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Migration and public health in Europe

Cristina Da RoldLascia un commento

Reblogged from Science on the Net

Talking about public health in Europe today also means talking about migration. Nowadays, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 73 million migrants are estimated to be living in the European Region, accounting for nearly 8 percent of the total population, and 11 million immigrants have arrived in Europe in 2013. The point is that the word immigration has several meanings: it means people who choose to come and live in Europe for study and work; it means the difficult stories of those who have to leave their families to come to work as a domestic worker; last but not least, it means fleets of people crammed into small boats putting their lives in the hands of luck. This last phenomenon represents one of the biggest challenge for European health policy.

Although involving the whole of Europe, the problem of the ongoing management of migration flows does not affect all countries equally. Since the beginning of the crisis in North Africa in 2011, the Mediterranean countries have been experiencing a continuous state of emergency, due to the uncontrolled arrival of migrants fleeing from their countries, and the weakness of the infrastructure, often incapable to stem such a phenomenon. Although some places in the Mediterranean area are at the centre of the migratory routes, Italy was not the country with the largest number of immigrants in 2013.

In fact, according to WHO, France, Germany, the UK and Sweden have welcomed many more immigrants in 2013 than Italy. And even if we consider the totality of migration worldwide, Italy is not on the top of the rank.

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Health in Europe. Improvement through cooperation

Cristina Da RoldLascia un commento

Reblogged from Science on the Net

Talking about the European Region does not mean speaking of a homogeneous situation, also from the point of view of health. To realize how complex and articulated the European scenario is, just think that in Ukraine, Romania, Moldova and Turkey twice as many children die before the age of five if the figures are compared with so-called industrialized countries. Not to mention the infectious diseases, the use of alcohol and tobacco, which reflect a Europe still deeply layered and with several countries still extremely dependent on their history.

The issue is not trivial because if it is true that Europe wants to brand itself as a unique community and pursue common objectives, it is necessary to take the issue of health policies very seriously. Health is in fact a major resource and asset for societies, because good health benefits all sectors, including economic growth.

This is the viewpoint of the World Health Organization that in September 2012 has launched Health 2020, the new European policy framework for health and well-being, involving the 53 Members States of the WHO European Region. The philosophy of Health 2020 is very clear: its aim is not to make national and local health systems even but to make them evenly better. This is at once a challenge and a turning point. A challenge that basically translates into two points: first, the need to improve health for all and reduce the health divide and, moreover, the need to strengthen leadership and participatory governance for health. 

Specifically, Health 2020 is based on four priority areas: investing in health through a life-course approach and empowering people; tackling the most important challenges of noncommunicable and communicable diseases; strengthening people-centred health systems and, finally, creating resilient communities and environments.

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Alcol: un russo ne beve come due italiani e mezzo

Cristina Da RoldLascia un commento

Reblogged from WIRED ITALIA

Sono 3,3 milioni le morti causate dall’alcol nel 2012 a livello mondiale, secondo l’Oms. L’Italia non se la cava male, ma in Veneto e Lombardia è record di gruppi di aiuto

L’abuso di alcol rappresenta in Italia, soprattutto nelle regioni del Nord, un problema molto diffuso, tanto che ad oggi anche solo considerando la rete Alcolisti Anonimi, nel nostro paese sono presenti più di 450 gruppi, un quarto dei quali in Veneto. A ben vedere però l’Italia non sembra posizionarsi male rispetto alla media europea quanto ad abuso di sostanze alcoliche, almeno da quanto emerge dal report pubblicato qualche giorno fa dall’Organizzazione Mondiale della Sanità, intitolato Global status report on alcohol and health, che mappa il consumo di alcol a livello mondiale e nazionale. Secondo l’OMS nel 2012 le morti legate al consumo di alcol nel mondo sono state 3,3 milioni, più o meno come se in un solo anno fossero spariti tutti gli abitanti della Toscana. È un dato, quello delle morti al livello mondiale per una qualche causa, che desta sempre parecchio scalpore, ma in questo caso sono i dati relativi alle singole aree geografiche a raccontare una storia più interessante.

Quanti sono i bevitori nei vari continenti? E soprattutto, quanti sono gli astemi? La situazione già a prima vista è fortemente disomogenea, e ciò è dovuto al fatto che dal punto di vista culturale – religioso soprattutto – le usanze delle varie popolazioni in merito sono assai diverse. Ne è esempio il caso del Medio Oriente, con una percentuale di adulti astemi, dove con popolazione adulta si intendono gli individui sopra i 15 anni, molto alta, sfiorando, secondo dati OMS relativi al 2010, il 90%. In assoluto sono comunque i paesi cosiddetti “occidentali” ad avere le più basse percentuali di astemi, e in questa occasione noi europei battiamo addirittura i cugini americani. Sempre riguardo la mappatura degli individui astemi, in Italia le persone che negli ultimi 12 mesi non hanno fatto uso di alcol sono di più rispetto alla media europea, un terzo del totale, contro un sesto di media in Europa, ed è inutile dirlo, sono le donne a bere di meno.

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