Franz Chávez
LA PAZ, Jun 3 2009 (IPS) – A new Bolivian government programme will provide special payments to pregnant women and mothers with children up to the age of two, with the aim of cutting the country s maternal and infant mortality rates.
The cash transfers, which will total 258 dollars over the space of a woman s pregnancy and her baby s first two years of life, are conditional on regular pre- and post-natal care visits by the mother and checkups for her baby.
Two women a day die of complications in pregnancy or birth and 48 of 1,000 babies die before their first birthday in Bolivia, South America s poorest country.
The left-wing government of Evo Morales, Bolivia s first indigenous president, already created a monthly stipend for families with schoo…
Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO, Jun 29 2009 (IPS) – As a woman of childbearing age, I pay more than double what a man my age pays for the same health plan, 27-year-old Carolina Leyton told IPS.
Women waiting for treatment at a health centre. Credit: Daniela Estrada/IPS
Leyton is a subscriber of one of Chile s private healthcare providers, known as ISAPREs (Instituciones de Salud Previsional), which set different premiums depending on the risk associated with the beneficiary.
Since socialist Preside…
Lal Aqa Sherin
KABUL, Aug 5 2009 (IPS) – Thirty five-year-old Habibulah Khan walks out of a private clinic in the Afghan capital, covered in dust and looking dog-tired.
Doctors and administrators at private hospitals defend their billing practices Credit: Najibullah Musafer/Killid Media
The doctors, he says, told me to buy medicine from a nearby drug-store and bring the bottle back to him. He says his prescription cannot be found at other pharm…
Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Aug 26 2009 (IPS) – Thailand s reputation as a South-east Asian country with strong anti-smoking laws is facing a direct challenge from the tobacco multinational companies, who are due to gather here in November for a major industry congress and exhibition.
The organisers of the cigarette promotion gathering, called TABINFO Asia 2009, are not leaving anything to the imagination as to why the Thai capital has been chosen as the venue for the Asia-Pacific region s own dedicated tobacco show.
The Asia Pacific region has not escaped the global credit meltdown. But its cigarette market remains more buoyant than elsewhere, declares the Tobacco Reporter trade publication in its website. The region remains one of the world s most promising ciga…
MOMBASA, Oct 27 2009 (IPS) – Kenyan teenagers are having sex. And they appear to have no clue how to go about it.
Samuel Katana is a member of the Dance 4 Life club at St Georges school in Kenya; the club is one of a very few places for teenagers to get information and advice…
Sanjay Suri
LONDON, Oct 20 2009 (IPS) – The European Union is intercepting big shipments of medicines on their way to poorer countries, according to a new report published Tuesday.
The generic medicines, coming mostly from India and headed for Latin American countries, have been intercepted and blocked on the grounds of alleged infringement of intellectual property rights.
A report produced jointly by Oxfam and the independent Health Action International says the generic shipments are legitimate under WTO rules.
India and Brazil are due to file a complaint against the Netherlands before the World Trade Organisation (WTO) after it seized a shipment of anti-HIV drugs headed from India via Europe to Brazil, Colombia and Nigeria.
Although in transit, the …
Paul Virgo
ROME, Nov 17 2009 (IPS) – There are two main ways the flop of this week s United Nations World Food Security Summit in Rome which has been snubbed by the world s top leaders, has failed to deliver binding aid commitments, or to set a target date for the eradication of hunger is being read.
At best it reflects the limits of the U.N. and its flagship body in the fight against hunger, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), activists say.
At worst, they say it shows wealthy countries leaders lack the political will to really to put their backs into solving a problem that no matter how unjust and scandalous, in a world with more than enough to feed everyone generally does not directly affect the voters who put them into office.
Either way it is pro…
ACCRA, Jan 19 2010 (IPS) – Juliana Kweais has a small scar on her bottom lip, from the first time she witnessed an abortion. The sharp blow to her mouth was delivered by her grandmother, after the then-13-year-old Kweais had asked why her auntie had given birth to a bloody sack.
A mother visits a reproductive health clinic in Ghana. Credit: Elana Roth/NYU Livewire
Kweais s eyes glaze over as she recalls that painful night, almost 20 years ago. Her aunt had been unmarried, and their f…
Matthew Berger
WASHINGTON, Feb 28 2010 (IPS) – As the war over health care continues in Washington and a war of a bloodier nature heats up in Ciudád Juárez and elsewhere in Mexico, top U.S. and Mexican officials are hoping to reduce both pressures on the health system and the ongoing bloodshed.
A three-day conference at the U.S. State Department concluded Thursday with a joint acknowledgement by the two countries of the crucial need to reduce drug demand and intensify prevention and treatment efforts.
We are building a health system that prepares communities to prevent illicit drug consumption and promotes a healthy society, said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
But south of the U.S.-Mexico border, violence related to drug traffic…
Susan Anyangu-Amu
NAIROBI, Apr 1 2010 (IPS) – Pregnant mothers who are HIV-positive could soon find it challenging to access life-saving HIV drugs because Kenya was denied 270 million dollars in funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
An estimated 6 percent of pregnant women in Kenya are HIV-posit…