Jim Lobe WASHINGTON, Jul 17 2008 (IPS) – AIDS and global health activists are hailing Wednesday s approval by the U.S. Senate of an unprecedented five-year, 48-billion-dollar bill to fight AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis overseas, particularly in Africa. The bill also overturned a 21-year-old law that bans most foreign visitors who are HIV-positive from entering … Read more
Sam Cassanos NEW YORK, Aug 12 2008 (IPS) – A new study shows that the annual number of HIV infections in the United States is greater than was previously believed. The findings place increased scrutiny on the country s lack of a national HIV/AIDS program as well as the current Presidential candidates plans to combat … Read more
Pilirani Semu-Banda LILONGWE, Oct 14 2008 (IPS) – A group of 138 unhappy and mostly destitute women from Malawi s lake district of Mangochi have something to look forward to this week: They will have a chance to restore their dignity and pride by accessing a medical service usually not available to them. Little medical … Read more
Diego Cevallos MÉRIDA, Mexico, Dec 3 2008 (IPS) – A breakout of yellow fever among monkeys caught authorities in Argentina and Brazil, and the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO), off-guard in October. As in dozens of cases that occur every year, the outbreak was the result of growing interaction between wild animals and humans and changes … Read more
Ben Case UNITED NATIONS, Jan 27 2009 (IPS) – The United Nations children s agency UNICEF said Tuesday that it must raise over a billion dollars this year to meet the basic needs of women and children in disaster zones worldwide, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Juba, Sudan carry … Read more
Peter Richards PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Mar 12 2009 (IPS) – The fight against widespread sexual violence in the Caribbean has been joined by a high-profile new women s coalition that warns it could be a major reason for the spread of HIV among women and girls in the region. The Caribbean Coalition on Women, … Read more
Siyabonga Kalipa and Brenda Nkuna CAPE TOWN, Apr 7 2009 (IPS) – It s a Wednesday afternoon at the Joe Gqabi bus terminus in Philippi, Cape Town, and ticket touts scramble to recruit passengers wanting to travel to the rural Eastern Cape, a 1,000 kilometre, 16-hour haul away. Mvuselelo Chicco Tokwe, and his three-year-old son … Read more
Matthew Berger UNITED NATIONS, May 11 2009 (IPS) – While much of the public health community s attention is consumed by the H1N1 human swine flu outbreak, efforts are quietly being made to plug away at the continued threat of malaria. Malaria still kills nearly a million people each year, according to the World Health … Read more
Tran Dinh Thanh Lam MEKONG DELTA, Vietnam, Jun 12 2009 (IPS) – When they got out of bed one morning in April this year, the residents of Vi Thanh City here in southern Vietnam s Mekong Delta were surprised to find that their water had become salty. During the night, seawater had intruded into the … Read more
Ebrima Sillah NOUAKCHOTT, Jul 7 2009 (IPS) – Ndey Sall, a resident of Sixième, one of the poorest suburbs in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott, spends the equivalent of a dollar a day on water. That s almost half of her income not much left to pay for food, rent, or medicine if a family member … Read more