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One-Third of U.S. Adults Are Obese, CDC Says

The adult obesity rate in the United States remains as high as ever, with one in three Americans carrying unhealthy amounts of weight, according to a new federal report.

The obesity rate has remained essentially unchanged for a decade, despite the large amount of attention focused on its threat to public health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

“It’s kind of a confirmation of what we saw last time, that the prevalence of obesity in adults may be leveling off,” said co-author Cynthia Ogden, a senior epidemiologist with the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. “From 2003-04 through 2011-12, there have been no statistical changes in obesity in adults.”

This persistent rate has proved frustrating to public-health experts, given that obesity is a leading risk factor for chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and arthritis.

“The goal of the human species since we evolved has been to have enough to eat, and we’ve gotten there. Unfortunately, it’s so plentiful we can take in more than [we] need,” said Matt Petersen, managing director of medical information and professional engagement for the American Diabetes Association. “The human body and brain is wired to take in more than a sufficient number of calories, and that’s a hard thing to change. We’re talking about really powerful aspects of our metabolism.”

The obesity epidemic continues to gnaw away at America’s economic potential. The U.S. economy loses an estimated $270 billion a year due to health care costs and loss of productivity associated with obesity and overweight, according to a 2011 report produced by the Society of Actuaries.

The CDC report found that nearly 35 percent of American adults are obese, with a body-mass index — a measurement of body fat based on height and weight — greater than 30. That equates to a person 5 feet 4 inches tall who weighs 175 pounds or more, or a person 5 feet 9 inches tall who weights 203 pounds or more.

The last estimate produced for 2009-10 found that 35.7 percent of adults were obese, Ogden said.

  • The report also included the following U.S. figures:
  • The prevalence of obesity is higher among middle-aged adults (39.5 percent) than among younger (30.3 percent) or older (35.4 percent) adults.
  • Overall, men and women have similar rates of obesity. However, 56.6 percent of black women were obese compared with 37.1 percent of black men.
  • Blacks have the highest obesity rate (47.8 percent), followed by Hispanics (42.5 percent) and whites (32.6 percent). Asians have the lowest obesity rate (10.8 percent).

“It just shows that we still have a lot of work to do,” said Rachel Johnson, a professor of nutrition at the University of Vermont and a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association. “We’re making a little bit of progress in childhood obesity — some very small declines, but it at least feels like we’re making some headway there. There are some small pockets in a few cities or states where we’ve seen a modest decline in childhood obesity, due to very aggressive interventions.”

The current means for battling obesity — dieting, bariatric (weight-loss) surgery, exercise — have so far proven unable to overcome the widespread availability of low-cost, high-calorie food, said Petersen at the American Diabetic Association.

The association has come up with a program for healthy eating and moderate exercise that is proving effective. “If we can successfully implement those programs at the community level nationwide, we are hopeful we will see a reduction in diabetes due to factors that should also address obesity,” he said.

But effectively tackling the adult obesity epidemic likely will involve structural changes in American society, Johnson said.

“My view is that we have to start making some pretty major environmental changes so we make the healthy choice the easy choice,” she said. “We’ve got to move beyond the idea that it’s all about personal choice and education, and we need to start making these environmental changes.”

She tossed out a few ideas — taxes to increase the price of unhealthy food, new ways to make healthy food cheaper and major employers offering healthy food in the workplace.

“The beginning of this century has got to be about behavior change,” Johnson said. “How do we help people make healthy choices, and how do we create an environment that’s conducive to good health?”

Read More : http://www.newsday.com/

TV watching linked to young adults’ heart risk

Watching a favorite television show may feel relaxing, but in a new study, the longer 30-somethings spent in front of the TV, the stiffer their arteries – a sign of likely heart disease in the future.

 “The fact that your arteries aren’t elastic, it predisposes you to develop hypertension in later age and cardiovascular disease,” Isabel Ferreira, senior epidemiologist at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, said.

Previous studies have linked TV watching to increased weight, cholesterol, blood pressure and diabetes, she and her colleagues write in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

It’s thought that people who spend more time in front of their TVs are less likely to get up and be physically active throughout the day, leading to a variety of problems associated with a sedentary lifestyle.

For the new study, researchers wanted to see whether early signs of damage caused by too little activity could be detected in younger adults.

They used data collected from 373 women and men, who filled out questionnaires about their TV viewing, exercise and other habits at age 32 and then again at age 36.

At age 36, each participant also had an ultrasound measurement of the stiffness of several major arteries in the body.

The researchers found those with the stiffest carotid artery, which is the main blood vessel in the head and neck, spent an average of about 20 more minutes per day watching TV, compared to people with the most elastic carotid artery.

Similar results were seen for stiffness of the femoral arteries in the legs.

Ferreira said the “critical cutoff” was about two hours per day of sitting. That’s in line with current recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics for maximum screen time for children.

What’s more, the negative effects of sitting did not appear to be offset by exercising.

“The funny thing is even if they do physical activity… that doesn’t correct the bad effects of sedentary time,” Ferreira said.

Joel Stager, a professor at the Indiana University-Bloomington School of Public Health, told Reuters Health that those with stiff arteries wouldn’t face immediate health problems. But it raises their risks later on.

“To be honest about this particular measure, it’s more of an association of future problems,” he said. “In other words, it’s predictive of cardiovascular disease down the road.”

Stager was not involved with the new study, but has researched arterial stiffening among college-age people.

“We are catching the early stages of this process,” Ferreira said.

Stager also added that the new study cannot prove watching TV is what caused people’s arteries to stiffen. It could be some other factor that goes along with TV watching, for instance, or young people with stiff arteries might be more likely to stay in and watch TV.

Ferreira told Reuters Health that more research into how watching TV may be tied to arterial stiffness is needed. But she said there is a take-home message for the average person.

“To put it simply, be active,” she said. “And on top of that don’t spend more than two hours sitting in front of your television, computer or laptop per day.”

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Oreo cookies are as addictive as drugs

If you’ve ever been unable to stop yourself from eating too many Oreo cookies it may not be your fault–a new college study says one of America’s favorite desserts is just as addictive as drugs in lab rats.

The study by students at Connecticut College found that when the rats ate Oreos they formed an equally strong association with the cookies as when other rats were injected with cocaine or morphine.

Additionally, researchers found eating the cookies activated even more neurons in the rats’ brain “pleasure centers” than the addictive drugs.

“Our research supports the theory that high-fat/ high-sugar foods stimulate the brain in the same way that drugs do,” Neuroscience Professor Joseph Schroeder said in a school press release. “It may explain why some people can’t resist these foods despite the fact that they know they are bad for them.”

The student behind the study says she wanted to explore how foods with high fat and sugar content contribute to obesity in low-income communities, and that the results are troubling.

“Even though we associate significant health hazards in taking drugs like cocaine and morphine, high-fat/ high-sugar foods may present even more of a danger because of their accessibility and affordability,” Jamie Honohun said.

On a lighter note, Honohun says they also got a surprise when watching the rats eat the Oreos.

“They would break it open and eat the middle first,” she said.

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New insect repellent could mean bye-bye to DEET

Researchers said Wednesday they had discovered four natural mosquito repellents to succeed DEET, a compound whose origins go back to World War II.

DEET — the abbreviation for N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide — was introduced by the US Army in 1946 after troops deployed in the Pacific theatre fell sick from malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases.
It remains the primary insect repellent in use today, but has many limitations. It has to be applied frequently and is expensive, which rules it out for combating disease in regions where malaria is endemic. It also dissolves types of plastic, synthetic fabrics and painted surfaces.

More worryingly, there is some evidence that flies and mosquitoes are developing resistance to it, and that the chemical disrupts an important enzyme in the mammalian nervous system called acetylcholinesterase.

In experiments that combined entomology and data-crunching computing, scientists at the University of California at Riverside uncovered four alternatives that may send DEET into retirement after 67 years.
“The candidates contain chemicals that do not dissolve plastic, are affordable and smell mildly like grapes, with three considered safe in human foods,” says their study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. “Our findings pave the way to discover new generations of repellents that will help fight deadly insect-borne diseases worldwide.”

The scientists’ first step was to understand how mosquitoes sense DEET and become repelled by it. For this, they turned to a cousin of the mosquito called the fruit fly, or Drosophila melanogaster, one of the most closely-studied lab creatures of all.

The answer, they found, lies in a receptor called Ir40a, found in nerve-system cells in a pit-like structure in the fruit fly’s antenna.

The next step was to look for an odor molecule that would fit and activate the receptor, rather like a key turns a lock. It also had to be a natural substance, found in fruits, plants or animals.
Screening exercise

The data pool proved to be a mini-ocean, comprising nearly half a million potential compounds. This was whittled down to nearly 200. Of these, 10 compounds seemed the most promising and were put to the test on fruit flies.

Of the 10, eight turned out to be good repellents on fruit flies. Four of them were then tested on mosquitoes, all of which worked.

The good news is that out of the four, three have already been approved as food flavours or fragrances by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Called methyl N,N-dimethyl anthranilate, ethyl anthranilate and butyl anthranilate, they can be applied to bed nets, clothes and curtains to ward off insects, say the scientists.

The secret behind the breakthrough was to locate the Ir40a receptor and develop an algorithm to screen potential chemicals, said Anandasankar Ray, an associate professor of entomology. Ir40a, according to the probe, is highly conserved; a scientific term meaning that it shows little signs of evolutionary change.

That, too, is good news. One of the problems for drug designers is when they face a moving target — a mutational shift in DNA that means the treatment becomes less effective. The receptor is also common across many flies and other insects that are a pest for humans and plants.

“Our findings could lead to a new generation of cheap, affordable repellents that could protect humans, animals and, in the future, our crops,” said Ray.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/health

Japan’s Fukushima : nuclear plant leaked toxic water

The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant said on Thursday another tank holding highly contaminated water overflowed, probably sending the liquid into the Pacific Ocean, in the second such breach in less than two months.

Recent site mishaps have returned Tokyo Electric Power Co, or Tepco, to the spotlight, calling into question its ability to execute a complex cleanup that could last decades. The company has vowed to monitor the tanks more closely and improve its water management.

Amid mounting international alarm, Japan’s government stepped in last month and said it would fund efforts to improvement water management at the plant.

The latest leaks show Tepco’s efforts to improve its handling of the contaminated water are not sufficient, Japan’s top government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, told reporters on Thursday. The government will take steps to deal with the water, he said, adding that he thought the situation was under control.

Tepco has been relying on hastily built tanks to hold excess cooling water flushed over damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi site, where three units suffered nuclear meltdowns and hydrogen explosions after a March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Tepco said the water that leaked contained 200,000 becquerels per liter of beta-emitting radioactive isotopes, including strontium 90. The legal limit for strontium 90 is 30 becquerels per liter.

The breach was discovered in a tank holding area away from where 300 metric tons (1 metric ton = 1.1023 tons) of toxic water escaped in August.

About 430 liters (113 gallons) of water spilled over a period of as much as 12 hours after a worker misjudged how much could be held by the tank, which is tilting because of an uneven location, Tepco spokesman Masayuki Ono told reporters.

The company is filling tanks to the brim as it does not have the capacity to accommodate the buildup of contaminated water, Ono said, adding that the water is likely to have flowed into a trench leading to the Pacific Ocean, about 300 m (330 yards) from the tank.

It is also pumping out accumulated rainwater in tank holding areas.

After repeated denials, Tepco admitted in July that contaminated water was flowing into the Pacific Ocean from the wrecked reactor buildings at Fukushima.

Measurable radiation from water leaking from the facility is mostly confined to the harbor around the plant, officials have said, and is not an environmental threat to other countries as the radiation will be diluted by the sea.

Tepco has been pumping hundreds of metric tons of water a day over the Fukushima reactors to keep them cool and storing the radioactive wastewater in tanks above ground.

It has also found high levels of radiation just above the ground near other tanks, suggesting widespread structural problems with the tanks.

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ICU patients often suffer long-term brain impairment

Imagine entering the intensive care unit with one illness like pneumonia – and then leaving with an entirely different debilitating health condition affecting your memory, organizational skills and overall quality of life

It turns out that long-term brain dysfunction is a reality that many patients must face after a stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), according to a new study  from Vanderbilt University Medical Center published in the New England Journal of Medicine.  

“As survival has increased from critical illness based on modern medical therapies, we see a lot of patients coming back with memory problems, problems doing day-to-day activities,” study author Dr. Pratik Pandharipande, a professor of anesthesiology and critical care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told FoxNews.com. “Patients are telling us just getting us thorough the ICU and being a survivor is not good enough. They say, ‘We want to be back to where we were before we were in the ICU.’”

In an effort to improve quality of life for ICU patients post-treatment, Pandharipande and his team set out to discover what was happening in the ICU that was causing patients to experience such high rates of debilitating cognitive impairment.

Researchers analyzed 821 patients who had been admitted to the ICU with respiratory failure, cardiogenic shock or sepsis. Overall, they discovered that three months after leaving the ICU, 26 percent of patients had cognitive impairment symptoms similar to those seen in early Alzheimer’s disease, and 40 percent of patients had levels of cognitive impairment comparable to those seen in concussion victims.

Additionally, these effects were still visible months later. A year after their initial hospital stay, 24 percent of the patients still demonstrated levels of cognitive impairment similar to Alzheimer’s disease and 34 percent were still experiencing concussion-like levels of impairment.

“Even patients below 50 years of age had significant cognitive impairment,” Pandharipande said. “Another significant finding was whether you had prior disease or not, you still had this risk.”

In seeking an explanation, Pandharipande and his colleagues focused on delirium – a condition commonly seen in the ICU and characterized by brain dysfunction leading to confusion, fluctuating mental status or decreased levels of consciousness.

“There are early studies looking at what delirium does to the brain, and what people have found is that patients who have longer durations of delirium have more brain atrophy, more inflammation…and this could potentially be the connection between delirium and long term cognitive impairment,” Pandharipande said.

The researcher’s suspicions proved correct. They ultimately discovered that the longer patients experienced symptoms of delirium in the ICU, the worse their cognitive impairment after their stay.

“A number of studies have shown in recent years that delirium is not an innocent bystander of ICU care but is a real issue associated with worse outcomes, longer time in the ICU, on ventilation, even a predictor of mortality,” Pandharipande  said. “And now, if you survive, it’s a predictor of cognitive impairment.”

Pandharipande and his colleagues are now exploring methods to reduce the duration of delirium in ICU patients.

“A couple of things that have already been studied and have an impact are reducing sedative exposure…and having patients alert and getting them mobilized faster out of ICU beds,” Pandharipande said. “Sitting, walking – all have been shown to reduce duration of delirium.”

The team hopes their research will also encourage physicians to offer patients cognitive rehabilitation in addition to the physical rehabilitation that is typically prescribed after a serious illness.

“We hope to bring awareness to this problem so…when patients start complaining early in recovery period, it’s not blown off, but people actually try to get them involved in therapy programs,” Pandharipande said.

Source: http://www.allvoices.com

Urgent action’ needed on child TB

Global health agencies have launched an action plan to reduce child deaths from tuberculosis (TB).

A report led by the World Health Organization says 74,000 lives could be saved each year through better diagnosis and treatment.

Funds of $120m (£74m) a year could have a major impact on children’s lives, including among those infected with both TB and HIV, say experts.

The action plan was unveiled in Washington on Tuesday.

Stakeholders include the WHO, Unicef, the Stop TB Partnership and a number of global TB agencies.

The steps outlined in this roadmap are simple and low-cost. We owe it to the children of the world to put this plan into action”

Dr Lucica Ditiu Stop TB Partnership

The Roadmap for Childhood TB: Toward Zero Deaths builds on the latest knowledge of the disease and highlights actions to prevent child deaths.

Each day almost 200 children under the age of 15 die from tuberculosis, while more than half a million fall ill every year, it says.

“Any child who dies from TB is one child too many,” said Dr Mario Raviglione, Global Tuberculosis Program director at WHO.

“TB is preventable and treatable, and this roadmap focuses on immediate actions governments and partners can take to stop children dying.”

The report says there is an urgent need to focus on children. Diagnostic tests and child-friendly drug formulations are lacking, and there is a need for better screening and awareness, it says.

“To get to zero TB deaths, we must focus on the most vulnerable groups and children are the most vulnerable of all,” said Dr Lucica Ditiu, executive secretary of the Stop TB Partnership.

“The steps outlined in this roadmap are simple and low-cost. We owe it to the children of the world to put this plan into action.”

Contagious infection

Tuberculosis is a contagious infection that mainly affects the lungs, but may spread to other parts of the body.

If not treated, it can damage the lungs to such an extent that a person cannot breathe properly.

Sometimes, people do not experience any symptoms for many months or even years after being infected.

TB can be treated with antibiotics but is sometimes fatal.

Source: http://www.medicalwebtimes.com/read/urgent_action_needed_on_child_tb/

5 healthy inspirations for you from Mahatma Gandhi’s life

The father of the  nation, Mohandas Karamchand ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi is arguably one of India’s most revered figures around the world. His teachings of ahimsa and non-violent civil disobedience rings true to this day and has inspired generations across the world, individuals as great as Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela and current White house incumbent  Barack Obama.  On the occasion of his birthday, we look back at five Gandhian nuggets of wisdom that can help  you live a more well-rounded life:

Fasting: Gandhiji fasted on a number of occasions, and one of his most memorable one was in Delhi – which carried on for 21 days – for the unity of Hindus and Muslims. While we definitely don’t expect you to fast for those many days, practising it once a week can definitely help detox your body. Fasting as we all know has definite health benefits – it gives your body the time to detox, use up unused sources of nutrition like fat, cleanses the stomach, helps it cope with any infections that might be present and can help relieve constipation. According to Ayurvedic principles, one should fast for at least one day in the week, and the type of fasting should be based on the person’s dosha – vata, pitta or kapha. In general it states that a vata person should not fast aggressively as it can cause more harm than good and people with pitta or kapha bodies can afford to fast more aggressively, to see benefits. (Read: Understanding Ayurveda: Know thy Doshas)

The Mahatma’s diet:  ’The body was never meant to be treated as a refuse bin, holding all the foods that the palate demands,’ he had famously said. His Brahmacharyan way of life led him to believe that our diet should be healthy and was also a key part of  learning self-restraint. He experimented with a variety of diets throughout his life and went completely vegan for six years refusing to even touch milk products. Finally, he gave in to his doctor’s demands and starting consuming goat milk which he found strengthening. In time he would include a host of milk products in his diet, realising the folly of his youth. His everyday food comprised a litre of goat’s milk, 150 gm cereals, 75 gm leafy vegetables, 125 gm other vegetables, 25 gm salad, 40 gm ghee or butter, and 40-50 gm jaggery or sugar. Any modern-day dietician would be hard pressed to find a healthier, all-rounded diet!

Also, in this day and age, with obesity rates spiralling out of control we would do well to heed his advice on diet and control our gluttony. And there’s quite a case to be made for following his vegetarian diet, after all it helped him vanquish the most powerful empire of its time.

Non-violence: One of his most memorable teachings, Bapuji professed that non-violence or ahimsa  is the path to freedom and the best way to achieve your goals. So how does this translate to your life? Well, you might not be physically violent but we all know that certain stressors do tend to push us towards the edge. The principle of non-violence teaches us that being patient and calm in the face of a crisis is the best way to handle a sticky situation. So, the next time you are cornered into a tough corner, remember to be calm and think clearly. This not only reduces stress, but also beats conditions like hypertension and heart disease. Not to mention the added benefits of helping you fight off the temptation to smoke, drink or binge eat due to stress. If you are a person who gets exasperated often, try meditation or deep breathing to help you cope with the situation.

Early to bed and early to rise: Though Gandhiji himself needed only four to five hours of sleep, he believed that this pattern of sleeping early and rising before sunrise is the best way to optimise one’s body and mind. Wondering what you can learn from this? Well, the human body requires enough sleep to rest and repair itself. So get enough shuteye every night. Waking up early helps you gives you more time at hand, to do the umpteen things you normally don’t have time to; like working out. The best part about this cycle is that when you workout in the morning your body responds optimally and you will be able to sleep well at night!

Walking: The Dandi March, spearheaded by Bapuji was probably the most well known movements to oppose the salt tax. He walked a whopping 390 kilometres in protest and even though he started with only a few, Gandhiji was soon followed a crowd of over 10,000 people and we would do well to follow Bapu’s lead. Walking is probably the most beneficial cardio workout. It keeps the heart rate up, burns calories, and strengthens your core, thigh and calf muscles. Studies have shown that walking for just about fifteen minutes a day, helps keep conditions like diabetes and heart disease at bay. So, just like the Mahatma indulged in walking – be it walking up a flight of stairs, around your office building or just making it a regular practice to go for walks around your neighbourhood garden – it could be the best thing you could do for your body.

Source: Zee news

1 in 8 people around the world go hungry, UN finds

A report from U.N. food agencies shows about 842 million people, or 12 percent of the world's population, were suffering from chronic hunger.

A report from U.N. food agencies shows about 842 million people, or 12 percent of the world’s population, were suffering from chronic hunger.

MILAN — One in eight people around the world is chronically undernourished, the United Nations’ food agencies said Tuesday, warning world leaders that some regions would fail in halving the number of hungry by 2015.

In their latest report on food insecurity, the U.N. agencies estimated that 842 million people were suffering chronic hunger in 2011-13, or 12 percent of the world’s population, down 17 percent from 1990-92.

The new figure was lower than the last estimate of 868 million in 2010-12 and 1.02 billion in 2009, but the report said progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goal to halve the prevalence of hunger in the world by 2015 was uneven.

Many countries were unlikely to meet the goal adopted by world leaders at the United Nations in 2000, said the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Program (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

“Those (countries) that have experienced conflict during the past two decades are more likely to have seen significant setbacks in reducing hunger,” the report said.

“Landlocked countries face persistent challenges in accessing world markets, while countries with poor infrastructure and weak institutions face additional constraints.”

FAO, WFP and IFAD define undernourishment, or hunger, in the State of Food Insecurity in the World 2013 report as “not having enough food for an active and healthy life” and an inability to “meet dietary energy requirements.”

Policies aimed at boosting agricultural productivity and food availability were crucial in reducing hunger even where poverty was widespread, the agencies said.

“When they are combined with social protection and other measures that increase the incomes of poor families to buy food, they can have an even more positive (effect) and spur rural development,” they said.

Remittances, three times larger than official development assistance, have had a significant impact on food security by leading to better diets and reduced hunger, they said.

The vast majority of people suffering hunger, or 827 million, live in developing countries, where the prevalence of undernourishment is estimated at 14.3 percent, the report found.

Africa remains the region with the highest prevalence of undernourishment, with more than one in five people estimated to be undernourished, while most of the undernourished people are in southern Asia.

Source: http://news.msn.com

Multiple sclerosis cases hit 2.3 million worldwide

The number of people living with multiple sclerosis around the world has increased by 10 percent in the past five years to 2.3 million, according to the most extensive survey of the disease to date.

The debilitating neurological condition, which affects twice as many women as men, is found in every region of the world, although prevalence rates vary widely.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is most common in North America and Europe, at 140 and 108 cases per 100,000 respectively, while in sub-Saharan Africa the rate is just 2.1 per 100,000, the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation’s Atlas of MS 2013 showed on Wednesday.

The atlas also confirmed that MS occurs significantly more in countries at high latitude, with Sweden having the highest rate in Europe and Argentina having more cases than countries further north in Latin America.

The reason for the link to high latitudes is unclear but some scientists have suggested that exposure to sunlight may reduce the incidence of the disease.

The survey found big increases in the number of medical experts trained to diagnose MS and help patients with treatment, while the number of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines available to carry out scans has doubled in emerging countries.

But huge disparities remain when it comes to access to modern disease-modifying drugs.

MS medicine has seen a number of advances in recent years, particularly with the introduction of a new generation of oral therapies such as Novartis’ Gilenya, Biogen Idec’s Tecfidera and Sanofi’s Aubagio.

These medicines offer an effective alternative to older disease-modifying treatments that are given by injection.

The survey found that injectable drugs like Biogen’s Avonex and Teva’s Copaxone were partly or fully funded in 96 percent of high-income countries, while Gilenya was available in 76 percent.

However, none of these drugs was available under government programs in low-income countries.

Source: www.foxnews.com