Mario Osava* – Tierramérica
RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 22 2010 (IPS) – Limiting your cholesterol through diet may not be enough to maintain cardiovascular health in polluted cities like São Paulo in Brazil: the particulates suspended in the air alter the molecular composition of LDL, popularly known as bad cholesterol, making it even more dangerous.
Polluted cities are a health risk, especially for the poor. Credit: Alejandro Arigón/IPS
The structure of LDL (low density lipoprotein) facilitates …
Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI, Mar 26 2010 (IPS) – The U.S.-based multinational Union Carbide got away lightly after causing the world s worst industrial tragedy at Bhopal, but that legacy has come to haunt U.S. corporations seeking to tap India s newly opened market for nuclear power equipment.
On Mar. 15, the government was to have tabled the civil nuclear liability bill, which would cap foreign firms liability at 450 million U.S. dollars in the event of an accident at a nuclear power plant and nail responsibility on the Indian state operator instead of on the equipment supplier.
But because opposition parties to the right and left of the ruling Congress party were uneasy about such provisions, the government sensed that there was a good chance that the bill would be defe…
Stephen Leahy
LIVERPOOL, Apr 28 2010 (IPS) – Poor intervention in Injecting drug use (IDU) is driving the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Eastern Europe and is also largely responsible for the tuberculosis epidemic in parts of Russia, says a new study.
Shockingly, a mere three US cents a day per injecting drug user are being invested to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and TB, according to the study released at the opening of the Harm Reduction 2010 conference this week in this English port city.
Our report shows that just 160 million US dollars a year are being used in total for all the harm reduction programmes to prevent the spread of HIV around the world, says Gerry Stimson, executive director of the International Harm Reduction Association.
Harm reduction involves pr…
Ignatius Banda
BULAWAYO , Jun 9 2010 (IPS) – Twelve-year-old Tapuwa Bakare* darts through the traffic as irate motorists hoot at him and the tyres of speeding vehicles screech to a halt to avoid hitting him. Miraculously, the box filled with sweets and chewing gum that he carries does not fall from his grasp.
An AIDS orphan sits on an old bus seat. Zimbabwe has over one million AIDS orphans. Credit: IRIN
Bakare has things on his mind other than the traffic: he has a business to…
Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI, Pakistan, Jul 8 2010 (IPS) – Her husband works as a nurse in one of Pakistan s most prestigious private hospitals, but when their two-year-old daughter Mary was diagnosed with leukaemia, Sadaf John could only be thankful that the Children s Cancer Hospital (CCH) existed in this country.
If it hadn t been for this (hospital), said the 32-year-old mother of three, we would not have been able to afford such expensive treatment.
According to CCH chief Muhammad Shamvil Ashraf, the average cost of a complete treatment for leukaemia at the hospital could run up to 800,000 Pakistani rupees (more than 9,000 U.S. dollars).
Fortunately for the Johns and other families with members seeking treatment at CCH here in Karachi, the hospital is a chari…
Brahima Ouédraogo
OUAGADOUGOU, Jul 31 2010 (IPS) – The government of Burkina Faso has embarked on the construction of 55,000 latrines each year to improve access to proper sanitation for the population from the present 10 percent to 54 percent by 2015.
Public toilet in Ouagadougou, built during an earlier sanitation drive in 2007. Credit: Brahima Ouédraogo/IPS
According to the authorities, the average rate of access to sanitation in urban areas is …
Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI, Aug 27 2010 (IPS) – The deaths of four infants during a recent vaccination drive in Lucknow, capital of northern Uttar Pradesh state, has raised questions about the Indian government s plan to introduce five-in-one vaccines in a countrywide immunisation programme.
Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told journalists this week that action would be taken against those found guilty of negligence. He refused to speculate on the cause of the deaths, but said an investigation has been launched and would submit its report shortly.
Unconfirmed reports said the Lucknow vaccinations on Aug. 21 were carried out as a pilot project to test the efficacy of pentavalent vaccines. The health ministry is planning to introduce these vaccines into its Expanded…
Amantha Perera
COLOMBO, Sep 20 2010 (IPS) – An aggressive public health and information programme is giving Sri Lanka a key weapon in its battle against the deadly dengue fever, bringing it under control after hitting epidemic proportions in the last two years.
Pupils hold up dengue awareness posters in school. Credit: Amantha Perera/IPS
Between 2009 and mid-September 2010, dengue fever infected over 65,000 people in Sri Lanka and caused 563 deaths. The largest caseload was reported in 2009, which had 346 deaths an…
Zukiswa Zimela
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 14 2010 (IPS) – Chronic hunger is intensifying in Africa, despite the world s commitment to address this Millennium Development Goal and reduce world hunger by half by 2015.
This is according to the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme (RHVP), which said on Oct. 13 that 75 percent of the world s ultra poor, those living on living on less than 50 cents per day, are in Africa.
World hunger and the progress of various social protection programmes in Africa and across the world were part of the United Nations Development Programme s (UNDP) International Policy for Inclusive Growth dialogue held in Johannesburg from Oct. 11 to 13. The event brought together experts from 28 countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America for the south-s…
Tinus de Jager
JOHANNESBURG*, Nov 15 2010 (IPS) – Researchers are testing a new combination of tuberculosis drugs on patients in South Africa which they are hoping will shorten the treatment term of the disease to six months.
Examining a patient with drug-resistant TB. Credit: Dominic Chavez/IPS
I think I have lost my job, you know, says commuter taxi driver Paul Kyazze We are not like those office people, [we] have to be at work every day. Now I am here.
Kyazze is a TB patient at Uganda s Mulago National Referral Hospi…