Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Reports, January 14, 2004

Health Disparities Experienced by Black or African Americans United States
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Differences in Disability Among Black and White Stroke Survivors United States, 2000--2001
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Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Prevalence, Treatment, and Control of Hypertension United States, 1999--2002
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Racial Disparities in Nationally Notifiable Diseases United States, 2002
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Reducing Childhood Asthma Through Community-Based Service Delivery New York City, 2001--2004
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Update: Influenza Activity United States, 2004--05 Season
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WHO claims victory in Asian fight against polio. MANILA (Reuters, Sept. 16, 1998) - The World Health Organization said Wednesday it may declare Western Pacific countries finally free of polio. The 27 countries in the region had not recorded any cases of polio this year, paving the way for its formal certification by the year 2000 as having eradicated the disease. The last polio case was recorded in Cambodia in March 1997. WHO guidelines require that no case of polio be recorded for three successive years before a region is certified as having eradicated a disease, a WHO spokesman said. The WHO Western Pacific region includes China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia and island countries and territories in the Pacific.

Fitting in Leaves Children Less Fit. Washington Post (09/10/98) P. A1; Branigin, William  While children born to immigrants in the United States tend to be healthier than children of U.S.-born parents, a new National  Research Council and Institute of Medicine study shows that the   health of the children deteriorates the longer they stay in the United States. Americanization of diet was one reason cited for the decline of health, The researchers also found that by the third and later generations, the rate of drug use, teenage sex, and violence approaches or surpasses that of children with U.S.-born parents. The study also found that the children are particularly healthy before this, though, which comes as a surprise since immigrant families are more likely to be in poverty and lack health care coverage. They also face a greater chance of exposure to some specific illnesses, such as tuberculosis.  See National Academy Press website for further information http://www.nap.edu/bookstore/enter2.cgi?0309065615

WHO reports declining European life expectancy. COPENHAGEN (Reuters, Sept. 14, 1998) - Europeans' health is deteriorating and life expectancy in the region is declining for the first time in over 50 years, according to a World Health Organization report issued Monday. "It's not a pretty picture," WHO's Copenhagen-based regional office for Europe said in its latest "Health in Europe 1997" report. "There is a mortality crisis in the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union, and lack of progress in reducing excessive premature death in the lower social classes in almost every country in Europe," the report said. This has led to a decline in life expectancy in Europe for the first time since World War II: from 73.1 years in 1991 to 72.4 in 1994, WHO said.

Canadian poverty and illiteracy flagged in UN report. OTTAWA (CP) -- Almost 12 per cent of Canadians live in poverty and 17 per cent lack the literacy skills  required to function in a modern society, says the United Nations in its annual report on human development.  Nine per cent of the population cannot expect to survive to age 60, says the report released today. Those facts account for Canada's lacklustre 10th-place showing on a new UN poverty index.  However, on the overall human development index, Canada remains at No. 1 for the fifth straight year. France and Norway came in second and third on that scale. "The top HDI countries -- Canada and France -- have significant problems of poverty and their progress in human development has been poorly distributed," says the report.

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