Soma Basu

MADURAI, May 21 2006 (IPS) – Subhadra Santosham, a retired schoolteacher, was about to turn in for a siesta when she noticed a gang of school children entering her yard. Thinking they were probably trying to solicit money for a cause, she was all ready to shoo them off, when one of them asked: Isn t your granddaughter visiting from Chennai?
Every day, Santosham reads the newspaper and watches TV too. But she had entirely missed the daily ads and TV spots urging people to make sure that all children under five are immunised on May 21, she admitted. She would most likely have missed taking her four-year-old granddaughter to the polio booth between 9am to 4pm.

India s nation-wide 12-year-old Pulse Polio Immunisation (PPI) campaign has enlisted everyone from ic…

Sonny Inbaraj

MEDAN, North Sumatra, Jun 22 2006 (IPS) – I really feel strongly that the issue of health and safety of reporters covering avian flu must be addressed by the management of news organizations, said Daenk Haryono of the North Sumatra-based Harian Global daily.
Many times I ve seen my colleagues go out to the field, not aware that they should be at least wearing face masks and gloves, he added. It seems like the editors just want our stories and couldn t give a damn about our safety,

Haryono has every reason to worry. Two reporters have so far been admitted to hospital, suspected to be suffering from avian influenza or bird flu. The latest victim from the popular Tempo daily was rushed to hospital last week when he developed high fever after covering the …

Kim Paull

NEW YORK, Aug 7 2006 (IPS) – As the war between Israel and Lebanon approaches the one-month mark and the U.S. continues to pursue expansion of its nuclear arsenal, people around the world will stop to remember Aug. 7, 1945.
On that day, 61 years ago, more than 240,000 people were killed or injured when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and three days later on Nagasaki, to force a Japanese surrender during World War II.

While an end to the war immediately followed the bombings, many have debated whether it was necessary, given that preparations for surrender were already underway in Tokyo, and the staggering long-term effects on civilians of radiation poisoning in the destroyed city.

Today, some experts warn that the nuclear clock…

Marty Logan

KATHMANDU, Sep 9 2006 (IPS) – As the 21st century began, more women were dying during childbirth in Nepal than in almost any other country and it was estimated that half of maternal deaths in hospitals were caused by unsafe abortions.
Today, 59,000 Nepali women have had safe abortions, performed by 260 trained doctors at 133 approved centres, and if plans hold, trained nurses will soon be providing the service.

But for every positive number there are many more that reveal the challenges ahead for the Safe Abortion Programme.

Well over 50,000 women have received safe abortion services through this suction (MVA or manual vacuum aspiration) method, says Cherry Bird, director of the Support to the Safe Motherhood Programme. It s not scraping or cuttin…

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Stephen Leahy

BROOKLIN, Canada, Oct 2 2006 (IPS) – Canada s open-ocean salmon farms are killing enormous numbers of wild salmon, threatening the species, a new study shows.
Research published Monday found that sea lice a fish parasite from salmon farms along the British Columbia coast kill up to 95 percent of the wild juvenile salmon as they head out to sea.

It is a startling conclusion, said Alexandra Morton, a biologist with the Raincoast Research Society and co-author of the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

We are not going to have any wild salmon at this rate, Morton told IPS.

The study says there is little doubt that the source of the sea lice infestation is British Columbia s (BC) booming aquaculture indus…

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 9 2006 (IPS) – If the world s growing water crisis remains unresolved depriving clean water to more than one billion of the world s six billion people it will jeopardise the U.N. s longstanding battle to reduce global poverty, hunger and disease by its targeted date of 2015, the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) warned Thursday.
If the world s growing water crisis remains unresolved depriving clean water to more than one billion of the world s six billion people it will jeopardise the U.N. s longstanding battle to reduce global poverty, hunger and disease by its targeted date of 2015, the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) warned Thursday.

For some, the global water crisis is about absolute shortages of physical supply, says UNDP Admini…

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Dec 6 2006 (IPS) – Hopes that the world will finally be able to immunise people against malaria received a shot in the arm, this week, as leading health experts unveiled the blueprint for a preventive vaccine in the Thai capital.
Yet, the architects of this new global strategy the Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap – launched Wednesday at the end of a three-day conference, warn against too much optimism.

Scientific caution was written all over Dr. Carlos Morel, director of the Rio de Janeiro-based Centre for Technological Development in Health. We know a vaccine is possible, but in reality we are still on the floor with blind eyes. This is a failure of science, he told IPS in an interview.

The challenge faced by the medical and sc…

Pratap Chatterjee*

WASHINGTON, Jan 22 2007 (IPS) – Today, almost four years after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, Iraq s healthcare system is still a shambles.
While most hospitals lack basic supplies, dozens of incomplete clinics and warehoused high-technology equipment remain as a testament to the U.S. experiment in Iraq.
Today, almost four years after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, Iraq s healthcare system is still a shambles.

While most hospitals lack basic supplies, dozens of incomplete clinics and warehoused high-technology equipment remain as a testament to the U.S. experiment in Iraq. Meanwhile the hospitals are grappling with an unexpected health crisis the daily toll of bombs and sectarian clashes, which leaves over a hundred dead each day and more seri…