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Health & HIV/AIDS
RSS FeedGlobal: The most polluted cities in the world
2011-09-29, Issue 550
In many cities air pollution is reaching levels that threaten people's health, according to an unprecedented compilation of air quality data released by the World Health Organisation. The information includes data from nearly 1,100 cities across 91 c...
Sierra Leone: At a crossroads
Sierra Leone's free health care policy
2011-09-29, Issue 550
Pregnant women and girls in Sierra Leone continue to face serious challenges in accessing drugs and medical care that are crucial to ensure safe pregnancy and childbirth, says this Amnesty International report. 'Over the last two years the Government...
Kenya: Medics overwhelmed as dengue fever spreads
2011-10-03, Issue 550
An outbreak of dengue fever in Mandera, northeastern Kenya, is spreading fast, with at least 5,000 people infected within weeks, due to limited health facilities, a shortage of medical personnel and poor sanitation, officials told IRIN. With only one...
Sierra Leone: Cuban medics to help health sector
2011-10-03, Issue 550
Sierra Leone will benefit from medical expertise from Cuba in an agreement negotiated with South Africa's help. According to the agreement, a total of 32 Cuban medical specialists in various categories will be sent to Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone G...
Zimbabwe: 2nd national HIV/Aids strategic plan complete
2011-09-19, Issue 549
Zimbabwe has completed the development of a second national HIV/Aids strategic plan for 2011 to 2015 which is designed to reduce the percentage of HIV infected infants born to HIV-positive mothers, an official has said....
Namibia: Malnutrition cases rising in Karas
2011-09-19, Issue 549
The number of underweight children as a result of malnutrition continues to rise in Karas Region, a recent weight monitoring study conducted by the Keetmanshoop health district reveals. A report that contains information over a six month period since...
Africa: Struggle to control a prolific killer
2011-09-20, Issue 549
Lifestyle influenced non-communicable diseases, including diabetes, heart disease and cancer, kill about 36m people each year – 80 per cent of them in developing countries. The rate is growing fastest in Africa, where it will overtake the death toll ...
Africa: History of blood transfusions and HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa
2011-09-20, Issue 549
Could blood transfusions have made such a contribution to the most serious HIV epidemics in the world? Often, it is said or suggested that transfusions were not common enough in developing countries, particularly the African countries that have exper...
Somalia: The world's highest mortality rate for children
2011-09-21, Issue 549
Somalia has the world's highest mortality rate for children under age 5, according to data released by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation....
Zimbabwe: HIV - survey reveals women most affected
2011-09-21, Issue 549
Women account for more than 60 per cent of the 1,2 million people living with HIV and Aids in Zimbabwe, a recent survey has revealed. The survey, contained in a report titled: 'Know your Epidemic - Know your Response', indicated that only 20 per cent...
Sierra Leone: Pregnant women still denied lifesaving medical care
2011-09-21, Issue 549
More than a year after the launch of the Free Health Care Initiative, pregnant women and girls in Sierra Leone continue to face serious challenges in accessing the drugs and medical care crucial for safe pregnancy and childbirth, Amnesty Internationa...
Burundi: Deaths reported as ARV shortage continues
2011-09-22, Issue 549
Burundian NGOs say at least 20 people have died as a national shortage of antiretroviral continues. 'Some have died, others have turned to traditional healers, and all of them [HIV-positive people] are discouraged,' said Jeanne Gapiya, who heads Buru...
Zimbabwe: Thousands of children die from AIDS each year
2011-09-22, Issue 549
Thousands of children die each year in Zimababwe from HIV-related illnesses, often because they have no access to life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs, the state-run Herald newspaper reports....
Uganda: High HIV prevalance in Nebbi attributed to ignorance
2011-09-13, Issue 547
The high rate of HIV/AIDS prevalence in Nebbi district has been attributed to lack of sensitisation of the community on the danger of the disease, says Rev. Fr. Juvenile Ayelangom, the Nebbi director of Caritas, a Catholic church organisation....
Africa: Malaria: Influential study questioned
2011-09-14, Issue 547
Severe malaria threatens tens of millions of lives across the globe. Up to a million children, most in Africa, succumb to it each year. The survivors risk life-long neurological deficit and other serious problems. Accurate diagnosis and injectable tr...
Africa: Better information for better mental health
2011-09-14, Issue 547
The Mental Health and Poverty Project (MHaPP) is a 5- year study of mental health policy development and implementation in four African countries: Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia. Following broad situation analyses in each of the four countrie...
Africa: Applications open for 2012 STARS Impact Awards
2011-09-14, Issue 547
STARS Foundation has announced the launch of the 2012 STARS Impact Awards recognising outstanding organisations working in children's health, education and protection. Organisations working with children in Africa, the Middle East, Asia or Pacific ar...
Kenya: Breaking with tradition on reproductive health
2011-09-14, Issue 547
Most Somali women fleeing to Dadaab in northeastern Kenya have never visited an antenatal clinic, let alone given birth in a hospital. Most of the 470,000 refugees in Dadaab are from Somalia, where about 80 per cent of deliveries take place at home o...
Kenya: South African research council to help Kenya on nano-technology
2011-08-29, Issue 546
South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) announced that it is to collaborate with researchers in Kenya to develop a nano-medicine technology aimed to revolutionise treatment of communicable diseases. The aim of the technol...
Africa: AIDS breakthrough high hopes hit tight budgets
2011-08-30, Issue 546
After 30 years and over 20 million deaths in Africa alone, US researchers report that early treatment of people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that leads to AIDS cuts transmission of the disease by over 96 per cent. Announced by...
Africa: HIV and the neglect of older African adults
2011-08-30, Issue 546
While the focus of HIV and AIDS interventions has always been on the 20-40-year-olds most likely to be infected, African democracy institute Idasa warns that health workers and social planners have neglected to take into account the elderly who have ...
Africa: The malaria mosquito is disappearing – but it is not just good news
2011-09-01, Issue 546
An article in Health New’s 'Health Canal' describes the disappearance of mosquitoes carrying malaria in areas of sub-Saharan Africa. The article explains why there may still be cause for concern in the malaria fight....
Africa: HIV and AIDS and older people in Africa
2011-09-01, Issue 546
HIV affects older people in two main ways. Large numbers of older people are themselves living with HIV. Many are also taking on vital caring responsibilities for loved ones living with HIV and the children orphaned by AIDS. This briefing is aimed at...
Global: AIDS breakthrough threatened by budget woes
2011-08-16, Issue 545
After 30 years and over 20 million deaths in Africa alone, US researchers now report that early treatment of people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that leads to AIDS cuts transmission of the disease by over 96 per cent. Unexpect...
Kenya: Kenyans address medical problems in public hospitals
2011-08-21, Issue 545
Kenyans outraged over lost loved ones accuse public hospitals here of frequent medical negligence. Aware of a shortage of space and personnel, the government has been working to build and upgrade hospitals and train more doctors, thanks to funding fr...
Global: Study asks whether pediatric HIV is a neglected disease
2011-08-18, Issue 545
The failure to implement prevention programmes for mother-to-child transmission on an appropriate scale has resulted in hundreds of thousands of preventable HIV infections among newborns, a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine s...
Somalia: Cholera hits crowded Mogadishu camps
2011-08-16, Issue 545
Fears are mounting that a cholera epidemic could spread rapidly among the hundreds of thousands of people living in often unsanitary conditions in Mogadishu after fleeing drought, famine and insecurity. In Mogadishu's largest health facility, Banadir...
Malawi: Hospitals struggle with lack of water
2011-08-17, Issue 545
Two battered plastic chairs bar entry to the toilets at the Bangwe Township Clinic in Blantyre. The toilets are not working because there is no running water - yet again. And if patients want to use the facilities they will have to run to the next- d...
South Africa: Shortage of drug-resistant TB treatment looms
2011-08-17, Issue 545
While countries are rolling out new tests that will enable them to diagnose more patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB), a worldwide shortage of the drugs to treat these patients is likely, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warns. DR-TB can o...
Nigeria: Pfizer pays Nigeria drug-trial victims
2011-08-15, Issue 544
US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has begun long-awaited compensation payments to families over a 1996 drug trial blamed for the deaths of 11 children and disabilities in dozens of others. But the payments were initially distributed only to four familie...
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