CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne
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A Toronto psychologist has conducted a 50-year follow-up study of the psychologic problems faced by Canadian troops who landed on the beaches of Dieppe, France, in 1942. Lynne Beal says many of the men have suffered in silence, never realizing that they were experiencing the widespread condition known as post-traumatic stress disorder. The veterans hope her work will help them win greater official recognition of their condition.
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Biography Historical Article
Creation of first malaria vaccine raises troubling questions about "intellectual racism". Interview by Kirsteen MacLeod.
Some of the problems caused by malaria, which places a huge roadblock in front of economic progress in the Third World, may be solved by a new vaccine created by Dr. Manuel Patarroyo, a Columbian physician and researcher. "Imagine how things would be if Canadians had malaria," he says. "Episodes last 10 days, then there are 10 days of recovering. ⋯ Then imagine killing the population of Toronto each year, and you can see the huge toll in terms of the number of yearly deaths globally from malaria." His discovery also raises the issue of "intellectual racism" because of criticism of Patarroyo's methods by Western scientists. Patarroyo, meanwhile, turned down a $60-million offer for his vaccine, and instead donated the patent to the World Health Organization.
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Representatives of international, national and scientific organizations met in Bellagio, Italy, in June 1995 to examine the implications of global trends in tobacco production and consumption. The 22 participants agreed that a growing pandemic of tobacco use poses a major threat to sustainable and equitable development in low-income countries. The international Development Research Centre was invited to lead a roundtable consultative process to devise a broad-based funding strategy to promote action on tobacco control.
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One of the main conclusions of the World Bank's World Development Report 1993--Investing in Health was that equitable access to a package of essential clinical and public health services could significantly reduce the overall burden of disease in low-income countries. The report argued that more rational and effective decisions with regard to the allocation of limited resources could be made on the basis of burden-of-disease and cost-effectiveness analyses. In collaboration with the Canadian International Development Agency and several other organizations, the International Development Research Centre has developed the Essential Health Interventions Project to test the feasibility of this approach in a few districts in Tanzania. Outcome assessment wil focus on improved planning at the district level and on changes to the health status of the study population.