Aug 24 2010

By Keith Martin Member of Parliament, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, B.C., Liberal Party of Canada; MD.

Pakistan has been devastated. A quarter of the country has been flooded by torrential rains. A staggering 22 million people have been affected by this disaster. Two million people will need to be fed over the next month, and more flooding is expected in the days to come. Waterborne diseases such as cholera are now appearing. They spread quickly and with a high degree of lethality, especially in the midst of the chaos that has engulfed the nation.

This disaster strikes against a backdrop of widespread poverty, incompetent governments, endemic corruption, and a brutal insurgency being carried out by a number of Islamic fundamentalist groups that have terrorized the population for years. Pakistan is also a nation with nuclear weapons and is a front-line state in the war against terrorism. This is a situation that should be of utmost concern to all of us, as these exceedingly unstable circumstances could easily spin out of control with terrible consequences if political upheaval occurs and hard-line leaders sympathetic to the Taliban ascend to power.

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August 16th, 2010

As the worst floodwaters that anyone can remember continue to ravage hundreds of villages in the heartland of Pakistan—destroying homes, soaking crops, and threatening lives—people around the world are asking: what can we do?

By some estimates, more than 13 million people have been affected by this crisis, which is more than the Haiti earthquake, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and 2005 Kashmir earthquake combined. Already more than 1,500 people are dead, more than 15,000 homes have been destroyed in more than 1,000 villages, and vast fields of crops are now immersed under muddy water. The United Nations World Food Program has estimated that at minimum nearly two million people will need to be fed over the next month, and more flooding is expected in the days to come. Waterborne diseases such as cholera are now a risk and could spread to kill thousands, particularly in regions such as the North-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where some 600,000 people are struggling to survive beyond the reach of rescue workers.

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By Keith Martin Member of Parliament, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, B.C., Liberal Party of Canada; MD.

Aug 16 2010

There are ways Canada could help provide people with legitimate routes to apply as refugees to other countries.

People-smuggling is big business. Unscrupulous thugs prey on people’s fears of persecution or desire for a better life. For a charge of up to $45,000 per person (an astronomical sum in countries where people may be making only $2 a day), people get into rickety boats to make a perilous journey across the Pacific Ocean.

This happened when the MV Sun Sea left Sri Lanka months ago to arrive on our shores. The people onboard will be triaged medically, treated at Vancouver General Hospital, and then held in prison to determine if anyone is a security risk. If history is a guide, they will be held for a while and almost all will be a released while the processing continues for months, if not years. This was the case when another group of Sri Lankan boat people arrived on our coast last October. Most are now living in Toronto while their claims are being assessed.

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By Keith Martin, Special to The Windsor Star July 27, 2010

As Haitians marked the sombre six-month anniversary of the earthquake that devastated their lives, a sense of deep frustration continues to permeate their country. Aid monies are not getting where they are needed.

Port-au-Prince still looks as if the earthquake had struck only a week ago as teams labour to clean up the debris by hand or with outdated equipment that is in scant supply. Hundreds of thousands remain displaced in camps, living in squalor under tents and tarps, while relief supplies and more robust shelters sit on their main airport’s tarmac.

The response to this disaster continues to suffer from a lack of co-ordination between governments, NGOs and other international bodies.

This scenario of weak logistics in the face of devastation and massive need is not unusual. Indeed, it is the status quo. Just weeks after Haiti’s calamity, Chile was hit with a huge earthquake. The humanitarian response was slow, awkward, and unco-ordinated. (more…)

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It’s not glamorous, but basic medicine is key to improving health in poor areas

By KEITH MARTIN, Freelance July 21, 2010

At this week’s International AIDS Conference in Vienna, many excellent solutions will be discussed about how to combat the pandemic, from treating people with antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) once they are diagnosed (Vancouver’s Seek and Treat Program) to ways we can better stop the transmission of the virus from mother to fetus. We already possess the knowledge to prevent, treat, and manage this disease effectively; however, there is still a massive gap between the treatments we have and their availability for those who need them.

What good are ARVs if there isn’t a health-care worker to test the patient, dispense the medications, and follow up with them? What good are ARVs if adequate diagnostics are not available? What if you don’t have access to adequate nutrition? (An HIV-positive person needs 1,500 calories per day minimum, versus 1,200 calories if you are HIVnegative. Proper nutrition is the most important “drug” for a person who is HIV positive.)

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By Keith Martin, Freelance June 26, 2010

During the world’s largest meeting of pediatric academic scientists in Vancouver last month, a persistent refrain was heard: We know how to save lives in developing countries, so why aren’t we doing it?

Many of these pediatricians live in two worlds.

They work in some of the most sophisticated labs in the West, and also labour in the slums and rural areas of some of the most impoverished countries in the world.

They witness first-hand the tragic gap between the knowledge we have and the failure to implement this knowledge on the ground, where it is needed the most.
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By Keith Martin Member of Parliament, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, B.C., Liberal Party of Canada; MD.
First Posted: Jun 08 2010 07:12 AM

Canada needs to articulate what it wants to achieve at the G8 and G20 summits.

Time is running out for Prime Minister Harper to articulate what he wants to achieve as the host of this month’s G8 and G20 summits in Ontario. Hope ran high when he announced earlier this year that one of the cornerstones of the summit would be reducing the appalling number of deaths among pregnant women and young children from entirely preventable or treatable causes. However, this optimism was dashed when the debate became bogged down in abortion politics. Harper and his key ministers rolled back the clock and said that Canada would not fund access to safe abortions as part of a comprehensive plan to reduce maternal mortality. This ignited a debate over abortion that diverted attention and effort from developing a plan that would save the lives of the most vulnerable people in the world.

There is still time for Canada to act with courage and vigor to save the lives of the nine million women and children who die every year from easily treatable causes. So what could Canada’s plan be for the G8/G20 summits?

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The G8 could use the World Food Programme’s existing networks to deliver primary medical care to those who need it most.

Dr. Keith Martin
Member of Parliament, Esquimalt – Juan de Fuca, B.C., Liberal Party of Canada; MD

First published May 20, 2010

Time is running out for mothers and children in the developing world. Less than six weeks remain before the G8 Summit begins in Ontario, and the Canadian government has yet to articulate any plan to reduce maternal and childhood mortality and morbidity, a key objective for the summit announced by Prime Minister Harper a few months ago.

There is, however, a solution at hand that would enable Canada to provide the leadership needed for the G8 to quickly tackle this global challenge. We do not need to reinvent the wheel. A structure already exists that can be used to sustainably provide access to the medical care that will reduce the unconscionable loss of life that occurs from entirely preventable or treatable causes in the developing world.

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Mother’s Day in the Developing World
By Keith Martin, May 08, 2010

As we prepare to celebrate Mother’s Day, the future doesn’t look so bright for women in the developing world.

This week, some of the world’s top doctors met in Vancouver to share their extraordinary research on how we can save lives and improve the future of the world’s most vulnerable people. But a dark cloud hung over the meeting. It was impossible to miss the deep concern, fear, and shock these scientists felt about the Canadian government’s position on maternal and child health.

Only a few months ago, these same physicians were overjoyed when they heard that Canada was going to make maternal and child health a priority at this summer’s G8 summit in Ontario. They understand very well the interplay between the fate of a mother and that of her children. Their joy, however, turned to shock when this life and death issue turned political and regressive.

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If he doesn’t tackle these issues at the 2010 G8, it will be Canada’s most regressive health policy decision ever.
by Keith Martin
Member of Parliament, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, B.C., Liberal Party of Canada; MD.

A pregnant woman dies every minute of every day from mostly preventable or treatable causes. The recent loss of a motion in Parliament to ensure that family planning will be on the agenda at this year’s G8 and G20 summits in Canada is disappointing, but we must not let it distract us from the great opportunity that lies before us to address this international catastrophe.

The reason for introducing the motion was to clarify the Government of Canada’s position on this issue. When Prime Minister Stephen Harper said earlier this year that reducing maternal and childhood deaths would be a focus of this year’s summits, we applauded. But this support turned to concern when Mr. Harper’s ministers started saying that family planning and access to safe abortions would be excluded from the agenda. They also said that they were “not opening the abortion debate.” This set off a firestorm.

So how can we save the lives of mothers and their children? (more…)

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