Miriam Mannak
CAPE TOWN, Oct 5 2009 (IPS) – Maternal mortality rates in Africa constitute a monumental tragedy that requires urgent attention by African governments, health experts say.
More than 250,000 women die in childbirth in Afric…
Helen Clark
HANOI, Nov 11 2009 (IPS) – Vietnam will be one of five nations most affected by climate change. Worst-case scenarios see large parts of the low-lying and flood-prone Mekong Delta area, which produces much of the nation s rice crop, flooded.
A one-metre rise in sea level, predicted by 2100 will affect 10 percent of Vietnam s population (which now stands at 86 million) and 10 percent of GDP lost.
The government could not have been more right when it released these scenarios in August. Many international organisations concur.
As millions are displaced and the potential for vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue to spread grows, health and human rights have become concerns closely related to climate change.
The links between health, h…
Vusumuzi Sifile
HARARE, Dec 2 2009 (IPS) – Martha* knows that her two young sisters and her need medicine. She also knows where to get it a clinic a few yards away from her home in Glen Norah, a high-density suburb in the Zimbabwean capital.
But she cannot get the life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs). At 15, the law prevents her from doing so. She can only access the drugs in the company of an adult.
When my mother died in 2007, my aunt used to collect the drugs for us. She has since relocated to South Africa, and our other relatives say they are too embarrassed to be seen collecting the drugs, people will think they are now sick, said Martha.
Martha is among the estimated 158,798 children who are infected with HIV in Zimbabwe.
On November 24,…
Marguerite A. Suozzi
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 14 2010 (IPS) – The enormous relief effort being mounted in Haiti since a 7.0-magnitude earthquake leveled most of Port-au-Prince is facing a host of difficulties, including bottlenecks at the main airport and lack of heavy equipment to clear debris from streets and roads, aid officials say.
Port-au-Prince reside…