A killer is on the loose and it targets everyone, especially those most unable to protect themselves: infants and children.

The Streptococcus pneumoniae — a common pathogen that causes approximately one million deaths among preschoolers around the world every year, according to World Health Organization estimates — can be transmitted through contaminated droplets in the air.

Bacterial pneumonia starts innocuously enough: an infected person’s sneeze or cough releases illness-causing germs into the air. Those infectious organisms enter a susceptible host, such as a child with underdeveloped or weak immune system , colonizing his lungs and causing serious illness.

In some instances, by the time the family decides that the child needs serious medical care , the disease has already progressed to an advanced, deadly stage.

Despite the fact that the leading cause of pneumonia occurs worldwide, there is still a significant "lack of mass awareness of the disease and its gravity and implications," says Dr. Fatima Gimenez of Pfizer Philippines.

Illness of any kind is cause for alarm but childhood pneumonia in developing countries can be particularly catastrophic.

Gimenez provides a context for understanding the dreaded disease: "The Asian region is home to 600 million children living in poverty. A considerable number die from malnutrition, diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, malaria, and other vaccine-preventable diseases. Among respiratory tract infections, the most common would be pneumonia."

Vaccines can protect people against Streptococcus pneumoniae but they represent a "considerable cost in a setting where majority of the population live in poverty," says Gimenez.

This is why disease prevention usually takes a back seat for many Filipino families who barely have enough to eat. And yet pre-exposure vaccines remain the best option, given that antibiotics and hospital treatments are very expensive.

To underscore the importance of an affordable solution against a preventable, costly disease, the Pfizer Philippines Foundation has initiated a free anti-pneumonia vaccination drive all over the country.

The foundation has reached many disadvantaged barangays, protected schoolchildren aged five to eight through immunization, and lectured to youths and their guardians and to local government units about post-vaccination care and general respiratory health. The outreach efforts have been well-received by the beneficiary communities.

There is hope hidden in the fact that the disease is considered the top vaccine-preventable cause of death in the planet. Last year, the World Pneumonia Day was launched to mobilize international communities to campaign for better policies concerning the respiratory illness.

The annual event was joined by coalitions of government and non-government organizations and private corporations campaigning to equip and link ordinary people and donor groups against killer pneumonia.

In Asia, the Philippines is already part of an organization of healthcare professionals from 12 countries in the region, called the Asian Strategic Alliance for Pneumococcal Disease Prevention or ASAP, that promotes increased disease awareness and the importance of prevention through advocacy and surveillance.

Another Philippine involvement in international efforts is the Global Action Plan in the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia or GAPP, which promotes breastfeeding, hand washing, avoidance of smoking and indoor pollution, effective immunization, and timely adequate treatment with inexpensive antibiotics.

The current statistics are urgent: about 75 percent of childhood pneumonia worldwide occurs in 15 countries in which the Philippines ranks 10th.

Read More ...

It is nothing new, but worth emphasizing. Do you know that nearly one in four US high school students and one in seven adults binge drink? This is a public health danger that claims some 40,000 lives a year in the United States, a study showed last 5 October 2010.

Calling it a "major public health problem," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defined binge drinking as having five or more drinks within a couple of hours for men, and four or more drinks in a couple of hours for women.

Around a quarter of all high school students -- including and one in three high school seniors -- binge drink, the study found.

"Ninety percent of the alcohol consumed by high school kids is consumed in the course of binge drinking and more than half of the alcohol consumed by adults is consumed in the course of binge drinking," said CDC director Thomas Frieden.

The hundreds of thousands of people who responded to two surveys used to compile the CDC study said they consumed an average of eight drinks during a binge drinking session, far above the official threshold, said Bob Brewer of the CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

The bouts of heavy drinking increase the risk of being involved in a fatal car crash, contracting a sexually transmitted disease, dating violence, and drug overdoses, Frieden said.

It can also harm a developing fetus if a woman drinks to excess while pregnant.

"Binge drinking has many effects on the next generation through low-birth weight, birth defects and sudden infant death syndrome," he said.

The CDC found that about 15 percent of US adults, or 33 million Americans, binge drink, a rate that has stayed the same for more than 15 years.

"It may be because binge drinking hasn't been widely recognized as a problem that it has not decreased in the past 15 years in this country," Frieden said, noting that most binge drinkers are not alcoholic and tend to binge drink no more than once a week.

Whites and Hispanics were more likely to binge drink than blacks, and binge drinking was most commonly reported by better-off people from households with incomes of 75,000 dollars a year or more, the CDC said.

Excessive alcohol use -- which includes but is not restricted to binge drinking -- is the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States and can lead to health problems including liver disease, certain cancers, heart disease and stroke, the CDC said.

The CDC study was based on data gathered in 2009 from 412,000 US adults aged 18 years and older and 16,000 high school students.

Read More ...

According to Asian Development Bank (ADB) president Haruhiko Kurodamust be creative in finding ways to tap its multi-trillion dollar savings and to mobilize private sector support for new infrastructure needed to sustain growth in the coming years.

"The infrastructure challenge for developing Asia is one of the most daunting we face today," the bank said in a statement released Sunday, quoting Kuroda.

"We must work diligently to be innovative, yet financially responsible, in mobilizing Asian savings to deliver successful, sustainable and robust infrastructure projects," Kuroda told delegates at the Infrastructure Finance Forum here.

The event, jointly sponsored by ADB, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council and Japan Bank for International Cooperation, is being held in Yokohama, Japan today, the bank said in the statement.

Gross domestic savings in emerging Asia reached close to $4 trillion in 2009. Much of this large cash pile has been underutilized, with regulatory obstacles, currency mismatches and underdeveloped capital markets hindering broader financing of essential infrastructure, the Manila-based bank said.

ADB calculated that about $8 trillion in new infrastructure investments will be required in the region in the 10 years to 2020 to support current levels of economic growth.

Of the infrastructure needs, energy and electricity will take up 40 percent of the total, followed by transport (25 percent). Social infrastructure for education, health, water and sanitation, and other public goods will account for another 25 percent. The balance will be mainly investments in telecommunications infrastructure.

With the public sector unable to meet the immense costs on its own, public-private partnerships are essential, and governments should look to strengthen existing legal and regulatory frameworks to attract more private investors and finance from funds and institutional investors, the bank said.

"Infrastructure funds and local institutional investors, like pension and provident funds, can channel Asian savings to help finance public-private infrastructure projects," Kuroda said.

Further development of domestic capital markets and more local currency lending will also help address currency mismatches that deter investors in the sector.

ADB's infrastructure-related investments are expected to exceed $8 billion annually — or two-thirds of all its lending — over the next 10 years.

Read More ...

WNS Limited, a leading provider of global business process outsourcing services, announced that it will expand its operations in Manila in response to increasing demand from its clients.

During a visit to the WNS Philippines center which began its operations in 2008, Keshav Murugesh, group CEO of WNS Global Services, announced that the Manila center will be a hub for offering voice and data services to its clients from the banking and financial services industry, and to those based in the Asia-Pacific region.

"WNS' delivery center in Manila began by offering contact center services to global clients across various industries, and has now expanded operations to offer a range of services, including finance and accounting
and analy-tics," Murugesh said.

"Considering the quality of talent available in the country and the demand for our services, we believe that 10 percent of WNS’ workforce could be based in the Philippines over the next few years," he added.

"We are extremely committed to growing our delivery centers in the Philippines and have increased our capacity by 300 seats to cater to the growing demand. We are excited with the quality of talent in this country and the ability to deliver superior services to our customers from this region," said Prabakhar Bisen, CEO of WNS Philippines.

Speaking about the reasons for selecting the Philippines as an outsourcing destination, Murugesh said, "The Philippines was an obvious choice as a delivery center for WNS as it provides us with access to a large pool of high-quality talent, specially voice-based. (There are) 350,000 college graduates from various universities in the Philippines every year, and 65,000 chartered accountants clear the board."

"The Philippines has also been recognized as the third largest English-speaking nation in the world with a high literacy rate of 94 percent," he added.

Other international WNS sites are located in Costa Rica, Romania, Sri Lanka, India, and United Kingdom.

Read More ...

Most of the time, all it takes is one or two good pieces of knowledge or information to improve investment's performance. These short and to-the-point investing tips can make a tremendous difference in your returns and help you make sense of the market, especially the insurance industry.

First thing to remember is not to be daunted by lengthy sales pitches of insurance agents. If you're really keen on investing in insurance, ask yourself these questions to see how prepared you are to make this kind of investment.

How much risk am I willing to take?

Now here’s where you need to be realistic, if what you’re aiming for is a 100 percent foolproof investment then you are only kidding yourself. There are different risk levels depending on the type of investment that you are willing to put your money on. This is why you shouldn’t be too lazy to look up different insurance products and other types of investments to see how big a risk is going to be involved. Protect your money by arming yourself with the right information.

When will I be able to see a return on my investments?

Again, it depends on the type of investment that you are interested in. Do consider this while doing your research on different insurance products and other types of investments. It may help you to write down your goals in the next three, five or ten years and see how long will you be able to wait for your investments to earn profit.

How much time and effort am I willing to put in my investment?

Always keep in mind that when it comes to investing your hard-earned money, you always need to be on top of things and be aware of what’s going on. It absolutely makes no sense for you to put your money in investments that you aren’t even sure of but still expect to yield positive results. Now is not the time for you to play Russian roulette, what you need is to be better informed. Aside from contacting insurance agents, you can always make use of the internet to look up insurance products that you find feasible. But do make sure that you are willing to commit not just your money but your time and attention to the investments that you make. If you lack the patience, there are still other ways for you to make your money grow especially if you are open-minded.

Read More ...