DAKAR, Aug 2 2011 (IPS) – West African health experts are calling for governments to take the prevalence of hepatitis B and C more seriously, and to act to reduce the cost of treatment as part of more effective control of the disease.
Hepatitis vaccines are a key element in controlling the disease. Credit: Bios/Wikicommons
The hepatitis B virus is responsible for more than 80 percent of liver cancers in Africa, said the coordinator of Senegal s National Programme Against Hepatitis, Aminata…
Elizabeth Whitman
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 8 2011 (IPS) – Each day, one thousand women die in childbirth and one million people become infected with sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including 7,000 cases of HIV. Yet these numbers are preventable, experts insist, when countries possess the resources and willpower to address and deal with them.
Dignitaries and high-level officials gathered this week to discuss reproductive health commodity security (RHCS), or, simply put, ensuring that people have access to essentials of reproductive health including contraceptives and drugs for safer maternal health and childbirth.
Sponsored by the (UNFPA), the underscored the importance of reproductive and sexual health, especially in developing countries, to improve public health …
Fabíola Ortiz interviews Oswaldo Cruz Foundation public health specialist PAULO BUSS* – Tierramérica
RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 25 2011 (IPS) – For Brazilian pediatrician and public health expert Paulo Buss, the worst enemy of health is unemployment. And if unemployment continues to rise, the result will be a global catastrophe , he told Tierramérica.
Health is the result of social equity, says Paulo Buss. Credit: Fabíola Ortiz/IPS
Buss, coordinator of international relations at the state-run (Fiocruz), be…
BUENOS AIRES, Dec 9 2011 (IPS) – Argentina s soy boom has been a major source of foreign exchange. But the other side of the coin is the toxic effects among the rural population, from spraying agrochemicals.
Studies show that people in rural areas in Argentina face risks from glyphosate spraying. Credit: Courtesy of Estudios y Proyectos
Research by the National University of Río Cuarto in the northwestern p…
NOUAKCHOTT , Feb 10 2012 (IPS) – Mariem Mint Ahmedou sits cross-legged on a worn-out carpet in a basic tent built with mud bricks and layers of sewn-together fabric. Her eight-month-old twins, Hussein and Hassan, lie weakly against her body. Both of them have been malnourished since birth, because Beydar, undernourished herself, cannot produce enough breast milk to feed them.
A nutritionist assesses the health of a child: red indicates severe malnutrition. Cred…
Kristin Palitza
ABIDJAN , Mar 14 2012 (IPS) – One-year-old Angama Ouattara lies on a rusted hospital bed, a drip attached to her tiny, left foot. Her mother, Minata, sits on the edge of the mattress, smoothing out the sheets she had to bring from home.
Dr. Tenedia Soro-Coulibaly (right) with patient Angama Ouattara, and her mother Minata (left). Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS
Six days ago, Angama was admitted to the paediatr…
KINGSTON, Apr 25 2012 (IPS) – For more than a week this past February, the city choked on the acrid smoke that forced schools and business to close. It racked up millions of dollars in lost production and an estimated 60 million dollars in firefighting costs as the city tried to combat yet another fire at Kingston s Riverton city dump.
Lacking organised solid waste collection, rural Jamaican communities burn their garbage. Credit: …
BUENOS AIRES, May 28 2012 (IPS) – The immense majority of women diagnosed with HIV in Argentina in the last two years were infected through unprotected sex with their stable partners, a new report says.
In some cases, they are couple who have been together for years, Maria Eugenia Gilligan, an activist with the , told IPS. The age range has even expanded, and we are finding more and more women over 60.
This national organisation and the jointly surveyed 465 women in that situation around the country for the Study of Recently Diagnosed Women .
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The women interviewed were all diagnosed since Jan. 1, 2009. The aim was to find out in what circumstances they were infected. Gilligan said many of the women were uninformed.
The sam…
Cricket star Kumar Sangakkara promoting HIV/AIDS awareness. Credit: UNFPA
COLOMBO, Jul 16 2012 (IPS) – Sri Lanka has long enjoyed a low 0.1 percent HIV prevalence but, as the number of fresh infections rises steadily, experts are calling for a change in the country s archaic laws that make sex work illegal and criminalises homosexual activity.
David Bridger, country coordinator for UNAIDS in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, is among those who believe that stigma and discrimination combined with insensitive laws are fueling a slow but steady increase in the number new HIV infections.
“We have one part of government trying to reach people at high risk with…
Hospital emergency rooms have shut after recurring attacks. Credit: Cam McGrath/IPS.
CAIRO, Sep 3 2012 (IPS) – The emergency room of Mansoura International Hospital is closed, a lock and chain securing its entrance. Ambulances carrying stroke and burn victims are ordered to go elsewhere.
Just hours earlier, dozens of people stormed this mid-sized hospital in northern Egypt, carrying a relative injured in a car accident. The group overpowered the military officers guarding the front door, fired shots in the air, and threatened to kill doctors and nurses unless they operated immediately on their relative.
Five security personnel were wounded in the att…