Marcela Valente* – Tierramérica

BUENOS AIRES, Apr 21 2009 (IPS) – The population s susceptibility to suffering more severe forms of dengue is worrying health experts, as the epidemic in South America expands in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay.

The Aedes aegypti mosquito feeding on human blood. Credit: Public domain

Dengue is a viral illness that manifests itself in different ways for each person, and can be much more severe for some than others, depending on risk factors. The biggest danger, say expe…

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, May 18 2009 (IPS) – World Health Organisation (WHO) Director General Margaret Chan issued a warning about the danger posed by the H1N1 flu epidemic, while health ministers from several countries recommended avoiding excesses when it came to remarks about a potential pandemic.
This virus may have given us a grace period, but we do not know how long this grace period will last. No one can say whether this is just the calm before the storm, Chang told health ministers and other representatives of the WHO s 193 member states at the inauguration of the 62nd session of the World Health Assembly in Geneva.

Chang s tone contrasted with the position taken by the ministers of Brazil, the United Kingdom and Japan, who called for maintaining the current…

CAIRO, Jul 20 2009 (IPS) – Karim borrowed money to expand his bakery. When the money ran out, and facing the prospect of imprisonment if unable to repay his debts, the 36-year- old Egyptian baker sold his kidney.
His case, among hundreds documented by the Coalition for Organ-Failure Solutions (COFS), a Washington-based NGO working to end organ trafficking, reveals an alarming trend: poverty is driving Egyptians to sell their organs.

Experts say the absence of legislation regulating human organ transplants has made Egypt an international hotspot for kidney trafficking. Up to 95 percent of the 3,000 legal kidney transplants per year, and hundreds of illegal ones, involve a commercial transaction.

A nationwide ban on organ transplants from cadavers means all kidneys mu…

Pratap Chatterjee*

WASHINGTON, Aug 14 2009 (IPS) – Murtaza Jimmy Farukhi was killed while on patrol with the U.S. Marine Corps on Sep. 9, 2008, at the age of 23. He was not a soldier, but a local translator employed by Columbus, Ohio-based Mission Essential Personnel (MEP).
Farukhi was one of 24 MEP translators killed and 56 injured since the company s contract with the U.S. military began in September 2007, according to company statistics.

MEP was awarded a five-year contract in September 2007 by the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) to provide 1,691 translators in Afghanistan. MEP defeated the incumbent contractor, San Diego, California- based Titan Corporation. The contract is worth up to 414 million dollars.

When he was alive Farukhi was…

Zofeen Ebrahim interviews noted social demographer KAREN HARDEE

KARACHI, Sep 17 2009 (IPS) – Are climate change and reproductive health two disparate subjects?
Not if one asks Dr Karen Hardee, a social demographer for over 20 years, with extensive experience in population and development as well as family planning.

The world population is expected to reach seven billion by 2011, and there are 200 million women who have unmet family planning needs, resulting in millions of unintended births, according to the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau.

In Pakistan, for instance, family planning and reproductive health services still remain out of reach for millions of Pakistanis, she said in a 2008 research commentary she co-authored, Population, Fertility and…

Chryso D’Angelo

NEW YORK, Nov 4 2009 (IPS) – The rate of breast cancer in developing countries is on the rise, according to the Harvard School of Public Health, which estimates that the poor will account for more than 55 percent of breast cancer deaths this year.
Women are coming in with high stage breast cancers stage 3 or higher and lesions that are protruding, Dr. Felicia Knaul, director of the Harvard Global Equity Initiative, told IPS. By the time the disease is diagnosed, it is often too late for effective treatment.

To meet this global challenge, cancer experts, government officials, and representatives of international organisations participated in an international conference Nov 3-5 in the United States.

Breast Cancer in Developing Countries; Meeti…

Mirela Xanthaki

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 29 2009 (IPS) – While most HIV-positive people in the Western world can gain decades of good health thanks to increasingly effective drug regimens, in the developing world, nearly a third of children born with HIV are still dying before their first birthday.

Maureen Sakala partici…

Jim Lobe*

WASHINGTON, Jan 6 2010 (IPS) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday pledged to make development, along with defence and diplomacy, a central pillar of U.S. foreign policy and results, rather than ideology, a guiding principle in devising development policy.
In what was billed as a major address to the Peterson Institute for International Economics here, Clinton listed six key features of the Barack Obama administration s approach to development.

They include greater coordination with recipients, with other donors, and among the many U.S. agencies, including the Pentagon, that deliver foreign aid; and a more-targeted focus on key sectors in poor countries; namely, health, agriculture, security, education, energy, and local governance.

Washingt…

Mantoe Phakathi

MBABANE , Mar 16 2010 (IPS) – Her swollen feet are a constant reminder to Sanele Matsebula that she needs to take her medication.

Swaziland’s Finance Minister Majozi Sithole delivers his budget speech to parliament. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

The 26-year-old HIV-positive mother of two says the swelling of her feet are side effects from the antiretroviral treatment (ART) she began two years ago.

I m always told that dic…

Thalif Deen and Jennie Lorentsson

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 21 2010 (IPS) – An international coalition of over 120 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is demanding a North-South partnership to resolve the spreading global crisis in water and sanitation.
As a first step, Western donors and national governments are being urged to form agreements in at least seven to 10 pilot countries to develop credible national plans, including a new pooled fund and enhanced technical support to develop capacity and planning systems.

The coalition which includes End Water Poverty, African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation, Global Call to Action Against Poverty, Freshwater Action Network, Oxfam and WaterAid says donors should also refocus investments towards low-income countrie…