Obama defends health reform plan

Washington: U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday strongly defended his ambitious plan, calling it vital for recovering from the worst recession to hit the U.S. since the great depression.

“Even as we rescue this economy from a full-blown crisis, we must rebuild it stronger than before. And health insurance reform is central to that effort,” said Mr. Obama at a prime time news conference at White House, aimed at taking his case for health reforms to the people.

Mr. Obama’s nationally televised press conference comes as he has been facing criticism from the opposition Republicans for his decision to overhaul the health care system.

“This is not just about the 47 million Americans who have no health insurance. Reform is about every American who has ever feared that they may lose their coverage if they become too sick, or lose their job, or change their job,” said Mr. Obama.

“It’s about every small business that has been forced to lay off employees or cut back on their coverage because it became too expensive. And it’s about the fact that the biggest driving force behind our federal deficit is the skyrocketing cost of Medicare and Medicaid,” he asserted. Mr. Obama warned that if the spiralling health care costs are not controlled, the U.S. will not be able to control its deficit.

“If we do not reform health care, your premiums and out-of-pocket costs will continue to skyrocket. If we do not act, 14,000 Americans will continue to lose their health insurance every single day. These are the consequences of inaction. These are the stakes of the debate we’re having right now,” he said.

Criticism

Referring to the growing criticism against him, which has also pulled down his approval rating, Mr. Obama said: “I realise that with all the charges and criticisms being thrown around in Washington, many Americans may be wondering, What’s in this for me? How does my family stand to benefit from health insurance reform?”

Responding to his critics including Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who has come out on a series of news channels in the past two days, the President said: “Tonight I want to answer those questions.”— PTI

Herbal remedy for A(H1N1) flu in China

BEIJING: Chinese doctors say they have found a herbal remedy for preventing and treating the A(H1N1) Influenza which is both more cost-effective and better resistant to the virus than the drug Tamiflu.

Hospitals in Beijing have in the last month begun treating A(H1N1)-infected patients with this herbal remedy instead of the World Health Organisation-recommended Tamiflu, which is also being used to treat A(H1N1) in India. Doctors in two Beijing hospitals told The Hindu the results have so far been successful.

At Ditan hospital, where most of Beijing’s patients are being treated, doctors have treated 117 out of 297 admitted patients with the herbal remedy, and 88 of them have been cured. The others are undergoing treatment.

There have so far been 1,668 reported cases of A(H1N1) flu in China, though no deaths have been reported. The government’s Ministry of Public Health has expressed concern that as the winter flu season approaches, the chances of a serious outbreak are high. With some concern about Tamiflu’s decreasing resistance to the virus and fears regarding the drug’s side-effects, the government appears to have given full-backing to promoting a herbal treatment.

Meanwhile, two Chinese pharmaceutical companies this week have begun two month-long clinical trials for a vaccine to the infection.

In China, treatment and prevention of infections with herbal remedies as opposed to drugs — the practice is known as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) — is common, and the cost-effectiveness of herbal cures has seen a popular resurgence in TCM in recent years.

TCM, mainly known overseas for its acupuncture therapies, is regarded as mainstream medicine in China, but not in the West.

The government has now sanctioned hospitals to launch TCM-based treatments for A(H1N1) on a large scale, Tu Zhitao, dean of the research and education department at the Beijing Administration of TCM told The Hindu. “We have found that Tamiflu is not sufficient, and it also weakens the body and has adverse affects on body tolerance,” said Mr. Tu.

“This treatment is a better alternative, and we have begun to promote this treatment among the public.”

Essential difference

Mr. Tu said the essential difference was that while the TCM remedy works to build up the body’s resistance in a holistic way, the Tamiflu drug focuses on attacking the infection.

The herbal treatment is a mixture of four locally-used medicinal herbs: Jin yin hua (lonicera japonica), Da qing ye (Isatis indigodica), Bo he (Mentha haplocalyx) and Sheng gan cao (Glycyrrhiza glabra). Doctors in Beijing first began using the remedy on May 15, treating patients with a combination of the herbal remedy and Tamiflu.

After successful trials, doctors have since June 15 begun prescribing only the herbal treatment. Ninety per cent of all A(H1N1) flu patients in China have been treated with a combination of the two treatments. Wang Yuguang, head of the Centre of Integrated Chinese and Western medicine at Ditan Hospital, said the treatment time for the herbal remedy was comparable with that of Tamiflu treatments. The big difference, he said, was the cost of the two treatments. The TCM remedy only costs between 10 and 13 Yuan (between Rs. 70 and Rs. 91) per day, while Tamiflu costs 56 Yuan (Rs. 392).

Mr. Wang said the herbal treatment was now undergoing clinical trials “to show concrete evidence that the treatment is scientific.”

He said the government had invested 10 million Yuan (Rs. 7 crore) in conducting a comparative study of herbal and Tamiflu treatments.

Mao Yue, president of the Ditan Hospital, said there was a “serious possibility” of a large-scale outbreak of the flu in the autumn and winter of this year, and that the government has already begun procuring enough herbs to treat a possible 2 million patients.

3,000 more war displaced to be resettled: Colombo

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Colombo: The Sri Lankan government has announced that it has taken steps to resettle 3,000 more war displaced sheltered in the welfare camps in Wanni in August first week.

“All the arrangements are now in place to resettle the displaced persons,” said senior adviser to the President, parliamentarian Basil Rajapaksa, at a special meeting at Vavuniya District Secretariat on Thursday.

He said the government planned to resettle these persons in 35 cleared villages in Wanni region beginning August and the government has completed the demining activities of those villages with the assistance of international groups and the United Nations. The government will provide the basic requirements including dry rations to those to be resettled,.

Commitment

He reiterated his commitment to resettle at least 80 per cent of the IDPs prior to the December-end deadline.

Separately, the Air Force announced the commencement and schedules of domestic “commercial flight” to Jaffna, Sigiriya and Trincomalee.

Meanwhile, addressing a gathering of representatives of Women’s Organisations of the Moneragala District in the Uva province on Wednesday, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said he was prepared to appear before any Court on behalf of the military leaders.

“Some leaders were concocting stories against the military leaders. What the military leaders did was to heed my orders, as President of the country and the Commander-in-Chief.”

Internenews quoted Kilinochchi Government Agent as saying plans would start with 80,000 people being resettled in their native places. As per the Commissioner of Child Care and Probation Department, the reunification process of children with their parents is complete up to 50 per cent.

Indian “Internet predator” held in U.S.

Washington: In possibly the first such case involving an Indian in the U.S., police in Pennsylvania have arrested an Indian engineer on charges of using Internet for soliciting young girls for sex.

In a statement, the Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett said Nityanand Gopalika (30), here on a work visa, allegedly used an Internet chat room to approach what he believed was a 13-year old girl from the Pittsburgh area.

The “girl” was actually an undercover agent from the Child Predator Unit. According to the criminal complaint filed by the Attorney General’s Child Predator Unit, Gopalika engaged in a series of chats over several days questioning the girl about her sexual experience and describing the sex acts he wished to engage in. Gopalika is also accused of sending the girl two obscene web cam videos.

Gopalika was arrested on July 1 when he arrived at a predetermined meeting location.

Following a search of his vehicle, agents seized two laptop computers, a digital camera, a cell phone allegedly containing a partially completed text message to the “child,” directions to the meeting location and a bag of condoms. Gopalika was preliminarily arraigned on July 1 and lodged in the Butler County Jail in lieu of $15,000 cash bail, pending a preliminary hearing on Friday.— PTI