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Health in Asia

  • Bhutan has made significant evolution in all three dimensions of universal health coverage

    BHUTAN, 2014/04/25 Bhutan has made significant evolution in all three dimensions of universal health coverage, a statement on a recent assessment completed by the country’s Health Ministry has showed. It says Bhutan’s health system provides additional than 75 % of all health coverage with the majority of its people having access to good-quality services, health workers, medicine and technology at low cost. “Bhutan, as for other nations of the South-East Asia Region, presently needs to strengthen efforts to counter the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases, particularly through preventive activities that are low-cost and sustainable,” said World

  • More investment needed in malaria battle

    WORLD, 2014/04/25 Governments, development partners and the corporate sector should invest additional to sustain gains made in the fight against malaria to eliminate the disease, says the World Health Organization (WHO). Three out of four people are at risk of malaria in the Southeast Asia region, home to a quarter of the world’s people. The disease remains a significant threat to the lives and livelihoods, although the number of confirmed malaria cases in the region decreased from 2.9 million in 2000 to 2 million in 2012. “Around 1.4 billion people continue to be at risk of malaria in Southeast Asia. They are often the poorest, inclunding workers in hilly or forested areas, in development projects such as mining, agroforestry, road and dam constructions and in upland subsistence farming in rural areas and urban areas,” said WHO regional director for Southeast Asia Poonam Khetrapal Singh, in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

  • Foreigners came to South Korea in 2012 on medical tours

    SOUTH KOREA, 2014/02/17 Nearly 160,000 foreigners came to South Korea in 2012 on medical tours and spent 267.3 billion won ($252.17 million), with visitors from China outnumbering those from the United States for the initial time, health industry records showed Sunday. According to the Korea Health Industry Development Institute, 159,464 foreign patients from 188 nations came to South Korea in 2012, marking a 30.4 % increase from the previous year. Their total medical-related spending increased 47.9 %. The number of Chinese medical visitors showed a marked increase from 4,724 in 2009 to 32,503, nearly a seven-fold increase over the three-year period. Seven out of 10 were young women, most of them in their 20s and 30s, and about half of them came for plastic surgery or other cosmetic procedures. Chinese visitors spent an average 1.69 million won per person.

  • Japan to improve Tajikistan's health sector

    JAPAN, 2014/02/07 Japan will improve the health sector in Tajikistan's Baljuvon region as part of the projects on gratuitous aid for humanitarian security of broad segment of the people, local Tajik media reported on February 3 quoting Japan's Embassy in Tajikistan. A $113,000 grant agreement on the project of construction of the second building of the central hospital of the Baljuvon region was signed on February 3 during the conference between Japanese Ambassador to Tajikistan Hiroyuki Imahashi and chairman of the Baljuvon district Foteh Aminov.

  • City becoming an ashtray for 4 billion cigarettes

    TAIWAN AREA, 2013/06/11 Smokers in Taipei light up about 4 billion cigarettes a year, the Taipei City Government said yesterday, which means if discarded cigarette butts were stacked one on top of the other the height would rise 40,000 times taller than the 509-meter-tall Taipei 101. Presently, just imagine if that cigarette-butt tower toppled over and was strewn throughout city streets: that's the problem the Taipei City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is facing. In light of the immense number of cigarettes being smoked in the city, the DEP is urging people to protect the environment by not dumping cigarettes on the streets or other public areas.

  • China-Africa Health Cooperation

    CHINA, 2013/05/07 Chinese and African leaders will come together today at the 4th International Roundtable on China-Africa Health Cooperation to explore new partnerships aimed at addressing health challenges in Africa, and strengthening innovative health programmes. Officials will engage in two days of sessions aimed at determining how China and African nations can jointly tackle critical issues such as AIDS, malaria, schistosomiasis, reproductive health, access to lifesaving vaccines and non-communicable diseases.

  • Philippines birth control law

    PHILIPPINES, 2013/04/06 A new law effective from the end of March, will guarantee access to birth control and sex education classes to millions in the Philippines. But, challenges for supporters of the law still remain.

  • Major victory for patients' access to affordable medicines

    INDIA, 2013/04/01 The landmark decision by the Indian Supreme Court in Delhi to uphold India's Patents Act in the face of the seven-year challenge by Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis is a major victory for patients' access to affordable medicines in developing nations, the international medical humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) stated today.

  • Australia's Ramsay teams up with Sime

    INDONESIA, 2013/03/28 Ramsay Health Care Ltd, Australia’s biggest operator of private hospitals, agreed to start an equal joint venture with Sime Darby Bhd to manage their Asian health-care assets. Ramsay’s three hospitals in Indonesia will be combined with Sime Darby’s Malaysian assets, the Sydney-based company said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange today.

  • GlaxoSmithKline to Invest in Nigerian and Indian Businesses

    INDIA, 2013/03/17  Britian’s major drugmaker, GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) has disclosed plans to invest $1 billion in its Nigerian and Indian units, in a bid to reduce reliance on pharmaceutical products and western markets and increase shares in the fast growing emerging markets.
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