Fueled in part by a Russian drought that has caused the country to cut its wheat exports, food prices have risen to their highest levels in two years. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says that food prices have shot up 5% in July and August. Stocks remain high, however, and despite the summer slump, [...]
Ban Ki-moon urges progress on MDGs for women and children
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on delegates to Advance Global Health summit in Melbourne, Australia, to continue to focus on ways to improve women and children’s health initiatives as part of the organization’s Millennium Development Goals. The event brings together charities and aid groups that work with the UN, and comes ahead of a [...]
Women make push for parliament seats in Afghanistan
Amid rising violence throughout Afghanistan and Taliban death threats, women in Afghanistan are running in next month’s parliamentary elections in record numbers. The number of women serving in Afghanistan’s parliament has more than doubled since 2005.
With voting billed for 18 September, Kabul’s streets have been plastered in posters and billboards, many of which show [...]
Mobile service protects against fake malaria drugs
For Africans wondering whether the malaria drugs they’ve bought are real, there may soon be a quick way of finding out: sending a text message.
More than 30% of malaria medicines sold in Africa are reportedly counterfeit, a problem that has led Nigeria to adopt mPedigree, which enables users to independently verify that their anti-malarial drugs [...]
Israel, Palestine to resume direct talks
Direct peace talks between Israel and Palestine could begin as early as September — the first talks since December 2008. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell have urged the resumption of peace talks before the end of the Israeli moratorium on new building in Jewish [...]
Russian forest authorities and Greenpeace are expressing worry the presence of fires in areas still contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster may send radioactive smoke into populated areas. Environmentalist say there is no current way to gauge the scope of the threat or how far contaminated particles may have spread. “Fires on these territories will without a doubt lead to an increase in radiation,” said Vladimir Chuprov, head of the energy program at Greenpeace Russia. “The smoke will spread and the radioactive traces will spread. The amount depends upon the force of the wind.”
Read more on: The New York Times (free registration) and even on SVD (Swedish)
Almost 14 million people have been affected by serious flooding in Pakistan.
People in the flood’s wake were already desperately poor and what little possessions they had have been washed away. The extent of this crisis is only slowly emerging. The more villages that are reached the grimmer the picture becomes.
There is a desperate need for temporary shelter, clean drinking water and toilets to avert a public health catastrophe. People also need medical care and basic food items. We are looking at a sizable aid package that will require a great deal of public support.
According to UN estimates, a total of 14 million people – including 6 million children – have been affected by the flood crisis. Hundreds of thousands have received humanitarian aid, but millions more urgently need shelter, food, water, and health care. And flooding could worsen considerably in the coming days, especially in parts of Sindh. Read more on Oxfam, UNICEF and even DN (Swedish)
Rotavirus vaccines can prevent 39% to 48% of infections among even the poorest children in developing countries, according to reports published in the journal Lancet. More than 400,000 children die from rotavirus every year. Vaccination programs, already standard for newborns in the U.S. and other developed countries, should be launched in developing countries immediately, researchers said.
“Rotavirus vaccines have the potential to protect the lives of nearly 2 million children in the next decade alone,” Dr. John Victor of the Seattle-based PATH non-profit development organization and colleagues wrote in one of two reports in the Lancet medical journal. Read more on: Reuters
The United Nations General Assembly voted Wednesday to support a nonbinding resolution declaring access to clean water and sanitation as a human right. Canada, the U.S. and Australia were among the 41 countries to abstain from the vote. No country voted against the measure. More than 884 million people around the world lack access to drinking water, and 2.6 billion are without access to basic sanitation.
After more than 15 years of contentious debate on the issue, 122 countries voted in favor of a compromise Bolivian resolution enshrining the right, while the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and 37 other nations abstained.
The non-binding text “declares the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of the right to life.”
It expresses deep concern that 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water and that more 2.6 billion do not have access to basic sanitation.
More than 4 million new HIV/AIDS infections could be prevented and $20.2 billion in HIV-related costs in eastern and southern Africa saved by 2025 if male circumcision rates increase to 80%, the aid group Population Services International says. Researchers say circumcision cuts a man’s infection risk by as much as 60%.
Expanding circumcision services to 80 percent of adult and newborn males in the region would also save $20.2 billion in HIV-related health costs between 2009 and 2025, they said.
Bill Gates, whose Gates Foundation spends much of its $34 billion fund on fighting HIV, told the AIDS conference on Monday he had been surprised by the number of men in Africa who wanted to be circumcised to reduce their risk of contracting HIV.
Read more on: AlertNet.org/Reuters and at Al jazeera
The world’s population will grow to 9 billion over the next 50 years — and only by raising the living standards of the poorest can we check population growth. This is the paradoxical answer that Hans Rosling unveils at TED@Cannes using colorful new data display technology.
As a doctor and researcher, Hans Rosling identified a new paralytic disease induced by hunger in rural Africa. Now he looks at the bigger picture of social and economic development with his… Read more on this link!
Government cuts to funding for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and health infrastructure programs have limited the number of people receiving lifesaving drugs, falling short of world leaders’ goal of universal treatment by 2010, said officials at an international HIV/AIDS conference. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Michel Kazatchkine, head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, urged governments to refrain from trimming their AIDS budgets. The Global Fund is seeking $20 billion to sustain their work for the next three years. Read more on: AlertNet.org/Reuters
Researchers are looking for ways to leverage the communications power of Internet-connected cellular telephones to help individuals more effectively monitor chronic health conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Beyond reminder alarms for medicine, researchers are looking at ways to allow individuals to contribute regularly to a live mobile health record that can be used to track their physicians’ disease-management efforts. Read more on: Google/The Associated Press
A cocktail of antibiotics taken as a preventative measure may help healthy individuals develop immunity against malaria infection, according to a study on mice published in the Science Translational Medicine journal. This measure could only be implemented in high risk areas with short malaria seasons, and be part of a broader preventative strategy, the researchers said. Read more on: AlertNet.org/Reuters
An increase in safer sex practices by African youths is helping to drive down infection rates in 16 out of 25 countries, UNAIDS says in a new report. Many African countries — including Kenya, Botswana, Ethiopia and Malawi — are on track to reduce infection levels among 15- to 24-year-olds by 25% or more as compared with 2000 levels by the end of 2010. Read more on: AlertNet.org/Reuters
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August 12th, 2010 
ChangeMaker 
