https://www.scmp.com/rss/313087/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com In a small fishing village in Vietnam, 27-year-old Duong pockets US$2 from his weekly earnings of US$15 from fish sales, and looks forward to the pack of cigarettes he will buy with it. His wife tells him she needs another US$2 to buy rice for the rest of the week. Duong stops to think, and then walks to the nearest store to buy his favourite pack. We have long known tobacco use is bad for health. Less well known is how this hurts poor and vulnerable families. Millions of stories like Duong’s... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2096334/world-no-tobacco-day-pledge-free-millions-poverty-trap?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2096334/world-no-tobacco-day-pledge-free-millions-poverty-trap?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 31 May 2017 07:29:41 +0000 If someone asked you to identify which illness is the leading contributor to disability, what would you say? Maybe cancer, heart disease or diabetes? Or maybe HIV/Aids or tuberculosis? The answer is none of the above. Today, the leading contributor to disability caused by ill health is depression. Depression is more common than most people think. Globally, more than 300 million people are living with depression. Between 2005 and 2015, that number has risen by over 18 per cent. City’s got the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2085084/talking-about-depression-first-step-beating-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2085084/talking-about-depression-first-step-beating-it?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Apr 2017 04:57:29 +0000 Violence against women and girls is a major challenge in the Western Pacific. They run the greatest risk of violence in their homes, at the hands of someone they know. Such violence is rooted in gender inequality. Unequal gender norms and attitudes held by both women and men make violence more acceptable. They exist in every society. The ongoing campaign, 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, provides an opportunity to bring the global community together to strengthen awareness... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2052548/violence-against-women-makes-victim-all-society?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2052548/violence-against-women-makes-victim-all-society?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Dec 2016 07:36:30 +0000 Vaccinations for hepatitis B have averted more than seven million deaths and 37 million chronic infections that otherwise would have occurred across the Western Pacific region in the lifetime of children born between 1990 and 2014, according to a study in the scientific journal Vaccine. Hepatitis B is transmitted primarily to newborn babies and children under five years old. It may go unnoticed for decades, until the virus causes major liver damage. Averting millions of deaths and chronic... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1995601/hepatitis-vaccination-efforts-asia-and-pacific-have-been?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1995601/hepatitis-vaccination-efforts-asia-and-pacific-have-been?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 Jul 2016 09:30:30 +0000 Viral hepatitis is the world's eighth-largest killer, in large part through inattention. This silent epidemic leads to deadly cirrhosis and cancer of the liver. Globally, hepatitis kills more people every year than HIV/Aids, tuberculosis or any other communicable disease. The World Health Organisation's Western Pacific region - with a quarter of the world's population - has half of the world's hepatitis B cases and a disproportionately high number of hepatitis C cases. Put in perspective, this... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1843988/no-one-should-die-hepatitis?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1843988/no-one-should-die-hepatitis?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Jul 2015 07:45:00 +0000 Small bite - big threat." The theme of World Health Day is a timely reminder of the enormous harm caused by tiny creatures such as mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, mites, sandflies and freshwater snails. These animals, called "vectors", help spread a range of parasitic, viral and bacterial diseases that affect people of all ages and across all socio-economic backgrounds. Certain diseases - such as malaria and dengue, both transmitted by mosquitoes - are well-publicised. Others are relatively neglected... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1466366/how-small-bites-take-big-chunk-out-healthy-economies-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1466366/how-small-bites-take-big-chunk-out-healthy-economies-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Apr 2014 18:45:30 +0000 Gloria lives in a makeshift hut in a squatter area of a large Asian city. She works long hours selling simple handicrafts on the street to provide food for her children. Their situation was precarious already, but then Gloria contracted tuberculosis, though she didn't know it. It started with a cough, then she became weak, and then she felt feverish. Soon, she couldn't work at all. Gloria tried to get treatment from local healers and doctors who prescribed medicine she could hardly afford, but... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1455587/care-forgotten-key-eradicating-tuberculosis?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1455587/care-forgotten-key-eradicating-tuberculosis?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 23 Mar 2014 19:33:50 +0000 Hands off! That's what we shout when the tobacco industry tries to undermine the laws that protect people from the ravages of tobacco use, and when it misuses the treaties designed to protect trade and investment in an effort to block a novel law requiring that tobacco be sold in plain, unattractive packages. That's what we tell an industry that tries to crush the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the landmark public health treaty that now has 174 parties covering more than 85 per... https://www.scmp.com/article/1002523/butt-out?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1002523/butt-out?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 30 May 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The global population is ageing as never before. Within the next five years, adults 65 and older will outnumber children younger than five; by 2050, they will outnumber children younger than 14. Are we ready for this unprecedented demographic shift? We'd better be. The strains on health systems, governments, families and communities may be enormous. The change will be particularly rapid in low- and middle-income countries, where most older people live and where their share of the population is... https://www.scmp.com/article/997618/healthy-attitude?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/997618/healthy-attitude?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The outbreak of scarlet fever in Hong Kong earlier this year caught the attention of specialists at the World Health Organisation. We think of scarlet fever in developed societies as a disease that was pretty well vanquished decades ago. So the emergence of a scarlet fever outbreak in a modern city like Hong Kong and in mainland China was something of an unexpected event. But more disquieting was the suggestion that the bacteria causing the disease had become resistant to certain ... https://www.scmp.com/article/981547/germ-warfare?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/981547/germ-warfare?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000