Full Coverage: Disease

23.05.2005 Swaziland donor agencies are increasingly asking theatre groups to write and perform dramas about hot topics like HIV/AIDS and women's rights. Particularly with HIV/AIDS, donor agencies hope that by providing the message in an entertaining way, they can reach more people about the dangers and spread of the disease.

17.05.2005 Bill Gates addressed health ministers from 192 countries at the World Health Assembly in Geneva Monday, calling for more research to develop solutions for diseases in poorer countries and for market incentives encouraging the private sector to invest in healthcare for the developing world. Gates put his money where his mouth is too, announcing a new $250 million commitment for its Grand Challenges global health research initiative.

16.05.2005 Evangelical doctor W. David Hager announced he will resign from a government advisory panel at the end of June after an expose in The Nation revealed the extent of influence his conservative Christian views have had on shaping U.S. policy. His opinion recently trumped the overwhelming majority of the panel in a decision to deny over-the-counter status to emergency contraception pills.

16.05.2005 New U.S. policy requires organizations receiving funding for anti-AIDS and trafficking programs to adopt a standpoint opposing prostitution. Many, however, fear such a stance will undermine efforts to protect the lives and health of trafficked persons and men and women in prostitution. CHANGE is asking for your help in telling President Bush that AIDS and anti-trafficking programs must be consistent with the best practices in public health.

12.05.2005 Top officials from 84 Asian, African, and Latin American nations pledged to rescue women from poverty, disease, and war, as well as to increase women's participation in government and business. The 50-point declaration issued at a ministerial meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement countries outlines specific concerns for women in areas such as health, education, and power and decision-making.

10.05.2005 Experts have raised concerns over undue haste in declaring India a `leprosy free country’ as this will slacken the vigil against the disease, which still might be lurking in various parts of the country.

06.05.2005 A new partnership with a California university will allow the non-profit organization Aeras to develop and extensively distribute a key vaccine in the worldwide fight against tuberculosis, which still affects more than 8 million people each year.

05.05.2005 "Somewhere along the line, three million Ethiopians have become a negligible statistic," said Oxfam International's humanitarian program director in Ethiopia Abera Tola Wednesday. Ethiopian and UN appeals--to help the country fight disease, feed its population, and develop its farming productivity to end the cycle of hunger once and for all--have largely fallen on deaf ears, the group said.