Claire Ngozo
LILONGWE, Feb 23 2010 (IPS) – By this time last year, Mkanda had recorded 14 cholera cases as rainy season descended on central Malawi. This year, there has not been a single report of cholera.
Mgona township, Lilongwe: water-borne diseases strike the young especially hard; fitting that children play a k…
Pavol Stracansky
PRAGUE, Apr 1 2010 (IPS) – Eastern Europe s organic food industry is mushrooming as it brushes off the effects of the global recession, and more consumers in the region turn to healthier foods.
Some countries now have twice as much agricultural land turned over to organic farming as those in Western Europe, and experts are predicting a bright future for the industry in the former communist bloc.
Christof Arndt, project coordinator at the Dresden-based EkoConnect non- profit group promoting organic agriculture in Eastern Europe, told IPS: The last few years have seen a huge rise in organic farming, food production and consumption in Eastern Europe, and the market is developing really quickly despite the recession.
In Eastern Europe under commu…
Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI, Apr 30 2010 (IPS) – Perween Riaz, 36, waited till after she gave birth to her sixth child before she finally got herself sterilised.
Like these newly born twins, more children are born daily into families who can barely afford to raise a child. Credit: Zofeen Ebrahim/IPS
Before then she had undergone a total of four abortions in a span of six years despite her basic knowl…
Neena Bhandari
SYDNEY, Jun 11 2010 (IPS) – While successful immunisation programmes worldwide have saved millions of lives, the threat of new infectious diseases and drug-resistant strains of existing diseases is posing a major challenge to governments, especially in developing regions like Asia, in meeting their commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
We have two major problems in the context of emerging infectious diseases in the coming decade outbreaks, which might develop into pandemics, and the continuing increase in anti-microbial resistance, Professor Tanya Sorrell, director of the newly established Sydney Institute of Emerging Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, based at University of Sydney, tells IPS.
This raises the dual problems of prevent…
Ranjit Devraj
New Delhi, Jul 12 2010 (IPS) – At a time when the World Health Organisation (WHO) faces charges that it hyped up the swine flu pandemic to benefit pharmaceutical companies, India is sprucing up its indigenous capacity to manufacture vaccines against the H1N1 virus.
The privately-owned Serum Institute of India has launched Nasovac , a nasal spray, following clearance from the Drug Controller of India. The spray follows Vaxiflu-S , a single dose injectable manufactured by the Indian pharmaceutical major Zydus-Cadila, which has been on Indian drug store shelves since Jun. 3.
With a large population (1.2 billion) spread over a vast country, we cannot depend on other countries for vaccines against a pandemic like swine flu, India s health minister Ghulam Nab…
NAIROBI, Aug 3 2010 (IPS) – Nancy Njeri’s life changed when she contracted HIV through a gang rape. Not only did the infection traumatise her, she was ostracised by close friends and neighbours whom she had known for almost a decade. She was fired from her job and when she attempted to sell vegetables, people boycotted her stand because of her status.
Nancy Njeri at her house in Korogocho slum, longs for a speedy AIDS tribunal. Credit: David Njagi
Sadly Njeri’s case is not …
Aprille Muscara
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 1 2010 (IPS) – Aid groups and U.N. agencies are raising the alarm over the vulnerability of pregnant women and babies in flood ravaged Pakistan.
Over the past month the unprecedented monsoon-induced floods have affected nearly 18 million people 1,600 lives have already been lost, according to U.N. estimates.
We know that mothers are giving birth in flimsy or crowded shelters, steps away from stagnant water and debris, said Sonia Kush, director of emergency preparedness and response at Save the Children. And we know the dangers for newborns are extreme the first hours and days of a child s life in the developing world are the riskiest, even without the added complications posed by a disaster of this scope. Displacement, increased im…
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 22 2010 (IPS) – As a three-day anti-poverty talkfest drew to a close Wednesday, the United Nations shifted its focus from the poor and the hungry to two of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in society: women and children.
Michelle Bachelet, head of U.N. Women, speaks to the press. Credit: Sriyantha Walpola/IPS
The mission: a massive drive to save the lives of more than 16 million women and children dying of deadly diseases every year, primarily due to the lack of…
Matthew O. Berger
WASHINGTON, Oct 15 2010 (IPS) – With a record number of people undernourished last year and that number only down about 10 percent this year this year s World Food Day, to take place Saturday, carries with it a new sense of urgency. But in the conferences and events being held to commemorate the day, there will also likely be a sense of hope and opportunity.
That hope is coming from the discovery of both new ways to feed a crowded, hungry planet and new efforts to spread and implement those practices.
Danielle Nierenberg has spent the past year travelling the globe as co-director of the Worldwatch Institute s Nourishing the Planet project, whose mission has been to assess and raise awareness of the state of agricultural innovations everything from cr…
NEW YORK, Nov 17 2010 (IPS) – Privacy advocates called on the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Tuesday to end its controversial new initiative of whole-body scans and enhanced pat-downs of airline passengers, calling the programme dangerous to health, ineffective and unconstitutional .
Led by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, a group of organisations held a telephone news conference to insist that the strip-search programme be suspended and turned over the Congress to investigate.
The machines are ineffective, the pat-downs are too invasive, and the use of radioactive technology poses health risks, Nader said, citing testimony from a number of physicians who agreed that radioactivity could cause skin problems and might pose a public health threat to passenger…