UN MEMBER STATES REACH AGREEMENT ON FINANCING OF SUSTAINABLE FORESTS

New York, Oct 30 2009 8:10PM
United Nations Member States today reached an agreement that sets out the path to financing sustainable forest management, ending nearly two decades of debate on an issue that is becoming more and more critical because of the impact of climate change.

The <"http://www.un.org/esa/forests/">UN Forum on Forests, representing the world’s countries, agreed at a meeting at UN Headquarters in New York to establish two initiatives that it says will particularly help poor countries in need of assistance.

An intergovernmental process is being set up to conduct in-depth analysis of all forms of forest financing over the next four years and a separate process will help countries mobilize funding so they can protect their forests.

More than 1.6 billion people across the globe are estimated to be dependent on forests for subsistence living or employment, according to the World Bank, and trade in forest products is thought to represent almost 4 per cent of global trade in all commodities.

But as many as 13 million hectares are lost each year because of deforestation, threatening biodiversity and reducing the protection offered by forests against the ravages of greenhouse gas emissions.

Jan McAlpine, Director of the Secretariat of the UN Forum on Forests, said the new initiatives – the result of negotiations that date back to the landmark Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 – will lead to innovative solutions because they will bring together the broadest possible cross-section, including governments, donors and the private sector.

“We must learn together, so that we may work together,” Ms. McAlpine said.

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UN HEALTH AGENCY UPDATES H1N1 FLU VACCINE RECOMMENDATIONS

New York, Oct 30 2009 11:10AM
Single doses of H1N1 flu vaccine for adults, adolescents starting at age 10, and pregnant women are among the latest recommendations issued today by the United Nations health agency to combat the pandemic.

The UN World Health Organization (<"http://www.who.int/en/">WHO) said the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization that advises it on vaccine policy and strategy, recommended further studies in children older than six months and younger than 10 years, since the data are limited.

For pregnant women, SAGE noted that studies in experimental animals using live attenuated or inactivated vaccines found no evidence of direct or indirect harmful effects on fertility, pregnancy, foetal development, birthing or post-natal development.

“Based on these data and the substantially elevated risk for a severe outcome in pregnant women infected with the pandemic virus, SAGE recommended that any licensed vaccine can be used in pregnant women, provided no specific contraindication has been identified by the [national] regulatory authority,” WHO said in its <"http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/notes/briefing_20091030/en/index.html">update.

Globally, teenagers and young adults continue to account for the majority of cases, with rates of hospitalization highest in very young children. Between 1 and 10 per cent of patients with clinical illness require hospitalization, and of these from 10 to 25 per cent require admission to an intensive care unit, with from 2 to 9 per cent dying.

Overall, from 7 to 10 per cent of all hospitalized patients are pregnant women in their second or third trimester and they are 10 times more likely to need care in intensive care units than the general population.

Taking note of findings by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that live attenuated seasonal and live attenuated pandemic vaccines should not be administered simultaneously, the experts said the vaccines could be co-administered provided one or both are inactivated. They found no evidence that such co-administration would increase the risk of adverse events.

The experts found no indication of unusual adverse reactions results in from early monitoring of the various pandemic vaccines so far, since those that have occurred are well within the range of seasonal vaccines, which have an excellent safety profile. Although early results are reassuring, monitoring for adverse events should continue.

With regard to the southern hemisphere 2010 winter season, SAGE recommended two options: a trivalent vaccine effective against H1N1, seasonal H3N2 and influenza B, and a bivalent vaccine against H3N2 and influenza B, which might need to be supplemented with a separate monovalent H1N1vaccine.

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UN WELCOMES UNITED STATES REMOVAL OF ENTRY RESTRICTION BASED ON HIV STATUS

New York, Oct 30 2009 8:10PM
The United Nations agency spearheading the world body’s efforts to tackle the HIV/AIDS pandemic today welcomed the decision of the United States to remove 22-year-old entry restrictions based on HIV status.

Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (<"http://www.unaids.org/en/default.asp">UNAID, issued a <"http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/Resources/PressCentre/PressReleases/2009/20091030_PS_Entry_restrictions_removed_US.asp">statement saying the move by US President Barack Obama overturns a restriction that was discriminatory and did not protect public health.

“Today’s announcement reinforces the position of the US as a global leader in HIV policy and practice,” Mr. Sidibé said. “This policy change is a significant step forward by the United States towards promoting human rights in the AIDS response.”

The statement noted that the US Government had already concluded that maintaining HIV status on a list of excludable entry conditions would not result in public health benefits and contributed towards the stigmatization of HIV-infected people.

Mr. Obama announced the change today as he signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009, which has provided treatment and support services to people living with HIV since 1990.

The legislation is named after Ryan White, a teenage boy who became a nationally known figure in the US in the 1980s as he battled discrimination and ostracism after contracting HIV from a contaminated blood treatment. He died in 1990.

Mr. Sidibé said UNAIDS described the Ryan White programme “as an integral part of the global AIDS response and a gesture of the United States towards achieving universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support for people within the United States living with HIV.”

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