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China Seeks Solutions to Gender Imbalance 


BEIJING, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) - National Population and Family Planning Commission of China (NPFPC) has set its major tasks for 2004, and highlights gender imbalance as a major issue to tackle in the coming year. 

Family planning departments nationwide should pay great attention to the worsening gender imbalance, and tackle the issue by advocating equality between men and women, said Zhang Weiqing, minister in charge of the NPFPC, at the National Conference on Population and Family Planning held here Thursday. 


As the nation's birthrate has been decreasing steadily over the past few years, the gender ratio of new-born males to females has been on the rise. "This has become a social problem," said Zhang. 


According to the fifth national census, conducted in 2000, the ratio of new-born males per 100 females in China had reached 116. 86, much higher than the normal level of 103 to 107. 


"The gender imbalance will seriously affect the structure of the whole population, and hamper the harmonious development of society," said Zhang. 

The Chinese government has set the goal of lowering the gender ratio of new-born babies to the normal level by 2010. 

Population stands within 1.3 bln on Chinese mainland

BEIJING, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- The population on China's mainland is estimated at about 1.294 billion by the end of 2003, with a net increase of less than 10 million in the year, (National Population and Family Planning Commission of China)




Bangladesh: 12,000 Die a Year from Pregnancy Problems

Around 12,000 women die every year in the country because of pregnancy complications.

Reduction in Poverty Levels in Uganda Improves Health: Official 

KAMPALA, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- A reduction in poverty levels from 66 percent to below 40 percent to date is one of the factors leading to improved health in Uganda, an official from the Ministry of Health has said. 

Life expectancy in Uganda has risen from 46 years in 2000 to 49. 3 years in 2002, according to the World Health Report 2003. 

The report says a Ugandan woman can now celebrate 50.8 years on earth while men die at an average of 47.9 years in this east African country. 

OVER ONE MILLION KENYANS LIVE WITH HIV

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Between one million and 1.8 million of adult Kenyans live with HIV, which leads to the incurable AIDS, says a Demographic and Health Survey released here Thursday. 

According to the preliminary 2003 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS), the overage HIV prevalence rate stood at 8.7% among women and 6.7% in men. 




WHO Sets Health Priorities for 2004 

Reproductive health, the prevention of heart disease and organ transplantation will top the World Health Organization's priorities this year. Senior World Health Organization officials say those issues will be submitted to its Executive Board next week in Geneva.



The World Health Organization says of the 210 million women who become pregnant each year, eight million suffer from life-threatening complications. It says more than one-half million women, 99 percent of them in developing countries, died from pregnancy-related complications in 2002. 





The Executive Board is also concerned with the relationship between unhealthy diet and physical inactivity, and the increase in heart diseases, type two diabetes, cancer and obesity. WHO reports these diseases account for nearly two-thirds of deaths around the world and almost half of the costs of health care. 

WHO's draft strategy emphasizes that healthier diet, nutrition and physical activity can help to prevent and control many of these diseases. 


Human organ and tissue transplantation is an area of growing controversy. In 1991, the WHO established some guiding principles for organ transplantation based on ethical and safety concerns. 

But the man in charge of these issues, Alex Capron, says these principles may have to be revised in light of potential risks and related problems. He says concerns are increasing over the growing trade in human organs from living donors.

 

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