Full Coverage: Health

27.02.2004

© Erin Dey / Academy for Educational Development

Outstanding efforts to promote breastfeeding, child nutrition, and education for vulnerable children are highlighted by the Academy for Educational Development, along with a photograph and brief description of the keys to project success.

27.02.2004 Not only is the aerial coca-eradication program in Colombia harming the environment and driving peasant farmers to produce coca elsewhere, it has made virtually no difference in cocaine consumption in the U.S., say EarthJustice and two other NGOs in reports issued on the eve of the annual State Department certification of the controversial narcotics program.

26.02.2004 Le Congo – l'autre Congo – est séparé de la République démocratique du Congo, pays beaucoup plus vaste et connu, par le fleuve Congo. Comme son voisin du sud, le Congo est déchiré par les guerres civiles et l'instabilité depuis une dizaine d'années mais, contrairement à lui, il ne fait les manchettes que rarement en Occident. Au printemps dernier, une équipe médicale de Médecins Sans Frontières réussissait enfin à pénétrer dans la province du Pool. L'état de santé des habitants était déplorable et le taux de malnutrition élevé chez les survivants.

26.02.2004 With AIDS threatening to become the No.1 killer in the 15-49 age group, Nepal has started an ambitious program to provide free AIDS treatment to poor patients in the Himalayan kingdom.

26.02.2004 With AIDS threatening to become the No:1 killer in the 15-49 age group, Nepal has started an ambitious program to provide free AIDS treatment to poor patients in the Himalayan kingdom.

25.02.2004 The Bush administration is trying to keep the U.S. from participating in the POPS treaty--aimed at banning a dozen of the world's most toxic chemicals--by insisting on complex legislative changes, according to this analysis published today by BushGreenwatch, a new OneWorld U.S. partner.

25.02.2004 On election eve, Indian health activists are urging politicians to curb unnecessary deaths in a country where two million children under the age of five die every year.

25.02.2004 With malnutrition and disease the major causes of children's deaths in armed conflicts, the violence in Haiti is denying many children basic public services and threatening their lives, says the United Nations Children's Fund.

24.02.2004 At an international conference on arsenic contamination in Bangladesh last week, experts revealed that despite a seven-year effort, the country still tops the list of 23 arsenic affected countries with 85 million people exposed to the poison.

24.02.2004 Le 21 février, le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge (CICR) a visité pour la première fois Saddam Hussein, l'ancien dirigeant irakien, qui est détenu en tant que prisonnier de guerre par les forces de la coalition dirigées par les États-Unis. La visite a été effectuée par un délégué arabophone et un médecin du CICR, conformément aux modalités habituelles de l'institution. La décision des autorités américaines de considérer l'ancien président irakien comme un prisonnier de guerre signifie qu'il bénéficie de toutes les protections prévues par la IIIe Convention de Genève de 1949, qui comprend le droit d'être visité par le CICR.

23.02.2004 NEW YORK, Feb 23 (IPS) - As a strain of avian flu emerged in Canada, scientists warned that new diseases stemming from human activity will appear at the rate of about one per year, and public health surveillance systems might not be equipped--or inclined--to give adequate advance warning.

23.02.2004

© Ellen Tolmie / Canadian International Development Agency

Cuban babies are now receiving a vaccine against the virus that causes meningitis, pneumonia, and severe ear infections. The vaccine was produced by the island nation's own scientists, who have also made advances on AID and cancer drugs; Cuba's biotech industry is also helping the country's trade balance.

23.02.2004 "All women who give birth walk on the edge of death," an indigenous Bolivian woman told those gathered to discuss the death of some 23,000 Latin American and Caribbean women each year as a result of pregnancy and childbirth. Now eight major actors in the region are commited to reducing these numbers.

23.02.2004 Official statistics indicate that the incidence of HIV/AIDS in Eritrea is only 3% of the population. Misinformation and lack of awareness, however threaten to worsen the situation.
From: People's Front for Democracy and Justice

23.02.2004 Andrew Petkun a photojournalist in the United States who has been documenting the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa recently visited Eritrea.
From: People's Front for Democracy and Justice

23.02.2004 Basic education is a prerequisite to economic development, individual health, poverty reduction and democracy, according to a new report by the Basic Education Coalition, an umbrella group of 19 private and non-governmental development and relief organisations.

19.02.2004 The NHS, and especially its mental health services, have been branded institutionally racist by an inquiry team set up to examine the care and treatment that 38-year-old Rocky Bennett received at the Norvic secure psychiatric clinic in Norwich before he died, in October 1998, after being restrained by up to five nurses.

19.02.2004 France this week became the 50th nation to ratify the POPS Treaty, triggering its incorporation into international law 90 days hence. Elimination of the global pollutants targeted under POPS is a "landmark for environmental health," said one group, adding that the failure of the U.S. Congress to ratify POPS will weaken implementation of the global treaty.

19.02.2004 Ten Peruvian Congresspersons have complained to USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios that USAID-Peru violated the global gag rule by "actively supporting the legalization of surgical abortion in Peru," a charge now being echoed by extremist groups in the U.S. that plan a letter-writing campaign to encourage the White House to "take action" against USAID-Peru. Read what really happened.

19.02.2004 Dans les pays du Sud, environ 80 % des gens utilisent des plantes médicinales et des méthodes transmises de génération en génération pour protéger ou rétablir leur santé. Cette collection d'articles traitent de l'importance des plantes médicinales comme moyen de subsistance durable ainsi que des limites et problèmes associés à l’utilisation commerciale de ces plantes.