Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Oct 12 2010 (IPS) – Raúl Regueiro remembers every detail about the creation, 10 years ago in Cuba, of the project for the prevention of HIV/AIDS among men who have sex with men, and the way the initiative crossed the boundaries of purely health-related concerns to address the question of social inclusion.
Although homosexuality had been mentioned before, up to that point no work had been done with men, Regueiro told IPS. A co-founder of the project, Regueiro s idea is now applied in 14 provinces on the island and involves around 1,700 volunteer health outreach workers who act as direct links with Cuban communities.

It was the first time the people most affected by HIV/AIDS participated in a programme that was focused on educating people and on …

Matthew O. Berger

WASHINGTON, Nov 12 2010 (IPS) – It had seemed her kids had the flu or a cold. But when it got worse, she took little Abigail to hospital. It was already too late; Abigail died in her mother s arms.
Returning home, Shannon Duffy Peterson s son exhibited the same symptoms, and she rushed him to hospital. He was saved after two days of care, but within 72 hours Peterson had almost lost both her kids to pneumonia, which kills more children globally than any other disease . These easily preventable deaths happened in the U.S. state of Minnesota, the heartland of the richest country on earth, where vaccines against the primary causes of pneumonia are widely available.

Now, Peterson, an advocate with Parents of Children with Infectious Diseases, spreads the…

Mitch Moxley

BEIJING, Dec 21 2010 (IPS) – After her run to the finals of the 2005 Super Girl talent contest, Wang Bei, from central China s Hubei province, lived on the cusp of pop stardom. In November, Wang opted for cosmetic surgery in an effort to improve her chances of success.
But the 24-year-old s death in the operating room, officially ruled an accident, has prompted nationwide outrage over the dismal standards of China s rapidly growing cosmetic surgery industry.

About 2.2 million surgeries were conducted in China in 2009, comprising 12.7 percent of the global total, a report by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) found. State media have put the figure above three million surgeries. According to the Chinese Association of Plastics an…

Aprille Muscara

WASHINGTON, Feb 4 2011 (IPS) – As food prices rose for the seventh month in a row in January, contributing to recent popular unrest in the Middle East and a spike in commodities purchases by developing countries last week, some analysts are quick to make comparisons to the dry years of 2007-2008.
But others warn against panic and oversimplified predictions of an impending food crisis, which contribute to price volatility.

It is important to underline and we ve been trying this rather unsuccessfully a high food price index doesn t necessarily mean a food crisis, Abdolreza Abbassian, senior economist at the United Nation s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), told IPS in a telephone interview.

After a crisis in 1974, world food prices fell s…

TOKYO, Mar 14 2011 – A second explosion has rocked Japan s stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex, sending a plume of smoke into the air and touching off fresh concerns of a radioactive leak in the quake and tsunami-hit country.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Monday that the reactor had not been damaged.

The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), said in a press release that the blast was believed to be a hydrogen explosion at the plant s No.3 reactor and that 11 workers were injured. The first explosion happened at the same plant on Saturday, at the reactor No. 1.

TEPCO said that the impact of radioactive materials to the outside environment is under investigation.

Yukio Edano, Japan s chief cabinet secretary, said that a…

WASHINGTON, Apr 5 2011 (IPS) – Though the World Health Organisation (WHO) has focused this year s World Health Day Apr. 7 on prioritising the struggle against the global spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), scores of international researchers and scientists fear this decision is coming too late, with 2011 already shadowed by the failure of pharmaceutical antibiotics to curb the proliferation of diseases.

Drug-resistant tuberculosis has been reported in a st…

Kara Santos

MANILA, May 9 2011 (IPS) – In a small women s clinic in the congested community of San Andres Bukid in the Philippine capital, a mother of 11 is availing herself of family planning services for the first time in her life.

Birth control is making a comeback at clinics in Manila after a 2000 city ordinance discouraged the distribution of contraceptives. Cr…

Matt Carr

BOLTON, Jun 10 2011 (IPS) – The British Home Office has ruled that a severely disabled five-year-old girl should be returned to Algeria. The ruling demonstrates just how tough some European governments are getting on immigration.

Rania Abdechakour Credit: Bolton News Picture Agency

Rania Abdechakour originally came to the UK in 2008 to stay temporarily with her English aunt Johaina Taleb and her Algerian uncle Moussa in Bolton in the north of England. She came to receive conductive education a form of physiotherapy that her aunt and uncle paid for privat…

Emilio Godoy* – Tierramérica

MEXICO CITY, Jun 21 2011 (IPS) – Serious concerns about industrial livestock production in Mexico have been raised once again by recent controversies over the use of the non-steroidal anabolic clenbuterol and a feed medicine for poultry containing aresenic.

Cattle in Mexico Credit: Courtesy of Central Campesina Cardenista

Clenbuterol is a decongestant and bronchodilator prescribed for breathing disorders, but it also stimulates muscle growth, which is why it is used by livestock breeders to fatten poultry, ca…

Miriam Gathigah

NAIROBI, Jul 25 2011 (IPS) – For the first time ever, the Kenyan finance minister has allocated almost four million dollars, about 3.6 percent of the primary education budget, to provide free sanitary pads to schoolgirls.

One of the many self-employed women who can access microfinance credit through the Women Enterprise Fund. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

This comes after persistent pressure…