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…

WASHINGTON, Oct 18 2012 (IPS) – Shale gas extraction is putting some U.S. communities at risk of health issues, new research released here Thursday warns.

Close to 70 percent of participants in a reported an increase in throat irritation, and almost 80 percent stated they have had more sinus problems after being exposed to natural gas extraction in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.

“For too long, the oil and gas industry and state regulators have dismissed community members’ health complaints as ‘false’ or ‘anecdotal’,” said Nadia Steinzor, the project’s lead author. “With this research, they cannot credibly ignore communities any longer.”

The report, by Earthworks’ Oil Gas Accountability Project, a non-profit environmental organisation, surv…

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India , Nov 19 2012 (IPS) – Sreelakshmi, an office executive in a major diagnostic laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of the southern Indian state of Kerala, ends her 11-hour working day to return home at night to a mountain of domestic chores.

At 35, she is already diabetic and vulnerable to disorders ranging from obesity and depression to hypertension and chronic backache.

Health experts warn that Sreelakshmi represents an increasing number of high-powered Indian working women who juggle workplace and domestic responsibilities in an effort to keep everyone around them happy, while disregarding the toll this hectic lifestyle takes on their minds and bodies.

For ambitious, middle-class women such as Sreelakshmi, hailing from a …

In one recent study, 84 percent of fish sampled at sites located near potential mercury contamination were not safe for consumption for more than one meal per month. Credit: Jeremy Keith/cc by 2.0

WASHINGTON, Jan 10 2013 (IPS) – Even as government negotiators from around the world prepare to gather next week for a final round of talks on a new international treaty limiting the use of mercury, scientists and activists are warning that the draft treaty is both too weak and too limited in scope to have a major impact.

“Based on what’s happened so far, based on the draft text, we have strong doubts that the treaty will actually be sufficient to reduce global lev…

WASHINGTON, Mar 26 2013 (IPS) – Environmentalists and others here are reacting with concern to a surprise announcement on Monday of a major deal that would see U.S. natural gas exported to the United Kingdom, marking the first time that such sales have been permitted.

The agreement, between the UK energy company Centrica and the U.S.-based Cheniere Energy Partners, would see more than 1.7 million metric tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year shipped to the United Kingdom, starting in 2018. The U.K.’s gas supply has been extremely tight this winter, and the new sales would satisfy requirements for around 1.8 million British homes.Increasing demand via exports for a dirty, dangerous process is not something we think is a good idea.

The deal would mark the fir…