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…
Adrianne Appel
BOSTON, Jun 5 2009 (IPS) – U.S. taxpayers have given 50 billion to rescue General Motors, but the company says it should not have to pay a penny to people harmed by known defects in its vehicles.
Despite the billions, the company is in collapse and filed for bankruptcy Jun. 1 to re-work debts and restructure its operations. It will dump the Hummer and Saturn models, lay off 21,000 workers, shutter 3,000 dealerships and start anew as a largely U.S.-owned company with a green edge.
As it negotiates bankruptcy in a New York court, the company is arguing that it should be absolved from paying out money to people who are hurt as a result of known problems in its cars already on the road. Consumer groups are fighting against the plan, and a similar deal alrea…
DAKAR, Jun 30 2009 (IPS) – In Senegal s southern region, 58 percent of deliveries take place at home without any medical assistance, according to state reproductive health officials in Kolda, a town 425 km from the capital, Dakar. Women in the region suffer from exceptionally high rates of fistula.
There are just seven doctors for every 100,000 people in Senegal; just one midwife for every 400,000 pe…
Gail Jennings
CAPE TOWN, Aug 5 2009 (IPS) – Every weekday morning, a stylish procession leaves the offices of MaAfrika Tikkun NGO in Delft, Cape Town; bumps and jolts through the gravel entry gates; then hits the tar and scatters into every corner of the township
Bicycles are enabling carers to see more patients. And have more fun. Credit: Gail Jennings/IPS
Those people, they are mos kwaai jong (now very cool) they drive a bicycle now says an envious onlooker.
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Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO, Aug 28 2009 (IPS) – Some 30 members of the Chilean Health Ministry s Consultative Council on Gender and Women s Health have asked the government to enforce a directive ordering humane and compassionate treatment for women who have had an abortion.
Three representatives of the Consultative Council delivered a letter to Health Minister Álvaro Erazo Wednesday, demanding that he enforce his own instructions, sent Apr. 24 to the heads of every public health service in the country.
This is a protest against the disclosure of the identities of young women who had abortions and were admitted to public hospitals, Adriana Gómez, of the Latin American and Caribbean Women s Health Network, told IPS. She handed over the letter along with Rosa Ferrada, …