Status of Darfur Peace Negotiations in Abuja

Technorati Tags: President Bush and White House or Darfur and Sudan, or African and genocide, or African Growth and Opportunity Act, and Africa,

Status of Darfur Peace Negotiations in Abuja, Robert B. Zoellick, Deputy Secretary of State, Washington, DC, April 30, 2006

The United States believes that a critical step to end the violence and suffering afflicting the people of Darfur is a peace agreement between the Government of Sudan and the rebel groups. President Bush is deeply committed to helping the people of Darfur, and under his leadership the United States has been working with the African Union, the United Nations, the European Union and other international actors to reinvigorate the peace talks.

Since the March meetings we held in Europe, the Abuja peace negotiations have concentrated with new intensity on achieving a concrete result promptly.

The United States welcomed the comprehensive negotiating text presented by the AU on April 26.

The AU, backed by the UN and the other international parties, set an April 30 deadline for completing the negotiations. This deadline has proven useful to press agreement on certain issues and sharpen the focus on remaining differences.

Negotiators from all sides have been working diligently to find a way forward. The parties have made progress, and we and the AU believe it is possible for them to reach an accord. We are urging the parties to finalize the agreement right away.

Today in Washington and other cities, many Americans are gathering to express their concerns over the tragedy in Darfur. People want a solution. Their activism and energy is commendable. With their support and encouragement, the United States will continue to do everything it can to reduce the suffering and violence in Darfur.

The United States will continue to play a leading role diplomatically, work to improve security and to provide humanitarian aid, and press to strengthen the AU peacekeepers in Darfur and to transition the peacekeeping to a UN force.

Abuja negotiators must keep their eye on the vital goal - achieving peace in Darfur so that Darfurians can return to their homes and live in a secure peace that offers hope. Much good work has been done, and should not be allowed to slip away. Peace must be achieved in Abuja.

###, 2006/434

White House: Africa Policy
State Department: Sudan

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Mothers often have inaccurate perceptions of their children's body weight

Technorati Tags: pediatrician or obesity and pediatrics or Medical and Latina or children and body weight or preschool and Psychology or overweight

Mothers often have inaccurate perceptions of their children's body weight, study shows

Latina mothers of preschool-aged children frequently have inaccurate perceptions of their children's body mass index and believe they are healthy when they are overweight, according to a new study from the University of California, San Francisco.

"A significant number of women believed that their children were normal weight when they were, in fact, overweight," said lead study author Elena Fuentes-Afflick, MD, MPH, UCSF associate professor of pediatrics and a pediatrician at San Francisco General Hospital. "However, if the mother described her child as overweight, she was usually correct, but it is concerning that many mothers did not perceive their overweight children as being overweight."

The study findings were presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting today (April 29) in San Francisco. Fuentes-Afflick said the study has implications for the effort to stem the tide of pediatric obesity, which has reached epidemic proportions in the United States.

"It's not just Latino parents. As a pediatrician, when you start to talk to parents about their child's weight or body mass, you have to ask: How much and what are children eating? How much TV are they watching? It's especially challenging to talk about these issues with respect to young children because parents are largely responsible for their children's dietary habits.

"If there is a mismatch between what the pediatrician and the mother think is a healthy weight, how do we, as pediatricians, clearly and effectively communicate information about the child's weight to the mother and other family members?" Fuentes-Afflick said.

The study analyzed data from patient interviews conducted for the Latino Health Project, a prospective study of Latina women who were recruited during pregnancy and interviewed annually. The study included 194 women and children who were interviewed in 2000-03, three years after recruitment.

The number of overweight children was higher among women who perceived their children had good or excellent health status, among women who had no concerns about their children's health status, and among women who reported their children eat well.

Overweight children were defined as those with weights at or above 85th percentile on developmental growth charts, adjusted for their age and height.

"As a society, we have a number of negative labels that we use to describe overweight people, and parents don't want their child to fall into that category. It often takes several visits to the pediatrician, communicating the same message before parents understand that overweight is an important issue for children," Fuentes-Afflick said.

The number of overweight children was significantly less likely among women who perceived their children had fair or poor health status and whose weight was perceived as too low, according to study findings. ###

The study is co-authored by Nancy A. Hessol, MSPH, assistant professor, division of infectious diseases, UCSF Department of Medicine.

The study was supported by grants from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

UCSF is a leading university that consistently defines health care worldwide by conducting biomedical

Contact: Phyllis Brown pbrown@pubaff.ucsf.edu 415-476-2557 University of California - San Francisco

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