The World Health Organization has announced that global rates of tobacco use have declined in recent years despite efforts by the tobacco industry to try to undermine the progress made.
There are 1.25 billion people in the world who use tobacco as adults, according to the latest estimates contained in the World Health Organization’s report on tobacco trends issued on January 16.
Trends in 2022 reveal a continued decline in tobacco use rates globally, with 1 in 5 global adults now using tobacco compared to 1 in 3 in 2000.
The report shows that more than 150 countries have succeeded in reducing tobacco use. Brazil and the Netherlands are seeing success after implementing the six measures to control tobacco (MPOWER), with Brazil achieving a 35% reduction compared to 2010, and the Netherlands moving closer to achieving the target of 30%.
“There has been good progress in tobacco control in recent years, but time is no longer complacent,” says Dr. Rüdiger Kretsch, Director of WHO's Department for Health Promotion. “I am amazed at the lengths to which the tobacco industry will go to make profits at the expense of countless people.” "We see that just when a government thinks it has won its fight against tobacco, the tobacco industry seizes the opportunity to manipulate health policies and sell its deadly products."
The Organization urges countries to continue to develop tobacco control policies and to further combat tobacco industry interference.
The WHO South-East Asia Region currently has the highest percentage of the population who use tobacco, at 26.5%, and the European Region is not far behind, at 25.3%. The report shows that by 2030, the WHO European Region is expected to achieve the highest rates globally, with a prevalence of just over 23%. Tobacco use rates among women in the WHO European Region are more than double the global average and are declining much more slowly than in all other regions.
While the numbers have been steadily declining over the years, the world will achieve a relative reduction in tobacco use of 25% by 2025, falling short of the voluntary global target of reducing tobacco use by 30% from the 2010 baseline. This will not be achieved. The target is only 56 countries in the world, which is a decrease of four countries since the last report was issued in 2021.
The prevalence of tobacco use has changed little since 2010 in some countries, while six countries are still witnessing a rise in tobacco use: Congo, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Oman and the Republic of Moldova.
The Organization urges countries to accelerate their tobacco control efforts, as there is still much work to be done. The 2023 Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index, published by the global tobacco industry watchdog STOP and the Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control, shows that efforts to protect health policies from increasing tobacco industry interference have declined across the world. around the world.
Studies show that children between the ages of 13 and 15 in most countries use tobacco and nicotine products. To protect future generations and ensure continued decline in tobacco use, the organization will devote this year's World No Tobacco Day to the issue of protecting children from the interference of the tobacco industry.
The countries are scheduled to meet next month in Panama for the tenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), where the tobacco industry will attempt to influence global health policies by offering financial and in-kind incentives, interfering with human rights. Countries are committed to protecting the health of their populations. Strengthening the WHO Framework Convention is one of the global health priorities mentioned in the Sustainable Development Goals. WHO stands ready to support countries in defending evidence-based tobacco control measures against industry interference.
A new discovery may help prevent the spread of a virus that infects a million people around the world every year
Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have found long-awaited answers to questions about HIV transmission, which could lead to new ways to prevent the spread of the disease.
More than a million people worldwide are infected with HIV each year, and although the virus is not easily transmitted, when transmission does occur, it is usually caused by a single virus that has made its way past many different biological and cellular defences. The researchers' questions were: How and what are the factors that contribute to the successful transmission of infection?
Now researchers have identified what they believe is a previously unknown, but crucial, factor. They believe that successful transmission is influenced by the protein the virus makes and how that protein interacts with the virus's RNA.
Researchers say natural variation in this process could be a key factor in determining whether HIV is transmitted, especially during unprotected sex.
“Protecting people from becoming infected with HIV is a major public health goal,” said researcher Dr. Patrick Jackson, of the University of Virginia’s Thaler Center for Human AIDS and Retrovirus Research. “Our work to understand the transmission process of this virus could point the way toward better medications for prevention.” from him".
During untreated HIV infection, many different variants of the virus are created within one person. But when a new infection occurs, it is not the result of many viruses, but rather just one variant being transmitted. This is known as the "transport bottleneck," and scientists have struggled to explain it.
The University of Virginia researchers, including Jackson, David Rekosh, and Dr. Marie-Louise Hammarskjöld, say the "bottleneck" may result in part from differences in the viral Rev protein and how it interacts with a portion of viral RNA known as the Rev response element, or RRE. "(RRE). The interaction is necessary for the virus to copy itself in the cytoplasm inside our cells.
The researchers looked at Rev-RRE activity in viruses during vaginal transmission of HIV, and found that viruses that led to new infections tended to show low Rev-RRE activity. This suggests that naturally occurring variations in Rev-RRE activity may identify viruses that cause new infections. It may also allow the virus to adapt to different “viability schemes,” which can play a major role in how HIV spreads within a new person.
"This is new insight into HIV transmission," Dr. Hammarskjöld said. "If the Rev-RRE system is important here, it may also be important for other aspects of this disease, including how the virus infects for life."
The researchers explain that new information about a previously unknown factor in HIV transmission helps better understand how it spreads and could lead to new ways to stop it.
The results of this study were published in the scientific journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases.
That's good news!
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