Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW, Jun 3 2007 (IPS) – Russia s HIV infection rate continues to rise most notably in the heterosexual and non-drug-using populations despite steady increases in funds to fight the disease. Experts and medical researchers say dramatic changes in sexual attitudes and behaviour are essential if the trend is to be reversed.
Funds allocated for prevention are not enough and prevention programmes implemented in Russia are very limited in terms of coverage, sustainability and effectiveness. The disease is spreading further into the heterosexual population [beyond] drug users, and especially from men to women. And this trend will continue, Roman Dudnik, regional adviser at AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW), told IPS.

To change behaviour, people need a…

Moyiga Nduru

JOHANNESBURG, Jul 1 2007 (IPS) – Population issues are in the spotlight at present with the recent release of the United Nations Population Fund #39s annual report and World Population Day, to be commemorated Jul. 11.
#39The State of World Population 2007: Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth #39, issued Jun. 27, notes that innovative approaches are needed to address an expected doubling of populations in urban areas of Africa and Asia by 2030. Poor people will make up a large part of urban growth it states.

One of the recommendations for dealing with this growth successfully is for governments to accept the right of poor people to the city .

Is any progress being made in this regard in Johannesburg, South Africa #39s commercial hub, which gr…

Daniela Estrada

SANTIAGO, Aug 1 2007 (IPS) – Residents of the city of Arica, in northern Chile, are demanding regulations to limit the amount of boron in their drinking water, while the authorities are waiting for the results of a study to determine whether it has a harmful effect on human health.
You can t drink the tapwater in Arica, said Verónica Grunewald, 44, a retired teacher, in a telephone interview with IPS.

The water has a strong, thick taste, and it s not transparent, but cloudy, she said.

People prefer to buy bottled water in the supermarkets for drinking and cooking, she said.

Kettles, washing machines and boilers all deteriorate rapidly because of the build-up of sediment, said Grunewald, who had to take early retirement because she …

Francis Kokutse

ACCRA, Aug 30 2007 (IPS) – Ask people to list the causes of tooth discolouration and they may mention tobacco chewing, or one too many cups of coffee a day. Pose the question in Ghana #39s northern Nayorigo village, however, and someone might answer: desertification.
According to a 2002-2005 study, over 90 per cent of children living in Nayorigo, a village in Bongo district, suffer from fluorosis. This condition leads to teeth being flecked with white or, more seriously, to stained and pitted teeth. It develops in children of about eight years and younger who consume too much fluoride, and affects the enamel of permanent teeth as they form below the gums. (The survey was conducted by the regional hospital at Bolgatanga, capital of the Upper East region where B…

Am Johal

VANCOUVER, Canada, Oct 3 2007 (IPS) – For more than two decades, the Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has tried to discourage nations from developing harm reduction programmes and other HIV/AIDS prevention programmes.

Insite safe injection and health centre in Vancouver, Canada. Credit: Vancouver Coastal Health

Civil society critics have argued that the position of the INCB is built upon a fundamental misunderstanding of drug addiction viewin…

David Cronin

BRUSSELS, Oct 23 2007 (IPS) – Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are seeking that pesticide use be halved within a decade in order to reduce the amount of hazardous chemicals in the environment.
Some 40 percent of all fruit and vegetables on sale in the European Union could be contaminated with pesticide residues, with 5 percent exceeding legal thresholds, according to studies cited by green campaigners.

The Pesticide Action Network Europe has argued that the young are particularly vulnerable. By some estimates, children are 164 times more at risk from organophosphates chemicals routinely used in farming worldwide than adults. Nine out of ten children in the U.S. are exposed to 13 different organophosphates in the food they eat each day.

In…

Abid Aslam

WASHINGTON, Nov 27 2007 (IPS) – Drug firms are missing potentially valuable business opportunities by failing to meet the needs of consumers in developing countries, an international charity said Tuesday.
The group Oxfam International, in a new report, said the 700-billion-dollar-a-year pharmaceuticals industry continues to price their products beyond the reach of the world #39s poor. Additionally, it said market opportunities also were being squandered by firms #39 failure to develop more medicines relevant to poor countries and their intransigence over trademark issues.

The industry is burying its head in the sand, said Jeremy Hobbs, the group #39s executive director. More than 85 percent of world consumers are underserved or have no access to its medici…

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jan 9 2008 (IPS) – Thai environmentalists are banking on the country s courts to overturn a decision by the military-appointed government to allow field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops.
A court battle is the only way to keep the country free from being contaminated by GM crops say green groups aghast that the government of Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont has moved to secure cabinet approval to permit field trials just two days after the Dec. 23 parliamentary elections.

There also is anger at the military-backed government s failure to develop and pass a bio-safety law that would protect farmers and consumers before lifting the ban for field trials.

This has been a very sensitive public issue and any changes to the ban …

Interview with Jean-Bosco Ouedraogo

TORONTO, Feb 13 2008 (IPS) – Malaria continues to cut a swathe through Africa, which accounts for most cases of the disease and the majority of malaria-related deaths. Globally, more than a million people die from malaria each year. In the case of children, this translates into a death every 30 seconds, according to the World Health Organisation.

Jean-Bosco Ouedraogo, director of research at the Health Scienc…

David Vargas

REPATRIACION, Paraguay, Mar 11 2008 (IPS) – The first red stains on Nicanor s white shirt reads the inscription on a memorial niche at the side of the road to Ypecuá, 230 kilometres from Asunción, where peasant farmers are fighting for their land and against the diseases caused by agrochemicals used on nearby soybean plantations.

The road to Juliana Fleitas. Credit: David Vargas/IPS

The rustic cemetery here is the final resting place of the remains of two farm workers from the settlement known as Juliana Fleitas, in the southern Paraguayan state …