RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 8 2011 (IPS) – A new paediatric formulation developed in Brazil holds out hope for a cure for over 90 percent of newborn babies infected with Chagas disease, a parasitic infection endemic in 21 Latin American countries, where it kills more people every year than malaria.
The vinchuca bug, which transmits Chagas disease, often lives in cracks in mud walls. Credit: Paul Lowry/CC BY 2.0
The new paediatric dosage form of be…
BULAWAYO , Feb 8 2012 (IPS) – Sibongile Dube knows the devastation heavy rain can leave in its wake. A villager in the lowveld area of Mberengwa in Zimbabwe’s Midlands province, Dube’s home is one of many that were washed away by flash floods last year.
The Zambezi River Authority told villagers living downstream on the Zambezi (pictured) to e…
Julio Godoy
BERLIN, Mar 14 2012 (IPS) – The recent death of five prematurely born children in the northern German city Bremen as a result of infections acquired in the hospital has strengthened fears among environmental and health experts that massive use of antibiotics in industrial livestock farming is creating extremely resistant bacteria.
The children who died last December and earlier this year in Bremen, some 300 kilometres west of Berlin, were victims of infections with highly resistant bacteria, including the extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL). Similar infections have been detected in other hospitals in Germany, though these were not fatal.
The cases have raised renewed questions about lack of hygiene in German livestock farming, especially in industrial …
WASHINGTON, Apr 25 2012 (IPS) – Within a decade, most of the global population could have access to affordable basic health care – if a series of ambitious programmes are put into action around the world. This is according to a new report released by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) here on Tuesday.
By 2008, nearly 50 countries had succeeded in implementing near- universal health coverage, according to International Labour Organization statistics cited in the report. At the moment, almost 100 countries are reporte…
Several of the children in Abala camp are visibly malnourished, and NGO workers are concerned about potential epidemics. Credit: William Lloyd-George/IPS
SEGOU, Mali, May 25 2012 (IPS) – Her neat, bright yellow headscarf matches the rest of her outfit, but contrasts with her weary expression. Sokona Soumounou sits a little apart from the crowd queueing for assistance from the World Food Programme in the southern Mali town of Ségou.
I m staying with my younger brother here, with four children whose parents are elsewhere, she told IPS.
This week was the first time there was assistance of any kind for Soumounou or any of the roughly 3,600 people w…
WASHINGTON, Jul 12 2012 (IPS) – The world’s population now stands at about seven billion, and by 2050, this figure will hit a whopping nine billion.
Like these newly born twins, more children are born daily into families who can barely afford to raise a child. Credit: Zofeen Ebrahim/IPS
In his new, State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity , Robert Engelman, president of the , outlines nine population strategies that he argues will effectively halt population expansion just short of that figure.
Engel…
Asbestos cement roofing sheets. Credit: Asbestos Testing CC BY-SA 2.0
RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 3 2012 (IPS) – Brazil’s Supreme Court is assessing the level of risk posed by asbestos to human health, while industry defends its use under controlled conditions, and associations of people with asbestos-related diseases argue that it should not be used under any circumstances, even with regulations.
More than 35 experts testified in the Supreme Court hearings held on Aug. 24 and Aug. 31 in Brasilia at the request of the Brazilian Chrysotile Institute (IBC), which serves the asbestos industry that provides 170,000 direct jobs and generates 1.5 billion dollars a year in re…
BAKU, Oct 18 2012 – Azerbaijani officials appear to buy into the idea that taxation policy can be an effective way of managing the environment.
While environmentalists are generally supportive of a government idea to introduce a “green tax” on companies, some experts voice concern that such a provision would be prone to manipulation.
Despite various clean-up efforts over the past decade, Azerbaijan wins few international accolades for the state of its environment. Problems range from pollution of the Caspian-Sea’s coastline to large-scale deforestation and inadequate wastewater treatment facilities.
Azerbaijani environmental specialists name the oil-and-gas sector, petrochemical factories, large-scale corporate farms, and cement and concrete plants as among…
Nearly 2.5 billion people around the world don’t have access to sanitation. Credit: Charles Mpaka/IPS
GENEVA, Nov 18 2012 (IPS) – Organisers of this year’s World Toilet Day, which falls on Nov. 19, are using the slogan ‘I give a shit – do you?’ to break the silence around the crucial issue of sanitation and remind the international community that 2.5 billion people around the world don’t have access to clean and private toilets.
Improving these figures, and achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the number of people without basic sanitation by 2015, needs a change of mindset and strong political will, not financial resourc…
ATLANTA, Georgia, Jan 10 2013 (IPS) – Georgia Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company, one of the largest utilities in the U.S. south, plans to retire 15 coal and oil-fired energy generating units at four different plants, in the latest sign that a national campaign against coal is gaining traction.
The latest announcement by Georgia Power brings to 129 the total of plant retirements announced for closure either in whole or in part since Sierra Club launched the Beyond Coal Campaign in 2002. Credit: public domain
The 15 units comprise a total of 2,061 megawatts, one quarter of Georgia Power’s coal fleet.
Georgia Power will seek permissi…