A nurse checks the temperature of each student before they enter the classroom at the Philippine National School.
A nurse checks the temperature of each student before they enter the classroom at the Philippine National School.

Obesity risk in swine flu confirmed by research



Abu Dhabi // French researchers have shown that people who are obese or diabetic are significantly more vulnerable to the swine flu virus than other people. The study by the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance found that either diabetes or obesity was present in more than a quarter of patients with an underlying disease who died of H1N1.

These metabolic syndromes affect a significant portion of the UAE's population. Official figures released earlier this year by the Ministry of Health showed that 68 per cent of people living in the UAE were overweight or obese. The ministry's survey also showed that about 18 per cent of people in the UAE have diabetes, and a further 12 per cent are borderline diabetics. The World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a stark warning on Friday about a second wave of the swine flu pandemic and the dangers posed by chronic diseases such as asthma and diabetes.

Obesity, which is now a global epidemic, was "frequently present in severe and fatal cases", it said. A special adviser for the Eastern Mediterranean office of the WHO said that in the light of continuing research into risk factors, governments needed to change their approach to H1N1. Dr Zuhair Hallaj said countries should implement strict procedures for potential H1N1 cases where there were also notable risk factors. Any patient with a chronic illness who reported influenza-like symptoms should be treated as a severe cases from the onset.

"They should be treated with Tamiflu at the very beginning," he said yesterday. "Usually if they are treated the risk is very low. The problem would be if these people got the flu or something similar thought it was something minor and did not visit a physician. "Of course not all these people would have complications, but a certain percentage certainly would." Dr Hallaj said those without underlying conditions who develop flu-like symptoms should stay at home and rest. They would be risking antibiotic resistance in the future and unnecessary side-effects from medication if they automatically sought treatment and took anti-flu drugs. "We have been getting flu since we were five or six years old and we didn't take Tamiflu every year did we? The best treatment for healthy people is rest," Dr Hallaj said. Because of the climate in the UAE and many other Gulf countries, the region had yet to experience the full force of the first wave of the pandemic, he said.

"I don't expect this to happen until around October and November when people start to socialise a lot more as the weather cools." Individual figures for the number of cases in the UAE have not been released by the Ministry of Health. The obesity study, which was published in the medical journal Eurosurveillance, examined the characteristics of 574 deaths associated with the virus since the start of the global outbreak until the middle of July. It identified pregnancy and obesity as two major risk factors. It added, however, that the question of obesity needed to be analysed further to determine whether it played "a specific role in the pathogenesis of severe influenza H1N1 infection" or contributed to risk in some less direct way.

According to the researchers, the presence or absence of underlying disease was documented for 53 per cent of the cases with individual data. Of the 53 per cent, 90 per cent had an underlying disease. Diabetes and obesity were the most frequently identified underlying conditions, researchers said. The report said: "The pandemic, however, is far from over, and deaths will unfortunately continue to occur."

munderwood@thenational.ae

Europe’s rearming plan
  • Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
  • Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
  • Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
  • Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
  • Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
ICC T20 Team of 2021

Jos Buttler, Mohammad Rizwan, Babar Azam, Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, David Miller, Tabraiz Shamsi, Josh Hazlewood, Wanindu Hasaranga, Mustafizur Rahman, Shaheen Afridi

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Kat Wightman's tips on how to create zones in large spaces

 

  • Area carpets or rugs are the easiest way to segregate spaces while also unifying them.
  • Lighting can help define areas. Try pendant lighting over dining tables, and side and floor lamps in living areas.
  • Keep the colour palette the same in a room, but combine different tones and textures in different zone. A common accent colour dotted throughout the space brings it together.
  • Don’t be afraid to use furniture to break up the space. For example, if you have a sofa placed in the middle of the room, a console unit behind it will give good punctuation.
  • Use a considered collection of prints and artworks that work together to form a cohesive journey.
The bio

Academics: Phd in strategic management in University of Wales

Number one caps: His best-seller caps are in shades of grey, blue, black and yellow

Reading: Is immersed in books on colours to understand more about the usage of different shades

Sport: Started playing polo two years ago. Helps him relax, plus he enjoys the speed and focus

Cars: Loves exotic cars and currently drives a Bentley Bentayga

Holiday: Favourite travel destinations are London and St Tropez

The Africa Institute 101

Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction. 

The Old Slave and the Mastiff

Patrick Chamoiseau

Translated from the French and Creole by Linda Coverdale

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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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A State of Passion

Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi

Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah

Rating: 4/5

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Analysis

Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more

Directed by Sam Mendes

Starring Dean-Charles Chapman, George MacKay, Daniel Mays

4.5/5