This Week in Medicine

Transgender rights On July 1, a new law on transgender rights will come into force in the Netherlands, allowing transgender people to change the gender designation on their official identity documents. Individuals aged 16 years and older will be able to apply to change their gender designation without having undergone any medical interventions.

Partners together The third Partners’ Forum will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from June 30 to July 1. Global health professionals, policy makers, business leaders, advocates, and youth leaders will come together to review progress, identify factors for success, and agree on commitments for action to help women, babies, children, and adolescents to survive and thrive.

Preventing blindness The Fred Hollows Foundation has launched three 5-year projects in Pakistan aimed at eliminating avoidable blindness by 2020. The projects will include pilot programmes for glaucoma, retinopathy of prematurity, and corneal opacity. They could contribute about 50 000 cataract surgeries, in collaboration with public and private health-care providers.

Chile BBQ source Chile’s football fans have been asked to refrain from having traditional barbecues after watching their team play in the World Cup. Public health offi cials are concerned that the concerted clouds of smoke from charcoal cookouts are worsening Santiago’s existing problems with smog and poor air quality.

Alaska bar tests Starting in December, 2014, researchers from the University of Alaska will provide free pregnancy tests at 20 bars and restaurants in the US state, along with warnings against drinking while pregnant. The state-funded study is an attempt to reduce the high incidence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder in Alaska.

HIV in migrant workers On June 18, the China Red Ribbon Foundation launched an annual programme to promote knowledge about HIV/AIDS prevention among the more than 260 million migrant workers in China. 13 provinces across China are participating in the programme, with university students volunteering to give talks and distribute pamphlets.

Smoking in pregnancy According to new fi gures for 2013–14, 12% of women in England smoke during pregnancy—the lowest proportion yet recorded and 16% lower than in 2006–07. The figures also show large regional differences, with 5% of pregnant women in London smoking, compared with almost 21% in some areas in the northeast. The Government aims to reduce the proportion to 11% or less by 2015.

Human rights in Syria A new report by Human Rights Watch documents human rights abuses in areas of northern Syria controlled by the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD). The report examines arbitrary arrests of the PYD’s political rivals, abuse in detention, due process violations, unsolved disappearances and killings, and the use of children in PYD security forces.

HIV in Vietnam The number of women infected with HIV in Vietnam is increasing, according to new national data. The proportion of women among people infected with HIV in the country increased from 24·2% in 2007 to more than 32% in 2013. Sexual transmission of the virus has increased and accounts for more than 48% of new infections this year.

Chikungunya outbreak Chikungunya continues to spread through the Caribbean, with six cases reported in Cuba. According to the Pan American Health Organization, 4600 confi rmed and 166 000 suspected cases had been reported across the region as of mid-June. As of June 17, 80 cases had been reported across several US states, largely in travellers returning from aff ected areas in the Caribbean.

Rolling back malaria The Roll Back Malaria Partnership has published a report describing the state of malaria in member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). In 2010, 128 million malaria cases and 453 000 deaths are estimated to have occurred OIC member states, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The report focuses on progress made towards elimination in some countries and on the funding defi cits aff ecting some areas.

3D print exchange The US National Institutes of Health has launched a 3D Print Exchange—a website that hosts 3D print files related to health and science, and allows users to upload their own fi les and download and edit others’. The site features video tutorials, a discussion forum, and software that can convert user-uploaded data to 3D print-ready fi les.

For The Lancet News podcast see http://www.thelancet.com/lancet-news-audio/

For more on the Partners’ Forum see http://www.who.int/pmnch/about/governance/partnersforum/pf2014/en/

For more on smoking during pregnancy in England see http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB14258

For the report on human rights abuses in northern Syria see http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/fi les/reports/syriakudrs0614webwcover.pdf

For more on malaria in OIC countries see http://www.rbm.who.int/docs/2014/RBM-OIC-Booklet.pdf

For the 3D print exchange see http://3dprint.nih.gov/

www.thelancet.com Vol 383 June 28, 2014 i

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