Stepping Up the Fight to End Cholera and Chikungunya Outbreaks in Mandera County, Kenya
is the UNFPA Representative to Kenya and the United Nations Resident Coordinator ad interim.
“An MSF assisted cholera treatment center in Mandera, Kenya”. June 03, 2016 – Photo credit : @unfpaken
Mandera County, Kenya, Jun 5 2016 (IPS) – Mandera’s double whammy, the concurrent outbreaks of cholera and chikungunya, is bringing to the fore the need for accelerated epidemic preparedness and prevention systems.
is an acute diarrhoeal disease that can kill within hours if left untreated.
virus is most often spread to people by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. These are the same mosquitoes that transmit dengue, yellow fever and zika virus. Its symptoms include high fever, joint pain, rash and headache. There is no vaccine to prevent or medicine to treat chikungunya virus infection.
The twin epidemics have hit the expansive north-eas…
Women Activists Escalate Demand for “Bodily Autonomy” as 19 Nations Dissent
Credit: UN Women
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 17 2020 (IPS) – The United States and 18 other UN member states have come under fire for denying a woman’s legitimate right to “bodily autonomy”—the right to self-governance over one’s own body without coercion or external pressure.
The Executive Director of Women’s March Global, Uma Mishra-Newbery, told IPS the United Nations has worked towards progress in fighting for women s rights.
But many countries on the Human Rights Council continue to negotiate women s human rights off the table, she pointed out.
In Sept 2019, she said, the world watched as the US, in partnership with 18 other member states, put forth a statement saying there is no international right to abortion.
She said UN member states have also witnessed “the continued and grave human rights violations in Saudi Arabia”, inclu…