KINSHASA, Dec 1 2011 (IPS) – Nadine Mbwol suffers from konzo, an epidemic paralytic disease that affects the lower body. I lost my marriage because of this disability, she says sadly.
Many people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) believe that this disease, which affects many young, female victims like 20-year-old Mbwol, is caused by witchcraft.
But it s not true, says Dr Pierre Makadi-Nkeni, who works at the hospital Le bon berger . Konzo is not caused by a curse or witchcraft as many people believe in all the provinces where the disease occurs, he says. In the DRC, many rural territories like Kahemba, Feshi or the province of Bandundu are severely affected by konzo.
Konzo is a spastic (sudden and painless) paralysis which causes permanent and incurable pa…
RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 1 2012 (IPS) – The government of the state of Rio de Janeiro is unveiling a battery of creative tactics to engage the population in the battle against dengue fever, which is threatening to reach unprecedented epidemic proportions as a new virus strain hits Brazil.
Racing for Peace in the Rocinha favela, one of the many creati…
LUANDA, Mar 8 2012 (IPS) – The brightly painted old shipping container with solar panels on its roof and high-specification filtration devices inside looks out of place in this dusty Angolan village of Bom Jesus, 50 kilometres east of the capital Luanda.
Joaquina Xavier who currently collects water from the river in front of the new AQUAtap machine in her village. Credit: Louise Redvers/IPS
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JOHANNESBURG, Apr 20 2012 (IPS) – Thousands of residents in Diepsloot, a large township north of Johannesburg, South Africa, are queuing for hours to access clean, safe water a week after their supply was contaminated by sewage.
Hundreds of residents in Diepsloot queue for hours to access clean, safe water. Credit: Siphosethu Stuurman
The contamination occurred when a contractor working on a nearby sewer line broke the water pipe that supplies Diepsloot. Th…
Vaccination drive against measles at the Jalozai refugee camp. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS
PESHAWAR, May 22 2012 (IPS) – The deaths of 20 children in an outbreak of measles in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Agency (FATA) are raising concerns over the state of immunisation in the conflict-ridden areas along the Afghanistan border.
Over the past month, at least 20 children have died of measles in North and South Waziristan because they couldn’t be immunised due to the raging militancy, said Sahibzada Khalid, deputy director of the expanded programme of immunisation (EPI) in the FATA.
North and South Waziristan are part of seven triba…
Oral polio vaccination in Peshawar. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Jul 9 2012 (IPS) – By ordering a ban on polio immunisation, in its strongholds along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, the Taliban is holding up an ambitious global programme to rid the world of the crippling childhood disease, say World Health Organisation (WHO) doctors.
“The Taliban s ban on polio immunsiation in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) poses a serious threat to the global polio eradication effort as countries declared polio-free long ago could import the virus from Pakistan,” Dr. Khalid Khan, who works for the WHO’s polio programme in the FATA, tells IPS.<…
KARACHI, Aug 27 2012 (IPS) – About two months back, 28-year old Asif Ahmed* put up an announcement on the internet to sell one of his kidneys.
“I lost a lot of money in business some four years back and pumped in more money by taking a loan, but I’ve lost all. I know there is a law that prohibits selling of any organ, but I can’t think of any other way to pay back this loan,” he told IPS over the phone.
However, not one person has contacted him even to inquire or show any interest. But then Ahmed is based in the southern port city of Karachi, in Sindh province, where the illegal organ trade is well under control, unlike reports of a rise in Punjab province.
Pakistan enacted a transplant law in 2010 to shake off its reputation as a leading destination for …
“Sweet 16” marriages are a cause of controversy in Malawi. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 11 2012 (IPS) – The United Nations has launched a global campaign to abolish an anachronistic social practice still prevalent in some communities around the world: child marriages.
International conventions declare that child marriage is a violation of human rights because it denies girls the right to decide when and with whom to marry, says a released Thursday by the U.N.Population Fund (UNFPA).
The launch also marked the first International Day of the Girl Child Oct. 11 as designated by the 193-member General Assembly last year in order to recog…
Children in Araçuaí, Minas Gerais, in eastern Brazil. Credit: Rodrigo Dai – Courtesy of Ser Criança
RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 14 2012 (IPS) – If a black woman and a white woman both need emergency obstetric care, a Brazilian doctor will assist the white woman because of the stereotype that black women are better at handling pain and are used to giving birth.
Because of cultural and social conventions in Brazil “blacks are seen in terms of stereotypes, and that leads to them not having the same guarantees in healthcare treatment as whites have,” Crisfanny Souza Soares, a psychologist with the , told IPS.
A is seeking to combat these stereotypes, which reflect r…
WASHINGTON, Jan 2 2013 (IPS) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the sector’s primary regulator, has given accelerated approval to a controversial new drug for use by patients suffering from forms of tuberculosis that have proven resistant to other medicines.
Scanning electron micrograph of Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, which cause TB. Credit: NIAID/public domain
While the drug, known as bedaquiline and to be sold under the brand Sirturo, has been lauded by many for offering a new approach to treating tuberculosis resistant to the other two main medicines in use, some are warning that the expedited approvals process circum…