NAIROBI, 2 February 2010 (IRIN) - Somalia has one of the highest levels of malnutrition in the world, with up to 240,000 children under five affected, according to an early warning report published on 1 February by the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit for Somalia (FAO/FSNAU) and FEWSNET. ...
COTONOU, 2 February 2010 (IRIN) - In Benin cholera has killed five people in the past two weeks in a rare dry-season outbreak. Health officials detected the first cases of the diarrhoeal disease on 13 January in the town of Bonou " 90km east of the economic capital ...
JACMEL, 29 January 2010 (IRIN) - Crowds in Haiti stampede out of buildings at the hint of a tremor; mothers refuse to breastfeed for fear of passing on their depression; people complain of headaches and insomnia. Mental health specialists say that until routines are in place and the basic needs ...
JACMEL, 29 January 2010 (IRIN) - The colonial buildings that attracted tourists to the seaside town of Jacmel, 80km southeast of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, were among the first to collapse on 12 January. Within seconds of the earthquake, 441 people were dead, 21,000 made homeless, and 183 ...
NOUAKCHOTT, 29 January 2010 (IRIN) - A recent fatwa banning female genital mutilation/cutting in Mauritania will help reduce the practice only if religious leaders take the message to the people, scholars and anti-FGM/C activists say. Given the widespread practice of FGM/C in Mauritania and the belief that it ...
Africa: Rotavirus Vaccine Making Headway in Africa New vaccination programmes against rotavirus are starting to have a positive impact, and could eventually prevent hundreds of thousands of child deaths a year, according to a new report."It is not widely known that pneumonia and diarrhoea are the two biggest child-killers globally, or that we now have new vaccines ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa - Related articles
NAIROBI, 28 January 2010 (IRIN) - Galkayo Hospital in northern Somalia, once a large, fully equipped referral facility, has become a shadow of its former self since the collapse of the central government in 1991, according to medical staff. "The hospital is for all practical purposes closed. We ...
DAKAR, 27 January 2010 (IRIN) - Health experts hope the release of data showing the success of rotavirus vaccine will help compel policymakers to ensure all children will be immunized. Rotavirus " the top cause of severe and often fatal diarrhoea and dehydration in children " kills some ...
JOHANNESBURG, 22 January 2010 (IRIN) - In the street below the brightly lit windows of multinational corporate headquarters and exclusive townhouses in Illovo, an upmarket suburb in Johannesburg, the trees cast dark shadows where some of the most vulnerable young women in South Africa do one of the riskiest jobs ...
MOGADISHU, 21 January 2010 (IRIN) - As conflict continues in Somalia, the main hospital in Mogadishu, the capital, lacks orthopedic specialists to handle the increasing number of patients with broken limbs, a doctor has said. "Currently, the patients with the most serious injuries are mostly young; 30 of ...
PORT-AU-PRINCE, 20 January 2010 (IRIN) - As Haiti"s overstretched hospitals struggle to cope with the immediate needs of survivors of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for a response that equips the health sector for any future disasters. "The country has a disaster ...
PORT-AU-PRINCE, 20 January 2010 (IRIN) - Johane, 18, a high-school student, is living in a makeshift camp on a football pitch in the Corridor Icare district, less than 2km from the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince, which was wrecked in the 12 January earthquake. She spoke to IRIN about her experiences: ...
DAKAR, 19 January 2010 (IRIN) - The UN on 18 January allotted US$100 million to 14 "neglected emergencies", where significant humanitarian needs remain but funding is scarce. It is the first round of 2010 allocations from the UN"s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which was set up to ...
NAIROBI, 19 January 2010 (IRIN) - Fridah Awour Agolla has sold vegetables in Nairobi"s Mathare slum for 20 years. In better times, her stock sold out every day. But lately market forces have begun to bite even harder for the millions in Kenya who live in such squalid, neglected settlements. ...
Eleven-year-old Memory"s grandmother wanted her to drop out of school because she is not going to live long enough to complete her studies. And the ridicule and stigma Memory endures at school because of her HIV status does not make her education seem worthwhile. Especially since this ridicule comes from ...
Kenya: Clash Over Abortion Rights in New Constitution A harmonised draft constitution has now been handed over to Kenya"s Parliamentary Select Committee. Influential Christian leaders are warning that the question of abortion could derail the constitutional review process.The draft, assembled by a Committee of Experts, actually contains no specific reference to abortion, but the National Council of Churches ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa - Related articles
NAIROBI, 13 January 2010 (IRIN) - The main rainy season in Djibouti has been poor, prompting fears that some pastoralist households could face serious food shortages in the coming months. "Consecutive seasons of poor rainfall, a possible failure of the current Heys/Dada rains, high staple food prices and ...
KIGALI, 12 January 2010 (IRIN) - Rwanda has recorded a sharp improvement in food security following the government"s measures to boost agricultural production in 2009, officials said. The government implemented a new agricultural strategy, which included timely distribution of seed and fertilizer, adoption of market-oriented farming methods and ...
JOHANNESBURG, 12 January 2010 (IRIN) - Two US-based companies have teamed up to challenge the patents for Plumpy"nut, a widely distributed ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) registered in the US. "A few weeks ago we did not even know anything about each other," said David Fish, who heads Breedlove ...
KAMPALA, 8 January 2010 (IRIN) - The lack of adequate sanitation facilities in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, has led to increased use of polythene bags - known as "flying toilets" - for human waste disposal, local officials said. The situation is worse in slums where infrastructure is basic. The ...
DAKAR, 8 January 2010 (IRIN) - Guinean health officials plan this month to vaccinate more than 250,000 people in the northeast against yellow fever after one confirmed and several suspected cases emerged in the region. The woman found to be infected with the mosquito-borne viral infection is in ...
DAKAR, 6 January 2010 (IRIN) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Guinea is seeking funds to re-stock nutritional centres which are running out of essential fortified foods at a time of rising malnutrition. The latest monthly nutritional survey in the capital, Conakry, showed that moderate acute ...
Liberia: Saving Lives Amid the Chaos of War The documentary "Living in Emergency" is as graphic as it is gripping, following doctors working in humanitarian crises as they face death, disease and despair in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).The French-based crew led by Mark Hopkins filmed from July to September 2005, chronicling the lives of ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa - Related articles
GOZ BEIDA, 6 January 2010 (IRIN) - The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Chad is identifying pregnant women in refugee camps who have had their genitalia cut, in order to better prepare for potential complications, according to UNHCR and its medical partners. The exercise is part of efforts in the ...
Tanzania"s electricity grid is fed by a mixture of natural gas, diesel and hydropower; however, over the past few years the country has experienced severe blackouts and power rationing in urban areas due to drought and subsequent low-water levels.After seeing springs and rivers in his native Kilimanjaro region dry up, ...
GENEVA/BAMAKO, 31 December 2009 (IRIN) - Swiss researchers are introducing in Mali a technology to analyse medicines for substandard ingredients more rapidly and cheaply than current methods allow. "We wanted to know how we could bring down the cost of this technology and produce a lower-cost prototype," Serge ...
SIKASSO, 29 December 2009 (IRIN) - Sikasso is one of Mali"s most fertile regions, but under-five malnutrition is as high here as the country"s barren north, according to government health data. Health workers and agricultural experts explain the paradox as a combination of a lack of nutritional awareness, ...
TChad: Drying, Drying, Disappearing Lake Chad was bigger than Israel less than 50 years ago. Today its surface area is les than a tenth of its earlier size, amid forecasts the lake could disappear altogether within 20 years.Climate change and overuse have put one of Africa"s mightiest lakes in mortal danger, and the livelihoods ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa - Related articles
KINSHASA, 22 December 2009 (IRIN) - Years of conflict and instability mean the Democratic Republic of Congo is still among the worst countries in the world to be pregnant, despite a nationwide push to improve maternal, infant and childhood mortality rates. "Every hour of every day in DRC, ...
MOPTI, 18 December 2009 (IRIN) - Even the most altruistic, engaged community health worker is likely to quit when he or she finds a paid job, according to the Malian federation of community health associations. The government is considering ways to retain, support and train health volunteers to ...
BAMAKO, 17 December 2009 (IRIN) - Mali had some 30 million chickens, ducks, guinea fowl and turkeys in 2005, but not enough protein-rich poultry products are consumed locally, according to the government and nutritionists. In 2006 15 percent of under-five children were too thin or did not weigh ...
SAN DOMINGOS, 17 December 2009 (IRIN) - More women in Guinea-Bissau are shunning traditional birthing attendants and choosing to give birth in hospitals, say doctors and aid officials, who hope this will help bring down the maternal death rate. "We are seeing behaviour changing all over the country," ...
NAIROBI, 16 December 2009 (IRIN) - The number of reported rapes in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Bosasso, in Somalia"s self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, is increasing and rape has become "a major problem", says a civil society source. "We are seeing more and more women ...
DAKAR, 11 December 2009 (IRIN) - Malaria deaths in children under five have increased "significantly" in the past four months in Sierra Leone, where this preventable disease kills a child every 30 minutes. Aid agencies are urgently appealing for medicines and other supplies to stem the trend. "This ...
NAIROBI, 11 December 2009 (IRIN) - An outbreak of cholera in northwest Kenya has killed at least 24 people over the past two weeks according to a senior health official. Some 193 cholera cases were recorded between 23 November and 9 December, said Director of Public Health Shahnaaz ...
"When the tenth man finished raping me they said they were going to rape my daughter. I cried out but I could not even stand up at this time...they raped my daughter (while) I was there and I couldn"t do anything to stop them. My daughter was five years old..."This ...
For the last decade, the autumn skies over Egypt - especially over capital Cairo, have been overshadowed by a thick haze people call "the black cloud".The black cloud first appeared in 1998, ironically after the creation of Egypt"s ministry of environment. Three environment ministers since then have failed to solve ...
Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe Blasted for Condoning "Sexual Terror" Zimbabwe"s ruling political party has been accused of launching a "widespread and systematic campaign of rape and sexual terror" aimed at intimidating opponents and voters in the troubled African nation, according to a new report released here."The exceptionally violent rapes, as described by women from every province of Zimbabwe, were ... Read Africa News article at IPS Africa - Related articles
DAKAR, 8 December 2009 (IRIN) - African health experts are calling on governments to vaccinate children against rotavirus, to end an "unacceptable" yet preventable situation in which the virus kills some 1,400 children in developing countries daily. The West African Rotavirus Advisory Board on 3 December held a ...
KAMPALA, 8 December 2009 (IRIN) - An outbreak of meningitis that killed more than a dozen students from the same school last week has spread throughout the city of Kisangani, in central Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said Monday. The strain of the meningococcal C, which was confirmed ...
COPENHAGEN, 7 December 2009 (IRIN) - Seven children die of hunger every minute because they do not have access to treatment, but the impact of climate change on the drivers of undernutrition " food insecurity, health threats and water stress " could push up this number, the UN Standing Committee ...
HARGEISA, 7 December 2009 (IRIN) - Health officials in Somalia"s self-declared independent region of Somaliland have expressed concern over a rise in mental illness, which they attribute to post-war trauma, joblessness, drug abuse and khat use. "Mental health problems have increased in Somaliland because of several reasons; that ...
All HIV-positive east Africans could soon access free anti-retroviral treatment even as they move freely from country to country, if a new proposed law comes into effect.The East African Community (EAC) is currently developing a law to guide the region"s response to HIV/AIDS. This comes as the regional block ...
All HIV-positive east Africans could soon access free anti-retroviral treatment even as they move freely from country to country, if a new proposed law comes into effect.The East African Community (EAC) is currently developing a law to guide the region"s response to HIV/AIDS. This comes as the regional block ...
Newborn babies in South Africa will now be treated for HIV, regardless of their CD4 count. President Jacob Zuma announced several new measures which focus on expanding the country"s anti-retroviral (ARV) programme, especially in terms of mother-to-child-transmission, and for those with both TB and HIV. The new policies target three ...
MONROVIA, 2 December 2009 (IRIN) - With 45 percent of Liberians chronically or acutely malnourished, experts say nutrition is a burning health problem, but NGOs feel the Ministry of Health is not as worried as it should be, and lacks the capacity to provide leadership in bringing about solutions. ...
MONROVIA, 2 December 2009 (IRIN) - With 45 percent of Liberians chronically or acutely malnourished, experts say nutrition is a burning health problem, but NGOs feel the Ministry of Health is not as worried as it should be, and lacks the capacity to provide leadership in bringing about solutions. ...
MONROVIA, 27 November 2009 (IRIN) - "My first kid died because I breastfed him after my husband had had an affair," Tina Kollie, mother of a seven-month-old in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, told IRIN. She has not breastfed any children since. "[If I breastfeed], whenever my husband has an affair ...
ADDIS ABABA, 24 November 2009 (IRIN) - The Ethiopian government has vehemently rejected accusations that it has excluded some opposition supporters from a food-for-work programme, charges that are the focus of growing international concern in the run-up to elections in 2010. "Such complaints are totally baseless! Totally baseless," ...
