Inadequate drinking water and sanitation, indoor air pollution, and accidents, injuries and poisonings, are a few of the causes of the 3 million deaths per year of children under five due to environmental hazards. WHO is addressing environmental hazards which specifically affect children at the International Conference on Environmental Threats to the Health of Children. This opens today in Bangkok. WHO is also monitoring these issues through the Task Force for the Protection of Children’s Environmental Health.
Equity in Health
Environmental hazards kill 3 million children under five every year
Global Fund Names Technical Review Panel to Review Funding Proposals
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a new initiative to combat the epidemics that kill six million people each year, today [11 March] announced the appointment of an international panel of experts that will review all grant proposals and make recommendations to the Board for funding.
HIV/Aids in Africa: Rethinking Current Strategies
According to the UN agency coordinating the HIV/AIDS epidemic (UNAIDS) at least 28.1 million Africans are living with the disease. Since the beginning of the epidemic in early 1980's, more than 19 million Africans have perished from AIDS. Largely due to AIDS, the average life expectancy in Sub-Sahara Africa is only 47 years instead of 62 years, if the disease were not a factor. Without any doubt, HIV/AIDS is a serious threat to the future well being of the continent. The specter of 14 million AIDS orphans, and counting, complicates an already dicey situation.
SOUTH AFRICA: AIDS policy shifts
A rebellion against government policy on the treatment of HIV/AIDS is taking place in South Africa, with four provinical governments openly defying national policy and announcing the provision of nevirapine to all pregnant women in the public sector.
South Africa: De-Registration of Nevirapine Unlikely: TAC
The Treatment Action Campaign had no reason to believe that the Medicines Control Council would withdraw the registration of the anti-retroviral drug nevirapine, the Pretoria High Court has heard.
South Africa: Jimmy Carter and William Gates accompany Madiba to Soweto clinic
Former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, went to Zola Clinic to inspect the Bill and Melinda Gates supported programme, where he announced that he would defend the Gauteng Premier's decision to provide pregnant mothers with nevirapine. Madiba was accompanied by Former US President Jimmy Carter and William Gates senior along with their wives.
South Africa: Makgoba Squares Up to ANC On HIV/Aids
SCIENTISTS and health professionals are squaring up to do battle with government and the African National Congress (ANC) on HIV/AIDS policy. This follows the release last week by the ANC's national executive committee (NEC) of a 10page document setting out its views on HIV/AIDS and signalling a retreat from what was seen as a tentative move towards liberalising policy on antiretroviral drugs.
South African government undecided about Nevirapine order
The South African government has not yet decided whether to comply with the courts order to supply nevirapine to HIV positive pregnant mothers or to
appeal the order.
The importance of an African Union for HIV/AIDS
A report by a correspondent of Af-Aids Forum from the third African Development Forum in Addis Ababa, Maaaarch 3-8, 2002
"The HIV/AIDS pandemic is a survival issue not just for tens of millions of Africans, but also for some of our nations themselves... The HIV/AIDS pandemic will test those survival skills to the limit, but I have no doubt that Africa will overcome this pandemic, hopefully sooner rather than later." - Abdul Mohammed, Keynote Presentation.
Further details: /newsletter/id/29088
Zambia: Breakdown in Health Services Worsens Impact of TB - WHO
THE breakdown in health services, the spread of the HIV/AIDS and multi-drug resistance have worsened the impact of TB, World Health Organisation (WHO) has noted.