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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
maj 7th, 2010 
ChangeMaker 
African leaders from 26 countries have launched a fresh drive to eliminate malaria using a combination of bed nets, insecticides and medication, Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete said on Wednesday.
Authorities in 26 African countries announced a joint push to eliminate malaria deaths by 2015. To meet that goal, the program would need to provide bed nets, insecticides and medicine to every person on the continent by the end of 2010.
Read more on: Reuters
maj 4th, 2010 ChangeMaker 
The death of a 13-year-old girl after being raped by her older husband has galvanized discussion in Yemen over a proposed law to raise the legal marriage age to 18. However, conservative clerics have used the the death of Elham Assi as means to rally opponents of a change to the country’s marriage laws and denounce the proposal as the imposition of a Western rights agenda and ”un-Islamic.”
Sheik Mohammed Hamzi, an official of the Islamist Yemeni opposition party Islaah and the imam of the Al-Rahman mosque in the Yemeni capital of Sana, is one of those who staunchly opposes a legal ban onchild marriage.
Although he emphasizes that a woman should not get married before she is physically and mentally ready and that she herself needs to accept themarriage, he believes a law that prohibits child marriage constitutes a rights violation.
Read more on: Ethiopian Review
april 29th, 2010 ChangeMaker 
German authorities are looking to provide massive funding for the development of electric cars to boost the domestic auto industry and help curb greenhouse-gas emissions. But some industry insiders warn emission gains from electric cars are minimal and the vehicles’ limited travel distances on a single charge constrains their market potential.
The German government wants to promote the development of electric vehicles on a grand scale. But many industry observers point out that the perceived benefits of e-cars are massively overrated. In some cases, their carbon footprint is even worse than that of conventional autos.
Read more on: Der Spiegel (Germany) (English online version)
april 27th, 2010 ChangeMaker 
ENO Tree Planting Day is an open event for schools and groups interested in environment and peace. It is arranged twice in a year, in May and in September. Tree planting is one of the most popular activities in the ENO Programme. Environment Online – ENO is a global virtual school and network for sustainable development. It has been running since 2000 and reached thousands of schools in 150 countries. So far we have planted about 4 million trees and we aim to plant 100 million trees by the end of 2017. Read more!
april 23rd, 2010 ChangeMaker 
Celebrities are lining up to support an online campaign to urge people to buy insecticide-treated bed nets to help prevent the spread of malaria in Africa. Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and actor Ashton Kutcher will seek to leverage their followings on the social-media site Twitter to drive the campaign.
Organizers of the Twitter fund-raising push are working with the United Nations Special Envoy for Malaria, Ray Chambers.
”It’s one of the few campaigns I’m aware of where $10 buys a bednet which can save a child’s life,” Chambers told Reuters. ”The tangible feel of it is greater than any other campaign I’ve been exposed to.” Read more on: AlertNet.org/Reuters
april 22nd, 2010 ChangeMaker 
African farmers are suffering as rain patterns become increasingly erratic as a consequence of climate change. Agriculture experts say immediate investment in irrigation, infrastructure and better farming supplies will help the continent’s farmers adjust to the changes. Erratic weather linked to climate change may be ruining subsistence crops and export commodities alike.
”Africa is going to be hit the hardest,” said Christian Nellemann of the United Nations Environment Programme. Read more on: AlertNet.org/Reuters
april 21st, 2010 ChangeMaker 185 voices from 12 countries join a choir that spans the globe, in ”Lux Aurumque,” by Eric Whitacre. It’s an astonishing illustration of how technology can connect us.
april 13th, 2010 ChangeMaker 
This photo essay on malaria from the Malaria Consortium looks to capture the practical and emotional aspects of the disease’s presence around the world. Malaria continues to result in more than a million deaths every year.
The assignment facing Adam Nadel was to take photographs for an exhibition by the Malaria Consortium. That meant going beyond pictures of patients ravaged by malaria.
Read the whole story and look at the photographs on: The New York Times/Lens Blog
april 10th, 2010 ChangeMaker 
The only female ruler in Islamic northern Nigeria is Queen Hajiya Haidzatu Ahmed of the kingdom Kumbwada, where a curse supposedly strikes dead any man seeking the throne.
”It’s a women’s affair,” says the queen. ”Women are the rulers and they rule as effectively as men, sometimes even better than men.”
Read more on: Los Angeles Times
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