Fulgence Zamblé

ABIDJAN, Jan 31 2006 (IPS) – As illnesses go, Buruli ulcer does not receive the attention given to conditions such as AIDS or bird flu: the World Health Organisation (WHO) has even termed it a neglected tropical disease .
In the conflict-torn nation of Ivory Coast, however, matters are somewhat different.

A survey issued by the National Programme for the Fight against Mycobacterial Ulcers (Programme national de lutte contre les ulcères à mycobactéries, PNUM) has shown that there were 22,000 cases of the disease in the country last year a marked increase against the number recorded in 1997 (4,642). Just over 10,000 cases of Buruli ulcer were recorded in 1991. (Mycobacteria are known to cause several serious illnesses apart from Buruli ulcer. These i…

Peter Richards

PORT OF SPAIN, Mar 9 2006 (IPS) – Ever since Prime Minister Patrick Manning all but scuttled a draft national gender policy nearly six months ago, a debate has been raging here as to whether such a plan is necessary for the future socio-economic development of Trinidad and Tobago.
We want a gender policy now, thundered Hazel Brown, president of the Network of Non-Governmental Organisations, during a rally on Wednesday marking International Women s Day.

She has called on all people of conscience to join in getting the Manning administration to implement that gender policy, which endorses our right to gender equity and social justice .

The gender issue relates directly to the concerns of women and men which we experience every day employment, ed…

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Apr 9 2006 (IPS) – Millions could be helped this year by a new project to fortify foods with essential nutrients.
A new 20 million dollar project being managed by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) will seek to fortify salt, flour and staple foods in a group of developing countries. The project aims to reach 200 million people in developing countries, including large numbers of adolescents and women of reproductive age.

In addition, we will look at targeted programmes to particularly address the needs of children, and our aim will be to reach 20-30 million additional children, Amanda Marlin from GAIN told IPS in an e- mailed comment.

The funding for the project has come from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which also …

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, May 6 2006 (IPS) – The annual Tet Festival, celebrated in Vietnam to mark the arrival of the lunar new year, brought with it good health tidings for the government of that South-east Asian country, this year. The festival, in January, was free of the bird flu menace and the run of good luck has held.
Credit must go to Hanoi s policies which contrasted with what prevailed in the previous two years, when the days around the Tet Festival and afterwards saw surges in the spread of the lethal avian flu virus.

The wet markets in the big cities are closed. They are like a cemetery now, said Jeff Gilbert, avian influenza coordinator at the Vietnam office of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), referring to the large poultry markets wher…

Julio Godoy

PARIS, Jun 9 2006 (IPS) – Uncertainty hovers over the extent of uranium reserves, and over the health and environmental impacts of nuclear power plants.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, a group of 30 rich nations), claim in a new report that there is plenty of uranium to guarantee the future development of nuclear energy.

The report estimates that 4.7 million tonnes of conventional uranium can be mined for less than 130 dollars a kilogram, just above the current price, to provide enough fuel for nuclear power plants for the next 85 years.

But the report suggests that more uranium is around for mining at a higher price. Based on geological evidence and knowledge of ura…

Stephen Leahy

BROOKLIN, Canada, Jul 24 2006 (IPS) – Everything about the Alberta oil sands development is impossibly big. Monster-sized trucks and giant excavators are carving up hundreds of square kilometres of land, thousands of kilometres of pipelines and roads have been laid, and millions of litres of water are being super-heated to process millions of tonnes of rock and sand.
Producing oil from oil sands also uses impossibly large amounts of energy.

The mining-extraction process requires about 750 cubic feet of natural gas for every barrel of bitumen, according to the non-governmental Pembina Institute report Oil Sands Fever . The in situ process that pumps super-hot steam 1,000 metres underground requires 1,500 cubic feet of natural gas to produce a single barre…

Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Aug 29 2006 (IPS) – The Global Environment Facility (GEF), the world s largest environmental funding body, received a shot in the arm Tuesday after 32 countries agreed to contribute a whopping 3.13 billion dollars for environmental projects over the next four years amid rising concerns about the impact human activities are having on the Earth.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF), the world s largest environmental funding body, received a shot in the arm Tuesday after 32 countries agreed to contribute a whopping 3.13 billion dollars for environmental projects over the next four years amid rising concerns about the impact human activities are having on the Earth.

The agreement was endorsed by the GEF Council in Cape Town, South Africa, where the…

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Suman Pradhan

KANCHANPUR, Sep 22 2006 (IPS) – In Nepal s western terai (plains) districts, a silent epidemic is brewing. Children and women are racked by diseases arising from malnutrition and anaemia-not because of a lack of food but because of faulty food habits and traditional customs, say health workers in the region.
The situation is alarming. Every day at the zonal hospital in Mahendranagar in Kanchanpur district, Dr Subhesh Kayastha sees hundreds of patients who come for treatment from all over the district and beyond. Many children are thin and wasted and present a frightening picture.

Kids come here with classic symptoms of Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM), says Kayastha. It is widespread among children under five years of age in this area.

A recen…