WHO – TB-Resistant Strains Silently Creeping In Asia-Pacific
♫ Tuesday, March 10th, 2009Tuberculosis (TB), as one of the major causes of deaths in the world, is again taking a new wave of attacking the Asia-Pacific region. The Philippines is indeed alarmed of this situation as the country has long before suffered from many cases Filipino TB patients who have died due to poor facilities and lack of monitoring equipment in determining the severity of their conditions. What remains a problem in the Philippines is only a representation of what is currently being faced by the Asia-Pacific region. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a new breed of drug-resistant strains of TB are being passed on to more people unchecked due to insufficient facilities that would track and monitor the spread of the disease.
Up to this day, many nations in the Asia-Pacific are somewhat blinded on the ways and means to combat the multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB). Even the rich countries in the region are not prepared about the threat of the drug-resistant TB and most lack the capacity in monitoring the spread and treatment of the disease. As a result, majority of the cases are left untreated and undetected.
This is truly a pain in the neck since several types of medicines in the market are inefficient to pin down the strains of the TB bacteria. What is worse is that an infected TB patient who is left untreated can spread the disease to at least 15 uninfected people by merely coughing, sneezing or simply at close contact. Even flight passengers may be infected as one TB patient coughs. A terrible thing to happen, indeed.
What remains the serious problem is the inadequate laboratory support and the inability of the health experts to determine what potent drugs to give the patients. Even the WHO has no idea of the extent of the problem among nations in the region. Funding is necessary for the costly and complex laboratory culture methods in the bacteria specimens. Most developing countries don’t have such facilities for quality-assured laboratories for TB patients.
In 2006, out of the 150,000 MDR-TB cases in East Asia and the Pacific, only 600 patients were given remedy in a specialized laboratory. Among the countries that badly needed some culture method laboratories are Cambodia, the Philippines, Mongolia, Soviet Union and Papua New Guinea. Even China has no sufficient number of quality-assured laboratories.
Certainly, this existing problem on TB is next to desperate case since the worldwide threat is prospering and there is no solution that is being found as of press time. Sooner or later as we become too lax of the possible treatments for TB-resistant strains, news will be claiming TB epidemic in all corners of the world. I hope the rich nations will be alarmed what the Asia-Pacific region is going through and will provide assistance in looking for a drug to cure and solve the spread of the disease.
Indian Property – A Wise Investment ?
♫ Wednesday, December 12th, 2007Home is where the heart is,’ may have been true earlier but in the present age, it may rightly be said, ‘Home is where the cash flow is.’ Property investment in India has acquired an entirely new purpose in today’s era. Investing in property, one can safely expect immediate and lucrative returns. According to a U.N. report, the Indian property market is on a roll.
Property in India is termed as the ‘next big thing’ amongst seasoned international property investors. With the recent liberalisation of property ownership laws, Indian property offers a winning blend of fantastic environment and great investment returns.The real estate sector in India has changed dramatically in the last couple of years. With the growth of real estate the market of real estate property search engines are also growing with every rising day.
Indian properties have performed well recently and the expectation is that this is just the start of Indian property rush. Indian real estate sector is booming. The returns at 10 to 13 percent per annum are almost 50 percent higher than those in the US and Europe and the current demand far outstrips availability in several metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. In fact Bangalore, Pune and Goa are also coming up as very attractive investment destinations.Also the office space in India is worth something because India is in the list of the topmost countries which are developing fastly. So the upcoming destination of all multinational companies is India. All this made Indian real estate buisness worth crores.
As the real estate prices are touching the rooftop and costs of flats have gone up to Rs.50,000 and Rs.70,000 per square foot in Mumbai and Rs.1 lakh per square yard in Gurgaon, the question arises whether there is a bubble building in the Indian property market. According to a U.N. report, even though the collapse of the speculative property market could be more devastating than a stock market crash, there is no bubble as yet in the Asia Pacific region.
The real estate prices, along with the runaway rise in the prices of gold and the stock market has somewhat made investors nervous. According to a real estate agent Mumbai, when a flat in Mumbai fetches a better price than a similar flat in New York, certain questions arise about sustaining the trend. It also said that with the property prices softening in developed countries, investors are likely to look for profitable avenues in the Asia Pacific region.
In principle, there is nothing wrong in borrowing to buy real estate for investment rather than for owner occupation. The action can be regarded as rational profit-seeking behaviour as long as borrowers are able to sell at a profit. However, the buying becomes speculative when people begin to borrow to buy, regardless of price or of their ability to service the debt, in the expectation of selling at an even higher price. Since prices cannot rise forever, some speculative buyers will inevitably take a loss. Losses on assets purchased with debt generate systemic risk that might affect the health of the financial system, and that is why real estate bubbles or potential bubbles have policy implications for Government and Central banks.