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Shanghai To Relax One-Child Policy As China Faces Aging Population, Shrinking Work Force
Nearly three decades after China implemented its one-child policy, the city of Shanghai is planning to encourage young couples to have a second child in an effort to address the country"s aging population and shrinking work force, the New York Times reports. The city"s plan is the most public effort made by the government to counteract a program that is "considered both a tremendous success and a terrible failure," the Times reports. The policy has managed to keep population growth under control but also has led to forced abortions, according to the Times.The country is not abandoning the one-child policy, which applies mostly to residents in urban areas. Rather, the government is allowing more exceptions to the rule, with Shanghai -- where about 22% of its 20 million residents are older than age 60 -- leading the effort. China as a whole faces a similar problem seen in Shanghai, the Times reports. About 8% of the country"s population was older than age 65 in 2006. That figure is expected to increase threefold by 2050 to about 322 million people, or nearly 25% of the population, according to the United Nations.In Friday"s issue of China Daily, Xie Lingli, director of the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission, was quoted as saying, "We advocate eligible couples to have two kids because it can help reduce the proportion of the aging people and alleviate a work force shortage in the future." City officials plan to visit homes, pass out leaflets, and offer counseling and financial incentives, the Times reports. Current exceptions to the one-child policy are in place for ethnic minorities and rural residents, who can have a second child if the first child is a girl. Couples made up of two parents who have no siblings have always been allowed to have a second child and are now being encouraged to do so (Barboza, New York Times, 7/24).
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Discovery Of Tiny Protein-Activator Responsible For Brain Cell Damage In Huntington Disease
Johns Hopkins brain scientists have figured out why a faulty protein accumulates in cells everywhere in the bodies of people with Huntington"s disease (HD), but only kills cells in the part of the brain that controls movement, causing negligible damage to tissues elsewhere. The answer, reported this week in Science, lies in one tiny protein called "Rhes" that"s found only in the part of the brain that controls movement. The findings, according to the Hopkins scientists, explain the unique pattern of brain damage in HD and its symptoms, as well as offer a strategy for new therapy.
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Make National Labour Force Survey Compulsory
Medical practitioners should be required to participate in a new national medical labour force survey as part of their registration obligations, to assist workforce planning, according to an article published in this year"s General Practice edition of the Medical Journal of Australia.
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H1N1 Confirmed In Three More African Countries; Cambodia, Indonesia Confirm First Cases

The H1N1 (swine flu) virus has reached the sub-Saharan African countries of Cape Verde, Ethiopia and Ivory Coast, according to the WHO, the AP/Boston Herald reports. Last week, South Africa became the first country in the region to confirm a 12-year-old, who had returned from the U.S., tested positive for the H1N1 virus. "WHO says African countries are particularly vulnerable because of their fragile health care systems and the widespread presence of other health problems such as HIV and tuberculosis," the AP/Boston Herald writes (AP/Boston Herald, 6/24). There have been no newly confirmed cases of H1N1 in Ethiopia since two patients tested positive for the virus last week, according to the Ethiopian Minister of Health, Ethiopian Review reports (Tesfaye, Ethiopian Review, 6/24). The WHO and Cambodian health officials on Wednesday confirmed that a 16-year-old American girl visiting Cambodia has become the country"s first confirmed case of H1N1, Reuters reports. Also on Wednesday, health officials in Indonesia confirmed the country"s first cases of H1N1 in Jakarta and the island of Bali. "Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari ò€¦ said she was concerned that if H1N1 got a foothold in Indonesia there was a risk it could combine with the much deadlier H5N1 bird flu virus," Reuters writes (Madra, Reuters, 6/24). This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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