David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Oct 30 2007 (IPS) – The struggle to make medicines affordable to the world s poor, especially in Africa, is raging on at the highest levels. Last week the European Commission took a landmark decision on generic drugs and next week a high-level intergovernmental meeting will look at ways to prevent patents from blocking access to drugs.
In an agreement announced last week (on October 23), European Union (EU) governments were told that they are free to make available generic versions of patented drugs for export to poor countries which lack their own manufacturing facilities.
And next week, between November 5 and 10, a little-known group the intergovernmental working group (IGWG) on public health, innovation and intellectual property rights will m…
Steven Lang
JOHANNESBURG, Nov 29 2007 (IPS) – When the number of people reported with diarrhoea began to increase alarmingly in the town of Delmas in Mpumalanga Province towards the end of October, residents had flashbacks to an outbreak of diarrhoea and typhoid that took place in August and September, 2005. They feared the worst as the number of cases grew in the community of about 45,000 people 60 kilometres east of South Africa s financial centre, Johannesburg.
In 2005, five typhoid deaths were confirmed and seventeen people were hospitalised with the disease, normally caused by consuming water contaminated with the faeces or urine of infected people.
This year, soon after health officials became aware of the unusually high incidence of diarrhoea cases in Delmas, t…
Raphaël Mvogo
KOUSSERI, Northern Cameroon, Feb 19 2008 (IPS) – The situation of thousands of Chadian refugees who have fled to the north Cameroonian town of Kousseri continues to be a source of concern to aid workers, although the picture is not uniformly dismal.
Chadian President Idriss Deby (right), the target of a coup attempt earlier this month. Credit: Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo
There are very few cases of malnutr…
WASHINGTON, Jan 9 2013 (IPS) – U.S. citizens suffer from poorer health than nearly all other industrialised countries, according to the first comprehensive government analysis on the subject, released Wednesday.
Of 17 high-income countries looked at by a committee of experts sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, the United States is at or near the bottom in at least nine indicators.
These include infant mortality, heart and lung disease, sexually transmitted infections, and adolescent pregnancies, as well as more systemic issues such as injuries, homicides, and rates of disability.
Together, such issues place U.S. males at the very bottom of the list, among those countries, for life expectancy; on average, a U.S. male can be expected to live almost four…
Martin Khor is Executive Director of the South Centre, a think tank for developing countries, based in Geneva.
Unregulated sales of antibiotics are contributing to growing resistance. Credit: Adil Siddiqi/IPS
PENANG, Malaysia, Dec 5 2017 (IPS) – The next time you have a bad cold and reach for the antibiotics left over from your last visit to the doctor, think again.
Firstly, the antibiotics won’t work as they only act against bacteria while the cold is caused by a virus.
Secondly, you will be con…