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World Health Assembly
- Call to action The Fifty-ninth World Health Assembly (WHA) opened in a sombre mood following the sudden death on the morning of the opening of Dr Lee Jongwook, World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general. Dr Lee, who was 61, had been in his post since July 2003. |
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Middle East disregards dangers of smoking IRIN News reports from Dubai that in the run-up to the “World No Tobacco Day” on 31 May, health experts and anti-smoking groups around the world launched campaigns to raise awareness about the dangers of cigarette smoking. |
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Middle East Cancer Consortium releases pioneering report The United States-based National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, on 27 April released “Cancer Incidence in Four Member Countries (Cyprus, Egypt, Israel and Jordan) of the Middle East Cancer Consortium (MECC) Compared with US SEER”. |
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Can routine commercial cord blood banking be scientifically and ethically justified? Umbilical cord blood — the blood that remains in the placenta after birth — can be collected and stored frozen for years. A well-accepted use of cord blood is as an alternative to bone marrow as a source of haematopoietic stem cells for allogeneic transplantation to siblings or to unrelated recipients; women can donate cord blood for unrelated recipients to public banks. |
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Regional
Profile - Iran Iran is a fascinating country, at once sophisticated and developing. Callan Emery reports from Tehran on the state of healthcare in the country. |
