Four months after the first warnings of an imminent humanitarian catastrophe in Southern Africa, several hundred thousand people may die because funds to provide basic relief for those who suffer have not been raised. The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged international partners meeting at its Geneva headquarters to do more to help Southern African nations stem a tide of death and disease from the humanitarian crisis in the region.
Equity in Health
Southern Africa: Public Health Services need urgent help to combat humanitarian crisis
WHO: Candidates Lining Up To Replace Brundtland Next Year
Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Executive Director Peter Piot of Belgium is one of the leading candidates to head the World Health Organization when Director General Gro Harlem Brundtland steps down in July, the Belgian daily De Standaard has reported.
Further details: /newsletter/id/29362
ZAMBIA: Mwanawasa cracks down over food crisis
Human rights groups this week condemned legal action against a Zambian legislator who alleged people had died of starvation in his constituency, thereby contradicting government assurances of no hunger-related deaths in the drought-hit countryside. Vitalis Mooya, the member of parliament (MP) for Moomba, about 240 km south of the capital Lusaka, faces charges of making false statements aimed at causing public alarm, a jailable offence under Zambian law.
Zimbabwe: Government defends HIV/AIDS programme
The Zimbabwe government's HIV prevention mother-to-child transmission programme (PMTCT) has come under fire from AIDS activists over the slow pace of implementation. But government officials have warned that there was more to the programme than just dispensing nevirapine, the drug that can cut HIV transmission rates by 50 percent. Initially started as a pilot project in three urban sites in 1999, the PMTCT programme has been scaled-up. Thirty-five of the 59 registered health centres throughout the country are now administering nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women, Dr Agnes Mahobva, the programme's technical Officer, told IRIN.
Famine, Fears Spark Debate Over Biotech Food
Drought and famine stricken nations in southern Africa should not reject donations of genetically modified food, officials from the United States, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization argued at the WSSD last week. The statements come in response to recent decisions by Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe to reject offers of U.S. aid due to concerns about biotechnology.
Head of WHO to stand down
Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland is to stand down as director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) in July 2003, after only one term. This will be the first time that a WHO director general has not been in office for at least two consecutive terms. In an interview with the BMJ immediately after the announcement, she said that her decision reflected the fact that she would be 69 at the end of a second term. "I don't want to get into a situation in my life where I'm not fully energetic and able to do my job," she said.
IRIN Interview With Peter Piot, Unaids Executive Director
Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Executive Director, Peter Piot, attended the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg to deliver a simple message: until HIV/AIDS is brought under control, initiatives to promote sustainable development will be a waste of time. He spoke to IRIN about the need for political leadership, and the progress being made by African countries in dealing with the epidemic.
Much to be done: can water supply and sanitation targets be met?
The 1990 World Summit for Children pledged to provide universal access to safe water by the end of the century. Why then do 2.2 million people still die each year from preventable diseases associated with a lack of safe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene?
Namibia: Swapo Urges Govt to Up Efforts On Providing Aids Drugs
Ruling party Swapo has asked Government to set aside more funds to buy drugs to prolong the lives of people infected with HIV - the virus that causes AIDS. The recently concluded Swapo Congress said all patients with AIDS-related illnesses should have access to AIDS drugs.
NASREC HEALTH DECLARATION
Revised Section on Health, Bali Declaration, August 2002
Globalisation has fuelled impoverishment, ill health and marginalisation of the world’s poor and in its wake many of the human development gains for poor countries have been reversed. The powers of international monetary and trade institutions that drive the globalisation agenda and supersede policies of national governments such as the WTO, IMF and World Bank need to be checked in line with human rights and social development goals. Particular, agreements such as TRIPS pose a dire threat for the health of millions of people by making it legal for access to live saving drugs to be blocked as with HIV/AIDS/STIs/TB. Declining health status under structural adjustment programmes provides ample evidence of the costs for humanity as national and government capabilities have been eroded.
Further details: /newsletter/id/29326