Full Coverage: Health

30.11.2004 At the recently held World Health Organisation's meet on health research in Mexico, governments were called upon to strengthen health systems in order to build a global agenda on health research in tune with MDG targets.

29.11.2004 WASHINGTON, DC, November 24, 2004 (ENS) – The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) launched a campaign Tuesday to convince supermarkets in the United States to stop selling food, such as tomatoes, strawberries and nuts, grown or treated with the chemical methyl bromide.

29.11.2004 Ongoing pollution continues to destroy the health and lives of the population of Bhopal, 20 years after the Union Carbide gas leak that some consider the worst industrial disaster ever. 20,000 have died, 100,000 suffer chronic illnesses, and the company continues to refuse responsibility, says Amnesty International.

29.11.2004 Toxic gas from a Union Carbide plant may have killed 20,000 people but the toll is still growing and the fight for compensation continues.

26.11.2004 A UNAIDS and WHO report warns that despite huge investments, AIDS continues to spread becoming a female epidemic.

25.11.2004 New Delhi-based environmental orgaisation - Toxics Link - will organise an international workshop on ‘Managing mercury in India’ in New Delhi in early 2005. The workshop will focus on all aspects of mercury-related issues in India.

24.11.2004 As treatment of numerous HIV/AIDs patients in South Africa becomes unmanageable, an AIDS treatment program called Sizophila Project has started experimenting with cell phones to build an easy communication system between doctors and patients. The project implementing a database software and cellphones to track patient records and call medical attendants, has been successful in providing timely medical assistance to the patients.

23.11.2004 Bhutan will impose a comprehensive ban on the sale of tobacco, in its efforts to put a premium on Gross National Happiness as opposed to Gross National Product.

23.11.2004 A public radio station in North Carolina is refusing to air the words "reproductive rights" in an announcement paid for by the international non-profit organization Ipas. The group warned that the station's "extraordinary caution ... serves to perpetuate self-censorship" and is a result of the narrow ideology that is dominating the political climate in the U.S.

22.11.2004 More than 18 million children in Bangladesh have been given vitamin capsules to fight malnutrition after floods destroyed crops and left large parts of the country without food.

19.11.2004 In Senegal, the maternal mortality rate is 510 deaths per 100,000 live births, and over a quarter of those deaths are due to hemorrhages. Women's groups are organizing blood donor drives to help local clinics gather the blood needed for emergency maternal care.

19.11.2004 In Senegal, the maternal mortality rate is 510 deaths per 100,000 live births, and over a quarter of those deaths are due to hemorrhages. Women's groups are organizing blood drives to help local clinics gather the blood needed for emergency maternal care.

19.11.2004

© Hesperian

Hesperian Foundation books--like Where There Is No Doctor and HIV, Health, and Your Community--help rural people and others in poor countries learn how to stay healthy and cure the sick. A Book for Midwives--distributed in the U.S. and abroad and available in English and Spanish--teaches birth attendants how to care for women during pregnancy and childbirth.

19.11.2004 Life-threatening complications occur in 15 percent of all births, yet in many parts of the world fully three out of every five women give birth without the help of a skilled birth attendant like a doctor, nurse, or midwife.

19.11.2004 At the request of the chemical industry, one chemical has been removed from the federal list of air toxics, and five others have been reclassified as less harmful than previously thought, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Thursday. The agency says the move will "create incentives for industry to use solvents that are less toxic and may help decrease the formation of ground level ozone or smog."

18.11.2004 A Guardian health report on sexually transmitted infections in the UK echoes similar reports from developing countries. Inadequate education of young people, underfunded treatment clinics, and sharply rising rates of infection.

18.11.2004 The UN is working on an ambitious campaign to immunize nearly 10 million youngsters in Nepal by early 2005 against measles as it kills nearly 5,000 children each year.

17.11.2004 Five filmmakers make a series of short films - En el mundo a cada rato (Every Second in the World) - for the UNICEF. These look at HIV/AIDS, child labour, malaria and education and are based on real life stories of children living in India, Peru, Argentina, Senegal and Equatorial Guinea.

17.11.2004 A gathering of 3,000 students and youth leaders recently came together in the Indian capital New Delhi to present their recommendations on the draft law on HIV/AIDS to the Indian government.

17.11.2004 In a bid to tackle the maternal mortality rate in Bhutan, which is amongst the highest in the region, the Government has made safe motherhood a national priority.