MIDEAST: No Day Is a Woman&#39s Day in Gaza

Mohammed Omer

GAZA CITY, Mar 7 2008 (IPS) – Mahasen Darduna suffers in ways the world recognises; her suffering comes at the hands of the Israelis. But there are many Palestinian women whose suffering the world does not see, because their hell is inflicted on them by Palestinians.
A woman who has seen too much Credit: Mohammed Omer

A woman who has seen too much Credit: Mohammed Omer

One way and another, no day is a woman #39s day in Gaza.

For all of a week, Mahasen Darduna, 30, has sat day and night by her son #39s bedside in hospital. The boy, Yahiya, 9, was among the group hit by an Israeli missile while playing foo…

RIGHTS-US: Vets’ Lawsuit Opens Door on Suicides, Poor Care

Aaron Glantz

SAN FRANCISCO, Apr 22 2008 (IPS) – The United States government does such a bad job of caring for wounded war veterans, advocates told a federal judge here Monday, that 18 veterans commit suicide every week.
The suicide problem is out of control, said Gordon Erspamer, an attorney representing the groups Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth in a class action lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Our veterans deserve better.

Erspamer s comments came in opening arguments for what is expected to be a week-long trial, the first class action brought on behalf of 1.7 million Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.

Early arguments were punctuated by allegations top government officials deliberately deceived the U.S. publ…

HEALTH: Bird Flu – Vietnam Reports Headway in Human Vaccine

Tran Dinh Thanh Lam – Newsmekong*

HO CHI MINH CITY, Jun 3 2008 (IPS) – Vietnamese researchers have announced significant progress in their effort to develop a prototype vaccine for the H5N1 avian influenza, despite criticism from some scientists that their methods are unorthodox .
Vietnam is hoping to develop a vaccine that could prevent humans from contracting bird flu and have it available on the local market at a reasonable price by late 2009.

Researchers from the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) began a trial of the H5N1 influenza vaccine on 10 volunteers in March this year.

Encouraged by good results, researchers from the Vaccine and Bio-Technology Products Company (Vabiotech), affiliated to the NIHE, obtained permission in early Apri…

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Bleak Future For the Country's Water

Analysis by Steven Lang

GRAHAMSTOWN, Jun 30 2008 (IPS) – Earlier this month, a private pilot reported to a Johannesburg radio station that while flying over the Kruger National Park, in the far eastern reaches of the country, he had spotted the carcasses of several large crocodiles floating in the Olifants River. This was unusual because the crocodiles within the country s largest game reserve are protected from hunting.
Game rangers soon confirmed that at least 30 fully grown crocodiles had died in the river apparently from a disease known as pansteatitis. This condition causes an inflammation of body fats which then harden resulting in a drawn out death for the animal.

Pansteatitis is usually associated with the consumption of rotten or rancid fish. However, there h…

EUROPE: Transition Brings AIDS

Claudia Ciobanu

BUCHAREST, Jul 31 2008 (IPS) – Poverty and social displacement, increased availability of drugs, and chaos in the healthcare systems that accompanied transition from state socialism to the market economy have contributed to the spread of HIV in Eastern Europe.
Russia and the Central Asian countries that were once a part of the Soviet Union are today the worst hit by large numbers of new HIV infections. According to UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS), between 2001-2007 the number of people living with HIV in Eastern Europe and Central Asia increased by 150 percent, from 630,000 to 1.6 million. More than half of the new cases were diagnosed in Russia, and over 20 percent in Ukraine.

In most other countries in Eastern Europe, the HIV …

HEALTH: Goal to Halt AIDS by 2015 Recedes Further

Ida Karlsson

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 16 2008 (IPS) – What if HIV/AIDS was just another chronic disease instead of a widespread epidemic? This could be the case if the world community takes serious action, according to Human Rights Watch and other activists. But today, the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on HIV/AIDS is nowhere near being realised.
Halfway to the target date of 2015, it is clear that we are not on track to meet the goals, especially in Africa, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed when a MDG review was launched here last week.

The U.N. Millennium Development Goals are eight targets to be achieved by 2015. The goals adopted by 189 nations have set worldwide objectives for reducing extreme poverty and deprivation, empowering women and ensuring enviro…

Q&A: Major Challenges Will Be Met

Stephanie Nieuwoudt interviews South African health minister BARBARA HOGAN

CAPE TOWN, Nov 12 2008 (IPS) – When Barbara Hogan replaced South African health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang in September, her appointment was praised from all quarters. Hogan, who previously chaired Parliament s finance portfolio committee, is known as an intellectual who stands up for what she believes in and finding hands-on approaches to solving difficult political issues.
IPS: You have acknowledged HIV/Aids as one of the most pressing health problems on the continent. You also expressed concern about its nasty twin, tuberculosis (TB), an opportunistic infection to which HIV-positive persons are particularly vulnerable. How will you tackle this problem? Barbara Hogan: South Africa has always h…

PERU: Open-Pit Mine Continues to Swallow City

Milagros Salazar

CERRO DE PASCO, Peru, Jan 5 2009 (IPS) – An immense open-pit mine located 4380 metres above sea level is swallowing up the centre of the city of Cerro de Pasco in Peru s central highlands, while the damages, in the form of toxic waste, spread to nearby villages.
Naún and his friends dream of living elsewhere. Credit: Milagros Salazar/IPS.

Naún and his friends dream of living elsewhere. Credit: Milagros Salazar/IPS.

The government just signed a new law to relocate part of the local population, who for decades have suffered from the lead dust, dynamite explos…

HEALTH: Warmer Climate Gives Malaria New Hunting Grounds

Stephen Leahy

CHICAGO, U.S., Feb 19 2009 (IPS) – Climate change is bringing malaria to regions of Africa where the disease was previously unknown, researchers report from the conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago this week.
Interestingly, the Arctic, where climate change is happening fastest, is the best place to study how warming temperatures are affecting infectious disease transmission.

Insect-transmitted diseases, primarily malaria, kill 3,000 people in Africa each day, said Andy Dobson of Princeton University in the United States.

Understanding how global warming is altering temperatures and the ecology and ranges of the malaria-transmitting Anopheles mosquito is crucial to understanding the dynamics of how insec…

ZIMBABWE: Researchers Developing New Ways to Purify Water

Busani Bafana and Zahira Kharsany

BULAWAYO, Mar 24 2009 (IPS) – Scientists at Bulawayo s National University of Science and Technology (NUST) have embarked on research to develop simple and affordable water purification methods, as more than a billion people live without safe drinking water in developing countries.
Moringa flowers - the seeds of this versatile tree can be used to sterilise drinking water. Credit: J.M. Garg/Wiki Commons

Moringa flowers – the seeds of this versatile tree can be used to sterilise drinking water. Credit: J.M.…