By Marjorie Gorospe
INQUIRER.net

PASAY CITY, Philippines – Multi-sectoral group Bravehearts and clothing company Maldita have recently announced an initiative, dubbed “Bitching Against Cervical Cancer,” an effort to promote awareness on preventing cervical cancer.

Maldita also unveiled an exclusive line of “statement shirts” that challenges women to “Out Cervical Cancer.” Part of the proceeds from the sale of this line of shirts will be given to cervical cancer victims through the Cervical Cancer Prevention Network program (CECAP), according to Eric Teng, Maldita’s marketing director.

Teng said his mother-in-law has been a carrier of the disease. It was this reason that prompted him to lead this initiative to help cancer survivors and help raise awareness about the condition.

Teng also believed that every woman should be aware about cervical cancer.

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By Kenneth Hartigan-Go

MUCH of the clamor now in the pharmaceutical sector, both globally and locally, calls for transparency in pricing to lower the cost of medicine. International and local organizations and alliances have been formed to clamor for it. Prices are monitored and compared within and between regions throughout the world. Various mechanisms have been placed to demand transparency in pricing worldwide. However, prices remain high and thus the clamor remains.

An important factor to consider why prices remain high is the inability of the government to systematize a transparent pricing mechanism. It is as if the imperfection of the market, its profit-maximizing nature, is irreversible and thus has to be accepted as innate. This should not be the case. There can be a better equitable way out of this. The government must put up a transparent mechanism in medicine pricing to influence the market to respond to the public’s call and moderate their profit-orientation. Though this first action will address the imperfection of the system, it is not enough. The second half of action involves addressing the market failure by developing a proper and responsive competitive pharmaceutical sector capable of undertaking science and technology activities.

The Philippine Government has tried to respond to the call for transparency. The Department of Health and PhilHealth have come up with Drug Price Reference Index (DPRI). It works basically under the principle of informing the public of the prices of medicines, as being sold in the market, thus giving them the choice. However, though the intention is good, it does not really address the problem of high medicine prices. The DPRI is not enough. It accepts that the market may impose high prices as long as there is a cheaper counterpart. And that regulation will be left with the market forces. Further, the assumption of the PhilHealth that the public is objective enough to choose a cheaper counterpart may not be completely true, as they may be shaped by the misleading advertisements. DPRI is only a short-term solution. Drug pricing in the Philippines remain non-transparent and drug prices remain high and access by the public is adversely denied.

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Here’s an interesting story about plans to probe the edge of our solar system by Agence France-Presse.

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON — NASA on Sunday launched a probe into orbit high above earth to study the distant edge of the solar system where hot solar winds crash into the cold outer space.

The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) was launched at 1745 GMT, according to images broadcast live by the US space agency.

The small probe was deployed on a Pegasus rocket which dropped from the bay doors of a Lockheed L-1011 jet flying at 12,000 meters (40,000 feet) over the southern Pacific Ocean near the Marshall Islands.

“The count went really smooth… and everything appears to be going well,” NASA assistant launch manager Omar Baez said shortly after the launch.

By Marjorie Gorospe
INQUIRER.net

IN an effort to promote awareness on Hemophilia, Laureen Kelly, founder of Save One Life and Project Share, went all the way to the Philippines to discuss hemophilia.

Hemophilia is an inherent and a lifelong blood disorder that prevents blood from clotting properly. A person with this kind of disorder suffers severe pain depending on the amount of clotting factor that is missing. A person with hemophilia experiences bleeding faster than normal people and they also suffer severe joint damage that may lead to disabilility and sometimes death.

In the Philippines, there are over 6,000 people with this disease but only 1,010 are registered with the National Hemophilia Center. With this, Kelley sees the need of medicine in the country, which would be very expensive. She is now working on helping out the carriers of the disease in coordination with the Hemophilia Association of the Philippines for Love and Service (HAPLOS).

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By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net

MANKIND has long been fascinated with time travel, fantasizing about machines that will transport us to the past. However, one need not wait for these futuristic inventions because within our reach are tools that can serve as windows to the past: fossils.

Yes, the fossil is a time machine.

In my video below, fossil collector Larry Gotauco further elaborates on what fossils are.

According to Gotauco, fossils are preserved matter or impressions from prehistoric animal or plant life — parts of the organism or its excrements such as plant sap or dinosaur dung.

“Unlike rocks which are non-living records of time, fossils were life preserved in stone,” he said.

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