Health file - Page 3

The lack of education and political will, poverty, out-moded traditional beliefs, to mention but a few, have been widely blamed for causing severe and sometimes unwarranted health catastrophies of genocidal proportions on the African continent. Child killer diseases, malaria, tuberculosis, water borne diseases, HIV/AIDS, among other preventable ailments have killed millions in their wake. As rightly said by the former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, on May 13, 2000 “More people (…) died of Aids in the past year (1999-2000, ndlr) in Africa than in all the wars on the continent”.

Male circumcision : promoting unsafe sex or mocking traditions in Kenya ?

Male circumcision : promoting unsafe sex or mocking traditions in Kenya ?

Peter Otieno, a 25-year-old taxi driver in Kisumu City, the capital of Kenya's western Nyanza Province, is considering getting circumcised, he said "I have...
Rising HIV infections cause stir in Kenya

Rising HIV infections cause stir in Kenya

Kenyan health authorities expressed concern on Tuesday over the growing rate of fresh HIV/AIDS infections, which increased by over 11% in the past year...
New revolutionary eye glasses at one dollar for the poor

New revolutionary eye glasses at one dollar for the poor

Inexpensive glasses that allow people to correct their eyesight problems themselves is the new ingenuous project presently being undertaken by the World Bank. The...
Libreville Declaration to Administer a Healthy Africa

Libreville Declaration to Administer a Healthy Africa

A union of health and environment ministers in Africa have taken on new schemes to strengthen environmental sanity that threatens the health of Africans. The...
Sickle Cell, the black African blood heritage

Sickle Cell, the black African blood heritage

As 31-year-old Magueye Ndiaye describes it, when the pains caused by sickle cell disease come it is like being hit by a tornado. “The pain...
HIV pervalence shots up despite Condom glut and better medical access

HIV pervalence shots up despite Condom glut and better medical access

More Kenyans are getting infected with the HIV virus even though more than 25 million of them are not aware of their health status. The...
Looming medical doctor shortage threatens Africa’s future

Looming medical doctor shortage threatens Africa’s future

The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) has war ned that Africa faces a "dramatic" shortage of physicians by the year 2015. According to a...
Ethiopians and Rwandans get a new lease on life

Ethiopians and Rwandans get a new lease on life

Rolling back malaria really is possible! Between 2005 and 2007, the authorities in Ethiopia and Rwanda succeeded in reducing the number of cases of malaria...
Dysentery bacteria discovery marks research breakthrough

Dysentery bacteria discovery marks research breakthrough

Researchers at INSERM in France recently discovered that Shigella, a bacterium responsible for causing acute intestinal inflammation, destroys our immune defences. This is an important discovery...
The irony of a sensitive fight for patents

The irony of a sensitive fight for patents

Last month, the World Health Organization's governing body, the World Health Assembly (WHA), formally adopted a set of public policy recommendations for poor governments...
Maternal and child mortality rates improving in Zambia

Maternal and child mortality rates improving in Zambia

The number of pregnant women in Zambia dying from pregnancy related causes has reduced from 729 to 449 per 100,000 live births, the latest...
HIV Positive Mozambiquans faring better

HIV Positive Mozambiquans faring better

In just over three years, Mozambique has increased the number of HIV-positive people receiving the life-prolonging anti-retroviral therapy by over 1,500 per cent. Speaking on...