Needles shall be supplied to drug addicts in 10 prisons throughout the nation as of next year (to begin March 21), ILNA wrote.
Deputy head of State Prisons Organization for health and rehabilitation, Parviz Afshar, said the needle exchange program aimed at intravenous drug addicts for whom other harm reduction programs had failed.
The program would be generalized to all prisons throughout the country provided the pilot project proves to be a success.
Referring to the high risk of AIDS transmission among IV drug abusers, the official said 50 percent of the new arrivals are either addicts or drug-related criminals.
Afshar expressed satisfaction with AIDS control methods over the past five years such as establishment of triangular clinics, religious meeting rooms (where the inmate and his/her partner are allowed to spend a day together), provision of condoms and disposable razor shavers, rendering counseling services, and standardizing prisons’ barber’s and clinics.
“Had it not been for control programs in prisons, AIDS prevalence would have been 10 times higher among inmates with high-risk behaviors,“ he noted, adding the Health Ministry’s 75 monitoring teams visits prisons to administer HIV screening tests to high-risk inmates.
He said about 3.3 percent of prisoners with a history of high-risk behavior have been diagnosed as HIV-positive, which is not higher than the figure for non-captive high-risk groups.
Pointing to a memorandum of understanding signed between the Health Ministry and the State Prisons Organization, Afshar said as per the agreement, HIV-positive inmates, whose infection is diagnosed during their imprisonment, are entitled to medical treatment services.
“Such prisoners are voluntarily referred to triangular clinics affiliated to medical sciences universities after release,“ he said, adding to make sure the disease is not transmitted to their families, special training will be provided to those who refrain from going to the clinics.
He further stated that the former inmates can as well seek help from after-release care centers.
Deaths among AIDS-infected prisoners are extremely rare, he said, adding, “AIDS-infected inmates, whose plaintiffs do not agree with their release, are transferred to hospital for treatment.“

Some 5,500 health inspectors will supervise food supply centers during Norouz holidays, deputy health minister for environmental and workplace health told ILNA.
Seyyed Jalil Mirmohammadi expanded that the Norouz Health Taskforce would do its best to ensure food safety for holidaymakers, adding, “The scheme was launched on Feb. 20 and will continue through April 4.“
The scheme is jointly executed by health and commerce ministries, police, Department of Environment, governor general’s offices as well as medical sciences universities. Under the program, quality and safety of food shall be monitored in public places and roadside eateries in a bid to promote hygienic indexes, he elaborated.
Mirmohammadi added that medical and health centers would be inspected from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m., while environmental health inspectors would regularly check food supply stores and diners.
Pointing to the launch of an automated phone system, he said the line would receive public complaints and feedback round-the-clock. Holidaymakers can reach the system to inform health authorities of any hygienic and health problems they might have during Norouz.
He also noted that some 500,000 brochures would be distributed among sightseers in the entrances of cities to inform them of hygienic and health issues.
The official further stated, “A poster containing information about the qualities of safe food and reliable restaurants has been published and will be supplied to eateries. Any restaurant displaying the poster is reliable in terms of hygienic and safety issues.
Turning to fears about the spread of bird flu, he urged travelers to avoid eating barbecued chicken and sauces, but gave assurances that cooked chicken and boiled eggs are safe.
He also advised the travelers against hunting birds and approaching wild fowls.
Mirmohammadi said that legal action would be taken against those who endanger the health of travelers by delivering unhygienic food and their stores would be closed.
He recalled, “Some 7,396 violators were handed over to judicial organizations and close to 1,728 centers were closed last year.“
He also urged the travelers to refrain from littering natural sites, northern forests in particular, and to dispose of their garbage in hygienic ways.

Kidney problems and other chronic non-communicable diseases will pose serious threats to the lives of 36 million people worldwide by 2015.

Up to 15,000 dialysis patients have so far undergone kidney transplant domestically, giving Iran the first rank worldwide in terms of the number of transplants.
Concurrent with the World Kidney Day (March 9), Head of Iran Association for Supporting Kidney Patients, Mostafa Qassemi, in an interview with ISNA added, “In our country, dialysis costs for kidney patients are covered by insurance firms. However, the exact number of successful kidney transplants in the country are not known.“
Qassemi regretted that patients have been grappling with numerous problems over the past two years. “Our medical treatment centers are still short of tens of dialysis wards. However, no serious attention is being paid to the life-threatening shortage,“ he mentioned.
“We need equipped dialysis wards in each province to provide patients with high-quality and standard services.“
Referring to the budget required by the Health Ministry for launching well-equipped dialysis wards, the official warned that a huge number of patients would die next year unless sufficient funds are earmarked for the purpose.
Qassemi further pointed to the rising number of dialysis and kidney transplant patients in the country, and called on the Health Ministry officials to create a database of such patients.
Pressed by financial woes, many patients cannot afford the franchise costs of their medications.
Kidney disease and other chronic non-communicable diseases will pose serious threats to the lives of 36 million people worldwide by 2015. The only feasible response to this pending global crisis is early detection and prevention.
Chronic non-communicable diseases (particularly chronic kidney disease (CKD), cardiovascular disease (CVD), hypertension, and diabetes mellitus have now replaced the communicable diseases as the leading threat to public health and health budgets worldwide.
Deaths claimed by infectious diseases will decline by 3 percent over the next decade. In marked contrast, chronic diseases that already account for 72 percent of the total global burden of disease in people over 30 will increase by 17 percent, much of this in developing countries.
As an immediate response to this alarming prospect, the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) and the International Federation of Kidney (IFKF) jointly announced the launch of an annual World Kidney Day to be held on the second Thursday of March, beginning with Thursday March 9, 2006.

A rural couple in Sistan-Baluchestan province (Photo by Asghar Azad-Del)

The number of above-60 people is on the rise.

The elderly will account for 25 percent of the population by 2050, director general of Health Ministry’s Office for Family and Population Health stated.
“Figures suggest that close to 25 percent of Iranians will be 60 years and above by 2050,“ Mohammad Esmail Motlaq told ISNA on the sidelines of the First Geriatric Health Conference.
He is of the opinion that the booming elderly population is a sign of high health standards in a given society.
Pointing out that the number of above-60 people is on the rise, the official cited the census conducted in 1956 based on which the elderly constituted 6.25 percent of the total population--the figure hit 7.2 percent in 2003.
He predicted that over 25.9 million (25 percent) of Iranians would be old in 2050.
Highlighting that social, economic and hygienic factors directly impact the health of elderly citizens, Motlaq observed, “A person’s lifestyle is directly linked to his/her personal health.“
He called on the government to educate the public on healthy lifestyles as well as prepare the social bedrocks for promoting the quality of life. “Families should cherish the older adults. Grounds should be paved for the elderly to feel secure both emotionally and mentally,“ he commented.
In related news, head of the ministry’s Office for Geriatric Health stated that the elderly population tripled during 1996-2005, predicting that the number of abover-60 people would grow sixfold within half a century.
Soheila Khoshbin pointed out, “Contrary to the fact that women have outlived men across the world in recent years, more men than women had reached the age of 60 in Iran until 2001.“
The official, however, stated that Iranian women currently live longer than men (there are more than 100 old women for every 100 men).
She noted that at present about 50 percent of the population are above 23 years of age; while half of the population will be 45 years old and above within the next 45 years.

The number of abortions in Russia has fallen over the last 15 years but many women in the country continue to see abortion as a means of contraception, the head of a Russian demography research centre claimed, AFP reported.
He was speaking a day after the governor of the US state of South Dakota signed a controversial bill banning abortion that could undermine abortion rights across the entire United States.
“In 1990, Russia recorded 114 abortions per 1,000 women aged between 15 and 50. Now we’re recording 45 abortions per 1,000 women,“ said Anatoly Vishnevsky.
There were 206 abortions for every 100 live birth in Russia in 1990, but the number had almost halved, to 122 abortions for every 100 live births in 2003, he added.
Although this was a great “success“, there was still a lot to do to encourage Russians to use contraceptives, Vishnevsky said.
Russians were “sometimes violently opposed to family planning and sex education programs“ and abortion was “still used as a means of conception“, he alleged.
The Russian Health Ministry recorded 1,611 voluntary pregnancy terminations in 2005, down from 2.3 million in 2003, apparently due in part to the government’s efforts in the 1990s to encourage the distribution of contraceptives.
As a whole, Russia’s population is shrinking. The country now has 143 million inhabitants, six million fewer than when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Fourteen exhibitions for presenting products made by self-employed people have been mounted in different corners of the capital, ILNA quoted managing director of the Social and Welfare Company affiliated to Tehran Municipality as saying.
Mehrdad Hajikhani added that TM and Kar (Labor) Cultural Center jointly organized the fairs aiming to alleviate hardships facing vulnerable groups of the society, especially women-led families and the unemployed.
The exhibitions themed “The City’s Innovators“ were launched on March 4 and will continue until March 19, the official expanded.
According to him, similar programs, which are in line with TM’s policy to assist the underprivileged social classes, are as well planned for next year (to start March 21).
Hajikhani unveiled that the pavilions in the exhibitions are ceded to eligible applicants for free. This is against the common procedure in previous years when each pavilion was rented by TM for between one million and 3.5 million rials.
Addressing people who intend to sell goods at pavilions located in parks and different neighborhoods, the official reiterated that the stalls would be given to qualified applicants after their requests are processed.
The priorities are set in accordance with the applicants’ financial conditions and the type of job they do, he said.
Haijikhani further noted that applicants holding introduction letters from Imam Khomeini Relief Committee, State Welfare Organization and other related organizations would take precedence.

African Union has set in motion a machinery that would culminate in a document that outlines a plan for the revamping of education sector, with emphasis on higher education, www.allafrica.com reported.
The process would lead to the development of a 10-year restoration plan for higher education in Africa. Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Peter Okebukola, who represented Nigeria, said the accord had been reached, citing major reasons why revitalization is urgently needed in the region. “First is the diminishing global competitiveness of products from the higher education system in Africa. A growing body of research reports indicates that the quality of training given to students in African universities falls short of the demands of the global market. “When compared to products from higher education systems in other regions of the world, graduates from African higher education systems are hardly the first choice of employers in the world market. The culprits are named as the low relevance and lack of up-to-dateness of the curriculum, as well as the obsolescence of the curriculum delivery process.
“Thus, at the point of exit, the graduate is several years outdated in knowledge and skills and hence, not sufficiently tooled for the contemporary world. The need, therefore, arises for the modernization of the curriculum of African universities. “The second reason is the rising graduate unemployment in Africa, signaling the mismatch between training and labor market expectations. The result is weak impact of educational output on the growth and development of the economy,“ he said.