HIV/AIDS has caused a steady increase in the number of orphans in South Africa. Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS
WASHINGTON, Nov 14 2012 (IPS) – After weathering the departure of its executive director amidst a misallocation scandal earlier this year, the world s largest funder of programmes to address HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria is poised to announce a new leader Thursday.
The performance-based is a giant in the field of multilateral health financing, channeling 82 percent of the funds for TB, 50 percent for malaria, and 21 percent of the international financing against HIV/AIDS. To date, it has approved 30 billion dollars’ worth of spending.
“They n…
TASHKENT, Jan 2 2013 – Uzbekistan is facing a public health time bomb, experts are warning. Authorities contend they are making gains in the battle to contain the spread of HIV/AIDS, but independent specialists say such claims are built on twisted figures and deceptive methodology.
At a late-November speech to mark World AIDS Day, the director of Uzbekistan’s National AIDS Centre, Nurmat Atabekov, said Tashkent is making progress in its fight against HIV/AIDS and that the number of new infections in the country is falling, local media reported.
In 2011, Atabekov said, Uzbekistan saw an 11-percent decline in the number of new infections compared with the previous year; that followed a 5.5 percent decline in 2010. This year, the country should see another drop. The total…
WASHINGTON, Mar 19 2013 (IPS) – Food safety advocates, environmentalists and health professionals here are engaging in a fervent last-minute campaign to highlight a controversial legislative amendment they say would gut the ability of both the judiciary and the federal government to regulate genetically modified agricultural products.
The U.S. Senate is slated to vote early this week on amendments to a massive, “must pass” bill that would fund the U.S. government’s operations beyond Mar. 27 to the end of this fiscal year. That bill – a piece of stopgap legislation known as a continuing resolution – is so important that leaders in the U.S. Senate had previously suggested that they would not include any potentially controversial amendments.These provisions are giveaways …
YEREVAN, May 9 2013 – A government decree in Armenia that bars pregnant women who are not residents of Yerevan from receiving free childbirth services in the capital is causing discontent in outlying regions.
In a bid to boost population numbers, the state covers the costs for childbirth services in Armenia. Seeking better facilities and medical personnel, pregnant women from the regions often travel to Yerevan to give birth. In 2012, 64 percent of the 70,648 women registered for state-provided childbirth assistance gave birth in Yerevan, according to the National Statistical Service.
The May 1 decree issued by the Ministry of Health was designed to encourage improvements at hospitals in the country’s 10 regions. Under the measure, women will only be able to obtain sta…
Joan Erakit interviews UNFPA Executive Director BABATUNDE OSOTIMEHIN
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 11 2013 (IPS) – On Thursday, the international community recognises World Population Day, a time of assessment, discussion and projections for the future that necessarily gives great weight to the rights of women and girls and particularly their sexual and reproductive health.
Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin. Credit: UNFPA
This past week, the Netherlands has been host to the (ICPD) where equality and the rights of every person have been highlighted.
“Women’s rights are human rights,” the executive director of the (UNFPA), Dr. Baba…
Door-to-door spraying in Cuba is an effective means of controlling dengue. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS
HAVANA, Aug 22 2013 (IPS) – The spread of the virus that causes dengue fever has created an emergency situation for institutions, governments and scientists in Latin America seeking sustainable solutions for a health problem that could worsen as a result of climate change.
World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics indicate that in the first seven months of 2013 there were nearly 1.4 million reported cases in the region, making this an epidemic year.
In 2012 there were a total of 1.7 million cases, and we do not know yet if the figure will be …
The Supreme Court has extended its ban on clinical trial of 162 new drugs till Dec. 16, 2013. Credit: epSos.de/ CC BY 2.0
KOLKATA, Nov 5 2013 (IPS) – More than 2,500 Indians have died in the course of clinical trials in recent years, government figures reveal.
According to an affidavit filed by the health ministry in the Supreme Court in response to a petition by health NGOs, there were 80 deaths due to clinical trials between January 2005 and June 2012. Between July 2012-August 2013 nine more such reported deaths occurred, making this total 89, according to the petitioner Swasthya Adhikar Manch (SAM), a health rights forum. Compensation was paid in 82 cases.
…
NAPLES, Dec 16 2013 (IPS) – The beauty of the Bay of Naples under a setting sun, the romance of Sorrento and the scenic splendour of the Amalfi coastline pull thousands of visitors to southern Italy. But the region is also home to an ugly truth.
The area between Caserta and Naples in the Campania region has come to be known as Italy’s ‘garbage bin’, thanks to the mafia.
The country produces nearly 100 million tonnes of garbage per year, with over a third of it reportedly cornered by the mafia.
The mafia initially began by charging industries from the north for disposing of their toxic wastes in landfills in Campania, especially the Resit landfill site in Giugliano. A neglected and under-regulated sector, waste disposal was an easy front for the mafia to ge…
A patient being treated at the Regional Cancer Centre in Thiruvananthapuram in India. Traditional Ayurvedic treatment is being used increasingly to back regular cancer care. Credit: K.S. Harikrishnan/IPS.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India , Feb 24 2014 (IPS) – Balakrishnan, a labourer from Kochi in the southern Indian state of Kerala, was suffering from oral cancer. He was admitted to the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) in Thiruvananthapuram. After the first course of radiation therapy, the 60-year-old could not eat or drink because of severe pain and infection in the mouth.
An Ayurvedic mouth wash developed from the Neem plant was administered to Balakrishnan for three week…
WASHINGTON, Jun 6 2014 (IPS) – International cooperation on key global challenges declined in 2013, according to a new “report card” released here Friday by the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
Particularly disappointing were international efforts in dealing with terrorism, nuclear non-proliferation and global finance, according to the report which, however, found some gains in two areas – dealing with or preventing armed conflict and improving global health.
The report also found that cooperation on climate change, which last year’s report card found to be worth the lowest grade – a “D” of all the major issues on which the report card focused, was neither better nor worse than the previous four years assessed by the 50-some experts who const…