Population

Population, Poverty and Development

2009-12-05T06:14:00.000-08:00

UNFPA has been works is centralized to the goals to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development in the human society.

Population dynamics including growth rates, age structure, fertility, mortality, migration are the aspects which influence social and economic development of humans. Other areas of UNFPA's work includes reproductive health and women empowerment which mainly influences population trends.

Governments should be able to gather information and analyze the population trends in order to create and manage policies and generate the political will to appropriately address the human needs. UNFPA assists countries for this, from developing capacity in data collection and analysis to participate in national, regional and global policy dialogue to support demonstrative programmes for purpose of up scaling.

Population and Environment.

2009-11-16T05:59:00.000-08:00

Since the century began, natural resources have been under pressure, threatening development and public health. Soil exhaustion, water shortages, loss of forests, air and water pollution, and degradation of coastlines have affected many areas. since the world’s population is growing, it has been a global challenge to improve life standard without deteriorating the environment.
Most of the developed countries currently consume resources much faster than they can be regenerated. And also the countries with rapid growth in population are exploiting nature to meet their needs.

Environmental education needed.

2009-11-16T05:57:00.000-08:00

Due top Pollution, resource depletion, and overpopulation problems general public is being more concerned about the environment. The best way for effective deeling with the environmental problems is to develop an environmental education system fully. The environmental education should specially focus on children because children are the hosts of the future. Therefore, it is necessary to develop positive attitudes towards the environment since the early childhood. Unfortunately, environmental education has been limited. This is partly because it is a relatively new. One of the major problems is that the current information on the subject is not easily accessible to the people. Another important barrier is the lack of instructional materials. Society needs to develop environmental education not only through the regular school study for children but also for everyone through different public media like television, radio, and the web.

Falling Fertility

2009-11-16T05:55:00.000-08:00

Thomas Malthus forecast in 1798 that population growth would outstrip the world's food supply. But with industrialization fertility fell sharply, first in France, then in Britain, then throughout Europe and America. When people got richer, families got smaller; and as families got smaller, people got richer.
Now fertility is falling in developing countries like Brazil, Indonesia, and parts of India. The fertility rate of half the world is now 2.1 or less - the magic number that is consistent with a stable population and is usually called replacement rate of fertility". Between 2020 and 2050 the world's fertility rate is expected to fall below the global replacement rate.
From this the author concludes that "Worries about a population explosion are themselves being exploded."
The transition from a rate of five to that of two, which took 130 years to happen in Britain - from 1800 to 1930 - took just 20 years - from 1965 to 1985 - in South Korea. Mothers in developing countries now have on average three children. Their mothers had six. In some countries the speed of decline in the fertility rate has been astonishing. In Iran, the fertility rate dropped from seven in 1984 to 1.9 in 2006 - and to just 1.5 in Tehran.
For subsistence farmers, who risk falling victim to drought, a family of eight may be the only insurance against disaster.
If you have a generation or two in which fertility is neither too high nor too low and in which there are few dependent children, few dependent grandparents - and a bulge of adults in the middle - you have the recipe for economic opportunity.
Malthus's heirs say there are too many people for the Earth's fragile ecosystems. It is time to stop - and ideally reverse - the population increase. To celebrate falling fertility is like congratulating the captain of the Titanic on heading towards the iceberg more slowly.
If the poor copy the pattern of wealth creation that made Europe and America rich, they will eat up as many resources as the Americans do, with grim consequences for the planet.
In principle, there are three ways of limiting human environmental impacts: through population policy, technology and governance. The first of those does not offer much scope. Population growth is already slowing almost as fast as it naturally could. Only Chinese-style coercion would bring it down much below that.
Mankind needs to develop more and cheaper technologies that can enable people to enjoy the fruits of economic growth without destroying the planet's natural capital.

Natural resources

2009-11-16T05:50:00.001-08:00

The natural property of a nation is called its natural resources. The fertile land, Forest, minerals, water sources, fossils fuels, etc. is natural resources. These are the resources of the country naturally available. Planned utilization of natural resources directly effects in the national development.

All of our many manufactured articles are made from the earth's natural resources. We obtain all our materials, and many of the resources which we use to provide energy, from the earth.

Some resources are being constantly produced in the earth. They are called renewable resources.
Others are not being replaced. They are called non- renewable resources.

Planned way of use of Non-renewable Resource:
The problem of a future shortage of some of our important resources must be faced. The answer to the problem will be a combination of four approaches.

(a) Replying more heavily on renewable resources: If a non-renewable resource becomes scarce, its price goes up. This can result in alternative renewable resource becoming cheaper than the non- renewable resource, so the renewable resource will be used instead.

(b) Increasing product lifetime: We must try to make products made from non-renewable resources last longer. For example, most cars are made of steel, which contain large amount of iron. The iron rusts. If every car could be made to last longer, then less iron would be needed by the motor industry.
(c) Recycling: Much of what we throw away could be reused. Glass, for example, can be crushed, remelted and reused. Glass made in this way requires much less energy than glass made from starch. Many people already take their empty glass bottles to bottle banks. If more and more people were encouraged to do this, the amount of resources need to make new glass could be greatly reduced.
(d) Opening up new resources: Improved technology is continually allowing resources which were previously unavailable to be extracted from the Earth.

Most in 2009

2009-10-24T09:59:00.000-07:00

Highest Population Density 2009
1 Mumbai
2 Shanghai
3 Karachi
4 Delhi
5 Istanbul
6 São Paulo
7 Moscow
8 Seoul
9 Beijing
10 Mexico City

Fattest people 2009
1. Nauru 94.5 %
2. Micronesia 91.1%
3. Cook Islands 90.9%
4. Tonga 90.8%
5. Niue 81.7%
6. Samoa 80.4%
7. Palau 78.4%
8. Kuwait 74.2%
9. United States 74.1%
10. Kiribati 73.6%

Literacy Rate 2009
1 Cuba 99.8%
2 Estonia 99.8%
3 Poland 99.8%
4 Barbados 99.7%
5 Slovenia 99.7%
6 latvia 99.7%
17 USA 99.0%
17 UK 99.0%
162 Nepal 48.6%

Highest Obese Countries - 2009
1) United States
2) Mexico
3) United Kingdom
4) Slovakia
5) Greece

Most poorest nation -2009 (per capital income)
1.Zimbabwe- $200
2.Congo - $300
3.Burundi- $400
4.Liberia$ - 500
5.Somalia$ - 600
20.Nepal - $1,100

Most Expensive Cities - 2009
Oslo
Paris
Copenhagen
London
Tokyo

Best Visitor Destination - 2009
France
Spain
United States
China
Italy

Ten Least Wanted

2009-10-11T03:01:00.002-07:00

The top ten killer diseases are primarily Third World, celebrity-free, low visibility killers of children:

Acute respiratory tract infections 4.4
Diarrheal diseases (cholera, typhoid, dysentery) 3.1
Tuberculosis 3.1
Hepatitis B 1.1
HIV/AIDS 1 million +
Measles 1 million +
Neonatal tetanus 460,000
Whooping cough 350,000
Intestinal worms 135,000

Source: World Health Organization

Top 10 Countries with the Lowest and Highest Population Densities

2009-10-11T03:01:00.001-07:00

Lowest (People per square kilometer)

1. Mongolia (2)
2. Namibia (2)
3. Australia (3)
4. Botswana (3)
5. Iceland (3)
6. Surinam (3)
7. Libya (3)
8. Mauritania (3)
9. Canada (3)
10. Guyana (4)

Highest (People per square kilometer)

1. Monaco (16,205)
2. Singapore (6,386)
3. Malta (1,261)
4. Maldives (1,164)
5. Bahrain (1,035)
6. Bangladesh (1,002)
7. Vatican City (920)
8. Barbados (648)
9. Nauru (621)
10. Mauritius (603)

World POP Clock Projection

2009-10-11T03:00:00.001-07:00

According to the International Programs Center, U.S. Census Bureau, the total population of the World, projected to 10/11/09 at 09:47 GMT (EST+5) is

6,789,765,630

Monthly World population figures:

07/01/09 6,768,167,712
08/01/09 6,774,705,647
09/01/09 6,781,243,583
10/01/09 6,787,570,618
11/01/09 6,794,108,554
12/01/09 6,800,435,588
01/01/10 6,806,973,524
02/01/10 6,813,511,460
03/01/10 6,819,416,692
04/01/10 6,825,954,628
05/01/10 6,832,281,663
06/01/10 6,838,819,599
07/01/10 6,845,146,634

Population and Environment

2009-09-13T08:08:00.000-07:00

Population, health, and environment (PHE) programs can play an important role in areas where demographic trends such as growth and migration place pressure on the environment; where degraded natural resources impact the health and livelihoods of local communities; and where a lack of effective health services, including reproductive health, threatens long-term prospects for sustainable development. The key objective of these programs is to simultaneously improve access to health services while helping communities manage their natural resources in ways that improve their health and livelihood even as they protect the environment.

Since 1993, USAID’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health has worked to better understand the synergistic relationship between population, health, and environment. In 2002, the PHE program expanded to include field programming in response to legislative language originally included in the FY02 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill – and repeated in all subsequent bills – stating that under the Child Survival and Health Programs Fund some portion (unspecified) of the funds for family planning/reproductive health {should be allocated} in areas where population growth threatens biodiversity or endangered species. These field-based projects, often implemented by conservation organizations, have developed innovative models of integrating population, environment, and health where appropriate in and around areas of high biodiversity in 10 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Wilderness

2009-09-11T23:48:00.000-07:00

Wilderness is generally defined as a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity. The WILD Foundation goes into more detail, defining wilderness as: "The most intact, undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet - those last truly wild places that humans do not control and have not developed with roads, pipelines or other industrial infrastructure." Wilderness areas and protected parks are considered important for the survival of certain species, ecological studies, conservation, solitude, and recreation. Wilderness is deeply valued for cultural, spiritual, moral, and aesthetic reasons. Some nature writers believe wilderness areas are vital for the human spirit and creativity.

The word, "wilderness", derives from the notion of wildness; in other words that which is not controllable by humans. The word's etymology is from the Old English wildeornes, which in turn derives from wildeor meaning wild beast (wild + deor = beast, deer). From this point of view, it is the wildness of a place that makes it a wilderness. The mere presence or activity of people does not disqualify an area from being "wilderness." Many ecosystems that are, or have been, inhabited or influenced by activities of people may still be considered "wild." This way of looking at wilderness includes areas within which natural processes operate without very noticeable human interference.

Ecosystems

2009-09-11T23:47:00.001-07:00

An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants, animals and micro-organisms (biotic factors) in an area functioning together with all of the non-living physical (abiotic) factors of the environment.

Central to the ecosystem concept is the idea that living organisms are continually engaged in a highly interrelated set of relationships with every other element constituting the environment in which they exist. Eugene Odum, one of the founders of the science of ecology, stated: "Any unit that includes all of the organisms (ie: the "community") in a given area interacting with the physical environment so that a flow of energy leads to clearly defined trophic structure, biotic diversity, and material cycles (ie: exchange of materials between living and nonliving parts) within the system is an ecosystem." The human ecosystem concept is then grounded in the deconstruction of the human/nature dichotomy, and the emergent premise that all species are ecologically integrated with each other, as well as with the abiotic constituents of their biotope.

A greater degree of species or biological diversity - popularly referred to as Biodiversity - of an ecosystem may contribute to greater resilience of an ecosystem, because there are more species present at a location to respond to change and thus "absorb" or reduce its effects. This reduces the effect before the ecosystem's structure is fundamentally changed to a different state. This is not universally the case and there is no proven relationship between the species diversity of an ecosystem and its ability to provide goods and services on a sustainable level: Humid tropical forests produce very few goods and direct services and are extremely vulnerable to change, while many temperate forests readily grow back to their previous state of development within a lifetime after felling or a forest fire. Some grasslands have been sustainably exploited for thousands of years (Mongolia, Africa, European peat and mooreland communities).

The term ecosystem can also pertain to human-made environments, such as human ecosystems and human-influenced ecosystems, and can describe any situation where there is relationship between living organisms and their environment. Fewer areas on the surface of the earth today exist free from human contact, although some genuine wilderness areas continue to exist without any forms of human intervention.

Life

2009-09-11T23:45:00.000-07:00

Although there is no universal agreement on the definition of life, scientists generally accept that the biological manifestation of life is characterized by organization, metabolism, growth, adaptation, response to stimuli and reproduction. Life may also be said to be simply the characteristic state of organisms.

Properties common to terrestrial organisms (plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea and bacteria) are that they are cellular, carbon-and-water-based with complex organization, having a metabolism, a capacity to grow, respond to stimuli, and reproduce. An entity with these properties is generally considered life. However, not every definition of life considers all of these properties to be essential. Human-made analogs of life may also be considered to be life.

The biosphere is the part of Earth's outer shell — including air, land, surface rocks and water — within which life occurs, and which biotic processes in turn alter or transform. From the broadest geophysiological point of view, the biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all living beings and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of the lithosphere (rocks), hydrosphere (water), and atmosphere (air). Currently the entire Earth contains over 75 billion tons (150 trillion pounds or about 6.8 x 1013 kilograms) of biomass (life), which lives within various environments within the biosphere.

Effects of global warming

2009-09-11T23:43:00.000-07:00

The potential dangers of global warming are being increasingly studied by a wide global consortium of scientists, who are increasingly concerned about the potential long-term effects of global warming on our natural environment and on the planet. Of particular concern is how climate change and global warming caused by anthropogenic, or human-made releases of greenhouse gases, most notably carbon dioxide, can act interactively, and have adverse effects upon the planet, its natural environment and humans' existence. Efforts have been increasingly focused on the mitigation of greenhouse gases that are causing climatic changes, on developing adaptative strategies to global warming, to assist humans, animal and plant species, ecosystems, regions and nations in adjusting to the effects of global warming. Some examples of recent collaboration to address climate change and global warming include:

* The United Nations Framework Convention Treaty and convention on Climate Change, to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.

* The Kyoto Protocol, which is the protocol to the international Framework Convention on Climate Change treaty, again with the objective of reducing greenhouse gases in an effort to prevent anthropogenic climate change.

* The Western Climate Initiative, to identify, evaluate, and implement collective and cooperative ways to reduce greenhouse gases in the region, focusing on a market-based cap-and-trade system.

A significantly profound challenge is to identify the natural environmental dynamics in contrast to environmental changes not within natural variances. A common solution is to adapt a static view neglecting natural variances to exist. Methodologically, this view could be defended when looking at processes which change slowly and short time series, while the problem arrives when fast processes turns essential in the object of the study.

Oceanic activity

2009-09-11T23:42:00.001-07:00

An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface (an area of some 361 million square kilometers) is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas. More than half of this area is over 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) deep. Average oceanic salinity is around 35 parts per thousand (ppt) (3.5%), and nearly all seawater has a salinity in the range of 30 to 38 ppt. Though generally recognized as several 'separate' oceans, these waters comprise one global, interconnected body of salt water often referred to as the World Ocean or global ocean. This concept of a global ocean as a continuous body of water with relatively free interchange among its parts is of fundamental importance to oceanography.

The major oceanic divisions are defined in part by the continents, various archipelagos, and other criteria: these divisions are (in descending order of size) the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean (which is sometimes subsumed as the southern portions of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans), and the Arctic Ocean (which is sometimes considered a sea of the Atlantic). The Pacific and Atlantic may be further subdivided by the equator into northerly and southerly portions. Smaller regions of the oceans are called seas, gulfs, bays and other names. There are also salt lakes, which are smaller bodies of landlocked saltwater that are not interconnected with the World Ocean. Two notable examples of salt lakes are the Aral Sea and the Great Salt Lake.

Geological activity

2009-09-11T23:41:00.002-07:00

The Earth's crust, or Continental crust, is the outermost solid land surface of the planet, is chemically and mechanically different from underlying mantles, and has been generated largely by igneous processes in which magma (molten rock) cools and solidifies to form solid land. Plate tectonics, mountain ranges, volcanoes, and earthquakes are geological phenomena that can be explained in terms of energy transformations in the Earth's crust, and might be thought of as the process by which the earth resurfaces itself. Beneath the Earth's crust lies the mantle which is heated by the radioactive decay of heavy elements. The mantle is not quite solid and consists of magma which is in a state of semi-perpetual convection. This convection process causes the lithospheric plates to move, albeit slowly. The resulting process is known as plate tectonics. Volcanoes result primarily from the melting of subducted crust material. Crust material that is forced into the Asthenosphere melts, and some portion of the melted material becomes light enough to rise to the surface, giving birth to volcanoes!

Composition of environment

2009-09-11T23:41:00.001-07:00

Earth science generally recognizes 4 spheres, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the biosphere as correspondent to rocks, water, air, and life. Some scientiests include, as part of the spheres of the Earth, the cryosphere (corresponding to ice) as a distinct portion of the hydrosphere, as well as the pedosphere (corresponding to soil) as an active and intermixed sphere. Earth science (also known as geoscience, the geosciences or the Earth Sciences), is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth. There are four major disciplines in earth sciences, namely geography, geology, geophysics and geodesy. These major disciplines use physics, chemistry, biology, chronology and mathematics to build a qualitative and quantitative understanding of the principal areas or spheres of the Earth system.

Natural environment

2009-09-11T23:40:00.001-07:00

The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is a term that encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof.

The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished by components:

* Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive human intervention, including all vegetation, animals, microorganisms, soil, rocks, atmosphere and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries.

* Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air, water, and climate, as well as energy, radiation, electric charge, and magnetism, not originating from human activity.

The natural environment is contrasted with the built environment, which comprises the areas and components that are strongly influenced by humans. A geographical area is regarded as a natural environment (with an indefinite article), if the human impact on it is kept under a certain limited level.

Alcohol Advertising Ban Urged by British Medical Association to Cut Youth Drinking

2009-09-11T23:32:00.000-07:00

All alcohol advertising, including sport and music sponsorship, should be banned to discourage young people from taking advantage of cheap drinks promotions, the British Medical Association said today.

The organisation called for a radical rethink of public health policy, including introducing prohibitions at pubs and bars on deals such as happy hour, two-for-one purchases and "ladies' nights" when women drink for free.

Minimum prices for a unit of alcohol and higher rates of taxation should also be introduced, said the BMA, which represents most doctors.

Its report, Under the Influence, describes Britain as a society "awash with pro-alcohol messaging, marketing and behaviour".

The impact of £800m of advertising a year in the UK has been to "exaggerate pro-alcohol norms", said Prof Gerard Hastings, one of the authors. Young people no longer asked themselves: "Shall I have a drink or not?", but "am I going to get smashed or totally out of my brain?", he added.

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, the head of the BMA's science and ethics division, said alcohol was now the country's favourite drug. "The government must get away from this cosy relationship with the industry. It's leading to an expansion of marketing which is targeting young people."

Higher prices, she said, would make it particularly difficult for young people to drink so much.

"One of the most invidious things is designer drinks," she added, "things like toffee vodka – so that the sweetness overcomes the sharpness and [youngsters'] dislike of alcohol."

Household expenditure on alcohol grew by 81% between 1992 and 2006, said the BMA. "Given that the alcohol industry spends £800m a year in promoting alcohol in the UK," said Hastings, "it is no surprise that children and young people see it everywhere – on TV, in magazines, on billboards, as part of music festivals or sport sponsorship deals, on internet pop-ups and on social networking sites."

Rather than imposing antisocial behaviour orders on teenagers, they should be "slapped on those responsible for marketing alcohol", he added.

The government's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, this year called for a 50p minimum price for a unit of alcohol. The proposal was dismissed by the government, although the Scottish government is considering a similar scheme.

The BMA warned that alcohol consumption has been linked to 60 different medical conditions and premature deaths. "Binge drinking is particularly harmful ... and significantly increases the risk of alcohol dependence," it said.

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association condemned the report, saying the measures it recommended would "threaten the livelihoods of thousands of people working in the media, advertising, television, not to mention the drinks industry".

Australia: Health Watchdog Unleashed

2009-09-11T23:30:00.004-07:00

AUSTRALIANS will be told to drink and smoke less and eat less junk food by a new preventative health watchdog that will begin monitoring the health system within months.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon said legislation for a National Preventative Health Agency would be introduced into Parliament within the next fortnight, forming a key part of the Government's plan to reduce preventable illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.

The independent but publicly funded agency will be responsible for a major preventative health advertising push, policy advice, health surveillance, consultation and research. It will begin in January, staffed by government-appointed population health experts.

But it is also likely that some of the more extreme policy interventions recommended by the high-profile Preventative Health Taskforce will not be adopted.

Ms Roxon said the Government's strategy would be to take a leadership role, without ''necessarily always having to regulate and tax''.

Although declining to comment on specific proposals, Ms Roxon said: ''I am absolutely focused on how Government action can leverage change within the community rather than pretending that a regulatory approach on its own will solve these quite complex social problems.''

Her comments follow the release last week of the taskforce's 300-page blueprint for preventive health, with a raft of policy prescriptions, including the possibility of higher taxes for unhealthy foods, higher cigarette and alcohol taxes, phasing out television advertising of junk food to children, a ban on all tobacco advertising and phasing out alcohol advertising during sports events.

Ms Roxon said the Government's approach would be to ''engage the whole community'' and ''push, cajole and lead'' families, schools, workplaces, industries, clubs and community organisations to encourage healthier living.

The report said about 32 per cent of Australia's total burden of disease was linked to smoking, drinking, obesity and other preventable risks.

Taskforce chairman Rob Moodie said the preventative health community had been waiting for more than 20 years for such an agency, but it would need to be independent and well-funded to make a difference.

Professor Moodie said that while he did not think Ms Roxon's comments were out of step with the taskforce's recommendations, regulation and higher taxes would have to be an important part of the strategy.

''The point to be made is that in many of the regulatory issues, there is extremely high community support,'' he said. ''I mean, if you look at the work around licensing of alcohol outlets or promotion of junk food to kids, then you've got landslide victories in support of greater government regulation.''

Ms Roxon said a recommendation that the average price of a packet of 30 cigarettes be lifted to $20 within three years would be considered as part of the Government's review of the taxation system being conducted by Treasury secretary Ken Henry. An overhaul of the alcohol excise regime will also be considered by the Henry review.

VicHealth chief executive Todd Harper said it was correct that the ''whole-of-community approach'' favoured by Ms Roxon would be needed to tackle obesity and excessive alcohol and cigarette consumption.

The new agency will initially be given $17.6 million of federal funding to cover operating costs over four years, although that does not include any additional cash set aside for specific advertising campaigns and other programs.

Health Care in Japan: Low-Cost, for Now

2009-09-11T23:30:00.003-07:00

"Half a world away from the U.S. health-care debate, Japan has a system that costs half as much and often achieves better medical outcomes than its American counterpart. It does so by banning insurance company profits, limiting doctor fees and accepting shortcomings in care that many well-insured Americans would find intolerable…

But many health-care economists say Japan's low-cost system is probably not sustainable without significant change. Japan already has the world's oldest population; by 2050, 40 percent will be 65 or older. The disease mix is becoming more expensive to treat, as rates of cancer, stroke and Alzheimer's disease steadily increase. Demand for medical care will triple in the next 25 years, according to a recent analysis by McKinsey & Co., a consulting firm."

Japan has a stagnant economy, with a shortage of young people that hobbles prospects for growth and strangles the capacity of the debt-strapped government to increase health-care spending. Without reform, costs are projected to double, reaching current U.S. levels in a decade, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

For generations, Japan has achieved its successes by maintaining a vise-like grip on costs. After hard bargaining with medical providers every two years, the government sets a price for treatment and drugs -- and tolerates no fudging.

As a result, most Japanese doctors make far less money than their U.S. counterparts. Administrative costs are four times lower than they are in the United States, in part because insurance companies do not set rates for treatment or deny claims. By law, they cannot make profits or advertise to attract low-risk, high-profit clients.

To keep costs down, Japan has made tradeoffs in other areas -- sometimes to the detriment of patients. Some are merely irritating, such as routine hour-long waits before doctor appointments. But others involve worrisome questions about quality control and gaps in treatment for urgent care.

Japanese hospitals experience a "crowding out" effect, with space for emergency care and serious medical conditions sometimes overwhelmed by a flood of patients seeking routine treatment, said Naohiro Yashiro, a professor of economics and health-care expert at International Christian University in Tokyo.

"Patients are treated too equally," he said. "Beds are occupied by less-urgent cases, and there are no penalties for those who over-use the system."

The government has largely been unable to reduce the length of hospital stays, which are four times as long in Japan as in the United States. Hospital doctors are often overworked and cannot hone specialized life-saving skills, according to recent reports by McKinsey. Statistics show that the Japanese are much less likely to have heart attacks than people in the United States, but that when they do, their chance of dying is twice as high.

There are shortages of obstetricians, anesthesiologists and emergency room specialists because of relatively low pay, long hours and high stress at many hospitals, doctors and health-care analysts said. Emergency room service is often spotty, as ER beds in many hospitals are limited and diagnostic expertise is sometimes lacking. In a highly publicized but not unprecedented incident, a pregnant woman complaining of a severe headache was refused admission last year to seven Tokyo hospitals. She died of an undiagnosed brain hemorrhage after giving birth.

South Africa Launches Child Vaccination Campaign

2009-09-11T23:30:00.001-07:00

"The doctor praised for re-energizing South Africa's Health Ministry launched a major campaign Monday to get vaccinations and immunity-boosting vitamins to 3 million children across the country over the next two weeks. Temporary clinics were set up and health workers were going door-to-door for two weeks starting Monday in the campaign aimed at reducing deaths from diarrhea, pneumonia and measles. Health Minister Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi joined teams of medical workers in a northeastern area, saying 'It is of concern to us that our under-5 children are still dying from preventable diseases' in Africa's most developed country. Motsoaledi, appointed in May, has earned praise for his willingness to listen, acknowledge the mistakes of the past and offer new ideas after taking over a ministry accused of failing -- on AIDS in particular."

Child Mortality Rate Declines Globally

2009-09-11T23:29:00.002-07:00

(The New York Times, September 9, 2009)
"The number of children dying before their fifth birthdays each year has fallen below nine million for the first time on record, a significant milestone in the global effort to improve children’s chances of survival, particularly in the developing world, according to data that Unicef will release on Thursday. The child mortality rate has declined by more than a quarter in the last two decades -- to 65 per 1,000 live births last year from 90 in 1990 -- in large part because of the widening distribution of relatively inexpensive technologies, like measles vaccines and anti-malaria mosquito nets. Other simple practices have helped, public health experts say, including a rise in breast-feeding alone for the first six months of life, which protects children from diarrhea caused by dirty water."

FDA Requires Faster Food Safety Reporting

2009-09-11T23:29:00.001-07:00

"Food makers must alert government officials of potentially contaminated products within 24 hours under a new rule designed to help federal regulators spot food safety issues sooner. The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday unveiled a new electronic database where manufacturers must notify the government if they believe one of their products is likely to cause sickness or death in people or animals. Regulators said the database will help the FDA prevent widespread illness from contaminated products and direct inspectors to plants that pose a high safety concern. 'There's been a lag time; we learn about problems after people get sick,' said Michael Taylor, senior adviser to the FDA's commissioner. 'This is intended to inform us of contamination problems before people get sick.' The law creating the database was passed in 2007, after Congress criticized the FDA for its handling of safety problems with a range of foods and drugs."

Swine Flu Vaccine Works With One Shot

2009-09-11T23:28:00.003-07:00

"The swine flu vaccine appears to work for adults with just one shot and within 10 days, a major boost to the widespread immunization campaign that officials are planning to protect people against the first influenza pandemic in 41 years, researchers reported Thursday. Preliminary data from an Australian study found that a single standard dose could produce an immune response in more than 96 percent of recipients, and U.S. studies indicate that the protection occurs in eight to 10 days, scientists reported. The vaccine also appeared safe. The eagerly awaited findings mark the first results from a flurry of studies that scientists have been rushing to conduct to develop a swine flu vaccine.