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 […]
Category: Wellness
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 […]
DEVELOPMENT: Global Campaign to Salvage U.N.’s Health Goals
Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, Jun 15 2009 (IPS) – The global economic crisis, which has pushed millions more into extreme poverty, is threatening to have a devastating impact on the health of women and children. A new study, released Monday, says the most elusive of the U.N. s eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the […]
FILM: Shattering the Myth of “Agrarian America”
Sherazad Hamit NEW YORK, Jul 8 2009 (IPS) – How is it that you can buy a 99-cent cheeseburger but not even a head of broccoli? wonders Michael Pollan, author and co-narrator of the new documentary Food, Inc. . Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm and his grass-fed herd. Credit: Food Inc. Without question, since the […]
HEALTH-ASIA: Media Missing the HIV/AIDS Story
BALI, Aug 12 2009 (IPS) – The scant presence of mainstream media organisations at the 9th International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) was a sad reflection of how the press was overlooking the big story on HIV/AIDS, say some journalists and development analysts at Asia s largest meeting on the pandemic. […]
RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: ‘The Problem Is We All Work in Silos’
Zofeen Ebrahim interviews NAFIS SADIK, special adviser to the U.N. Secretary General and special envoy for HIV and AIDS in Asia BERLIN, Sep 10 2009 (IPS) – As secretary-general of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in September 1994, Nafis Sadik had described this groundbreaking event as a quantum leap in reinforcing commitments […]