“Author Archive”
Stories written by PSIHealthyLives
By PSIHealthyLives
May 23, 2013 USAID Administrator Raj Shah unveiled the agencies first ever water and development strategy. Civil society groups are expressing excitement over the scope and strength of the new strategy, dubbing it a “major advance.” But many are also calling on lawmakers to ensure that, during the coming implementation phase, US aid is targeted primarily at the poorest communities in developing and middle-income countries. “Achieving water security for regions, nations, and individuals is one of the greatest development challenges confronting the world today,” the new Water and Development Strategy, released on Tuesday by USAID, the country’s main foreign aid arm, states. “By its nature, as a basic and essential resource, water considerations cut across nearly every aspect of USAID programming.” Yet because of this cross-cutting nature, the new document covers both the human and agricultural uses of water, the new strategy was a very long time coming, requiring input and agreement from a vast number of government agencies and stakeholders. “It is kind of astounding that this is the US government’s first such strategy, though it is something that many groups have long been advocating for,” Alanna Imbach, media officer with WaterAid America, a global advocacy and implementing group, told IPS.
May 23rd, 2013 | Posted in Aid,Aid & Development,Hub Selects | Read More »
By PSIHealthyLives
By Lung Vu, Research Advisor, HIV & TB and Rena Greifinger, Technical Advisor, Sexual Reproductive Health and TB HIV has a devastating impact on men who have sex with men (MSM) in Nigeria. “[B]ecause of stigma, discrimination, homophobia, and criminalization that MSM face in the course of their lives in many African countries, many are reluctant to access health care services and participate in research thus heightening their vulnerability to HIV infection,” says an article from the June 1 issue of the Journal of Acquired Immonudeficiency Syndromes (JSAIDS). Led by PSI’s Lung Vu, the researchers found MSM to practice very high-risk behavior: having more than one sexual partner and high rates of unprotected sex, as well as many who have sex with both men and women. Many of these men suffer with internalized homophobia and are therefore less likely to access HIV prevention and treatment services.
May 22nd, 2013 | Posted in HIV/AIDS,Hub Selects,Infectious Disease | Read More »
By PSIHealthyLives
May 20, 2013 More than 20 boys in South Africa have died during coming-of-age rituals in the past week. Police say botched circumcisions are the probable cause. From Reuters: More than 20 South African boys have died over the past week during coming of age rituals, police said on Thursday, and they blamed botched circumcisions as the likely cause of death. Northern Mpumalanga province’s police department has opened 22 murder cases but no arrests have been made so far, spokesman Colonel Leonard Hlathi said. Every year in South Africa, boys aged 10 to 15 years from several of the country’s tribal groups are circumcised in traditional “initiation rituals”.
May 20th, 2013 | Posted in Hub Selects | Read More »
By PSIHealthyLives
May 17, 2013 An estimated 14,000 villagers from 20 communities in Niger participated in a public vow to end Female Genital Mutilation and forced underage marriage. From Reuters: Though Niger outlawed the practice in 2003, FGM and other violent treatment of young women remain prevalent among some ethnic groups in the impoverished Sahel nation, which ranks bottom of the United Nations’ world development index. At a ceremony in Makalondi, about 85 km (53 miles) west of the capital Niamey, villagers threw scissors, knives and blades into a pit in the village square which was then filled in. Participants in the ceremony, sponsored by Niger’s government and non-governmental groups including U.N. child agency UNICEF, also vowed to end forced early marriages and the removal of young girls from schools.
May 17th, 2013 | Posted in Aid & Development,Hub Selects,Human Rights,Women & Children | Read More »
By PSIHealthyLives
May 16, 2013 Phase III trials of the Rotavac Rotavirus Vaccine show that it has the potential to save thousands of lives, say scientists. From the BBC: Rotavirus causes dehydration and severe diarrhoea and spreads through contaminated hands and surfaces and is rampant in Asia and Africa. India says clinical trials show the new vaccine, Rotavac, can save the lives of thousands of children annually. An Indian manufacturer said the vaccine would cost 54 rupees ($1; £0.65). International pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline and Merck produce similar vaccines but each dose costs around 1,000 rupees. “This is an important scientific breakthrough against rotavirus infections, the most severe and lethal cause of childhood diarrhoea, responsible for approximately 100,000 deaths of small children in India each year,” India’s Department of Biotechnology official K Vijay Raghavan said
May 16th, 2013 | Posted in Cancer,Hub Selects,Infant & Child Health,Infectious Disease,Vaccinations,Women & Children | Read More »
By PSIHealthyLives
Procter & Gamble’s flagship social initiative has helped save the lives of 30,000 children globally. Katharine Earley explores how the firm is using the program to engage consumers and meet its goals. This originally appears on 2 Degrees Network here. As the global water crisis intensifies, some 780 million people lack access to safe water, while nearly 2,000 children under the age of five die from water and sanitation-related diarrheal diseases every day. That is more than from HIV/AIDS and malaria combined. Increasingly, major companies are tackling fundamental health and development issues, including safe drinking water, as they move beyond cutting their own impacts to make a positive contribution to society
May 16th, 2013 | Posted in Aid,HIV/AIDS,Infant & Child Health,Malaria,Women & Children | Read More »
By PSIHealthyLives
By Dr.Ya Diul Mukadi, Senior Tuberculosis Media Advisor, USAID In 1882, Dr. Robert Koch discovered Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes TB. In 1952, the first combination of antibiotics was used to treat. Today, thoughout the world, most people with TB are diagnosed with the same simple microscopy method that Koch used to identify the bacteria. Additionally, almost all are treated with the same basic antibiotics that have been used since mid-20th century.
May 14th, 2013 | Posted in Hub Selects,Infectious Disease,Tuberculosis | Read More »
By PSIHealthyLives
May 14, 2013 The Taliban issued a statement on Monday in support of polio vaccine efforts. From the Telegraph: The announcement comes just weeks after the Afghan government launched a new campaign to immunise more than eight million children between six months and five years old throughout the country. It said it had trained 46,000 volunteers to conduct the campaign which is funded by the American aid agency USAID, the World Health Organisation and Unicef. Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria are the three remaining countries in the world where polio remains a serious threat, but efforts to eradicate the disease have been sabotaged by the Taliban and other Islamic militants who have assassinated immunisation volunteers in all three countries. (snip) But in a sudden U-turn the Taliban leadership issued a statement offering its support for polio eradication campaigns as long as foreigners were not involved and that all volunteers respected local Islamic culture
May 14th, 2013 | Posted in Aid,Hub Selects,Infectious Disease | Read More »
By PSIHealthyLives
May 10, 2013 Millions of girls will have access to the lifesaving HPV vaccine thanks to a partnership between GAVI and Merck that will reduce the vaccine cost to below $5. From the New York Times: Thanks to Pap tests, fatal cervical cancers are almost unknown today in rich countries. But the disease kills an estimated 275,000 women a year in poor countries where Pap tests are impractical and the vaccine is far too expensive for the average woman to afford, so the price cut could lead to a significant advance in women’s health. The World Health Organization, which has been pressing for faster progress in maternal health, greeted the news as “a great step forward for women and girls.” When the new price was described, Dr.
May 10th, 2013 | Posted in Aid,Cancer,Hub Selects,Infectious Disease,Noncommunicable Disease | Read More »
By PSIHealthyLives
May 8, 2013 The NGO released its ranking of best and worst places to be a mom in the world. Sub Saharan African countries fare poorly in the index which also included a new section on the challenges to newborn mortality. From the BBC: The charity compared factors such as maternal health, child mortality, education and income in 176 countries. In India, over 300,000 babies die within 24 hours of being born, accounting for 29% of all newborn deaths worldwide, the report says. The 10 bottom-ranked countries were all from sub-Saharan Africa, with one woman in 30 dying from pregnancy-related causes on average and one child in seven dying before his or her fifth birthday. In DR Congo, war and poverty have left mothers malnourished and unsupported at the most vulnerable time of their lives
May 8th, 2013 | Posted in Maternal & Reproductive Health,Women & Children | Read More »
By PSIHealthyLives
May 7, 2013 Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tells Reuters that he is concerned by the recent budget cuts at the WHO at a time when the H7N9 outbreak continues in China. From Reuters: Frieden said he planned to raise the issue with other countries at the World Health Assembly (WHA) meeting, which is being held in Geneva, where the U.N. agency has its headquarters, from May 20 to May 28.
May 7th, 2013 | Posted in Financing,Infectious Disease,Policy & Systems | Read More »
By PSIHealthyLives
May 6, 2013 Global health experts warn that progressing climate change may bring tropical diseases like malaria to the UK. From the Guardian: The disturbing recommendation to “act now before it is too late” is being made as a growing body of evidence indicates that what were once thought of as tropical diseases are being found ever closer to the UK. Health experts meeting at the annual public health conference of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health later this week will hear that rising incidences of a growing list of pest-borne diseases are now a “serious” cause for concern in the UK. The conference will be told that it would be complacent to think that diseases such as dengue fever, malaria and Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, now present on the European continent but once considered “exotic and confined to faraway places”, will not emerge in the UK. “With predicted changes to climate in the UK, characterised by warming and wetter summers providing perfect breeding grounds for a number of pest-borne diseases, we need to consider some robust public health measures to minimise the potential outbreaks,” said Julie Barratt, director of the CIEH.
May 6th, 2013 | Posted in Infectious Disease,Malaria | Read More »
By PSIHealthyLives
A new strategy to reduce the maternal mortality rate in Somalia relies upon the development of skilled birth attendants and midwives. The WHO featured the effort in Somalia in a recent article. It describes the nation-wide effort and highlights what PSI has done in Somalia with regards to training midwives. Check it out: Training has been a key element of the plan. In 2012 WHO has trained 200 birth attendants on clean and safe delivery and early referral in South Central Somalia
May 3rd, 2013 | Posted in Hub Selects,Maternal & Reproductive Health,Women & Children | Read More »
By PSIHealthyLives
May 2, 2013 The young girl who was raped and hospitalized on April 18 died from cardiac arrest. From Al Jazeera: Bharat Yadav, a chief administrative for the Seoni district where the attack occurred, said two men have been arrested in connection with the attack. The girl was lured by one of the men to a farm, where she was then raped by the other man, who was a friend of her parents, Yadav said, adding that the parents, poor construction workers, were at work when the attack occurred. The Times of India said the girl was airlifted to hospital.
May 2nd, 2013 | Posted in Women & Children | Read More »
