THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Jul 12 2011 (IPS) – When Sujatha’s husband learned that she had conceived just five months after they got married, he became agitated over what he called her ill-timed pregnancy . To worsen her husband’s anxiety, a test to determine the sex of the foetus showed she was carrying a girl. Sujatha, a public […]
Category: Wellness
ICRC Warns of Human Toll of Attacks on Medical Workers
Denis Foynes UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 2011 (IPS) – A new report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) describes a pattern of attacks on medical staff that the group says is undermining the safe delivery of medical assistance and health care across the globe. The violence against health care faculties and medical […]
Corporate Profits Trumping Public Health
Elizabeth Whitman UNITED NATIONS, Sep 21 2011 (IPS) – There is a well-documented and shameful history of certain players in industry who put public health at risk to protect their own profits, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told world leaders Monday as they met to address the issue of non-communicable diseases at the 66th U.N. General […]
Haitian Cholera Victims Seek Reparations from U.N.
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 8 2011 (IPS) – More than 5,000 Haitian cholera victims are seeking compensation, action and an apology from the U.N. and the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) for the ongoing epidemic that has killed more than 6,600 Haitians and sickened more than 476,000 since October 2010. A young child is […]
BRAZIL: Providing Alternatives for Small-Scale Tobacco Farmers
Fabíola Ortiz RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 23 2011 (IPS) – The fall in world tobacco consumption, especially in industrialised nations, is a sign of the urgent need for producer countries like Brazil, China, India and the United States to offer their farmers alternatives to growing tobacco. Graphic picture-based health warnings on cigarette packs can help […]
ETHIOPIA: “Significant Progress Towards Improving Livelihoods”
While the Ethiopian government boasts that the country can soon be categorised as middle-income, economic analysts are more cautious saying that the country has made “significant progress”. ADDIS ABABA , Feb 21 2012 (IPS) – Ethiopia says that the double-digit economic growth the country has experienced over the last seven years has started benefitting its […]
ARGENTINA: Lack of Information Raises Risk of Cervical Cancer
BUENOS AIRES, Mar 29 2012 (IPS) – A novel research study in Argentina explored women s knowledge and beliefs about cervical cancer, in the provinces with the highest mortality from this highly preventable form of cancer, to design more effective policies. Although there are now effective tools to prevent cervical cancer, and vaccination against human […]
Modern Obstetrics and Midwives Need to Join Forces
RIO DE JANEIRO, May 4 2012 (IPS) – María dos Prazeres de Souza has lost count of the number of births without a single death she has attended as a midwife, an occupation that there is renewed interest in strengthening in traditional communities in Brazil where state services are not available or are not entirely […]
Will Water Dry Up at Summit on Sustainable Development?
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 11 2012 (IPS) – The headline in a New York newspaper last March captured the essence of a future potential threat to political stability the world over: U.S. Report Sees Tensions Over Water. The study, a collective vision of the U.S. intelligence community, warned that during the next 10 years, many countries […]
Silenced by U.S., Sex Workers Speak from Kolkata
Sex workers march through a street in the Indian city Kolkata to condemn U.S. denial of visas to attend an AIDS conference. Credit: Sujoy Dhar/IPS. KOLKATA, Jul 26 2012 (IPS) – Bare-chested and beaming in the company of many like him, London-based male sex worker Thierry Schaffauser wipes the beads of sweat trickling down his […]