THE Copperbelt Environment Project (CEP) has spent K46 billion on activities aimed at mitigating the effects of lead contamination in Kabwe, environmental mining facility (EMF) chairperson David Ndopu has said.

And Central Province Permanent Secretary Denny Lumbama has said there is need to start soliciting more funds to continue with the lead clean up programme in Kabwe.

Mr Ndopu said in a speech read for him by EMF committee member Engwase Mwale at a workshop to discuss management options for the CEP in Kabwe yesterday, that the project had scored positives.

He said six years down the line since the CEP project was launched in Ndola, a number of lead mitigation initiatives had been put in place in Kabwe, thereby reducing the lead contamination in the town.

“The project has recorded important milestones with the implementation of so many sub-projects in Kabwe which include the water supply, rehabilitation of mine plant area and the removal of mine waste from residences.

“Under the same project, we have managed to remove dredged materials from the main canal, the mine waste materials from Mulungushi Road slug dump and we have erected play parks for children to play on the greens,” he said.

The CEP project is financed through a grant from the World Bank and a credit from the Nordic Development Fund (NORDIC) which is implemented by the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines-Investments Holdings (ZCCM-IH) and comes to an end next year.

Objectives of the CEP were mainly to address environmental liabilities and obligations with the mining sector following the privatisation of the mining assets of ZCCM-IH.

Mr Ndopu, however, expressed concerns at reports of vandalism at play parks, water points and other facilities put in place through the project.

And officiating at the function, Mr Lumbama noted the need to secure financiers that would continue to implement the lead programme in Kabwe.

He said the lead pollution still remained a great challenge to the town, especially in children.

“Environmental pollution is a big challenge as it compromises the quality of life of communities and steadily holds back development,” Mr Lumbama said.

He was happy to note that the Government, through the CEP project, had continued to implement the remedial measures aimed at addressing environmental liabilities in Kabwe.

[Times of Zambia]

Women given the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention drug nevirapine to protect their fetus should not use an HIV-drug regimen that contains nevirapine for at least one year after childbirth, say researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

A new UAB study found that while nevirapine works well to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission, a single dose of nevirapine in infected pregnant women can trigger resistance to some forms of the AIDS-drug cocktail known as combination antiretroviral treatment (ART). This nevirapine-induced resistance fades after about 12 months and no longer hinders ART, says UAB Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology Jeffrey S.A. Stringer, M.D., the study’s lead author.

The findings are published in PLoS Medicine, a journal of the nonprofit Public Library of Science.

Single-dose nevirapine is widely used to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, an infection that affects more than 30 million people globally and leads to more than 2 million AIDS-related deaths each year.

“This study shows that women who need treatment more than 12 months after using nevirapine to prevent mother-to-child transmission safely can use standard first-line treatments in their countries,” says Stringer, director of the UAB-affiliated Center for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia. “Women who need treatment sooner than that should use a combination that does not contain nevirapine, typically an ART regimen that contains protease-inhibitor drugs.”

The UAB study included 878 infected women in Zambia, Cote d’Ivoire and Thailand. Some were given single-dose nevirapine and others were not; all participants were given ART immediately upon confirmed infection and monitored for one year.

Nevirapine continues to be the backbone of anti-HIV therapy in the developing world, and its usefulness in preventing mother-to-child transmission is confirmed in the new study, Stringer says.

The research is a collaboration between several partners: UAB; the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Global AIDS Program; the Centers for Infectious Disease Research in Lusaka, Zambia; the Catholic Medical Missions Board; the Lusaka Urban District Health Management Board; the University of Nairobi; Siriraj Hospital and Rajavithi Hospital in Bangkok; the Thailand Ministry of Public Health; and Northrop Grumman Corp. Funding support for the study is provided by the CDC.

[University of Alabama at Birmingham ]

World Health Organisation chief Margaret Chan on Friday accused “ruthless, devious” tobacco companies of bullying as she battled attempts to stimulate smoking in poor nations.

In a speech marking the fifth anniversary of an international convention on tobacco control, Chan said she would not allow the tobacco industry to take part in talks on expanding the world’s first public health treaty.

“Like my predecessors, I am not on speaking terms with the tobacco industry, but I will say this: we’ve come a long way, bullies,” she said at WHO headquarters in Geneva.

The 2005 convention bans advertising and sponsorship, advocates tobacco taxes, legislation to make public places smoke-free and other restrictions to stifle a growth in smoking which is blamed for increasing heart disease, strokes and cancers.

“The battle against opposition continues, especially in developing countries,” the UN health chief said.

“It is estimated that tobacco use kills more than five million people per year — an average of one person every six seconds — and accounts for one in 10 adult deaths worldwide,” she added.

Chan said the treaty backed by 168 countries had allowed the agency and public health authorities to stand up against the “ruthless, devious, rich and powerful” tobacco industry.

While tobacco use in many affluent countries had dropped significantly, others have been slow to implement tobacco restrictions, according to the WHO.

“Most alarming of all, tobacco use is actually increasing in many developing countries. If Big Tobacco is in retreat in some parts of the world, it is on the march in others,” Chan said.

Developing countries were the “new frontier” for tobacco marketing, but were also the most vulnerable to its ill-effects and chronic disease due to the shortage of health care and poverty, she added.

“In these countries as elsewhere, girls and women are a market with attractive and lucrative growth potential, and they are likewise being targeted,” said Chan.

Some 5.4 percent of the world’s population can benefit from laws against smoking in public places, according to the WHO.

Such bans were enforced in 17 countries, with Colombia, Djibouti, Guatemala, Mauritius, Panama, Turkey, and Zambia joining the list in 2008, the WHO said in December.

Twenty-one countries have high taxes — above 75 percent — on tobacco products.

The agency said Friday that more than 90 countries have prohibited the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products to minors, while at least 80 have introduced “large, clear and visible” health warnings on packages.

The global death toll attributed to tobacco could rise to eight million by 2030 at the current rate.

[Javno.com]