Health Focus

Category: Health

  • EL SALVADOR: Activists Link Mining Co. to Murders

    Edgardo Ayala SAN SALVADOR, Jan 27 2010 (IPS) – Environmental activists in El Salvador allege that managers of a gold mine owned by a Canadian corporation are implicated in the murders of three anti-mining activists. The killings took place between June and December 2009 in the central department (province) of Cabañas, where the Pacific Rim…

  • HEALTH: Neoliberalism not Liberal Enough for AIDS Investments

    Matthew Berger WASHINGTON, Mar 2 2010 (IPS) – Neoliberal economic ideas have grown increasingly dominant over the last 30 years. During that same time, the spread of HIV/AIDS has reached an epidemic crescendo. This is more than a coincidence, argues Rick Rowden, author of the new book The Deadly Ideas of Neoliberalism: How the IMF…

  • HEALTH: Putting the Focus on Cities

    Gustavo Capdevila GENEVA, Apr 7 2010 (IPS) – The world s public health policy-makers should focus on urban health problems, since for the last three years the majority of the planet s population is living in cities, World Health Organisation (WHO) experts say. Statistics confirm that the centuries-long predominance of rural populations ended in 2007,…

  • Nuclear Power Nearly as Dangerous as Weapons, Critics Say

    Haider Rizvi UNITED NATIONS, May 7 2010 (IPS) – The quest for nuclear disarmament is likely to fail if governments and corporations continue to promote nuclear technologies as a solution to the world s energy needs, say independent experts. Their warning comes as international talks on the future of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) continue…

  • SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Leper Colonies on the Road to Extinction

    Marwaan Macan-Markar BANGKOK, Jun 23 2010 (IPS) – The Culion island, in the western Philippines, is increasingly becoming a magnet for tourists drawn to its corals in the shallow waters close to its shore, its deep green hills and its ancient Spanish fort. In the waters surrounding the island, mangroves, seagrasses and corals support a…

  • SOUTH AFRICA: Trauma of Children Caring for HIV-Positive Parents

    Laure Pichegru JOHANNESBURG, Jul 16 2010 (IPS) – Nine-year-old Nomasonto* had no choice but to switch roles with her mother and care for the HIV-positive woman who gave birth to her. Instead of worrying about homework and going out to play with her friends, Nomasonto s daily concerns were now a matter of life and…

  • PAKISTAN: Controversial Drug Welcomed by Some, Worries Others

    Zofeen Ebrahim KARACHI, Pakistan, Aug 9 2010 (IPS) – With its latest hotline a surefire hit, the non-government group Aware Girls could not be any happier. As a mother tries to get her baby to sleep, misoprostol has triggered a debate on its use to induce abortion. Credit: Kulsum Ebrahim/IPS We received about 30 such…

  • ENVIRONMENT: South Still Battling to Stop North’s Biopiracy

    PARIS, Sep 7 2010 (IPS) – The United Nations declared 2010 the Year of Biodiversity. But 17 years after the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the issue of biopiracy is still pitching North against South. A worker at the African Centre for Biosafety s Imingcangathelo Project…

  • Uganda Failing to Control TB

    Wambi Michael BUDUDA, Uganda, Sep 29 2010 (IPS) – John Mahanga sits on his hospital bed, coughing persistently. The 42-year-old has been suffering from tuberculosis (TB) for the past three years. He has been in treatment for it, but repeatedly stopped taking medication when he felt better. Doctors have now diagnosed him with multi-drug resistant…

  • Cholera Cases Emerge in Haiti’s Capital

    Ansel Herz PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct 24 2010 (IPS) – Days after an outbreak of cholera began in Haiti s rural Artibonite region, killing at least 200 people, there are now five confirmed cases of cholera in the busy capital city. The cases do not represent spread of the epidemic because they were infected in central Haiti,…