Elimination life tables of malignant neoplasm and their impact on life expectancy at birth in Kuwait.

The aim of this study was to show the incidence rate of cancer in Kuwait, trends of malignant neoplasm mortality, and estimate the number of years saved as a consequence of eliminating deaths caused by malignant neoplasm (ICD-10). The study applies the techniques of conventional as well as elimination life tables to demonstrate the importance of controlling deaths caused by cancer to the increase in life expectancy at birth. The results confirm that elimination of cancer as a cause of death among Kuwaitis would add 1.80 years to Kuwaiti male and 1.94 years to Kuwaiti female life expectancy at birth. Elimination of cancer among those who would have died from malignant neoplasm is expected to add 1.40 years to males' and 1.85 years to females' life expectancy at birth.

Antibiotic resistance of Escherichia coli isolated from poultry workers, patients and chicken in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia.

The prevalence of antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli isolates from faecal samples from 117 poultry industry workers, 100 patients and119 healthy chicken were compared. Resistance of E. coli chicken isolates to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, gentamicin, spectinomycin, tetracycline and trimethoprim + sulphamethoxazole (TMP + SMX) (range 57% - 99.1%) were significantly higher than those isolated from patients (range 21.9% - 71.4%) and workers (range 35% - 71.8%). However, for drugs not used in poultry, such as amoxicillin + cluvalanate (AMX + CLV), ceftazidime and nitrofurantoin, resistance rates of chicken isolates (range 0% - 2.6%) were significantly lower than those of patient isolates (range 8.7% - 30%). Resistance to spectinomycin reached 96% in E. coli chicken isolates and 71% in organisms isolated from humans. Use of this drug in Saudi Arabia is mostly limited to veterinary purposes. Multidrug resistance is alarmingly high in all groups but was highest in chicken isolates (77.4%). Serotyping of E. coli isolates showed that 27% of the organisms isolated from patients were overlapping with 10.9% of the chicken isolates, indicating the possibility of chicken being a source of the resistance pool for humans. We therefore call for the banning of antibiotics in the poultry industry as growth promoters and recommend that their use be restricted to treating infections.

New population policy in Kuwait: the quest for a balance in the population composition.

"This study investigates the development of population policy in Kuwait following the Gulf crisis, reveals the changes induced by the post-Gulf-war population policy, and provides an attempt to assess the policy's success. The study concludes that despite the new population policy, expatriates continue to make up the majority of the population. The problem continues to be a challenge for policy makers. There appear to be new levels of sincerity, explicitness and seriousness of purpose in Kuwait's new population policy, but there have not been many real changes in direction from earlier policies. Short of closing the door to expatriates, effective policy options for increasing the Kuwaiti share in the country's total population are limited."