Stephen Leahy* – Tierramérica
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, May 3 2008 (IPS) – When we harm nature, we are harming ourselves, says Aaron Bernstein, a doctor at Harvard Medical School and one of the authors of the upcoming book Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity .
Caribbean snail (Conus geographus). Credit: Kerry Matz
Few people realise that our health is directly tied to the health of the natural world, Bernstein told Tierramérica
Bernstein and Harvard colleague Eric Chivian wrote and edited contributions from more t…
Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani
CAIRO, Jun 11 2008 (IPS) – For the last two months, controversy has raged over planned construction of a massive fertiliser plant near the port city of Damietta. Residents fear the plant could adversely affect the local environment.
With a popular campaign against the project gaining momentum, some critics blame poor planning on the part of the government.
The government should never have approved construction of an industrial zone only six kilometres from the city, Hamdi Abdelazim, economist and former head of the Cairo-based Sadat Academy told IPS. Industrial areas should be built at least 40 kilometres from population centres.
Last year, the government initially approved the project, which is to be built and operate…
Skye Wheeler
JUBA, Jul 10 2008 (IPS) – A vast pregnancy has swollen the tiny woman walking South Sudan s shining new maternity ward clutching two pieces of paper stapled together. She looks no more than 16, wide-eyed with recent pain.
Aid flowing to South Sudan following a 2005 peace deal is beginning to improve health care for women. Credit: Manoocher Degati/IRIN
Ateino Maclean, one of only two fully-tr…
Julio Godoy
BERLIN, Aug 7 2008 (IPS) – The decision by a German constitutional court against a partial ban on smoking has led to calls for a new nationwide ban.
The court ruled last week that the present ban violates the rights of small bar owners who cannot build separate rooms for smokers.
The court ordered lawmakers to amend the ban by the end of next year. In the meantime, the court ruled that it will not apply to bars with less than 75 square metres of space.
The present ban was passed last year by the federal states after the central government said it had no national jurisdiction in health matters. The federal states banned smoking in closed public buildings, schools, universities, hospitals, railway stations and airports, and also in bars, restaurants …
Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Sep 26 2008 (IPS) – An abandoned straw hut slumps amidst overgrown bushes on a somewhat deserted homestead. Only a foot path leading past it indicates that the place is still occupied. Beside it is the mis-shapen tent that is Joseph Mathe s new home.
Thousands of Swazis are without adequate shelter. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS
Mathe emerges from the tent when his name is called. He appears a weary figure the 51 year old suffers from TB and walks with the support of a walking s…
Kristin Palitza
BAMAKO, Nov 18 2008 (IPS) – Health systems on the continent are riddled with inadequate policies, strategies, lack of institutional capacity, poor scientific review mechanisms and weak funding for research in the public and private sector, said Luis Sambo, regional director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Africa.
What makes matters worse is a human resource crisis throughout the continent, based on lack of training, capacity shortages and migration of skilled health carers, Sambo further explained. Other challenges are limited access to technologies, such as Information Communication Technology (ICT), and weak physical infrastructure, he added.
Sambo was speaking at the WHO Global Ministerial Forum on Research for Health which opened in Bamak…
Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO, Jan 15 2009 (IPS) – Latin America is not in the tragic conditions of the least developed countries, but an average rate of 130 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births is very high, UNICEF representative Egidio Crotti told IPS.
Along with Chilean Planning Minister Paula Quintana and Public Health Minister Jeannette Vega, Crotti took part in the local presentation of UNICEF s (United Nations Children s Fund) The State of the World s Children 2009 report Thursday in Santiago. The report was launched in South Africa.
Every day, 1,500 women worldwide more than 500,000 a year die while giving birth. But the risk of dying of complications during pregnancy or delivery is 300 times greater for women in developing countries than in the industrialised w…
Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Mar 3 2009 (IPS) – Agricultural researchers are reporting a major breakthrough in the development of a new, high-yielding variety of pigeonpea, a protein-rich legume that can be grown in marginal lands and is highly resistant to drought.
Pigeonpea is particularly important in areas where high-protein foods are scarce, including India, where it is often cooked as dal, eastern and southern Africa, the Caribbean and Burma. It currently provides between 20 and 22 percent of the protein in most countries where it is grown extensively.
Called Pushkal, the new variety is the world s first commercially available hybrid legume, according to William Dar, director-general of the India-based International Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)…
Kristin Palitza
DURBAN, Apr 2 2009 (IPS) – Effectively scaling up South Africans access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment will require decentralisation of health services from hospitals to clinics and allowing nurses to manage and eventually to initiate ARV treatment and care.
Integrated HIV/TB clinic in Cape Town: utilising the skill…
Ali Gharib and Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, May 5 2009 (IPS) – Global health activists expressed disappointment Tuesday over U.S. President Barack Obama s plans to spend 63 billion dollars over the next six years to fight diseases in poor countries overseas.
Calling the plan, a new comprehensive global health strategy, Obama said he would increase funding for combating HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria by only some 366 million dollars and by less than 100 million dollars for other global health priorities, including reducing maternal and infant mortality next year, the first in a series of incremental increases through 2014.
Our analysis of the information provided by the White House today show that the president s FY10 global health budget essentially flat-lines support fo…