Problems and Prospects: Public Health Regulation of Dietary Supplements

Dietary supplements are a global business worth more than US$100 billion annually. These supplements are taken by up to 50% of adults and perhaps one-third of children in economically advanced economies. Definitions of dietary supplements differ from country to country, and regulation is generally lax and often seems to be directed more toward promoting commerce than protecting public health. Supplements may directly cause toxic reactions or may interact with other supplements or pharmaceuticals. Some supplements are found to have been contaminated with heavy metals, and others do not contain the expected quantities of active ingredients. In general, supplements are not needed except in cases of established deficiencies, and excess of some nutrients can increase cancer rates. There are important public health reasons for taking some supplements, including folate and iodine in pregnancy. This review discusses the public health concerns associated with dietary supplements and suggests directions for further regulation

Antimicrobial Natural Products

Although the first antibiotic, penicillin, was discovered in 1928 from a microbial natural source (a mould, Penicillium notatum), there is earlier evidence of using natural materials including moulds and herbs for the treatment of infections. Following the serendipitous discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming, there have been hundreds of antibiotics (natural, semisynthetic and synthetic) discovered for clinical uses. However, the pathogenic organisms have developed resistances to existing antibiotics though various mechanisms. Such antibiotic resistance or antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a critical problem of today’s healthcare system urging the development of new antibiotics. This chapter has primarily focused into antimicrobial compounds developed through natural routes that are currently available as antibiotics for clinical uses and/or are at various developmental stages within the drug development pipeline for potential treatment of minor and life threatening infections. The chapter also provides an overview on the catastrophic problem of antimicrobial resistance, its causes, how it spreads as well as modes of developing antimicrobial resistance (AMR)

Civil society leadership in the struggle for AIDS treatment in South Africa and Uganda

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.This thesis is an attempt to theorise and operationalise empirically the notion of ‘civil society leadership’ in Sub-Saharan Africa. ‘AIDS leadership,’ which is associated with the intergovernmental institutions charged with coordinating the global response to HIV/AIDS, is both under-theorised and highly context-specific. In this study I therefore opt for an inclusive framework that draws on a range of approaches, including the literature on ‘leadership’, institutions, social movements and the ‘network’ perspective on civil society mobilisation. This framework is employed in rich and detailed empirical descriptions (‘thick description’) of civil society mobilisation around AIDS, including contentious AIDS activism, in the key case studies of South Africa and Uganda. South Africa and Uganda are widely considered key examples of poor and good leadership (from national political leaders) respectively, while the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) are both seen as highly effective civil society movements. These descriptions emphasise ‘transnational networks of influence’ in which civil society leaders participated (and at times actively constructed) in order to mobilise both symbolic and material resources aimed at exerting influence at the transnational, national and local levels