Australia’s ‘Quit Nukes’ Campaign Targets Superannuation Funds

0 Comments read Nuclear Disarmament

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 22.11.2019 (IDN-InDepthNews): A new campaign is encouraging Australians to urge their superannuation funds to exclude nuclear weapons producers from their investments, consistent with the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which has been ratified by 33 states and needs another 17 ratifications to become enforceable under international law – 90 days after the fiftieth instrument of ratification.

A joint initiative of the Medical Association for Prevention of War (MAPW) and International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the Quit Nukes campaign is an Australian project that works in collaboration with Pax, the producers of the annual ‘Don’t Bank on the Bomb’ report, which documents the global financing of nuclear weapons.

Quit Nukes Director Margaret Peril said: “The campaign is initially targeting the Australian superannuation industry, which currently invests over two trillion US dollars on behalf of its members, making it one of the largest pension fund assets worldwide.”

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New dengue vaccine effective in clinical trials

0 Comments read Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 12 November 2019 (SciDev.Net): An experimental dengue vaccine has proved 80.2 per cent effective against virologically-confirmed dengue among children and teens aged 4—16 years in the 12 months after a second dose, according to results of phase 3 clinical trials.

“A vaccine with this kind of efficacy could have a substantial impact on public health,” says Derek Wallace, contributor to the trial results, published 6 November in The New England Journal of Medicine. According to the WHO, dengue is one of the top 10 threats to global health, infecting nearly 400 million people and killing up to 25,000 people worldwide annually. There is no specific treatment for the mosquito-borne viral disease, which causes flu-like symptoms, joint and muscle pain and, in severe cases, leads to haemorrhagic fever and death. It is now endemic in more than 100 countries, with Asia shouldering 70 per cent of the disease burden.

Continue reading on SciDev.Net Asia Pacific edition.

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Why Polio immunisation is a must

0 Comments read Disability, Health & Science, Poliomyelitis

Neena Bhandari speaks to SBS Hindi

“Polio still poses a threat because of the nature of global travel, any under-vaccinated area could potentially be at risk even in countries like Australia where polio has long since been eradicated…..Polio is only a flight away because there is a pool of unvaccinated people in Australia.”

Click here to listen and read more

© Copyright Neena Bhandari. All rights reserved. Republication, copying or using information from neenabhandari.com content is expressly prohibited without the permission of the writer and the media outlet syndicating or publishing the article.