CAPE TOWN, Nov 15 (IPS) - Of the 490,000 women worldwide who are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year, 80 percent live in the developing world. Every year, 55,000 women in sub-Saharan Africa alone develop this disease, which is ten times more likely to affect women living with this virus. Before the era of ARVs, we
SANTIAGO, Nov 13 (IPS) - Chilean Health Minister Álvaro Erazo reported Thursday that 512 people who tested positive for HIV were not notified by the public health system. He acknowledged there were problems and announced several measures to confront the health emergency. The measures will work as long as the necessary
NEW YORK, Nov 13 (IPS) - In a country barely the size of the U.S. state of New Jersey, a disease has taken hold. Nearly 40 percent of Swaziland s population is HIV-positive, and the other 60 percent lives at constant risk for the disease. HIV is a constant presence, weighing down on the lives of the estimated one milli
SEATTLE, Washington, Nov 13 (IPS) - Working for sustainable development in Kenya , which ranks 148th out of 177 countries on the United Nations development index, is a daunting task. The country not only has a 6.1 percent of HIV/AIDS infection among its 37 million people, but nearly 60 percent of Kenyans live on less t
BRUSSELS, Nov 13 (IPS) - Funding from the European Union s Brussels headquarters for research into tuberculosis stands at about a fifth of what it should be given the EU s enormous wealth, a new study has found. With TB killing 1.7 million people per year, health policy analysts estimate that 1.45 billion euros (2 bill
DURBAN, Nov 12 (IPS) - I didn t know that girls can play soccer. I thought it was a sport only for boys, says Thulile Khanyile. But after a photography and writing project changed her perception of gender roles, the 14-year-old helped start a girl s soccer team at her high school in Nkandla, a rural area in the heart o
Stephanie Nieuwoudt interviews South African health minister BARBARA HOGAN
CAPE TOWN, Nov 12 (IPS) - When Barbara Hogan replaced South African health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang in September, her appointment was praised from all quarters. Hogan, who previously chaired Parliament s finance portfolio committee, is known as an intellectual who stands up for what she believes in and finding
KATHMANDU, Oct 28 (IPS) - Shibu Giri, programme officer at the National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nepal , who tested positive in 2000, believed he was fit and fine as his CD-4 count stayed normal. But when he began falling sick frequently and developed candida in his mouth he began to have doubts.
SANTIAGO, Oct 23 (IPS) - Irregularities like delays in notifying 25 people that they were HIV-positive, which led to the deaths of at least two of them, have cast a shadow on Chile s exemplary image in the field of AIDS prevention and treatment. A local TV station reported earlier this month that 25 people who tested p
CAPE TOWN, Oct 20 (IPS) - After two HIV vaccine trials were halted for safety reasons last year, a new trial is set to commence within the next few months in South Africa and the United States . Scientists will test a new vaccine formula produced in South Africa. It will be the first time a HIV vaccine manufactured in
NAIROBI, Oct 15 (IPS) - The war against HIV/AIDS, as it is emerging, will not be won unless sexual and gender-based violence is tackled. Participants at a recent regional meeting looking at linkages between violence against women and girls and HIV/AIDS described the two as dual pandemics that needed to be addressed con
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 13 (IPS) - The world s poorest nations continue to suffer from high prices for life-saving drugs and a shortage of generics -- specifically to treat HIV/AIDS -- despite assurances by the some of the major pharmaceutical companies to help lower costs. Governments must act to bring prices down and imp
MBABANE, Sep 27 (IPS) - An abandoned straw hut slumps amidst overgrown bushes on a somewhat deserted homestead. Only a foot path leading past it indicates that the place is still occupied. Beside it is the mis-shapen tent that is Joseph Mathe s new home. Mathe emerges from the tent when his name is called. He appears a
LILONGWE, Sep 25 (IPS) - Sustained investment in agriculture accompanied by effective and inclusive policies are key strategies for Southern Africa to address the global food crisis. This was the declaration made by 200 international delegates -- including farmers, researchers, private sector representatives, media and
RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 23 (IPS) - The India-Brazil- South Africa (IBSA) Dialogue Forum will hold its third annual summit on Oct. 15 in New Delhi, India, the first such meeting after this trilateral body of countries of the developing South met with a serious setback at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations.
KAMPALA, Sep 23 (IPS) - Producing baskets and mats in central Uganda has traditionally been women s work. Women made these items for use in homes. The National Association of Women Organisations in Uganda (NAWOU) has changed this practice into a powerful force fighting poverty. The organisation has a big crafts collect
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 17 (IPS) - Joyce and Tanya -- two women of different ages, nationalities, cultures and religions -- share something: both became victims of a missing goal. Combating violence against women is what Ines Alberdi, executive director of the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), calls the missing goa
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 16 (IPS) - What if HIV/AIDS was just another chronic disease instead of a widespread epidemic? This could be the case if the world community takes serious action, according to Human Rights Watch and other activists. But today, the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on HIV/AIDS is nowhere near being r
ADDIS ABABA, Sep 9 (IPS) - When the school bell rings, Alemtsehay and her three younger sisters rush home to change out of their school uniforms and into tattered clothes to go out begging around Bole Road, one of Addis Ababa s smarter areas. Accompanied by their five-year-old brother, they roam the streets asking pass
HARARE, Sep 8 (IPS) - Despite the Aug. 29 lifting of a ban on the operations of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Zimbabwe , representatives of civil society report they are still unable to operate freely. At least five million Zimbabweans currently need food aid following a poor harvest in the last farming seas
MBABANE, Sep 3 (IPS) - What happens to a nation whose people depend on the largesse of international donor agencies for their existence, once support is withdrawn? If forecasts for the small landlocked African nation of Swaziland are an indication, the granting of temporary relief may be followed by a new humanitarian
MBABANE, Aug 27 (IPS) - Hard on the heels of the signing of the Gender Protocol at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state summit, Swazi women have challenged King Mswati III on the monarchy s lavish lifestyle in the face of abject poverty and disease. The Gender Protocol calls for 50 percent r
SEATTLE, Washington, Aug 20 (IPS) - At the end of last month, U.S. President George W. Bush signed a global health package that effectively tripled U.S. spending over the next five years to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in poor countries, to 48 billion dollars. The package, known as the President s Emergency
MEXICO CITY, Aug 13 (IPS) - The Swiss Federal Commission for HIV/AIDS set off a small firestorm of debate by asserting that people living with the virus can have sexual relations without a condom and without endangering their uninfected partners, under certain conditions. People living with HIV who are free of other se
NEW YORK, Aug 12 (IPS) - A new study shows that the annual number of HIV infections in the United States is greater than was previously believed. The findings place increased scrutiny on the country s lack of a national HIV/AIDS program as well as the current Presidential candidates plans to combat the epidemic. Th
KAMPALA, Aug 9 (IPS) - Uganda s approach to the fight against HIV/AIDS is under scrutiny by activists. The country has won international acclaim for its 20-year campaign against the AIDS pandemic, but the latest numbers lead some activists believe Uganda is now losing ground. Uganda managed to bring yearly growth in th
MEXICO CITY, Aug 8 (IPS) - Governments, international bodies and civil society renewed their commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS at the 17th International AIDS Conference, but they will have to work hard in order for this commitment to be reflected in concrete policies, especially on prevention. This week nearly 25,000 del
Interview with Lelio Marmora of the Global AIDS Fund
MEXICO CITY, Aug 8 (IPS) - If the economic status of Latin America and the Caribbean continues to improve, the region s share of assistance from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is likely to drop to half the present level, under the current eligibility requirements, says Lelio Marmora, the Fund s
EAST JERUSALEM, West Bank , Aug 8 (IPS) - Palestinians from all ranks of society have pulled together to tackle the issue of AIDS, despite the increasing factional violence and chaos in the Palestinian territories. Hamas, which has authority in Gaza, and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in charge of the West Ba
MEXICO CITY, Aug 7 (IPS) - We need to get away from this home-run mentality to research. Science is incremental, said Alan Bernstein, executive director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, referring to unrealistic public expectations with regard to the search for an AIDS vaccine and for vaginal microbicides that coul
MEXICO CITY, Aug 7 (IPS) - In my community, living with HIV is synonymous with death, Fernando Solís, a 34-year-old member of the Cuna ethnic group in Panama , told IPS. Solís, who was diagnosed four years ago, is now working in prevention efforts among other young indigenous people, which he described as the key to e
MEXICO CITY , Aug 7 (IPS) - Dealing with transgenders (TGs) can be confusing. Even the organisers of the 17th International AIDS Conference underway in this city failed to accommodate the third gender by providing them separate toilets. I went to the male toilet only to be told I should go to the female one, where agai
Interview with Pedro Cahn, outgoing president of Int'l AIDS Society* - Tierramerica
BUENOS AIRES, Aug 6 (IPS) - A greater commitment to universal access to anti-HIV therapies and to the defence of health workers in impoverished countries are two achievements noted by Argentine physician Pedro Cahn as president of the scientific society that organised the XVII International AIDS Conference. But it isn
MEXICO CITY, Aug 6 (IPS) - Preaching abstinence to the young has not worked, nor has sex work been eradicated. Experts gathered here for the 17th International AIDS Conference say it is time to put public policies under the microscope and see why they have failed. Why do policies ostensibly put in place to protect sex
MEXICO CITY, Aug 5 (IPS) - Of the over 30 million people living with HIV, half are women and the rate of infections in women is rising, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. What s more, women s rights groups say gender inequalities are fuelling the epidemic -- there is an irrefutable feminisation of HIV. On the sideline
MEXICO CITY, Aug 5 (IPS) - Developing countries are in need of large sums of money to fight diseases like HIV/AIDS, but international aid will not entirely cover their needs. An example of the financial demand is the application by Latin American and Caribbean countries for 600 million dollars, submitted to the Global
MEXICO CITY, Aug 4 (IPS) - It is necessary to evaluate the current global architecture for responding to the AIDS epidemic, move forward with studies on HIV rates, and implement effective prevention strategies, said the experts meeting at the 17th International AIDS Conference, which opened Sunday in Mexico. The extrao
MEXICO CITY, Aug 3 (IPS) - The rain gods failed to dampen spirits of activists gathered at the old city centre of Zocalo to protest discrimination against those with the HIV virus. Hundreds of activists dressed in bright tribal costumes, women dressed as skeletons and one gay man wearing tights assembled ahead of the s
Interview with Luis Soto Ramirez, co-chair of AIDS 2008
MEXICO CITY, Aug 1 (IPS) - Mexican virologist Dr. Luis Soto Ramirez, co-chair of the 17th International AIDS Conference, which opens Sunday in the Mexican capital, says that ramping up prevention efforts is the most urgent step to be taken in the fight against HIV/AIDS. While rushing from one commitment to another in t
MEXICO CITY, Jul 31 (IPS) - Anuar Luna was diagnosed with HIV 17 years ago. I had to overcome feelings of guilt, fear and shame before I became a leader in the HIV-positive community, she said Thursday at the opening of Living 2008: The Positive Leadership Summit, in the Mexican capital. Luna is now one of the leading
BUCHAREST, Jul 31 (IPS) - Poverty and social displacement, increased availability of drugs, and chaos in the healthcare systems that accompanied transition from state socialism to the market economy have contributed to the spread of HIV in Eastern Europe. Russia and the Central Asian countries that were once a part of
WASHINGTON, Jul 30 (IPS) - HIV/AIDS activists Wednesday hailed President George W. Bush s reauthorisation of the President s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to 48 billion dollars for fiscal years 2009 to 2013 as a major step in the global fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Paul Davis, director of Hea
BANGKOK, Jul 30 (IPS) - They may be known in South-east Asia for their poverty, but that has not stopped Cambodia and Laos from caring for people living with HIV/AIDS. Both countries have increased the supply of the life-prolonging anti-AIDS drugs at home.
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 29 (IPS) - Although the global percentage of people living with HIV has stabilised since 2000, the overall number of people living with HIV has increased due to new infections each year and wider access to antiretroviral therapy, says the new UNAIDS report on the epidemic. Peter Piot, the head o
CAPE TOWN, Jul 25 (IPS) - Entering the Monkeybiz shop, one is confronted with hundreds of brightly coloured beaded animals, dolls, place mats and pictures. You find yourself smiling involuntarily. Just look at the beautiful work. How can you resist it? asked Emma Johnson, an American tourist who visited the shop twice
MANZINI, Jul 24 (IPS) - In a narrow and still winter-brown valley, little more than a crevice between rocky mountains, Gogo Ndlovu looks after her five young orphaned grandchildren. The slight, stooped grandmother leans over her stick at the edge of a field planted, with the help of neighbours, with maize. The stalks a
MANZINI, Jul 24 (IPS) - In a narrow and still winter-brown valley, little more than a crevice between rocky mountains, Gogo Ndlovu looks after her five young orphaned grandchildren. The slight, stooped grandmother leans over her stick at the edge of a field planted, with the help of neighbours, with maize. The stalks a
MANILA, Jul 23 (IPS) - As World Population Day was being marked on Jul. 11, Tess and Andy were attending a family planning seminar as a requirement for their forthcoming wedding. It turned out to be window into one of the major problems besetting the Philippine population programme. Because their seminar was conducted
WASHINGTON, Jul 17 (IPS) - AIDS and global health activists are hailing Wednesday s approval by the U.S. Senate of an unprecedented five-year, 48-billion-dollar bill to fight AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis overseas, particularly in Africa. The bill also overturned a 21-year-old law that bans most foreign visitors who
Interview with Joanna Vearey, a researcher with the Forced Migration Project, University of the Witswatersrand
JOHANNESBURG, Jul 15 (IPS) - South Africa has become a destination for people from across the continent and beyond. But in spite of migrants having a legal right to free antiretroviral treatment (ART) for HIV, they are being turned away from government clinics. Ensuring the right to ART is upheld for foreign migrants l
TOYAKO, Japan , Jul 8 (IPS) - Three key documents - on African development, food security, and corruption -- emerging Tuesday from the summit of major industrial nations leaders seem to have taken non-governmental organisations (NGOs) by surprise in delivering more than expected, even if they did not please all. In
TOYAKO, Japan , Jul 7 (IPS) - Japan received kudos Monday from the leaders of seven African states as they met with their counterparts from the group of eight (G8) major industrialised nations in Toyako on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. But others raised doubts over the extent of commitment to Africa by Japa
Interview with Jon Liden of the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis
GENEVA, Jul 3 (IPS) - Japan wants next week s summit of seven major western industrial nations and Russia (G8) to urge the international community to push towards combating HIV/AIDS. It sees this as a critical objective of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that are meant to be achieved by 2015.
DURBAN, Jul 1 (IPS) - Refugees and migrants do not have adequate access to health care services in South Africa , aid organisations and NGOs say. This is particularly detrimental for those who are HIV-positive and in need of continuous antiretroviral (ARV) medication: interrupted treatment can mean illness, development
HARARE, Jun 28 (IPS) - We are too familiar with the violence that was meted upon numerous of us from 1890 when the colonialists came into our country right up to the most recent elections. Chief among these forms of violence is sexual violence, and it concomitant implication, HIV infection. Zimbabwean women now have th
LILONGWE, Jun 23 (IPS) - Gladys Mawera s face is contorted with pain û both she and her newborn baby survived a complicated birth three days ago, but she has not been able to take the painkillers and antibiotics prescribed to her by the medical personnel at the Chiradzulu District Hospital in southern M
GLASGOW, Jun. 20 (IPS) - Progress that has already been achieved towards Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) may be reversed due to the current global food crisis, it is emerging at the eighth CIVICUS World Assembly. The Jun. 18-21 event being held in Glasgow, Scotland, for the third year in a row, brings together abou
WASHINGTON, Jun 18 (IPS) - AIDS and global health activists are calling on the U.S. Senate leadership to urgently approve a record five-year, 50-billion-dollar bill to fight AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis primarily in Africa so that President George W. Bush can take it with him when he meets with other western leaders
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 17 (IPS) - Even as people who migrate from their homelands run a higher risk of contracting the HIV virus, they also are far less likely to receive adequate healthcare, and often face deportation or other harsh treatment in destination countries, activists say. The International Organisation for Mig
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 13 (IPS) - The United Nations says religion and culture continue to have a significant impact -- both good and bad -- on the spread and prevention of HIV/AIDS worldwide. The practice of male circumcision, prevalent in some cultures, has decreased the risk of HIV transmission in men, while male sexua
CAPE TOWN, Jun 12 (IPS) - Children who live in communities with an HIV prevalence rate of 10 percent or more have half a year of schooling less than children in other communities. In this way the negative consequences of HIV/AIDS are felt beyond the families that are directly affected. These facts were presented at a W
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 11 (IPS) - As millions of people across the world continue to die from HIV/AIDS, top U.N. officials and civil society leaders are reiterating calls for increased funding to fight the deadly epidemic. There were more than two millions death last year, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegates
Interview with HIV/AIDS activist Gracia Violeta Ross Quiroga
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 11 (IPS) - As the United Nations winds down a major two-day conference to take stock of the global response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the problem of persistent discrimination against people living with the virus has been high on the agenda. This is somewhat ironic, civil society groups say, in light
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 10 (IPS) - Despite the admirable progress made by some African countries in preventing and treating HIV/AIDS since 2000, 14 million Africans have died of AIDS in that time span, and an additional 17 million have been infected, says a new report on HIV/AIDS on the continent. According to the report
JOHANNESBURG, Jun 6 (IPS) - There is barely a path leading down the steep incline and through the dense bush to the Mabuyakhulu homestead. It would be easy to pass by without finding 13 year old Zanele and her eight year old sister Andiswa who stay there on their own. Their father died long ago and their mother is in h
VANCOUVER, Jun 6 (IPS) - The Canadian government has decided to appeal a British Columbia Supreme Court decision allowing North America s first supervised injection site, the facility known as Insite in Vancouver s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood, to remain open without a federal government exemption. The court case wa
Johannesburg, June 3 (IPS) - I live in a country where it has become normal to bury men and women in their thirties. At least it is so at township funerals. At the cemetery while the women, standing to one side, sing hymns, the men labour in relays to fill the grave. We work shoulder to shoulder, but we do not share wh
YOKOHAMA, Japan , May 28 (IPS) - Japan is receiving kudos for what UN Deputy Secretary General Asha-Rose Migiro has called the country s strong commitment to Africa s development. But praise for Japan at the fourth round of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) that kicked off Wednesday in J
HIROSHIMA, May 27 (IPS) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated that nearly 30 to 70 percent of the sprawling health infrastructure in the African continent is owned or run by faith-based organisations. And globally, one-third of all AIDS patients are now cared for under the auspices of the Catholic Church.
GENEVA, May 21 (IPS) - As the 61st annual World Health Assembly gathers in Geneva this week, a major issue that the world s governments are struggling with is patents on medicines, and whether the option to digress from a strict patent system should be endorsed by the United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO). Th
UNITED NATIONS, May 19 (IPS) - The developing world is making significant progress in child survival despite the fact that nearly 2.2 billion children worldwide continue to battle poverty, sexual abuse, forced military conscription, labour exploitation and HIV/AIDS. Of the 191 countries with available data, 129 are on
BANGKOK, May 19 (IPS) - Even before Cyclone Nargis tore through Burma s populous Irrawaddy Delta, the country s public health system was ailing. It struggled to survive on a slow drip of funds from the state s coffers. Such neglect was courtesy Burma s military rulers. The junta spends more of the country s earnings fr
BONN, May 14 (IPS) - Notice how green the public relations campaigns of multinational corporations have become. Major companies, from beer producers to airlines to automobile makers, want to tell you they re doing their bit to save the environment from global warming and loss of biodiversity. What these companies actua
CAPE TOWN, South Africa , May 3 (IPS) - When we harm nature, we are harming ourselves, says Aaron Bernstein, a doctor at Harvard Medical School and one of the authors of the upcoming book Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity . Few people realise that our health is directly tied to the health of the
JOHANNESBURG, Apr 30 (IPS) - Results from trials in South Africa , Kenya and Uganda in 2006 showed that male circumcision reduced the transmission of HIV from women to men by up to 60 percent. On the basis of these results, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organisation hav
DAR ES SALAAM, Apr 25 (IPS) - Tatu Shabani Tumbo s first born was diagnosed with strength-sapping anaemia, and died a toddler. Doctors had no medical explanation for the sudden death of her second child at age one. She then tried to get pregnant a third time, initially without success. It is painful for someone to lose
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 21 (IPS) - A significant proportion of the world s 2.2 billion children, many of whom are victims of violence, sexual abuse, labour exploitation and preventable diseases, are from the crisis-plagued African continent. As the United Nations points out, too many of the world s children, largely Africa
RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 14 (IPS) - The poster, reminiscent of the film American Beauty, features a nude young man in a sensual pose lying on (and partly covered by) masses of pink condoms, with the legend Do whatever you want but do it with a condom. It is part of a new Brazilian campaign against HIV/AIDS aimed at gays.
SYDNEY, Apr 14 (IPS) - While millions of children s lives have been saved as a result of a successful worldwide campaign to boost vaccination programmes, governments across the world are failing in following through on their commitments to health aid and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Wealthy countries such a
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 11 (IPS) - The United Nations warns that a sharp decline in international funding for reproductive health is threatening global efforts to reduce poverty, improve health and empower women worldwide. This is especially evident in the case of funding for family planning where absolute dollar amounts a
NAIROBI, Apr 10 (IPS) - For many of Africa s women, getting access to family planning services is difficult at the best of times. When war intervenes they can find themselves without any services at all, even as they become more vulnerable to sexual violence -- the situation in northern Uganda being a case in poin
DAR ES SALAAM, Apr 8 (IPS) - If the first step to overcoming drug addiction is admitting you have a problem, then Tanzania may be on the road to recovery. Medical officials in this East African country say the government has in the past been reluctant to accept substance dependence as a serious health problem, seeing i
NAIROBI, Apr 7 (IPS) - For Ugandan men, the equation is often a simple one: an abundance of children equals virility and security. This deeply rooted belief has frightening implications, however. According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, the population of the East African country -- now 31 million -- will exceed 36
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 3 (IPS) - The United Nations is intensifying its worldwide efforts to help create a new generation of children who will be born free of HIV/AIDS, a disease that has particularly devastated parts of sub-Saharan Africa. While the news is mixed , achieving an AIDS-free generation is possible , predicts
BERLIN, Apr 3 (IPS) - Ethiopia is better known for recurring droughts and famines, a protracted civil conflict, and a border war with Eritrea . It is one of the poorest countries in the world, and a large percentage of the population lives in absolute poverty. But there is of course more to this Eastern African sta
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 2 (IPS) - The U.N. s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), aimed primarily at reducing poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy, are being undermined by a rash of new problems threatening to cripple the ongoing efforts by developing nations to reach their targets by 2015. With less than seven years to
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 26 (IPS) - Some 10 million Asian women sell sex, and at least 75 million men buy it regularly, while male-to-male sex and drug injecting add another 20 million or so to the number of those at high risk of HIV infection, says the first report by the Commission on AIDS in Asia. Chakravarthi Rangarajan
PINAR DEL RÍO, Cuba , Mar 26 (IPS) - Prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, the AIDS virus, has become the centre of the lives of a small group of women in the province of Pinar del Río, in the west of Cuba. Coordinated by the Women s Project in the Provincial Centre for Prevention of STIs
LISBON, Mar 20 (IPS) - There is little awareness on the problem of trafficking in persons, mainly women and children, in Angola , and no laws for cracking down on the growing phenomenon. Paulino Cunha da Silva, head of cooperation and exchange in the Angolan Interior Ministry, admitted at a workshop held in Luanda Tues
BRUSSELS, Mar 19 (IPS) - The European Union has made a fresh complaint to Thailand over policies aimed at guaranteeing that the poor are not deprived of vital medicines. Shortly before leaving office, former Thai health minister Mongkol Na Songkhla issued compulsory licences in January this year, overruling patents on
PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba , Mar 17 (IPS) - Activism against AIDS is uniting a group of transvestites and crossdressers in western Cuba in a project that is going beyond peer education and making inroads into the world of culture. The time has come to take us seriously. We are in a position to demand our place in society, to
MBABANE, Mar 11 (IPS) - A substantial increase in the number of Swazis requiring food aid has raised questions in this Southern African country. Why the rise, and how long are the higher numbers likely to prevail? More fundamentally, what has caused such widespread and enduring hunger to begin with? We need to dig deep
WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (IPS) - In an increasingly unusual display of bipartisanship, both the White House and the Republican and Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives have agreed on a bill that, if passed, would provide 50 billion dollars to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis over the next five years. Th
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 22 (IPS) - The United Nations has never run out of statistics to reinforce its arguments against one of the most troubling issues the world over: gender discrimination. The Asia Pacific region alone is losing between 42 billion and 47 billion dollars annually because of women s limited access to emp
KIGALI, Feb 21 (IPS) - Certain medical workers in Rwanda have expressed concern about the country s campaign to promote male circumcision as a means of curbing the spread of HIV. They fear that in a country with low levels of knowledge about sexual health, people could mistakenly believe the procedure offers complete p
BANGKOK, Feb 21 (IPS) - Shortly before he left office in January, Thailand s former public health minister, Mongkol Na Songkhla, offered a gift of hope to the country s poor. But that promise -- to supply cheaper, generic anti-cancer drugs --now hangs in the balance. Mongkol s push to secure the generic drugs by issuin
DAR ES SALAAM, Feb 17 (IPS) - U.S. President George W. Bush, on a five-nation tour of Africa, has showered praise on the anti-corruption efforts of Tanzania s president, Jakaya Kikwete, whose government is receiving substantial aid from Washington. You are a strong leader, Bush said Sunday during a press conference giv
WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (IPS) - In an attempt to polish his image and advance U.S. interests in the twilight of his presidency, George W. Bush is visiting Africa. Bush s second visit to the continent takes him to Benin , Tanzania , Rwanda , Ghana , and
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 12 (IPS) - Many years ago, as Dr. Mohini Giri was walking down a street in Vrindavan, India -- known as the City of Widows -- she noticed the body of a woman who had passed away on the road. Animals were feasting on the corpse, and no one had tried to move her or cremate her. Giri asked a few yo
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 11 (IPS) - The world s 2.2 billion children are under siege -- battling poverty, hunger, military conscription, sexual abuse, labour exploitation and HIV/AIDS, according to the United Nations. The world body estimates that over 600 million children live in absolute poverty worldwide; about 218 milli
CAPE TOWN, Feb 9 (IPS) - A police raid on a Methodist church which provides shelter to hundreds of refugees in the South African financial centre of Johannesburg is continuing to draw angry responses. Displaying banners and wearing T-shirts with the slogan Refugee Rights Are Human Rights , Zimbabwean migrants took to t
WASHINGTON, Feb 8 (IPS) - In what has been labeled an emergency within an emergency , thousands of people living with HIV/AIDS who have been displaced by Kenya s recent political violence are struggling to access their life-saving antiretroviral drugs, reported the World AIDS Campaign this week. United Nations agencies
ABUJA, Feb 8 (IPS) - HIV/AIDS policies and programmes disregard the sexual needs of people living with the virus, claim a number of HIV-positive women who attended the third Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights -- held this week in Nigeria . The initiatives focus on prevention and treatment, they add, ignoring
MANAGUA, Feb 7 (IPS) - Despite the social plans implemented by the government of Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua has made little progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), say independent analysts. Ortega, who took office in January 2007, has launched programmes like Zero Hunger in rural areas, Zero Usu
DAR ES SALAAM, Feb 6 (IPS) - U.S. President George W. Bush will spend most of his time during a five-nation tour of Africa later this month in Tanzania , to spotlight development gains in the East African nation. This is a success story, said U.S. embassy public affairs officer Jeffery Salaiz of Tanzania, during a pres
KARACHI, Feb 6 (IPS) - Saifullah Paracha, a Pakistani national incarcerated in the United States military prison in Guantanamo, Cuba since September 2004, suffers from a serious heart condition and may not live unless provided special care, says his lawyer. The government of Pakistan cannot sit by and allow this t
BUENOS AIRES, Feb 5 (IPS) - With the support of one of Argentina s leading public universities, a group of transvestites have launched a magazine aimed at reaffirming their identity and giving them a voice, as they tend to be ignored or given stereotypical coverage by the mainstream press. The publication is the first
WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (IPS) - Investing in young women and girls in developing regions must be a top priority for governments, multilateral agencies and the private sector, say the authors of a report released here this week. Titled, Girls Count: A Global Investment & Action Agenda, the 89-page report highlighted the s
TSHOLOTSHO, Zimbabwe , Jan 31 (IPS) - They left the country in search of jobs to better their lives, but village elders in rural Tsholotsho, say young men who left home to fend for their families are losing their lives at alarming rates to HIV/AIDS related ailments. Tsholotsho, about 150 kilometres south-east of Bulawa
Interview with Donya Aziz, ex-parliamentary secretary for population
KARACHI, Jan 31 (IPS) - At 31, Dr Donya Aziz, was the youngest legislator to join the previous Pakistan Muslim League (Q) government. Busy running for the February elections, Aziz wants to get back into the assembly and resume the work she had to leave off when President Pervez Musharraf clamped emergency rule on Nov.
Interview with Graeme Bloch of the Development Bank of South Africa
CAPE TOWN, Jan 29 (IPS) - Teachers who are not trained properly, teacher strikes and HIV/AIDS are taking a huge toll on the educational system in South Africa . Thousands of children leave our schools without the foundation skills to enable them to enter further study programmes or to obtain skilled jobs, says Graeme
WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (IPS) - Health worker shortages in sub-Saharan Africa and a disproportionate HIV/AIDS burden on women in the region necessitate an increase in funding for the President s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) prior to a congressional vote next week, human rights groups and advocates say. First intr
DAVOS, Jan 26 (IPS) - UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon has called on world leaders to agree some 2010 milestones towards achieving the 2015 Millennium Development Goals. The early target would include lifting 75 million people out of extreme poverty in Africa, admitting 25 million more children in school, saving four m
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 22 (IPS) - The sharp decline in deaths among infants and children worldwide during the past century is one of the great success stories in international public health , the U.N. children s agency UNICEF said Tuesday. The annual number of child deaths has been halved, from roughly 20 million in 1960
BANGKOK, Jan 19 (IPS) - The Korean superstar RAIN was roped in by the Christian relief group World Vision last year to help promote awareness of HIV and AIDS, especially among the youth. Over in Fiji , people living with HIV can get internship opportunities at the World Council of Churches (WCC) in the Pacific.
MBABANE, Jan 17 (IPS) - Amanda Dube is literally dirt poor . Fierce bush fires ravaged Swaziland for months in 2007, and repeatedly swept over the hilly area of Mliba where she lives. Fires burned the trees and vegetation on the small sloping plot where the widowed mother of three attempts to scratch out a maize crop.
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 15 (IPS) - The world s emerging economies -- including China , India , Brazil , South Africa , Malaysia and Thailand -- have made a quantum leap in their investments in the glob
WASHINGTON, Jan 13 (IPS) - Indian health projects are under the microscope following revelations of fraud and corruption in five ventures backed and overseen by the World Bank. Under scrutiny in the unfolding scandal, which broke in 2005, are bank and government staff, private companies, and non-governmental organisati
MBABANE, Jan 10 (IPS) - As the new school year begins here many destitute or orphaned children are in need of assistance to pay for their educations. An unknown number of urban youngsters, however, are slipping through the social welfare net. Impoverished children in the country s urban areas might run into the thousan
BRAZZAVILLE, Jan 8 (IPS) - At the Integrated Health Centre of Bissita, located in the Bacongo area of Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, pregnant women seated on a long bench wait to have prenatal examinations. A member of this talkative group, Sylvie Bakani*, wears a concerned expression. Due to delive
BROOKLIN, Canada , Jan 7 (IPS) - China s booming medical biotechnology industry is producing controversial drugs and gene therapy treatment programmes for domestic use, as well as to treat critically ill foreigners seeking potential cures unavailable elsewhere. China s Beike Biotechnologies harvests stem cells from the
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