11-07-2019

More documents

Recommendations

Info

EDITORIAL THursdAy JuLy 11, 2019 4 ICPd25 : Cairo to nairobi Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam Telephone: +8802-9104683-84, Fax: 9127103 e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com Thursday, July 11, 2019 Introducing an effective competition policy It is not only enough to claim the functioning of a market economy and to feel content that competition expected to be created within such a market economy among different producers of goods and providers of services, would automatically lead to advantages for the consumers in all areas such as quality, price and choice. For even within a declared market economy such as the one in Bangladesh, the competition may not be automatic. There are restrictive trade practices, monopolies, syndicated activities and other ills hidden under the garb of the so called market economy. The only way to ensure that competition does happen, unfailingly in all areas of the economy, requires that laws to that effect exist and are operated vigorously. A Competition Act was adopted some years ago but an all important Competition Commission under the Act is still to be set up. Thus there is hardly any enforceable Competition Policy in Bangladesh not to speak of its operation. Not only laws but their applications and the existence of institutional mechanisms are also required to create actual competition as an unavoidable factor. But the starting point of all these things is a competition policy which Bangladesh seems to be lacking at the moment. Thus, the importance of having such a policy was strongly recommended in a seminar that was organized sometime ago by the IFC, an affiliate body of the World Bank and the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI). The consumers in Bangladesh, generally, are a very harassed lot at the moment . The absence of comprehensive consumer protection laws is linked to their suffering. Comprehensive consumer protection laws, therefore, need to be introduced at the fastest. But the same would need to be reinforced by a proper competition policy so that consumers can benefit from the gains derived simultaneously from a legal environment protecting their interests as well as from the fruits of competition compulsorily generated by such a policy. Government in Bangladesh can learn from how other countries operate their competition policies. For example, in the UK, there is the Office of Fair Trading. This public organization is responsible for seeing that the government's policy on monopolies and competition is carried out. UK laws do not completely prohibit monopolies because the same in exclusive cases can extend greater benefits than disadvantages to consumers but generally the creation of monopolies is discouraged because of the concentration of market power in them that enable them to dictate any prices of goods and services sold by them in a situation of their complete dominance over the market . The Office of Fair Trading collects information on the ways in which companies and trade associations conduct their businesses and recommends actions when it appears that firms are doing things which are against the public interest. There is also another publicly operated organization, the Monopolies and Mergers Commission (MMC) in the UK. The task of the MMC is to investigate monopolies and to publish reports on their findings. In these reports, the MMC sets out any changes it would like to see in the organization of the industry, the way in which goods and services are marketed, the way in which prices are fixed, and so on. After considering such a report, the government decides what actions should be taken. It may advise or, if necessary, order firms to maker changes in the way they are running their businesses. The MMC can also be asked to investigate and report on the likely effect of proposed mergers. A merger can be vetoed by the government if it thinks it will lead to an unsatisfactory monopoly situation. A branch of the High Court, the Restrictive Practice Court, also operates in the UK. The task of this court is to examine whether a restrictive practice should be made illegal because it is restricting competition that enables a firm or firms to keep prices higher than they would be without the practice. The court examines also whether a practice is preventing other firms from entering the industry and whether practices restrict consumers' freedom of choice. The establishment of similar institutions backed up by the introduction of a proper competition policy, need to be considered in the context of Bangladesh at the earliest for the economy and the consumers to get the benefits of the same. Introduction The year 2019 marks the 25th anniversary of the I n t e r n a t i o n a l Conference on Population and D e v e l o p m e n t (ICPD) which was held in Cairo, Egypt where 179 g o v e r n m e n t s adopted a revolutionary Program of Action (PoA) recognizing that sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) to take center stage in national and global development efforts. Specifically, the Program of Action called for all people to have access to comprehensive reproductive health care, including voluntary family planning, safe pregnancy and childbirth services, and the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections. It also recognized that reproductive health and women's empowerment are intertwined, and that both are necessary for the advancement of society. Although'ICPD' is often used to refer to the global consensus that sexual and reproductive health and rights are human rights that these are a precondition for women's empowerment, and that women's equality is a precondition for securing the well-being and prosperity of all people. Background In the 1960s, as mortality rates declined around the world, some researchers and policymakers grew panicked that population growth would outstrip natural resources, leading to famine and societal collapse. The early 1990s marked a dramatic departure from conventional ideas about how governments should try to influence the size and well-being of the societies they govern, and brought an unparalleled consensus among national governments about population policy. A turning point in international discussions on population was the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in Cairo. Whereas earlier world conferences on population had focused on controlling population growth in developing countries, mainly through family planning, the Cairo conference enlarged the scope of policy discussions. Governments then agreed that population policies should address social development beyond family planning, especially the advancement of women, and that family planning should be provided as part of a broader package of reproductive health care. Underlying this new emphasis was a belief that enhancing individual health and rights would ultimately lower fertility and slow population growth. The Cairo conference was also far larger and more inclusive than earlier world population conferences. It brought together 11,000 representatives from governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), international agencies, and citizen activists. The diversity of views contributed to the unprecedented international consensus achieved in 1994.Although there were ideological and religious differences over issues such as definitions of reproductive health, adolescent sexuality, and abortion, all but a few nations fully endorsed the final program. Only a small percentage of India's 1.3 billion people have ever physically been up into the Himalayas - the colossal, ice-covered mountain range running across the north of the country and defining many of its borders with Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar and China. But, imaginatively and materially, the Himalayas are a vivid reality for most Indians. Several hundred million Indians experience the Himalayas daily, not as ice and rock, but as water: As the mountain source of the great rivers and their tributaries, most importantly the Ganga and the Yamuna, which water India's fertile agricultural plains and their settlements. In the religious domain, the mountains are revered as timeless, mysterious and sacred, the mythical home of great Hindu gods such as Shiva, and of forbidding peaks like Kanchenjunga and Mount Kailash that are revered by people of several faiths. Paradoxically - it is a sign of how different the scale of geological time is from time on a human scale - what Indians think of as the most permanent feature of their subcontinent is actually the youngest of the world's major mountain ranges, formed approximately 55 million years ago by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian continental plates. It is the Himalayas that are responsible for some of the most distinctive features of India's climate, such as its monsoon system. Without the Himalayas, there would be no Indian civilization as we know it. Any disruption of the natural course of the ecological cycle far from human eyes up in the Himalayas would have earth-shaking consequences for the rest of India. And, in recent dr. noor MoHAMMAd Program of Action Cairo's Program of Action (PoA)was ambitious. It contained more than 200 recommendations in the areas of health, development, and social welfare. A central feature of the PoA is the recommendation to provide comprehensive reproductive health care, which includes family planning; safe pregnancy and delivery services; abortion; prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (including HIV/AIDS); information and counseling on sexuality; and elimination of harmful practices against women (such as genital cutting and forced marriage). The Cairo PoA also defined reproductive health for the first time in an international policy document. The definition states that 'reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system.' The PoA also says that reproductive health care should enhance individual rights, including the 'right to decide freely and responsibly' the number and spacing of one's children, and the right to a 'satisfying and safe sex life.' This definition goes beyond traditional notions of health care as preventing illness and death, and it promotes a more holistic vision of a healthy individual. Post Cairo debate Continued Sharp ideological differences divided participants at the Cairo conference and continue to be divisive till today. Women's health advocates lobbied hard for incorporating the concepts of reproductive health and rights in the conference document, and have called on governments to reaffirm these rights in international meetings since Cairo. Though most governments are supportive, the Vatican, some Catholic countries, and the United States under the Bush administration and now under Trump administration have taken issue with how these rights are defined are bit departure from the democrat administration. A central sticking point is whether abortion can be interpreted as a component of reproductive health and as a universal right. The Cairo conference forged a consensus with carefully crafted language stating that 'in no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning,' and that 'in circumstances in which abortion is not against the law, such abortion should be safe.' This consensus, however, has not held firm over time. Debates also continue about the importance of controlling population growth and whether the entire Cairo agenda is feasible. Because large numbers of young people are in or approaching their childbearing ages, world population will continue to grow well into the 21stcentury. In some of the countries survey data show that average family size hardly declined rather stalled in the second half of the 1990s which includes from Bangladesh and Egypt. These findings were surprising given that the drop from 5 or 6 children to 3.5 children on average occurred fairly rapidly between the 1970s and 1990s. It is possible that the two-child average is still a long way off, or will never be reached, in some societies. And while advancing women's health and rights may well contribute to the transition to smaller families, the goal may also require long-term efforts in the poorest societies. After all, women in the poorest societies suffer the greatest health problems and have the most limited opportunities. decades, worrying evidence has emerged from geologists that climate change is indeed causing disruptions in a world always experienced as timeless and permanent. The clues to a potentially catastrophic change in the equilibrium of Himalayan ecology come in the form of the rapid melting of one of the most important (and mobile) components in Himalayan geography: Its glaciers. Glaciers are giant expanses of compressed snow and ice (the bottom-most layers of which can be several centuries old) that dot the mountain ranges, creeping ever downward from the force of gravity and their own mass; contracting slightly in the summer and adding millions of liters of meltwater to the river systems that irrigate India. About 10 percent of the earth's surface is covered by glaciers, but most of it is at the poles. Outside of the Arctic and Antarctic, the most extensive glacier cover in the world is in the Himalayas (which is why it is sometimes called "the third pole"). Glaciers cover about 17 percent of the Himalayas and some glaciologists estimate that glacier meltwater comprises about 10 Figure 1 World Population Projections, 2000-2050 *TFR (total fertility rate) is the average number of children a woman would have under prevailing age-specific birth rates. Source: UN Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2002 Revision(2003). These efforts are of no small consequence for world population: Population projections show that a small difference in average family size worldwide, such as an average of 2.5 children versus 2.0 children, translates into a difference of 1.7 billion people in the world's population total in 2050 (see Figure 1). In spite of continuing debates and other obstacles, a large number of countries have redefined policy and program objectives and adopted approaches that aim to meet individual needs rather than national demographic goals. Language about sexuality and reproductive health that was considered new and groundbreaking in 1994 is now part of the health lexicon in most countries. Bangladesh after ICPd In the recently concluded 52nd Commission for Population and Development (CPD) session at UN Headquarters,Bangladesh reported its readiness to use South-South Cooperation (SSC) to share its best practices in population and development to achieve the goals of the International Conference on Population and Development Program of Action (ICPD PoA). Bangladesh's remarkable success in: reducing infant, children under five, and maternal mortality rates; increasing life expectancy; increasing the use of contraceptives; poverty alleviation; developing primary and secondary education; and progressing in eliminating gender disparities are the evident examples of Bangladesh's commitment and progress. Bangladesh alsoput forth a set of recommendations to mitigate the challenges of achieving the ICPD PoA and 2030 agendas in the last CPD session. Bangladesh suggested strengthening the SSC, and investing more in the idea of 'Centers of Excellence' that focus on population and development. Recent Rohingya influx in our country and the related issues also came up which has been pulling Bangladesh backward jeopardizing all the achievements it has made in the last quarter century. . Bangladesh thus urged the international community to come forward to find a sustainable resolution to the Rohingyaissues. As also underlined which echoes the CHAndrAHAs CHoudHury percent of the water flow of the Ganga. In the Anthropocene age - the period, usually anchored to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution some 250 years ago, in which human beings have acquired the capability to alter the course of nature's cycle - glaciers are an important indicator of the health and integrity of the mountains. A landscape that took millions of years to form could disintegrate in just a few centuries because of the deleterious effects of human practices And, in recent decades, glaciers have been speaking up - by retreating at ever faster rates as the climate warms up in one of the planet's coldest regions. A major scientific paper published last month in the journal Science Advances by a team of scientists led by Joshua Maurer of Columbia University shows that, not only have Himalayan glaciers been melting steadily in the last four decades, the pace of melting has actually doubled in this century to about a foot-anda-half of vertical ice a year. The implications of this information for India's water and economic security are grave. In the short-term, of course, increased expert opinions that Bangladesh put youth and women development at the heart of the national development agenda, in order to realize the vision to transform Bangladesh into a middle-income country by 2021, and a developed country by 2041. The nairobi summit Over the past 25 years we have made significant progress on advancing the ICPD agenda. However, the world imagined at the ICPD in Cairo is far from reality as millions of individuals and couples are still not free to choose whether, when or how many children to have. In the current context, universal sexual and reproductive health is central to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Urgent and sustained efforts are crucial for the international community to meet the SDGs by the 2030 deadline. The governments of Kenya and Denmark and the ICPD agenda host, UNFPA are coconvening the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25, a high-level conference to advance the implementation of the Program of Action scheduled in mid-November 2019. The conference is set to offer an inclusive platform to bring together governments, UN agencies, civil society, NGOs, women's groups, youth networks and the private sector to make global commitments to end the unfinished business of ICPD. These commitments will be centeredon achieving the "three zeroes": " Zero unmet need for family planning information and services. " Zero preventable maternal deaths. " Zero sexual and gender-based violence and harmful practices against women and girls. Over the course of the Summit, delegates will discuss how to work together to implement the commitments and reach our goals by the SDGs deadline. The global commitments will then lead to specific national and local commitments by all stakeholders, with the overall target of ending the unfinished business of ICPD within the next decade. Conclusion An important lesson from the Cairo process is that national population goals cannot be pursued without some form of public scrutiny, either at home or abroad. If individuals' perspectives and needs are disregarded, policies will likely meet with evasion or open resistance. Now that NGOs and citizen activists have taken on a prominent monitoring role in international agreements, they are likely to continue to pressure governments to respect individual rights. Given (a) the growing body of evidence showing the links between women's status and population and development trends, and (b) the growing influence of women's groups, it is hard to imagine that women's health and rights issues will disappear from population policy debates. Issues related to sexuality and childbearing are value-laden and complex, ensuring that policy debates will continue. In addition, continued sexual and gender based violence threatens all the achievements so far both ensuring access to SRHR services and information and confirming gender equality. Thus the Nairobi talks are much awaited talk to look into ourselves, celebrate our achievements, re-set our targets for making our population as resources and keeping the pace of our development. [Dr. Noor Mohammad. Executive Director, Population Services and Training Center (PSTC)] India must save Himalayan glaciers to avert ecological crisis Without the Himalayas, there would be no Indian civilization as we know it. Any disruption of the natural course of the ecological cycle far from human eyes up in the Himalayas would have earth-shaking consequences for the rest of India. And, in recent decades, worrying evidence has emerged from geologists that climate change is indeed causing disruptions in a world always experienced as timeless and permanent. glacial melting would result in larger volumes of water being released into the rivers of a country where water is becoming a scarce and contested resource. This could also be accompanied by what are called glacial lake outbursts, threatening human settlements in the Himalayan foothills. Over the longer term, though, glacial melt at current levels would deprive India of its most permanent reserves of freshwater - and there would be no way of reversing this process. Further, as the levels of water stably released by glaciers into the Himalayan ecosystem over thousands of years is disrupted, many species of rare flora and fauna endemic to the Himalayas will die out or be driven down into the increasingly waterstarved plains. A landscape that took millions of years to form could disintegrate in just a few centuries because of the deleterious effects of human practices. It's a big, big story, but one that's hard to translate into human terms or to work into an action plan in a society where the population has tripled in the last 70 years and that requires more water and burns more energy and fossil fuels than ever before. Already, recent studies show that the Himalayas are warming three times faster than other regions of the earth: At about 0.06 degrees Celsius annually, compared to the global average of 0.02 C. Climate change and the role of glaciers as an index of a warming world need to be part of the education of every Indian schoolchild if the country is to hold off an ecological crisis a century from now. Source : Arab news
HEALTH THURSDAy, JULy 11, 2019 5 Magnetic resonance of a medulloblastoma in a child's brain. Rodrigo de Oliveira Andrade Brazilian researchers have developed a low-cost method of classifying the most common malignant brain tumour in children, which they say can help medics diagnose and treat the condition. Medulloblastoma, a tumour of the central nervous system, affects one in every 200,000 children and adolescents worldwide and represents 20 per cent of all childhood brain tumours. The World Health Organisation (WHO) divides the disease into four molecular subgroups according to their clinical and molecular characteristics. Categorising patients into one of these groups helps oncologists choose an appropriate treatment, with some groups requiring more aggressive therapy than others. However, low- and middle-income countries cannot afford to routinely use modern sequencing platforms to carry out this molecular classification. Gustavo Alencastro Cruzeiro, a geneticist at the University of São Paulo's Ribeirão Preto Medical School and lead developer of the method, said it was "faster and cheaper" than similar techniques used in developed countries. He said it costs US$26 per sample analysis compared with an average of US$60 for tests used in richer countries. "It should make this new method widely available in lowand middle-income countries, helping oncologists make rapid clinical decisions," he added. To develop the new method, researchers analysed 92 samples of frozen medulloblastoma' tissue gathered from children and young adults up to 24 years old undergoing treatment in three hospitals in the state of Sao Paulo. They extracted ribonucleic acid (RNA) sequences from each sample and converted them into stable complementary DNA (cDNA), which was processed using a technique called real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which amplifies the signal of genes activated by the multiplication of cDNA molecules. This allowed researchers to identify a Photo: Reytan New method to classify brain tumour in children set of 20 genes associated with all four of the medulloblastoma molecular subgroups: SHH, WNT, Group 3 and Group 4. By using algorithm assessment and bioinformatic analysis techniques, the team identified the minimal number of genes needed to molecularly classify medulloblastoma, without losing accuracy. "We found that a set of six differentially expressed genes would be sufficient to distinguish SHH and WNT from the other two subgroups", said Cruzeiro. Roger Chammas, an oncologist at University of São Paulo School of Medicine, who was not part of the team, said the method was "undoubtedly a step forward," as it allowed for more cost-effective diagnosis. But he cautioned that it would take time for the new method to become available in hospitals. "We are now trying to obtain financial support for opening a start-up focused on childhood and central nervous system tumours," he said. "This will allow the achievement of molecular classification at the national level." How human's deepest fears being exploited Medicine dispensing innovation wins engineering prize Sally Nyakanyanga The innovator of a smart locker system designed to dispense medicines to patients in less than 36 seconds has won the 2019 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation. Public health institutions are resource-constrained and healthcare workers are overwhelmed, resulting in them being unable to attend to patients faster. South Africa alone has close to five million patients on anti-retroviral treatment and collecting their refills monthly, according to the WHO. Patients collecting chronic medicines wait for close to four hours at public health centres, says Neo Hutiri, a 31- year-old South African engineer who invented the innovation called Pelebox. "Pelebox takes pressure off medical teams and gives patients on chronic medicines valuable time back, ensuring the collection process is tracked and auditable," explains Hutiri. "This is the highest stamp of approval that our innovation could have hoped for. As an engineer, building a socially-minded solution was important to me and this award is a nudge that we are in the right direction." Hutiri received the first prize of £25,000 (about US$31,000) from the Royal Academy of Engineering, the founder of the competition. "Pelebox will improve healthcare for everyone using and working in a severely strained public healthcare system," adds John Lazar, one of the competition's judges, in a statement released this month (4 June) by the Royal Academy of Engineering. According to Hutiri, his team started working on the project in 2015 but the first unit became operational in 2017 and was pilot-tested in 2018. "Each Pelebox unit has 72-99 doors and can serve 1,200 patients per month," Hutiri says. The innovation, according to Hutiri, shows that science in Africa can now drive a digitally connected Africa particularly to inspire young people by elevating the standards of applied science and how they can shape innovations. Patient Dhliwayo-Chiunzi, a biotechnologist at the Harare Institute of Technology in Zimbabwe, tells that Medicine displayed in a pharmacy. the Pelebox is a needed innovation, which has incorporated aspects of patient privacy to a large extent. "You realise the Pelebox operates like those food dispenser machines, hence it is quite user-friendly," Dhliwayo- Chiunzi explains. She advises patients using the Pelebox to access their medications at designated times to ensure that they take their medicines as expected. Hutiri tells that six Pelebox units have been installed at public hospitals in South Africa, with 42 units expected to be available by the end of the year partly through a contract with the South African government. Photo: Anouk Delafortrie How much does the world trust vaccines? Health Desk Public trust in vaccination is on shaky ground. Earlier this year, the WHO named 'vaccine hesitancy' one of its top ten threats to global health, defining hesitancy as "the delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite the availability of vaccination services". Health experts fear that when people question whether vaccines are safe or effective, they may decide not to vaccinate themselves or their children - and that puts everyone at higher risk. There is some evidence on how people feel about vaccines, but until now health experts had few details about these views in different parts of the world. Do most parents believe vaccination is safe, effective, and important for their children? And how do their views relate to how much they trust scientists and health professionals? This interactive visualisation explores these questions through the Wellcome Global Monitor - the first study of public attitudes to science and health on a global scale. Questions over how public views on vaccination are changing are more pressing than ever. If enough people decide against getting a vaccine, outbreaks become more common and diseases more difficult to control. If people lose confidence in vaccination, they are more likely to opt against it. It's a decision that can affect not only their own health but that of others around them. This is because each person that gets immunised adds to a collective or 'herd' immunity that can stop a disease from spreading - but only if a large enough number of people get the vaccine. How large is 'large enough'? It depends on the disease. For measles, 90-95 per cent of the population needs to be vaccinated for this collective immunity to work. For polio, which is less contagious, it takes 80-85 per cent. This loss of vaccine confidence is reflected in a global resurgence of measles, with a 30 per cent rise in cases from 2016 to 2017. Outbreaks have also become more common, as seen in Brazil, India and the United States. The loss of confidence has been fuelled by anti-vaccination theories that began with a false claim of a link with autism. Globally, about eight out of 10 people have confidence in the safety of vaccines. Though encouraging, this also means one in five people question vaccine safety. And it's the pockets of scepticism that matter, according to Heidi Larson, director of the Vaccine Confidence Project who was involved in the study. Confidence is lowest in Eastern and Western Europe, where just over half the population agrees that vaccines are safe (50 and 59 per cent). It gets a little stronger in Northern But confidence in safety is at its highest in low-income regions. South Asia tops the chart at 95 per cent, followed by 92 per cent in East Africa. Across the African continent and Latin America, about 84 per cent of people surveyed agree that vaccines are safe. The figure is slightly lower across Asia (80 per cent) and in the Middle East (79 per cent). Published June 2019, the study was based on nationally representative surveys of people aged 15 years or older in over 140 countries. More than 140,000 people were asked questions about their views on vaccination, their trust in health professionals and in science, as well as how science benefits society. Before the questionnaire was rolled out it was tested across 10 countries, in local languages. One reason was to make sure that everyone could understand the technical terms. To get a measure of scepticism about vaccination, researchers based their questions on an index developed by the Vaccine Confidence Project. According to Larson, the index was designed to get a better picture of the spectrum of views. The idea was to capture not just strong opinions for or against vaccination, but also the views of people in between who still question and look for answers. There is nothing in a vitamin drip that can't be got from a well-balanced diet. Photo : Alpgiray Kelem Rebecca Schiller Of couples trying for a baby, 84% will conceive naturally within the first year, others after a little more time, but the one in seven who continue to have problems are increasingly at the mercy of unproven "treatments" that promise to boost fertility for a hefty price tag. This week, intravenous wellness company Get A Drip was forced to withdraw a £250 "fertility boost" after the British Pregnancy Advisory Service highlighted the product's lack of proven benefits. It accused the company of "causing real damage to women's emotional wellbeing". The UK fertility industry is estimated to be worth more than £320m, and is growing all the time. An expensive vitamin drip (that contains ingredients that are all available - and more easily absorbed - in a balanced diet) is just the tip of the commercial fertility iceberg. The age at which men and women have their first child keeps rising, and the older they are, the less fertile. As the demand for fertility assistance grows, the chances of accessing NHS treatments diminish due to long waiting lists, the rationing of treatment and ever-narrowing eligibility criteria. The intense pressure to boost chances of conceiving naturally or make the most of a single shot at NHS treatment provides many opportunities for companies to exploit. In addition to a range of diet supplements and alternative therapies, private fertility clinics have been accused of profiting from unproven "add-on" treatments that can increase by thousands of pounds an already hefty bill for assisted conception. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) found that 74% of private patients had bought add-on treatments. Its chair, Sally Cheshire, says: "The 'fertility drip' is just one more item on the list of myths that claim to increase or support fertility, targeting individuals who are often already going through emotional turmoil in their quest to conceive." The HFEA is working with the British Fertility Society to provide guidance to fertility clinics on how unproven treatments should be ethically introduced and it already offers a traffic-light system that rates add-on therapies by efficacy. Yet many of these commercial enterprises fall outside any hope of regulation. Some alternative treatments (such as acupuncture) have proven benefits for some - and can boost wellbeing and a sense of control at a stressful time. Sadly, desperation - especially in such an emotive area - will always be met with exploitation as well as support. For many couples, cheap lifestyle and diet changes, time, medical support where necessary and a more equal offer of NHS treatments will be far more effective than expensive treatments - whether they are dispensed in a shopping centre or by a white-coated professional in a clinic. More than 80 per cent of children were vaccinated in Bangladesh by 2014. Photo: Collected
Page 1 and 2: thursDaY DhAKA: July 11, 2019; Asha
Page 3: METRO ThursDAY, JuLY 11, 2019 3 Lau
Page 7 and 8: INTERNATIONAL THURSDAy, JUly 11, 20
Page 9 and 10: SPORTS THURSDAy, JUly 11, 2019 9 Fo
Page 11 and 12: MISCELLANEOUS THURSDAY, JULY 11, 20

11-07-2019

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?