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MOSAIC: Battered insurance
The seminar, ‘Changing people-Changing times’ attracted a large number of young people as well a imminent speakers including artiste Talat Hussain who in his freestyle speech managed to convey his message of modern thinking related with the language, culture, literature and art. He spoke of his own struggle with life and remembered how he wanted to become a professor but circumstances pushed him towards an early career. He noted that human beings are being converted into machines by the dominant economic superpowers of the world. “Thinking, feelings, emotions and attitudes of people are being changed through a flood of electronic media. Now the economic powers decide the fate of the people all over the world,” he said. Ghulam Abbas, a noted educationist said that the youth should understand the rapidly changing world and intellectual forces. He said globalization; industrialization and communication had transformed society and changed the social relations and values. The noted educationist said it is a dilemma that human relationship has been mechanized. This is why it has ceased to be a human relationship. The presence of HIV infection simultaneously could make the level of protection doubtful. A study was conducted in Mozambique, Africa where cholera is endemic and is seen more from January to June during the rainy season. Despite better patient management, water-chlorination campaigns and dissemination of health-education messages, the burden of cholera has remained high. Oral cholera vaccines are promising tools for the control of cholera. A study was conducted in Beira, a city where cholera is endemic and the prevalence of HIV is high. The mass vaccination was timed to take place before the anticipated yearly cholera outbreak, which usually coincides with the rainy season. The vaccine was administered by healthcare workers who after shaking the vial, opened it, and poured its contents into a cup with buffer solution and stirred it. The recipient drank the mixture completely under direct observation. A full first dose was received by 14,164 (72 per cent) people and 11,070 (57 per cent) received two doses of the rBS-WC cholera vaccine. Of the cases who reported with cholera symptoms later, 2599 patients (45 per cent) were admitted and 20 (one per cent) of them died. Subjects with cholera were more likely to have recently eaten uncooked food and less likely to have recently eaten dried fish. The rBS-WC oral cholera vaccine was found to be highly effective in conferring short-term protection against severe cholera in an area of sub-Saharan Africa with a high prevalence of HIV infection. | ||
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