The health aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Thursday that backtracking by international donors such as the United States, the World Bank, the health funding agency UNITAID, and backers of the Global Fund undermine years of progress and putting many lives at risk.

In a report on AIDS in eight sub-Saharan African countries, it was disclosed that major donors have decided to cap or reduced spending on HIV and AIDS drugs in the recent past.

From Nationalpost.com:

The Global Fund, the largest funding body in the fight against HIV/AIDS, is also facing shortfalls. The United States, the Netherlands and Ireland have said they will be cutting their contributions.

Such cuts are already having an impact in places like South Africa, Uganda, and in DRC – where the number of new patients able to start treatment with antiretroviral (ARV) AIDS drugs has been cut six-fold, according to the MSF report.

As a result, already fragile health systems would come under more pressure from a growing number of patients requiring more intensive care as their disease progresses.

“ARV treatment is lifesaving but also lifelong,” the report said. “This means that the number of patients under treatment increases cumulatively each year, thus requiring incrementally growing and sustainable funding.”

According to the United Nations, more than half of the 9.5 million people around the world who needs drugs for AIDS cannot get them.

In order to beat scorching heat these summers, you can try unique ways. These ways will not only keep you in good shape but also helps you stay close to high standards of health and fitness.

One of the best ways by which you can keep yourself hydrated is by having good amount of water intake, at least 8-12 glasses of water a day.

From in.specials.yahoo.com:

Drinking ice-cold water uses up more calories and helps you lose weight

When you drink ice-cold water, your body uses some extra energy (calories) to raise the liquid’s temperature to the level of body temperature. But this calorie burn is minimal, so minimal that it’s negligible. Let us get the equation straight. To lose just 250g of body weight through this method, you’d have to drink almost 435 glasses of ice cold water. Consuming large quantities of ice-cold water can have serious side effects. It can lower your body temperature abnormally decreasing the efficiency of your digestive system and in extreme cases, lead to anaemia. Drinking far too much water can also lead to hyperhydration, a state of electrolyte imbalance that can affect your brain.

Avoid cut fruits from vendors during summer

Fruits and peeled vegetables kept uncovered are a potential source of infection, but if the vendor’s cart is parked in a clean area and if he cuts the fruit in front of you, this is not a bad snack, says Dr Ashutosh Shukla, head of internal medicine at the Artemis Institute, Gurgaon. And it’s not necessary that food-borne infection comes only from a vendor’s cart.

By observing these small yet highly effective measures, you can easily stay healthy and give your best even during the summertimes.

If you are looking to gain insights on the basic good health supplements then this YouTube video will help you in more than just a way. It emphasizes the benefits of multiple vitamins, mineral supplements, salads, and low carbohydrates food products besides suggesting that fast foods must be best avoided.

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During the 63rd World Health Assembly, ministers are locked in a debate on how to combat healthcounterfeit medicines.

The watchdog group, the Pharmaceutical Security Institute recorded as many as 2,000 incidents of counterfeit medicines in the year 2009, which is an increase of more than 9 percent from the year 2008.

From www1.voanews.com:

“Most counterfeiters will, because if you think of the required skill that goes into the production of a medicine in order to fool the health authorities, to fool the public, to fool law enforcement, they have to be of a good quality …  So, therefore what they do not want are law enforcement after them too soon, and so they will often put the active ingredient into the actual production,” How said. “So, therefore, the active ingredient has to move around the world.”

The World Health Organization is finding it difficult to keep the debate at the assembly focused on the health impacts of counterfeit medicines.

Countries such as India and Brazil, which are major manufacturers of generic drugs, accuse the pharmaceutical industry of using the issue of counterfeit drugs to protect their patents against generic competitors.

They say the World Health Organization is helping this effort.  The Director of WHO’s Essential Medicines Program, Hendrick Hogerzeil, refutes these charges.

The World Health Organization cautioned consumers to be extremely wary when buying medicines over the Internet as most of them can be illegitimate and may even result in death.

CNBC-TV18’s Ekta Batra reported that Ranbaxy may get approval for generic Lipitor from Health Canada today. In case of a positive response, Ranbaxy can launch its generic Lipitor this week.

Ranbaxy is likely to benefit from Lipitor generic, its biggest opportunity, in different markets and they are expected to launch Lipitor generic in the United States in November 2011.

From Moneycontrol.com:

For Canada, the Lipitor patent expires on July 19. Apotex, Teva, and Cobalt have already received approval for launching generic Lipitor in Canada. Ranbaxy is expected to be next in line to receive this approval and therefore launch.

Lipitor has sales of USD 1.1 billion in Canada. So, it is a huge drug in terms of market size.

In 2008, Pfizer entered into licence agreement with Ranbaxy to sell generic Lipitor in seven countries including Canada on varying dates. We do not have details on what these dates were or what sort of opportunity was there. Ranbaxy is very tight-lipped about the Lipitor opportunity. It did not reveal details in the analysts conference call held this quarter.

It is worth noting here that Apotex, Teva, and Cobalt have already received approval to launch generic Lipitor in Canada and Ranbaxy is expected to be next in line.