Full Coverage: Disease

27.04.2006 Ivory Coast has become the sixth African country to announce the outbreak of the dreaded bird flu. Viral strains taken from infected backyard chickens in the capital Abidjan have tested positive H5N1 avian influenza. Ivory Coast joins Egypt, where four people have been killed, Niger, Cameroon, Sudan and Nigeria. This comes as 19 African countries gathered in Malawi announced that the continent lacks funds, technical equipment and human resources to spot and tackle outbreaks of the disease.

19.04.2006 Three years after a community health insurance scheme was implemented by the government of Karnataka and Karuna Trust, around 200,000 poor people have benefited, paying annual premiums of just Rs 30 per year for insurance cover of Rs 50 per day of hospitalisation

17.04.2006 Nine poultry farmers have committed suicide across India because of the bird flu scare. It is believed that nearly 70 per cent poultry farmers in India are in dire straits as demand for chicken and related products has gone down considerably.

13.04.2006 A severe shortage of healthcare workers in 57 developing countries is seriously impacting their ability to fight disease and improve healthcare, warns World Health Report 2006, outlining the need for more investment in the health workforce.

13.04.2006 A new report from GRAIN looks at the power politics behind the bird flu, the global response to it and its consequences for the poor. The GRAIN report finds that the agencies of the UN at the forefront of the international response to the virus, both WHO and FAO, are pursuing top-down strategies for wiping out bird flu that in turn are wiping out the foundations for long term, pro-poor solutions in the process.

10.04.2006 India’s encounter with avian influenza seems far from over. Navapur in Maharashtra, where the avian influenza first broke out in January this year, had barely started breathing a sigh of relief at the containment of the deadly virus when a veterinary laboratory in Bhopal announced the presence of the pathogen in samples collected in Jalgoan district, 140 km away.

05.04.2006 The Indian government has formed the National Council on AIDS to mainstream HIV/AIDS into the ongoing activities and programmes of all government departments. It also plans to formulate new policies and strategies with ecological safeguards to take on dengue and malaria.