Briana Sapp

BRUSSELS, Apr 23 2007 (IPS) – With two-thirds of the world s HIV/AIDS victims living in sub-Saharan Africa, sickness and death is too often a part of doing business in the region. But now microfinance institutions have found ways to reduce financial risk while attacking new infections.
Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have grown through the region as a way to boost economic development on a local scale. Micro-loans, oftentimes as small as 15 dollars to help someone start a small business, traditionally have nearly 100 percent repayment rates, but HIV has hit the cycle very hard.

In areas where HIV/AIDS infection rates are high, repayment can range from 65.25 percent to 86.27 percent as compared to 98 percent with non-infected borrowers, says Francesco Strobbe of the Economic Statistics Department of the European Central Bank.

Sub-Saharan Africa, according to UNAIDS in 2006, was home to 13.2 million HIV-infected people. It is then no wonder why …

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, May 31 2007 (IPS) – A novel programme aimed at fomenting a reading habit among low-income sectors was launched in Argentina: the Books and Houses campaign will deliver a bookshelf complete with 18 volumes to each affordable housing unit assigned to families this year through government assistance plans.
The books were carefully selected by a team of experts in education and literature, coordinated by officials at the Secretariat of Culture. More than 70 percent of the works were specially published for the programme, which plans to distribute a total of 80,000 bookshelves to 800 districts and towns around the country.

They re beautiful books, Sandra Ruiz, who lives in Añatuya, a town in the northwestern province of Santiago del Estero, told IPS. There s poetry, fables, stories and practical manuals.

The programme began by delivering the bookshelves to 70 homes in Añatuya, where 27 percent of the 20,000 local residents have…

Fabiana Frayssinet*

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 27 2007 (IPS) – In under a decade, programmes providing universal free access to antiretroviral medicines have greatly decreased AIDS mortality in countries like Argentina and Brazil, but this progress is now threatened by the rising prices of new formulas patented by the big pharmaceutical companies.

Credit: World Health Organisation

The Brazilian Health Ministry guarantees access to antiretroviral medications for all people with HIV/AIDS.

According to the National Programme on Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS (PN-DST/AIDS), 180,000 people in Brazil are regularly taking these drugs, which reduce the HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) load in the body, improving quality of life and preventing opportunistic infections.

Between 1996 …

Ephraim Nsingo*

HARARE, Jul 31 2007 (IPS) – The City Council of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe s second largest city, has issued a warning to residents of a possible outbreak of disease following a massive cut in the city s water supply. This is the first time in Bulawayo s history such a health warning has been issued.
Water will be available for seven hours in every two days and during that time people are advised to fill their containers and cover them up. The City Council is aware that water cuts may result in the outbreak of diseases, and we wish to advise members of the public to take preventive measures, said council spokesperson Phathisa Nyathi recently.

The water shortage has been ascribed to drought, a burgeoning population and the lack of co-operation between the City Council and the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) a parastatal.

Bulawayo is the capital city of Matabeleland, a southern region that has for decades been prone to droughts. When the l…

Diego Cevallos* – IPS/IFEJ

MEXICO CITY, Aug 30 2007 (IPS) – Between one-quarter and half of the toys in the hands of girls and boys in many Latin American countries are contraband items and many contain substances that are dangerous to human health.

Few things seem more harmless than a child&#39s toy. Credit: Photo Stock

Government authorities fight the health risks of toys with regular but insufficient -inspections, but the problem is not limited to smuggled items, as became evident when the world s top toy manufacturer, Mattel, recently recalled tens of thousands of toys in the region.

The regulating capacity of authorities in Latin America is limited.

Determining whether a toy is safe, then, …

Stella Gonzales

MANILA, Oct 2 2007 (IPS) – Lourdes Esplana-Osil has seven children, all born within a space of 12 years. Warned by her doctor of complications from repeated pregnancies, she started using injectable contraceptives provided free at a local government health centre.
But in 1998, the centre stopped providing contraceptives. Since she could not afford to buy them her husband, a pedicab (a bicycle rickshaw) driver, earns very little and because natural family planning methods failed, she had several unwanted pregnancies before she found a non-government organisation (NGO) that gave her free contraceptives.

Osil is just one of the many women residents of Manila who were deprived of access to artificial contraceptive methods when Joselito Atienza became city mayor in 1998. In line with his Roman Catholic beliefs, Atienza issued an executive order promoting responsible parenthood and upholding natural family planning methods, while discouraging artificial …

Leslie-Ann Boctor* – IPS/IFEJ

CAIRO, Oct 19 2007 (IPS) – Air pollution is so bad in Cairo that living in the sprawling city of 18 million residents is said to be akin to smoking 20 cigarettes a day. According to the World Health Organisation, the average Cairene ingests more than 20 times the acceptable level of air pollution a day.

Cleaner production, better bricks. Credit: Idea Egypt

A 2002 World Bank report estimates that pollution causes 2.42 billion dollars worth of environmental damage each year, about five percent of Egypt #39s annual gross domestic product.

Industry is to blame, in part, the worst offenders being factories that burn mazot for power. Mazot is the heavy oil left over after more valuable fuel products have been extract…

Stephen Leahy

BROOKLIN, Canada, Nov 26 2007 (IPS) – Chronic, non-infectious diseases like heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes kill more than twice as many people than HIV/AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis, experts warn.

Man lighting a cigarette Credit: Hendrike

In the next 10 years, some 388 million people will die of these largely preventable diseases, which are caused mainly by smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise. Often thought to be diseases of the rich, most of these deaths will be in the developing world, conclude the authors of a study published in the journal Nature this month.

We have a huge health crisis here that few policymakers and other officials are aware of, said lead author Dr. Abdallah S. Daar of the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre in Toronto, Canada.

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Am Johal

VANCOUVER, Jan 7 2008 (IPS) – When the spotlight hits Canada for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the event will be promoted with a traditional Inuit inukshuk the official logo for the 2010 Olympic Games.
Deeply embedded in Inuit culture, an inukshuk is a stone structure that serves as a directional landmark on the frozen Arctic tundra and symbolises safety, hope and friendship.

But most Canadians and the international community are unaware that suicide rates for Inuit are 11 times higher than the Canadian average. In some parts of the Eastern Arctic, the suicide rate is even higher. Despite these alarming numbers, no public health emergency or advisory has been declared by territorial or federal government health departments.

Critics argue that the Nunavut government and most other people capable of dealing with this problem continue to view suicide as a result of cultural change while ignoring depression, alcoholism and historical trauma i…