This Week in Global Health

Friday, January 27, 2012

A weekly round- up of selected health news from around the world. Posted each Friday.


Michelle Obama ate a turkey taco while having lunch with school children at Parklawn Elementary School in Alexandria, Va. on Wednesday.
A new campaign is launched to establish smoking cessation clinics (which offer free counseling and quitting tips) throughout the Philippines. (The Manila Bulletin)

A study may link depression to ‘insecure maternal attachment’. (ABC News)

A new report shows that quitting rates are not significantly improved by doctors showing smokers the plaque building up in the smokers’ arteries. (ACSH)

The Fiji Times reports on the ‘maternal health deficit’ that kills five women a day in the Pacific region.

Maternal health remains in crisis in poverty-stricken Tanzania. (The Citizen)

A new study finds that culturally tailored telephone quitlines are especially effective interventions for Asian-American immigrant populations in the United States.

The Obama administration announces new guidelines for school meals—aiming to reduce childhood obesity. (The New York Times)

The LA Times reiterates the cardiac danger posed by smoking.

India faces a new battle in the fight against tuberculosis. (Wall Street Journal)

Advocates criticize New York state governor Andrew Cuomo for slashing anti-tobacco funding. (Wall Street Journal)

Slate asks, ‘Do vending machines in schools make kids fat?’

The Times of India explores so-called ‘brown fat’— the adipose tissue which may keep human beings warm in the cold.

The Montreal Gazette shares the powerful testimony of a woman who quit smoking after her mother’s death from COPD.

Caffeine may alter estrogen levels in women, reports US News and World Report.

He just didn’t know when to quit; a Miami man is arrested and charged with a federal felony for repeatedly smoking on an airplane. (The Smoking Gun)


Have a news item that you think should be included in ‘This Week in Global Health’?
E-mail khamill@worldlungfoundation.org.


Stephen Hamill
Associate Director, Communications and Advocacy
World Lung Foundation