This Week in Medicine

www.thelancet.com Vol 382 August 10, 2013 i

Anti-terror adverse eff ects US eff orts to fi ght the fi nancing of terrorism in Somalia could have devastating eff ects on development, according to an Oxfam report. Almost all operators of money transfers between the countries have been shut down because of anti-terror laws. Many Somalis depend on money transfers from relatives living in the USA, and remittances account for a third of the national economy.

HIV progress The number of AIDS-related deaths in eastern and southern Africa decreased by 38% between 2005 and 2011, according to a UNAIDS report. Several countries achieved reduc tions of more than 50%. The fall has been attributed to improved access to antiretroviral therapy— 6·3 million people with HIV in the region were receiving the treatment in 2012.

HCV on the rise Laboratory-confi rmed diagnoses of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in England have increased by more than a third to 10 873 cases in 2012, according to Public Health England. London, where the number of cases has almost tripled, accounted for 26% of reported cases. About 160 000 people in England have chronic HCV infection.

Legal highs Uruguay could become the fi rst country to create a legal market for the production, sale, and recreational use of marijuana, after the country’s House of Representatives voted in favour of the proposal. Buyers would have to be aged 18 years or older and would be registered on a database. The bill is expected to be voted on by the Senate in October.

Mile-high tax club From 2014, the UNITAID solidarity tax on flights using French airports will increase by 12·7%. The tax, enforced by France and several other UNITAID member nations since 2006, has helped to fund the organisation’s eff orts to combat HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis in low-income coun-tries. Contributions amounted to €185 million in 2012.

LGBT in the USA The US Department of Health and Human Services claims in a new report to have made substantial progress in efforts to improve the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the past year. Specifi c interventions have included programmes to improve HIV care for non-white transgender women and to reduce obesity in lesbian and bisexual women.

Spotlight on mycetoma WHO has added mycetoma, a mutilating disease characterised by the progressive infiltration of tissue by fungi or bacteria, to its list of other neglected conditions, maintained alongside the list of 17 neglected tropical diseases. The aim is to boost research into the disease, which is little understood despite causing substantial morbidity—including the need for limb amputations—in Africa, Asia, and Central America.

Taxing for fiscal health The Australian Government plans to increase tax on tobacco to raise an additional AUS$5·3 billion, intended to make up a shortfall in the federal budget. Prices of tobacco products will increase by 12·5% per year for 4 years, starting on Dec 1, 2013.

Improve health, fight poverty Income, housing, food security, and early childhood development are among the main social determinants of health in Canada, according to a report by the Canadian Medical Association. The report, which is based on a series of public meetings held across the country, makes several recommendations, including a pilot project to assess the guaranteed annual income approach to alleviate poverty.

Speaking out against abuse UNICEF has launched an initiative to encourage citizens, lawmakers, and governments to speak out more forcefully against unseen and under-reported child abuse. End Violence Against Children will urge people to recognise vio lence and to join national or local movements to end it.

Poor vaccine uptake US vaccination rates against human papilloma-virus failed to increase between 2011 and 2012, remaining at around 33%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Not receiving a health-care provider’s recom men da tion for the vaccine, which is targeted at girls aged 13–17 years, was one of the main reasons reported by parents for not vaccinating their daughters.

Dengue emergency Honduras has declared a state of emergency after the country’s 16th death from dengue fever this year, with 828 cases reported so far. The public is being urged to destroy breeding sites for the mosquito vector Aedes aegypti by regularly cleaning open-air containers that collect water, including fl ower-pot saucers and old tyres.

For The Lancet News podcast see http://www.thelancet.com/lancet-news-audio/

For the Oxfam report on Somalia see http://www.oxfamamerica.org/fi les/somalia-remittance-report-web.pdf

For the UNAIDS regional report for eastern and southern Africa see http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/fi les/resources/Getting%20to%20Zero.pdf

For more on hepatitis C virus in England see http://www.hpa.org.uk/webc/HPAwebFile/HPAweb_ C/1317139502302

For the US Department of Health and Human Services report on LGBT health see http://www.hhs.gov/lgbt/issues_coord_com_ 2013_report.pdf

For more on mycetoma see http://www.who.int/neglected_diseases/diseases/mycetoma/en/

For the Canadian Medical Association report on social determinants of health see http://www.cma.ca/multimedia/CMA/Content_Images/Inside_cma/Advocacy/HCT/What-makes-us-sick_en.pdf

For the UNICEF End Violence Against Children initiative see http://www.unicef.org/endviolence/

For more on HPV vaccine uptake in the USA see http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2013/ p0725-HPV-vaccine.html

For more on dengue fever in Honduras see http://copeco.gob.hn/n/node/5

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