Passive smoking kills 1% of world population

Now that the January 2 sounds like the most likely date for Spain debuts new smoking ban and the background noise against the hotel owners, the numbers of cigarettes hit harder than ever: 600,000 people die each year around the world who are victims of passive smoking. Women and children are most affected, as denounced by the World Health Organization in the largest study conducted to date Passive smoking kills people..

One of every 100 deaths worldwide is related to high exposure to cigarettes of others, WHO warns in a paper now published in the journal 'The Lancet'. In total, 600,000 people of which 47% are male, followed by children, who represent 28% of victims and women (26%). By province, Eastern Europe, Western Pacific and Southeast Asia are the areas with the greatest number of passive smokers.

Passive smoking

For this bleak scenario (which must be added the other 5.1 million deaths caused by smoking first hand), a team led by Annette Prüss-Üstün and Spanish Armando Peruga reviewed data from passive smoking in 192 countries around the world (including Spain) in 2004, the latest for which statistics are available.
'No' smoking at home Passive smoking kills people.

The problem, say the authors, is that home is the main venue for secondhand smoke exposure, which in the case of children also "have the ability to avoid pollution sources, which are usually close relatives ". No less than 88% of smoking parents do at home, and 80% by their children, reported in a commentary in the same publication and Jonathan Samet Heather Wipfli, Institute for Global Health of California (Los Angeles, USA) Passive smoking kills people..

"We are not supporters of the law to regulate smoking at home, but should strengthen public health campaigns to ban it in public spaces," explains Armando Peruga, coordinator of Smoke Free Initiative WHO. He adds, "is now shown that encourages smokers to give up their habit in bars or at work, this will also be transferred home. About 60% -70% want to quit smoking and banning it in places also affects public not to smoke at home Passive smoking kills people.. "

Passive smoking kills people

In the case of children, smoking 'second hand' has lower mortality rate than women, in exchange robbed many years of quality of life. And as Dr. Peruga added, when added to the childhood respiratory infection is a deadly cocktail in Africa or Southeast Asia Passive smoking kills people.
In fact, passive smoking kills 165,000 children a respiratory tract infection each year, nearly 37,000 adults with asthma and other 380,000 for coronary heart disease (ischemic disease).

The HIV epidemic is stabilizing in the world

Good news, one regular and one bad. All from the same data, which reveals the new UNAIDS report on the status of the epidemic in the world. In 2009, 2.6 million people became infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The good news is that are 19% less than those recorded in 1999, the regular is that, although infections down, do so at a slow pace. And the bad, the figure is still too high and the HIV epidemic.
In all live in the world 33.3 million people with HIV, a number almost identical, except for some adjustments, to the previous report, indicating that the epidemic is stabilizing. But within this dynamic stabilization we observed some changes. For example, in Central and Western Europe, North America and Central Asia there are signs that the virus is a resurgence among men who have sex with men, something that experts have long warned. On the positive side, in some African countries are seen less risky sexual practices that some years ago and the HIV epidemic.

HIV epidemic in the World

The data highlighted in the report given that 52% of people with HIV are women, a 'feminization' of the epidemic is also seen for years. And 68% of those infected live in sub-Saharan Africa, which continues to suffer more than any other region of the ravages of the virus, with more than 1.8 million new infections, more women than men last year and the HIV epidemic..
With regard to HIV transmission from mother to child can see that everyone involved in the fight against AIDS have begun to take this issue seriously. In 2009, the virus infected 370,000 children under five years, a high number but it represents 24% less than just five years ago. The extension of antiretroviral therapy has also reduced the number of AIDS-related deaths, which rose from 2.1 million in 2004 to 1.8 million in 2009. Along with the increased distribution of drugs, has also been a greater distribution of condoms, 10 million more than last year and the HIV epidemic..

HIV epidemic is stabilizing in the world

-22 In 33 countries are in Africa, HIV prevalence has declined by 25% in a decade. However, the same percentage which has increased the incidence of the virus in seven places: Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Philippines and Tajikistan and the HIV epidemic..

But although there are more people receiving treatment and more countries are facing the epidemic successfully, we must not forget that in some places the virus continues to spread unchecked. This is the case in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where the number of people with HIV has tripled in just a decade, reaching 1.4 million infected in 2009. Of this, 90% comes from Russia and Ukraine, the epicenter of AIDS in Europe. Injecting drug use and paid sex are the two mainstream pathways by which HIV enters the bodies of the inhabitants of these two countries, which have a high prevalence of AIDS in prisons and the HIV epidemic..