Full Coverage: Disease

31.10.2007 To help save vultures from drugged carcasses, Bird Conservation Nepal (BNC) has set up a ‘restaurant’ that will supply the birds with uncontaminated food. The vulture population in Nepal has dwindled sharply in recent times due to eating dead cattle that were administered with an anti-inflammatory drug called Diclofenac.

11.10.2007

10.10.2007 Handloom weavers in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh are battling poverty and tuberculosis while the government sponsored schemes still elude them. The Asian Human Rights Commission has launched an appeal to the people to urge the government to take action.

03.10.2007 Sulabh International, an India-based voluntary agency is building toilet complexes in Kabul. These sustainable and eco-friendly toilets will help the Afghan capital to cope with its increasing population that has turned the Kabul River into one huge open sewer.

03.10.2007 A recent report by WaterAid claims that the economic benefits of investing in sanitation are far greater than its costs. ‘Sanitation and Economic Development: Making the case for the MDG Orphan’ is a timely release to inform public policy debate during the United Nations’ International Year of Sanitation in 2008.

01.10.2007 Lack of proper toilets and poor hygiene are the cause of many diseases that can be averted. Yet everyone is embarrassed to talk about sanitation – one of the most neglected of Millennium Development Goals. But not Clarissa Brocklehurst, the UNICEF Water and Environmental Sanitation Chief, who is optimistic about the upcoming ‘International Year of Sanitation’ in 2008.

01.10.2007 Adding antibiotic moxifloxacin to the current combination of tuberculosis (TB) drugs could reduce the time needed to cure the disease, a study claims. Current treatment requires patients to take four drugs for eight weeks, followed by two drugs for four months.