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Babylon & Beyond

Observations from Iraq, Iran,
Israel, the Arab world and beyond

Category: Health

ISRAEL: Soccer legend's death puts organ donation debate in center field

January 5, 2011 |  6:46 pm

Avi_cohenOne of Israel's favorite winners, soccer legend Avi Cohen, lost the battle for his life last week, after 
  a critical injury in a motorcycle spill.

The 54-year-old athlete was a childhood hero of many, after making local history in 1979 as the first Israeli soccer player to sign with a big international team as defender for Liverpool and later with the Glasgow Rangers.

His son Tamir -- himself a promising footballer now playing in England -- had rushed home to be at his father's bedside.

Pray for him, he and the family asked supporters waiting for good news at the hospital and at home. They sought higher help too, meeting with rabbis who came to the hospital to give their blessings.

A week later, Cohen was pronounced brain dead. His heart stopped the following morning.

Fans observed a minute of applause on soccer fields on both sides of the ocean. Liverpoolers wished him a final farewell with their trademark 'YWNA' -- "you'll never walk alone."

Cohen's death united fans but also divided people in a debate about a sensitive issue: organ donation.

Brain death is the point at which relatives are approached for their consent to organ donation. The medical window of opportunity isn't always wide, around 12 hours in this case. Cohen had an organ donor card but his family couldn't bring themselves to act on it. 

Initially, they agreed. Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar reportedly called the family, personally urging them to approve; other rabbis discouraged them. Finally,the family decided against it.

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DUBAI: Obese journalist takes his battle of the bulge public in health campaign

December 20, 2010 |  9:26 am

Picture 5 Mohammed Khan, a severely overweight reporter at the Dubai-based English daily Gulf News, avoided getting rides in other people's cars because he was afraid he wouldn't be able to wrap the seat belt around his waist.

He didn't buy a scale, figuring it would break if he tried to step on it.

Khan, in his late 20s, became a recluse, spending long period of times alone at his apartment playing computer games and binge eating.

He had, in his own words, hit "rock bottom."

But after cholesterol problems that contributed to having his gall bladder removed, a diagnosis of diabetes and battling depression, the nearly 370-pound journalist decided it was time to take control of his life and get into shape, both for his own good and to spur public awareness about an apparent growing problem in his country.

Khan has pledged to lose 110 pounds in a publicized drive to fight obesity as part of Gulf News' recently launched campaign called "Cut the Fat," which aims to spread awareness about obesity prevention and healthful living in the United Arab Emirates.

"Many readers have written in sharing their personal stories; others have decided to lose weight and get healthy," Gulf News editor Abdul Hamid Ahmad told Babylon & Beyond about the campaign, which began in late November.

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MIDDLE EAST: Eid al Adha animal slaughter sparks debate in Muslim world

November 17, 2010 | 10:38 am

Sacrifice in Kuwait - Eid Nov 2010 Animal rights activists are speaking out against the treatment of millions of animals that will be killed and eaten during the Eid al Adha holiday, as suppliers and butchers are accused of ignoring religious edicts on humane slaughter.

On Friday, an Australian animal rights group reiterated its call for the Australian government to stop the sale of livestock to the Middle East after activists documented sheep in Kuwait and Bahrain allegedly being subjected to brutal treatment.

Australia is one of the largest exporters of livestock to the region, with trade totaling $297 million in 2009, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The group has already succeeded in banning livestock export to Egypt.

"In the same way that Christmas has become the peak time of animal suffering in the West with vast numbers of factory farmed animals slaughtered for Christmas celebrations, the Festival of Sacrifice is the worst time of animal suffering throughout the Middle East," the Animals Australia campaign homepage read.

A recent report in the Egyptian newspaper the Daily News featured butchers who admitted to ignoring Islamic hilal methods of slaughter in order to meet the high demand for meat. 

"Islam has put regulations for the slaughtering process ensuring that the animal is well treated before, during and after slaughtering and those who defy these rules are punished," Sheik Saber Taalab, former member of the Islamic Research Center in Cairo, told the paper.

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EGYPT: Is the government blowing smoke in anti-tobacco campaign

November 9, 2010 |  6:50 am

Antismokingx Mohammed Mustapha, a waiter in a Cairo cafe, likes to smoke, but he's not fond of the pictures the Egyptian government stamps on each pack of cigarettes: teeth rotted from gum disease, a limp cigarette suggesting impotence or a man with emphysema tethered to an oxygen mask.

With graphic advertising, new bans and taxes on tobacco, the Egyptian government seems serious about curbing the nation's epidemic number of smokers. But, as with many things in this country of 80 million, contradictions undermine appearances. Most Egyptians smoke Cleopatra cigarettes, manufactured by a company controlled by the government.

Egypt leads the Arab world in tobacco consumption. In 2009, the World Health Organization reported that 38% of Egyptian males use tobacco of some sort and that 32% smoke cigarettes. Females admit to much less smoking -- below 1% -- because it is taboo in this patriarchal culture.

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EGYPT: Hepatitis C infection reaches alarming figures

November 8, 2010 |  8:21 am

Large_BirthMideast_Egypt_Septupl_Meye

Egypt’s spiralling threat of hepatitis C virus – already the highest incidence rate in the world -- is alarming researchers who fear a potential epidemic of the blood-borne disease could spread across the most populous Arab country.

The findings of a recent study published in the National Academy of Sciences showed that more than 500,000 new HCV infection cases occur in Egypt every year.  Much of the problem behind the soaring infectious rates is poor healthcare oversight and erratic medical hygiene.

"Nearly seven out of every 1,000 Egyptians acquire HCV infections every year. This is the highest level of HCV transmission ever recorded at a national level for a disease transmitted by use of non-sterile medical instruments," says Dr. F. DeWolfe Miller, lead author of the study.

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SUDAN: Chilled warehouses offer escape from heat during Ramadan

August 19, 2010 |  8:40 am

DSC00145 (3)In an unusual way to escape the heat during the holy month of Ramadan, people in the Sudanese coastal city of Port Sudan pay $3 to rest in air-conditioned fruit warehouses from morning until dusk, saying it's the best way to endure the sweltering days of fasting.

The idea has become profitable for many fruit wholesalers, who push fruit aside to house more people. 

With less fruit available, and with the rainy season turning roads to mud and delaying new deliveries, prices rise in some parts of the country. In the capital, Khartoum, people also slip into warehouses, but they don’t pay as they do in Port Sudan.

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IRAN: Dangerous levels of nitrate in Tehran's drinking water reported

July 29, 2010 |  6:39 am
Amid reports that water in parts of Tehran may be tainted with high levels of toxic nitrate, the Ministry of Power has handed out free bottles of water to an underprivileged suburb south of the city.

Parliamentarian Hasan Ta’mini, a member of the Health and Medicare Commission, reported that authorities had hoped to address the water crisis within a week, though no solution has yet been announced.

Water consumption soars as the summer heat rises in densely populated Tehran. For neighborhoods and families struggling with overpopulation, endemic poverty and air pollution in the south, the heat, and dehydration, can be oppressive.

South tehran

The Water and Sewage Waste Organization, an agency of the Ministry of Power, recently dug new wells to expand the water supply. Though most of the drinking water for Tehran typically flowed from the reservoirs of Karaj Amirkabir Dam, one hour west of Tehran, 30% of the water is now coming from these wells.

Earlier this month, Health Minister Dr. Marziyeh Vahid Dasjerdi announced that the amount of nitrate found in the drinking water pipes in parts of Tehran exceeded the appropriate level, posing a serious threat to city-dwellers’ health.

The director-general of the Water and Sewage Waste Organization, Mohammad Parvaresh, denied the claim of a nitrate threat, claiming that all water was uncontaminated and safe to drink.

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EGYPT: Ministry takes legal action against sex change surgeon

July 22, 2010 |  7:49 am

Thumbmail2010-07-21+12_20_00_656X The Egyptian Minister of Health has shut down a clinic in Asyut while its owner is questioned on criminal charges of performing sex change operations. Plastic surgeon Mahmoud Eteifi was reported to the ministry by the Medical Syndicate for operating on a 22-year-old man who wanted to be a woman.

Gender transformation is illegal in Egypt unless the patient receives approval from the syndicate and the Ministry of Health. An applicant must be tested and scanned to prove the sex change is meant to overcome a physical problem and not for personal preference. Islam Salah Salem, who underwent the surgery to become Nora Salah Salem, has been moved to another hospital until he recovers from surgery the syndicate has criticized as a failure.

"Basically, what Eteifi did was remove Islam's male sex organ and injected his breasts with silicone. But apart from that, he is still physically a male without vagina, uterus or female ovaries," Amani Lutfi, undersecretary of the Ministry of Health, said.  

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UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Stricter smoking ban expected soon as anti-tobacco fervor sweeps Middle East

May 29, 2010 |  9:51 am

Shisha_smoker The United Arab Emirates may breathe easier under a strict ban on smoking, the details of which are still being hammered out five months after the actual bill was signed by President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National reported this week.

The new bylaws would ban smoking in all public places, including hotels, cafes and restaurants, and outlaw all forms of tobacco advertising. Even the ubiquitous nargileh, the traditional water pipe puffed across the region by teenagers and grandmothers alike, would be subject to tighter regulations.

The original law required only a partial ban on public smoking, and the wording was so vague that it could not be implemented, forcing health officials back to the drawing table.

They ultimately adopted more or less the exact language prescribed by the World Health Organization, banning even special smoking areas within public establishments and requiring smokers to stay at least 25 feet away from the entrance to a public building.

"We want to prevent the use of tobacco products in all public venues in the country. We want to fight this," Dr. Salim Adib of the Abu Dhabi Health Authority told The National. "I don’t think we should accept anything less than what is happening in Western Europe."

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DUBAI: Man posing as top U.S. plastic surgeon arrested in Dubai

April 8, 2010 |  9:46 am

Bilde Posing as a renowned U.S. plastic surgeon, Steven Moos managed to lure scores of patients into his Dubai villa with rosy promises of beauty at a low cost, according to officials.

In his underground clinic, he allegedly nipped and tucked and performed various delicate cosmetic surgery procedures on customers lying on top of his kitchen table. Some local media reports say the conditions were so primitive that Moos, apparently lacking adequate surgical equipment, threw removed fat from liposuction operations into a cooking pot.

The Dubai police arrested Moos in February and charged him with endangering the lives of patients, impersonating a physician and carrying out unlicensed activities, reported the United Arab Emirates-based English newspaper the National.

Several of Moos' patients are said to be suffering from serious complications.

Dr. Jeehan Qadir, executive director of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery in Dubai, said she has seen at least two women who went under Moos' knife.

"There is one lady who has had about 10 procedures on her lips by this man. It is all cuts," she told the National.

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MIDDLE EAST: Women's status up in Saudi Arabia, down in Syria, says study

November 11, 2009 |  7:13 am

Kuwait060109

The subject of women's rights in the Middle East is contentious. Sensational media coverage of honor killings and child brides equates religious conservatism with gender inequality, incensing Western feminists on the one hand and provoking regional backlashes on the other.

The reality is far more nuanced, according to the the 2009 Global Gender Gap Report released in late October by the World Economic Forum, which ranks countries based on women's economic participation, educational attainment, health and political empowerment.

In Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar -- socially conservative Persian Gulf countries that all rely on some form of Sharia Islamic law -- more women than men enroll in higher education, although they have yet to be fully incorporated into the workforce. 

Syria, on the other hand, which is ruled by a nominally secular regime, has slid in the rankings for the last three years. 

Iran scores low in the fields of economic, educational and health equality, but performs relatively well on political empowerment. 

Saudi Arabia and Egypt still hover near the bottom of the list, but have improved steadily since 2006. 

Yemen remained the lowest-ranked country in the world for the fourth year in a row.

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EGYPT: Students' dilemma as swine flu forces schools to shut down

November 11, 2009 |  6:45 am

Iphoto_1254755467272-1-0jpgThousands of parents have been left clueless about their children's fate after a number of private and public schools were forced to close as a result of the growing H1N1 infections.
 
The Ministry of Health announced this week that 466 confirmed cases of swine flu have been reported among students throughout the country. The increasing numbers prompted the Ministry of Education's decision to shut down at least 22 schools and quarantine students in dozens of classrooms in other schools that have remained open. 
 
The ongoing procedures have raised fear among parents, especially after the Ministry of Health said that a decision may be made to close schools nationwide if cases of pneumonia and H1N1 continue to rise. Many already doubt whether end-of-semester exams, originally scheduled for January, will be held as planned or not. 
 
"We really don't know what will happen; we paid our sons' full fees for the current school year and we are scared the ministry might end up closing down all schools," said a father of two boys studying in an international school in Cairo. 

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