Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Apr 28 2009 (IPS) – When the World Health Organisation (WHO) raised the influenza pandemic alert from phase three to an ominous phase four warning this week, it went beyond the alarm associated with the killer avian influenza virus in Asia.
The global health body s warning came as the outbreak of a lethal strain of swine flu has killed more than 150 people in Mexico the epicentre of the virus and has also been detected in parts of the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

The WHO warning for a possible global pandemic emerging from avian influenza always remained a phase three alert, says Peter Cordingley, spokesman for the WHO s Western Pacific division. The difference now is that we have raised the pandemic alert to p…

NEW YORK, May 27 2009 (IPS) – On Mar. 28, one month before news of the swine flu outbreak headlined worldwide, a nine- year-old girl in Imperial County, California ran a fever of 104.3 degrees F.
She had not rolled up her sleeve for this year s flu vaccine, but that day she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue for a cotton swab that scooped up mucus samples from her throat. Her mucus arrived at the Naval Health Research Centre in San Diego where technicians tested it and classified the virus in it as unsubtypable influenza A it was something new.

She recovered.

The lab forwarded her mucus to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, where it arrived on Apr. 17, four days after Mexico confirmed its first case of swine flu. Embedded in t…

Stephen Leahy

BERLIN, Jul 29 2009 (IPS) – The most complex genetically engineered corn (maize) yet has been approved for use next year in Canada and the United States without its potential health and environmental risks being investigated, anti-biotech activists charged Wednesday.
Neither U.S. nor Canadian health officials have assessed the human health safety of Monsanto s and Dow AgroSciences new SmartStax genetically engineered (GE) corn with eight novel genes inserted into corn DNA, said the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN), an NGO based in Ottawa, Canada.

Health Canada did not conduct or require any testing for this new eight-trait GE (also called genetically modified, GM or GMO) corn and did not even officially authorise it for release into the food…

Ashfaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR, Aug 19 2009 (IPS) – A swine flu advisory issued by the Saudi government, banning the entry of pilgrims under 12 and over 65 years, is a blow for Hajj pilgrims as Muslims the world over prepare for Ramadan which starts this weekend.

Posters advertising Hajj tours in Peshawar Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS

After the month of fasting which will start in Pakistan on Aug. 22 with the sighting of the new moon millions of Muslims will converge on Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the largest annual pilgrimage in the world that culminate…

Kelvin Kachingwe

MANSA, Zambia, Sep 24 2009 (IPS) – Huge investments in malaria control and prevention have prevented as many as 75,000 child deaths over the past five years.
A 2008 survey by the Ministry of Health, UNICEF, World Health Organisation and the University of Zambia (UNZA) shows a 50 percent reduction in the prevalence of the malaria parasite in children when compared to the findings two years earlier.

Overall child mortality has fallen by 29 percent, and although it is difficult to parse out everything that has contributed to that reduction, there is consensus that malaria is a substantial part of it.

Moderate to severe anaemia, one of the best indicators of malaria infection in pregnancy has been reduced by more than 60 percent.

The U.S. …

Patience Nyangove

WINDHOEK, Oct 7 2009 (IPS) – Ten years ago, a move to legalise abortion in Namibia failed. The number of unwanted pregnancies remains high, with many people unwilling or unable to use contraception. Despite the risks, illegal abortions remain common.
Misoprostol a drug used to control ulcers, more usually known by the brand name Cytotec has become a favoured method for inducing abortion.

The drug costs around $14 U.S. dollars per tablet from a pharmacist and is readily available on the streets of Windhoek. Medical doctors who conduct abortions illegally using the drug charge between 140 and 200 U.S. dollars.

Twenty-two year-old Monisha (not her real name), a student at University of Namibia, decided to have an abortion because her boyfriend i…

MIDRAND, South Africa, Nov 12 2009 (IPS) – No more commitments We have had enough of the promises. Can we please see something happening on the ground? Right now, it is business as usual and that’s why Africa is off-track on the MDG target.
Jamillah Mwanjisi, executive secretary for the African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation attending the Second Africa Water Week in Midrand, South Africa, is not happy with what s happening in the water and sanitation sector.

In certain countries, one in eight people have access to safe sanitation. In terms of water supply, (it is) mostly rich people in urban areas who have access, while the rural community still has to walk four to eight kilometres to get water

Governments have repeatedly committed to increase su…

Nastasya Tay

PRETORIA, Dec 3 2009 (IPS) – Newborn babies in South Africa will now be treated for HIV, regardless of their CD4 count. President Jacob Zuma announced several new measures which focus on expanding the country s anti-retroviral (ARV) programme, especially in terms of mother-to-child-transmission, and for those with both TB and HIV.

A supporter at the World Aids Day celebration held in Pretoria. Credit: Nastasya Tay

The new policies target three primary groups babies, pregnant women, and those…

Ansel Herz

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 15 2010 (IPS) – The roof of Haiti s national penitentiary is missing. The four walls of the prison rise up and break off, leaving only the empty sky overhead.

A view of the Haitian National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince following the powerful Jan. 12 earthquake. Credit: UN Photo/Logan Abassi

The gate to the jail in downtown Port-Au-Prince is wide open; the pri…

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 19 2010 (IPS) – The world s longest toilet queue, scheduled for next month, may not be a celebrity-filled event worthy of a Hollywood spectacle but it could still find a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Come World Water Day, hundreds and thousands of people are expected to line up outside public latrines and toilets, as part of a global campaign to highlight the plight of some 2.5 billion people who still lack adequate sanitation worldwide.

The event, due to take place Mar. 22, is a joint effort by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) and two non-governmental organisations (NGOs) the Freshwater Action Network and End Water Poverty.

The aim is to get the world to unite around a single mass ca…