Mohammed Omer GAZA CITY, May 14 2008 (IPS) – The Israeli siege of Gaza that has restricted access to food, water and medicine is now beginning to hit unborn children and newborn babies. It can be a hard life for babies from day one, or even earlier. Credit: Mohammed Omer Many babies are born suffering […]
Category: Wellness
EUROPE: Getting Allergic to Climate Change
Julio Godoy BERLIN, Jun 13 2008 (IPS) – Climate change induced by global warming is provoking health hardships in Europe, especially through new, prolonged allergies, authorities say. The most important new allergy affecting Europeans is being caused by ambrosia artemisiifolia, popularly known by several names, including common ragweed, annual ragweed, bitterweed, blackweed, or, more telling, […]
HEALTH-MEXICO: Internet Can Be a Dangerous Pharmacy
Diego Cevallos* – Tierramérica MEXICO CITY, Jul 20 2008 (IPS) – Mexico is drafting measures to regulate the sales of pharmaceuticals over the Internet: reforms have been announced for laws dating back to the 1980s, when the world wide web did not yet exist, and new monitoring systems are in the works to track the […]
HEALTH-LATIN AMERICA: Free Rein for Biobanks?
Emilio Godoy* – Tierramérica MEXICO CITY, Aug 15 2008 (IPS) – Four years ago, when Guillermo Soberón one of Mexico s most prominent scientists became a grandfather, the newborn s parents received a letter requesting a donation of biological material to be used for medical research. Sample collected at a sperm bank. Credit: Photo Stock […]
HEALTH-AFRICA: Time for Joint Action on HIV/AIDS and Violence
Joyce Mulama NAIROBI, Oct 15 2008 (IPS) – The war against HIV/AIDS, it is emerging, will not be won unless sexual and gender-based violence is tackled. Participants at a recent regional meeting looking at linkages between violence against women and girls and HIV/AIDS described the two as dual pandemics that needed to be addressed concurrently […]
HEALTH-LATIN AMERICA: Women Crusaders Against Epidemics
Diego Cevallos MÉRIDA, Mexico, Dec 4 2008 (IPS) – With cutting-edge science, social organisation and a strategy that puts an emphasis on prevention and environmental controls, Cristina Díaz and her team checked the spread of dengue in Cuba, while María Monroy did the same with Chagas disease in Guatemala. Díaz has a doctorate in biochemistry […]
Q&A: "Sanitation Is Becoming a Social Movement"
Nergui Manalsuren interviews THERESE DOOLEY, UNICEF sanitation advisor UNITED NATIONS, Feb 6 2009 (IPS) – While 2008 declared by the U.N. as the International Year of Sanitation came and went with 2.6 billion people, including almost one billion children, still living without basic facilities, UNICEF s sanitation and hygiene senior advisor, Therese Dooley, says there […]
MIDEAST: Women Migrant Workers With HIV Get Raw Deal
Marwaan Macan-Markar BANGKOK, Mar 12 2009 (IPS) – Thousands of Asian women flock to the affluent sheikhdoms of the Middle East annually, seeking jobs as domestic workers. For many this quest for a livelihood comes to a humiliating end when they test positive for HIV. The women learn about their HIV status when they go […]
DEVELOPMENT: U.N. Offers New Political Profile for Sanitation
Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, Apr 7 2009 (IPS) – When the United Nations concluded its International Year of Sanitation (IYS) last December, it left behind some 2.5 billion people worldwide waiting in line for toilets that did not exist or were in short supply. The most positive outcome of IYS is that it raised the […]
HEALTH: Science on the Trail of New Flu’s Secrets
MEXICO CITY, May 12 2009 (IPS) – Scientists around the world are trying to decipher the influenza H1N1 virus in order to develop a vaccine, while others are tracking its origins to fight its spread more effectively. Surgical masks have become part of the Mexican police uniform. Credit: Marcos Ferro Tarasiuk/IPS Laboratory tests show that […]