A new audit report issued by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) shows that osteoporosis is a serious and growing problem throughout Asia.

Gathering data from 14 Asian countries, regions or territories, 'The Asian Audit' is a landmark report examining epidemiology, costs and burden in individual countries as well as collectively across the region. The report's key findings include:

A major increase in fractures is predicted for Asia as a whole

Already hip fracture incidence has risen 2-to 3-fold in most Asian countries over the past 30 years. Furthermore, it is expected that due to expanding populations and increasing longevity, half of the world's fractures will occur in Asia by 2050.

The prevalence of osteoporosis and fractures is severely underestimated

The belief that osteoporosis is rare in Asia as compared to Western countries has been exposed as a myth. Vertebral fractures are as common in Asians as in Caucasian populations, and as in Western countries, very few of these fractures are diagnosed. Over the past four decades the number of hip fractures increased by 300% in Hong Kong, and by 500% in Singapore. In Japan the number of fractures in people over 75 increased dramatically over the span of 12 years. In mainland China, formerly considered a 'low risk' area, almost 70 million people over the age of 50 suffer from osteoporosis, resulting in some 687,000 hip fractures per year.

Vitamin D deficiency and low calcium intake is widespread

Widespread vitamin D deficiency and low calcium intake may be in part responsible for the alarming increase in osteoporosis. Nearly all Asian countries outlined in the report are far below the FAO/WHO recommendations for calcium intake ranging from 1000-1300 mg/day for adults. The average dietary calcium intake for the adult Asian population is approximately 450 mg/day.

Fractures represent a huge personal, social and economic burden

A cost explosion related to the treatment of fractures has been observed in Asia. In China the average length of hospital stay for a hip fracture is greater than that for breast cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer or heart disease. In Hong Kong, China, it is estimated that the acute hospital care cost of hip fracture may amount to 2% of the total hospital budget.

Osteoporosis remains a neglected disease, with great urban-rural disparity

Notwithstanding the burden of fragility fractures, osteoporosis remains greatly under diagnosed and under treated, and both health professional training and public awareness is sub optimal in most countries. With few exceptions, there is a serious lack of solid epidemiological data and research. In addition, DXA technology, considered the gold standard for measurement of bone mineral density, is not widely available or easily accessible in most developing Asian countries. At present most treatments, prevention and education efforts are limited to urban areas, whereas people in rural areas have little knowledge of osteoporosis or access to prevention programs, and diagnostic and treatment facilities. In the most populous countries like China and India, the majority of the population lives in rural areas (60% in China), where hip fractures are often treated conservatively at home instead of surgically in hospitals.

The result: premature death for as many as one in five, immense personal suffering, lost productivity and long-term dependence on family members.

Despite the severity of the problem, osteoporosis is being dangerously ignored as it competes with other diseases for scarce healthcare resources and recognition.

Together with local osteoporosis societies in the region, IOF urges immediate government action to prevent the rising tide of fractures which will have a profound socio-economic impact on millions of people and communities throughout Asia.

The world's only eye clinic operating out of an aircraft touched down at Jaipur's Sanganer Airport on Sunday.

The DC 10 aircraft is a functioning eye hospital with the latest machines on board. It has a laser treatment centre, operation theatre, nursing and biomedical engineering training areas along with sitting capacity of 48 people.

"This is the only plane in the entire world and the only flying eye hospital. Inside the plane we have a surgical suite, recovery room, audio-visual centre and a communication centre. We used this plane to help trained local medical professional specialists in eye care," says Perry Athanason, Communication Manager, Flying Hospital, ORBIS.

The motive behind introducing the flying eye hospital is to cure blind people and to exchange knowledge from international experts as it flies to other destinations, world-wide.

"The main concept behind this is teaching. We wish to engage with the surgeons here in order to teach them the skills they would like to learn from us. In this process we would like to learn a lot from them too," Robert Walters, Chairman of Trustees (United Kingdom), ORBIS.

The eye hospital will stay at Jaipur airport till October 3 and would operate on around five eye patients per day.

Amendments in the Medical Council of India (MCI) regulations will open the floodgates for hundreds of non-resident Indian (NRI) doctors to come back to their roots. MCI has eased the cross-over rules and has set a target of bringing back 5,000 Indian doctors, including teachers, settled in US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

MCI has removed the main bottleneck by recognising the postgraduation and other degrees of these specific countries where health facilities are supposedly best in the world and the education was done in English medium. They have the choice of coming back to teach in a private or government college as well as work in a private or government hospital. Also, they can set up their own medical colleges and hospitals. Indian doctors in these countries are the richest segment even among NRIs.

Apart from accepting foreign degrees, the MCI has made special provision so that foreign experience is also counted. For example, if there is a professor of medicine in a US university, with the required number of years of experience to become one in India, he can be hired as a professor by any medical college in India. This will bring about a huge change not only in the cities but also in the countryside, if the doctors returning home really go deeper into their roots. Besides, MCI also sees the possibility of groups of NRI doctors coming back and pooling in their resources to build hospitals and medical colleges.

For marketing the concept, MCI has teamed up with the Indian Medical Association, Association of American Physicians of India and British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin to host an event in New Delhi on January 2-4.

As per a new research by University of Michigan scientists there could soon be the the first effective vaccine to prevent urinary tract infections.

Urinary tract infections, that affect 53 percent of all women and 14 percent of men at least once in their lives, are painful and recur all too often with no apparent cause.

U-M scientists screened thousands of bacterial proteins and identified three strong candidates to use in a vaccine to prime the body to fight Escherichia coli, the cause of most uncomplicated urinary tract infections.

The vaccine prevented infection and produced key types of immunity when tested in mice.

"The results of our study are very encouraging. We would like to connect with interested clinicians and move on to a clinical trial," says Harry L. T. Mobley, Ph.D., the study's senior author and the Frederick G. Novy Professor and chair of the U-M Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

As compared to the past attempts at developing the vaccine, U-M's potential vaccine has several strong points that may better its chances of success where other attempts have failed:

• It alerts the immune system to iron receptors on the surface of bacteria that perform a critical function allowing infection to spread.

• Administered in the nose, it induces an immune response in the body's mucosa, a first line of defense against invading pathogens. The response, also produced in mucosal tissue in the urinary tract, should help the body fight infection where it starts.

Who needs a vaccine:

UTIs are of particular concern for people with repeated infections who may develop resistance to antibiotics commonly used as treatment. Factors that heighten the need for a vaccine, at least for people at greater-than-average risk, include increasing antibiotic resistance, allergic reactions and the unhealthy effects of antibiotics on beneficial microorganisms in the gut. Infections in the upper urinary tract are a particular concern in children, who may be left with permanent kidney damage.

Four out of five uncomplicated urinary tract infections, the type that sickens otherwise healthy people, are caused by certain strains of E.coli capable of infecting the urinary tract. Other types of E. coli not implicated in urinary tract infections include those that cause food poisoning outbreaks, as well as beneficial ones that live in the digestive tract.

ATLANTA — The first doses of swine flu vaccine may all be the nasal spray version, government health officials said Friday.

The government has said a trickle of vaccine will be available in early October, but on Friday they defined the size of that trickle — an estimated 3.4 million doses.

Currently it looks like all of them will be a nasal spray vaccine that is approved only for healthy people ages 2 to 49, said Dr. Jay Butler, an official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The nasal spray, called FluMist, is not recommended for some of the people most in danger of severe swine flu complications. That includes pregnant women, children younger than 2, and people with asthma and other chronic respiratory diseases.

However, it's possible that some vaccine shots will become available by the first week of October as well, said Butler, chief of the CDC's swine flu vaccine task force.

Flu shots are made of killed influenza virus, while FluMist is a live but weakened strain. The nasal spray is only approved in the United States, and is made by the Maryland-based MedImmune, an AstraZeneca PLC subsidiary. Four other companies are making flu shots for the U.S.

The initial vaccine doses will go to up to 90,000 sites, including schools and clinics, across the U.S. State health departments will determine which offices and clinics get the shots, and whether health care workers or others get the first doses, Butler said at a CDC press conference Friday.

The government has ordered 195 million doses and may order more if there's enough demand. Butler said it's good news that the flow of vaccines will start soon.

"When we open the faucet, there won't be a puff of smoke. There will be vaccine," he said.

FluMist was designed with kids in mind, and the company's research suggests it is more effective in youngsters than a shot in the arm against seasonal flu.

Studies in adults have found that shots are more effective. Some researchers think that's because adults have had longer exposure to flu viruses and flu vaccines and their immune systems don't respond as dramatically to the live-virus vaccine.

Dr. Daniel Jernigan, deputy director of the CDC's influenza division, said there's not that much difference in effectiveness between age groups. "Either is better than nothing," he added.

One dose of vaccine should be enough for adults and older children, whether it's a shot or a spray. However, two doses probably will be needed for children younger than 10, CDC officials said.

Typically fewer than 100 million Americans get a flu vaccine every year, and it's unclear whether swine flu will prompt more demand. A recent Associated Press-GfK poll found 57 percent of people said they were likely to get it.

Twenty-one states are now reporting widespread cases of swine flu, CDC officials said Friday.

The CDC says swine flu hasn't proven to be more dangerous than seasonal so far, but it tends hit to younger people harder than traditional flu.

Because seasonal flu causes an estimated 200,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths, that's still a serious health threat, officials said.