Raúl Gutiérrez
SAN SALVADOR, Jul 3 2007 (IPS) – While health authorities in El Salvador have launched a campaign under the slogan Take the test: positive or negative, we are all human beings in the face of AIDS , people living with HIV complain of a lack of medicines and of discrimination, even at the hands of public health doctors.
The Salvadoran Public Health Ministry and Social Security Institute report that they tested at least 40,000 people for AIDS in the country s public hospitals and health centres, and in parks and shopping centres, on Jun. 27, which was declared National Day for HIV testing.
But experts who spoke to IPS said the government campaign, which got underway in late June, is merely aimed at improving the country s international image and drawing …
Abid Aslam
WASHINGTON, Aug 6 2007 (IPS) – China and the United States have agreed on measures to improve the safety of Chinese exports of food and drugs following a wave of scandals involving tainted products.
The move could defuse tensions between the world s biggest consumer and exporter. Beijing has cited its own safety concerns in blocking imports of U.S. food but officials and commentators here have seen the action as retaliation for U.S. rejection of Chinese goods.
Chinese authorities and visiting U.S. officials agreed on an initial framework to strengthen product safety standards and their enforcement, the state-run Xinhua news agency said Saturday. Details of the agreement, reached with a delegation of senior officials of the U.S. Department of Health and Huma…
Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Sep 3 2007 (IPS) – The search for answers to the spread of the deadly bird flu virus is calling into question a long-held practice in science where recognition is given to positive test results, say experts meeting in the Thai capital.
It stems from lack of clear evidence to link wild birds to the cases of avian influenza (AI) that have infected poultry populations across countries and continents, they add. Yet this view has not taken flight because of a bias in science against negative test results .
Science by its nature is about discovery, about finding something positive and concrete. But there is a problem with science when studies offer a negative result that reveals so much, says William Karesh, head of the Global Avian Influenza …
Anne-Kathrin Keller
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 3 2007 (IPS) – The scene within and outside the United Nations last week was strikingly dissimilar: while more than 140 world leaders were arriving in New York to wine, dine and address the General Assembly, a group of activists was demonstrating outside the U.N. compound for a hunger-free world.
The message conveyed by the activists was clear: the United Nations is fighting a losing battle to fulfill its pledge to halve the number of undernourished people.
According to the U.N. s Food and Agriculture Organisation, the number of hungry people worldwide has increased from 800 million in 2000 to 854 million this year. About 35,000 people die of hunger every day.
World leaders shouldn t just put the issue of hunger on the …
Yolandi Groenewald*
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 26 2007 (IPS) – Waterless or composting toilets are being touted as a promising solution to many of South Africa #39s sanitation woes.
Currently, just under 14 million of the country #39s approximately 48 million citizens lack access to sanitation, and about 200,000 households are reliant on the bucket system. As more demands are placed on national water resources, it appears increasingly unlikely that homes without sanitation will be able to receive the popular flush toilet hence the search for solutions elsewhere.
It is only in the past couple of years that the government listed dry sanitation solutions as an acceptable form of sanitation (and) that various government departments have started to entertain the use of waterless t…
Brad Miller* – IPS/IFEJ
DAVAO CITY, Mindanao, Nov 29 2007 (IPS) – The villagers in the mountains surrounding Davao city are bracing for the day the crop-dusting planes resume dropping fungicide on the banana plantations and the wind blowing toxic fog over their houses, water supply and children.
Children going to school as aerial sprayer flies overhead Credit: IDIS
They fly over early morning, 5 am, says one local farmer, describing the noise and irritating fumes trailing behind the planes as they skim over at tree-top height.
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Constanza Vieira and Diana Cariboni
QUIBDÓ, Colombia, Jan 9 2008 (IPS) – During the high season of popular festivals in Colombia s Chocó region, pregnant girls as young as 13 start flowing in, says a nursing assistant in the obstetrics department at the hospital of the provincial capital, Quibdó.
Transporting building materials by panga . Credit: Jesús Abad Colorado
The fiesta of San Pancho as Saint Francis of Assisi, the city s patron saint, is known is a two-week festival that begins on Sept. 20, with traditional music, abu…
Abid Aslam
WASHINGTON, Feb 15 2008 (IPS) – In an attempt to polish his image and advance U.S. interests in the twilight of his presidency, George W. Bush is visiting Africa.
Bush s second visit to the continent takes him to Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Liberia. Officials and commentators say the U.S. enjoys high regard in these countries assuring Bush a warm welcome.
While there, Bush will tout the reasons for this goodwill.
The trip will highlight how the United States has partnered closely with the people of Africa to address the challenges of disease, poverty and security, said Stephen Hadley, Bush s national security adviser.
There s more hope in Africa and the American people can be proud that many of our innovative programmes are making …
Dalia Acosta
PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba, Mar 17 2008 (IPS) – Activism against AIDS is uniting a group of transvestites and crossdressers in western Cuba in a project that is going beyond peer education and making inroads into the world of culture.
The time has come to take us seriously. We are in a position to demand our place in society, to contribute to AIDS prevention through our art, and to be respected for our abilities and knowledge, a Cuban transvestite, whose artistic name is that of Mexican actress and singer Ninel Conde, told IPS.
I never felt so sure of myself as I do now. When I used to dress in male clothes, I would always hang my head. Since I put on a pair of high heels, I have felt proud of being who I am. I began to be happy with myself, and I walk down th…
Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Apr 28 2008 (IPS) – An ambitious new programme for training health agents to help reduce infant mortality in small rural communities and indigenous villages, launched by one of Argentina s best-known human rights groups, drew many more applicants than the organisers had hoped for.
We expected 500 people to register, but we had to expand the programme to 800, and many health professionals even signed up, Oscar Natalichio, extension secretary at the Popular University of the Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo, told IPS.
The University was created by the Madres (Mothers) of Plaza de Mayo, a group founded during Argentina s 1976-1983 dictatorship to demand that their sons and daughters, who were disappeared by the military regime, be return…