Dahr Jamail
MARFA, Texas, Dec 7 2009 (IPS) – Kernan Manion, a psychiatrist who was hired last January to treat Marines returning from war who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other acute mental health problems borne from their deployments, fears more soldier-on-soldier violence without radical changes in the current soldier health care system.
Working for a personnel-recruiting company which was contracted by the Defence Department at Camp Lejeune, Manion became alarmed at the military s inability to give sufficient treatment to returning soldiers. He was also concerned by their reports of outright abuse meted out by some commanders against lower-ranking soldiers who sought help.
Manion told IPS that last April two Marines urgently sought his help…
Rachel Pratt and Garry Pierre-Pierre*
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 18 2010 (IPS) – Marjorie Louis was sitting in her kitchen eating dinner when she felt the house shaking, but she didn t get up.
With many of the city s structures left in ruins, including the presidential palace (background), residents pitch tents for tempo…
Eli Clifton
WASHINGTON, Feb 23 2010 (IPS) – Reducing the annual 13 million preterm births and 3.2 million stillbirths should be a global public health priority, says a report released Monday which asserts that significant reductions in these numbers could be achieved by improving access to low-cost interventions in both low and high-income countries.
The Global Report on Preterm Birth Stillbirth highlights statistics which show that newborn deaths account for 42 percent of deaths in children under the age of five and that many cases of stillborns are linked to maternal deaths.
If you tally this up you have close to six million infant deaths from either being stillborn or complications from being premature. That s worse than HIV and TB [tuberculosis] combined, Dr. Cra…
Lynette Lee Corporal
BANGKOK, Apr 1 2010 (IPS) – Government and international non-government organisations need to put as much effort in fighting the spread of complacency in the battle against the H5N1 virus as they do in curbing avian flu itself, experts say.
If you reduce vigilance, then the problem will come back, says David Nabarro, U.N. assistant secretary general and senior U.N. system coordinator for avian and human influenza, at a press briefing here Thursday.
He was speaking ahead of the International Ministerial Conference on Animal and Pandemic Influenza: The Way Forward, to be held on Apr. 19 to 21 in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi. The seventh in a series of meetings since 2004, it will bring together agriculture or livestock and health ministers from all…
Ruth Langa
LUSAKA, Apr 30 2010 (IPS) – Zambia is pushing forward with formulating an anti-counterfeit draft law which will include medicines, despite the controversy that has surrounded similar laws in East Africa and despite having existing legislation which has been used to successfully prosecute counterfeiters of medicines.
Kenneth Musamvu, registrar of copyright at the ministry of information and broadcasting services, confirmed in an interview with IPS that a proposal to draft an anti-counterfeiting bill that will include medicines has been put together and presented to the policy makers.
We suggested having this law as a way of curbing intellectual property crimes, such as piracy and counterfeiting. As a unit, we are advocating the enactment of this law to ensu…
Beatrice Paez
NEW YORK, Jun 12 2010 (IPS) – The U.S. currently lags behind several Western European countries in closing a legislative loophole banning the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) beyond its borders to protect U.S. citizens and residents. But this may soon change.
Congressman Joseph Crowley and Fanta, who escaped FGM with the support of her parents Credit: Beatrice Paez/IPS
Some 6,000 girls endure FGM every day, totaling about 1…
Beatrice Paez
NEW YORK, Jul 12 2010 (IPS) – A group of 80 students, broken into smaller groups with their notebooks in tow, troop through the boroughs of New York City to survey the produce that populates farmers markets and grocery stores in their neighbourhoods. Across the world, a similar image emerges in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where female students are learning to grow edible mushrooms in their villages.
Students like Vivienne Cain who participate in the Harlem Children Society s Nutrition and Healthy Living project have been looking at the cost, appearance and size of the fruits and vegetables, as well as their availability. The goal was to correlate these differences with the neighbourhood s demographics and socioeconomic status and rates of nutrition-related disease.…
Pavol Stracansky
KIEV, Aug 4 2010 (IPS) – Drug users and doctors legally prescribing substitution drugs to addicts a key tool in the battle with the country s growing HIV epidemic are facing illegal police intimidation and imprisonment, HIV/AIDS activists in the Ukraine say. Fears are rising that the country s approach to the disease could be changing for the worse.
Two doctors have been arrested, medical centres treating drug users raided by police, and drug users receiving substitute treatments detained en masse in a series of recent concerning events, they say.
They also point to the announcement of plans to close the country s top HIV/AIDS treatment centre this month as a signal that the new Ukrainian leadership is moving away from its predecessors positive strate…
Alma Balopi
GABORONE, Sep 1 2010 (IPS) – An HIV-positive woman must never be encouraged to breastfeed because regardless of what the doctors or researchers say it is too dangerous for the baby, says Koziba Kelatlhe an HIV-positive mother who was advised by health workers not to breastfeed her child.
It has been over a year since the Harvard-Botswana Mma Bana Study (meaning Mother baby in Setswana) found that HIV-positive mothers who take combinations of antiretrovirals (ARVs) can safely breastfeed. The groundbreaking study, conducted in Botswana, was the first randomised study in Africa to compare highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) regimens used during pregnancy or breastfeeding. It produced the lowest rate of mother to child transmission in comparison with other st…
Beatrice Paez
MONTREAL, Canada, Sep 23 2010 (IPS) – A diverse group of more than 4,500 professionals from the water industry gathered here to send a resounding message: a sharp break from past practices of water distribution and wastewater management is needed to cope with the burgeoning population growth in cities and impending water scarcity.
However, the unanimity in their vision for cities of the future ends there.
With Asian cities in the midst of a water crisis, a corporate outlook is needed to salvage wasted water resources, said the World Water Congress s keynote speaker, Arjun Thapan of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
In developing countries, an estimated 90 percent of wastewater is leached directly into bodies of open water. Lack of resources direc…