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”.
Health file - Page 3
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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...