Malaria Kills 4,000 Cameroonians Each Year – Medic

By Nformi Sonde Kinsai

The Permanent Secretary of the National Malaria Control Programme, NMCP, Dr. Dorothy Ashu, has disclosed that malaria kills at least 4,000 people each year in Cameroon.

Dr. Ashu made the disclosure on March 2, 2017 in Yaounde while presenting the national strategy to fight against malaria at a sensitisation workshop for personnel of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, MINTSS, on the dangers of the disease, its diagnosis and prevention.

Presenting the situation of the fight against malaria in the country, Dr. Ashu said many people identify the NMCP with the distribution of the long lasting treated mosquito bed nets.

She admitted that the distribution of the nets is one of their visible activities geared at combating malaria even though there are many other things they do amongst which are, coordination of activities and the mobilisation of resources for the fight against malaria.

Ashu was speaking within the framework of activities building up to the commemoration of the 32^nd International Women Day on March 8 organised by Malaria No More, MNM, in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health, MINSANTE and MINTSS with support from the EXXONMOBIL/COTCO Foundation.

She stated that according to data gathered from across the country, at least 2 million cases of patients suffering from malaria are recorded in health facilities and out of that figure; at least 4,000 people are killed by the disease.

Ashu added that the figure is likely to be higher because there are many other cases that are not taken to the health units. She said as of 2011, the prevalence rate of malaria in Cameroon was 33.3 percent while morbidity and mortality stood at 30 percent.

Dr. Ashu noted that the consequences of malaria are enormous on the patients, households and the national economy.

The disease results to loss of weight, severe anaemia, convulsive crisis, abortion, etc. She said the socio-economic consequences include poor performances in school, absenteeism at work, drop in productivity, different psycho-emotional crisis, increased poverty considering that it takes 40 percent of household health expenditure.

The medic cautioned the participants that not all fevers are synonymous to malaria reason why tests must be conducted to ascertain that somebody is suffering from the disease before treatment is engaged.

Describing the female anopheles mosquito that spreads malaria as the enemy, Ashu said prevention remains the main strategy of malaria control.

She reiterated that sleeping under the long lasting treated mosquito net is the most effective tool used across the world to control malaria.

Meanwhile, the MNM Country Director for Cameroon, Olivia Ngou, said the NGO that has existed in Cameroon since 2006, and is working in line with the objective of the World Health Organisation, WHO, geared at eradicating malaria by 2030.

Referring to the target of MINSANTE, Ngou noted that they are also working along with them to reduce malaria-related deaths by 75 percent come 2018.

Ngou said their programmes target all segments of society and people of all backgrounds as they use three main axis notably communication, advocacy and social mobilisation to pass across key messages aimed at combating malaria. She particularly mentioned the key role MNM played in the distribution of some 8 million long lasting treated mosquito bed nets in 2011, 2015 and 2016. She also talked of the role of the 24 K.O. PALU Ambassadors in communities and schools where people are educated on the proper use of the mosquito nets.

One of the ambassadors, Dorette Bouwe Zitou, told the participants that good health has no price and that just listening to a piece of advice in a workshop like the one MNM organised and putting it into practice can positively change many things in one’s life.

Opening the workshop earlier, the Inspector General at MINTSS, Dr. Jean Calvin Naoussi Sadeu, hailed MINSANTE, the NMCP and MNM for sensitising the personnel of the ministry on malaria.

He said everyone is likely aware of the ravaging effects of malaria reason why he urged his collaborators to demonstrate discipline, be attentive and make good use of the messages delivered.

The participants went home with various gadgets carrying anti-malaria messages as well as the long lasting treated mosquito bed nets.

 

Source : cameroonpostline.com

Treaty challenge is total nonsense

You can’t claim lands you never discovered, occupied or colonized

Cárdenas: claims treaty unlawful.

As a historian on Mexico and author of “Mexico Behind the Mask, A Narrative History of Mexico,” I can say the article “Mexico-US treaty invalid, politician claims” is total nonsense.

Just as a reminder, the Mexican War (1846-1848) was fought over a border dispute  between Texas and Mexico (Río Nueces claimed by Mexico and Rio Grande by the Republic of Texas annexed to the U.S.) Texas isn’t even mentioned in this ridiculous article.

First and foremost, all treaties signed by the vanquished are legal and obviously signed under “duress.” Try the Treaty of Versailles for openers.

Simply put, you can’t claim lands you never discovered, occupied or colonized. Of all those states mentioned (they excluded Texas, and I know why), only New Mexico and California had a Spaniard ever set foot on them. There were absolutely no Mexicans.

In the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), these territories were not annexed from Mexico; neither Mexico nor Spain never claimed to own them. Mexico merely gave up any future claim to these undiscovered lands. They became known as the New Mexico Territories.

In the case of New Mexico, there were two enclaves knows as Albuquerque and Santa Fe occupied by Spaniards. They never claimed additional territory. There is no trace of a Mexican presence.

The U.S paid $15 million for California and Mexico accepted the money. Mexico should have taken the original $40 million before the war. The British were smarter, they sold their claim over the Oregon Territories.

As for southern Arizona, the U.S bought it for $10 million in what is known as the Gadsen Purchase (1853) and the Tratado de Mesillas in Mexico.

In the case of Alta California, the state was discovered by Juan Cabrillo (Portuguese) and Sebastian Vizcaino (Spaniard). They left no trace of their discoveries.

In  1767, Father Junípero Serra, a Spanish priest born in Mayorca, Spain, was sent to Alta California on an evangelical mission to create missions to bring Christianity to the Indians. Those that followed were Spaniards.

In 1848 there is no trace of any Mexican having set foot on that land. It is estimated that the population of Spaniards was around 14,000.

Historically, the first Mexicans to arrive in California did so at the invitation of the Catholic Church archdiocese of Los Angeles to give sanctuary to those Catholics being persecuted in the “Cristero Rebellion” (1926-1929).

Even the most anti-American Mexican historian, Francisco Martín Moreno, agreed in his book “México Mutilado” that United States President James Polk was only interested in land with no Mexicans in it. After all, with the fall of Mexico City, Mexico belonged to the United States.

Quote: “The Americans only wanted unoccupied lands they could freely control with a superior race, their own, the Anglo Saxons.” He also claims that Polk was known to have said, “Will I have to exterminate 6 million Mexican aborigines who are slothful and stupid, as well as totally useless like our redskin population?” (Moreno had a way with words).

What Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, his father and son should be writing about is the history of how they governed the once rich state of Michoacán and turned it into one of the poorest states in Mexico.

Today, the state has fallen into a government in chaos thanks to “Cardenismo,” which failed in everything it pretended to accomplish. Ask any Purépecha Indian and everyone else how well they are off. I know, I’ve been all over that state.

Beldon Butterfield is a writer and former publisher and media representative. He is retired and lives in San Miguel de Allende.

Source : Mexico Daily News

Carolina Goic to lead Christian Democratic Party in Chile’s Presidential polls

By Ross Brown / The Santiago Times Staff

SANTIAGO — Senator Carolina Goic, the leader of centre-left Christian Democratic Party, will run for Chile president in November elections.

The 44-year-old lawmaker of Croatian heritage who represents the country’s southernmost region, Goic is generally center-left on economic issues and center-right to conservative on social issues.

After his nomination was announced at a party gathering in Santiago on Saturday, Goic said that as
Chile’s president she would work to overcome some of the country’s pressing challenges, including pension reform and a further strengthening of the decentralization process to reduce regional inequality.
She has also called for delegating more political decision-making from the capital Santiago to the regions.

The senator, however, has not yet said if she will compete in the primaries of the broad ruling center-left New Majority coalition, whose members range from Christian Democrats to Communists.

Currently, former President Ricardo Lagos of the Party for Democracy and independent Sen. Alejandro Guillier of the Social Democrat Radical Party are proclaimed as candidates for the New Majority primaries.

The Socialist Party, to which current Chilean President Michelle Bachelet belongs, is to decide on its candidate later this month. Bachelet’s approval rating at just 23 percent; moreover, she is not eligible to run because consecutive presidential terms are constitutionally barred in Chile.

On the other hand, the candidates expected to compete for the nomination of the center-right Chile Let’s Go coalition include former President Sebastian Piñera, Sen. Jose Manuel Ossandon and lawmaker Felipe Kast, a member of the Political Evolution Party.

A local poll shows Piñera is the current leader in voter preference while Guillier is running second.
At least 20 other politicians from parties not affiliated with the two main coalitions also have announced their presidential candidacies.

It appears to be a tough competition on Nov 19 this year.

 

Source : Santiago Times

Advogados de Sócrates dizem que prazo para a investigação “terminou ontem”

João Araújo (esq.) com José Sócrates à saída do DCIAP, esta segunda-feira|

NUNO FOX/LUSA

João Araújo considera que todos os atos de investigação realizados desde as 00:00 são ilegais

Os advogados de José Sócrates afirmaram esta terça-feira que o inquérito ao antigo primeiro-ministro terminou ontem. Segundo João Araújo, a procuradora-geral da República concedeu a 14 de setembro de 2016 uma prorrogação de 180 dias para o inquérito. Ou seja, “terminou ontem”, apontou o advogado.

Por isso, a equipa de defesa requereu nesta terça-feira à procuradora Joana Marques Vidal que seja notificado “esse despacho de enceramento”. E para Araújo, quaisquer atos de investigação feitos a partir das 00.00 desta terça-feira, “são ilegais”.

Perante a insistência dos jornalistas, sobre o facto de se apontar a próxima sexta-feira, dia 17, como o prazo limite para o Ministério Público apresentar acusação de Sócrates, os dois advogados, Pedro Delille e João Araújo, afirmaram desconhecer de onde vem a data. E Araújo voltou a acusar o Ministério Público: “Talvez o Ministério Público pense que isto é o da Joana, mas isto é da lei.”

Equipas do Ministério Público, lideradas pelo procurador Rosário Teixeira, realizaram esta terça-feira buscas no Grupo Espírito Santo, segundo noticiou o semanário Expresso. Diligências que João Araújo disse não ter conhecimento.

Diário de Notícias

 

Russian Funeral Home Offers to Help Man Bury His Still-Living Wife, After Nurse Leaks Wrong Info

March 14, 2017 — 21:50— Update: 21:49

Pixabay

In early January, funeral services workers in Tula showed up at a local man’s home and offered him assistance with the burial of his wife. This visit came as a shock to the man, whose wife was then recuperating in a nearby hospital, still very much alive.

As it turns out, the visitors had come on a bad tip: earlier that day, a nurse at the hospital texted them the name and address of a patient who’d died that morning. The patient had the same name as this man’s wife, and the nurse confused their personal data, when leaking the information to the funeral home (presumably for a bribe).

Tula’s district prosecutor announced in a press release on Tuesday that the nurse’s actions violate federal law and Russians’ constitutional right to privacy.

“This situation was possible thanks to the weakening of the medical facility’s management over the staff’s observance of medical privacy,” the district prosecutor said.

Police have presented their findings to the Tula hospital’s chief of medicine, Irina Rublevskaya, demanding that the facility take steps to prevent further breaches of patients’ rights.

Source : Moscow Times

‘Gungahlin-ised’: Forrest Residents Group slams approval of seven-storey hotel

MARCH 15 2017 – 12:15AM

Megan Doherty

Forrest is in danger of losing its status as a suburb people aspire to live in with its leafy ambience under attack from developers, according to the local residents’ group.

One resident described it as the “Gungahlin-isation of Forrest” while another says the inner-south suburb is in danger of becoming “like western Sydney” – busier, noisier, more dense and with homes being built on smaller blocks.

Margaret Atcherley, chair of the Forrest Residents Group, at her home in Forrest. She and other residents fear encroaching development will change the unique character of the suburb. Photo: Rohan Thomson

The latest development to anger the Forrest Residents Group is a seven-storey hotel approved by ACT planning authorities for the site of the old Italo-Australian Club on the corner of Dominion Circuit and Franklin Street.

The Land Development Agency has also put up for sale a large block of land on the corner of State Circle and Canberra Avenue in Forrest for development, possibly for a hotel or apartments, with the auction due to take place on March 21.

Forrest Residents Group chair Margaret Atcherley, who lives in Dominion Circuit, said the exclusive suburb was in danger of becoming more like the “western suburbs of Sydney” due to the encroaching development.

“It is a suburb to which people aspire to live,” she said.

“So many people I speak to say they would like to live in Forrest. When I ask, ‘Why?’, they say the tree corridors, the peace and quiet, the blocks are relatively big… and all that is under threat.”

Another Forrest resident and member of the group, John-Paul Romano, said the planned $70 million hotel would generate more road traffic, more pedestrian foot traffic past homes into Manuka and more noise at night.

The site of the planned seven-storey hotel in Forrest. Photo: Rohan Thomson

“I think, yes, Forrest has generally been a heritage-type suburb with big blocks and certainly there is a risk that when you get developments like this, along with bigger blocks being subdivided, not so much for dual occupancy, but for multiple residences, six to eight dwellings, it is certainly changing the character of the suburb,” Mr Romano said.

“I call it the Gungahlin-isation of Forrest. The block sizes are becoming smaller and you go from having big backyards to almost no backyard at all.”

The $70 million, seven-storey hotel, restaurant and function development planned for the site of the old Italo-Australian Club in Forrest. 

Ms Atcherley said there seemed to be a general perception that Forrest was “full of silvertails” who could afford not to have the attention of the ACT government. But the suburb was in danger of losing residents, not only because of the increasing development, but also skyrocketing rates and inadequate services.

“Our rates are enormous,” she said. “I know one resident who pays $15,000 a year in rates and she is an elderly woman. All she gets is the garbage collection because streets are in an absolute mess.”

Ms Atcherley said in general there was “a great deal of disappointment” with the ACT Planning and Land Authority’s decision to conditionally approve the $70 million, 227-room hotel which also includes a 500-seat function centre. The conditions of approval include a revised noise management plan.

However, Ms Atcherley’s said residents’ concerns about the height of the building and the additional noise and activity, especially at night, remained.

“Aren’t there enough hotels in the area now?” she said. “Are they all fully booked? I doubt it.”

Inner South Canberra Community Council chair Gary Kent also criticised the approval of the hotel, saying a so-called public meeting about the development was attended by two people in a private home.

“This is the worst example of consultation I’ve seen in my seven years on the ISCC,” Mr Kent said.

“We asked the developer for a public meeting and that request was refused.

“None of the residents’ concerns have been taken into account so you’re going to end up with a seven-storey building in a residential area which is taller than what is allowable on Canberra Avenue.”

Source : Canberra Times

Turn off that tap – Aucklanders still using too much water

9:28 AM Wednesday Mar 15, 2017

Aucklanders have failed to save enough water for a second day running.

Watercare says the 409 million litres used yesterday across the region was still above the vital 400m litre limit, even though it was 10m less than Monday.

Watercare said it was doing everything possible to avoid a boil water notice, including increasing capacity at all treatment plants.

“Auckland has demonstrated that we can reduce our water consumption without significant inconvenience. But as the weather improves and the weekend’s storms become a distant memory, we run the risk of forgetting the need to reduce water use,” said Watercare chief executive Raveen Jaduram.

“The reality is we are still dealing with 100 times more silt at our Ardmore treatment plant. And so we need to remember every day to reduce our water use by 20 litres per person.”

He asked people to avoid washing cars and turn off auto-irrigation systems.

Watercare also praised efforts by commercial customers for water savings including petrol stations that had temporarily switched of car washes.

“We welcome Z and Caltex closing their commercial car washes across Auckland in an effort to reduce water use and encourage other businesses to follow their lead,” said Jaduram.

Yesterday Auckland University was found defying the water savings by running sprinklers over the weekend.

Auckland Council’s development arm Panuku also ran sprinklers in Wynyard Quarter on Saturday.

On Friday, Watercare urged the public to stop watering gardens, washing their cars and to have shorter showers after storm damage to the Ardmore treatment plant meant it was treating 50 per cent less water than usual.

The council now has all sprinklers and fountains switched off and Auckland Transport has also ordered that waterblasting at its bus shelters, train stations and platforms only be done if absolutely necessary.

Initially the region met the savings target but since the start of the working week has failed on consecutive days.

Tips to save water

1. Cut your shower time by two minutes: Estimated saving: 16 litres.

2. Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth. Estimated saving: 4 litres.

3. Only run your dishwasher when it’s full.

4. Only run your washing machine when it’s full.

5. Use the half-flush on your toilet.

Source :New Zealand Herald

Rebelião no PMDB – Vice-presidente do partido, deputado João Arruda, quer saída de Jucá

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