Cuba: Blazing a Trail in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS

Providing pregnant mothers with antiretroviral medicines can reduce the risk of HIV transmission from 45 percent to just one percent, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 30 2015 (IPS) – In 2013, an estimated 240,000 children were born with HIV. This was an improvement from 2009, when 400,000 babies tested positive for the infection, but still a far cry from the global target of reducing total child infections to 40,000 by 2015.

Bucking the global trend, one small island nation has made gigantic strides towards the 2015 goal. That country is Cuba, and in 2013 it recorded just two babies born with…

Peace in Yemen, But not Without Women’s Role in Peacebuilding

Kawkab Al-Thaibani

NEW DELHI, India, Feb 15 2021 (IPS) – The armed conflict in Yemen which has lasted six years, has , displaced more than and given rise to cholera outbreaks, medicine shortages and threats of famine. By the end of 2019, it is estimated that over Yemenies have been killed as a result of fighting and the humanitarian crisis. With nearly two-thirds of its population requiring food assistance, Yemen is also experiencing the . The has called the humanitarian crisis in Yemen “the worst in the world”.

The conflict in Yemen has its of a political transition, when the 2011 uprising in Yemen forced then President Ali Abdullah Saleh out of power, endi…

The Gaza Strip and COVID-19: Preparing for the Worst

The coronavirus is now present in Gaza, the populous Palestinian enclave blockaded by air, land and sea since 2007. An epidemic would be calamitous. Hamas should tighten public health measures; Israel should loosen restrictions so that medical supplies can enter and afflicted Palestinians can leave.

A Palestinian family on the street in Beit Lahia in north Gaza. Credit: Mohammed Omer/IPS.

GAZA CITY/JERUSALEM/BRUSSELS, Apr 2 2020 (IPS) – The coronavirus is now present in Gaza, the populous Palestinian enclave blockaded by air, land and sea since 2007. An epidemic would be calamitous. Hamas should tighten public health measures; Israel should loosen restrictions so…