Ravi Kanth Devarakonda

HEILIGENDAMM, Germany, Jun 8 2007 (IPS) – The Group of Eight industrialised countries suffered a setback Friday in its plan to strengthen intellectual property rights through promoting innovation protecting innovation when the five developing world s leaders China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico forced a key change in the final statement.
The G5 emerging powers pushed the inclusion of the need to address public health in the balance between grave health emergencies and protection of patent rights of pharmaceutical companies.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted there was a change from the earlier text, saying with China and India present at the table, there will be some changes.

She said at the concluding press conference th…

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jul 6 2007 (IPS) – The global anti-tobacco movement has just armed itself with tough new language capable of clearing the air at workplaces, restaurants and bars of tobacco smoke.
The breakthrough, secured at a week-long conference here, was endorsed by 146 developed and developing countries. They backed a call for strong guidelines to snuff out second-hand smoke in public areas.

The guidelines will offer national and local governments a road map to establish smoke-free environments in a bid to protect the health of non-smokers and wean smokers away from their habit.

Sound science proves there is no safe level of exposure to second-hand smoke, Dr. Douglas Bettcher, head of the World Health Organisation s (WHO) Tobacco Free Initia…

Michael J. Carter

FREETOWN, Aug 8 2007 (IPS) – Female genital mutilation (FGM) can make sex painful, complicate childbirth, lead to urinary tract infections, enable the transmission of HIV and induce a host of other ills. So, promising to fight this practice should be a winning strategy for someone hoping to be elected to parliament this Saturday in Sierra Leone where about 90 percent of girls and women undergo FGM, according to rights watchdog Amnesty International.

Aaron Glantz

SAN FRANCISCO, Sep 5 2007 (IPS) – The head of the U.S. federal government agency that doles out benefits to disabled veterans is under fire for saying Bible study is more important than doing [my] job.
Two organisations, Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), demanded an investigation Tuesday of Daniel Cooper, President George W. Bush #39s undersecretary for benefits at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Their complaint stems from an appearance Cooper made in a fundraising video for the evangelical group Christian Embassy, which carries out missionary work among the Washington elite as part of the Campus Crusade for Christ.

In the video, Cooper says of his Bible study, it #39s not really about carvi…

David Vargas

ASUNCION, Oct 4 2007 (IPS) – In spite of official claims to the contrary, it is becoming less and less likely that Paraguay will meet the health goals the United Nations member countries committed themselves to achieve by 2015, experts say.
A study published by Dr. Antonio Arbo, head of paediatrics at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Asunción, indicates that far from showing progress, health indices have worsened in recent years.

The report places Paraguay among the five countries with the highest child mortality rates in the Americas. In Paraguay, for every 1,000 live births, 25 children die before reaching their fifth birthday.

This figure has not varied much in the past 12 years, Arbo said. In 1995 it was 30 children per 1,000, and now it…

Kalinga Seneviratne*

ORISSA, India, Oct 30 2007 (IPS) – When Gram Vikas, one of India s largest non-government organisations (NGOs), began work to uplift rural Adivasi (tribal) communities across this eastern Indian state, it started by building toilets.
In 1992, after a Gram Vikas study found that 80 percent of deaths in rural Orissa could be traced to water contaminated by faecal matter, the NGO launched a rural health and environment programme. This situation has arisen because of an abysmal attitude towards the disposal of human waste, said Gram Vikas executive director Joe Madiath.

We thought water and sanitation was where everyone can be united. So we got into water and sanitation on 100 percent basis for co-habitation, he said.

Adivasi communities make…

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Nov 29 2007 (IPS) – Thailand s reputation as a world leader in combating the spread of HIV and AIDS is being challenged by a new study which accuses Bangkok of ignoring those most vulnerable to the virus drug users.
Such marginalisation prevails despite the government being aware of the reality, adds the study released Thursday by the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Bangkok-based Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group (TTAG). The Thai government estimates that 40 to 50 percent of injecting drug users are living with HIV in Thailand virtually unchanged over the past two decades.

The hostile reception that HIV-positive Thais who inject heroin receive at health clinics across the country typifies the prevailing atmosphere, says Kr…

Kwamboka Oyaro

KISII, Kenya, Jan 11 2008 (IPS) – A group of men who a couple of weeks ago were busy at work huddle together idle. They have grown tired of rehashing tales of their horrendous experiences at the hands of their hitherto neighbours and friends. Now they watch the entrance to the church here, in the hope that any visitor brings something to silence their rumbling stomachs.
I haven t eaten since yesterday. We gave the little food we received from well wishers to our children, says a man in his mid-40s. The other men around him nod in agreement.

A woman cuddling a baby is unable to talk. Tears trickle down her cheeks. IPS learns that her husband and older children may have been killed in the violence.

About 2,000 men, women, and children have been c…

Sandhya Srinivasan

MUMBAI, Feb 20 2008 (IPS) – The arrest of Doctor Kidney Amit Kumar for running a sizeable racket in live kidneys has highlighted the role that South Asia plays as the hub of an international trade in human organs.

Faqir Masih, a Pakistani who was cheated in a kidney deal, displaying his …

David Vargas

ASUNCION, Mar 25 2008 (IPS) – Now that the panic that broke out after the reappearance of yellow fever in Paraguay for the first time in 34 years has died down, health authorities are facing the challenge of expanding vaccination against the disease.
At least 1.5 million people have been vaccinated against yellow fever since the government declared a state of national emergency in mid-February, out of a population of six million.

The intensity of the vaccination campaign has eased considerably since early February, when people stood in long lines outside health centres and voices were raised angrily to complain about the shortage of vaccines.

But now that vaccines are abundant, thanks to donations from other countries in the region, the authoritie…