A CD4 testing machine. Research by the University of Zimbabwe shows that female patients with high CD4 counts have developed a nevirapine toxicity. Credit: Jennifer Mckellar/IPS

NAIROBI, May 19 2014 (IPS) – As Africa scales up lifesaving antiretroviral therapy for HIV positive people, concerns are rife that the absence of mass routine viral load testing will hamper extending treatment to the millions who need it.

“Routine viral load testing helps catch people who are failing on treatment before they generate resistance to antiretrovirals and helps keep them less infectious,” explains Teri Roberts, diagnostics adviser at .

Viral load testing, the gold stan…

This is the second story in a three-part series on HIV and contraception in Africa

Because men wield power in decisions around pregnancy, family planning services should include them. Couple-centred family planning services are sorely needed in Africa. Credit: Mercedes Sayagues/IPS

NAIROBI, Aug 14 2014 (IPS) – Beatrice Njeri had just come home from her job as a janitor at a primary school in Nairobi. It was August 2009.

Arriving home earlier than usual, the married mother of two found her husband waiting for her in their shanty at Kisumu Ndogo, in the sprawling Kibera slums.

He had just discovered he was HIV positive. A week later, she too test…

BUENOS AIRES, Sep 25 2014 (IPS) – In most Latin American countries schools now provide sex education, but with a focus that is generally restricted to the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases – an approach that has not brought about significant modifications in the behaviour of adolescents, especially among the poor.

The international community made the commitment to offer comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) during the 1994 in Cairo.

“Although some advances have been made in the inclusion of sexual and reproductive education in school curriculums in Latin America and the Caribbean, we have found that not all countries or their different jurisdictions have managed to fully incorporate these concepts in classroom activities,” Elba Núñez, the coordinator …

Arturo Lopez-Levy is a visiting lecturer at Mills College, California and a PhD Candidate at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

A technician sets up an assay for Ebola within a containment laboratory. Samples are handled in negative-pressure biological safety cabinets to provide an additional layer of protection. Photo by Dr. Randal J. Schoepp/cc by 2.0

DENVER, Colorado, Nov 24 2014 (IPS) – When was the last time in recent memory a top U.S. official praised Cuba publicly? And since when has Cuba’s leadership offered to cooperate with Americans?

It’s rare for poli…

Surviving in Africa, especially when you are a premature baby who requires special care, is not always a certainty. Credit: Casia Ciechanowska/Doctors with Africa CUAMM

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 2015 (IPS) – 20 years on from Beijing, gender inequality is still a priority at United Nations.

On the first day of the (CSW)  in New York, the Permanent Missions of Italy and United Republic of Tanzania to the U.N. opened the photographic exhibition A waiting room- Mothers and children first .

The pictures were taken by Polish photographer Kasia Ciechanowska, who focused on the conditions of Tanzanian women, highlighting the risks pregnant women go through in poor heal…

Soren Ambrose is Head of Policy at ActionAid International.

The land by Boegbor, a town in district four in Grand Bassa County, Liberia, has been leased by the government to Equatorial Palm Oil for 50 years. Credit: Wade C.L. Williams/IPS

NAIROBI, Apr 23 2015 (IPS) – Parents in despair because they can’t pay the fees at the privatised neighbourhood school…

Families left without healthcare because the mining company that pollutes their river also dodges the taxes that could pay for th…

Sipho Mthathi is Executive Director of Oxfam South Africa

JOHANNESBURG, Jun 12 2015 (IPS) – Africa is known as the ‘paradox of plenty’. How can a continent so rich in natural resources be so poor?

Economic growth is predicted to increase by 4.5 percent across the continent this year, despite falling oil prices and the Ebola crisis. South Africa’s economy, the second biggest in Africa is expected to continue to grow by 3.5 percent this year; Nigeria will grow by an enviable 5.5 percent.

Sipho Mthathi, Executive Director of Oxfam South Africa

However…

Germán Velásquez is Special Adviser for Health and Development, South Centre, Geneva

GENEVA, Nov 10 2015 (IPS) – The important relationship between the examination of patents carried out by national patent offices and the right of citizens to access to medicines hasn t always been well-understood. Too often these are viewed as unrelated functions or responsibilities of the state. And the reason is clear: patentability requirements are not defined by patent offices, but frequently by the courts, tribunals, legislation or treaty negotiators.

Germán Velásquez

This is the case when patent policy is implemented in isolation from, rather than gui…

The drone took 10 minutes to cover 10 km. Photo Credit: UNICEF

LILONGWE, Malawi, Mar 28 2016 (IPS) – The first successful test-flight of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone was an unhindered 10 km journey from a community health centre to the Kamuzu central hospital laboratory in the capital Lilongwe. Local community members watched with excitement as the drone rose into the sky, after being launched by the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and government of Malawi at the area 25 health centre.

The first of its kind in southern Africa, the US manufactured machine was on trial till …

May 29 2016 – The most recent population projections expect the Island’s population to reach 25 million by 2042 and 25.8 million by 2062. It is expected to stabilise around the mid 2060s at 25-26 million. This is a significant departure from earlier projections that expected population stability much earlier at around 23-24 million in the 2030s and to decline thereafter.

This higher population growth that is mainly due to the recent increase in fertility from below replacement level to above replacement level, poses serious social and economic challenges in education, health, care of the elderly, public finances and retirement benefits.

Twenty Five million
Prof. Indralal de Silva’s and Dr. Ranjith de Silva’s recent book, Sri Lanka: 25 Million People and Implic…