UNITED NATIONS, May 16 2012 (IPS) – The statistics have remained staggering: every two minutes, a woman dies of pregnancy and child birth-related complications caused primarily by severe bleeding, infections, high blood pressure and unsafe abortions.
A pregnant woman in Kenya s North Eastern Province with one of her children. Overpopulation in the area contributes to poor maternal health. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS
And 90 percent of maternal deaths occur in the world s 132 developing na…
SANTA LUCÍA MILPAS ALTAS, Guatemala, Jun 27 2012 (IPS) – Cases like that of a little boy with an undetected metabolic disorder whose parents sold everything they owned to cover the costs of medical treatment that was ineffective prompted a doctor to create a vanguard institute of human genetics in Guatemala.
“A couple from a rural village, who longed to have children but were never able to, one day found outside their shop a box with a baby in it and a message asking them to take care of him because his parents couldn’t support him,” the director of the new institute, Gabriel Silva, told IPS.
They were happy to adopt him. But at the age of five, he had his first seizure. “His adoptive parents went to a private health centre, to pay for the first treatment. His i…
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India , Aug 14 2012 (IPS) – Four-year-old Deepak Yadav, a mentally disabled boy from Indore city in the Indian state Madhya Pradesh, was being treated for stomach problems at Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya, a government hospital for children attached to the M. G. M. Medical College.
(Right to left) Clinical trial victims with medical right activist Dr. Anand Rai. Credit: CTVA, Indore.
But when repeated administration of the anti-ulcer drug Rabeprazole started to exacerbate his condition, his parents stopped treatment and s…
RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 28 2012 (IPS) – More intense rainfall, rising temperatures and climate-driven migration of human and animal populations due to repeated drought all affect the spread of tropical diseases. These changes, already the focus of study by climatologists, are now also a challenge increasingly taken up by health experts and officials.
The impact of climate change on human health generated debate among the experts attending the 18th International Congress on Tropical Medicine and Malaria, held Sept. 23-27 in Rio de Janeiro.
On one side of the debate stands researcher Ulisses Confalonieri, of Brazil’s state-run Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), who argues that the press often oversimplifies a very complex issue.
HIV positive people in New Delhi demonstrate for access to cheap generic drugs. Credit: Mudit Mathur/IPS
BEIJING, Nov 8 2012 (IPS) – As the northern Indian state of Rajasthan rolls out an ambitious universal healthcare plan, the discontent of the state’s doctors stands in stark contrast to the joys of the 68 million people who will benefit from the scheme.
Just a little over a year ago, the state government began supplying free generic drugs to its massive population, effectively stripping doctors of the ability to prescribe more expensive branded medicine.
Some 350 essential generic drugs are now being distributed free of cost. As a result, ou…
BUENOS AIRES, Mar 8 2013 (IPS) – Argentina is set to become the first country in Latin America to legalise surrogate motherhood as an option for heterosexual and homosexual couples or single people who cannot conceive but want to have a child who is biologically their own.
It s been one of the hardest topics in family law, Marisa Herrera, a lawyer who participated in a thorough reform of the civil code created in 1869, told IPS. Groups of experts worked on redrafting it under the direction of the Supreme Court, following a proposal by President Cristina Fernández.
The project was presented to Congress in early March, and if approved as expected it will make Argentina the first Latin American country to legalise this practice, also known as rent-a-womb.
Brazil …
A contaminated stream in Kimicanga, a suburb of Kigali, Rwanda. What if human and other waste could be turned into an energy and revenue-producing bio-gas? Credit: Aimable Twahirwa/IPS
UXBRIDGE, Canada, Apr 30 2013 (IPS) – One, two or more of the 102 newly launched out-of-the box ideas to improve global health could be world-changing breakthroughs.
It might be someone s idea to create a test strip you touch with your tongue to see if you have a deadly disease. Or a mobile phone game to prevent HIV. Or the idea that untreated human waste from slums could be turned into marketable products.
Breakthroughs can t happen without a genius idea and the opportunity…
Youth in Rwanda fill out the MY World survey. Credit: Mark Darrough/Girl Hub Rwanda
UNITED NATIONS, May 28 2013 (IPS) – Kanny Daylop, a legal practitioner and consultant from Nigeria, recalls her encounter with a woman named Joy.
“She was young, probably a teenager,” Daylop said.”It is a useful guide for us but the conversation has to be far more holistic and far more real.” — NFI’s Amitabh Behar
Contrary to her name, Joy’s life was filled with hardship. She became pregnant and dropped out of school. Her parents threw her out of their house. Since then, she has been working as a seamstress to earn money to take care of herself and her unborn child.…
The item below is a transcript of an editorial written in 1952 by T Keith Glennan, then Chairman of the US Atomic Energy Commission.
The editorial makes unmistakably clear that the birth of the nuclear electricity program was necessarily based on the production of plutonium for bombs. One key sentences states that:
there now exists a basis for the creation of semirisk industrial
nuclear- power enterprise while the military demand for plutonium
continues.
Semirisk meant subsidised.
Ironically, the editorial, toward its conclusion, says:
A multitude of other factors also must be considered, such as preferential position, adequate security measures, suitable safety precautions, public liability, and international relations. None of these probl…
ADDIS ABABA , Aug 16 2013 (IPS) – Foreign aid workers are increasingly becoming targets of corrupt officials within the Somali government and the Islamist extremist group Al-Shabaab.
“The government is laden with corrupt officials and allied clan militias that are determined to use them [aid workers] for their own interests,” political analyst Hassan Abukar told IPS. “Kidnapping foreign aid workers has become a way to extract cash from NGOs. is mistrustful of the NGOs for fear of losing control in the way aid is administered and [mistakenly believes] that these relief agencies are spying on the terror group.”
Abukar’s comments come as international and independent aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders (MSF), announced this wee…