Honiara’s rapid urban growth and increased urban waste have become the focus of municipal efforts to stem the spread of dengue fever. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS
HONIARA, Solomon Islands, May 15 2013 (IPS) – City and health authorities in the Solomon Islands, located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, are calling for effective and consistent urban waste management as they battle to control a serious outbreak of dengue fever, the world’s fastest spreading vector-borne viral disease, which was identified in the country in February.
This archipelago nation of more than 900 forest-covered islands, lying just east of Papua New Guinea, h…
In this column, Jomo Kwame Sundaram, assistant director-general for economic and social development at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), writes that while the Millennium Development Goal of halving hunger by 2015 is within reach, much more needs to be done to eradicate malnutrition, which is the underlying cause of 2.6 million child deaths each year and the reason why a quarter of the world’s children, including a third of children in developing countries, are stunted.
Camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in northern Pakistan are breeding grounds for malnutrition. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS
ROME, Jun 6 2013 (IPS) – Betw…
At a shipbreaking yard in Dhaka. Credit: Mahmud/Map.
BRUSSELS, Jul 17 2013 (IPS) – Hundreds of European vessels are scrapped under hazardous conditions in South Asia every year. European parliamentarians have approved a new regulation to tackle the problem but critics say it will have very limited impact.
The European Parliament s Environment Committee voted last in favour of a proposal aiming to put an end to European ships being recklessly scrapped in developing countries.
With this, we will have a safer disposal of ships. About 90 percent of the European vessels are scrapped illegally and the Basel Convention has failed to do something about …
In markets and on roadsides across Yaoundé, counterfeit and illegal drugs are stacked on wooden racks and tables, openly displayed for sale. Credit: Monde Kingsley Nfor/IPS
YAOUNDE, Sep 5 2013 (IPS) – When Francois Biloa fell ill with malaria, his family did what they had always done in the past – they gave him anti-malaria drugs and antibiotics bought from the local market. Only when his condition worsened and he became bedridden and fell unconscious, did his family take him to a local clinic in Cameroon’s capital Yaoundé.
According to the clinic’s health attendant, six out of every 10 patients there had been using illegal or counterfeit drugs readily …
A vendor selling fish at a market in Grenada. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS
WARSAW, Nov 15 2013 (IPS) – Eating fish has been an integral part of the Caribbean s cultural traditions for centuries. Fish is also a major source of food and essential nutrients, especially in rural areas where there are scores of small coastal communities.
“That is the protein that they have to put in their pot, and sometimes it has to stretch for very many mouths,” Dr. Susan Singh-Renton, deputy executive director of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), told IPS.”Globally we have to be prepared for significant economic and ecosystem service losses.” — Ulf Riebesell
A woman sits in front of a camp after receiving oil and wheat from a U.N. distribution centre in Peshawar. Sixty percent of Pakistan’s population lives below the poverty line. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS
WASHINGTON, Dec 18 2013 (IPS) – The World Bank has raised some 52 billion dollars, a record amount, for its fund for development in the world’s poorest countries, though some are expressing concerns over the terms under which some of this money is being offered by donor governments.
The bank made the announcement Tuesday in Moscow, where donors wrapped up a two-day pledging summit to top up funding for the International Development Association (IDA), the …
David Mubita defied tradition to get circumcised for protection against HIV. Credit: Lewis Mwanangombe
LUSAKA, Mar 3 2014 (IPS) – David Mubita has long been known in the family as a fool for starting trouble. The latest was getting circumcised secretly and nearly cast out by Grandfather Ndumwa. But Mubita may turn out to be the wisest in the family.
The Lozi people of Western Zambia cherish their traditions. So, when Mubita decided to go for circumcision early in 2013, he not only broke tradition but brought shame on the family.”Our region, East and Southern Africa, needs more male circumcision because it is the epicentre of the HIV and AIDS pandemic.” -…
For HIV positive pregnant women, WHO recommends a course of the antibiotic Septrin, and for HIV negative women, the three tablet Fansidar.
Malaria in pregnant women is dangerous as it lowers their immunity. WHO calls it a major health problem, with adverse effects such as anaemia, low birth weight, prematurity, maternal death, stillbirth and miscarriage.
Zulu says it’s worth enduring side effects for a couple of days, considering this could save lives.
“I have seen too many mothers and babies die or suffer because this simple regimen was not adhered to,” she says.
For HIV positive women like Nalishupe, the situation is especially precarious. In a compromised immune system, acute malaria increases viral load and quickens progression to…
Female genital mutilation (FGM) traditional surgeon in Kapchorwa, Uganda speaking to a reporter. The women in this area are being trained by civil society organisation REACH in how to educate people to stop the practice. Credit: Joshua Kyalimpa/IPS
KAMPALA, Jun 20 2014 (IPS) – Could it be possible that if women in Africa had access to water, it could save them from undergoing the harmful practice of female genital mutilation (FGM)? It seems that according to yet-to-be released research by Ugandan-based Gwada Ogot Tao, FGM and other forms of circumcision in Africa could be linked to water.
Gwada, who conducted research among 20 ethnic groups across Africa, including Ke…
Sadhana Ghimire, 23, makes sure to give her 18-month-old daughter nutritious food, such as porridge containing grains and pulses, in order to prevent stunting. Credit: Mallika Aryal/IPS
RASUWA, Nepal, Jul 22 2014 (IPS) – Durga Ghimire had her first child at the age of 18 and the second at 21. As a young mother, Durga didn’t really understand the importance of taking care of her own health during pregnancy.
“I didn’t realise it would have an impact on my baby,” she says as she sits on the porch of her house in Laharepauwa, some 120 kilometers from Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, nursing her third newborn child.
It is late in the afternoon and she is …