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INVESTIGATION
Laxatives warning
Following a BBC Watchdog investigation into the availability of stimulant laxatives in the United Kingdom, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said that the Patient and Public Engagement Expert Advisory Group which reports to the Commission on Human Medicines had recently reviewed the patient information for non-prescription laxatives and recommended that stronger warnings be added emphasising that taking laxatives regularly for a long time is harmful and they do not aid weight loss. “We are currently working with companies of stimulant laxative products to introduce these updated warnings which should provide consistency across the range of stimulant laxative products available,” it said.
PUBLIC HEALTH
Age wise
As people across the world live longer, soaring levels of chronic illness and diminished wellbeing are poised to become a major global public health challenge, a series published in The Lancet said. And unless global health systems find effective strategies to address problems faced by an ageing world population, the growing burden of chronic disease will affect the quality of their lives, it said. Worldwide, life expectancy of older people continues to rise. By 2020, for the first time in history, the number of people aged 60 years and older will outnumber children younger than 5 years. By 2050, the world’s population aged 60 years and older is expected to total 2 billion, up from 841 million today. And 80 percent of these older people will be living in low-income and middle-income countries.
ANTIBOTICS
Action plan
To address the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, the World Health Organization has called on member states of the South-East Asia Region to scale up national action plans to combat this daunting public health threat. “We must act urgently. The world is heading for a post-antibiotic era which will be devastating in this age of emerging infectious diseases. If we do not use antibiotics rationally, we will lose the power to fight common infections and minor injuries. We need to step up efforts to prevent antimicrobial resistance and change how we prescribe and use antibiotics,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia, at the launch of a recent meeting on the issue in Jaipur.
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