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Argentina has been this week at the head of the Working Group of the United Nations to begin preparing a Convention on the Rights of the Elderly, one of the outstanding achievements that are more sensitive to international human rights system in its remarkable evolution recent decades.

The Working Group was created for three months by the UN General Assembly, open to all members and with the intention of enhancing the promotion and protection of human rights of this social group of impressive growth in recent decades and clearly need of new legal instruments, including a specific Convention.

The G77 + China, the main group of developing countries, which presides over Argentina in 2011, was one of the most important drivers of this Working Group, but our country also has antecedents in this effort.

During the Third Session of the UN, in 1948, adopted a landmark Declaration on the Rights of the Elderly, an initiative of Eva Peron.

The need for a legally binding instrument to protect and promote the rights of these people, to establish mechanisms and international agencies providing them, has a quantitative dimension is striking and calls for reflection.

In 1948, when it adopted the International Convention on Human Rights, which gave much later to other specific such as children, or Discrimination against Women, the world population was one third of the current. In addition, since then, the average life expectancy increased in 20 years, from 46 in 1967 to 67 in 2010.

Nobody can tell yaw that aging is just a concern of a few developed countries and Latin America is an example. In 2007, more than 9% of Latin Americans were over 60 years. In addition, by 2050 the proportion of elderly people in our countries nearly quadrupled if the current trend is maintained.

Repeated media image of needs associated almost exclusively with children and their mothers around the world cannot hide similar situations and worse for the elderly, the most vulnerable people for whom poverty can be understood because of the denial of their rights, but also as their own cause.

Situations such as the lack of lower revenues from the mere fact of being older, access to basic health services and housing is universal, and discrimination against women in inheritance from their partners and / or children will also print a woman’s face situations of exclusion that may be as a result of the denial of rights but at the same time as their own cause.

The Working Group now chaired Argentina seeks to close a gap between those rights and the reality that should be fully guaranteed, so articulate at a convention in the rules that follow and in public policy principles that inspire basic human rights as non-discrimination of our seniors.

Until now, the situation of older adults is considered only indirectly, through the Migrant Workers Convention and the more recent Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2008, in which civil society, through organizations activists and volunteers, confirmed its historic role as a key player in developing a rights agenda and pursue it with the Member States of the UN, a process that surely now be republished.

Some UN committees, such as the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, developed specific recommendations for elders, but it is recognized fragmentation and lack of focus on the situation of this group age.

Argentina, chairing the Working Group began its road to a longed Convention inspired by the idea that human rights have been and should continue to be seen as tools for social change.

Researchers found a way to detect whether a cancer will spread or recur, with the consideration of a certain protein in the tumor, according to a study published Tuesday in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. This discovery may provide more precise information about the possibility of survival than the current method of classification of the stages of the disease, which is one to four, the researchers said.

If this test can be developed to be used on a large scale, for which is still years, will help doctors decide when to treat aggressively to prevent tumor metastasis, which is often fatal.

“This biomarker may be useful for many types of cancer,” said the study’s lead author, Y. Pang Loch of the cellular neurobiology section of the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

“It is very important to know when a cancer has the potential to spread,” said the expert and then add that there are currently no accurate biomarkers that can provide this kind of predictions. “The prognosis is determined according to the stage where the cancer,” he said.

This new variant of the protein carboxypeptidase’s E (CPE), which usually is involved in the processing of hormones like insulin, was discovered by scientists from the U.S. Health Institutes and the University of Hong Kong.

The protein, CPE-delta N, was found to be present at high levels in metastasis tumor cells of many cancers, including liver, breast, colon, adrenal gland and the neck and head.

The eight-year study focused on 99 patients with liver cancer in stages one to four, who have examined the tumor cells and surrounding tissue to detect the levels of delta-N CPE by measuring ribonucleic acid, which helps the body produce the protein.

When the CPE level delta-N RNA in the tumors was more than double that of the surrounding tissues, “Cancer had great potential to recur or metastasize in two years,” the study said. While at this level or below it the disease was much less likely to recur, he said the investigation.

Applying this method, scientists predicted that the cancer would metastasize or recur in more than 90% of cases and matched 76% of the time they anticipated that the tumor would not return.

In some cases, they found that the protein would indicate that cancer patients in the second stage, which would normally be considered, free of cancer and would not have received particular attention after the removal of the tumor.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is investigating an increase in cases of narcolepsy in Finland may be related to a vaccine against influenza A, that body donated to 18 countries, including three American. The disorder is a pathological condition that occurs in the affected access irresistible sleep at any time.

The Government of Finland reported that are occurring cases of narcolepsy among vaccinated against influenza between 4 and 19 years, said WHO representative Gregory Hart, which indicated that those affected receive the vaccine “Pandemics” Manufacturer Galax.

In Helsinki, the National Institute of Health and Welfare of Finland (THL) published a study showing that the H1N1 flu vaccine Pandemics, manufactured by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, multiplies the risk of childhood narcolepsy.

“The observed association is so obvious that it is unlikely that other factors may fully explain this phenomenon,” the investigators said in a statement.

According to the research, between 2009 and 2010 were diagnosed 60 cases of narcolepsy in Finnish children and adolescents between 4 and 19 years, of which 52 (almost 90%) had been vaccinated against the H1N1 virus with the preparation Pandemics.

The phenomenon led the Finnish health authorities to stop using this vaccine as a preventive measure to determine their possible side effects.

WHO representative in Geneva said that Pandemics is a monovalent, i.e., that only carries the H1N1 influenza virus. Hart said that other vaccines used in the flu season and have the seasonal flu virus have not caused problems.

On the other hand, said he also has been reported of narcolepsy in two other Nordic nations, Sweden and Iceland, but that “in these two countries, unlike in Finland, it is unclear whether the victims were immunized with this vaccine.”

“We welcome the transparency shown by the Government of Finland to quickly disclose these cases from narcolepsy,” said the representative.

Harlot acknowledged that WHO donated 36 million doses of vaccine, “Pandemics” to 18 developing countries, but said so far, “we have not heard of who have been cases of narcolepsy.”

The list of countries receiving “Pandemics” is the following: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cuba, North Korea, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Namibia, Philippines, Tajikistan, Togo, Rwanda, Kenya, Mongolia and Senegal.

The enormous effort and investment to tackle malaria, with a view to eradicating one day be lost if you spread a form of the disease that is resistant to the drugs more accessible and widespread throughout the world, today warned the World Health Organization Health Organization (WHO).

To prevent this from happening, the organization presented a global plan to contain resistance to artemisinin, the plant that provides the basis for conventional treatments for type of malaria that causes more deaths.

“Our greatest weapon is threatened,” said WHO Director General Margaret Chan. That is why a plan is urgently needed because there are no other bad drugs that offer the same level of efficacy and tolerability among patients. In that sense, the organization seeks to intensify and coordinate efforts to prevent the spread of the disease in resistant version.

Chan said that recently it was confirmed that the core of the resistant form of malaria is on the border between Thailand and Cambodia, while another outbreak is suspected in the vast area that crosses the Mekong River.

He explained that the specific objective of the global plan to stop the outbreak presented unresponsive to artemisinin, which is currently controlling your home, and avoid or at least delay, international spread.

In the last decade, the number of malaria cases fell 40% in countries where the disease is endemic, so that in this period were saved 750,000 lives. Progress has been most noticeable since 2006, when widespread use of insecticide-treated nets and artemisinin-based treatments.

Among the objectives that trace the global plan are, first, stop the spread of resistant forms of the parasite, although this “will require additional resources,” said Chan. Specifically, it will take between 10 and $ 20 more per person in areas with confirmed resistance and between 8 and 10 dollars in risk areas, such as the Great Mekong.

WHO also considers it essential to intensify the monitoring and surveillance of resistance, because of the 75 countries should systematically undertake efficacy trials of treatments, only 31 comply with them.

“There is a risk that in the areas not under permanent surveillance of resistance to artemisinin resistance extends seamlessly,” according to the body.

Another key measure is to improve access to diagnostic tests for malaria, so that conventional treatments are applied rationally.

When a person who does not get malaria drugs against the disease-which occurs frequently in Africa in cases of fever, increases the risk that your body creates resistance.

After analyzing 34,670 women between 39 and 73 years who had no cardiovascular disease or cancer at baseline in 1997, the team of Dr. Susanna Larsson of the Karolin’s Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, found that participants who consumed large amounts of red meat (at least 102 grams per day) showed a 42% higher chance of suffering a cerebrovascular accident (CVA), compared with women who ate less meat (25 grams per day).

Researchers reported the findings of experience in a recent issue of the journal Stroke. They claimed that within 10 years of the work, 1,680 (4% of participants) suffered a stroke.

This is the first study in years to establish a connection, applicable to the female, between red meat consumption and the possibility of having a stroke.

“The most common was ischemic stroke, which occurs as a result of blockage of an artery that is responsible for delivering blood to the brain. Such occurred in 78% of cases. The rest belong to other accidents unspecified causes or cerebral hemorrhage, experts presented their conclusions.

On the other hand added that “no relationship was detected between the possibility of stroke and the consumption of fresh meat (the analysis is performed on processed red meat) or farm products.”

As a possible explanation, the team led by Dr. Larsson said: “Several mechanisms explain the association between processed meat and risk of stroke. However, we believe that the first point is the connection between the consumption of that food type and hypertension, major risk factors when we think of strokes. “

Moreover, the experts added: “We must not fail to consider the iron accelerates the production of free radicals that damage tissue. Finally, the processed red meat is rich in sodium, a mineral that increases blood pressure. “

“Too much time sitting in the office, making no move for hours is related to various indicators of risk of heart disease.” This is the conclusion reached by the scientists at the University of Queensland in Australia, after conducting a study involving 4,757 men and women whose average age was 45 years. All of them took a week an accelerometer, a device used to measure body movement, and thus calculate the energy consumed.

According to the findings of the experience, published in the journal European Heart Journal, “” usually people are aware of how important it is to remain in business, the positive results that the exercise is moderate to strong. However, no so with the impact that health something we do every day of our life to spend much time sitting. Evidently, the prolonged inactivity is a harmful habit, “explained Dr. Genevieve Healy, research team leader.

During the study, in addition to the accelerometer, the participants were measured waist circumference, a figure detailing the amount of fat in the abdominal area, and is considered an important cardiovascular risk factor-, blood pressure, cholesterol , triglycerides, glucose, insulin and C-reactive protein concentration, a marker of inflammation and therefore heart disease risk.

“The data confirmed the hypothesis: the more time people spent sitting without getting up had a greater waist circumference, lower levels of good cholesterol as well as higher levels of CRP and triglycerides,” the doctor listed.

“The good news,” completed “is that the act of doing ‘breaks’, i.e. often rise beyond the time each person spends sitting, has a measurable positive impact on both the waist circumference, and the values of C-reactive protein and glucose, “he added.

Therefore, getting up at scheduled intervals, either to go get something, chatting with someone else, answer the phone or just to “stretch their legs” are some of the exercises that help maintain health even in cases where liability is to spend time in a chair at a computer.

Beyond the new therapeutic options, the reviewer said the importance of regular checks to ascertain the state of the gland and the presence of anomalies. The thyroid plays a fundamental role in the smooth functioning of the body.

Within the complex mechanism of organs, glands, muscles, hormones, and others that make up the body, the thyroid gland is very important because it regulates the metabolism.

Therefore, physicians constantly emphasize the importance of control to detect changes periodically, whether the operation such as the hypo-or hyperthyroidism or shape, including the development of nodules.