Globe in Brief

UN: Leaded gasoline sales end globally

Sales of leaded gasoline have ended worldwide, the U.N. Environment Program announced Aug. 30.

Algeria was the last country to cease providing the toxic gasoline variant, which is linked to heart disease, strokes and brain damage. Introduced in 1922, the use of lead as a gasoline additive was called a “catastrophe for public health” by the World Health Organization.

Leaded gasoline pollutes air, dust, soil, drinking water and food crops. It is particularly harmful to children, with science showing exposure may reduce IQ scores of children by up to 10 points.

Most wealthy nations began banning the fuel decades ago, but it was still used in some low- and middle-income countries.

For more information, visit www.unep.org.

A man checks his blood pressure at home. Hypertension, which can cause heart attacks and stroke, has nearly doubled worldwide in recent decades, a study in The Lancet finds.

Photo by Nawanon Wongkhajit, courtesy iStockphoto

Hypertension not treated in many cases

The number of adults with hypertension has nearly doubled in 30 years, impacting 1.28 billion people worldwide. And nearly half with the chronic condition do not know they have it.

In an August study in The Lancet, researchers at the World Health Organization and Imperial College London gathered blood pressure data from over 100 million patients across 185 countries, making it the most comprehensive overview of global hypertension ever conducted.

While the number of people with the condition has risen, the overall share of the population at risk has remained stable. Researchers point to population growth and longer life spans to explain the increase. The study found significant equity gaps in diagnosis and treatment of hypertension, which increases risk of heart, brain and kidney damage. More than one billion of people with hypertension live in low- and middle-income countries.

For more information, visit www.who.int.

Antimicrobial drugs are often overused in food animals.

Photo courtesy Dusanpetkovic, iStockphoto

Antimicrobials too often used in animals

Global health leaders are calling for greater responsibility when using antimicrobial drugs in farm production animals.

The Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance, convened in August by the World Health Organization, urged countries to take bold action to reduce use of antibiotic, antifungal and antiparasitic medicines in food production.

“Collective action across all relevant sectors is crucial to protect our most precious medicines for the benefit of everyone, everywhere,” said group co-Chair Sheikh Hasina, prime minister of Bangladesh.

The call to action, made ahead of the Sept. 23 U.N. Food Systems Summit in New York, should be considered an urgent priority, the advocates said. Drug resistance in people has become a growing health threat, and overuse of antimicrobial drugs in production animals is contributing to resistance in people.

Antimicrobial drugs are often used in healthy farm animals to promote growth and prevent infections, leading to overuse.

For more information, visit www.who.int.

A youth in Uruguay receives a COVID-19 vaccination in July. Vaccine shortages in Latin American nations are a major reason for low inoculation rates there, PAHO said in September.

Photo by Santiago Rovella. courtesy PAHO/WHO

COVID-19 shots lag in Latin America

Nations in Latin America and the Caribbean are lagging at sufficiently inoculating their populations against COVID-19, the Pan American Health Organization warned in September.

Only 1 in 4 people residing in the regions are fully vaccinated. Chief among reasons are shortages in vaccine supply.

About 540 million doses are needed to ensure that the countries can cover at least 60% of their populations, said PAHO Director Carissa Etienne, MD.

“Vaccination rates remain in the teens in several Caribbean and South American countries, and coverage is still in the single digits in Central American nations like Guatemala, Honduras and Nicar-agua,” she said in a news release. “Unfortunately, countries with high coverage are the exception in our region.”

PAHO has renewed its drive for donations of vaccines doses, hoping to bolster supplies for nations facing rapid increases in infections. In early September, weekly new cases in the region surpassed 1.6 million and recorded deaths exceeded 20,000.

Other disasters also threaten progress. An Aug. 14 earthquake in Haiti overwhelmed hospitals and damaged health facilities.

For more information, visit www.paho.org.

TB treatment guides for youth updated

In August, the World Health Organization issued an update to its guidance for tuberculosis management in children and adolescents.

The new guidance includes recommendations for diagnostic options, treatment and models for making decisions on treatment and care.

“Tuberculosis in children and adolescents has been overlooked for many years, reflected in large gaps in access to TB prevention and care,” Tereza Kasaeva, MD, PhD, director of WHO’s Global Tuberculosis Program, said in a news release. “Therefore, it is encouraging to see that options for the diagnosis, treatment, prevention and care for children and adolescents with TB or at risk of TB, are expanding, thanks to the generation of new evidence.”

Key updates include changes to recommended medicines, dosage and length of treatment, which enable an all-oral treatment regime.

More detailed recommendations will be published later by WHO.

For more information, visit www.who.int.

Climate change bad for children’s health

Nearly half of the world’s children live in countries at extreme high risk of harmful health effects from climate change.

In August, UNICEF released its first Children’s Climate Risk Index and an accompanying report. The tool analysis ranks countries based on climate change and its accompanying health harms to children. Factors include a country’s exposure to polluted air, frequency of extreme weather, portfolio of essential services, and ability to respond to and recover from disasters.

In the index, 33 nations were classified as being especially dangerous for children’s health. According to the report, children living in the countries would face harms from exposure, environmental shocks and attendant risks from unclean water, inefficient sanitation, polluted air and compromised health care. Children in the Central African Republic, Chad and Nigeria are among the most at risk.

“For the first time, we have a complete picture of where and how children are vulnerable to climate change, and that picture is almost unimaginably dire,” Henrietta Fore, MSPA, UNICEF executive director, said in a news release.

The index finds that nearly all children worldwide are at risk from at least one of its measured environmental hazards. However, the risk is not evenly distributed.

The report found that of the 10 countries that produce 70% of global emissions, only one is considered to be at high-risk to impact climate change.

To read “The Climate Crisis Is a Child Rights Crisis: Introducing the Children’s Climate Risk Index,” visit www.unicef.org.