Emad Mekay
WASHINGTON, Jul 6 2007 (IPS) – Despite strong verbal commitments to reproductive and sexual health, the so-called multilateral development banks (MDBs) that lend to poor nations have spent relatively little money on such projects and, in some cases, have followed policies on the ground that in fact impeded women s empowerment and improved public health, a new study charges.
The study by Gender Action, a Washington-based group that monitors the banks policies towards women and gender equality, examines both the quantity and quality of funding for reproductive health during a four-year period from 2003 to 2006 by MDBs that include the World Bank, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, as well as the restrictive fiscal an…
Praful Bidwai
NEW DELHI, Aug 9 2007 (IPS) – Cancer patients in India have reason to be relieved at a high court ruling this week which dismissed a petition by Swiss pharmaceuticals multinational corporation (MNC) Novartis challenging an Indian law which denies patents for minor or trivial improvements to known drugs.
At immediate stake is the cost of a leukaemia drug, imatinib mesylate. Novartis prices its brand of the medicine, Gleevec/Glivec, at Rs 120,000 (3,000 US dollars) per dose. Indian generic drug manufacturers sell it at Rs 8,000 (200 dollars).
India s average per capita annual income is equivalent to only a fifth of the price of a single dose of Gleevec/Glivec. Had Novartis been granted a patent on its version of the drug, tens of thousands of Indians would…
Apostolis Fotiadis
ATHENS, Sep 7 2007 (IPS) – The small black device that Panagiotis Vovos holds in his hands can measure the voltage produced by mobile phone network transmission antennas. It can detect voltages up to 7(Volt/metre).
This would be many times above the legally allowed limit in most European countries (between 0.2 and 6 V/m), China 6(V/m) or Russia 1(V/m); still it is much below the limit in Greece, which reaches up to 33(V/m). If the indicator is constantly on red it means that an antenna is installed in one of the buildings around, which also means that some people are probably bombarded with radiation for many hours per day, Vovos told IPS.
In many cases the appearance of an antenna is usually followed by complaints by inhabitants of headaches, diffi…
Enrique Gili* – IPS/IFEJ
SAN DIEGO, California, Oct 4 2007 (IPS) – The scent of portobello mushrooms wafts through the air as two of the three co-owners of Roots prep for their morning customers.
A customer waits for her food at the organic Roots restaurant. Credit: Enrique Gili
Heather Weightman and Jaime Reed recently set up shop in the hippie neighbourhood of Ocean Beach, San Diego. The community serves as a test laboratory for progressive culture in California. And the latest concept to emerge is …
Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Oct 30 2007 (IPS) – As public health experts in South-east Asia come to grips with one of the worst outbreaks of dengue fever in years, they discern a disturbing pattern about the profile of patients who have died from the virus vectored by the aedes aegypti mosquito.
Aedes Aegypti mosquito in action Credit: Wikipedia
Indonesia, the region s largest country and one that had a particularly bad year, offers a stark reminder of what the medical community is grappling with. Nearly 20 percent of the fatalities in Indonesia this year were adults, says …
Patricia Grogg* – IPS/IFEJ
HAVANA, Nov 29 2007 (IPS) – With equal doses of caution and hope, Cuban researchers are moving forward with studies to test the cancer-fighting properties of the toxin produced by the blue scorpion (Rhopalurus junceus), a species endemic to this Caribbean island.
Extraction of venom from blue scorpion. Credit: Randy Rodríguez
We are concluding the studies of pre-clinical research in order to obtain registration and approval from Cuba s regulatory entities to begin clinical trials on humans, said m…
Abid Aslam
WASHINGTON, Jan 13 2008 (IPS) – Indian health projects are under the microscope following revelations of fraud and corruption in five ventures backed and overseen by the World Bank.
Under scrutiny in the unfolding scandal, which broke in 2005, are bank and government staff, private companies, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Evidence of financial and procurement mischief has been uncovered by a detailed implementation review, or DIR, launched by the multilateral lender in 2006 with Indian government support. The bank released the review s findings late Friday.
The probe has revealed unacceptable indicators of fraud and corruption, said Robert Zoellick, the bank s president. The government of India and the World Bank are committed to getti…
Julio Godoy
BERLIN, Feb 20 2008 (IPS) – The future of a ban on smoking in public places in Germany is in doubt following a court order limiting application of any ban.
Germany became one of the last European countries to introduce a ban on smoking in public places at the start of this year. But the constitutional court of the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate ruled Feb. 12 that one-room bars would be exempt from the ban on the ground that it would drive their owners bankrupt.
The court decision is provisional, and the judges want proof whether this differential treatment can be justified.
The court allowed arguments lodged by five small pub owners of Koblenz city, some 460 kilometres southwest of Berlin, who said the ban on smoking would force them to clo…
Interview with Heather Wokusch, author and blogger
TAMPA, Florida, Mar 25 2008 (IPS) – In early March, the Pentagon s Force Protection Agency released a colourless, odorless gas in Crystal City, Maryland as part of a simulated terror attack intended to track air flows and test an array of chemical sensors.
Heather Wokusch Credit: heatherwokusch.com
Officials insisted that the gas dispersed in Operation Urban Shield was nontoxic , but not everyone is buying that claim.
The Pentagon does minimise the risks of these tests, Heather Wokusch, an investigative journalist and…
Aaron Glantz
SAN FRANCISCO, May 2 2008 (IPS) – Arturo Gonzalez delivered his closing arguments inside a packed courtroom on the 17th floor of the Federal Building in downtown San Francisco.
A partner at the gigantic corporate law firm Morrison and Forrester, he s part of a team of lawyers seeking to force the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide better health care and more timely disability benefits to returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.
The case, officially known as Veterans for Common Sense vs. Peake, represents the first class action lawsuit brought on behalf of the 1.7 million U.S. citizens who served in the war zones. Veterans say that over the last six years, the George W. Bush administration has systematically denied veterans the health care they …