Jaime Lim – Newsmekong*
CHIANG RAI, Thailand, Oct 16 2007 (IPS) – Four years after the first outbreak of avian flu, experts say many key questions hover around the disease: what kind of contact between fowl and humans leads to its transmission to people, and how effective can poultry vaccination really be.
The H5N1 strain of avian flu, which has led to the culling of millions of birds and poultry with compensation payments to farmers running into millions of dollars, is now adjudged to be endemic in places like Indonesia and Vietnam.
In truth, there are still huge gaps in our knowledge of the virus , explained Richard Brown, public health specialist from the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Bangkok.
The outbreak has gone on for a long time (since 2003), but…
Zofeen Ebrahim
SEOUL, Nov 23 2007 (IPS) – It was a happy day for Sim Jae-Duck. The World Toilet Association (WTA) history has begun, said the president of the newly formed association at the close, Friday, of the four-day assembly in which it was formally established.
The need for such an association, delegates agreed, cannot be overemphasised with 2.6 billion people, 40 percent of the world s population, lacking access to proper sanitation and two million deaths caused annually by water-borne diseases.
If there was any cause for complaint it was the fact that females were scarce at the deliberations over an issue of concern to women.
Not only were there very few women among the delegates and participants, but also there was not a single presentation devoted t…
Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Jan 3 2008 (IPS) – An outbreak of bird flu virus among poultry in Burma s eastern Shan State, close to the Thai border, is being greeted with a mix of concern and relief.
The cause for relief stems from the flow of information in the military-ruled country that triggered the alarm following the death of nearly 1,000 chickens, 20 ducks and a few geese infected by the H5N1 strain of the virus in late December. Farmers in the affected areas notified local animal and public health authorities as soon as they spotted dead birds in their backyards.
That was a good sign. It is very important for local communities to act this way if we are to curb the spread of avian influenza (AI), says Wantanee Kalpravidh, regional coordinator for the AI proje…
José Adán Silva
MANAGUA, Feb 7 2008 (IPS) – Despite the social plans implemented by the government of Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua has made little progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), say independent analysts.
Ortega, who took office in January 2007, has launched programmes like Zero Hunger in rural areas, Zero Usury, which grants low interest loans to poor women, and an adult literacy drive, besides making education free once again for children and teenagers.
Some 12,000 rural families have benefited from the Zero Hunger programme, around 13,000 women have obtained loans, and an estimated 110,000 adults have joined the literacy drive. In addition, medicines have been distributed free of charge by the public health system to more than 450,00…
Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail*
BAQUBA, Mar 7 2008 (IPS) – After losing sight of what they knew to be normal life, residents across Baquba seem to have fallen into a depression.
Close to the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, March 19, Iraqis today say they feel humiliated in their own country. People have forgotten how to be happy, says resident Bashar Ameen. Each day, we have only more suffering.
On the two main Islamic festivals through a year, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, people customarily buy new clothes and decorate their homes. It is meant to be a time of happiness and reconciliation. Now it is on these days that depression is most apparent.
We did not prepare for the recent festival because we do not feel it is the joyous occasion it use…
David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Apr 18 2008 (IPS) – After attracting a steady flow of criticism for its handling of trade talks with Africa, the European Commission has gone on something of a charm offensive lately.
It has, for example, launched a website dedicated to highlighting any favourable comments that are made about the economic partnership agreements (EPAs) it is negotiating with some of the world s poorest countries.
This follows the realisation by Brussels officials that the way EPAs have been attacked by anti-poverty campaigners, employers, farmers and many governments in Africa has sullied the Commission s reputation. One official has gone so far as to describe the talks as a public relations disaster for the Commission.
Efforts to project a more positive …
Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail*
BAQUBA, Jun 2 2008 (IPS) – The real number of the dead is far higher than even the highest declared in death tolls, many Iraqis say.
A study by doctors from the Johns Hopkins School of Health in conjunction with Iraqi doctors from al-Mustanceriya University in Baghdad, published in the British medical journal The Lancet in October 2006, estimated the number of excess deaths as a result of the occupation at above 655,000.
Just Foreign Policy, an independent organisation dedicated to reforming U.S. foreign policy offered an updated total of 1,213,716 at the time of this writing.
On Sep. 14, 2007, Opinion Research Business (ORB), an independent polling agency located in London, produced a figure of 1,220,580 deaths as a result of the in…
Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Jul 30 2008 (IPS) – They may be known in South-east Asia for their poverty, but that has not stopped Cambodia and Laos from caring for people living with HIV/AIDS. Both countries have increased the supply of the life-prolonging anti-AIDS drugs at home.
Cambodia and Laos are among the best performers in the region, in addition to similar success by their more affluent neighbour Thailand, say officials from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). They have all reached over 60 percent ARV (antiretroviral) coverage.
They have helped the Asian region secure a record increase in ARV treatment, added Sun Gang, advisor for the UNAIDS regional support team for the Asia-Pacific region, at a press conference here. Overall the natio…
Interview with Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) National Coordinator Jenni Williams
CAPE TOWN, Sep 13 2008 (IPS) – Zimbabwean women have experienced higher levels of trauma, including violence and lack of food, after the country s independence from Britain in 1980 than before.
Jenni Williams: Yet women survive Credit: Stephanie Nieuwoudt/IPS
This is one of the findings of a study conducted by the civic movement Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) on trauma in the collapsing southern African state.
The study reveals the complexities …
Diego Cevallos* – Tierramérica
MEXICO CITY, Nov 10 2008 (IPS) – Cyclists in the Mexican capital who pedal nude once a year and organise tours through the city have overcome the suspicions of city officials and are now participating in designing plans to benefit this environmentally-friendly mode of transportation.
Cycling needs urban infrastructure. Credit: Public domain
Since September, representatives of the non-governmental organisation Bicitekas have been meeting every two weeks with delegates from the municipal government, the Auto…