborating institutions in Italy, Portugal, |
FBIS3-60446_1 | Researchers Seek To Decrease Pediatric AIDS | all the children infected worldwide contract the virus at the time of delivery. Based on this information, researchers are attempting to reduce the number of pediatric AIDS cases. "If we succeed in obtaining a method to prevent transmission of the virus, the result will be good, because these children are still developing their immune system, and hence have less resistance to the infections caused by the disease." This statement was made by the Indian physician, Savita Pahwa, an immunologist at North Shore University Hospital, in New York. She arrived in Sao Paulo yesterday to participate in the First National Meeting on Pediatric AIDS, from 1 to 3 December, sponsored by the Association To Assist Child Carriers of HIV. According to Doctor Pahwa, there are, basically two clinical types of children carrying HIV: those who show symptoms of the disease during the first months of life, and die by age two; and those who more easily resist infections, and even survive up to age 12. She explained: "We are studying the immune systems of those children to learn the differences between them, and why some manage to live longer." Concurrently, the researchers on her team are attempting to solve what they call the virus "envelope." It consists of a layer of protein covering the virus, which determines the type of attack that the latter will make on the immune system of infected patients. According to Pawha, approximately 1,200 children have already been infected by the virus in the United States. The principal treatments used in Brazil are not much different from those in the developed countries, which use AZT alone, or combined with two other more modern drugs called DDI (dideoxynosine, in English) and DDC (dedeoxycytidine). This system changes the date for starting the use of AZT, as well as its dosage. According to Doctor Marinella Della Negra, from the Emilio Ribas Hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil was the first developing country admitted to the protocol for Penta I research (the acronym for the accord regarding the European Economic Community's Pediatric AIDS Studies). That accord includes collaborating institutions in Italy, Portugal, Belgium, France, and Germany. The doctor claims: "That is one of the most modern European studies, and from now on we shall be able to gain access to its reports." Currently receiving seven new pediatric AIDS cases per week, she comments: "Three years ago, the average was two per week." |
FBIS3-60448_0 | AIDS Coordinator Projects Future AIDS Figures | Language: Portuguese Article Type:CSO [Text] The AIDS virus has now stricken 13 million adults and a million children worldwide: 2.5 million people have AIDS. World Health Organization (WHO) projections indicate that, by the end of the 1990's, there will be 43 million infected people in the world. Moreover, 10 million children will be left orphans of parents who were victims of the disease. "AIDS is one of the most serious problems confronted by the human race," declared Lair Guerra de Macedo, coordinator of the Health Ministry's Program To Fight AIDS, yesterday. She spoke during the course of the World Day To Combat AIDS program, in which health ministers have participated since 1985, when the program was created. In Brazil, the statistics from 1980 until 30 October of this year show an accumulation of 43,964 AIDS cases, revealing that 41 percent of those infected have already died. There are 420,000 Brazilians with HIV. It is expected that, during the next two years, 87,000 new cases will appear, and that there will be 85,000 deaths resulting from the disease. According to estimates, within the same period the government will spend $875 million on patients in an advanced stage alone. Lair claimed that the government will attempt to reduce the infection levels over the next three years, based on a comprehensive AIDS control program financed by the World Bank. The program cost is $250 million, with $90 million in matching funds from the Brazilian Government. According to Lair Guerra, a striking feature in Brazil is the spread of the disease among various population groups, such as women and young people. The expert warned: "The use of injectable drugs is playing a preponderant role in the spread of the disease among the youth." In 1980, there were 28 cases among adolescents; and in 1991, 261 cases were recorded, with 50 percent infected through drug use. During the government's informational campaign disseminated by radio and television, it had been planned to air a video instructing the drug user on how to disinfect needles and syringes, but the film was banned. Two films will be aired promoting the use of condoms, and there will be two radio spots providing information on the disease. |
FBIS3-60449_0 | Rio Meningitis Cases Exceed Forecasts | Language: Portuguese Article Type:CSO [Text] During November, the cases of meningococcal meningitis in Rio exceeded the maximum limit anticipated. According to the Municipal Health Secretariat, 48 cases were reported, representing 37 percent more than the 35 cases of the disease expected for the month. The number of fatalities during November rose to 12 with the death, on the night before last, of the child J., aged one year, who was confined in the Salgado Filho Hospital. According to the Secretariat, the baby's parents live in the shantytown of Jacarezinho. Despite the spread of the meningococcal disease in Rio, the Secretariat denies the existence of an epidemic, because he does not believe that there has been a significant change in the number of reports of the disease compared with previous years. Most of the cases of meningococcal meningitis in Rio have been caused by the Type B meningococcus, characterized by a slow spread. It is unlike types A and C, which are capable of causing very intense epidemics within a short period of time. Compared with last year's reports, however, the figures on the meningococcal disease in Rio indicate an abnormal rise in at least five months: February (increase of 50 percent); March (105 percent); April (43 percent); September (56 percent); and November (37 percent). Nevertheless, during August and October the number of cases was nearly 30 percent lower than that recorded for those months in 1992. The total number of cases reported to date has already exceeded that of last year's cases: 392 by November, compared with 328 last year. For this reason, the Municipal Health Secretariat requested of the Health Ministry authorization to administer the vaccine against type B meningococcal meninigitis in Rio. The effectiveness of that vaccine is a controversial topic among the experts. Deaths From January to November Total 142 The State Health Secretariat's data indicate that by November, in the state as a whole, the meningococcal meninigitis cases exceeded the total reported in 1992. To date, the Secretariat has recorded 725 cases of the disease, compared with 702 last year. This represents an approximate increase of 3 percent, not counting the figure for the month of December. The disease, which killed 153 persons in 1992, caused 142 fatalities among its victims by November of this year. When added to those of other types of meningitis (such as the ones caused by Haemophilus influenzae, pneumococcus, and viruses), |
FBIS3-60450_0 | Salinas Cites Progress in Health Care in State of the Nation Address | Article Type:BFN [Excerpt] In the past year, we opened 12 general hospitals and 215 first aid clinics. This means that during my administration we inaugurated a new hospital every three weeks and a first aid clinic every day during my five years in government. Following the expansion and refurbishment of the 20 de Noviembre Regional Hospital in Liste, it has become a high specialty hospital center, which will have the most modern medical equipment. Last year I reported that the vaccine program was able to inoculate 95 percent of the Mexican children under the age of five with all vaccinations. To maintain the high coverage levels attained, we applied more than 88 million doses in 1993. During National Health Week, last October, a total of 22 million children received the measles vaccine. Some 8 million children received treatment against parasites, and vitamins were given to 1 million children under the age of five, which is a very important step for their physical development. Since October 1990, we have not had a single case of poliomyelitis. We will shortly obtain international recognition for the eradication of this disease. The last case of diphtheria was recorded in 1991. Measles and whooping cough are showing significant reductions of 80 and 75 percent, respectively, when compared to 1988 levels. I reiterate that these results are unprecedented in Mexico's public health history. We also have been able to make progress in the achievement of the goals set for the year 2000 at the World Children's Summit. All of this is the result of the work and coverage achieved by our health institutions, as well as by the great sense of responsibility shown by Mexican families. AIDS has become one of the primary causes of death among the male population between the ages of 25 and 34. It is necessary to insist that there is no vaccine against AIDS or treatment to cure it. He who contracts AIDS is condemned to death. This dramatic fact forces us to intensify even more our education campaigns, the dissemination of messages, and the verification of blood banks to prevent it from spreading. I reiterate we are going to double our prevention campaigns. In 1993, less than 8,000 cases of malaria were reported as compared to the more than 16,000 cases the previous year. No deaths for this cause have been reported. The new National Council for the Prevention and |
FBIS3-60450_1 | Salinas Cites Progress in Health Care in State of the Nation Address | under the age of five with all vaccinations. To maintain the high coverage levels attained, we applied more than 88 million doses in 1993. During National Health Week, last October, a total of 22 million children received the measles vaccine. Some 8 million children received treatment against parasites, and vitamins were given to 1 million children under the age of five, which is a very important step for their physical development. Since October 1990, we have not had a single case of poliomyelitis. We will shortly obtain international recognition for the eradication of this disease. The last case of diphtheria was recorded in 1991. Measles and whooping cough are showing significant reductions of 80 and 75 percent, respectively, when compared to 1988 levels. I reiterate that these results are unprecedented in Mexico's public health history. We also have been able to make progress in the achievement of the goals set for the year 2000 at the World Children's Summit. All of this is the result of the work and coverage achieved by our health institutions, as well as by the great sense of responsibility shown by Mexican families. AIDS has become one of the primary causes of death among the male population between the ages of 25 and 34. It is necessary to insist that there is no vaccine against AIDS or treatment to cure it. He who contracts AIDS is condemned to death. This dramatic fact forces us to intensify even more our education campaigns, the dissemination of messages, and the verification of blood banks to prevent it from spreading. I reiterate we are going to double our prevention campaigns. In 1993, less than 8,000 cases of malaria were reported as compared to the more than 16,000 cases the previous year. No deaths for this cause have been reported. The new National Council for the Prevention and Control of Diarrhea conducted educational campaigns in the media, a total of 40 million oral rehydration doses were distributed, and efforts in the clean water program were intensified. Some 94 percent of drinking water was chlorinated. In addition, a total of 150,000 health facilities were built. All of these actions have helped reduce the rate of mortality from diarrhea in children under the age of five by more than 30 percent since 1990. We have been able to get cholera under control, even though we still have to periodically treat isolated outbreaks. |
FBIS3-60461_2 | Editorial Warns Against Advance of AIDS | to the infected people. Much of the world is observing AIDS week currently, to focus attention on the issue and spread awareness of the danger. In most of Asia the awareness effort has been limited almost exclusively to the more affluent and more liberal segments of society, with walks and high level seminars putting in their usual token show. The most vlunerable sections of the populace, the proverbial masses, as always remain untouched by such publicity stunts. Ironically, they will be the first to be touched, indeed knocked down, by the virus. It is not simply a matter of physical health that confronts us here. For developing countries like Pakistan, it would be devastating to be burdened by the heavy costs, both human and financial, that would follow a full scale spread of the disease. AIDS right now is spreading among all creeds, classes and ages, and both sexes, simply because those who carry the virus don't know that they do, and those who catch it from them are unaware of the precautions that they must take for their own safety. In its wake, AIDS is leaving a devastating trail of human suffering, and it is only the fault of ignorance. Unless Pakistan acts now to curb the unpending assault, the costs later on will put out of our reach not only physical health, but also any economic prosperity that may be appearing on the horizon today. Our health authorities have so far failed to make any impact in spreading AIDS awareness to where it is needed most. It is frightening to know that almost all donated blood in the country is unscreened for the HIV virus, which means that hospitalised patients all over the country who may need blood transfusions are at risk of contracting the virus. This indicates the gross apathy of the concerned authorities towards the health of the people. No doubt, the individuals assigned to the task are fully aware themselves, and genuinely concerned about the immediate threat, but they have so far failed to initiate even those safeguards that would minimise the risks for unsuspecting patients. Why? We need an action plan, something perhaps on the line of National Conservation Strategy and the environmental mass awareness programme, to impart education about AIDS. Perhaps it can be combined with family planning, since that too is dealing with some generally taboo subjects. What is important to understand |
FBIS3-60469_3 | Health Official Discusses Concerns, Plan of Action | Additionally, we should build a facility for utilizing toxic industrial waste currently dumped in forests, open fields, and water intakes. The Yantar factory was requested to conduct construction of such a facility. The program also provides for similar projects in various cities and rayons. Azarova: Recently, the issue of protection against electromagnetic radiation has appeared... Zagorskiy: We addressed this issue long ago, however... Currently, our specialists have managed to convince appropriate authorities that this is a very acute problem. For example, according to the program, the construction of the Kaliningrad television tower is to be moved outside the city limits in 1995. The issue of resettling people who live in zones with increased electromagnetic radiation is currently being examined. Permanent radiation control is being introduced at all border checkpoints of the Kaliningrad Regional Customs Office. Azarova: Nikolay Nikolayevich, what does the new program provide for protection against contagious diseases? According to your statistics, the epidemiological situation has deteriorated due to an array of diseases that, we thought, had disappeared forever... Zagorskiy: The reappearance of those diseases is connected with many reasons: migration of people, appearance of street markets, socioeconomic hardships, exacerbation of hygiene... Each of these reasons has generated its own consequences. Nowadays, we can observe increasing cases of pneumonia and sexually transmitted diseases, including syphilis and viral hepatitis. The lack of appropriate hygiene has caused the spread of mycosis and itch. Regarding the latter, it would be expedient to return to the methods applied in the 1930's, and to reintroduce special medical subunits for treatment of this disease. Diphtheria has also been a big surprise to us. We are trying really hard: We vaccinate the people, even in their homes, however, there are still many who have not been vaccinated. The program provides for a complex of measures such as construction of a contagious diseases hospital in Kaliningrad, opening of a convalescent spa for those infected with pneumonia, or allocating special places for burying infected cattle. Nonetheless, the most important thing is to encourage the use of prophylactics among the people. Everybody must change his or her attitude today, and realize that they are the only ones responsible for their health. We will introduce obligatory health insurance and a massive vaccination campaign. The media could be very helpful in propagating our initiatives. The most important thing is that we are all healthy to work for ourselves and Russia's prosperity. |
FBIS3-60470_0 | Surge in Rodent-Borne Diseases | Language: Russian Article Type:CSO [Article by Ye. Vladykin; "Alarm! There's the Smell of Plague in the Air"; first paragraph is URALSKIY RABOCHIY introduction] [Text] A dramatic rise in the number of rodent-borne diseases has been noted in the oblast. According to data of the Oblast Sanitary and Epidemiological Oversight Center, 148 cases of pseudotuberculosis (including 4 outbreaks in children's preschool institutions) and 56 cases of intestinal yersiniosis in the first 6 months of this year. Let us note, for the sake of comparison, that 8 and 15 cases of these diseases, respectively, had been reported for the same period last year. Fresh vegetables that stored for some time at rat-infested warehouses of trade bases and stores are increasingly often the source of infection. As we know, rodents are also involved in the spread of tick-borne encephalitis. Fortunately, there is still no tularemia, God forbid, or plague, yet these most dangerous diseases are also transmitted by rats and mice. Wherein lies the cause of the unprecedented surge in morbidity? Specialists believe that it is not a matter of natural growth of the rodent population (in this sense, the situation is quite usual this year), it is simply that people have virtually stopped controlling this long-tailed filth. Deratization, i.e., extermination of rodents, has been always the concern of disinfection and prevention stations and departments, which are paid for their work on a contractual basis. At present, many enterprises have more important things to think about than rats, and for this reason all the necessary conditions for reproduction and improved diet are provided for these animals. And the disinfection and prevention service is falling apart before our eyes, people are quitting because of the low wages, there are not enough modern poisons, transportation, needed materials and bait. Payment for rodent extermination work from the local budget is the logical solution for this situation. After all, the Moscow city council adopted a decision that provides for comprehensive, regularly scheduled deratization (rats must be exterminated everywhere, in the residential sector, developed areas, and who is to pay the expense?). The authorities in the capital have allocated considerable budgetary funds, and have made it incumbent on all enterprises, regardless of forms of ownership, to conclude contracts with disinfection-prevention stations; they have implemented a number of measures to furnish this service with everything it needs, as well as for technical-engineering protection against rodents. Moscow was the first |
FBIS3-60476_0 | `Dramatic Increase' of Thyroid Cancer in Children Since Chernobyl Lamented | Language: Belarusian Article Type:BFN [Report by Ivan Hladkiy] [Excerpts] The dire socioeconomic situation in which Belarus has fallen of late -- constant price hikes, falling production, the specter of mass unemployment -- are threatening our very well-being. I am convinced that we will overcome the economic carnage, but it will be more difficult to overcome the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident. I have invited Natalia Masherova, chairman of Public Fund for Chernobyl Issues, to comment on this problem. [Begin Masherova recording, in Russian] [passage omitted] Belarusian children are the ones who have suffered most from the Chernobyl catastrophe. I am addressing the Belarusian legislature: It is easier to convince the international community than our state financial structures that we are going through a critical period. In Belarus, we have witnessed a dramatic increase in (?aggressive) thyroid cancer among children. Currently, Ukraine and Russia are lagging behind in these statistics. These statistics demonstrate that currently 0.1 percent out of one million children suffer from thyroid cancer. In Belarus, in Gomel Oblast in particular, this figure is 13 percent. Why do we keep silent about these tragic figures? In my opinion, all the work of our legislature and the government should stem from the addressing of Chernobyl issues. [end recording] |
FBIS3-60485_1 | Europe Lags Behind U.S. in Biotechnology | CEC's [Commission of the European Community] Biotechnology Unit in Brussels, was Acting Director of SERC's [Science and Engineering Research Council] Biotechnology Directorate. He went on to list what the Commission sees as Europe's chief weaknesses in the area. These are: -- Lack of consensus on the scientific objectives to be aimed for; -- The relative isolation of academic research; -- A complex regulatory system which many find hostile to research; -- Under development of the SME sector; -- A poor and declining public perception and understanding of biotechnology. (This Dr. Lex identified as perhaps the most significant weakness. Even a small amount of negative coverage on TV, he said, can have a powerful effect on public opinion, even putting students off deciding to specialise in the subject). It was sad to see European companies moving their research activities to the United States where regulations are easier, he commented. So far, Member States had come together in joint projects as part of CEC programmes. More collaboration is needed. But Europe does have its strengths, too: -- Biotechnology is given reasonable priority in the Member States; -- There are substantial investments in R&D by large companies, mainly chemical, agro-chemical, seed and pharmaceutical companies; -- Collaborative behavior has been stimulated by previous EC programmes; -- There is strong involvement of a large cross-section of industry in horizontal activities -- CEFIC [European Council of Federations of the Chemical Industry], SAGB [Senior Advisory Group on Biotechnology], National Biotech Associations, Industrial Platforms etc.; -- High expectations from various parts of society for various reasons. There would be a very significant increase in the funds available for supporting biotechnology research in the fourth framework programme, Dr. Lex told the conference. He also referred to three recent reports issued by the industrial R&D committee (IRDAC) of the EC on the life sciences programmes -- covering in particular biomedical research, and agriculture, biochemical and food, with reference to the fourth Framework Programme. IRDAC calls for more industrial participation in all projects, and identifies a number of lateral issues which merit special attention including training, productive systems, safety regulation, intellectual property and education. Copies of these reports can be obtained from Dr. Lex, Fax: Brussels 296-4322. As previously reported, there is a third call for proposals under the current CEC Biotechnology programme with a deadline of 12.1.94. An information pack may be obtained from: E. Magnien, DGXII-E/1. Fax: Brussels 295-5365. |
FBIS3-60487_0 | BMFT Funds R&D Program on Infectious Diseases | Language: German Article Type:BFN [Text] BMFT [Federal Ministry of Research and Technology] funding of research on infectious diseases to date has shown that basic research has attained world level, whereas there is still ground to be made up in, primarily, applied, patient-oriented research. The new "Infection Research" funding scheme, which is being launched under the "Health Research 2000" program, will take account of this experience. It will bring together and continue existing BMFT funding measures on AIDS, tropical medicine, and other infectious diseases. In future, priority will be given to funding projects with particular potential for enhancing clinical research structures in this area. It is initially intended to fund the scheme with approximately 35 million German marks [DM] a year. The following individual topics will be covered: -- The AIDS pandemic has made everyone aware of the health hazard to the population posed when new pathogens appear. With an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 patients infected in Germany alone since the outbreak of the pandemic, AIDS-related topics will continue to require an enormous amount of work. However, topics such as infection via tick bites (Lyme's borreliosis) and the much-debated possibility of the transfer to humans of what is popularly known as "mad cow disease" are also worth mentioning in this connection. These examples illustrate the need to create sufficient research capability to meet new challenges effectively. -- The rapid increase in salmonella cases in recent times has shown how known pathogens spread: The number of new infections has doubled in only 10 years to over 90,000 cases a year. The constant rise in the number of infections contracted in hospital, which constitutes a growing problem for our health system, is also a major issue here. -- The phenomenon of resistance to antibiotics has been known for a long time but has recently become a greater hazard with the advent of multiresistances in tuberculosis pathogens and the progressive development of resistance in the malaria tropica pathogen. The transition of findings from research into practice is still being hindered by a lack of cooperation between basic research and clinicians. One of the reasons why this is so in Germany is that infectious diseases have low priority as a clinical specialization, which, indeed, is absent from most university clinics. Three funding channels designed specifically to remedy these shortcomings will therefore be used to continue existing BMFT funding of research into infectious diseases: -- The |
FBIS3-60488_0 | Increased Tourism Raises Incidence of Malaria | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Article by Geraldine Collins: "Tourists Warned of Big Rise in Malaria Cases"] [Excerpt] Increased Irish tourism traffic to the tropics for exotic and adventure holidays has dramatically raised the number of malaria cases detected here in recent years, some of them fatal. Three Irish people have died of the disease in the past two years and this year more than 60 cases have been diagnosed and treated in Ireland. Not only are more Irish people visiting malaria-endemic regions, but many do so with neither the administration of the necessary drugs nor knowledge of how to protect themselves. There is no vaccine against malaria which kills up to 2m annually, far more people than AIDS. The medical battle against the disease is severely hampered by the fact that the mosquito, which transmits the malaria parasite from person to person, is becoming increasingly resistant to insecticides. The mosquito could be "the most dangerous animal in the world" according to Dr John Dalton, senior lecturer in molecular parasitology at Dublin City University, in an article in Technology Ireland. Research shows that 97pc of British travellers to Africa receive some advice on the malaria risk before departure but only three-quarters understood the disease is transmitted by mosquitoes and of these only one-third were aware of their night-biting habits. Dr Dalton says that while no statistics are available for Irish tourists, one can presume they behave similarly to the British of whom only 46pc take the drugs prescribed before, during and after their holidays. [Passage omitted] |
FBIS3-60489_0 | Incidence of Pneumonia in Young Cattle High | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Article: "Vets Warning on Pneumonia"] [Text] The highest episode of pneumonia in young cattle ever is being reported by veterinary surgeons in practice, according to a statement yesterday from the Irish Veterinary Union. Vets are recommending that susceptible animals be vaccinated pre-sale and certified accordingly. This approach would add to the sale value of animals and reduce the incidence of pneumonia. The IVU has approached a number of marts on the issue and they are fully supportive. According to a statement, the primary viruses responsible are IBR, P13 and RSV. While these viruses have been at low levels in the cattle population, the IVU maintain that the current high levels of imports is adding to the problem. A preventative vaccination programme is recommended as there are no drug therapies to combat these viruses, although treatments for secondary infections are available. |
FBIS3-60490_2 | Testing of New Anticancer Drug Described | patient's own immune defenses and, therefore, it is important that the immune defenses are functioning well. Patients whose immune systems have been suppressed after cell poisoning or radiation therapy will probably react poorly to the vaccine and are not appropriate for treatment. "Therefore, we want to introduce the vaccine as early as possible," Gaudernack points out. "The idea is that the vaccine will prevent remaining cancer cells from developing further following an operation or other treatment. In the future, the vaccine can also be used as a preventive vaccine if we can identify persons at risk by gene testing and begin the vaccine before the cancer has broken out." "Tailor-Made" The vaccine is tailor-made to each individual patient. Cancer tumors are produced when changes occur spontaneously in some of the body's genes, so-called mutations. One gene family, which is called "ras," is important from the point of view of the cancer cell--a sort of "cancer cell Achilles heel." The cancer cell needs this gene in order to grow. "We have found out that three mutations in ras genes are the most frequent. In the pilot study we are testing out these three. We must therefore find patients who have precisely such mutations in their genes," Gaudernack relates. In order to chose the right patients the scientists at ITI have developed an extrasensitive gene test, for which an international patent has been sought. Many scientists around the world are testing "rougher" types of cancer vaccines. But the Norwegian vaccine is special because it takes aim precisely against a specific gene mutation that has been identified within the patient. "Therefore, we avoid subjecting patients to treatment that in any case would not do any good," Gaudernack says. In a few years, the research team at the National Hospital will know much more about the cancer vaccine's potentials. Gaudernack will not indicate when the vaccine may go into commercial production. "This can take time, depending upon what sort of response the patients have to the vaccine--and whether the effects will be different for different types of cancer," he says. "We are breaking new ground and it is important to do the job properly before talking about offering the cancer vaccine as a part of the treatment of cancer patients." [Box, p 2] How the Vaccine Works - A tissue test of the tumor shows whether the patient has the appropriate gene mutation that |
FBIS3-60491_0 | Less Serious, HIV-Related Virus Found Among Drug Addicts | Language: Swedish Article Type:CSO [Article by Kerstin Hellbom: "New Virus Among Drug Addicts"--introductory paragraph in boldface as published] [Text] Another virus infection affecting mostly intravenous drug users has now been discovered in Sweden. It is the HTLV virus, closely related to HIV, and it has been found in blood samples. The National Board of Health and Welfare has therefore decided that all blood testing will now have to include a test for the HTLV virus. "The virus is now present in our country, but the risk of infection is very small," says Assoc. Prof. Aud Krook, chief physician at the infectious disease clinic at Huddinge Hospital. At the doctors' convention early in December, she will present the results of her study of the incidence of HTLV in blood samples from intravenous drug users. She found HTLV in 10 out of 134 blood samples. All 10 subjects had had hepatitis A, B, and C and jaundice, and seven of the 10 were also HIV- positive. "The incidence of HTLV was surprisingly high. In every case, the virus was present in addicts who had been exposed to a great deal of infection." In another study, this one involving blood samples from Lund and Malmo, that will also be presented at the doctors' convention, eight HIV-positive cases were found, while a third study, conducted by the Infectious Disease Control Institute, turned up 14 cases. Exactly like HIV, HTLV belongs to the family of retroviruses, meaning that one of its peculiar features is that it does not disappear from the body's cells once it gains entry. It can remain there for years without giving any sign of its presence, but then suddenly it strikes and causes serious symptoms of illness. It is spread in the same way as HIV--that is, through blood and blood products, by sexual contact, and from mother to child during pregnancy or breast-feeding. In the early 1980's, the virus that causes AIDS was named HTLV-3, but it turned out that the AIDS virus belonged to a different branch of the retrovirus family, so it was renamed HIV-1. HIV belongs to the lentivirus branch, which attacks the immune system, while HTLV belongs to the oncovirus branch, which among other things can cause leukemia. HTLV has its own offshoots: type 1 and type 2. In most cases, the virus discovered in blood samples in Sweden is HTLV-2. Types 1 and 2 can |
FBIS3-60491_1 | Less Serious, HIV-Related Virus Found Among Drug Addicts | She found HTLV in 10 out of 134 blood samples. All 10 subjects had had hepatitis A, B, and C and jaundice, and seven of the 10 were also HIV- positive. "The incidence of HTLV was surprisingly high. In every case, the virus was present in addicts who had been exposed to a great deal of infection." In another study, this one involving blood samples from Lund and Malmo, that will also be presented at the doctors' convention, eight HIV-positive cases were found, while a third study, conducted by the Infectious Disease Control Institute, turned up 14 cases. Exactly like HIV, HTLV belongs to the family of retroviruses, meaning that one of its peculiar features is that it does not disappear from the body's cells once it gains entry. It can remain there for years without giving any sign of its presence, but then suddenly it strikes and causes serious symptoms of illness. It is spread in the same way as HIV--that is, through blood and blood products, by sexual contact, and from mother to child during pregnancy or breast-feeding. In the early 1980's, the virus that causes AIDS was named HTLV-3, but it turned out that the AIDS virus belonged to a different branch of the retrovirus family, so it was renamed HIV-1. HIV belongs to the lentivirus branch, which attacks the immune system, while HTLV belongs to the oncovirus branch, which among other things can cause leukemia. HTLV has its own offshoots: type 1 and type 2. In most cases, the virus discovered in blood samples in Sweden is HTLV-2. Types 1 and 2 can both cause leukemia and a disease known as TSP [?Tropical Spastic Paraparesis], which paralyzes the body from the waist down. "Those diseases are very rare even among people infected with the virus. HTLV is not as `efficient' as HIV: It can remain in the cells for decades without presenting any symptoms," says Krook. She also feels that the risk of infection is extremely small. Contaminated blood from blood donors would probably have been discarded since in most cases, the infected donors also have jaundice or HIV. Blood products supplied to hemophiliacs have been processed to kill HIV, thereby killing HTLV as well. Retroviruses remain in the cells and can cause disease after many years. Oncoviruses (HTLV-1, HTLV-2, STLV-1, and others) can cause cancer. Lentiviruses (HIV-1, HIV-2, SIV, and others) weaken the immune system. |
FBIS3-60493_0 | Minister Reports Problems of National Health Service | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Article by Victoria Macdonald, Health Correspondent: "Health Targets Have Failed Says Bottomley"] [Text] Virginia Bottomley, the Health Secretary, will admit tomorrow that the Government's Health of the Nation strategy is failing to have any effect on three of its key targets. Releasing the first year's progress report, Mrs Bottomley will acknowledge the target figures have either increased or remained the same for suicides, obesity, and teenage smoking. Health of the Nation aims to reduce the overall suicide rate by at least 15 per cent and the suicide rate of the severely mentally ill by 33 per cent by the year 2000. Instead there has been an overall increase from 1989-91 to 1990-92 of 0.9 per cent. The target for obesity is a six per cent reduction in the number of men who are seriously overweight and an eight per cent reduction among women by 2005. In men, obesity numbers have nearly doubled from eight per cent to 13 per cent and in women from 12 per cent to 15 per cent since 1986. There has been no movement in the aim to reduce the prevalence of smoking among 11 to 15 year olds by at least 33 per cent by 1994. Mrs Bottomley said that overall, there had been "impressive progress" in establishing the strategy's foundations. "This is not a coercive, nannying approach. It is to enlist the willing co-operation of the public." But of particular concern to the Health Secretary are the suicide figures, which she said account for one in 100 deaths, more than for road traffic accidents. "Think of the effort we put into the Christmas drink driving campaign to reduce avoidable deaths on the road," Mrs Bottomley said. "It gives some measure of the energy in turn to put into combating suicide." To turn the figures around, the Health Department is spending £1 million on a public information campaign and working with GPs to improve their ability to identify mental illness. It is thought that as many as 40 per cent of those who take their lives had contacted their GPs within the week before they died. It is also estimated that 89 million working days are lost each year on mental illness. "In 1979 we lost 29 million days on industrial action and as a nation we decided this was outrageous," Mrs Bottomley said. Dr Kenneth Calman, the Government's senior medical |
FBIS3-60500_0 | Incidence of Hepatitis Increases in Schools | Language: Serbo-Croatian Article Type:BFN [A. Brkic report: ``Increased Number of Jaundice Sufferers''] [Text] We have learned from the appropriate epidemiological services that the number of jaundice sufferers in Serbia has increased in comparison to the number in previous years. The situation is not alarming because the number of sufferers is not large, but it is worrying that this disease has appeared in schools, so that there is the possibility of it spreading through a chain reaction, the epidemiologists say. We are talking about Type A infectious hepatitis, an infectious intestinal disease, which is also called the dirty hands disease. It is caused by a virus and is transferred by dirty hands, food, and water. This is stressed by epidemiologist Veljko Djerkovic, assistant director for epidemiology and microbiology in the city institute for health protection, and Dr. Svetislav Zonjic, deputy director of the republican institute for health protection. The Virus is the Culprit According to Djerkovic, jaundice sufferers have been found in 37 schools in Belgrade. Of these, 32 are primary schools and five high schools, while the disease has been reported in several Belgrade kindergartens. Djerkovic stresses that this situation is not alarming at the moment because there are no more than five or six sufferers in all these institutions apart from two. The problem is that this is an infectious disease that spreads through a chain and the financial situation in the schools is such that many of them do not have the money to maintain the necessary level of hygiene. It is a good thing that the winter vacation is approaching. This will probably stop this disease spreading, Djerkovic hopes. In comparison to September and October last year, an increase in other acute infectious diseases, not only hepatitis, has also been registered, which was expected. This is because, for example, the Type A viral hepatitis (an infectious intestinal disease) is a consequence of a reduction in the body's resistance, a fall in the quality of food, and worse sanitary conditions, as well as a cyclical course, Zonjic and Djerkovic explain. That is to say, the aforementioned type of hepatitis has its own cycle so that ``a certain rise in the number of sufferers'' appears at specific intervals even under normal conditions, Zonjic explains. Djerkovic says that in the Belgrade schools in which the jaundice has appeared deficiencies have been noticed in hygiene and sanitary conditions and the condition |
FBIS3-60501_1 | Conditions at Macedonian Hematology Clinic | They are perennially humid and quite frequently the sewage pipes leak. The Hematology Clinic of former Yugoslavia was one of the top clinics in terms of technology and personnel, says Docent Doctor Nikola Siljanovski, its director. Currently, it can boast only of its personnel who, he claims, meet all requirements of contemporary hematology and bone marrow transplants. This is the only Macedonian institution to treat blood and blood generating organs (erythrocytes, leucocytes, thrombocytes...). More than 60 percent of hematological diseases of the blood consist of malignant hemopathies. Patients suffering from such afflictions become immunodeficient, Doctor Siljanovski explains. They lack white blood cells, which protect the body. This means that the very methods for the treatment of such patients, at a specific phase in the development of the disease, requires specific conditions, such as treating them in separate wards, isolated and sterile, thus ensuring a high degree of protection from infections. In the past, in the good old times, the proper conditions were observed and the personnel treating such patients were thoroughly protected with special masks. Unfortunately, this is now part of the past. Today there is moisture everywhere, particularly along the walls, broken tiles, and water seeping, most probably from sewer pipes. The premises smell of moisture and rot and, in general, hygiene in the premises is exceptionally poor. The treatment standards are below all standards. Under such poor conditions for treating patients, the logical consequence is worsened health and increased cases of hospital infections. Most of the findings of the inspectors confirm that the sanitary and hygienic conditions of the Hematological Clinic are poor. The inspectors have repeatedly pointed out that the overall working conditions in the clinic, particularly in the test laboratories, must be improved. The inspectors issue their orders to the clinic, which is unable to resolve the problem for the simple reason that such improvements require funds. In addition to the ``communal'' problems, the work of the Hematology Clinic is also made more difficult because of the obsolete equipment, long years of failure to invest in equipment and in building repairs, and the frequent shortage of reagents, substrata, and markers required in genetic methodology. I believe, Doctor Siljanovski said, that hematology has been unfairly neglected. It must be considered part of internal medicine and developed the same as all other medical disciplines. The current inadequate handling of it compromises the exceptionally complex treatment of blood diseases. |
FBIS3-60503_0 | Regional Health Report 26 Nov | Article Type:BFN [Editorial Report] The following is a compilation of reports on regional health and epidemiology developments monitored through 26 November. Source is cited in parentheses following each item. Colombia Luis Alfonso Ante Benitez, sectional chief of health of Risaralda Department, has reported that one of the 35 cases of symptoms of bleeding dengue fever has tested positive in Dosquebradas, Risaralda Department. Ante said cases have been reported since October, but only one has tested positive thus far. (Santa Fe de Bogota EL TIEMPO in Spanish 19 Nov 93, p 11B) The Health Ministry has reported that 3,953 persons have developed AIDS. According to statistics, 7,730 persons have been infected with the said virus since 1983, although over half of them have not developed the illness. A total of 243 persons have developed AIDS in 1993. However, unofficial numbers indicate that the number of ill persons, healthy carriers, and victims of AIDS is much higher than the official numbers. (Madrid EFE in Spanish 2157 GMT 23 Nov 93) Costa Rica Health authorities in Guatuso Canton, Alajuela Province, have reported that three cases of cholera have been confirmed. With these three new cases, the number of cholera cases in Costa Rica increases to 26. (San Jose LA NACION in Spanish 17 Nov 93, 6A) The Health Ministry has reported that 20 cases of malaria have been confirmed in the town of Jaco, on the Costa Rican Pacific coast. The authorities have added that the majority of the persons infected are Nicaraguan workers who are now being treated. As of 24 November, 4,701 cases of malaria were detected in the country, 80 percent of them on the Atlantic coast. Besides this epidemic, there has also been an outbreak of dengue fever with over 5,000 cases registered over a period of two months. (Mexico City NOTIMEX in Spanish 1850 GMT 26 Nov 93) Ecuador Acting Health minister Nicolas Jara reported on 26 November that rabies has killed 29 persons so far this year and added that this is one of the biggest health problems in Ecuador. (Paris AFP in Spanish 1614 GMT 26 Nov 93) El Salvador Dr. Santiago Rigoberto Almeida, director of the Epidemiology Department of the Health Ministry, said that at least 30,000 Salvadorans are carrying the AIDS virus even though many of them ignore it. (San Salvador Radio Venceremos Network in Spanish 1800 GMT 25 Nov 93) Guatemala The Guatemalan |
FBIS3-60504_0 | Regional Health Report 3 Dec | Article Type:BFN [Editorial Report] The following is a compilation of reports on regional health and epidemiology developments monitored through 3 December. Source is cited in parentheses following each item. Colombia Although Health Ministry figures indicate the are no more than 60,000 AIDS cases in the country, Social Security says the figure totals 120,000. Moreover, 70 percent of the patients range in ages from 24 to 44. The largest number of cases are reported in San Andres, Quindio, Risaralda, and Antioquia Departments and in Santa Fe de Bogota. (Santa Fe de Bogota Inravision Television Cadena 1 in Spanish 1730 GMT 1 Dec 93) Costa Rica National AIDS Commission Director Guisella Herrera has reported 100 cases of AIDS have been registered so far this year, raising to 500 the number of persons who have this disease. She also noted there are at least 10,000 AIDS carriers in the country. (Hamburg DPA in Spanish 2011 GMT 1 Dec 93) Cuba Dr. Manuel Santin, national epidemiology director at the Health Ministry, has stated there are 970 HIV carriers in the country, of which 226 have developed AIDS. He added that 143 AIDS patients have died. According to this official, the incubation period was extended to 10.5 years. The percentage of cases in the population is 0.007 percent Santin noted. (Havana Radio Havana Cuba in Spanish 0000 GMT 2 Dec 93) Ecuador Statistics indicate 586 persons have been infected with or are ill with AIDS in Ecuador. The most cases are reported in Quito and Guayaquil. (Quito Voz de los Andes in Spanish 1200 GMT 1 Dec 93) El Salvador Dr. Licida Bautista de Mejia of the Pan American Health Organization has revealed that, since the first case of AIDS was reported in the country in 1984, 1,345 persons have died of this disease. It is estimated that 1,123 may be infected with the virus. So far in 1993, 18 persons have died of it. (San Salvador LA PRENSA GRAFICA in Spanish 2 Dec 93 p 4) Guatemala According to recent disclosures by the health and social welfare minister to a congressional health commission, the spread of AIDS in Guatemala is reaching alarming levels. According to recent Health Ministry data, at least 31,000 cholera patients have been reported of which 75 percent have received medical treatment. The same data indicate that 249 cholera patients have died so far. With respect to AIDS, 430 cases and |
FBIS3-60504_3 | Regional Health Report 3 Dec | 100 Central American AIDS cases recorded, 57 are Hondurans. Although Honduran health authorities attribute the spread of AIDS to poor information with respect to risks involved in contracting the disease, some sectors link the epidemic's rapid growth to the presence of U.S. troops in the country. (Paris AFP in Spanish 1147 GMT 27 Nov 93) Health official Dr. Felicito Montalvan pointed out recently that the number of AIDS related deaths recorded in the country could be greater than the 3,193 cases reported to date by the Health Ministry. According to Dr. Montalvan, Health Ministry data could be underestimated because some AIDS-related deaths are not reported. (Tegucigalpa EL HERALDO in Spanish 2 Dec 93 p 5) Health authorities reported on 2 December that 11 new cholera cases had been recorded which brings the total number to 3,201 cases and 81 deaths since first recorded in October 1991. According to the health authorities, 2,077 cases were reported during 1993 and the most affected regions include Choluteca (1,206), San Francisco Morazan (295), and Valle (250). (San Pedro Sula TIEMPO in Spanish 3 Dec 93 p 2) Nicaragua Health Ministry sources in Managua reported that 35 people have died of AIDS so far, while 47 others are infected. They added that there are 111 HIV carriers and, although there is no precise figure, they believe that as many as 15,000 Nicaraguans have been infected in all. (Hamburg DPA in Spanish 1148 GMT 1 Dec 93) Panama Health authorities released a report stating that there have been 123 cases of AIDS reported this year. Nationwide, since the disease was first reported, there have been 587 cases treated, 500 of which were men and 87 women. It is believed that there are between 11,000 and 14,000 carriers. On the sadder side of these statistics, there are eight children who were reported as HIV positive during 1993. (Panama City EL SIGLO in Spanish 28 Nov 93 p 29) Livestock association leaders have warned of rabies among cattle that could be transmitted to humans. There have been 10 cases of bovine rabies up to now, and Health Minister Guillermo Rolla announced that a team of specialists has been sent to eastern Panama province to investigate and determine control measures. (Panama City EL SIGLO in Spanish 1 Dec 93, p 12) Three new dengue cases were recorded in the San Miguelito district which could be the beginning of an |
FBIS3-60505_0 | Regional Health Report 10 Dec | Article Type:BFN [Editorial Report] The following is a compilation of reports on regional health and epidemiology developments monitored through 10 December. Source is cited in parentheses following each item. Colombia In the 10 years that AIDS has been reported in Colombia, it has officially caused 1,800 deaths. Nevertheless, according to the National Survey on Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Related to Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 121,000 people may be infected with the virus in Colombia. The survey was carried out among 18,000 people and was contracted by the Social Security Institute. It found that 20.3 percent of the men tested positive while 1.3 percent of the women tested positive. That means that out of the total population, 118,093 men and 3,538 women might test positive. This would be equivalent to 35 out of every 10,000 Colombians. (Santa Fe de Bogota EL TIEMPO in Spanish 1 Dec 93 p 3a) Costa Rica Alberto Lostalo, director of the health center in Puntarenas, has reported an outbreak of malaria in Jaco, where 20 cases were discovered. The malaria epidemic continues growing in the country but at a slower rate than in 1992. Up to 24 November, the Health Ministry recorded 4,701 cases, 80 percent of which were on the Atlantic coast. (San Jose LA NACION in Spanish 26 Nov 93 p 8a) Mexico The Health Secretariat reported on 4 December that there have been 10,004 cholera cases in Mexico this year. Of these, 180 people have died. The most affected states are Puebla, Morelos, Mexico, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Yucatan, and Queretaro and Mexico City. (Madrid EFE in Spanish 2119 GMT 4 Dec ) Panama Gerardo Vega, Agricultural Development Ministry director in Chepo, has reported that the Ministry has begun the mass poisoning of vampire bats in the area of San Martin where there has been an outbreak of rabies among cattle and horses. It has also restricted the transfer of slaughtered cattle in the area. (Panama City LA PRENSA in Spanish 4 Dec 93 p 7a) |
FBIS3-60506_0 | Regional Health Report 17 Dec | Article Type:BFN [Editorial Report] The following is a compilation of reports on regional health and epidemiology developments monitored through 17 December. Source is cited in parentheses after each item. Costa Rica On 15 December, local health authorities confirmed that 4,376 cases of dengue have been recorded so far this year since the first outbreak on 19 October. (Mexico City NOTIMEX in Spanish 2320 GMT 15 Dec 93) On 15 December, medical sources report that more than 200 workers died between 1992 and 1993 after being poisoned by pesticides. (Mexico City NOTIMEX in Spanish 2016 GMT 15 Dec 93) According to the Cancer Institute, an estimated 5,000 new cases of cancer were registered in 1993. (San Jose LA REPUBLICA in Spanish 7 Dec 93 p 6a) Honduras Health authorities said that 10 more cases of cholera have been reported in Tela City since November. (Tegucigalpa EL HERALDO in Spanish 14 Dec 93 p 15) Mexico On 11 December, a Health Ministry spokesman said that a total of 235 cholera cases -- of which four people died -- were reported 4-10 December. An increase in cholera cases was noted from the previous period of 27 November-3 December, when 95 cases were reported. (Madrid EFE in Spanish 1830 GMT 11 Dec 93) Nicaragua According to Health Ministry records, 253 people have died of cholera and more than 7,500 others have been infected since the first outbreak in this country two years ago. (Mexico City NOTIMEX in Spanish 1837 GMT 11 Dec 93) Panama Health Minister Guillermo Rolla confirmed to EL SIGLO that currently eight cases of dengue have been detected, and he added that the provinces with the highest rates of mosquito infestation are Panama with 6.3 percent and Chiriqui with 4.7 percent. From the eight cases of dengue, seven were detected in San Miguelito District. (Panama City EL SIGLO in Spanish 11 Dec 93 p 8) Health Minister Rolla has said that although the possibility of a meningitis epidemic has been eliminated, three people have died of meningitis in the Juan Diaz area. According to Rolla, 36 cases of meningitis were registered in 1993. (Panama City EL PANAMA AMERICA in Spanish 11 Dec 93 p 2A) Thus far this year the Health Ministry has reported 462 cases of malaria, of which 111 were imported from Colombia and Costa Rica. A reduction of 233 malaria cases was recorded from 28 November to 4 |
FBIS3-60509_0 | Southern Cone Health Report 10-16 Dec | Article Type:BFN [Editorial Report] The following is a compilation of reports on epidemics and diseases monitored by Paraguay Bureau from 10 to 16 December. Argentina The Health and Social Action Ministry on 14 December reported that five new cholera cases have been registered in Salta Province in the past few hours. The number of persons infected with the disease nationwide rose to 1,867. (Buenos Aires NOTICIAS ARGENTINAS in Spanish 1946 GMT 14 Dec 93) Chile Acting Health Under Secretary Luis Martinez on 1 December reported that the total number of AIDS cases has risen to 820 nationwide up to late November. The Metropolitan, Fifth, Second, First, and Fourth Regions have the highest rates of AIDS. (Santiago EL MERCURIO in Spanish 2 Dec 93 pp A1, A12) Paraguay National Anti-AIDS Program Director Nicolas Aguayo on 10 December reported that eight people have been identified as HIV-positive in November, of whom three have developed AIDS while the others are carriers. The number of persons with AIDS now totals 67, of whom 43 have died. The number of HIV-positive carriers now amounts to 261. (Asuncion ABC COLOR in Spanish 11 Dec 93 p 21) Peru Regional Health Director Dante Olivera Ortiz de Oroe has reported that 70 cholera cases have been registered in Cuzco Department so far this year, of which seven have been fatal. (Lima EL COMERCIO in Spanish 28 Nov 93 p A19) Oscar Mujica Lengua, executive director of the Special AIDS Control Program, has reported that the number of persons in Peru with the HIV virus had risen to 953 by the end of October. It is estimated that 30,000 to 40,000 people are infected with the disease. (Lima EXPRESO in Spanish 30 Nov 93 p A11) |
FBIS3-60519_0 | AIDS Deaths Reach 750 | Language: Spanish Article Type:CSO [Text] Tegucigalpa--Spokesmen for the Ministry of Public Health have reported that 16 of the 179 patients suffering from the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) reported last month have died. Between 1985 and the present, 3,182 cases of the ``20th century plague'' have been reported. This figure includes 1,049 women and 2,131 men. Of this total, 750 have died, 1,930 are still living, and it is unknown where 500 of the infected individuals are. The majority of the patients are in San Pedro Sula. In 1985, four cases were reported. The numbers for the subsequent years are 1986--13, 1987--103, 1988--189, 1989--256, 1990--596, 1991--495, 1992--735, and in 1993, to date--787. |
FBIS3-60521_1 | Government Launches Cholera Prevention Program | this purpose, the status of sanitation is being improved with the installation of water and sewerage services, in some instances financed with Fonavi [National Housing Fund] resources. He added that the incidence of cholera cases on the national level has been reduced through the sanitation measures being implemented. He admitted that the virus has ceased to be of epidemic proportions, and has become endemic. He mentioned that, in the latest statistics for the week of 10-16 October, 622 cases of diarrheal diseases were officially reported. He remarked that 83 of them were confirmed as cholera, but that no deaths were reported. The vice minister of health, Eduardo Young Motta, for his part, confirmed those figures, adding that the number of acute diarrheal diseases for the year in Lima alone is 28,550, with 22 fatalities. In order to coordinate its preventive action, the Health Ministry is scheduling a series of activities with the municipalities, associated particularly with the control of street vending, considered a leading contaminating agent. According to a timetable that is due for approval within the next few days, samples will start to be taken of foods sold on the streets, and a widespread community health education campaign will be intensified. At the same time, doses of rehydrating salts are to be distributed, free of charge, among health centers and medical stations, especially those in human settlements. There are also supplies of serum for treating the serious cases that may appear. The Main Propagating Factors The use of nonpotable water, consumption of contaminated ocean products and vegetables, and a lack of personal hygiene and sanitation in the home are the main factors spreading cholera, which afflicts persons of any age or social status. Cholera, the scientific name of which is vibrio cholerae, is of bacterial origin. Its virus was discovered in 1884 by the scientist Robert Koch. The current pandemia began at the end of January 1991, when it struck the population of Chancay primarily. Spreading rapidly among the coastal populations, weeks later it reached the interior of the country. Next, the epidemic extended to Ecuador and, subsequently, to the rest of South and Central America. There were even some ``imported cases'' treated in the United States. The Peruvian experience in dealing with this disease evoked the interest of Latin American specialists, who came to Peru to learn about the treatment systems for eradicating the disease in their countries. |
FBIS3-60525_0 | Mystery Disease Affects Six Hundred in Bihar | Language: English Article Type:CSO [Text] PATNA, October 5: More than 600 people in the villages of Khairi Ajgarwa, Sisbania and Tikulia in the Motihari block of East Champaran district have been taken ill during the past six days, with seven of them succumbing to the illness, which is yet to be identified. While early reports said that it might be cholera, it now appears that it may in fact be food poisoning contracted from eating fish that had washed ashore during the floods and had affected this area. The director-in-chief, Dr Eileen Thakur, who had a telephonic conversation with the civil surgeon of Motihari this afternoon, told TOINS that people of these villages had fallen ill after consuming the small dead fish. Dr Thakur said the seven persons of Khairi Ajgarwa had, in fact, died of food poisoning and not of cholera. She said in Khairi Ajgarwa alone 500 people had fallen ill complaining of diarrhea and vomiting. The civil surgeon of Motihari has informed the government that a medical team has been camping at Khairi Ajgarwa village to ascertain whether the disease which had been raging in these villages was cholera vibrio non zero or not. The director-in-chief, Dr Thakur today directed the civil surgeon to send a detailed report about the disease within two days. |
FBIS3-60532_0 | Former BW Plant Developing 'Hyperthermia' Treatment | Language: Russian Article Type:BFN [From the ``Vesti'' newscast: Video report by A. Samoletov and A. Lomakin, identified by caption; figures in brackets denote broadcast time in GMT in hours, minutes, and seconds] [Text] [201529] [video opens with correspondent against backdrop of building] [Samoletov] A few years ago it was absolutely impossible to enter this enterprise's grounds. This was strictly a defense enterprise and produced nothing less than bacteriological weapons. After the production of bacteriological weapons was banned, a group of scientists from the center joined in the conversion program and began working on a comprehensive method of combating tumors and seeking a method of eliminating AIDS. They based their work on hyperthermia: Heating the tumor or the blood of the patient to a temperature of 42.5 degrees Celsius, at which point the diseased cells die. Similar experiments had been conducted before, but without producing tangible results because in practice raising the temperature too high inevitably results in death. Now the ``Biotherapy'' Scientific Clinical Center in Novosibirsk has conducted lengthy research into and examination of the human body and has learned how to achieve temperatures up to 45 degrees while protecting the healthy cells and the body itself from the effects of the high temperatures by means of new biological substances developed on the basis of a newly-discovered enzyme. [passage omitted consists of interview] [video shows extensive interior shots of institute with staff and equipment] [201626] |
FBIS3-60546_0 | Physician Warns of Measles Epidemic | Language: Danish Article Type:CSO [Article by Annette Hagerup: ``Doctor Predicts Danish Measles Epidemic''--first paragraph is BERLINGSKE TIDENDE introduction] [Text] Parents' fear of having their children vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella could result in a measles epidemic with the risk of serious complications. The Serum Institute fears that we will have a new measles epidemic within the next few years. The fear is due to the fact that requests for the MFR [measles, mumps, and rubella] vaccination dropped 10 percent this year. (This vaccine protects against measles, mumps, and German measles, ed.) ``The public's support of MFR vaccinations is too low to enable us to stave off a measles epidemic in the long run,'' said Tove Ronne, chief physician at the State Serum Institute. ``At present measles is generally not seen in Denmark. But at some point the disease will be introduced into the country again. And as by now quite a few children are not vaccinated against measles there will be fertile ground for an epidemic. A measles epidemic can occur only if there are enough unvaccinated children in a society who can infect each other and thus keep the epidemic going. ``Today we have a large group of somewhat older children who have not been vaccinated. In the event of an epidemic these children run a bigger risk than they did before because the risk of complications increases with age,'' Ronne said.'' Vaccinations for children is a service that is offered to parents. There is no charge and they are not compulsory. ``The first MFR vaccination is given when a child is 15 months old. So theoretically babies below that age risk being infected with measles if they are in day care centers with somewhat older unvaccinated children,'' Ronne said. Inflammation of the brain is one of the serious complications of measles. In Africa the disease is responsible for 5 percent of deaths among children. |
FBIS3-60559_1 | Roundup of Disease Reports for 18-27 Nov | Corporation Radio Network in English 0600 GMT 25 Nov 93) Nigeria The UNICEF representative in Nigeria, Mr. (Kulio Waki), declared that Nigerian salt is sufficiently iodized. He made this remark in Abuja at the opening session of a two-day workshop on the eradication of iodine deficiency disorder. However, Mr. (Waki) said that Oyo, Ondo, Edo, Enugu, Benue, Cross River, and Plateau states were still risking iodine deficiency. He urged health workers and coordinators in the program in those states to carry out the distribution of iodine capsules effectively, so as to eliminate the dangers the disease poses to the population. The Abuja workshop is aimed at eradicating mental and physical deformities, as well as disabilities that affect human beings due to a lack of iodine in their bodies. (Lagos Radio Nigeria Network in English 1500 GMT 18 Nov 93) Rwanda Jean-Baptiste Nubahumpatse reports that Burundian refugees in southern Rwanda and Bugesera still face untold suffering. Dysentery rages, while food and the infrastructures needed to meet their basic wants are lacking. Here is his report: [Nubahumpatse] About 20 people die every day in the Burundian refugee camps. That is at least what transpires from testimonies from charitable relief organizations operating in the region such as the Belgian Red Cross and French Medecins Sans Frontieres who particularly deal with health problems. The Burundian refugees are thus hard hit by dysentery, diarrhea, measles, and other diseases. The grave overpopulation in the camps, which has caused unbearable congestion, remains the greatest handicap to the smooth running of relief operations. The UNHCR, in cooperation with the Ministry of Works and Social Affairs as well as local authorities, are currently at work to try and solve the problem. In addition, particularly due to this overpopulation in the camps, Burundian refugees rightly or wrongly complain of a lack of adequate food rations. That is the reason why some of them take risks by venturing across the border to Burundi to try and get extra food. They are welcomed by deadly bullets fired by permanently vigilant Burundian soldiers, irrefutable proof of the continuing killings deep inside Burundi. (Kigali Radiodiffusion Nationale de la Republique Rwandaise in French 0430 GMT 19 Nov 93) Uganda There has been an outbreak of dysentery in Kisoro District in which 12 people are recorded dead. Seven out of the 12 dead died at Mutolere and Kisoro Hospitals while five died at their homes. The |
FBIS3-60559_2 | Roundup of Disease Reports for 18-27 Nov | as disabilities that affect human beings due to a lack of iodine in their bodies. (Lagos Radio Nigeria Network in English 1500 GMT 18 Nov 93) Rwanda Jean-Baptiste Nubahumpatse reports that Burundian refugees in southern Rwanda and Bugesera still face untold suffering. Dysentery rages, while food and the infrastructures needed to meet their basic wants are lacking. Here is his report: [Nubahumpatse] About 20 people die every day in the Burundian refugee camps. That is at least what transpires from testimonies from charitable relief organizations operating in the region such as the Belgian Red Cross and French Medecins Sans Frontieres who particularly deal with health problems. The Burundian refugees are thus hard hit by dysentery, diarrhea, measles, and other diseases. The grave overpopulation in the camps, which has caused unbearable congestion, remains the greatest handicap to the smooth running of relief operations. The UNHCR, in cooperation with the Ministry of Works and Social Affairs as well as local authorities, are currently at work to try and solve the problem. In addition, particularly due to this overpopulation in the camps, Burundian refugees rightly or wrongly complain of a lack of adequate food rations. That is the reason why some of them take risks by venturing across the border to Burundi to try and get extra food. They are welcomed by deadly bullets fired by permanently vigilant Burundian soldiers, irrefutable proof of the continuing killings deep inside Burundi. (Kigali Radiodiffusion Nationale de la Republique Rwandaise in French 0430 GMT 19 Nov 93) Uganda There has been an outbreak of dysentery in Kisoro District in which 12 people are recorded dead. Seven out of the 12 dead died at Mutolere and Kisoro Hospitals while five died at their homes. The scourge started in (Murora) sub-county and later spread to some other parts and has now covered almost half the district, the most hit areas being those along the Uganda-Rwanda border. Other affected areas include (Ruaramba), (Chihe), (Gisorora) and Muganza, being parishes which harbor the influx of refugees fleeing the war. (Kampala Radio Uganda Network in English 0400 GMT 24 Nov 93) Zaire There has been an outbreak of dysentery at Lodja lately, spreading to Lomela and other areas. About 80 deaths have been reported. The worst-hit areas include Djinga and Gombela. The government has appealed for urgent assistance from international aid agencies (Kinshasa Tele-Zaire Television Network in French 1900 GMT 23 Nov 93) |
FBIS3-60560_0 | Roundup of Disease Reports for 30 Nov-3 Dec | Article Type:BFN [Editorial Report] The following is a compilation of disease reports monitored from FBIS Abidjan Bureau and EAU coverage areas. Source information is given in parentheses after each item. Benin Our country joined the international community on 1 December to observe World AIDS Day. According to the National AIDS Control Program coordinator, from 1985, when the first cases were diagnosed, to date, there have been 566 AIDS cases. In 1992, there were 218 cases; and for the first six months of this year, 101 new AIDS cases have been registered. Following a survey, the number of seropositives is estimated at 400,000. (Cotonou Office de Radiodiffusion-Television du Benin Radio in French 1930 GMT 1 December 93) Congo Health Minster Jean Ekoundzola issued a message in Brazzaville to mark World AIDS Day. The minister stated that an estimated 19,000 AIDS cases and 100,000 cases of HIV-infected persons have been reported in the Congo. The minister said that in Brazzaville, one out of three adult deaths was due to AIDS. He also stated that 7 percent of pregnant women have Human Immuno Deficiency Virus, which causes the disease. The minister stated that one out of three of these women would transmit the disease to their babies. (Dakar PANA in English 1143 GMT 1 Dec 93) Schistosomiasis, a disease characterized by itching and blood in the urine, is reappearing in the Niari area. According to the head of the schistosomiasis unit, although the disease is on the decline, some cases can still be found mainly in three primary schools of the area where the incidence varies between 6 and 7 percent -- based on a survey conducted in 1991. Due to disturbances in the country, figures for the 1992-1993 period are not yet available. In Kiniati, out of a population of 365 inhabitants, the incidence was about 65 percent in 1991. In 1992, this figure had decreased: Out of 225 people examined, 52 cases were diagnosed. (Brazzaville Radio Nationale Congolaise Network in French 1830 GMT 4 December 93) Cote D'Ivoire The coordinator of the National AIDS Control Program, who was invited to the studio on 1 December on the occasion of the World AIDS Day, revealed that the incidence of AIDS in the country today is estimated at 10 percent of the population. This does not, however, mean that one Ivorian out of 10 is seropositive. For the sexually active adult population aged |
FBIS3-60561_1 | Epidemiological Reports for 15-21 Nov | number does not reflect the exact figure of people with AIDS infection because many victims have not been medically examined.'' (Maseru Radio Lesotho in Eng 1130 GMT 17 Nov 93) Mozambique HIV -- ``Sofala Province reported 80 HIV cases between 1986 and March 1993. Dr. Inacio Barreto, provincial supervisor for AIDS, says the figure could be inaccurate due insufficient means of monitoring the spread of the virus.'' (Maputo Radio Mozambique Network in Portuguese 1400 GMT 17 Nov 93) Namibia Polio -- The Ministry of Health and Social Service on 12 November announced that ``a polio epidemic had broken out in Namibia, following eleven cases of Polio Myelitis reported to the Katutura Hospital.'' The 11 victims are children from 2 to 4 years of age. They come from the Windhoek suburbs of Okuryangava, Wana-heda, Katutura, and Hochland Park, and from as far away as Keetmanshoop, Bethanie, Mariental, and Kalkrand. Five cases have been confirmed as having been caused by Polio type 1 wild strain virus,'' which ``descended from the West African Polio virus strain'' and was responsible for a polio outbreak in Nambibia in 1988. South Africa Anthrax -- At least 150 buck and 60 hippos have died of anthrax in the Kruger National Park in the past two months. The disease broke out in the Orpen Gate area and spread north and eastward. (Johannesburg Radio South Africa Network English 1100 GMT 16 Nov 93) Typhoid -- ``At least four patients suffering from typhoid have been admitted to the Rietfontein Hospital'' near Johannesburg, and there are unconfirmed reports of 10 cases of typhoid in Delmas Hospital, about 50 km east of Johannesburg. (Johannesburg SAPA in English 0658 GMT 19 Nov 93) Zimbabwe Dysentery -- Health Minister Timothy Stamps said that there had been an outbreak of a ``usually mild and short-lived'' form of dysentery in Mutare and Mashonaland East and Central. He also warned of ``a fatal and mysterious disease, entero-haemorragic E.coli,'' which had been reported in Masvingo and Manicaland South. He did not say how many cases of either disease had been reported. (Harare THE HERALD in English 8 Nov 93 p 3) AIDS -- Conservative estimates say the number of children orphaned by AIDS in Zimbabwe will reach 600,000 within the next 6 years, a senior government official revealed at the start of a conference on AIDS orphans on Wednesday. (Johannesburg SAPA in English 1847 GMT 18 Nov 93) |
FBIS3-60562_0 | Epidemiological Reports Monitored 22-28 Nov | Article Type:BFN [Editorial Report] Following is a compilation of reports monitored by FBIS Mbabane Bureau from 22 to 28 November concerning outbreaks of and reports on various diseases. Items are listed by country and disease. Source follows each item. Angola AIDS -- More than 600 AIDS cases have been reported in Angola since 1985. Deputy Health Minister Francisco Mendes has revealed that the people most affected by the disease of the century are between 20 and 30 years old. (Maputo Radio Mozambique Network in Portuguese 1030 GMT 27 Nov 93) Mozambique Tropical Neuropathy -- ``More than 300 cases of tropical neuropathy were recently reported in Mongincual District, Nampula Province.'' (Maputo Radio Mozambique Network in Portuguese 1730 GMT 27 Nov 93) NAMIBIA Polio -- A minor outbreak of polio has occurred in Namibia with eight confirmed cases of the disease, currently restricted to the southern half of the country, the South African National Health Department said on 24 November. It said South Africans travelling to Namibia were advised to ensure polio immunisation of children under five years was up to date. The Namibian Health Ministry had launched a mass immunisation campaign to halt the spread of polio, an infectious viral disease which can result in paralysis of groups of muscles. The last polio epidemic in South Africa occurred in 1988 in Natal/kwaZulu, with the last case reported in 1990. (Johannesburg SAPA in English 1410 GMT 24 Nov 93) South Africa Typhoid -- An outbreak of typhoid fever has caused a health scare in the Botileng township outside Delmas. Since Friday, nearly 500 people with symptoms of the deadly disease have been treated. Although it is still not known whether all the cases are typhoid-related, 21 patients have been tested positive for the disease. All the people treated have shown tell-tale symptoms of the disease, which include severe headaches, stomach cramps, vomiting, and dehydration. The Delmas town council was unable to treat the large number of patients in local hospitals, so the South African Defense Force was called in. A make-shift hospital was equipped in an old hangar near the township. Between 300 and 350 people have since been transferred to hospitals in the Pretoria, Witwatersrand, Vereeniging area, some as far afield as Hillbrow. No deaths related to the disease have been confirmed. (Johannesburg SABC TV 1 Network in English 1600 GMT 22 Nov 93) Further on Typhoid -- The toll in |
FBIS3-60564_0 | Epidemiological Reports Monitored 6-12 Dec | Article Type:BFN [Editorial Report] Following is a compilation of reports monitored by FBIS Mbabane Bureau from 6 to 12 December concerning outbreaks of and reports on various diseases. Items are listed by country and disease. Source follows each item. Angola Diarrhea -- ``Diarrhea is killing people in Cubal, Benguela Province, with the village of Cassiva being the most affected by the disease.'' (Luanda TPA Television in Portuguese 1930 GMT 11 Dec 93) MOZAMBIQUE AIDS -- ``In Zambezia Province 43 AIDS cases have been reported, 39 in the capital of the province.....War-displaced people and soldiers are the groups most affected by the AIDS virus.'' (Maputo Radio Mozambique Portuguese 1730 GMT 8 Dec 93) AIDS -- ``A total of 27 AIDS cases had been diagnosed in Cabo Delgado Province up until June,...mostly in people between the ages of 20 and 45.'' (Maputo Radio Mozambique Network in Portuguese 0500 GMT 10 Dec 93) Cholera -- ``Cholera has killed 36 people in Cabo Delgado Province's Chiuta District since October. Official data obtained by the NOTICIAS newspaper from a local health source indicates that the epidemic has already affected 3,000 people in that area....The epidemic has struck seven villages in the Chiure Velho administrative area.'' [Maputo Radio Mozambique Network in Portuguese 0800 GMT 11 Dec 93) South Africa Malaria -- ``The number of reported malaria cases has reached the highest level in six years with 10,033 notifications this year, the Department of National Health said on Thursday. The increase could be ascribed to the higher rainfall after the drought, a statement said. There was also an increase in the number of visitors being exposed to malaria-carrying mosquitoes while visiting neighbouring countries. They ran a higher risk of contracting malaria which was resistant to prophylactic medicines.'' (Johannesburg SAPA in English 1843 GMT 8 Dec 93) Typhoid -- About 10 patients suffering from typhoid have been admitted to the Jubilee Hospital at Temba, Bophuthatswana, since November 20, according to the hospital superintendent. (Johannesburg SATURDAY STAR in English 11 Dec 92 p 4) |
FBIS3-60565_0 | Epidemiological Reports Monitored 13-19 Dec | Article Type:BFN [Editorial Report] Following is a compilation of reports monitored by FBIS Mbabane Bureau from 13 to 19 December concerning outbreaks of and reports on various diseases. Items are listed by country and disease. Source follows each item. Mozambique Cholera, Diarrhea -- Cholera and diarrhea have killed 12 people in Cabo Delgado Province's Ancuabe District. This was recently disclosed by the local health director. (Maputo Radio Mozambique Network in Portuguese 1030 GMT 14 Dec 93) Cholera -- At least 30 people have died of cholera in Cabo Delgado Province's Ancuabe District. Radio Mozambique's Pemba correspondent reports that five centers for treating cholera patients have been assembled in the area. The source says that a ward to treat the disease has been opened in the Pemba Provincial Hospital to prevent deaths due to the disease. (Maputo Radio Mozambique in Portuguese 0600 GMT 19 Dec 93) South Africa Malaria -- 22 deaths from malaria have been reported so far this year compared to 13 last year. Altogether 10,033 malaria cases have been reported to the Department of National Health and Population Development up to 2 November this year. Last year 2,854 cases were reported. Most cases were recorded in KwaZulu, 3,746, while 2,575 cases were recorded in the eastern Transvaal. There were also a high number of malaria cases in Gazankulu, 714; Kangwane, 665; and central Transvaal, 569, according to the National Health Department's publication Epidemiological Comments. Of the total 10,033 cases this year, 9,094 blacks were affected, 721 whites, nine colored, and eight Indians. The population groups of the other 201 cases are unknown. Concerning the age groups, most cases, 6,733, occurred in the 15-year age group and older. In the 5-14 age group 2,279 cases were reported, with 843 cases in the 1-4 year age group. (Johannesburg BEELD in Afrikaans 7 Dec 93 p 11) AIDS -- Aids is believed to have killed more people in South Africa this year than in the seven years since the first cases of the virus were identified in this country. The figure of 4,937 AIDS- related deaths is based on data from clinics throughtout the country. Those who already have full-blown AIDS and are already terminally ill are estimated at 4,902. This excludes those who are in the early stages of showing symptoms or have been disgnosed HIV positive. (Johannesburg SUNDAY TIMES in English 19 Dec 93 p 17) |
FBIS3-60566_0 | Doctor Attacks UN Operation in Somalia | Language: Swedish Article Type:CSO [Article by Carina Beckerman] [Text] ``What amazed me in Somalia was the UN tactics. It was so hopeless, it didn't lead anywhere. At an earlier stage, even before the summer, the UN should have learned from what had happened and tried to change the course of events, either by reaching a political settlement with the clan leader, Aidid, or by increasing military presence in order to clean up Mogadishu.'' This was the opinion expressed by the physician, Johan Dalen, 44, who recently returned to Sweden after having worked for a few weeks at the Swedish field hospital in Somalia. ``My strongest impression from Somalia, and the one it is the hardest to forget, is of the injured children; children who had been shot in the head, or who had had both legs amputated. As a surgeon, one wants to perform surgery, and that one really gets to do in Somalia,'' said Dalen quietly. Curfew Johan Dalen has previously worked in Cyprus, Lebanon, and Cambodia, through the UN and the Red Cross. ``In Somalia I have seen how much can be done with limited resources,'' he said. There is still unrest in the capital, Mogadishu, but in rural areas, the famine is, in essence, eliminated. Food supply and the purely military aspects of the operation do work. But in Mogadishu, where gangs of thugs roam the streets at night, the curfew is still in effect after 1800. The hospital, which employs 150 Swedes, is located in the same area as the old university and the U.S. Embassy. The Swedes are taking care of 20,000 UN soldiers. In the immediate vicinity of the hospital, 5,000 U.S. soldiers are stationed, and consequently the area is often subject to grenade attacks. ``No, I was not afraid. When one lives in the middle of a conflict, it becomes part of everyday life, and as we were not the primary target for the grenades, it was not that dangerous,'' said Dalen. Strict Orders The people working at the field hospital have received strict orders not to leave the area without taking precautions. The hospital staff members wear helmets, submachine guns, and bulletproof vests, and travel to and from the airport in armed convoys. The vehicles are equipped with Swedish and Red Cross flags to indicate that they are not Americans. And to protect themselves against shrapnel, most people stay inside as much |
FBIS3-60579_0 | Southern Cone Health Report 26 Nov-2 Dec | Article Type:BFN [Editorial Report] The following is a compilation of reports on epidemics and diseases monitored by Paraguay Bureau from 26 November to 2 December. Argentina The Health and Social Action Ministry on 1 December reported six new cholera cases were registered in the previous 24 hours in Salta Province. The total number of cases has risen to 1,777, 27 fatal. (Buenos Aires NOTICIAS ARGENTINAS in Spanish 1924 GMT 1 Dec 93) Buenos Aires Province health authorities reported five new cases of meningitis were detected in the federal capital and La Plata in the past few hours. (Buenos Aires NOTICIAS ARGENTINAS in Spanish 2010 GMT 29 Nov 93) Bolivia Health authorities reported five new AIDS cases were detected in the past weeks in Santa Cruz de la Sierra Department. Health Under Secretary Joaquin Monasterio stated that the number of persons with HIV has increased to 100 nationwide, 70 in this department. (La Paz HOY in Spanish 22 Nov 93 p 11) Brazil More than 400,000 Brazilians have been contaminated with the AIDS virus and 18,000 of them already have died of it. In 1994, the Brazilian Government and the World Bank will allocate $250 million to fight the illness. In the last 11 years, 43,000 AIDS cases have been registered in the country. The number of AIDS patients in Rio Grande do Sul state increased 50 percent in the last eight months, now totalling 451. Sao Paulo State has 63 percent of all AIDS cases in Brazil: In the last 13 years, 27,000 cases -- 17,700 fatal -- have been registered in the state. Rio de Janeiro state has 20 percent of the AIDS cases in the country -- 7,500 cases, more than 50 percent fatal. (Brasilia Voz do Brasil Network in Portuguese 2100 GMT 1 Dec 93) Chile The interministerial anti-AIDS commission released the second mid-term national program designed to prevent and control the disease between 1994 and 1997. The program outlines actions to reduce AIDS transmission and also includes comprehensive assistance to people with HIV and their families. (Santiago LA TERCERA DE LA HORA in Spanish 19 Nov 93 p 13) Peru Huanuco Health Subregion Director Cesar Raborg on 14 November reported that 12 people died of cholera in Dos de Mayo Province, Huanuco Department, in the previous 48 hours. (Lima EXPRESO in Spanish 15 Nov 93 p A12) Health Subregion Director Victor Chavez Rojas reported that a |
FBIS3-60595_2 | Official Urges Development of Nuclear Power | stations are worn out and dilapidated. They should be either radically overhauled or replaced with entirely new ones. Our problem is a lack of large deposits. We think that it can be resolved in three ways. First, we should continue to import energy. You understand that one can transmit electrical energy -- heat cannot be transmitted through wires. At the same time, electric energy accounts for only a quarter of all the energy we consume, with 70-75 percent represented by thermal energy. This means that we would have to buy resources for generating thermal and electrical energy, which is the second solution. The third way would be to search for some deposits within the country. Following careful analysis, we have reached quite a simple conclusion. There are only two options -- to orient ourselves toward Russian gas and oil, basing our power engineering system on imports, or to develop our own deposits. The latter can only be implemented in the form of nuclear power stations. The energy program, referred to by the article's authors, proved that given our conditions, nuclear energy is the most appropriate option. [passage omitted] [Slanewski] Let us touch upon definitely the most sensitive issue for us. After we build nuclear power stations, would we be able to say that we live in safer ecological conditions than before? [Stawrow] This is an easy question to answer. Nuclear power plants are, ecologically speaking, the safest source of energy. Of course, one can ask, "What about Chernobyl?" My answer is that the Chernobyl accident showed us how not to develop nuclear power, and in no way should lead us to abandon it altogether. This is borne out by the recent decision by the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers in favor of continuing operation of the Chernobyl nuclear power station. I have always said that Ukraine will never shut down that station because it is hard to throw away 3 million kilowatts of energy -- almost half of Belarus' needs. We are frequently threatened that another accident may strike once again. But we have already been sitting on the powder keg for a long time, with the Ignalinsk nuclear station only 15 km from our border. As an example, one of the biggest nuclear stations in France is located within the Paris city limits, while in Japan, one of their nuclear plants is in a resort area. There are generally accepted |
FBIS3-60633_0 | South, North Korea Reportedly Having Secret Contacts | Language: Korean Article Type:BFN [By Washington-based correspondent Chong Hae-yong] [Text] A rumor from the Washington political circle strongly suggests that South and North Korea are seeking the resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue through secret, behind-the-scene contacts, in addition to the on-going working-level contacts between the United States and North Korea in New York. The observation is gaining unusual interest. According to a reliable source in Washington on 30 November, working-level representatives of the ROK and North Korea are discussing pending issues, including the resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue which is at a stalemate, and the resumption of the South-North dialogue, in either Seoul, Pyongyang, or a third country city such as Beijing or Moscow. The source says there is also a possibility that a secret nuclear envoy of the ROK Government might have been in North Korea and have had contacts with high-ranking North Korean officials to seek a breakthrough in the nuclear issue. It is also rumored, but not confirmed, that the ROK side's representative to the contact with North Korea is one of President Kim Yong-sam's aides whose surname initial is "H" or "J". |
FBIS3-60650_0 | Commentary Views Use of Chemical Weapons in Balkans | Language: Serbo-Croatian Article Type:BFN [Commentary by Slavoljub Susic] [Excerpts] There are at least two reasons to link the discovery of lethal waste delivered from Germany to neighboring Albania with the war and other events in the Balkans. First, involved are materials whose degree of poisonousness--that is, toxicity--in larger concentrations are by no means lower than some well-known chemical weapons. The second reason is strategic and long-term interests that the developed Europe and United States want to realize in these regions. Without denying the long-accepted general definition of war as the continuation of politics with different means, one should still recall the fact that there are means, the use of which is not permitted in war or peace. Involved are, among others, chemical-biological combat means that, due to their known and potential effects, represent a great danger for modern civilization. [passage omitted] Chemical weapons have been used in local wars. They are even used today in the former Bosnia-Herzegovina, where, in their attacks on Serbian positions, Izetbegovic's mujahedins are reportedly using ammunition charged with poisons, most probably produced in one of the existing factories of chemical products, pesticides, or detergents. Of course, it is difficult to predict the extent of an ecological catastrophe in the event that cisterns with chloride explode or if chemical plants in Tuzla or factories of mines and explosives in Vitez and Gorazde are deliberately destroyed. Therefore, we cannot be calm over the recent discovery of a large quantity of lethal chemicals in the neighboring Albania. There are ever louder rumors that something similar may have been delivered to some western regions of the former Yugoslav federation in exchange for diplomatic and military aid in the forced secession from the mother country. All this directs one to the justified suspicion that Germany and other developed countries are not instigating the present reorganization of the Balkans from the well-known geostrategic reasons alone but are rather ensuring room for dumping chemical and radioactive waste as far as possible from their own threshold and under someone else's carpet. |
FBIS3-60659_0 | Editorial Views Changing U.S. Diplomacy on South Asia | Language: English Article Type:BFN [Editorial: "Pressler And All That"] [Text] The reported U.S. move to repeal the Pressler amendment is the latest indication of changing American diplomacy towards South Asia. Ms. Robin Raphel's absurd remarks on Kashmir, questioning the Instrument of Accession; Mr. Warren Christopher's letter of appreciation to the Prime Minister on the peaceful solution of the Hazratbal crisis; and now the move to scrap the Pressler amendment, paradoxically, are all part of a change. The Pressler amendment came into effect on October 1, 1990 mainly to chastise the countries of South Asia which were refusing to sign the NPT [Nonproliferation Treaty] and surrender the right to acquire nuclear weapons. In Pakistan's case, the punishment was to cut off military and economic aid to which that country had got so accustomed that its elite could not do without it. The amendment has been a major irritant between Islamabad and Washington. Amending this amendment would give Mr. Clinton freedom to resume aid to Pakistan. It would give an instant reward to premier Benazir Bhutto, currently America's favourite among Pak leaders. However, by implication this move is more anti-Indian than pro-Pakistan. It carries strong implications for India. The stated purpose of the U.S. decision, the Americans say, is not to allow Pakistan to go nuclear but encourage it to look for a more "equitable and non-discriminatory" application of punitive measures against nuclear threshold countries. Another justification provided is that the Pressler law "no longer serves U.S. nonproliferation objectives in South Asia." It is a well-known fact that New Delhi and Washington are not on the same wavelength on the NPT. While the U.S. wants India to sign the NPT on the dotted lines, India regards the treaty as unacceptable because it is discriminatory. Pakistan has expressed its willingness to sign the NPT, provided the U.S. forces India to submit on the NPT. The idea is to give currency to propaganda that India does not want a nuclear-free South Asia. The pro-Pakistani lobby in the U.S. has been arguing that Pressler's restrictions target Pakistan alone and no other country. Pakistan's ruling elite wants Pressler employed against India, although this country has no military nuclear programme. It appears that Mr. Clinton has accepted this convoluted logic. It is rightly apprehended that the new law, when approved by the U.S. Congress, can be used to deny American aid to India. And correspondingly aid can |
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