Eiffel Tower turns pink for breast
cancer
Paris: France's most iconic attraction,
the Eiffel Tower turned
pink as part of a push for breast cancer awareness, the media reported on
Tuesday.
October is breast cancer awareness
month and Paris officials did their part to raise awareness by lighting the
Eiffel Tower in pink, The Local news reported.
The illumination is part of the Ruban
Rose (pink ribbon which is an international symbol of breast cancer awareness)
event launched by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who witnessed the spectacle on
Monday night.
Organisers said lighting up the tower
in pink was "more than a symbol - it's a sign of victory over this
illness"
The light show in Paris marks France's
22nd "Pink October" campaign, which will also see information stalls
set up at Trocadero, not far from the tower, until Thursday.
A series of events including beauty
therapy and solidarity marches have also been scheduled.
According to official data, breast cancer is quite prevalent
in France. The most recent figures showed that over 50,000 women in France are
diagnosed with the cancer each year and that 11,900 women died from it in 2012.
Source: www.zeenews.india.com
30.09.2015
Bill Gates and UN say malaria could
be eradicated by 2040
London: Malaria could
be wiped out by 2040, despite the lack of an effective vaccine, previous failed
attempts to eradicate the disease and drug resistance problems, theUnited Nations and
Microsoft founder Bill Gates said
in a report released today.
Gates and Ray Chambers, the UN
secretary-general's special envoy for malaria, said getting rid of the
parasitic disease could ultimately save 11 million lives and provide USD 2
trillion in economic benefits. In a statement, Gates described eradication as
"the only sustainable solution."
His foundation has been one of the
major donors to malaria eradication programs.
The report calls for a doubling of the
money spent on malaria by 2025 and new ways to control the mosquitoes that
spread the disease. Past attempts to get rid of malaria have failed; the World
Health Organization and partners had targeted the end of 2015 for cutting cases
to "near zero."
About 500,000 children are killed by
malaria every year and it's unknown whether cases are going up or down in the
worst-hit countries.
Despite a regulatory approval
recommendation for the world's first malaria vaccine, the shot only protects
about one third of children. Resistance to many malaria drugs has been detected
and more than a third of people at risk have no protective bed nets. Officials
are also still struggling to wipe out guinea worm and polio. Smallpox is the
only disease to have been eradicated.
"It's good to be ambitious in
global health but this is another ambition that misses a crucial element of
delivering on such goals: health systems," said Sophie Harman, a public
health expert at Queen Mary University in London.
"Grand and glitzy eradication
campaigns overlook the real necessity of financing everyday health
systems," she said. Harman also doubted whether the 2040 goal was
realistic, citing the previously missed polio targets. WHO had originally hoped
to get rid of polio by 2000.
"These dates seem increasingly arbitrary and gloss over
all the previous dates we've heard before," she added.
Source: www.zeenews.india.com
30.09.2015
To lose patience is to lose the battle
Mahatma Gandhi
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