Kristin Palitza
CAPE TOWN, Jul 22 2009 (IPS) – Failure to sustain funding for HIV/AIDS treatment programmes could lead to a rising number of deaths, particularly in Africa.
Shortfalls in funding for sites like this Senegalese health clinic will directly affect HIV disease and mortality rates. Credit: Dima Gavrysh/UNFPA
We need 17 to 18 billion dollars per yea…
VIENTIANE, Sep 21 2009 (IPS) – Ki is seven years old but looks more like three. His legs are bowed and skull misshapen. He looked at me with a blank stare. The health worker, Kheo, suggests rickets.
50 percent of Lao children are undersized Credit: Donna Kelly/IPS
Rickets and beri beri or thiamine (B1) deficiency are still far too common 19th century diseases in 21st century Laos.
The boy gets enough sun. It s the other nutrients, calcium, phosphorus and dietary oils that are lacking. He is the worst effected of 93 other kids in his v…
HAMBURG, Jan 20 2012 (IPS) – Shortly before midnight last Saturday, Alexander, a 24-year-old law student, stepped out of his small apartment in Hamburg and set off for a jaunt around the local supermarkets to pilfer their garbage containers.
Consumers in rich countries waste 222 million tonnes of food each year. Credit: Patrick Lentz/CC-BY-2.0
Alex, who did not want his family name to appear in the newspapers, dines almost exclusively on the food that other Ger…
FGM is a taboo and complicated topic in Liberia and it is dangerous for women to speak out about it. Credit: Travis Lupick / IPS
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 7 2018 (IPS) – More than 200 million women around the world have experienced some kind of female genital mutilation (FGM) and more could be at risk, a UN agency said.
Though the practice has declined in prevalence globally, alarming new figures from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) predict that any progress could be off-set as a further 68 million girls face the risk of FGM by 2030.
The statistics from the UN were unveiled today as the world marks the 15th International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Geni…
Meretha Pierson, a nurse in the leprosy clinic of Majuro, Marshall Islands, shows the medication to cure leprosy that are provided for free. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS
MAJURO, Mar 28 2019 (IPS) – Meretha Pierson has been a nurse for the past seven years, working in the government-run leprosy clinic in Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands. Her patients come in all ages, from different economic backgrounds and different professions. But, aside from their diagnosis, they all have something else in common: everyone wants to keep their illness a secret.
“Everyone requests me not to tell their neighbours. But women who are young, request me to not infor…