Health

How Prison Conditions Fuel the Tuberculosis Epidemic

By David Bryden
Dozens of grown men peered from behind the barred doorway of a crammed window-less prison cell, eyes pleading desperately from sweaty faces. Their physical discomfort was so palpable, I could almost feel it. Because of my work, I also knew of at least one serious unseen risk facing them – that of contracting tuberculosis in the cramped, poorly ventilated space.

Despite Progress, South Asia Faces Daunting Challenges in Water & Sanitation

By Vanita Suneja
In 2030, when I would be turning sixty, I’d like to tell my grandchildren the story of how – once upon a time – the lives of poor people in South Asia were transformed: that leaders came together to bring economic prosperity and social development to people that until then had lived in an unequal and polluted world.

Age Appropriate Sexuality Education for Youth Key to National Progress

By Dr. Josephine Kibaru-Mbae and Siddharth Chatterjee
Fifty years ago at the International Conference on Human Rights, family planning was affirmed to be a human right. It is therefore apt that the theme for this year’s World Population Day is a loud reminder of this fundamental right.

Keep Water Out of the Reach of Children

By Behailu Shiferaw
To many of us, ‘keep out of the reach of children’ is a phrase we see printed on labels for medicines and chemicals. To mothers in Rweru Sector, Rwanda, it’s a daily principle to live by.

New & Resurgent Infectious Diseases Can Have Far-reaching Economic Repercussions

By David E. Bloom, Daniel Cadarette and JP Sevilla
Infectious diseases and associated mortality have abated, but they remain a significant threat throughout the world.We continue to fight both old pathogens, such as the plague, that have troubled humanity for millennia and new pathogens, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), that have mutated or spilled over from animal reservoirs.

Fight Against Drug Consumption Needs Gender Specific Treatments

By Carmen Arroyo and Emily Thampoe
The World Drug Report 2018, launched this week by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), highlighted the importance of gender in drug consumption and behaviour, suggesting it is essential to provide different types of health-care and legal solutions.

Overly Bureaucratic Procedures and Long Waits Cuts off Support to 22 Million Yemenis

By Maged Srour
As Yemen’s people struggle to survive amid what has been described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, the stranglehold by both government coalition forces and rebels over the country’s main ports of entry and distribution is cutting off a lifeline of support to 22 million people.

Global Campaign Against Mercury Moves to an End Zone

By Thalif Deen
A global campaign to end a longstanding health and environmental hazard-- the use of mercury in dentistry—is steadily moving to a successful conclusion.Providing an update, Charlie Brown, head of the World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry, one of the key campaigners, told IPS that “nation by nation, the world is on the threshold of ending amalgam for children in 2018.”

Savagery of Rapes of Minors

By Geetika Dang, Vani S. Kulkarni and Raghav Gaiha
Rapes of minors surged from 16 per day in 2001 to 46 per day in 2016. As if this was not horrendous enough, their savagery adds to it.In 2016, 43.3% of the total female rape victims were minors. Around 13% of the minor female victims were of age 11 and below. The deceased victim in the Kathua rape case from a nomadic Muslim community was barely eight years old. Her crumpled body was found in a blood-smeared dress in January, 2018. A group of Hindu men lured her into a forest, kidnapped her, drugged her, locked her in a Hindu temple, gang-raped her and then strangled her.

Countries are Using Domestic Laws to Criminalize Health Care

By Dr. Dainius Pūras
Ambulance drivers attacked, nurses detained, doctors tortured, pharmacists arrested, dentists facing more than a decade in prison—all for delivering healthcare to people considered enemies of the state.

Ukraine Puts Water Strategy High on Development Agenda

By Ed Holt
A campaign to raise awareness of water security in Ukraine could be an inspiration around the world, activists behind it say, after it forced a change in the country’s approach to its water resources.

Project Population: Addressing Asia’s Ageing Societies

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
While populations have seen and undergone changes since the beginning of time, one trend in particular is unfolding across the world: less children, older people. In an effort to tackle the complex issue in Asia, government officials are convening to help create a sustainable society where no one is left behind.

Food Sustainability, Migration, Nutrition and Women

By Enrique Yeves
We worry about how we can continue to put food on our tables; and yet one-third of food is never eaten, instead being lost or wasted.We worry about eating properly, and yet in many countries, poor nutrition, obesity and micronutrient deficiencies are increasingly common. This trend is taking place in the Americas, Oceania, Asia, Africa and in Europe.

Fertility Struggles More Open – and Shared on Social Media

By Michelle Catenacci, M.D
Fertility health is an incredibly personal – and often vulnerable – topic. Fertility, infertility, and fertility preservation have gained increased public interest over the past few years. Infertility is formally defined as the inability to achieve pregnancy after one year of unprotected intercourse.

Europe, Sharing the Love?

By Maged Srour
Even if arrivals of migrants into Italy by sea have decreased between 2017 and 2018 so far, recent events in the Mediterranean rim have strongly drawn attention to the migration issue and a fierce debate is now underway among European countries.

Sahel in the Throes of a Major Humanitarian Crisis

By Mark Lowcock
I am increasingly concerned by the situation in the Sahel. In Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal, nearly 6 million people are struggling to meet their daily food needs. Severe malnutrition threatens the lives of 1.6 million children. These are levels unseen since the crisis of 2012, and the most critical months are still ahead.

Stop Neglecting African Conflicts

By Will Higginbotham
Conflicts have uprooted millions across several African nations and we must not forget them, said a human rights group.Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC) timely message was published through their annual list of the worlds most neglected displacement crises.

Kenya Can End the Moral Indignity of Child Labour

By Jacqueline Mogeni and Siddharth Chatterjee
On 12 June every year is the World Day Against Child Labour. In the world's poorest countries, around one in four children are engaged in work that is potentially harmful to their health.

Experts Urge Lawmakers to Focus on Food-Migration Nexus

By Daan Bauwens
Lawmakers at the highest levels urgently need a “revolution in thinking” to tackle the twin problem of sustainable food production and migration. Starting with an inaugural event in Brussels, then travelling on to New York and Milan, an international team of experts led by the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition (BCFN) is urging far-reaching reforms in agricultural and migration policy on an international scale.

Human Rights Must Be on the Table During U.S.-North Korea Talks

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
Human rights issues must be included in next week’s United States-North Korea summit in order to create a “sustainable agreement”, said a UN expert.

South African Lawsuit Could Bring Sweeping Changes to Land and Mining Rights

By Mark Olalde
South Africans await judgement to be handed down in a court case that could set a sweeping precedent by empowering communities on communal land with the right to reject new mining projects.
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